The Cottage: The gripping new 2021 crime suspense thriller with a difference: The gripping crime mystery suspense thriller with a shocking twist you’ll never see coming

The storyline itself was ludicrous. The story premise of a young woman staying in the cottage on the edge of the woods is a huge red herring and a cheap way of getting you to buy the book. The actual story is laughably bad but I won't 'spoil' it for you by letting on what happens. Let's just say you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work it out from the moment you read about the various couples involved.The characters themselves were straight out of the Stereotyper's Guide To Cliched Characters (if there is such a book this author definitely owns it) and were so badly drawn it was hard to tell who or what they were supposed to be. I was particularly amused by the twenty-somethings who, had I not been told their ages, I'd have had down as being in their late fifties. The dialogue read like the characters were an am-dram group putting on a play in the village hall.I read to the end as it was so ridiculous and the characters so painfully awful that I started to enjoy myself - I just kept pretending I was watching a Mike Leigh play (think Abigail's Party or Nuts In May). If you do buy it I challenge you to read it and not hear Candice-Marie and Keith's voices every time the story goes to Emma and Ian.

Rating: 3.8/5It is not unusual for the marketing blurb to overpromise, but underdeliver. However, this is one of those fairly rare occasions when the official synopsis does the opposite and underplays the merits of the book. That said, it would also be fair to say that there are some significant elements of this story that rely on the reader being prepared to to suspend disbelief and allow the author some artistic licence. With that proviso, Lisa Stone has delivered a thoroughly engaging suspense thriller that is also regularly thought-provoking.There are essentially two alternating strands to the narrative. In the one strand there is Jan Hamlin, a woman who has been through some troubling times and has decided to rent a secluded cottage while she tries to pull herself back together. The other relates to Ian & Emma Jennings, a young married couple desperate to start a family. The storylines of the two sets of protagonists appear to be entirely unrelated, though it will not be too much of a spoiler to suggest that the reader will anticipate them becoming relevant to one another at some point - because those are the rules and that is just how these things work! It is left to the skill of the writer to weave these strands together in a manner that is not just captivating, but also plausible and acceptable to the reader's sense of authenticity. In this instance Lisa Stone makes a pretty good job of it.Very often, the stories that draw the audience in most successfully and that create the most palpable tension are those that you can actually envisage happening in reality. That is certainly the case with "The Cottage". For the sake of avoiding spoilers I will not go into detail, just suffice to say that there are themes fundamental to this plot that are based on real-life happenings and, as such, are all the more disturbing. This one is well worth adding to your reading list.

The plots actually interesting, although a little predicable at points. But the dialouge and characters are just terrible. They all seem to have the same personality and the main character has a lot of rambling, repeated thoughts and there's almost a whole chapter where she tells her friend what been happening when we've also heard first hand and her telling a bloke about. Very dull filler material. The characters that are meant to be in their 20's speak like pensioners with a 20 something man calling his wife "love" and saying things like "whatever do you mean?" It's almost as if it's written by someone who's never met an English person but has gone off of downtown abbey. Reflecting this the main characters called Jan... How many people in their 20's are called Jan?!

I couldn't put the story down, (I read on my kindle) well written and very believable. Something I hadn't heard of so I've learned something new by read this. I've read all of Lisa Stones books and Kathy Glass. All of which I would highly recommend

I have read every book that this author has written and I love every one of them.This however is in my opinion the best one yet. A combination of two stories that come together as the book goes on. A girl escaping the world to look after a cottage and the owners dog while she is away experiences some strange noises and sightings mostly during the night. The cottage is in the middle of nowhere next to a dense woodland.The other side of the story is a couple have just given birth to their second child who they believe is dead, but is he?I read this book mainly in bed at night and it was a little eerie but I couldn’t put it down until all the pieces of the story came together.Absolutely brilliant story and well written as are all her books. Got to wait for her next one now.Highly recommend this author and this book

Sorry, I thought this was rather silly and poorly written, with no substance or tension at all. I wouldn't read other books by this author.

The book is very well written, and really makes you want to keep reading it. I recommend it. But on this occasion I was a bit taken aback by the story. I can't say too much without giving away the ending, but I'll say I was shocked by what the main characters were willing to accept was a good solution to a problem - especially by an author who under another name writes very caring and responsible fostering memoires!