Honesty off the top: this is 100% the tale of two books. I’m glad I stuck with it, because even though it started slowly it picked up quite a bit in the middle and there was a mostly satisfying ending.
Right from the start I could tell that Genevieve was a character on edge. In the first chapter, she has received divorce papers. The story proceeds from there in current time…to a point.
After a major event (you can find out what that is from other reviews and blurbs), the author begins to jump around between both time and characters. For as many different perspectives there are the character’s voices were never confusing.
The timeframes caught me a couple of times, but nothing too major that distracted me.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I thought that the beginning of the book was much slower. There wasn’t a lot of action and what there was seemed formulaic and contrived in some parts.
But then at halfway through, things picked up, and the author deftly turned what I thought I knew (via the characters) on its ear. Turns out that nothing was really as it seemed – for the most part.
I thought from about 50% to 80%, pretty much the middle third of the book, was excellent. Secrets were revealed, motivations were explained…and yet there were still misunderstandings.
The one thing that didn’t work for me (entirely) was Gen’s personality. I mean, I get it and it does make sense in the bigger story and it actually gives more meaning to the certain events that occur.
But I didn’t feel like there was enough preliminary attention given to it. It’s a weird conundrum. It totally makes sense and is very logical for Gen’s behavior, but it came out of nowhere. Even as things are explained toward the end, it still felt too much it was just sprung on the reader.
I also thought that the end kind of limped together – I didn’t care for the resolution between Meg and Hawk. That seemed trite. And it all tied up a little too neatly.
That being said, that 30% toward the middle though made the rest of it all worthwhile. Definitely give this one a try!
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Author Bio:
Courtney Evan Tate is the nom de plume (and darker side) of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Courtney Cole. As Courtney Evan Tate, she is the author of Such Dark Things and I’ll Be Watching You. Courtney grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her husband and kids in Florida, where spends her days dreaming of new characters and storylines and surprising plot twists and writing them beneath rustling palm trees. Visit her on Facebook or at courtneycolewriters.com
