The New Friend by Alex Kane

4 Stars from me

This was great fun to read – in places it put me in mind of the old TV shows like Bad Girls and Prisoner Cell Block H etc!

I did feel for Arabella, she really didn’t get the best start in life and yet mostly seemed to be quite a decent person who was just trying to get on.

What felt like a protective relationship while she was in prison – under the protection of Roxanne – seemed like it would be a friendship for life but unfortunately for poor Arabella not everyone is entirely who they appear to be.

Overall this was an exiting read with a good mix of drama, old school crime / the underworld and ever increasing tension.

My thanks to Alex Kane and the lovely Zoe from #Zooloosbooktours for letting me be a part of the blog tour for The New Friend.

Blurb: Arabella MacQueen had a tough start to life. Growing up with an alcoholic mum, taken into care at the age of 8, getting into trouble as a teen, now she’s in her late-twenties and has turned her life around.

Until the night of madness that sees her imprisoned for 10 months. Little does she know that prison would be the turning point of her life. Roxanne Barr quickly takes her under her wing, and the two women forge a friendship that lasts beyond the prison walls.

Now Arabella is running her own hair salon and excited to see how her life of freedom looks, building a future with boyfriend Eddie and a friendship with Roxanne and her boyfriend, Jake. But Arabella doesn’t know the truth about Roxanne: her reputation as the head of Glasgow gangland, not afraid to turn to violence to keep her status. She doesn’t know that her new best friend is keeping secrets from her – and that she has plans for Arabella that might lead her into some very dangerous places. In this dirty game, Arabella is going to have to learn you can’t always trust those closest to you.