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A review by laurenkd89
Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
4.0
Look at me, all ready to write this book off halfway through as yet another [b:The Last Mrs. Parrish|34043643|The Last Mrs. Parrish|Liv Constantine|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486501028l/34043643._SY75_.jpg|55049770], [b:The Photographer|52422207|The Photographer|Mary Dixie Carter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1605109151l/52422207._SY75_.jpg|77802809], [b:Single White Female|1180497|Single White Female|John Lutz|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1181685984l/1180497._SY75_.jpg|1168381] type thriller. Boy, am I glad I stuck with it! The last 20% of the book completely flips this trope on its head, changes your expectations, and delivers something different. I'm impressed.
Our main character, Cassie Woodson, is a temp lawyer working in the dungeon-like basement of a large NYC law firm, doing the most banal task a lawyer could imagine themselves doing: clicking through emails in a process of e-discovery for a firm's client. Working alongside other JDs who have somehow ended up here, Cassie hates her life. She's lonely, has absolutely no career prospects, and feels totally hollow. She wasn't always in this position - just a few years ago, Cassie was a rising star attorney at her corporate law firm, with a handsome, successful fellow lawyer boyfriend, a beautiful apartment, and life at her fingertips. But she alludes to an incident that occurred that basically ruined all of that, rendering her career-less and alone.
On another day clicking through these pointless emails related to a healthcare client, she comes across a personal email from one of the firm's partners, Forest Watts, to his wife, Annabelle Watts. Cassie is immediately struck by this email: its romance, its unconditional support, the perfection of their lives. In an instant, Cassie becomes obsessed with this couple. Handsome, successful Forest, beautiful, ethereal Annabelle, their amazing Bronxville mansion, and their charmed lives. She makes it her mission to know absolutely everything about them, and lucky her!, due to a mistake in the algorithm that selects emails to be reviewed, Forest's inbox appears in Cassie's queue basically every day.
After discovering that Forest's and Annabelle's relationship may not be as picture-perfect as it seems, Cassie comes up with a new mission: replace Annabelle. Using her arsenal of everything she knows about Annabelle, from her clothes to her workouts to her signature scent, she readies herself to become everything Forest wants.
The premise of this so far sounds exactly like other thrillers I've read in the past few years, where a lonely woman becomes obsessed with a life so far from her own and insists on becoming part of it. I don't hate those stories, but they're overplayed. I wish I could give a hint as to what changes in the latter half of this narrative to make it distinct from those, but part of the fun of getting there is not knowing where it's going to take you. All I can say is that it's unexpected and a great ride - I just wish it came a little earlier in the story. You really don't find out much until the tone changes around 85% of the way through.
Overall, this is a fun, new take on an old trope, and I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you to Ballantine for the ARC via Netgalley!
Our main character, Cassie Woodson, is a temp lawyer working in the dungeon-like basement of a large NYC law firm, doing the most banal task a lawyer could imagine themselves doing: clicking through emails in a process of e-discovery for a firm's client. Working alongside other JDs who have somehow ended up here, Cassie hates her life. She's lonely, has absolutely no career prospects, and feels totally hollow. She wasn't always in this position - just a few years ago, Cassie was a rising star attorney at her corporate law firm, with a handsome, successful fellow lawyer boyfriend, a beautiful apartment, and life at her fingertips. But she alludes to an incident that occurred that basically ruined all of that, rendering her career-less and alone.
On another day clicking through these pointless emails related to a healthcare client, she comes across a personal email from one of the firm's partners, Forest Watts, to his wife, Annabelle Watts. Cassie is immediately struck by this email: its romance, its unconditional support, the perfection of their lives. In an instant, Cassie becomes obsessed with this couple. Handsome, successful Forest, beautiful, ethereal Annabelle, their amazing Bronxville mansion, and their charmed lives. She makes it her mission to know absolutely everything about them, and lucky her!, due to a mistake in the algorithm that selects emails to be reviewed, Forest's inbox appears in Cassie's queue basically every day.
After discovering that Forest's and Annabelle's relationship may not be as picture-perfect as it seems, Cassie comes up with a new mission: replace Annabelle. Using her arsenal of everything she knows about Annabelle, from her clothes to her workouts to her signature scent, she readies herself to become everything Forest wants.
The premise of this so far sounds exactly like other thrillers I've read in the past few years, where a lonely woman becomes obsessed with a life so far from her own and insists on becoming part of it. I don't hate those stories, but they're overplayed. I wish I could give a hint as to what changes in the latter half of this narrative to make it distinct from those, but part of the fun of getting there is not knowing where it's going to take you. All I can say is that it's unexpected and a great ride - I just wish it came a little earlier in the story. You really don't find out much until the tone changes around 85% of the way through.
Overall, this is a fun, new take on an old trope, and I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you to Ballantine for the ARC via Netgalley!