They invited me in. They shouldn’t have…
I knew the moment I met Daniel that I would marry him. As I meet his family for the first time, I say a silent prayer. It’s important that I make a good impression… and that they don’t discover why I’m really there.
Over a lavish family dinner, I take in their tight-lipped smiles. His mother watches my every move, his brother flirts dangerously with me and his sister maintains her thunderous expression as she carefully avoids any questions about the family. I can tell they’re all hiding something from me. And little do they know, I already know what it is.
You see, I’m not the only girl Daniel and his brother Elliott have brought back to meet their mother. Those other girls all disappeared. But I intend to make it out alive.
I’m going to uncover the secrets this perfect family home holds. And they’re going to regret ever welcoming me to the family.
Alright guys, this one was a stinker. Enough so that I am going to freely throw spoilers into this review. Stop reading now if you want to be disappointed by a badly written domestic thriller.
First off, despite the book jacket summary above, the first half of the book is first person perspective from a completely different woman who is ALSO meeting the Family as Daniel’s fiancé. The family members are all pretty much rich shitheads who make her feel uncomfortable. Daniel gaslights the HELL out of her about it. Their dad died when they were young, so Daniel, his brother, and his sister are all SUPER attached to their mom in a clearly unhealthy way. So you know, they are TOTALLY chill about Daniel bringing a fiancé he’s known for 6 months.
Yada yada yada, gas lighting, bad behavior, fiancé starts to fear for her safety, and then she appears to be murdered by an unknown. THEN her sister Claudia shows up as Daniel’s new fiancé, trying to find out why her sister disappeared. Except gasp! It turns out Daniel set this up with Claudia, because he wants to shake up his family so he can find out the truth behind his father’s death decades ago, and he did the same thing with OG sister. Except gasp! Daniel’s sister is a sociopath who doesn’t want other women in her brother’s lives! Except gasp! The mother killed the father over an illegitimate child who turns out to be their butler! But gasp! OG sis is ALSO a killing sociopath! But gasp! Daniel wants second sister to stay with him and be in a real relationship and she’s going to do it so he will provide legal help for OG sister. But gasp! Second sister is in cahoots with bastard child butler to take over the family company! Oh, also OG sister wasn’t killed, just held captive for some reason for months, but ends up arrested on account of the sociopathic murdering. No, this was in no way set up or earned.
If that paragraph felt ridiculous imagine reading the entire damn book. Also everyone in the books sucks. Also this family is super rich and powerful because they own….a single winery in Napa.
