Who is Poppy and why is she allowing her house to be demolished? Within the opening pages, you get the sense that something sinister has taken place inside. Something so bad that Poppy is prepared to see her home turned into rubble to forget. Forget what though we don’t know.
We then revisit a time five months previous, when Poppy is being sacked as a nanny for speaking out over the long hours, the poor pay and the empty promises they give to their kids. Even back then, it seems as though Poppy’s life wasn’t necessarily going to plan.
But then, if she hadn’t been fired she wouldn’t have ended up in a roadside bar, in the middle of nowhere, on the small island of Ibiza talking to the very attractive albeit older, Drew.
Drew is a forty-something, extremely attractive and obviously wealthy man that is suddenly paying Poppy so much attention. Other than the obviously, however, what could he possibly see in the 28-year-old nanny? She has no money and since she started looking after the Henderson kids six years ago has let herself go somewhat.
What is Drew after? Has his mid-life crisis come early? Why would someone who clearly has a great deal of money want to spend time with someone who is seriously overdrawn and can’t even afford her flight back to the UK?
For that matter, who is Poppy? An educated young woman opting to work for spoilt rich people, looking after their brats, rather than pursuing a career with the degree she gained.
I get the sense they are both hiding secrets, but what they have yet to be uncovered?
“The shiner something looked on the outside, the more rotten it usually is within.” (Page 61)
Things move fast and before Poppy realises what is going on, just weeks into their romance, she is agreeing to marry this mystery man. This gorgeous, caring and wealthy individual has just one condition: they never discuss their past, ever!
Strange, right?
Surely you would want to know more about your other half – what school they went to, what they did in their younger years that made them the person they are today, what their childhood was really like.
No relationship could last when there were secrets involved, and there are clearly some that he wants to be buried deep into a closet somewhere. But why doesn’t Poppy mind? Is it that she herself has done something she would prefer people forgot?
Running along this story thread is a second featuring a financially secure family – the Walkers – who are looking for a nanny to help look after their four children during the summer holidays. After phoning the agency to say they were happy with the older nanny they had sent, Agnes turns up on their doorstep an hour later than planned, looking rather bedraggled but somehow manages to win the family over.
Who is Agnes and how does this story relate to the one featuring Poppy?
Following these two storylines, we get to find out little snippets of information regarding both Poppy and Drew, if that’s who they really are, and begin to create our own picture of what could have happened to them before they met one another.
Truth Hurts by Rebecca Reid
My Thoughts on Truth Hurts
To begin with, I didn’t realise how the two storylines were connected but it soon became evident that Poppy and Agnes were related in some way and that helped to form a picture in my mind about what Poppy’s secret could potentially be.
Drew’s background, however, was more difficult to uncover and just when I thought I had stumbled upon a small detail that could reveal more about Drew’s past, you then question whether it is red herring.
The facts of Drew’s life are so well hidden that you will often find yourself skipping over these details, only realising what you have done at a later stage in the story.
Truth Hurts is a dark, haunting crime novel with an ending that I would have never predicted; all the twists I conjured up in my head were so far from what was actually written. I only have praise for the masterpiece that Rebecca Reid has created. This is a seriously good, tense read that you will remember long after the pages have finished.
If you want a novel that will haunt you this is the one.
Have you read Truth Hurts or anything else written by Rebecca Reid
Did you enjoy this article? Then PIN it for later…
