A really well written, believable story and you really could feel the weight of Janets grief and her guilt as she is pulled further into her rather unwitting deception. The background characters are just as well written, with Colin making my skin crawl every time he was on the page. Then, Janet finds herself involved in a train crash and, recognizing the chance to do what she couldn’t all those years ago, she makes a decision.

I found myself rooting for Janet all the way through and think this would make an excellent TV/film adaptation. It made me feel all the more invested in the story and I was rooting for Janet to finally find the strength to leave. But the experience was like eating too much sickly chocolate, only very briefly satisfying and making you feel you had better things to do with your time. An intensely beautiful depiction of vulnerability that instantly draws you into the world of a disturbingly fragile woman. Her actions following a train crash cast her into the spotlight, but how will this unloved and downtrodden character cope with the adulation and pressure?It meandered a little in the beginning, dragging out scenes with Robbie, Mia and Lizzie with guilt-filled angst that got a little repetitive but was important to understand Janet and her situation. As news spreads of Janet’s actions, her story inspires everyone around her, and for the first time her life has purpose and the future is filled with hope.

Janet believes she has been redeemed for Claires death, but as she becomes well known for her heroic act, she starts to remember what really happened that night. Only things go wrong, and Colin turns up outside the venue to collect her and her friend to take them home. Her transformation from a cowed, colorless individual into a women wholly alive for the first time in years. I'm in awe of Charlotte Levin's writing - such beautiful prose - and a story that grabs you and doesn't let you go all the way through.There is real redemption, real light at the end of a beautifully written novel that is a joy to read, tender, moving, and at times slyly funny. Despite Colin's control, she manages to go out on a night out to celebrate a colleagues leaving party. The grief and feelings of guilt pour off the page and stay with the reader for some time after the book has been put down.