kbranfield's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars.
Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly is a clever, twist-filled domestic mystery.
Jane Campbell and her husband Leon are happily married with two young children. As they are leaving to celebrate Leon's birthday, Jane runs into the house to grab something and when she returns, she notices something is not quite right with her husband. After he crashes their car into a neighbor's brick wall, Jane learns the stunning truth-Leon has been brutally attacked. As Leon is placed into a medically induced coma, Jane learns some unsettling information that leads her to question everything she thinks she knows about her husband. When Detective Inspector Hazel Ledecky suspects Jane might be responsible for Leon's injuries, Jane begins conducting her own investigation to find out who wanted to kill her husband. Will she uncover the truth before it is too late?
Jane is a fairly passive woman who avoids confrontation. After giving birth to their children, she also turned over all financial responsibility to Leon. Jane has struggled for years to publish her manuscripts and Leon is quite supportive of her efforts. She teaches creative writing and after her husband's attack, she realizes that Leon has been keeping several secrets from her. She also finds some troubling files on his computer, but she is having trouble making sense of what her discoveries mean.
Leon is a moderately successful author of a gritty detective series. He has a bit of a short fuse but Jane has no reason to fear for her safety. Leon can be a bit dismissive of other writers and he has had a few run-ins with another author. But as far as Jane can tell, no one would have any reason to want to harm her husband.
After Leon emerges from his coma, Jane is shocked by the changes in her husband. His traumatic brain injury is quite serious and his recovery will be long. Although Jane is ill-prepared to care for him, Leon is quickly released from the hospital and sent home. His memory issues are severe and he is prone to angry outbursts. Jane is surprisingly firm with him when she needs to be but she continually questions whether she is up to the task of caring for him.
The police investigation into Leon's attack soon stalls due to a lack of evidence, motive and suspects. Jane has reason to fear for her family's safety and she quietly continues trying to figure out who is responsible. When Jane stumbles onto the startling truth, will DI Ledecky believe her?
Open Your Eyes is an absolutely riveting mystery that is quite engaging. Jane is a sympathetic and likable protagonist who discovers hidden strengths when faced with adversity. The storyline is tautly plotted and moves at a brisk pace. Paula Daly's meticulous research into traumatic brain injuries adds authenticity to the plot. Readers will be genuinely surprised when Jane uncovers the perpetrator's identity and motive for Leon's attack. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this suspenseful mystery to fans of the genre.
Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly is a clever, twist-filled domestic mystery.
Jane Campbell and her husband Leon are happily married with two young children. As they are leaving to celebrate Leon's birthday, Jane runs into the house to grab something and when she returns, she notices something is not quite right with her husband. After he crashes their car into a neighbor's brick wall, Jane learns the stunning truth-Leon has been brutally attacked. As Leon is placed into a medically induced coma, Jane learns some unsettling information that leads her to question everything she thinks she knows about her husband. When Detective Inspector Hazel Ledecky suspects Jane might be responsible for Leon's injuries, Jane begins conducting her own investigation to find out who wanted to kill her husband. Will she uncover the truth before it is too late?
Jane is a fairly passive woman who avoids confrontation. After giving birth to their children, she also turned over all financial responsibility to Leon. Jane has struggled for years to publish her manuscripts and Leon is quite supportive of her efforts. She teaches creative writing and after her husband's attack, she realizes that Leon has been keeping several secrets from her. She also finds some troubling files on his computer, but she is having trouble making sense of what her discoveries mean.
Leon is a moderately successful author of a gritty detective series. He has a bit of a short fuse but Jane has no reason to fear for her safety. Leon can be a bit dismissive of other writers and he has had a few run-ins with another author. But as far as Jane can tell, no one would have any reason to want to harm her husband.
After Leon emerges from his coma, Jane is shocked by the changes in her husband. His traumatic brain injury is quite serious and his recovery will be long. Although Jane is ill-prepared to care for him, Leon is quickly released from the hospital and sent home. His memory issues are severe and he is prone to angry outbursts. Jane is surprisingly firm with him when she needs to be but she continually questions whether she is up to the task of caring for him.
The police investigation into Leon's attack soon stalls due to a lack of evidence, motive and suspects. Jane has reason to fear for her family's safety and she quietly continues trying to figure out who is responsible. When Jane stumbles onto the startling truth, will DI Ledecky believe her?
Open Your Eyes is an absolutely riveting mystery that is quite engaging. Jane is a sympathetic and likable protagonist who discovers hidden strengths when faced with adversity. The storyline is tautly plotted and moves at a brisk pace. Paula Daly's meticulous research into traumatic brain injuries adds authenticity to the plot. Readers will be genuinely surprised when Jane uncovers the perpetrator's identity and motive for Leon's attack. I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this suspenseful mystery to fans of the genre.
noveldeelights's review against another edition
4.0
What starts as a normal day soon ends in disaster. Leon and Jane are off to visit his mother who’s throwing Leon a birthday party. There’s a bit of an argument, nothing serious, and a neighbour with a grievance. Having forgotten to pick up beer, Jane is glad when she can go back into the house and step away from the confrontation for a while. But when she returns to the car, things are not quite the way she left them.
From that moment onwards, life for Jane and her family changes forever. Not only is there a “who and why” mystery to solve, but the family dynamics and circumstances are incredibly hard to deal with on a daily basis. I couldn’t at all imagine what it would be like but the unsettling vibe throughout the story was done brilliantly as behaviours and attitudes become increasingly unpredictable and erratic.
Leon and Jane are both authors and through them, we get a glimpse into the literary world which I thoroughly enjoyed. While Leon has been quite successful, Jane has been struggling to get anything published, which is seriously affecting her confidence. Yet she must somehow find it within herself to protect her family and get them through this dark period, all the while trying to come to grips with this “new” husband and maybe realising she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did before all this happened.
I find it hard to explain why I enjoyed this book as much as I did. There was just something about it that captivated me so much that I couldn’t put it down. I found myself caring less about trying to figure out who the culprit was, but more about the characters themselves and the way they were adapting to this massive change.
This is one gripping read full of suspense and red herrings that left me suspecting just about everyone. I couldn’t figure things out at all but I must say, that was one satisfying conclusion! Open Your Eyes is a psychological thriller with a difference and really stands out from the crowd. It has the thrills you expect, it has the twists but it also has quite the heartbreaking premise and it all makes for an intense and compelling story.
From that moment onwards, life for Jane and her family changes forever. Not only is there a “who and why” mystery to solve, but the family dynamics and circumstances are incredibly hard to deal with on a daily basis. I couldn’t at all imagine what it would be like but the unsettling vibe throughout the story was done brilliantly as behaviours and attitudes become increasingly unpredictable and erratic.
Leon and Jane are both authors and through them, we get a glimpse into the literary world which I thoroughly enjoyed. While Leon has been quite successful, Jane has been struggling to get anything published, which is seriously affecting her confidence. Yet she must somehow find it within herself to protect her family and get them through this dark period, all the while trying to come to grips with this “new” husband and maybe realising she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did before all this happened.
I find it hard to explain why I enjoyed this book as much as I did. There was just something about it that captivated me so much that I couldn’t put it down. I found myself caring less about trying to figure out who the culprit was, but more about the characters themselves and the way they were adapting to this massive change.
This is one gripping read full of suspense and red herrings that left me suspecting just about everyone. I couldn’t figure things out at all but I must say, that was one satisfying conclusion! Open Your Eyes is a psychological thriller with a difference and really stands out from the crowd. It has the thrills you expect, it has the twists but it also has quite the heartbreaking premise and it all makes for an intense and compelling story.
chrissireads's review against another edition
4.0
As you can see by my previously reviewed section above, I’m quite a fan of Paula Daly’s books. I read her debut novel as an ARC and since then I’ve been a fan. I love Paula’s writing style and I always know I’m in for a decent read when I pick up one of Paula’s books. Fangirling aside, I genuinely did enjoy this book. It didn’t take me long to read at all and it was definitely worth the wait! (Lots of books got in the way of me reading what I wanted to read!)
Open Your Eyes is a real page turner. It starts with Jane and Leon having a bit of an argument after Leon doesn’t want to visit his parents for his birthday. Leon, a semi-famous author, is violently attacked with a nail gun. He suffers a brain injury. Jane, an aspiring writer, has to pick up the pieces and is left wondering who on earth would have something against her husband. It might seem like this plot has been done before, but it did take some twists and turns along the way.
I found myself questioning quite a few characters along the way. I did manage to work out who had done it by the end, but Paula Daly did throw some curveballs along the way which I absolutely love. She really does have such an engaging writing style. It always pulls me in and takes me on quite the ride. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
Open Your Eyes is a real page turner. It starts with Jane and Leon having a bit of an argument after Leon doesn’t want to visit his parents for his birthday. Leon, a semi-famous author, is violently attacked with a nail gun. He suffers a brain injury. Jane, an aspiring writer, has to pick up the pieces and is left wondering who on earth would have something against her husband. It might seem like this plot has been done before, but it did take some twists and turns along the way.
I found myself questioning quite a few characters along the way. I did manage to work out who had done it by the end, but Paula Daly did throw some curveballs along the way which I absolutely love. She really does have such an engaging writing style. It always pulls me in and takes me on quite the ride. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
leona_omahony's review against another edition
3.0
I have read a few books by Paula Daly and have really enjoyed them all. So I was really looking forward to reading ‘Open your eyes’. The blurb sounded great . Whilst this was a genre I really enjoy this book just fell a bit flat for me. I guessed quite early on who the culprit was and I just read through the book to get to the end.
gemsarjon's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
ncrabb's review against another edition
4.0
Another year, another birthday for Leon Campbell. He, his wife, Jane, and their two kids are off to his mother's house for a birthday dinner he doesn't particularly want to attend. While the marriage is far from constantly unhappy, it had taken its share of bangings in recent days. Leon is a relatively successful mystery writer; Jane writes, but nothing of hers is worthy of publication. Still, she harbors the dream in spite of his strong encouragement to give up the writing process.
So they're in the car, an argument is beginning with an aging neighbor who doesn't care much for the family cat, and Jane leaves the car to go inside briefly. When she comes back, the argument is done, and Leon promptly backs the car over the neighbor's wall, damaging a garden. Why did he do that? A verbal argument is one thing; deliberately destroying property is something else again. But Leon didn't deliberately destroy anything. While Jane was in the house, Leon was attacked by someone who used a nail gun to fire nails into his brain. His kids watched the whole thing, but the oldest was traumatized so much he couldn't tell who had done it, and the youngest was too young to speak.
There are the nights and days in the hospital, and the endless interviews with law enforcement officials as they presume Jane is a suspect, since the nail gun has her prints on it. When Leon awakes, he believes himself married not to Jane, but to his first wife, Gina.
This is ultimately a story of a couple who must deal with traumatic brain injury with all of its stages and circumstances. It is a story of a family that takes one step forward and two back where Leon's recovery is concerned. But it is a great mystery that shows you the evolution of a wife and mom who is forced to open her eyes and dig for answers to questions she didn't know even needed asking.
Although I picked a CD Audio edition, this is an Audible book. Why Audible doesn't have its own edition in here, I can't explain. My point to this is that the Audible edition is excellently narrated. The narrator brilliantly handles all of Jane Campbell's emotions in a wonderfully professional memorable way.
So they're in the car, an argument is beginning with an aging neighbor who doesn't care much for the family cat, and Jane leaves the car to go inside briefly. When she comes back, the argument is done, and Leon promptly backs the car over the neighbor's wall, damaging a garden. Why did he do that? A verbal argument is one thing; deliberately destroying property is something else again. But Leon didn't deliberately destroy anything. While Jane was in the house, Leon was attacked by someone who used a nail gun to fire nails into his brain. His kids watched the whole thing, but the oldest was traumatized so much he couldn't tell who had done it, and the youngest was too young to speak.
There are the nights and days in the hospital, and the endless interviews with law enforcement officials as they presume Jane is a suspect, since the nail gun has her prints on it. When Leon awakes, he believes himself married not to Jane, but to his first wife, Gina.
This is ultimately a story of a couple who must deal with traumatic brain injury with all of its stages and circumstances. It is a story of a family that takes one step forward and two back where Leon's recovery is concerned. But it is a great mystery that shows you the evolution of a wife and mom who is forced to open her eyes and dig for answers to questions she didn't know even needed asking.
Although I picked a CD Audio edition, this is an Audible book. Why Audible doesn't have its own edition in here, I can't explain. My point to this is that the Audible edition is excellently narrated. The narrator brilliantly handles all of Jane Campbell's emotions in a wonderfully professional memorable way.