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bookph1le's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
This was one of the most engrossing psychological thrillers I've read in some time. I was very much invested in the characters and in trying to unravel what was going on.
This was one of the most engrossing psychological thrillers I've read in some time. I was very much invested in the characters and in trying to unravel what was going on.
gammys_reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
What a intriguing legal thriller! I love a "who did it" book! It really shows you how different people's lives are behind closed doors. I really enjoyed it!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
vfreeman2000's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
litwithleigh's review against another edition
3.0
Writing: 4/5 | Plot: 3/5 | Ending: 3/5
SYNOPSIS
Lizzie the Lawyer is hired to defend her previous law school pal after he's accused of murdering his wife.
MY OPINION
Another physical TBR book bites the dust. This was my first from the author and I was quite impressed by the prose. She definitely knows her way around a keyword. While the pace is on the slower side, the storytelling is quite robust. You get sucked into the drama and spit out at the end. This is your typical 'did he or didn't he?' starring rich people behaving badly. I'm always a sucker for a lil court transcript, so I enjoyed the addition of these. Also the whole phishing school scandal added another layer of intrigue. Unfortunately I think because I read too many books, I found it pretty predictable, but there was one lil twist that definitely had me shook (see spoilers).
I think Amanda's character was very well-constructed. Unlike most rich women in thrillers, you can easily empathize with Amanda's identity crisis/impost syndrome struggle. And even better, the author demonstrates this through SHOWING not telling. For example, when Kerry comments on Amanda's fancy diamond earrings and she immediately feels embarrassed because she 'got it wrong again.' There's lots of a lil tidbits about Amanda trying to figure out the 'code' of Park Slope; how to dress in a way that shows you've got money but doesn't scream it. What's an appropriate gift to buy a friend that isn't stingy, but isn't OTT either? These scenarios show how Amanda feels at odd with her newfound wealth given the extreme poverty and trauma she experienced as a child.
I wanted to rate this higher than a 3, but the last 25% kinda goes west and there's some plot holes/questionable moments that collectively cannot be ignored. Let's get into it...
SPOILERS ALERT. SCROLL TO BOTTOM....
So the biggest plot hole is: who was calling Amanda in Cali? Let me back it up: We find out that for YEARS Amanda has been getting weird phone calls from her dad (or so she believes). But then PLOT TWIST, we find out that Amanda is lowkey but also highkey delusional and has been imagining that her dad and childhood bestie are still alive and in her life when in fact they died 10 years ago or so. So obviously it's not her dead dad calling her from the beyond. Eventually its revealed that Kreepy Kerry is the mysterious caller/flower-sender in New York... but we never find out who was hot line blinging her line in Cali.
Also, I felt like the author missed an opportunity with Amanda's twist. The fact she was straight up delusional created a slew of possible storylines, but unfortunately it was only contained to the mysterious phone calls.
The other issues aren't as big but unfortunately it establishes a pattern of questionable moments. Here are the big three:
1) Lizzie goes to the florist to see who sent Amanda the lilies and card. The owner tells her that her son Matthew handwrites the cards. Matthew comes out to identify the sender and says: "...He came in and asked me to make out the card like it was from a secret admirer. He thought she would recognize his handwriting." What?? LOL. If MATTHEW is writing the card, how would Amanda recognize his handwriting and her husband's??????
2) Unrealiable narrator for funsies. Ya'll know how much I hate these. Lizzie tells the reader that both her parents died when she was teen; she later reveals to a friend that she's a big lying liar pants and her dad was actually in prison. Huh??? Why did she need to lie TO THE READER about this? Again, if you want to lie to a friend to save face while the reader still knows the truth, that's fine. But lying to the reader about something so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things is annoying and unnecessary.
3) At the begging of the book, Lizzie goes to Zach's home to looks for some clues. She comes across what she thinks is an ovulation stick on the floor of his office. We later find out that it's actually a glucose testing strip that was dropped by Maude when she broke into their house the night of the big party. This is how we figure out that Maude was in da house. Kudos to the author by foreshadowing this reveal by stating that Maude had diabetes earlier in the book. However, my qualm is why tf would should be rocking a used glucose testing strip on her person like that??? Or are you saying during her lil escapade she stopped to test her glucose levels?? I mean???? Kinda strange and seemed like the author didn't know how else to reveal Maude had been in the house at the time of the murders.
Also, the twist with Zach using Lizzie was giving me Lincoln Lawyer.
SPOILERS DONE
All in all, a nice book to pass the afternoon with a lil more depth than other domestic 'thrillers', but needed some edits.
PROS
Pros: interesting case, Amanda's character nicely flushed out, some intrigue, enjoyed the phishing scandal, one of the twists shocked me
Cons: unreliable narrator for funsies, some questionable moments/plot holes, a lil predictable if you've read a lot of this genre
____________________________
For some sick reason, do you want to hear more of my nonsense? Check out my podcast: Novels & Nonsense streaming everywhere.
SYNOPSIS
Lizzie the Lawyer is hired to defend her previous law school pal after he's accused of murdering his wife.
MY OPINION
Another physical TBR book bites the dust. This was my first from the author and I was quite impressed by the prose. She definitely knows her way around a keyword. While the pace is on the slower side, the storytelling is quite robust. You get sucked into the drama and spit out at the end. This is your typical 'did he or didn't he?' starring rich people behaving badly. I'm always a sucker for a lil court transcript, so I enjoyed the addition of these. Also the whole phishing school scandal added another layer of intrigue. Unfortunately I think because I read too many books, I found it pretty predictable, but there was one lil twist that definitely had me shook (see spoilers).
I think Amanda's character was very well-constructed. Unlike most rich women in thrillers, you can easily empathize with Amanda's identity crisis/impost syndrome struggle. And even better, the author demonstrates this through SHOWING not telling. For example, when Kerry comments on Amanda's fancy diamond earrings and she immediately feels embarrassed because she 'got it wrong again.' There's lots of a lil tidbits about Amanda trying to figure out the 'code' of Park Slope; how to dress in a way that shows you've got money but doesn't scream it. What's an appropriate gift to buy a friend that isn't stingy, but isn't OTT either? These scenarios show how Amanda feels at odd with her newfound wealth given the extreme poverty and trauma she experienced as a child.
I wanted to rate this higher than a 3, but the last 25% kinda goes west and there's some plot holes/questionable moments that collectively cannot be ignored. Let's get into it...
SPOILERS ALERT. SCROLL TO BOTTOM....
So the biggest plot hole is: who was calling Amanda in Cali? Let me back it up: We find out that for YEARS Amanda has been getting weird phone calls from her dad (or so she believes). But then PLOT TWIST, we find out that Amanda is lowkey but also highkey delusional and has been imagining that her dad and childhood bestie are still alive and in her life when in fact they died 10 years ago or so. So obviously it's not her dead dad calling her from the beyond. Eventually its revealed that Kreepy Kerry is the mysterious caller/flower-sender in New York... but we never find out who was hot line blinging her line in Cali.
Also, I felt like the author missed an opportunity with Amanda's twist. The fact she was straight up delusional created a slew of possible storylines, but unfortunately it was only contained to the mysterious phone calls.
The other issues aren't as big but unfortunately it establishes a pattern of questionable moments. Here are the big three:
1) Lizzie goes to the florist to see who sent Amanda the lilies and card. The owner tells her that her son Matthew handwrites the cards. Matthew comes out to identify the sender and says: "...He came in and asked me to make out the card like it was from a secret admirer. He thought she would recognize his handwriting." What?? LOL. If MATTHEW is writing the card, how would Amanda recognize his handwriting and her husband's??????
2) Unrealiable narrator for funsies. Ya'll know how much I hate these. Lizzie tells the reader that both her parents died when she was teen; she later reveals to a friend that she's a big lying liar pants and her dad was actually in prison. Huh??? Why did she need to lie TO THE READER about this? Again, if you want to lie to a friend to save face while the reader still knows the truth, that's fine. But lying to the reader about something so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things is annoying and unnecessary.
3) At the begging of the book, Lizzie goes to Zach's home to looks for some clues. She comes across what she thinks is an ovulation stick on the floor of his office. We later find out that it's actually a glucose testing strip that was dropped by Maude when she broke into their house the night of the big party. This is how we figure out that Maude was in da house. Kudos to the author by foreshadowing this reveal by stating that Maude had diabetes earlier in the book. However, my qualm is why tf would should be rocking a used glucose testing strip on her person like that??? Or are you saying during her lil escapade she stopped to test her glucose levels?? I mean???? Kinda strange and seemed like the author didn't know how else to reveal Maude had been in the house at the time of the murders.
Also, the twist with Zach using Lizzie was giving me Lincoln Lawyer.
SPOILERS DONE
All in all, a nice book to pass the afternoon with a lil more depth than other domestic 'thrillers', but needed some edits.
PROS
Pros: interesting case, Amanda's character nicely flushed out, some intrigue, enjoyed the phishing scandal, one of the twists shocked me
Cons: unreliable narrator for funsies, some questionable moments/plot holes, a lil predictable if you've read a lot of this genre
____________________________
For some sick reason, do you want to hear more of my nonsense? Check out my podcast: Novels & Nonsense streaming everywhere.
manderzreadz's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book a lot! One of the “twists” was quite a stretch to believe, but other than thay a good, refreshing new plot line for a very popular genre!
jenhurst's review against another edition
4.0
I remember really liking Reconstructing Amelia and I’m happy to report my 2nd novel by this author did not ruin my memories of it. Very solid, fast paced and a really enjoyable book.
hdelfino's review against another edition
5.0
Hard to put this one down. Good thriller and fast paced story.
dowryofbooks's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 stars
Lizzie is working late one night at a new firm, a job she didn't particularly want but was forced to take because of her own marriage troubles, when she gets a call from Zach, an old law school friend. He's in Rikers Prison, about to be charged with the murder of his wife and he wants Lizzie to represent him for an unknown reason considering she doesn't meet the right criteria to defend in a murder trial.
There's present day chapters from Lizzie collecting evidence, trying to find the truth about what happened to Amanda and what kind of person Zach really is. All while trying to sort out her own complicated issues with her husband. We also get a look into what Amanda's life was like with chapters from the past leading up to the night of her violent murder. Lastly, we get snippets of Grand Jury Testimony interviews from different witnesses and documents from a company investigating the hack of personal information of the families of Brooklyn County Day, the school Amanda and her friends' children attend.
I love thrillers that feel like a big intriguing puzzle that get you using real brain power trying to put all the pieces together. This book definitely gets points for an intricate plot and unpredictability.
There was drama and twists all throughout and I never knew where exactly this book was going until right at the ending. I appreciate the authors use of the red herrings she sprinkled in to throw us off, they definitely worked on keeping me guessing. Every time I thought I knew what was about to happen, new information would be revealed that proved me wrong.
I also loved the legal perspective/drama of it all, especially coming from an author who is a law school graduate.
!! slightly spoilery section !!
The main thing that kept this book from a 5 star for me was that I feel like using mental illness/having the wife be delusional or crazy and making them unreliable narrators in thrillers is a little bit played out. This book would have been just as good without that being thrown in, there was enough intrigue already, in my opinion.
The parts about Lizzie and Sam's relationship were also kinda eh for me. I just didn't really care about Sam at all.
Highly recommend this thriller though!
"Forgiveness is a side effect of love."
“If you are going to be married, share the ups and downs of life. What other choice is there?”
Lizzie is working late one night at a new firm, a job she didn't particularly want but was forced to take because of her own marriage troubles, when she gets a call from Zach, an old law school friend. He's in Rikers Prison, about to be charged with the murder of his wife and he wants Lizzie to represent him for an unknown reason considering she doesn't meet the right criteria to defend in a murder trial.
There's present day chapters from Lizzie collecting evidence, trying to find the truth about what happened to Amanda and what kind of person Zach really is. All while trying to sort out her own complicated issues with her husband. We also get a look into what Amanda's life was like with chapters from the past leading up to the night of her violent murder. Lastly, we get snippets of Grand Jury Testimony interviews from different witnesses and documents from a company investigating the hack of personal information of the families of Brooklyn County Day, the school Amanda and her friends' children attend.
I love thrillers that feel like a big intriguing puzzle that get you using real brain power trying to put all the pieces together. This book definitely gets points for an intricate plot and unpredictability.
There was drama and twists all throughout and I never knew where exactly this book was going until right at the ending. I appreciate the authors use of the red herrings she sprinkled in to throw us off, they definitely worked on keeping me guessing. Every time I thought I knew what was about to happen, new information would be revealed that proved me wrong.
I also loved the legal perspective/drama of it all, especially coming from an author who is a law school graduate.
!! slightly spoilery section !!
The main thing that kept this book from a 5 star for me was that I feel like using mental illness/having the wife be delusional or crazy and making them unreliable narrators in thrillers is a little bit played out. This book would have been just as good without that being thrown in, there was enough intrigue already, in my opinion.
The parts about Lizzie and Sam's relationship were also kinda eh for me. I just didn't really care about Sam at all.
Highly recommend this thriller though!
mxmaxreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0