Review: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace: he has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You'd like to get to know Grace better. But it's difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are never apart. Some might call this true love.

Picture this: a dinner party at their perfect home, the conversation and wine flowing. They appear to be in their element while entertaining. And Grace's friends are eager to reciprocate with lunch the following week. Grace wants to go, but knows she never will. Her friends call—so why doesn't Grace ever answer the phone? And how can she cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim?

And why are there bars on one of the bedroom windows?

The perfect marriage? Or the perfect lie?

Shona's review 5 of 5 stars

I've previously read her Breakdown and loved it so I had a good idea of what to expect with this one and I wasn't disappointed. From the very first pages you realise that Jack and Grace's relationship is not conventional, but its not until later that you realise the full extent of the horror that is their relationship. 

This book unfolds with alternating chapters that tell Grace and Jacks story both in the past and in the present. The chapters start roughly 15 months apart and by the end of the book that time frame between past and present is mere days... Neither the past nor the present was particularly nice for Grace, her tale is particularly harrowing considering to the world her husband is a fine upstanding member of the community, a champion for battered wives, so who would believe her?

I loved this. And I feel incredibly weird saying that given the content but its true. Paris has written a harrowing tale, one that promises awful things be done to its characters, but the horrors are implied rather than in your face awful... with the exception of Molly... 

This is one of those books that I struggled to put down because I needed to know how Grace ended up in a relationship with someone like Jack, and how she was ever going to get herself out of this awful situation.