Big thanks to MIRA books and HarperCollins for providing me with a complimentary review copy and including me in this blog tour. All opinions are my own.
Summary:
Nora Holliday is not that kind of woman. Not the kind who has an illicit affair with a married man. But Josh Landon is everything Nora’s alcoholic husband isn’t. And now she and Josh are so infatuated, they can’t stay away from one another.
Abby Landon, Josh’s daughter, is home from college nursing a broken heart. She’s seeking solace, not more scandal, so when she catches her dad kissing Nora, she vows to take the homewrecker down.
And as for Abby’s mother and Josh’s wife, Gwen? To anyone on the outside looking in, the mother of two appears to be living the ideal suburban life.
Until she winds up dead.
The serene seaside town of Shoreham has always been the perfect place to raise a family—not somewhere housewives are brutally murdered. So who killed Gwen Landon, and how many twisted secrets will be exposed as the vindictive plot comes undone?
My Thoughts:
I gave this book 3 stars.
Overall a decent psychological thriller, if you can get past the unpalatable subject of cheating spouses. I’m not a big fan of infidelity stories, and this one tried a bit too hard to get the reader to accept it because the spouses of the cheaters were awful people.
We know from the beginning that Gwen dies, but we don’t know who did it or why.
Nora, married to a recovering alcoholic, connects with Gwen’s husband Josh, her kids’ orthodontist, while both attending conferences at the same hotel. They end up sleeping together, which is the beginning of an affair. Josh and Gwen’s college-age, very spoiled daughter Abby drops out of college and comes home, refusing to tell her parents what happened and after a bit of lip service, they just blandly allow her to lie around in bed all day and wallow. Gwen tries to get her to talk, get her to counseling, get her out of the house, but Abby refuses and Josh just wants to let her be to figure it out. One day on a walk (forced by Gwen) Abby discovers Josh and Nora kissing and then follows them to a hotel. The after effects and how different people find out and their reactions are what drive the plot forward.
The way this all plays out is interesting, but borders on being a bit over-dramatic and cliched. Of course, the cheaters have great reasons to cheat and it makes their spouses seem horrible for not accepting their actions. I just feel like in real life, things would not be so clear, there would be murkier justifications for the affair and it would make the book stronger to have it not be so black and white.
I did enjoy my reading of the novel, domestic thrillers are fascinating and it’s not totally clear until the end who exactly killed Gwen and why (although I did figure it out, it didn’t spoil the experience).
