The Surrogate

By: Louise Jensen

Narrated by: Alex Tregear

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

You know that feeling? When you want something so badly, you almost feel you'd kill for it?

Be careful what you wish for....

Kat and her husband Nick have tried everything to become parents, and are on the point of giving up. Then a chance encounter with Kat's childhood friend Lisa gives Kat and Nick one last chance to achieve their dream.

But Kat and Lisa's history hides dark secrets.

And there is more to Lisa than meets the eye.

As dangerous cracks start to appear in Kat's perfect picture of happily-ever-after, she realizes that she must face her fear of the past to save her family....

From the number-one best-selling author of The Sister and The Gift, this is an unputdownable psychological thriller which asks how far we will go to create our perfect family.

©2017 Louise Jensen (P)2017 Bookouture

Thought it would be predictable, but it was just weird.

At first I thought it was a pretty predictable story about a surrogate getting revenge on an old friend. But it twisted and changed and just got weird. I could’ve done without the west side story that, it just didn’t fit and seem like it was just stuck in there. Without spoilers the ending was disappointing and had a lot of holes. The narrator was great, but the story was lacking, the characters were weak, and the ending was just horrible.

Loved it!!!

Not at all what I expected and I mean that in a good way!! I found myself with my jaw hanging open more than once as I listened to the many twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the narrator as she really kept the story alive with her tone. I will say that I listened to it at X1.5 speed because some of her pauses were really long, but the change in speed made it perfect!

Wow !

I really had to soak this book in, it was intense. The ending was perfect for a psychological thriller. This is so far her best book.☆☆☆☆☆Totally worth the credit.

Wow!!!

Oh my gosh!!!!!!! Wow!!!!! Love the twists and how everything connects. But also hated how it turned out. How do I love and hate the same book at the same time?!?!? I’m torn.
It’s so well done. It’s so...dark, evil, cold?!?!? I don’t even know how to explain. But it’s freaking awesome at the same time! Yep, I’m a total psycho. This confirms it.

Exciting with twists!

Great audible reading and an exciting story--hard to put down! A complex story that is totally engrossing.

Annoying, Idiotic, Self-Consumed Main Character!

This story really annoyed me! The book really stretched the idea that people will believe anything if they are desperate enough. I kept thinking, "how dumb is this lady?" I found ALL the characters highy annoying but the main character was the worst. The way she fawned over children was really the only scary thing about this story. What a needy person and yet everyone let her get away with her narcisstic behavior and catered to her.

I wanted to see her utterly destroyed by the end of the book. The book stressed me out and it was more of a soap opera than a thriller! The ending was not plausible. The only good thing was the narrator who gave a stellar performance. She really plays a great paranoid psychopath.

A thrilling page turner

Once again Louise Jensen weaves an intricate thriller with plenty of suspense, twists and turns. Kat, Nick, Lisa and Richard all have unspeakable guilty secrets, which keeps readers on our toes right to the drammatic end and surprising epilogue. Family secrets, violence, lies, misunderstandings and betrayal in a novel in which everyone has plenty of dark secrets to hide. It is told mostly by Lisa in the present tense which makes events feel real and urgent. The writing is brilliant,. I love the author's use of metaphor and the brilliant way we look into the characters' minds and motivations. Especially for lovers of complex and suspenseful contemporary, family dramas and psychological thrillers.

** Spoilers **

The “Unreliable Narrator / Now and Then” thriller genre is one of my favourites, but this one annoyed me.

For most of the story, we are lead to believe that Lisa is not pregnant and she is bamboozling Nick and Kat. I thought the story would have been much more interesting if we would have known what was going on in Lisa’s head. Her POV of how she hopes to pull off this grand deception. Turns out, low and behold, she WAS pregnant but was acting shifty for a completely different set of reasons. So much for my idea about her POV!

The other twist about how Nick and Kat and Jake were linked together by events in the past was just too over the top for me. I felt like the story veered off track at that point and it was no longer a drama about a creepy surrogate; it was like the ending to a different story. When Lisa’s “contribution” to the convoluted mess is piled on, it was the ridiculous cherry on top!

What makes thrillers fun to read is that you can see how the events could possibly unfold and that’s what makes them scary; this one was just too far fetched.

O. M. G.....

This was a pleasant surprise for me! Just when I thought I knew exactly what was going on, I DIDN'T! Enjoy!

Terrible characters

The characters were deplorable people. Narrator was good, but the story was crazy far-fetched. Couldn’t recommend.

Poor

I persevered with this book only because the narrator was so good, otherwise it was a ridiculous and predictable story with pathetic clichés and phrases like “I knew what I was doing from watching ‘one born every minute’” and “I’d watched enough ‘casualty’ to know I needed to get her to the hospital”. I wouldn’t recommend this book at all. Awful.

Very disappointing

After all the positive reviews I was expecting much more, it felt like it was too trying hard to be in the same league as other recent thrillers, but failed through having any twists and turns linked together by a weak fairly predictable storyline and with characters that I never grew to care about. I listened almost to the end but gave up during the last hour as I realised I didn’t care what happened and was relieved it was over.

Problem mainly with the structure.

I am usually fine novels moving back and forth between past and present, but it did work here. After the first few chapters, there was no real direction. Rather the book rambled back and forth between apparently disconnected issues. I expect there will be those that tie-up in the end, but I have reached 1 hour before the end and I’m losing the will to go on, having already fast forwarded several times. I also can’t engage with the main protagonist here. I don’t have to like characters to engage with them. Indeed, for me, some of the most engaging characters are pretty awful. However, I find the character of Cat to be just too wingy!

Cant believe this book was ever published

This book was beyond terrible. Was it written by a teenager? This is a taster of the constant drivel you will need to endure if you choose to purchase it; ' l saw a lurking shadow! my heart raced!, l felt sick and could feel my breath quicken!, my panic rose and l tried to calm my breathing, but then l noticed .....it was only the post man. I turned to go back inside but then l heard a noise. The fear in me began to rise! I felt my sweat trickle down my neck! I was sure l was going to pass out with the rising panic! Oh ...its just the cat. OH THE ANGST,!!! The narrator deserves a medal actually getting through this dogs dinner of a book. My ears still hurt and l am completely BAFFLED at the 5 star reviews. Oh and another thing a lot of the words at ends of sentences are clipped. Just bad editing and bad all round.

Unlikely

The book was well read and began well going back and forth from past to present.However in the middle the plot became very silly with too many unlikely incidents. It could have been riveting but became contrived & unbelievable.

Brilliant

Absolutely brilliant, can not fault this at all. Great Story, with great twists that I didn't see coming. Really enjoyed it, need more like this.

So-so

Ok to pass the time.
Slightly unbelievable story line & pretty
predicable in parts.
Good narrator.

Couldn't put it down

Amazing story. Narrator was excellent - drew me in and brought the book to life.

Twists Galore

What a book. I couldn't stop listening to this. Every time I thought I had it figured out, the rug was pulled out from under me...a Must Listen!

Fantastic listening

I listen to lots of pschyological thrillers thinking.....'that was the best todate '..only to find another one.
great author..twists turns in every chapter

unputdownable if there is such a word.?