When i was first introduced to Martina Cole around 12 years ago I was gripped, I sought out all of the books and over the years ended up reading the earlier ones a few times over again.
Sadly starting with Faces, I think the quality of books has seriously declined, and things certainly haven't improved with The Faithless. As others have said, too much descriptive narrative especially with regards to Mary? (forgotten the name already!) wanting everything. The same was done with the main character back in Faces. Here we go again with another vile, horrible and evil mother character, and not that long since the last one in The Business either.
As mentioned not a fan of the one page chapters either. A gritty storyline but I actually think it has a pretty depressing, miserable feel to it.
Gone are the days when i'd rush out and buy the book every October, either grab it at your library, wait for the cheap paperback or find the Ebook for free.