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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
TW: Cheating, lying, murder, slut shaming, toxic relationships, blood, abusive relationship, gaslighting, manipulation
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this psychological thriller from the author of Eight Perfect Murders. Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something special and he’s tracked her down to prove it.Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.
Release Date: March 23rd, 2021
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 308
Rating: ⭐ ⭐
What I Liked:
• The writing was good
• The story made me want to see if I was right
What I Didn't Like:
• Hate when a female believes when people around her tell her she's crazy.
• How completely head in the clouds Abigail is
• Why did the author keep saying blond pilot ? Isn't he the only pilot on the island?
• Predictable story
Overall Thoughts: Before I had read this book I was two books into reading Peter Swanson. One book was 4 stars and one was 1 star. I'd say I'm not a huge fan of the author but I like to give 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th chances (5 chances if you are Riley Sager). My review is going to be scattered because I'm too lazy to put it into a cohesive review.
You know what I hate.... When a character does not know who to trust but the first person that relates to her they tell them everything. Like why? Keep it to yourself because that person you don't know might be the villain. Abigail never questions how "Scottie" a paid actor had the money to go to a rich persons island that seems like people have to be invited to get to it.
Abigail tells Scott she feels like she was rapped by him. What an insult to real woman what have been raped. She keeps saying it's rape because Scott lies to her about why he wanted to sleep with her. Just stop! The author tries to put this in our head.
There's also this ridiculous moment where she finds a bow and arrows. She suddenly remembers how to shoot it because she had a one day lesson with her friend and she shot off 20 arrows. Haha. Pulling back a bow is usually set for the person who has that upper strength. Saying that Abigail can pull back the same amount of weight as Bruce is just not possible. Not only is it the weight she's against but also now trying to do a straight shot.
The ending.... So it's an all men's cult. I don't understand why the rich men didn't try to cover their asses. The police already thought that Abigail was on drugs. They could have phoned the police knowing how long it would take her to get to land, if she would ever make it there. They could have said she killed her husband and the other people. When they got her from the boat she has a gun and it matches the bullet in the dude on the beach.
Final Thoughts: Predictable story with a lame ending that's what you'll get with this book. I'd probably just skip this one and read one of the other ones people say are better
IG|Blog
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this psychological thriller from the author of Eight Perfect Murders. Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something special and he’s tracked her down to prove it.Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.
Release Date: March 23rd, 2021
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 308
Rating: ⭐ ⭐
What I Liked:
• The writing was good
• The story made me want to see if I was right
What I Didn't Like:
• Hate when a female believes when people around her tell her she's crazy.
• How completely head in the clouds Abigail is
• Why did the author keep saying blond pilot ? Isn't he the only pilot on the island?
• Predictable story
Overall Thoughts: Before I had read this book I was two books into reading Peter Swanson. One book was 4 stars and one was 1 star. I'd say I'm not a huge fan of the author but I like to give 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th chances (5 chances if you are Riley Sager). My review is going to be scattered because I'm too lazy to put it into a cohesive review.
You know what I hate.... When a character does not know who to trust but the first person that relates to her they tell them everything. Like why? Keep it to yourself because that person you don't know might be the villain. Abigail never questions how "Scottie" a paid actor had the money to go to a rich persons island that seems like people have to be invited to get to it.
Abigail tells Scott she feels like she was rapped by him. What an insult to real woman what have been raped. She keeps saying it's rape because Scott lies to her about why he wanted to sleep with her. Just stop! The author tries to put this in our head.
There's also this ridiculous moment where she finds a bow and arrows. She suddenly remembers how to shoot it because she had a one day lesson with her friend and she shot off 20 arrows. Haha. Pulling back a bow is usually set for the person who has that upper strength. Saying that Abigail can pull back the same amount of weight as Bruce is just not possible. Not only is it the weight she's against but also now trying to do a straight shot.
The ending.... So it's an all men's cult. I don't understand why the rich men didn't try to cover their asses. The police already thought that Abigail was on drugs. They could have phoned the police knowing how long it would take her to get to land, if she would ever make it there. They could have said she killed her husband and the other people. When they got her from the boat she has a gun and it matches the bullet in the dude on the beach.
Final Thoughts: Predictable story with a lame ending that's what you'll get with this book. I'd probably just skip this one and read one of the other ones people say are better
IG|Blog
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It started off quite slowly and then escalated 0-100 pretty quickly. I didn't mind the twist but I think it should have happened a little earlier because there was so little explanation about it?? Like what the revenge plan really was? and how it all works/got started? which I feel like could've been interesting and an actual conversation about men "punishing" women and sexism and control etc and instead I was left pretty confused. But I think it was a quick read that you might like if you are new to thrillers.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm rounding up. Really this book is more of a 2.75.
What I can't over is how the truth of what was happening seemed so insane and convoluted and yet also predictable at the same time.
Bruce being involved seemed obvious immediately. "Scottie" being a plant, same. And when there was one other woman on the island she was either also being tested or part of it. I took a guess. I was right.
I'm not saying it's bad to be predictable. But like, at least more women would've made it slightly less obvious. It could've been a summer camp for misogynists to hunt women. (I really thought hunting women for sport was going to be part of it).
There was so much unnecessary backstory. Abigail's romantic history was totally unneeded. I kept thinking Ben Perez was going to be important given how many damn times he was mentioned.
And then there were things that just were loose ends that never got explained:
What the hell was that fake forest?
What was the importance of Silvanus? The Green Man? Why those symbols?
What were they going to do to Abigail and Jill if not kill them?
Also Abigail's sudden skills at archery and kayaking were just ridiculous.
But it was quick and not the worst twist I've ever read so....
Ps sometimes it seemed like Abigail's thought process was strange or awkward and I think it might've had to do with a male writer trying to articulate a woman's reasoning.
I'd also like to thank Booksandlala and Elliasreads for helping to articulate a lot of the issues I had with this book.
What I can't over is how the truth of what was happening seemed so insane and convoluted and yet also predictable at the same time.
Bruce being involved seemed obvious immediately. "Scottie" being a plant, same. And when there was one other woman on the island she was either also being tested or part of it. I took a guess. I was right.
I'm not saying it's bad to be predictable. But like, at least more women would've made it slightly less obvious. It could've been a summer camp for misogynists to hunt women. (I really thought hunting women for sport was going to be part of it).
There was so much unnecessary backstory. Abigail's romantic history was totally unneeded. I kept thinking Ben Perez was going to be important given how many damn times he was mentioned.
And then there were things that just were loose ends that never got explained:
What the hell was that fake forest?
What was the importance of Silvanus? The Green Man? Why those symbols?
What were they going to do to Abigail and Jill if not kill them?
Also Abigail's sudden skills at archery and kayaking were just ridiculous.
But it was quick and not the worst twist I've ever read so....
Ps sometimes it seemed like Abigail's thought process was strange or awkward and I think it might've had to do with a male writer trying to articulate a woman's reasoning.
I'd also like to thank Booksandlala and Elliasreads for helping to articulate a lot of the issues I had with this book.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I enjoy Mr Swanson's writing as usual; unfortunately, I found this one quite predictable. It could be adapted into some Halloween thriller for sure.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No