Day: August 12, 2022

I am a fan of Nicola Marsh, as she can write a good psych thriller. While The Ex Between Us has good bones, however, there are a few things that keep it from being one of her better books.

First the good.

The story unfolds from both Jo and Abi’s points of view, so we get two different perspectives of the action. It also unfolds in the present and in the past, as some chapters reflect the characters’ actions when they were still in school together.

I like the setup. The friendship between Abi and Jo is long-lasting even through all of their ups and downs. There is a testament to girl power in here somewhere – even as the reader learns that not everything is as it appears.

Abi’s profession is unique, although I wish there had been more of it. It was interesting and unique and would have been fun to explore it.

Mostly, I like that I was off-balance throughout the entire book. I was never quite sure where the author was going with anything and had several theories that changed each time new information was revealed. I never got it quite right.

That being said, the book does suffer in a few places.

Abi and Jo both consistently refer to the drama that they see other people bringing to them. They even laugh at old schoolmates as being stuck in high school “mean girl” mode. Yet the two of them often engage in the same behaviors.

There is a lot of repetition, especially from Jo. I thought that her memories of being younger would have a bigger impact on the current time. As it turns out, they end up being largely filler. There are opportunities in Jo’s unhappy past that could have made great psych thriller material. But they do not end up being relevant.

There is a strange, uneven tone to some parts of the story. Abi knows what is going on, but she doesn’t, but she has suspicions, so she takes steps to prove things, but she still doesn’t know…her actions are inconsistent.

I can’t say much about Jo without giving away major plot points. But she is unreliable as a narrator. Come to think of it, so is Abi for that matter. There are characters that appear briefly but never do much.

I guessed a couple of the plot twists early on, so I wasn’t surprised by some of the “big reveals.” However, the depths of the relationship that come to light, in the end, are interesting.

On a side note, I believe the author is Australian? There are several references using Australian terms (singlet for tank top, crisps for potato chips, turf you out instead of toss you out, etc). I question why the author chose to set the story in America.

There is nothing that particularly screams California in the setting, so it might have been easier to just set the action in Australia. Then these things wouldn’t jump out. However, the wording is distracting which does tend to take me out of the action of a book.

As I mentioned at the outset, I did not guess all of the twists. The author did have a few surprises that I did not expect. But the Australian terms used by characters from California and the uneven, even childish, behaviors of the main characters keep it from being truly amazing – which it had the potential to be.

The Ex Between Us was still interesting enough that I will eagerly await the next psych thriller from Nicola Marsh.

Author Bio

USA TODAY bestselling & multi-award winning author Nicola Marsh writes page-turning fiction to keep you up all night.

She has published 80 books, sold over 8 million copies worldwide and been translated into 25 languages.

She currently writes contemporary romance and domestic suspense. You can find some of her series romance under the pseudonym Nikki North.

A physiotherapist for 13 years, she now adores writing full time, raising her two dashing young heroes, sharing fine food with family and friends, barracking loudly for her beloved North Melbourne Kangaroos footy team, and her favourite, curling up with a good book!