The Unknown

by V.A. Pearson

A young woman bombed out of her home and losing her parents, struggles to make a new life for herself. After meeting John, whom she thinks is her soul mate, then to be left alone once again. She disowns her daughter. Now being hunted by the police she finds a place to hide out after committing two murders.

645 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2019

About the author

V. A. PEARSON was born in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire England and educated at Dunstable High School. Her parents, after the war moved to Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, where she finished her education at the Slough Technical School. V. A. Pearson worked for Lady bird Tex tiles in Langley going on to help establish she company in Montreal Quebec, Canada.

With four children which kept her very busy and it is only now, over the past few years that the joy of writing has once again been revisited. She has travelled extensively for both pleasure and business, returning often to visit her home in England.

Reviews

[Amanda Steinmetz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give this book 4 stars but also 2 stars at the same time so I'm settling on 3. Until the end, I was really enjoying this read. Paragraphs were able to spark multiple emotions in just a few sentences and kept me turning pages (well, in this case clicking to the next page as I read via Kindle on Amazon) without the intensity of cliffhangers. There was that 'eyebrow level of surprise' for me in regards to what was going to happen next and needing to fulfill a certain level of mystery, what-will-happen-next element I think the story needed to keep moving. There were twists that I didn't see coming and at least 1 that I didn't expect! When a new character would come into play, I like that they started as memories or memories would trigger their entrance. Though, while in these memories, it's sometimes hard to tell what's real life and what's a memory just due to the flow of the book. Although, something I did like was when a character wasn't in a 'main role' or just in the scene - a thought of theirs would come in which gave insight to how a character might be standing or acting when the scene is playing out in your head.
On the topic of flowing, there were some grammatical errors that interrupted the flow of the story. As I was reading I would notice that quotations were missing to complete someone speaking or other things that resulted me in doubling-back realizing that something was missing. Additionally, when the characters where together in a group, it was hard to tell who was talking without an indicator.

While I did enjoy this read because of the aforementioned reasons, the overall storyline was a good read. A woman who could have probably had a great life with a husband and child abused it because she was hurt by the others that she loved. She decides to leave it all behind in pursuit of what I hoped was happiness but instead she found that she was still angry and resentful and even more-so after she learns what has happened to the men previously in her life. With very little to name, speaking her mind, and on the streets to thinking before she speaks and attempting to fix her ways and being grateful to have a roof over her head (or so she gives the appearance) until the men come back into her life. She leaves a job that could have finished helping her get a chance at a fresh start to runaway to the woods and become spiteful! (Which now seems on-par for her character.) Her daughter (who she abused) tried to make the best of her life and pursue what she wanted to do, but without people in her life to help show her what true happiness is like, she struggles with any form of decision making. She is almost at true happiness, when it ripped away without a moment of sadness or mourning. I would read this book again, but I may not read the ending because it made me want to throw the book at the wall (thankfully I was reading on a computer, so no books were physically harmed - just my right arrow key).

I wanted to be able to write a review without spoilers but...

!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!

What was hard to read with this book was that there were some one-off moments that may not have I felt threw the storyline off a bit. One instance was when they were at Andy's ex-wife's funeral and he was making plans for his son. I was a little thrown off by how this played into the story still.

I had a hard time figuring out who the main character(s) were in the story. At times it seemed to be Angela and/or Kate (which was what I was expecting with the beginning of the story), but then other times it seemed to be Butch or Bob or John or another 'secondary' character. In addition, the storyline was hard to follow as well because at one point I thought this was about finding Angela but then there's a good bit about how Spence and Andy are apparently drug traffickers and they have to track down that. (That could have made for a potential fun read as itself.)

I absolutely hate this ending. While I was hoping that Kate would end up Spence (albeit for a while I was hoping it was Paul), when she finally lets herself give in to something she's only seen with her friends, she dies!?! And the man who pursued her for YEARS only faking that he had given up, doesn't even spend 5 MINUTES being sad about her being gone!?! Andy just comes and whisks him away on another business trip. After all that time of pursing you would think that this dude would be even the tiniest bit of sad. And her friends??!! Why do their attitudes seem to be panic about where is she then once they learn Kate is gone, the only thing left to say is "oh, our friend who brought us all together is gone." I only hope that if something like that were to happen to me, my friends would be a little more sad than that.

I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the storyline idea to this book but some of the elements threw me off from thoroughly enjoying it to full potential. Too many characters caused confusion for me for whom was really the main characters of this story. The storyline had a few pitfalls and seemed to veer off the main idea, so it was a little scattered. I wasn’t a fan of the ending, so this book just didn’t leave me feeling like I read a great read that took my breath away. I think this had the potential to be a more enticing book if it wasn’t so scattered and at times confusing to follow and stick with in my opinion. Thank you Goodreads giveaways for the copy to read and review.

[V.A. Pearson]

Browsing through the book clubs to find a good book to read.
This title caught my attention.
I was not sorry to read this book "THE UNKNOWN".
From beginning to the end what an amazing read.
The characters come alive on page after page not wanting to put the book down.
A great Author thank you.

[Kathy Stibal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little weird for me. It seemed to jump around to a lot of characters in the story so at first I wasn't really sure who was the main character and where the storyline was going. I did like the ending as it seemed appropriate for the story.

[Cathy Gudger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an epic read! It has it all including revenge, murder, friendship and love. I finished reading this afternoon and still have a lump in my throat!
Highly recommend!!