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A review by captwinghead
Until I Met Her by Natalie Barelli
5.0
** Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **
I adored this book!
I regret that it took me so long to get into it but it’s really a phenomenal story.
This novel follows Emma Fern, a shopkeep that’s in love with the works of successful crime novelist, Beatrice Johnson Greene. One day, Beatrice walks into Emma’s shop and befriends her with the intent of using her for her latest novel. Beatrice is burned out from writing crime novels, her last two weren’t very good, and she’s written a manuscript for a literary fiction novel. After her last attempt at switching genres bombed, she came up with a scheme to use someone as her decoy to sell the book and she thinks Emma is the perfect person.
I don’t know where to begin!
This book was such a pleasant surprise for me. I haven’t read a ton of crime fiction novels but I’ve seen quite a few movies so pretty much no plot can surprise me at this point. This is your typical jealous/rage murder plot with the adoring fan as the culprit. The gradual transition from shy, eager to please Emma to delusional, jealous, and paranoid Emma was beautifully done. It was paced perfectly and at no point did I feel like she’d simply flipped a switch into crazy town.
I knew what kind of demanding, parasitic person Beatrice was from the get go. (I love that the presumptuous demand of a fan’s time is called back later with Emma and Nicole, by the way). We’ve all seen this character before and it was still amazing to me that Emma couldn’t see it. The description of Emma’s tension and nerves around Beatrice meeting Jim was really well done, as well!
Jim. Ugh, I hated Jim. I wanted to feel some measure of sympathy for him in the end but I just couldn’t. He was a terrible husband and that was made more annoying by the fact that he seemed utterly realistic. You wanted to believe Beatrice’s remarks about him just being jealous of Emma’s success was part of Beatrice trying to worm her way into Emma’s life but I really don’t think they were. Jim was just a bad person. The fact that he used Emma’s money all the while knowing he was planning to divorce her was just despicable.
The only minor complaint I had was the obvious foreshadowing of the fated piece of carpet above the stairs. There was a little too much emphasis placed on it so it was obvious what would come later. Compared to the scene where Emma and Hannah switched shoes, it’s especially noticeable. I had no clue how the shoe size thing would come back and I found that call back to be very clever.
I just really loved this book! I can’t recommend it enough!
5 stars!
“Surely murder is a lot like having children, or getting a pet: it’s the first one that changes your life. After that, well, it’s just incremental.”
I adored this book!
I regret that it took me so long to get into it but it’s really a phenomenal story.
This novel follows Emma Fern, a shopkeep that’s in love with the works of successful crime novelist, Beatrice Johnson Greene. One day, Beatrice walks into Emma’s shop and befriends her with the intent of using her for her latest novel. Beatrice is burned out from writing crime novels, her last two weren’t very good, and she’s written a manuscript for a literary fiction novel. After her last attempt at switching genres bombed, she came up with a scheme to use someone as her decoy to sell the book and she thinks Emma is the perfect person.
I don’t know where to begin!
This book was such a pleasant surprise for me. I haven’t read a ton of crime fiction novels but I’ve seen quite a few movies so pretty much no plot can surprise me at this point. This is your typical jealous/rage murder plot with the adoring fan as the culprit. The gradual transition from shy, eager to please Emma to delusional, jealous, and paranoid Emma was beautifully done. It was paced perfectly and at no point did I feel like she’d simply flipped a switch into crazy town.
I knew what kind of demanding, parasitic person Beatrice was from the get go. (I love that the presumptuous demand of a fan’s time is called back later with Emma and Nicole, by the way). We’ve all seen this character before and it was still amazing to me that Emma couldn’t see it. The description of Emma’s tension and nerves around Beatrice meeting Jim was really well done, as well!
Jim. Ugh, I hated Jim. I wanted to feel some measure of sympathy for him in the end but I just couldn’t. He was a terrible husband and that was made more annoying by the fact that he seemed utterly realistic. You wanted to believe Beatrice’s remarks about him just being jealous of Emma’s success was part of Beatrice trying to worm her way into Emma’s life but I really don’t think they were. Jim was just a bad person. The fact that he used Emma’s money all the while knowing he was planning to divorce her was just despicable.
The only minor complaint I had was the obvious foreshadowing of the fated piece of carpet above the stairs. There was a little too much emphasis placed on it so it was obvious what would come later. Compared to the scene where Emma and Hannah switched shoes, it’s especially noticeable. I had no clue how the shoe size thing would come back and I found that call back to be very clever.
I just really loved this book! I can’t recommend it enough!
5 stars!