Click here to read the book synopsis on Goodreads.
2.5/5 stars
Thank you to Harper books for sending an advanced copy of this book so I could review it!
For starters, I want to say that I LOVED Liv Constantine’s “The Last Mrs. Parrish”. It was in my top 10 favorite books that I read in 2018, so this one was a highly anticipated release for me. I am a serious FAN and will read anything they write. That being said, I came into this book expecting mind boggling twists, broody characters, and a jaw dropping ending. Unfortunately for me, I got a predictable story, surface level characters, and an underwhelming ending.
This story felt scattered and slow. I felt like as soon as something interesting would start to happen with a section of the storyline, we would jump back to some characters that I wasn’t as interested in. I wanted to really be rooting for someone or to really be suspicious of someone, but that didn’t happen for me – the whole time I kept thinking, “Surely one of these main characters isn’t the murderer!”
SPOILERS BELOW – PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
And that’s exactly what happened. They chose a character that had almost no place in the book to be the ~accidental~ murderer. And while her motive made sense, it was so dissatisfying that it wasn’t a character that we knew anything about. She legitimately had just a few lines throughout the book. She wasn’t important, she wasn’t noteworthy, and when I found out who it was, I was like, “Well that’s dumb.”
The ending also felt super rushed to me. I wanted more information on Blaire’s psychotic break and wanted to know if she and Kate really made up, but at the same time, I didn’t want Kate to forgive her because Blaire was one of the most manipulating characters I have ever read. Forgiving her made Kate seem weak and frankly, kind of dumb, but the authors wrote it off as the result of serious therapy – except therapy doesn’t work that way, a good therapist won’t encourage someone to invite someone like Blaire back into their life.
This book may work for some – but it just didn’t for me. I will still read their next novel and hope that it is more satisfying!
Jenna, Stop Reading! 