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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
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:
Yes
The way I gasped! If you know, you know…
This domestic thriller surprised me in the best way… with three smaller twists rather than one big one! The first two were solid and kept things moving, but that third one?!? That sealed the deal and made this a solid 4-star read for me. I listened to the audiobook and loved the dual POV from Kat and Cleo, especially with the dual timelines. Great pacing, easy to follow, and totally binge-worthy.
I’m not always the biggest fan of domestic thrillers, but this one definitely worked for me. Kimberly’s got a good thing going. I’ll be checking out more of her books for sure!
This domestic thriller surprised me in the best way… with three smaller twists rather than one big one! The first two were solid and kept things moving, but that third one?!? That sealed the deal and made this a solid 4-star read for me. I listened to the audiobook and loved the dual POV from Kat and Cleo, especially with the dual timelines. Great pacing, easy to follow, and totally binge-worthy.
I’m not always the biggest fan of domestic thrillers, but this one definitely worked for me. Kimberly’s got a good thing going. I’ll be checking out more of her books for sure!
I'm really starting to consider cancelling my BOTM subscription. So far my add-ons have been good enough to keep going, but I've not really liked the monthly picks I've chosen so far. This one wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, either. The characters all behaved in a weird, unnatural way except for the therapist. The lack of description was supposed to keep the readers guessing, but it just ended up making the whole thing really flat. The relationships were paper-thin and some of the reveals didn't feel like they were built up well enough. All of this could have been solved if the book was longer. It didn't even crack three hundred pages, and it becomes a weakness.
So let me get to the biggest negative for me: the lack of descriptions. The reader is introduced to Cleo's current boyfriend Will at the start of the book, but by the end I still couldn't get a mental picture of what he looked like. I admit I cheated and read the ending, and that only made it worse because the more things that were revealed, the more confused I got. I kept thinking "How old is this guy?!" There's a similar problem with the other characters. I just never had a great mental picture of what any of them looked like. There are even some characters that are entirely off-page, and it's just odd. I wish the book had developed things more.
I personally didn't feel endeared enough to any of the characters to care about them. Kat probably came the closest, but she suffered from lack of detail even in her own POV that it was hard to really feel connected to her. Cleo was not great, and neither was Aidan or any of the minor characters who came in and out of the narrative. The characters don't have to be good people or even likable, but they do have to be written in a way that the reader cares about them. And I just did not care. I think the only male character who came out marginally okay in this was maybe George, and only because he had dementia so his questionable actions were excusable. All the other male characters were truly awful people. I was disgusted with Aidan in particular for being an abuser and gaslighter and gold-digger. To the author's credit, there was no way he wasn't intentionally written to be the most hated character in the book outside the antagonist, but still. It would've been nice to have a single male character who was a decent human being. The bar is so low and none of them could pass it.
The behavior of the characters was so weird. There's Annie, for example, who is horrible to Cleo and there's never really an explanation to why. Somewhere near the end of the book, she says Cleo dumped her as friends, and Cleo retorts that they were twelve. So Annie's been holding a grudge for something that happened when they were twelve, and they're both college students now? When more about Annie and Cleo's relationship is revealed, Annie's antagonism makes even less sense. Then we have Aidan, who, as I said, was the absolute worst. But the thing that really got me was that Cleo asks him for $2000 dollars and he doesn't ask her what it's for. What parent does this? My parents and I were close and they trusted me, but I know if I asked them for that kind of money they'd still ask me what it was for. It really felt like Cleo wanted a free pass to act as much like an entitled brat as she wanted, possibly to the point of being allowed to get away with anything she did, without either of her parents raising a fuss. Girl, that is not how parenting works. The detective was being really weird, too. I have no idea why she was basically asking Cleo to do the detective work for her. I. E. asking Cleo to ask questions about things or getting passwords--like why would Cleo know her parents' passwords? Don't you have tech guys at the station for that? She was also terrible at her job for missing one of Kat's laptops. People were just acting weird because the plot needed them to, not because it was a normal way for a person to behave.
The ending was just odd. I don't know why the author chose that as the closing section, when it was pretty disconnected to the antagonist or why Kat was missing for so long. It left me feeling really unsatisfied and empty, and a little confused.
I like to end the book on positives. The only one I can think of is how the mother/daughter relationship was portrayed. I felt it was pretty realistic, even if it could've used more fleshing out. It's why Kat was the closest thing to a character I cared about--because to me, she was acting like a believable controlling mother. The book would've been better if we got to see more of the relationship's highs and lows throughout the story. There were some snippets, but they didn't feel like enough for me.
So let me get to the biggest negative for me: the lack of descriptions. The reader is introduced to Cleo's current boyfriend Will at the start of the book, but by the end I still couldn't get a mental picture of what he looked like. I admit I cheated and read the ending, and that only made it worse because the more things that were revealed, the more confused I got. I kept thinking "How old is this guy?!" There's a similar problem with the other characters. I just never had a great mental picture of what any of them looked like. There are even some characters that are entirely off-page, and it's just odd. I wish the book had developed things more.
I personally didn't feel endeared enough to any of the characters to care about them. Kat probably came the closest, but she suffered from lack of detail even in her own POV that it was hard to really feel connected to her. Cleo was not great, and neither was Aidan or any of the minor characters who came in and out of the narrative. The characters don't have to be good people or even likable, but they do have to be written in a way that the reader cares about them. And I just did not care. I think the only male character who came out marginally okay in this was maybe George, and only because he had dementia so his questionable actions were excusable. All the other male characters were truly awful people. I was disgusted with Aidan in particular for being an abuser and gaslighter and gold-digger. To the author's credit, there was no way he wasn't intentionally written to be the most hated character in the book outside the antagonist, but still. It would've been nice to have a single male character who was a decent human being. The bar is so low and none of them could pass it.
The behavior of the characters was so weird. There's Annie, for example, who is horrible to Cleo and there's never really an explanation to why. Somewhere near the end of the book, she says Cleo dumped her as friends, and Cleo retorts that they were twelve. So Annie's been holding a grudge for something that happened when they were twelve, and they're both college students now? When more about Annie and Cleo's relationship is revealed, Annie's antagonism makes even less sense. Then we have Aidan, who, as I said, was the absolute worst. But the thing that really got me was that Cleo asks him for $2000 dollars and he doesn't ask her what it's for. What parent does this? My parents and I were close and they trusted me, but I know if I asked them for that kind of money they'd still ask me what it was for. It really felt like Cleo wanted a free pass to act as much like an entitled brat as she wanted, possibly to the point of being allowed to get away with anything she did, without either of her parents raising a fuss. Girl, that is not how parenting works. The detective was being really weird, too. I have no idea why she was basically asking Cleo to do the detective work for her. I. E. asking Cleo to ask questions about things or getting passwords--like why would Cleo know her parents' passwords? Don't you have tech guys at the station for that? She was also terrible at her job for missing one of Kat's laptops. People were just acting weird because the plot needed them to, not because it was a normal way for a person to behave.
The ending was just odd. I don't know why the author chose that as the closing section, when it was pretty disconnected to the antagonist or why Kat was missing for so long. It left me feeling really unsatisfied and empty, and a little confused.
I like to end the book on positives. The only one I can think of is how the mother/daughter relationship was portrayed. I felt it was pretty realistic, even if it could've used more fleshing out. It's why Kat was the closest thing to a character I cared about--because to me, she was acting like a believable controlling mother. The book would've been better if we got to see more of the relationship's highs and lows throughout the story. There were some snippets, but they didn't feel like enough for me.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a good one. The characters were flawed but mostly likeable. At least, the reader understands why they do what they do. The story revolves around the search for a missing woman. Her husband, her daughter, and colleagues are involved in the search and uncover many secrets about each other and the missing woman.
The story was fast-paced with twists and turns. Told from various points of view, it was interesting to see how each character reacted to the same events. In addition, the author employed flashbacks to fill in the missing woman's background, adding yet more secrets to the mix.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers.
The story was fast-paced with twists and turns. Told from various points of view, it was interesting to see how each character reacted to the same events. In addition, the author employed flashbacks to fill in the missing woman's background, adding yet more secrets to the mix.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers.