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lynseyisreading's review
4.0
Making a Splash
Finally a New Adult novel with more to it than just angst, hormones and troubled pasts. Hoorah!
That's not to suggest Lily isn't full of angst, hormones and troubled past woes, of course. I mean, duh! Of course she is! But, for once, there's also a compelling murder mystery going on AS WELL, and this addition to the bog-standard, formulaic blah-fest that the NA genre is so quickly becoming, was very refreshing.
It's probably increasingly evident with every NA review I write that I'm getting burned out on this genre, and fast. Keep picking up the damn things, though, don't I? They always seem to promise so much and have the most alluring covers, but they're just all the same. There's one or two I've read that were so wonderful that a small seed of hope was planted that keeps tricking me into thinking I'm going to find another hidden gem any minute. *sigh* It's not happening. But...DOWN BY THE WATER, while not one those really great ones that had me sobbing all over my Kindle, was very good. Just in a different way.
We join Lily on the road to her new life, which involves driving right past the place where her old life fell apart. If there's a single stretch of road anywhere in the world that she would hate to break down on, it's the one that runs alongside Pelican Lake. I'm not going to spoil for you why that is since the author doesn't reveal it in the story right away, but it's a family tragedy that haunts her to this day.
But, as you probably guessed, she does break down, and has to be rescued by a Mr Ty Reilly who offers to give her a room for the night at his family's place - which then turns out to be the other last place on earth she ever wants to go! I mean, what are the chances? Oh, wait, this is fiction. Quite high, then.
Ty was delicious. He's a "good boy." A golden-haired hottie that doesn't have a bad bone in his delectable body. I prefer for a least one of the characters not to be messed up, usually. When they both are...well, sometimes that works if they help each other recover, but it means twice the angst, and there's only so much angst one can take. The balance here was good, though. Ty is a solid presence and a real rock for Lily as all her ghosts come back to haunt her.
As for Lily herself, she was smart, not too overly-dramatic, dry-humoured. I mean, she'd have to be with a sister like hers. Whew boy! Just wait until you meet her. You'd be pulling your hair out if you were her sibling. Yowzers.
The mystery was well put together and although I guessed the killer, I still enjoyed the reveal scene!
So all together a nice cast, a fairly sizzling romance, and a well-executed mystery. As another reviewer has pointed out, it doesn't end in the the most solid of conclusions; there could be more to come, or maybe you're supposed to just imagine a sweet future, but, yeah, it was a little ambiguous. Still enjoyed it, though!
4 Stars ★★★★
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Finally a New Adult novel with more to it than just angst, hormones and troubled pasts. Hoorah!
That's not to suggest Lily isn't full of angst, hormones and troubled past woes, of course. I mean, duh! Of course she is! But, for once, there's also a compelling murder mystery going on AS WELL, and this addition to the bog-standard, formulaic blah-fest that the NA genre is so quickly becoming, was very refreshing.
It's probably increasingly evident with every NA review I write that I'm getting burned out on this genre, and fast. Keep picking up the damn things, though, don't I? They always seem to promise so much and have the most alluring covers, but they're just all the same. There's one or two I've read that were so wonderful that a small seed of hope was planted that keeps tricking me into thinking I'm going to find another hidden gem any minute. *sigh* It's not happening. But...DOWN BY THE WATER, while not one those really great ones that had me sobbing all over my Kindle, was very good. Just in a different way.
We join Lily on the road to her new life, which involves driving right past the place where her old life fell apart. If there's a single stretch of road anywhere in the world that she would hate to break down on, it's the one that runs alongside Pelican Lake. I'm not going to spoil for you why that is since the author doesn't reveal it in the story right away, but it's a family tragedy that haunts her to this day.
But, as you probably guessed, she does break down, and has to be rescued by a Mr Ty Reilly who offers to give her a room for the night at his family's place - which then turns out to be the other last place on earth she ever wants to go! I mean, what are the chances? Oh, wait, this is fiction. Quite high, then.
Ty was delicious. He's a "good boy." A golden-haired hottie that doesn't have a bad bone in his delectable body. I prefer for a least one of the characters not to be messed up, usually. When they both are...well, sometimes that works if they help each other recover, but it means twice the angst, and there's only so much angst one can take. The balance here was good, though. Ty is a solid presence and a real rock for Lily as all her ghosts come back to haunt her.
As for Lily herself, she was smart, not too overly-dramatic, dry-humoured. I mean, she'd have to be with a sister like hers. Whew boy! Just wait until you meet her. You'd be pulling your hair out if you were her sibling. Yowzers.
The mystery was well put together and although I guessed the killer, I still enjoyed the reveal scene!
So all together a nice cast, a fairly sizzling romance, and a well-executed mystery. As another reviewer has pointed out, it doesn't end in the the most solid of conclusions; there could be more to come, or maybe you're supposed to just imagine a sweet future, but, yeah, it was a little ambiguous. Still enjoyed it, though!
4 Stars ★★★★
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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