Scan barcode
confettikate's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I would call this twist preduicy predictable yet juicy! I really enjoyed the characters and the story intertwined so well. While the end is up for slight debate it was great!
thephdivabooks's review
5.0
Love, status, money, power, affairs, voodoo, and murder set in the upper society of Savannah, Georgia in Sarah Pinborough’s latest mind-bending thriller, Dead to Her. I hate to say this, but I need to be a bit vague in this review because this one takes a direction that you won’t see coming from the outset! A must-read thriller this spring, and the perfect dark-side to love thriller for this Valentine’s Day!
This one is hard to not spoil, which is painful for me because I have so much to say! Set in Savannah, Georgia, Dead to Her shows that even the most regal of old southern money and society have their tawdry and salacious secrets. The book is told in four sections, and with each new section there is another twist that you won’t see coming and alters the course of the book. At halfway through, I had no idea where the book was going, and by the end I was delighted by the twisted way everything came together. The epilogue itself will leave your mind spinning!
Marcie Maddox is no longer the youngest and most beautiful second wife in the small close-knit wealthy society in Savannah. After an illicit affair, Marcie replaced Jason’s first wife and cemented herself in this world she doesn’t technically belong in. But Marcie does her best to fit in. She goes to church every Sunday, though it often bores her to tears. She lunches with the right wives, she dresses the right way, and she redecorates the expensive home Jason has just bought to have the right sort of look.
But when Jason’s boss brings home an even younger, more beautiful, and black wife from a trip to London, Marcie instantly goes on alert. Keisha is gorgeous and seems to have that magnetic quality that keeps men running. Marcie sees Jason flirting with Keisha. She doesn’t trust Keisha, and she’s starting to wonder if she trusts her husband.
As the dynamics among the characters heat up through the first half, I found myself unsure what direction it would take. Though the first half may seem a tad slower, the second half takes off at breakneck speed. By the end you won’t be able to put it down!
I loved the setting in Savannah’s high society. I did part of the book on audio and the narrator was fantastic. Those slow, wealthy southern drawls were perfect and really set the tone for the story. Marcie was a fascinating character, and a great lead. Keisha was less interesting to me at first, but what I love about the way Sarah Pinborough writes is that neither Marcie nor Keisha will end up being the stereotype you thought they were. The characters are full of surprises and trust me when I say there is much more to come from them than what you see at first.
And finally, the voodoo! This was a fun twist for me, adding an element of the supernatural to the story that I enjoyed. Like many of the characters of the book, I found myself believing (or at least not NOT believing) in the voodoo that wove throughout the story. It fit the setting perfectly and really enhanced the story. This is a fantastic book and one I recommend to those who like a little revenge and murder in high society!
Thank you to TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for my copy. Opinions are my own.
This one is hard to not spoil, which is painful for me because I have so much to say! Set in Savannah, Georgia, Dead to Her shows that even the most regal of old southern money and society have their tawdry and salacious secrets. The book is told in four sections, and with each new section there is another twist that you won’t see coming and alters the course of the book. At halfway through, I had no idea where the book was going, and by the end I was delighted by the twisted way everything came together. The epilogue itself will leave your mind spinning!
Marcie Maddox is no longer the youngest and most beautiful second wife in the small close-knit wealthy society in Savannah. After an illicit affair, Marcie replaced Jason’s first wife and cemented herself in this world she doesn’t technically belong in. But Marcie does her best to fit in. She goes to church every Sunday, though it often bores her to tears. She lunches with the right wives, she dresses the right way, and she redecorates the expensive home Jason has just bought to have the right sort of look.
But when Jason’s boss brings home an even younger, more beautiful, and black wife from a trip to London, Marcie instantly goes on alert. Keisha is gorgeous and seems to have that magnetic quality that keeps men running. Marcie sees Jason flirting with Keisha. She doesn’t trust Keisha, and she’s starting to wonder if she trusts her husband.
As the dynamics among the characters heat up through the first half, I found myself unsure what direction it would take. Though the first half may seem a tad slower, the second half takes off at breakneck speed. By the end you won’t be able to put it down!
I loved the setting in Savannah’s high society. I did part of the book on audio and the narrator was fantastic. Those slow, wealthy southern drawls were perfect and really set the tone for the story. Marcie was a fascinating character, and a great lead. Keisha was less interesting to me at first, but what I love about the way Sarah Pinborough writes is that neither Marcie nor Keisha will end up being the stereotype you thought they were. The characters are full of surprises and trust me when I say there is much more to come from them than what you see at first.
And finally, the voodoo! This was a fun twist for me, adding an element of the supernatural to the story that I enjoyed. Like many of the characters of the book, I found myself believing (or at least not NOT believing) in the voodoo that wove throughout the story. It fit the setting perfectly and really enhanced the story. This is a fantastic book and one I recommend to those who like a little revenge and murder in high society!
Thank you to TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for my copy. Opinions are my own.
shae_bentley's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
thebooktroup's review
3.0
Thank you NetGalley and publisher William Morrow books for a free galley in exchange for my honest review. With mysteries and thrillers, I like to read them without reading the synopsis beforehand. For me, it makes a more enjoyable experience when I go into it with absolutely no assumptions about the plot. This worked heavily in favor of the book this time... because I thought the plot was pretty superficial and absurd - old rich white people, trashy gold-digging marriages, too many uncomfortable sex scenes, weird voodoo... you get my drift. However, because I was reading blind, the unraveling of the many characters and their lies kept me on my toes and I finished it in less than a day. The story is told from two POVs but there are a LOT of players in this game... lies and backstory of scorned characters continually coming out of the woodwork, but none of them seemed fully fleshed out. I was rushing through to figure out who did what, but just felt disappointed in the end as the book itself felt rushed and undeveloped. The twists at the end were surprisingly clever, but unfortunately, for me, it was too little too late to salvage it. If you’re a Sarah Pinborough fan, you will probably love this book... if you’re a Liane Moriarty fan, don’t waste your time - this is nowhere in the realm of her Domestic Suspense genre.
novelvisits's review
1.0
The description of Dead to Her obviously interested me. I often like books about the rich behaving badly, and they definitely did that in Dead to Her, to the point of ridiculousness. It just wan’t the fun, delicious sort of bad behavior I find so satisfying. The story revolved around Marcie, a 35-year old second wife of a managing partner in a Savannah law firm. Marcie had a past that she’d hidden from everyone. A past that I didn’t think was all that surprising, but was what kept Marcie always a little fearful. Marcie, who’s husband, Jason, was nearly 20 years older than her, literally had NO friends her own age. She hung out exclusively with women old enough to be her mother and then some. She flip flopped on her feelings every single chapter. To me, she was a hot mess and not in a fun way. Then there was Keisha, the hot young new wife of Jason’s partner, William. William, 65 and a recent widower, surprised everyone after returning from a trip to London with Keisha, a gorgeous, very young black woman. Keisha was the only one in the story who wanted to have any fun, but she was also a bit crazy, with a ghost of a young boy haunting her life.
The book took place in the present, but to me felt more like a demented episode of Mad Men. Women spent their days gossiping, exercising, shopping, drinking or doing a little charity work, always being on hand at home to keep their husbands happy. In the end, everything about Dead to Her felt just a little bit too clichéd.
The book took place in the present, but to me felt more like a demented episode of Mad Men. Women spent their days gossiping, exercising, shopping, drinking or doing a little charity work, always being on hand at home to keep their husbands happy. In the end, everything about Dead to Her felt just a little bit too clichéd.
tami80469's review
4.0
To be honest, at first I found this book boring and didn’t care for any of the characters. But after Keisha‘s party the story picked up pace and it got way more interesting!
gryndlepuffpaste's review
2.0
It definitely picks up after the main crime happens but the first half is so boring