The Engagement - Samantha Hayes

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

You thought you had escaped him. Until he proposed to your daughter.
‘There’s someone I want you to meet,’ Belle says, as a man draws up to her side. He’s tall with dark hair and stubble on his square jaw. He’s not exactly smiling, but the corner of his mouth curls upwards as he slides his hand around my daughter’s waist.
I grab my husband’s arm to steady myself, as the room spins around me.
I stare into the man’s eyes – jet black. Nothing and everything hidden behind them.
Fear prickles my skin as I remember what he did.
How I only just escaped.
All the lies I’ve had to tell since.
‘I want you to meet Jack,’ Belle says, brimming with excitement. ‘He’s my fiancé.’ She rests her head on his shoulder. ‘Isn’t it exciting? We’re engaged!’
Fear hammers in my chest. I have to stop this.
My daughter’s life is in danger, and it’s all because of me…

My Thoughts:

This is a tough one to review. I both enjoyed it and didn’t at the same time!
I really enjoyed the premise of the book and liked it when we went back in time for the Molly chapters. This part of the book felt gritty and as if it were leading somewhere.
However, Hanah’s present was a little tedious and frustrating. I didn’t really understand why she was keeping the secrets that she was. Especially when we find out what they were, they could have been explained much sooner, but then again, there wouldn’t be a book. So, it was this part of the book I disliked.
Belle was THE most annoying character ever. She was just too oblivious to the obvious that she drove me insane. Even when her parents, whom she has trusted for almost 18 years, tell her they bought the jewellery, she believes Jack. She doesn’t stop and think that it’s a bit odd for mum and dad to lie about something like that; she just airyfairys it away and goes about her life in a pink bubble!
The ending wasn’t too bad. The action with the fire got a little hard to follow, and Hannah’s reason for doing this made no sense, especially as we had already been told there was only one way out of there. I had guessed the Molly side of things, so that wasn’t shocking.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad book, but it just didn’t grip me and wow me. I read it, it passed the time, and now I’ll move on and probably not give it another thought. Just three stars from me on this one.