Enjoyable read with soap opera overtones

This review contains minor spoilers...On first blush Save Me reads like a soap opera examining the lives of many characters, focusing on emotional relationships to the point of melodrama...Ellie loves Matt but falls for inept and deranged Gareth. Holly, sister to Ellie, not only has an affair with Matt but also with socially unbalanced Gareth. Ellie's stepfather Billy made advances towards Ellie in her youth but has much more serious issues to confront as the story develops. Matt is hyper-sensitive, suffers from depression and is unable to acquire or hold down a job. And so the soap continues but having said all that I really enjoyed reading "Save Me" it's not a book of any real literary intent or a story that examines in any dept the characters but it doesn't purport to be this. It's simple light reading, a book that you can happily return to at any point without having lost the main thread, a book for the summer vacation, or reading as you journey by train or bus.

I think the author creates a very evil and controlling Gareth because it is his story that is the centre of all the events as they unfold...."See what you've made me do now? he hissed when her body went limp and her eyes rolled to the back of their sockets. That was your fault, not mine! All I'm trying to do is help you, so why did you have to start fighting with me?" Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in return for an honest review. It surprised me I usually prefer to be educated in my choice of reading but sometimes it is best to just enjoy without being over critical.