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A review by bibliophiles_elite
Leave the Lights On by Liv Andersson
3.0
Leave the Lights on by Liv Anderson
Crooked Lane Books
Publication: 17 October 2023
3 stars
Synopsis:
"Cape Morgan, Maine, is the utopian ideal for a charmed life, and Beatrice Wicker knows it. The multi-million-dollar house on the sea coast. The joint bank accounts. The safety and security that go along with being married to an esteemed architect and community leader. The scenic coastline, perfect for her ambitious plan to turn an abandoned asylum into an artists’ retreat. So what if her husband sneaks off to see his second family now and again? Beatrice is willing to look the other way. It’s simply the price she must pay to keep their life together.
Josh doesn’t realize that Beatrice knows about his other life. That’s just one of Beatrice’s secrets. And now, that truth—along with a deadly host of other secrets from the past—is about to upend their false paradise.
When there’s an explosion at the local elementary school playground, and a two-year-old boy is abducted, it doesn’t take Beatrice long to make the connection between the missing boy and her husband. It was the son from Josh’s other life who was kidnapped, and Josh can’t do anything about it without revealing the truth.
Helping Josh find his son would destroy the façade of her perfect marriage and could put more children’s’ lives in danger. But that’s not all. It would reveal her deeper secret: Beatrice Wicker is not who she claims to be."
A secret past, a secret family, kidnapping, and a former asylum. These were some great interest points for the plot throughout the story, but it didn’t help to do much for the story. They kind of fell flat. As if someone was in the middle of explaining something to you or telling you a story and they just stopped in the middle of it, and then jumped into a new topic.
The secret past. One thing I enjoyed about this book are the dual timelines. It is always interesting to see how a character is in their past compared to their present. The book is told from Beatrice's POV both in the present and past. It was interesting to learn about her past, but it had an abrupt ending and then there was nothing after that. The rest of the story remained in the present. While we do learn a bit more of what happened during present time, the information kind of seems like a throw away since she learned it second-hand.
The secret family. Beatrice's husband, Josh, has another family. She has known for years that he was seeing someone else and then had a baby. This plot element fell flat to me. While reading about the moments between Beatrice and Josh, she kept saying in her head that she knows. Knows about the other woman and the baby, but never says anything because it's better for her to be in this façade of a marriage then let her past be known. Yet, when Josh finds out that she knows, that moment is anticlimactic. I feel like that should have been the moment the story takes a turn, but it just didn’t rise to that.
Kidnapping. With the kidnapping included in the synopsis, I thought this would have had a bigger role in the story, but it seemed to be more of a passing thought rather than part of the plot.
Former asylum. Beatrice is working on taking this former asylum/Ross house, and is turning it into an artists' retreat. This wasn’t relevant to the story in any way other than giving the story the creepy vibe it needed or wanted.
If these plot points were more rounded out, it would have been a better story. It also may have given way to a better ending too. The ending itself was abrupt, it seemed unfinished. Overall, this was a great story.
Thank you, Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Crooked Lane Books
Publication: 17 October 2023
3 stars
Synopsis:
"Cape Morgan, Maine, is the utopian ideal for a charmed life, and Beatrice Wicker knows it. The multi-million-dollar house on the sea coast. The joint bank accounts. The safety and security that go along with being married to an esteemed architect and community leader. The scenic coastline, perfect for her ambitious plan to turn an abandoned asylum into an artists’ retreat. So what if her husband sneaks off to see his second family now and again? Beatrice is willing to look the other way. It’s simply the price she must pay to keep their life together.
Josh doesn’t realize that Beatrice knows about his other life. That’s just one of Beatrice’s secrets. And now, that truth—along with a deadly host of other secrets from the past—is about to upend their false paradise.
When there’s an explosion at the local elementary school playground, and a two-year-old boy is abducted, it doesn’t take Beatrice long to make the connection between the missing boy and her husband. It was the son from Josh’s other life who was kidnapped, and Josh can’t do anything about it without revealing the truth.
Helping Josh find his son would destroy the façade of her perfect marriage and could put more children’s’ lives in danger. But that’s not all. It would reveal her deeper secret: Beatrice Wicker is not who she claims to be."
A secret past, a secret family, kidnapping, and a former asylum. These were some great interest points for the plot throughout the story, but it didn’t help to do much for the story. They kind of fell flat. As if someone was in the middle of explaining something to you or telling you a story and they just stopped in the middle of it, and then jumped into a new topic.
The secret past. One thing I enjoyed about this book are the dual timelines. It is always interesting to see how a character is in their past compared to their present. The book is told from Beatrice's POV both in the present and past. It was interesting to learn about her past, but it had an abrupt ending and then there was nothing after that. The rest of the story remained in the present. While we do learn a bit more of what happened during present time, the information kind of seems like a throw away since she learned it second-hand.
The secret family. Beatrice's husband, Josh, has another family. She has known for years that he was seeing someone else and then had a baby. This plot element fell flat to me. While reading about the moments between Beatrice and Josh, she kept saying in her head that she knows. Knows about the other woman and the baby, but never says anything because it's better for her to be in this façade of a marriage then let her past be known. Yet, when Josh finds out that she knows, that moment is anticlimactic. I feel like that should have been the moment the story takes a turn, but it just didn’t rise to that.
Kidnapping. With the kidnapping included in the synopsis, I thought this would have had a bigger role in the story, but it seemed to be more of a passing thought rather than part of the plot.
Former asylum. Beatrice is working on taking this former asylum/Ross house, and is turning it into an artists' retreat. This wasn’t relevant to the story in any way other than giving the story the creepy vibe it needed or wanted.
If these plot points were more rounded out, it would have been a better story. It also may have given way to a better ending too. The ending itself was abrupt, it seemed unfinished. Overall, this was a great story.
Thank you, Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.