Well, boo. This was not at all the story I thought I was signing up to read.

Looking at the blurb, it'd have you thinking this was some sort of romantic suspense. Here comes newlyweds Sam and Annie, moving to the suburbs, where Sam opens his own therapy practice with an almost exclusively female clientele. When one such patient turns out to want more than just doctor/patient privileges, that's when things start to go awry.

I'm all for a fun and sexy time, so I settled in and got ready to sink my teeth into this titillating tale. And initially, it was exactly what I wanted. Sam and Annie were both dynamic characters who leaped off the pages, and there were even some femme fatale vibes that added to the whole delicious atmosphere.

But then we reach a turning point early in the story, and it kind of went downhill from there. Without giving anything away, I'll say what started as one story quickly morphed into something completely different, and that different was exactly the sort of thing I don't enjoy. All the fun and all the sexy were sucked out of the story, and all that was left was the uncomfortable.

I pick up thrillers because I want to have a good time. Yes, I know there is murder and mayhem within, but I want to be entertained while reading whatever crazy shenanigans is going on. But if the story chooses to focus too much on the gore or the grit or the trauma, then it can become too unpleasant to still be enjoyable. And that's what happened here.

My other big issue is that all the reveals happened fairly early on. Then we are forced to sit through the entire latter half the book while it spells out in long form essentially what is already obvious to the reader. By that point, the story can only go one way, and I read through the last 150 pages just to be sure that indeed, it went that way.

Those two things put together made the second half of the book a complete snoozefest for me. My attention kept wandering, partly because I know nothing interesting will happen and partly because what's on the pages was just unpleasant to read.

I feel like this was such a bait and switch. I was promised fun and sexy, and instead I cringed my way through so much of it. I'm puzzled by all the love for this book, but it just goes to show that two readers can read the exact same thing and come away with completely different experiences. So don't let me dissuade you from giving it a try.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

I don't think I've read a domestic thriller this fun since Gone Girl. And I'll tell you why.

Domestic thrillers are hard to write. Usually, there's only two relevant characters, the guy and the gal. One of them did it (whatever "it" is). Is it him? Is it her? Or is it some crazy combination of them both? And once you've read a few, you kind of have the genre figured out and it starts to feel rather repetitive. So it's rare for a story that utilizes this technique to grab me. And this one did.

We have the gal, Rosie, who is desperate to find her soulmate, so desperate in fact that she's coming across as a little bit unhinged. When her bum heart is replaced by the heart of a dead woman, she sees the opportunity to make all her dreams come true. Now enters the guy. For wouldn't it just be fate if she could capture the love of the man whose dead wife's heart now beats in her chest? It sure would, as long as he is the dream man she thinks he is.

I was sucked in from the very first page. Every moment felt essential and interesting, there to entertain me and keep me guessing. Just when I think I've got it figured out, another revelation had me gasping and reconfiguring the puzzle pieces in my head.

But this is a book of two halves, for what starts out as a domestic thriller doesn't remain that way. About halfway through, it morphs into the most interesting of mysteries. Not only did the twist there take me by surprise, but so did the slight genre shift. It feels like a gutsy move, to start a book as one kind of thriller and end it on a different one.

None of the characters were truly likable, yet they were all intriguing. I cared about them and I wanted to know more even though they were all shades of crazy. You know, there's a fine line between kooky characters you want more of versus those you just don't care about. And this book got it exactly right.

I mean, could the events in this book actually happen in real life? Um, I sure hope not. Do you need to suspend all disbelief to read this? Yeah, absolutely. But if you can, I guarantee you'll be in for a very good time.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I can never resist a wedding thriller. Call me a romantic, but nothing sets my heart aflutter quite like the prospect of murder and mayhem on that special day. So I went into The Last One at the Wedding with high expectations. But unfortunately, it disappointed from pretty much beginning to end.

Frank hasn't spoken to his daughter Maggie in three years. So when he gets a phone call from her, he's rightfully thrilled. And he's even more so when he hears that she's getting married and wants him to walk her down the aisle. But when Frank arrives at the three-day wedding extravaganza, he starts to realize that all is not right.

The story is told from Frank's perspective, and honestly, probably my biggest problem is that I just never connected with him. While I don't always have to love and be chummy chummy with all my protagonists, I do have to understand them. And I just couldn't get there with Frank.

His paranoia reaches the level of making my eyes roll with practically every thought and every sentence. Sure, it eventually turns out that his paranoia is justified, for how else would we even have a story? But it didn't make reading his perspective any easier or any more fun.

But it's more than that. For some reason, Frank came off as extremely unlikable. Now a lot of authors write unlikable characters, and they have no bearing or may even add to my enjoyment of the story. But in this case, I have the uncomfortable feeling that Jason Rekulak may have accidentally made Frank unlikable, that he thought he was crafting a personable guy and instead created a weird and bumbling one.

There were so many moments when Frank would make an observation in his head or open his mouth to say something, and I would just cringe so hard. Like he saw a couple where the man is old and the woman is young and called them "unnatural, a freakish mutation of human biology." It felt so unnecessary and inappropriate, and I winced in embarrassment for him. And it was like this the whole way through.

I tell you, it's hard to enjoy a story when you're wincing and cringing at the main character's every thought. I should've been focused on the thrills, but instead I was mired in second-hand embarrassment.

But it wasn't just Frank. I felt like all the characters were slightly off, doing and saying things that no actual person would do and say in those situations. It's clear that each interaction was there to further a specific point in the plot line and they were shoehorned in to achieve that, no matter how awkward the result may be.

As for the twists, they were fine, although with the weird characterizations, it made it hard for me to really buy in to them. It felt like characters were just randomly assigned roles in the reveal, and when the time came, their personalities were bent and changed to further that goal.

So when we finally reached the end of the book, I understandably breathed a sigh of relief. But then I turned the page and there was a whole nother section left? I realize now that this is Rekulak's modus operandi. He likes to end his thrillers with a nice leisurely wrap-up, just to spell out in long form how everything works out for everyone, kind of like a HEA for thrillers. But there's a reason no one does them. I tolerated it for Hidden Pictures because I loved that story so much, but here, it just made a mediocre tale feel even longer.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

Bet you don't hear me say this a lot about thrillers, but here's a fun one, everybody!

Meredith McCall is a psychiatrist dealing with her own personal tragedy. In the midst of her grief and guilt, she can't help but be drawn to the one person who must understand how she feels. When she sees him one day on the street, she feels the impulse to follow him. But what starts out innocently enough soon turns into something more. And when he shows up in her office as a patient, Meredith knows it can't possibly be a coincidence. Can it?

I pretty much judge psychological thrillers by two criteria—how riveting they are and how much eye-rolling they induce in me. Obviously, I want maximum of the former while keeping the latter to a minimum. And this story totally ticks both boxes.

I think the word unputdownable gets thrown around a lot when it comes to books, but this one definitely fits the bill. In fact, I dare you to pick it up and then try to put it down. There's something so eminently readable and binge-worthy about this story, and I couldn't help but want to read just one more page.

In terms of twists, I think that gets made into a big deal with this genre. But whether you'll be surprised here will probably depend on a few things, namely how many other books of a similar vein you've read. There are usually only a few ways such a story can play out. And since I've read a bunch, I wasn't that surprised. But it didn't take anything away from the story for me and I enjoyed it nonetheless, regardless of the surprise element.

If you're going to read this book, it's probably best to go in blind as is the case with any book of this genre. But maybe the one thing to know to set expectations correctly is that under the big umbrella of psychological thrillers, this bends heavily towards romantic suspense. While it isn't a romance, it does have heavy sexual undertones and some spicy scenes, which totally makes sense since Vi Keeland is an author known first and foremost for her romance books. In fact, this looks to be her first foray into the thriller genre, and if it's anything to go by, I definitely can't wait for more.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Say your husband is missing and you're trying to find him. You reach out to someone you think has a connection to your husband. When they say, "I can explain," do you:

1. Calmly engage this person in conversation so you can learn what you need to know.

Or

2. Run out of there screaming like a lunatic.

If you picked 2, then congratulations. You are a shoo-in for a character in a domestic thriller, where everyone acts as crazy as possible, especially when the answer is right there.

Why do I let the hype get to me, especially when it comes to thrillers? They hardly ever live up to expectations, and most of them are so silly as to be ridiculous. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time I rolled my eyes while reading a thriller, I'd be a millionaire right now. But alas, all I have to show are bruised eyeballs.

What is there to say about this book that I haven't said a thousand times already? The premise is certainly captivating, and the start is strong. Then, slowly but surely, it devolves into nonsensical silliness, along with a heaping serving of the main female character acting ever more paranoid. And on top of that, there aren't even any good twists or surprises in here. The story unfolded pretty much as expected, which is the complete opposite of what a thriller should be.

Sorry if I sound bitter. I really had high hopes for this one, but obviously it didn't work out. On the plus side, I can safely put my copy in the donation pile and free up one precious spot on my bookshelf.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

She invited us all here for a reason. We're not just going to enjoy a holiday and then go home.

Every once in a while, I get the itch to pick up a psychological thriller. That exciting premise! The jaw-dropping twists and turns! And so I get my popcorn ready and prepare to be amazed.

But I should've known. Yes, this story was an entertaining diversion, but unfortunately it didn't really deliver in terms of surprises. And so yet again, my jaw remains firmly closed.

Four friends receive the invitation of a lifetime. The girl they used to bully in school is getting married, and she's inviting them to an all expenses paid holiday on a tropical island for her hen party. Of course these four women saw nothing strange or sinister about this request, and they accept the generous offer posthaste. But what happens when they arrive and things start to go wrong?

I found the beginning of this book riveting. But then as time went on, my attention started to flag. Part of the problem is that I had some trouble differentiating between the four women. They all have the same voice and the same self-centered vileness. And since the chapters alternate between each of their perspectives, I kept getting them and their secrets mixed up.

Also, not much happens for quite a while. There is the promise of secrets and impending doom, but nothing actually happens until more than halfway through. In the meantime, it's a lot of shallow drama and posturing, all of which isn't that exciting.

Then once we get to the twists and turns, I just wasn't surprised. Here's the problem—when there are only five people on the island, there's not that many ways this can go. Not to mention the beginning gives away part of the ending on purpose, and I've already seen similar things before in other mysteries. So all told, I saw every twist and turn in here coming from a mile away.

No doubt this was a decently fun way to spend a few hours. But how much you'll be surprised will depend on what you've seen before, and unfortunately for me, I've already seen it all.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

This was a pick for my Book of the Month box. Get your first book for $5 here.

I don't get it. So many readers loved this, but Daisy Darker has got to be one of the most boring thrillers I've ever read.

Why is this so boring, you ask? I'll tell you why. (Note: this is a bit of a rant, so if you loved it, please don't read this.)

The story is told via two timelines. One is in the present, where the family is gathered on the island, cut off from the rest of the world. The other is in the past, where Daisy tells the story of her life growing up. The present timeline is at least tolerable because things are happening (albeit slowly and feebly), but it's such a small part of the whole book. Instead, the majority is taken up by flashbacks of the past, and let me tell you, that was excruciating.

You know how there is always that one person at parties who corners you and tells meandering and pointless stories of mundane things that happened to them? That's the entire past timeline. We get to read about Daisy going to the beach, getting into tiffs with her sisters while filming home videos of each other, being "broken" constantly, and various other what-does-this-have-anything-to-do-with-the-story moments.

Some authors can take the most pedestrian of events and turn them into a riveting narrative. But that didn't happen here. Instead, we have the most mundane of events being presented as it it were the most exciting of nuggets. Daisy is jealous of her sisters.... oooh. There is a boy they all want... oooh. Their parents are mostly absent... oooh. I like family dysfunction as much as the next reader, but I'm not into family melodrama/nondrama.

Since Daisy is born with a heart condition, she repeatedly refers to herself as "broken." This is stated over and over throughout the story, in the most pitiful and woe-is-me way. Since I read the physical copy, I can't do a search for how many times the word "broken" is used, but it wouldn't surprise me if the answer is hundreds of times. At least that's the way it feels.

The writing style doesn't help either. It's got Feeney's trademark fortune cookie sayings, sprinkled throughout every page, as if she's dispensing wisdom that can only be gleamed if you pay enough attention.

The dead often seem to know more about living than those still alive.

The trouble with little white lies is that they sometimes grow up to become big dark ones.

Sometimes when people try too hard to be more than they are, they end up being less than they were.

Ok, I'll give you that they sound good. But what do they mean? I sure don't know.

And when we get to the big twist, I'm left disappointed. Part of it feels like a cop-out and the rest neither made sense nor surprised me. It's clear this was meant to take inspiration from And Then There Were None, and the author worked hard to shoehorn that association in. But it just ended up feeling forced.

Every time I cracked open this book, my mind wandered. I thought of chores I had to do and groceries I had to buy. When I'd rather think about menial tasks than focus on a story, I know it has missed its mark.

No doubt the premise here was exciting and that's why I got suckered in. But the execution was so painfully dull that I'm just glad I made it through. 

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

Let me say right off the bat, there is no doubt the premise of this book is crazy good. Liv wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea how she got there. Covering her hands and arms are cryptic messages in her own handwriting, reminding her to "stay awake" and "trust no one." She goes to her apartment, only to find strangers living there. And on top of all that, someone sinister is stalking her and the police want her for a murder.

Ahh! Are you getting vibes of Memento? Yeah, me too.

So when the setup is that amazing and it seems to build into something potentially mind-blowing, the question becomes, does it actually deliver? And the answer is yes and no.

On the plus side, I found this to be a quick and easy read. I felt compelled to see where it was going, which definitely kept me turning the pages. The most enjoyable parts were the police investigation, with detective Halliday being the real highlight of the whole thing.

But the majority of this story follows Liv, and that's where it fell short for me. Liv is your standard heroine of psychological thrillers, pill-popping (in this case, caffeine), paranoid, and just plain dumb in all of her thoughts and actions. Every time she meets someone who could actually help her, she runs away. My eyes definitely got a workout from all that rolling.

If you ever lose your memory, don't do what Liv did. Don't wander around aimlessly with no sleep, acting hysterical and writing cryptic messages to yourself. Instead, leave actually useful information for yourself, or better yet, go to the nearest hospital and get checked out.

Still, I did think the story came together nicely in the end. As for that all-important mystery/twist, it was fine. My jaw didn't drop or anything, but it was enjoyable enough.

This isn't Memento, that's for sure. But Stay Awake ended up being a decently entertaining way to while away a few hours.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Meh. The Paris Apartment feels mostly like melodramatic dithering, but I guess I was somewhat entertained.

Jess needs a place to stay, so she hits up her half brother. When she arrives at his residence, she finds a fancy building with questionable tenants, but no sign of Ben. As she digs deeper and asks around, she starts to realize that all is not as it seems at this apartment building. Dun dun dun!

Having read a few of Lucy Foley's books, I feel like she's really good at building up anticipation. Every moment in this book is so dramatic, with dark shadows and scary sounds at every turn. That's all good, but after a while, it gets to be a bit much, you know? There's no natural ebb and flow in the tone. It's just all high anticipation, all the time.

It doesn't help that every character acts so high-strung and paranoid, even when nothing is happening.

I watched as Nick's friend plucked a sprig of rosemary from one of the bushes, tearing hard to wrench it free. How he crushed it to his nose, inhaled. There was something presumptuous about the gesture. It felt like an act of vandalism.

What the heck. Who attacks a bush just to smell it? And who watches someone do that and calls it "presumptuous"? Reader, if you're able to keep from rolling your eyes, you're a better person than I am.

For a book advertised as a mystery, it sure doesn't feel like one. Jess doesn't so much suss out clues as she bumbles around, pilfering stuff, sticking her foot in her mouth, and just generally acts like an incompetent idiot. The other characters are all unlikable too, though each in their own way. And everyone is smelly, with stale breath and excessive sweat.

After all that exaggerated writing, do the twists deliver? Eh, they seem pretty standard to me for the genre. I wasn't really surprised or shocked. In fact, it feels more ridiculous than anything else.

Still, I was compelled to turn the pages, so I must've been somewhat entertained by all the antics.

Readaraoo Rating: 3 stars

When it comes to dark and compelling psychological thrillers, The Patient's Secret hits all the right notes.

Lily Bradley has what seems to be an enviable life, living in affluent Story Cove with her loving husband Tom and two wonderfully unruly children. But she's been on edge lately, feeling like she's being followed and her husband is keeping secrets from her. When a newcomer is found dead at the base of the cliffs and Tom is the one who finds her, Lily realizes the careful life she's cultivated may just be an illusion.

This was an atmospheric read, and I found it to be riveting. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. While it's a much-trodden genre, there were elements in here I've never seen before, which made the whole thing feel fresh and unusual. I wasn't exactly sure where it was going, and there were plenty of twists and turns to sustain my interests throughout.

For me, this struck a really good balance between the psychological and the thriller. Normally, my complaint with this genre is that we spend too much time in the character's head with their fears and paranoia, and it all turns silly after a while. And while we do have some of that here, it wasn't overdone. And to counterbalance it, we get to follow the investigation as it unfolds and secrets are revealed, which was plenty satisfying.

I first started reading Loreth Anne White with her book In the Dark, and I find her offerings to be entertaining and gripping. She takes an oversaturated genre and adds something new to it. I'll definitely continue to seek her out.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

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

The Night She Disappeared starts off as a slow burn with a chilling atmosphere and multiple points of view, which soon all converge into a gripping and unputdownable story.

Young parents Tallulah and Zach are thrilled to have the chance to enjoy a rare night out on the town. But when the couple still hasn't returned by the next morning, Tallulah's mother Kim is rightfully worried. But with no clues, the cases goes cold, and a year goes by. When Sophie, a mystery writer, moves in nearby, and clues start to surface, it seems like Kim will finally get the answers she's been searching for.

This story starts slowly, partly because of the three points of view which take place across different timelines. I generally don't prefer more than two in one story, so it speaks to Jewell's ability as an author to keep me engaged. She keeps the chapters short and they always end on a tantalizing point, so I feel compelled to read just a little bit more.

One of the hallmarks of Lisa Jewell is her characters. They always seem solid and fully-fleshed out, which automatically makes the story feel more real. There's plenty of time taken to get to know and understand them. As a result, I end up caring for them and becoming emotionally invested in the story.

Then, once everything starts to come together and we get hit with twist after twist, I just can't look away. I read a lot of books in this genre, so it's pretty hard to surprise me. And the way the twists are laid out, you do see them coming from a few chapters before. But there was one twist in there that got me good, and it was a delightful surprise.

Reading Lisa Jewell always feels like a treat. She takes a fairly well-trodden genre and adds a depth of character and storytelling that takes it to another level. Throw in her fun twists and turns, and I'm riveted every time.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

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

The Family Upstairs kicks off with Libby receiving word on her 25th birthday that her birth parents have left her an abandoned mansion in a wealthy part of London. She hopes this will lead to answers about who she is and where she comes from. In a second storyline, we meet Lucy, a middle-aged mother of two struggling to get by and avoid homelessness. And in a third storyline, we follow one of the mansion's former occupants as they reminisce about what happened in there all those years ago.

Right off the bat, I found this story to be a little hard to follow. It felt somewhat chaotic, probably because we are following three separate storylines across two different time periods. For the first third of it, I had no idea where the narrative was going. It doesn't help that this is an odd story, and it only gets weirder as it goes along.

But then the story starts to crystalize, and the real fun begins. There were plenty of twists, though I wouldn't say any of them particularly surprised me. For each one, there were plenty of leadup with clues about the direction it's going, so by the time the twist shows up, there wasn't much shock factor. But it's still entertaining to follow along as the story veers from one odd development to another.

I couldn't put this story down, turning the pages as fast as I could, even though I was taken along for an odd journey that I wasn't really expecting. It really goes to show that Lisa Jewell is a consummate writer of this genre, and she knows how to deliver a compulsive read, even one whose story isn't quite to my taste. Had I known what this was about ahead of time, I'm not sure I would've picked it up, but I don't regret reading it. It entertained me and was great fun, even though it ended up being extremely strange. 

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Whenever I come across a murder mystery on an island, I just can't resist. The setting is positively atmospheric and who doesn't love a good locked-island mystery? There's something immensely appealing about a small group of people being stuck together with no escape while knowing that a murderer is among them.

(And it takes place at a wedding! I love weddings!)

So I put on my detective hat and get ready to puzzle this out, with much glee. But here is the first problem: not only do we not know the murderer, we don't know who the victim is either. So right off the bat, some of the fun is taken out of the whole thing.

The story also suffers from a few other issues that seem to plague most books of this genre. The characters are, unfortunately, all unlikable and dumb. They have trouble saying simple things to each other that would clear up much confusion. They make mistake after mistake, and then ruminate at length about each. And they all drink themselves into stupors at the first sign of discomfort, instead of just... talking.

There is so much buildup for this story. For 200+ pages, we are treated to nothing but petty drama between all the participants. There is a constant feeling of anticipation and foreboding, as if something bad is going to happen, but nothing actually does. It was exhausting. And when we finally get to the good stuff, the twists are fine, but they weren't surprising. I figured this was the direction the story was going, and it indeed went there.

Overall, it was a passable way to spend a few hours, but it doesn't quite rise above all the other modern thrillers in this over-saturated genre. It's just if you're going to build up an entire story on nothing but anticipation and petty drama, when it finally gets to the payoff, it better blow me away. And this just didn't.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Seven friends meet up to ring in the New Year together at a remote wilderness lodge. Two days later, one of them is dead. Told in alternating perspectives from three of the friends, as well as in alternating timelines, one leading up to the fateful event and one in the immediate aftermath, it begs the questions: What happened? Who was killed and why?

And here is essentially the first issue with The Hunting Party: we don't know who the victim is. Even in the aftermath narrative, the identity of the victim is obfuscated. We don't even know their gender until quite late in the book. And withholding this information takes all the fun out of it. It's no longer a mystery to be solved so much as a contrived tale, manipulated such that as much of the information is withheld as possible.

Reading this book gave me anticipation fatigue. There was a complete dearth of action and information. Sure, anticipation adds suspense and fun, but only for a little while. After that, I need something more: clues, reveals, investigation progress, anything. Otherwise, my brain starts to feel fried out from all that imminent expectation. It becomes overloaded and then turns to exhaustion.

In the meantime, we are treated to eye-rolling drama from the most unlikable group of friends I have ever come across. How these people, who are so snide and awkward around each other, are supposedly friends for decades really belies plausibility. They treat each other with disdain and open hostility. Who needs enemies when you have friends like that?

And the book is full of descriptions of the remote wilderness, with its snow and trees and mountains and silence. There was a point in the middle of the book, when nothing but petty drama and bleak terrain filled the pages, that I was so bored it was hard to make myself keep reading.

Eventually the book did come together, and the last bit was enjoyable. But I wish it was a more even reading experience throughout. I can't help but feel this was a bit of a missed opportunity, that such a promising premise and entertaining story had been written in such a way as to take the excitement and fun out of the majority of the book.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Watching You might just be my favorite Lisa Jewell!

We start out with a murder in the picturesque neighborhood of Melville Heights. But who was the victim? And who is the murderer? In this little town, everyone has secrets and snooping on your neighbors is practically the town's official pastime.

I find Lisa Jewell's writing to be riveting. Not everyone can take a story about—let's be honest—mostly unlikable, morally-deficient, creepy characters and turn it into something compelling, but she sure does. It grabbed me right from the start, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

One of the reasons I'm a big fan of Jewell is that she takes character-driven mysteries and brings it to another level. I can really sink my teeth into her characters. They feel fleshed-out and fully-formed, so you get invested and it's satisfying to follow along and see where it all ends up.

This story is told via a few different points of view. While I'm not normally a fan of too many different narrators, it works in this case. We get to see different perspectives from each of the characters, so we're always on our toes trying to figure what the truth really is.

There were a few twists and turns in this book, and some even managed to surprise me. But I don't want to talk that up. What surprises one reader doesn't always work for another. This book is worth it for the journey alone. But if it does manage to catch you off guard with a few of the twists, well that's just the icing on the cake.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

I Found You follows three convergent story lines. Alice finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house with no memory of himself or how he got there, and invites him in. Lily is a newlywed who grows anxious when her husband does not return home after work one day. And two decades ago, teenagers Gray and Kirsty are holidaying with their parents when a troubled young man starts paying attention to Kirsty.

This book starts off so strong. Even with three story lines, it seamlessly introduced all the characters and drew me in immediately. Lisa Jewell has a real knack for crafting interesting characters that feel real and believable, and I find her writing style to be engrossing.

But for me, the story started feeling flat towards the middle when the characters began to behave oddly. Alice clings to the man with amnesia. Her daughter had to be the voice of reason and tell her that if she had found a dog, she would have done everything she could to reunite it with its family, but she is trying to keep this man from returning to his regular life. Gray and Kirsty did not trust or even like the young man, but they keep agreeing to go hang out with him. And Lily is self-centered, demanding that everyone just drop what they are doing to help her. It's frustrating to read about people so lacking in awareness.

Another issue is that the climax of the book is dragged out, page by page, with lots of interspersed story lines in between. When you stretch an emotionally charged scene out over a hundred pages, a little bit here, then a little bit later, it loses a lot of its momentum. At some point, I just don't care anymore and want this sort of emotional manipulation to be over and for the story to move on.

The twists in here are fine, though not completely surprising, but I don't mind that. The ending does wrap up everything, though maybe a little too neatly. Everyone gets a happy ending, which feels a bit contrived. And for how long the middle part of the story was stretched out, the wrap up feels rushed to me.

In the end, this was a middle-of-the-road read for me. I enjoyed Lisa Jewell's writing and the three converging story lines were interesting, but I found the second half of the book to be too drawn out and contrived for me to totally buy-in.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

In Then She Was Gone, Ellie is the all around golden girl when she disappears without a trace at the age of fifteen. She leaves behind her adoring family, and in particular her mom Laurel, who falls apart with shock and grief following her disappearance. Ten years later, Laurel meets a charming man at a cafe, but his daughter bears the most striking resemblance to Ellie. What follows is the slow unraveling of what really happened to Ellie.

For me, the characters are what really shines and puts this book a cut above the rest in the crowded field of domestic thrillers. The characters are complex and interesting, going through tough times, but learning and emerging stronger. Whereas I find most domestic thrillers to be rather over-the-top, with paranoid characters doing unfathomable things and scaring themselves silly, the characters in this book--their actions and their behaviors--make sense to me. Laurel, in particular, keeps her head and acts calmly, even when evidence starts to appear that some things may not be what they appear. These are characters I can relate to and cheer for.

I did find the actual mystery in this book to be its weakest part. I pretty much figured out the gist of where the book was going early on. But to the honest, that didn't diminish my enjoyment of it. It was still interesting to read the details and see why things happened the way they did. And not focusing on the big mystery allowed me to enjoy the story more for what it was than if I were turning the pages solely for the big reveal, if that makes sense.

I found this book to be riveting and unputdownable from beginning to end. Jewell weaves the most compelling tale with likable and strong characters. This is my first read by Lisa Jewell, and I look forward to checking out more of her books

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars