You Pull Me In

by Anne-Cecile Ville

July 1996. While Princess Diana signs her divorce papers, aspiring Irish actress Lucy frees herself from the clutches of her abusive mother to find success in London. As she lands the part that will propel her to stardom, she falls passionately in love with Mark. Blindsided to his manipulative ways, she ends up trapped in a dingy squat. To find the strength to escape, Lucy must examine her past, but she hasn’t got long. Mark is becoming increasingly tetchy, and he won’t let her outlive this.

YOU PULL ME IN is a psychological thriller, which examines the trappings of psychological coercion. It’s full of 90s gritty realism and is gripping to the final page.

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 6, 2019

About the author

Anne-Cécile Ville is a screenwriter, author, and founder of BF Media Lounge—a film production company and community platfrom on a mission to Turn Up the Positivity!

In 2019, she published a gripping psychological thriller based on her own experienced of toxic relationships.

Her second book, Reboot Your Story, focuses on positivity and helps women let go of the beliefs that hold them back and find joy, using storytelling, neuroscience, reflective exercises, and, when the internal work is done, AI prompts based on the personal wound to continue the conversation well after you finished reading the book!

Follow the Turn Up the Positivity! movement on social media at @bfmedialounge or BF Media Lounge's main website.

Reviews

[Rainz ❤️rainnbooks❤️(on a break) · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Pull Me In, the debut novel by Anne-Cecile Ville is a hard and gritty thriller.

Lucy has escaped from years of abuse from her mother in Ireland and moved to London in the hope of pursuing an acting career and be happy. With the help of her friend John, she's found an apartment to share with 2 other girls Jen and Emma. Amidst attending auditions, she joins a pub to make ends meet and there meets Mark. Lucy is instantly infatuated and smitten so much that she doesn't hesitate to make the initial move. But soon Mark is coercing her into doing things that otherwise she wouldn't dare, rules are broken inside the house and just like that she is homeless and dependent on Mark. Moving into a dingy squat with Mark and other poor souls, drugs become a necessity and Lucy lets herself go and severs ties with everyone including her friend John.Almost a year of being afraid, Lucy finds it difficult to overcome the fear of Mark and his ways.

Interspersed with the Princess Diana's life story, You Pull Me In was a difficult book to read. Lucy's thought process in the first half of the book felt erratic but the 2nd half of the book just zoomed into a thrilling and tense climax with an ending that I never expected. I loved how the author used the dog Max to show the similarities of so-called love abuse that Mark bestows on both of them. The no-holds barred approach to the use of drugs and its dependency makes for some painful reading but I loved the characters in the book including Richard who is at most times a blockhead.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Pull Me In will keep pulling you back

Written entirely from the main character’s (Lucy) perspective in, what at first seemed, disjointed and meandering thoughts, like lightning striking randomly throughout the night sky. But that’s how thoughts behave and soon the dots connect in an adventure I found to be (in order) interesting, sluggish, fascinating, thrilling.

I found the 1st 1/3rd a bit hard to connect to and even once put it down for good. Written from Lucy’s perspective and drawing on feelings and experiences foreign to me, I had trouble relating. But, as the title suggests, something pulled me back. Glad it did. The middle third (about the time Lucy meets Mel) is superb. The squat, the phone booth, the full English breakfasts, King’s Cross, Yardie, real hunger, wolfing down pizza, Max.

Max.

Lucy and Max are kindred spirits. Taken in, enamored, neglected, abused. And in the end, each one eagerly finding their way out.

Same could be said for the reader.

I was between 3 and 4 stars. Went with 4 b/c I’m glad I stuck with it.

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could see this happening

Others have already summarized this story, so I will give you my opinion of it. This story was believable to me. True, I can't imagine this happening to me, but I can believe that it is possible, just as it was written. It makes one wonder if the author has experience in this area.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did receive this for a review.

It was pretty good. Lucy had a rough childhood with a mother who wasn't supportive and blamed her for things. She ran away to London to get away from her clutches. She has a good friend John who helps her when he can and is always supportive. Then she meets him this guy she thinks she loves but who treats her very poorly and is a drug user.

[Vickie Sarmina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy finally escapes from Ireland and her mother’s abusive acts toward her. She has moved to London with the help of her friend John. John has introduced her to two other ladies to become their flat mates. Both Emma and Jen seem to be easy to live with. Things seem to be going well. She has an agent now, who is assisting her with auditions. She wants to be an actress so much. But in the meantime, she must find a job. She refuses to ask her mother for anything. She applies at a pub and is hired right on the spot. While she’s there, however; she notices a very handsome bartender, Mark. She speaks with him briefly and tells him she’ll see him tomorrow. They work together the next evening, and everything seems to go well. He walks her home and is impressed with where she lives. They both make plans for her to cook him lunch the next afternoon. She’s lonely and things escalate. Her roomies don’t mind as long as the guy isn’t there when they are. One evening she receives a note from her roomies that they won’t be home until very early in the morning. She asks Mark if he would like to come over. He walks her home and before anything he pulls out some weed and coke. Lucy tells him he can’t smoke in the house. He becomes brazen and decides to do a line of coke on her roommates glass table, and of all places, in her roommates bedroom. Imagine Lucy’s surprise, when the roommates show up early and find Mark doing lines of coke off of her table. Jen become furious and tells Lucy, that she’s out. Now both she and Mark have to find a place to live. Imagine the heartache, when she had become so destitute that they have to live in the basement of a squat. Things seem to spiral downhill from there. Not only did she escape from her mother’s clutches, it seems she has just traded one monster for another. What will she do? Needless to say, her friend, John is very worried about her. She had lost weight and is using drugs very heavily. Mark watches her like a hawk, and is always asking where she is. He constantly accuses her of being with other men. This book is very much a description of having a relationship with a narcissistic person, who is so self centered that they can’t understand why no one wants to be with them. Will Lucy escape this man and the environment of hell she is living in? Will she see that she is really a valuable person? I had to give this book a 4 on a rating, because I was having difficulty following the writers style of using the first person throughout the book. I had to keep re-reading paragraphs to figure out who was actually speaking. I believe that the reader could’ve related much better to each of characters, without the first person, as well.