I guess this is another one of those books where I am apparently too picky. It got many great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads alike with buzzwords like, “Thrilling!” “Tense” “Suspenseful!” and “Keeps You Guessing Until the End!”
None of those things are true from my reading experience. At all. Ok, maybe it was a little tense…but not really. (To me) it was not thrilling, suspenseful nor did it keep me guessing until the end, in fact, I figured out the whole situation out in the first chapter, and I knew where it was going. It might’ve taken me two chapters, but I don’t think so. Now, do I feel like I have a fine superior intellect? Nope, I don’t. I rarely guess the ends of books (especially mysteries). This book just really seems to clearly set up the characters and the motions in a way that you’ve seen this book in movie form on Lifetime quite often. Let me break it down in the tropes for you:
A woman who has been doing IVF for a long time unsuccessfully isn’t believed because she’s “fragile due to the fact that she hasn’t conceived a child”. The proof she has that she’s being stalked disappears so easily that it’s an impossibility unless it’s Dr. Strange stalking her (hint: it is not).
Only mothers should be believed. (I don’t believe this, but the story seems to)
The woman (Corrine) who is having difficulty conceiving has a sister who has children. It’s clear that there is tension because of this…particularly because sister Ashley had a daughter when she was very young and it was unplanned.
There is a dead dad that both girls seemed to worship.
There is a living mother of both girls that both seem to not care about that much even though she raised them.
There is a boyfriend and also a husband in the story who act in very disappointing ways that get forgiven quite easily because people almost die.
Everyone almost dies because of a family secret.
I realize I didn’t really talk much about the story, there’s not much to tell. A woman gets stalked and terrorized, her sister is stalked/terrorized and her children are placed in extreme danger. Their mother is stalked and terrorized and almost killed. The men in the story are all trash. And the antagonist is fully stereotypically “crazy” but is also a goddamn mastermind despite no reason for this. I spent .99 cents on the book via Book Bub and for that, it was a fine read while I was taking kids to the dentist and other waiting room excitement. If you’re bored in a waiting room, you could do much worse…but I’m sure that you could do much better as well.
