Time 2 Read: Review: One Step Too Far

One Step Too Far

by Tina Seskis

Why I chose this book? the title intrigued me

When I read this book? December 2015

Who should read this book? readers of contemporary family drama

Source: TLC Book Tours

Here is a synopsis of One Step Too Far from Goodreads

“Tina Seskis’ twisted psychological thriller keeps readers guessing at Emily’s secrets until the end.” —Us Weekly

An apparently happy marriage. A beautiful family. A dream home. So what makes lawyer Emily Coleman—a woman who appears to have everything—get up one morning and walk right out of her life to start again as someone new?

Deliberately losing herself in London, Emily quickly transforms herself into Cat. Along with her new name, she finds a new home in a shared house in North London teeming with an odd assortment of flatmates, and a new job as a receptionist.

Soon Cat has buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can’t bury the past—or her own painful memories. As the days turn to months, thoughts of all she’s left behind begin to consume her. She cannot outrun the ghosts that haunt her, no matter how hard she tries to elude them. And soon, she’ll have to face the truth of what she’s done—a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far. . . .

“[A] diverting read.” —Publishers Weekly

My Review

This is a hard one for me to rate because my feelings were all over the place as I read. I have to first say that this was not what I expected. For some reason, I’d convinced myself this was a thriller/mystery and while there was a bit of mystery, this really is contemporary family drama.

For much of the read, I was almost bored and lost, not really understanding where the story was headed….and yet, at the same time, I could NOT put it down! I had to keep reading to see where the story was going. Emily is a happily married woman with a perfect life; a husband she loves and a beautiful little boy….right up until it happens! ‘What happens?’ you ask? Well...THERE is the mystery and the reason I kept reading. Because whatever ‘it’ is, it has caused Emily to run from her perfect life to start a new one as Cat.

There are not many likeable characters in this story. Emily makes a series of very bad choices throughout the book and grew up as part of a very unlikeable dysfunctional family with an identical twin sister. Emily is the ‘good’ twin and Caroline is the ‘bad’ twin, always causing problems. This is not that surprising as the day they were born, their mother decided she could love only one twin, Emily, but that she would do her best to be a ‘good mother’ to Caroline. Their philandering father did nothing to help as he was, always away from home sleeping with whoever wasn’t his wife.

Eventually we find out what ‘it’ is, but not until very late in the book. At this point there is a big twist that left me feeling lied to, kind of like I was strung along on a pretense so I’d keep reading. However, it did help me understand Emily’s actions a little better. The last few pages of the book move very quickly and left me a little confused, but the story did wrap up well and explained things. I was not left hanging, wondering what happened next. Regular readers know that I get irritated when there is no epilogue!

I have a little trouble deciding who I should recommend this book to. While it was an ok read for me, I think it is one of those books that most readers are either going to love and talk about for the next six months, or they will hate it. If you love character driven stories with psychological drama, you will probably love this one. If you get annoyed with unlikeable characters, you may want to skip it. I suggest you read through some of the other reviews on the tour as you make your decision about reading this one.