Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to find a place she can belong.
So when a job comes up at Starling Villas, home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder, she seizes the opportunity with both hands.
But her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was hoping for. Her employer lives by a set of rigid rules and she soon sees that he is hiding secrets of his own.
But is Nell's arrival at the Villas really the coincidence it seems? After all, she knows more than most how fragile people can be - and how easy they can be to break . . .
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London looks so different in the daylight. 1
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(@panmacmillan, 10 June 2021, 352 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I'm a huge fan of the author's Marnie Rome books and couldn't wait to read this stand-alone book which I expected to be every bit as good. I found this harder to get into than her other books because I've come to expect a certain form and Fragile is very different. After a rocky start, I was pulled back into the story because I wanted to know what would happen to Nell and Joe and what the hell was going on inside Startling Villa (weird name). I enjoyed the way the story moves back and forth in time, gradually revealing Nella and Joe's past and the Dr Wilder's secrets. The book has a gothic feel which I really enjoyed.
