Kimberly Belle has been making a name for herself in psychological suspense fiction. Her imaginative books Three Days Missing , The Marriage Lie, and Dear Wife have all kept me intrigued and anxiously waiting for her next novel.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. See disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned.
At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two.
As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust—her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.
My Thoughts:
I gave this book 3/5 stars
This was a decent psychological suspense novel, but not the best book that I’ve read by Belle. Mostly because this one didn’t hold any major surprises for me. It was fairly straightforward without any good twists or intriguing turns of event.
I didn’t really connect with Charlotte, and I think that might have been the problem. If I would have been able to get to know her gradually and then the woman had been found in the lake, I could have felt more for her and been on her side. As it was, I thought Paul’s choices were pretty off-the-wall and her blanket acceptance (by lying for him when he took off) just didn’t sit right with me. I would have been hysterical had my husband done some of the things he did, but she acted pretty naively.
I did like her interactions with her brother, I think those were my favorite parts of the book how the two worked together and presented a united front.
Overall, I thought that the way the story was told was predictable. Not bad, but not memorable. If it would have been told through episodes of the podcast researching the old mystery, or given another sort of unique twist, I would have liked it better.
Kimberly Belle Social Media:
Author website: https://www.kimberlybellebooks.com/
Facebook: @KimberlyBelleBooks
Twitter: @KimberlySBelle
Instagram: @kimberlysbelle
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kimberlybelle
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