How crazy can a story on infidelity be? Hmm, crazier than I expected, that's for sure.

Lillian leads a rather pedestrian life as a wife and a mother, until one day she meets a handsome stranger at a coffee shop. What follows is an affair filled with lies and deceit (aren't they all? But this one's got more than your usual), and Lillian's life slowly spins out of control. Suddenly, nothing is quite as it seems.

I always find Alessandra Torre's writing to be eminently readable and here's another demonstration of that. Lillian's story sucked me in, and I was drawn into her tale of infidelity and deception. There were many surprises along the way, and it all made for great fun.

However, the characters and their actions were quite over-the-top, which made the whole thing feel rather loony and unreal. Obviously, domestic thrillers aren't meant to resemble real life (hopefully), but this story feels even more out there than usual. And its heavy focus on love and infidelity made it at times more drama than thriller.

Still, it was an enjoyable way to pass the time, and I always look forward to more from Torre. If you've never read her though, I'd recommend starting with Every Last Secret or The Good Lie instead of this one.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

My heartfelt thanks for the copy that was provided for my honest and unbiased review.

Alessandra Torre, I applaud you ma'am for coming up with this crazy and twisty story.

The Bloody Heart Killer has taken six victims already. When his seventh victim escapes and points the finger at a local teacher as the serial killer, the police are satisfied. But Robert Kavin, the father of a deceased victim, doesn't believe it. So he asks Dr. Gwen Moore, a psychiatrist who specializes in treating killers, to step in and help. But the more she digs, the more questions she has. Because it seems everyone involved is hiding secrets. So what is the real truth?

What a compulsive read this turned out to be! At first, I was slightly confused by the book blurb. There seemed to be a lot of people and things going on, and I was worried it wouldn't grab me. But I didn't need to worry at all because I was hooked from the first page. And once I started, I couldn't put it down.

This is one of those stories that starts out with many threads, but they all slowly converge into a cohesive tale. I particularly enjoyed that this thriller is a little different from others I've read. The plot is unique and fresh, with interesting elements combining in ways I haven't seen before. And of course, the twists in the end felt surprising and thoroughly satisfying.

This is the second book I've read by Torre, and I've found both to be fun and unputdownable. At this point, there is no need to be coy anymore. I'm just going to go ahead and dump the rest of Torre's books onto my TBR stack posthaste.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Good news, everybody. It turns out I'm not broken and can indeed enjoy domestic thrillers. I was just waiting for a good one to cross my path, and one finally did.

Cat has what every woman in town wants: money, beauty, and social standing. She also has a successful and handsome husband who is devoted to her. Or at least that's what she thought, until a new neighbor moves in next door and starts working for William. Neena wants everything Cat has, and she'll do whatever it takes to get it all.

Talk about riveting. It took me all of ten pages before I was completely hooked. I couldn't put this book down. There was something so compelling about the story here, with these two women pretending to be friendly while scheming and backstabbing to get William's attention. You know what they say: keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

The level of insanity in here built up slowly, ratcheting up until I was good and ensnared in its fun. While what the two women did was rather wack, the reason this story worked for me is that the emotions behind their actions rang true. Torre deftly captures all the nuanced aspects of infidelity and temptation in a relationship, including the urge to stray for the person doing the cheating as well as the feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness for the spouse left in the wake of the destruction.

I did have one small quibble. The epilogue came across as a little odd to me. After everything was wrapped up and I thought the story had ended, it then continued some more. But the version of the people we got in the epilogue didn't really match emotionally with the people we'd come to know throughout the entire rest of the book. So that threw me off a bit. But I'm willing to overlook it for what was otherwise a thoroughly entertaining book.

This is everything I was hoping for when I cracked open the pages: a riotously good time with nasty characters doing questionable things, yet I was still sympathetic to them and happily cheered them on. After such a rare win for me with a domestic thriller, now I'm all excited to read more of the genre... or maybe not.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars