The School Reunion

By Shalini Boland

What’s it about?

From Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of The Secret Mother , a chilling tale about revisiting the past—and digging up secrets you’d rather forget.

The invitation to her school reunion couldn’t have come at a better time for Chloe Flynn. Divorced, broke and bored at work, she’s living a life her teenage self would hate.

Turning the clock back fifteen years might be just what she needs to wipe the slate clean and start again. And then there’s the chance she’ll bump into Nathan Blake, the one she still regrets letting get away… Back at her elite private school, Chloe sparkles as she reunites with old friends and long-forgotten love interests. And then, just as she’d hoped, there’s Nathan, more handsome than ever before. Even better, he’s single too, and seems to be just as keen to make up for lost time…

But as the evening progresses, Chloe can’t help feeling that something’s not quite right—that she’s not the only one who’s come here for more than just a party. When the secrets of the past start to emerge and the reunion takes a sinister turn, it’s clear that nothing is what it seems—and nothing will be the same again.

What I think:

This is a novel of two halves.

The first half is a slow burner. The narrative is split between the characters of Chloe and Dean.

Chloe is divorced and miserable, stuck in a boring bank job. She has lost her confidence and lost touch with her school friends and home town. An invitation to her school reunion gives her a chance to reconnect and hopefully rekindle a romance with her school girl crush.

Dean is a single dad. Having recently lost his mother he is coping with grief, parenting and financial troubles as his business is struggling.

The characters are interesting and the voice clear and distinctive. It took me a while to work out how the two, very different, characters are connected and all of my guesses were completely wrong.

The pace picks up as we get to the reunion itself. Chloe is edgy and paranoid, not sure she should be there. She is hoping for Nathan to put in an appearance. Beneath the smiles and pleasantries there are secrets and lies.

I’m not going to say any more. But this gets tense and twisty and I genuinely gasps at some points. This definitely kept me guessing.

Thank you to Tandem Collective for inviting me to be a part of the readalong and to Amazon Publishing for the gifted copy of the book. It was great to share thoughts and predictions with the rest of the readers.