I’m happy to be on the blog tour for Wicked Girls by Heather Atkinson on behalf of Rachel’s Random Resources. Thanks to Rachel Gilbey and Boldwood Books for the ARC of the book to enable me to take part with my honest review.
Cousins Valerie and Toni McVay have been best friends forever, and when you’re a McVay you need all the friends you can get.
When Toni’s twelfth birthday is marred by a terrible crime, the wicked path of the girls looks set. A decade later, the McVay family aren’t the unstoppable force they once were in the Glaswegian criminal underworld but Frankie McVay, the up-and-coming prince, is determined to restore the family to its former glory by whatever means necessary. And the whole family are expected to help.
His sister Toni shares her brother’s blood lust but Valerie dreams of a quieter life, and when she meets and falls in love with Seb, as straight as Frankie is bent, as kind as Frankie is wicked, Val sees her way out.
Can she escape a family that is determined to own the city, and to keep Valerie firmly in their violent grasp? And will Toni ever let her best friend Val turn her back on the bloody secret they have shared for all these years…
This is the beginning! The beginning of Blood Brothers. Wicked Girls follows the younger years of Toni and Valerie, both members of the McVay family. We learn of what shapes these girls into the women they become.
This is a book I couldn’t help but read in one go. If you have read the Blood Brother series, you will love getting to know both Toni and Val, cousins who are so close and always have each others backs, no matter what. The story begins as it means to go on, it hooks the reader from the first page as we follow the girls from them being twelve. It shows us why Toni turns into the woman we see in the Blood Brothers. Val finds her own path and we are witness to her journey as she faces tough decisions.
Heather Atkinson is back! Doing what she excels at, writing gritty, authentic gangland stories. I always look forward to her books and this one is a belter. One of my favourite things is to discover, is how a series is born. The characters are complex and as well created as I expect when reading a book by this author. I definitely got behind these girls as I got to know them
This is a story that has tension slowly building throughout the story. We see the two girls battle through everything and the sense of danger was there constantly. I loved the twists in the story and the conclusion is one that shocked me.
If you are partial to a hard hitting, gritty gangland crime books, I recommend this!
Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/3dUJlOq
Author Bio
Heather Atkinson is the author of over fifty books – predominantly in the crime fiction genre. Although Lancashire born and bred she now lives with her family, including twin teenage daughters, on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. Her gangland series for Boldwood, set on the fictional Gallowburn estate in Glasgow begins with the title Blood Brothers.
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