Published: July 19, 2022

Brown Dog Books

Pages: 212

Genre: Thriller

KKECReads Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Elisabeth Krauel was your typical bookworm as a child. She would pack five or six books for a one-week holiday and still be out of reading material by the end of it. This love of books was further inspired by her grandfather, who owned a bookshop – Ducketts – in the Royal Opera Arcade near Trafalgar Square; and by her grandmother, who was a passionate collector of antiquarian children’s books. Slowly, Elisabeth started to transition from just reading to also writing. She loved the creative writing she did in English and German classes at school and also wrote short stories and participated in poetry slams in her free time. After finishing school and completing a nursing internship at her local hospital, Elisabeth worked as a carer and English teacher in a Bolivian orphanage for several months. Now Elisabeth is in her third year of medical school in Germany. When the pandemic hit, she found herself with a lot of time on her hands and not much to do with it. This gave Elisabeth the final push to start a project she had always wanted to tackle: writing her own book. Elisabeth is now proud to present her first contemporary fiction novel “Forgive or Forget.”

“Death was a strangely irrevocable event.”

Alice is starting her life over after serving a ten-year prison sentence for murder. She has no friends and hasn’t had contact with her sister since her trial. She is eager to reconnect with her beloved older sister and start living her best life as a loving sister and auntie. Except she doesn’t know where Beth is, and Alice doesn’t know if she wants to be found.

This was a very different type of thriller. There was so much emotion and strong character development that carried this story from start to finish.

Alice was the main character, and she was such a beautifully written and eloquently presented character. Her heart and loyalty made her the friend and sister we would all want.

I enjoyed how this story was told; the alternating timelines were well done and helped the plot flow smoothly. What I found the most intriguing is the plot wasn’t fast-paced or slow-paced; it maintained a steady beat. And the intensity increased toward the end, but not in the manner generally found in a thriller.

This was an emotional thriller that was beautifully written and brilliantly delivered. The emotions, the understanding, and the journey was intense, and the path was broken.

This was a fantastic debut novel, and I look forward to reading more books from Elisabeth Krauel.