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meganlee3001's review against another edition
5.0
Our main character Anna arrives to her husband's art studio one day, distraught following the death of one her students. Anna finds a pair of wine glasses drying by the sink and it confirms her fears that her husband is having an affair. Instead of telling her husband her fears, Anna goes home, cooks the dinner and walks her dog, in other words life as normal.
That is until things take a turn for the worst, the police want to talk her, she's receiving threatening messages, things are not going well for Anna.
To be honest, no review I give this book will do it justice. It is such an intricately put together plot with so many plot twists and surprises along the way.
Firstly I loved how the characters were written. I won't say I liked them all because we had some questionable people but how they were described and how each character was developed was so interesting.
I also thought the pacing of the story was perfect. The book gets into the action straight away, but it never slows down, always there are mini twists, reveals and still I never guessed the ending.
Barelli does an amazing job of describing and conveying emotions, throughout this book I felt dread for Anna, hope for her family, fear and triumph.
This was definitely 5 stars for me, and made Natalie Barelli a must buy author just from this one book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Natalie Barelli for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review!
That is until things take a turn for the worst, the police want to talk her, she's receiving threatening messages, things are not going well for Anna.
To be honest, no review I give this book will do it justice. It is such an intricately put together plot with so many plot twists and surprises along the way.
Firstly I loved how the characters were written. I won't say I liked them all because we had some questionable people but how they were described and how each character was developed was so interesting.
I also thought the pacing of the story was perfect. The book gets into the action straight away, but it never slows down, always there are mini twists, reveals and still I never guessed the ending.
Barelli does an amazing job of describing and conveying emotions, throughout this book I felt dread for Anna, hope for her family, fear and triumph.
This was definitely 5 stars for me, and made Natalie Barelli a must buy author just from this one book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Natalie Barelli for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review!
marilynw's review against another edition
4.0
Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli
This book was fun, hooked me hard, and even though I tried to go to bed, I ended up staying up way too late to finish it. Anna is a humdinger of a character. She's an extremely unreliable narrator and will lie at the drop of a hat. She also drinks way too much and will verbally vomit embarrassing truths that she should never tell anyone...she'll start babbling to friend or stranger, alike. She also just might attempt to go for a roll in bed or on the floor, with some man or other, because she's drunk too much or because she's angry. She has anger issues and emotional damage from being raised by a cold mom and distant father. She makes spontaneous horrible decisions and some of those decisions had me laughing. Usually I can't stand characters like Anna but the author did a great job with her and the story and I could not put the book down.
When the story starts, you can almost hear the birds chirping in the background. Life is perfect, her family is perfect, her marriage is perfect (if only her husband would walk the dog and fix the leaky sink), she's pretty sure she's going to be made a tenured professor. And then Anna gets to work and things go wrong and then get worse and everything Anna does is the wrong thing but half the time she thinks she can ignore the problems and they'll just go away. Anna can't focus, talks and laughs way too much (often she'll stop laughing and talking to realize that everyone is staring at her). Really, Anna is a mess and for good reason. Oh, and Anna is extremely paranoid and that paranoia rubbed off on me, so much so that the only ones I trusted in this book was her 14 year old daughter, her 10 year old son, and her cute French bulldog. Overall, this story was good fun.
Pub November 27, 2020
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.
This book was fun, hooked me hard, and even though I tried to go to bed, I ended up staying up way too late to finish it. Anna is a humdinger of a character. She's an extremely unreliable narrator and will lie at the drop of a hat. She also drinks way too much and will verbally vomit embarrassing truths that she should never tell anyone...she'll start babbling to friend or stranger, alike. She also just might attempt to go for a roll in bed or on the floor, with some man or other, because she's drunk too much or because she's angry. She has anger issues and emotional damage from being raised by a cold mom and distant father. She makes spontaneous horrible decisions and some of those decisions had me laughing. Usually I can't stand characters like Anna but the author did a great job with her and the story and I could not put the book down.
When the story starts, you can almost hear the birds chirping in the background. Life is perfect, her family is perfect, her marriage is perfect (if only her husband would walk the dog and fix the leaky sink), she's pretty sure she's going to be made a tenured professor. And then Anna gets to work and things go wrong and then get worse and everything Anna does is the wrong thing but half the time she thinks she can ignore the problems and they'll just go away. Anna can't focus, talks and laughs way too much (often she'll stop laughing and talking to realize that everyone is staring at her). Really, Anna is a mess and for good reason. Oh, and Anna is extremely paranoid and that paranoia rubbed off on me, so much so that the only ones I trusted in this book was her 14 year old daughter, her 10 year old son, and her cute French bulldog. Overall, this story was good fun.
Pub November 27, 2020
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.
coolcatbookreader's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a solid 3 stars for me until the end. I had anxiety through about 95% of it. There was a lot of unbelievable parts – and I didn’t care for the main character, Anna. I did like the ending and I also liked June, so I am upgrading it to a 4. Even at the end, I don’t know how I felt about Anna.
Emily Rankin is a terrific narrator.
Emily Rankin is a terrific narrator.
ayesharh1's review against another edition
5.0
Why doesn't this book have much more reads? It was amazing, unputdownable, and just great. I did not see the twist(s) coming. Oh my word. I started as an audiobook but I couldn't resist waiting for 9 hours so I conti used with an ebook instead. Best desicion ever. Love this book.
librarian_wenn's review against another edition
4.0
Well, that was a CRAZY ride. I liked it and I didn't see that ending coming.
whiskeywoman79's review against another edition
3.0
This is my 107th book of 2023
⭐⭐⭐/ 5
Mystery / Thriller / Phycological Thriller / Suspense
Well, I didn't see that ending coming!! I just don't feel that this is one of her better books. I was left wanting a lot from it but I didn't get. I'm coming to realize I don't love an unreliable narrator, the secondhand anxiety and embarrassment these books are able to give me is wild!! The story wasn't believable at times and there was way too much maths stuff I became disinterested. I think Anna's character was very well thought out, while I didn't personally like her, I would have loved to learn more about her time with Alex and less about some prize she was going for. Overall it was interesting but I think this author has better work out there.
⭐⭐⭐/ 5
Mystery / Thriller / Phycological Thriller / Suspense
Well, I didn't see that ending coming!! I just don't feel that this is one of her better books. I was left wanting a lot from it but I didn't get. I'm coming to realize I don't love an unreliable narrator, the secondhand anxiety and embarrassment these books are able to give me is wild!! The story wasn't believable at times and there was way too much maths stuff I became disinterested. I think Anna's character was very well thought out, while I didn't personally like her, I would have loved to learn more about her time with Alex and less about some prize she was going for. Overall it was interesting but I think this author has better work out there.
peneloperea's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing the audiobook of Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli in exchange for my honest review.
Um, WOW. This one started a little slow for me. In fact, at one point, I almost gave up, but I’m glad I kept going. Holy twists Batman!
We start by meeting Anna, a happily married mother of two, who is a math professor at a small university. Her world is perfect. Her husband is an artist who supports her busy schedule, while she works with a needy student who is attempting to solve and publish a mathematical proof. When her student suddenly dies right before her eyes, her world quickly begins to unravel and it becomes very apparent that Anna is an unreliable narrator with a drinking problem. I can’t decide if you’re supposed to feel bad for Anna, but most of the time I wanted to punch her or walk away. She’s in denial about her life and it’s obvious she needs help.
If you can get past the frustrating beginning of the book, I promise the payoff is great. AND the reason I bumped my 3 rating to 4. I thought I had this one figured out until all hell broke loose. I couldn’t put the last 20-25% of the book down. I was reading so fast, that I had to go back and check that I was reading things correctly.
This one is full of horrible characters, just BAD people, except for the kids, the adorable dog, and June! Thank you Barelli for JUNE. June brings light into this dark, messed-up world. I don’t know if I’d like this as much without June. That said, if you enjoy tense, dark, twisty, and chaotic stories, give Unfaithful a go. The sucker punch twist is worth the mediocre start.
Um, WOW. This one started a little slow for me. In fact, at one point, I almost gave up, but I’m glad I kept going. Holy twists Batman!
We start by meeting Anna, a happily married mother of two, who is a math professor at a small university. Her world is perfect. Her husband is an artist who supports her busy schedule, while she works with a needy student who is attempting to solve and publish a mathematical proof. When her student suddenly dies right before her eyes, her world quickly begins to unravel and it becomes very apparent that Anna is an unreliable narrator with a drinking problem. I can’t decide if you’re supposed to feel bad for Anna, but most of the time I wanted to punch her or walk away. She’s in denial about her life and it’s obvious she needs help.
If you can get past the frustrating beginning of the book, I promise the payoff is great. AND the reason I bumped my 3 rating to 4. I thought I had this one figured out until all hell broke loose. I couldn’t put the last 20-25% of the book down. I was reading so fast, that I had to go back and check that I was reading things correctly.
This one is full of horrible characters, just BAD people, except for the kids, the adorable dog, and June! Thank you Barelli for JUNE. June brings light into this dark, messed-up world. I don’t know if I’d like this as much without June. That said, if you enjoy tense, dark, twisty, and chaotic stories, give Unfaithful a go. The sucker punch twist is worth the mediocre start.
chloreadthat's review against another edition
3.0
- there’s so much going on at the beginning of the book and i had no clue where it was going.. a little over halfway is when it starts to pick up and things get interesting but then the twist happens and i’m like wtf? seriously? kind of anticlimactic
- every single character in this book was crazy except for the kids and June.
- my first read by this author and it wasn’t my favorite but i’ll keep her in mind in the future when i’m looking for a thriller!
- every single character in this book was crazy except for the kids and June.
- my first read by this author and it wasn’t my favorite but i’ll keep her in mind in the future when i’m looking for a thriller!
oliviagturner's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25