Firstly I'd like to thank Readers First for sending me a copy of this book for review; this in no way influences my views or opinions.
I read the first chapter of this book on Readers First and was instantly hooked and thought this was going to be a real modern-day thriller about the dangers of online dating... what I got instead was a confused family drama that was not thrilling at all. I honestly felt quite let down and misled by this book. It's like the author wrote the blurb and then went a completely different way but forgot to update the blurb; they just don't match.
This book is posed at being about the horrors and dangers of online dating, but really it seemed more about the best-friends abusive husband and the mother's reinvigorated love life. Yes online dating plays a part, but it's like a blink and you'll miss it kind of thing. Paige does some online dating, meets one bloke and arranges to meet another (the murderer) but constantly cancels on him. That's it. That's the online dating. Yes we get some chapters from said murderers POV about all the other dates he's been on (with only one woman being smart enough to take some caution before going back to his flat on the first date), but we barely get any of that murder/thriller action with him stalking and setting the victims up. I think this book would have been more interesting if told purely from his POV and without the other side stories. They made it more of a family drama than a thriller.
There's also no mystery to this book; you know who the murderer is and you know he wants to kill Paige. It's painfully obvious he isn't going to end up doing that and the whole book just feels a bit like a soap opera. The opening chapter was so strong and it just goes downhill for me from there and that ending is honestly awful. We skip ALL of the potential mystery and intrigue, and jump to an unspecified amount of time later and it just wraps up. WHAT IS THE POINT. The author makes the mistake of literally skipping every action scene and jumping to the aftermath; Heather going to meet Mr Right Now or Chloe getting shot; it ruins the narrative for the audience because you can't react to anything.
None of the characters are overly likeable; apart from perhaps Joan who is entertaining at times, the men are all painted to be devils including Paige's Uncle who had the gall not to die instead of his twin brother. Like Paige hates him for not being dead.
If this was presented as being a soap opera/family drama it would probably fair a lot better because it's definitely not a mystery. One of my biggest pet peeves is misleading books... not sure i'd read any of the authors other books.
I read the first chapter of this book on Readers First and was instantly hooked and thought this was going to be a real modern-day thriller about the dangers of online dating... what I got instead was a confused family drama that was not thrilling at all. I honestly felt quite let down and misled by this book. It's like the author wrote the blurb and then went a completely different way but forgot to update the blurb; they just don't match.
This book is posed at being about the horrors and dangers of online dating, but really it seemed more about the best-friends abusive husband and the mother's reinvigorated love life. Yes online dating plays a part, but it's like a blink and you'll miss it kind of thing. Paige does some online dating, meets one bloke and arranges to meet another (the murderer) but constantly cancels on him. That's it. That's the online dating. Yes we get some chapters from said murderers POV about all the other dates he's been on (with only one woman being smart enough to take some caution before going back to his flat on the first date), but we barely get any of that murder/thriller action with him stalking and setting the victims up. I think this book would have been more interesting if told purely from his POV and without the other side stories. They made it more of a family drama than a thriller.
There's also no mystery to this book; you know who the murderer is and you know he wants to kill Paige. It's painfully obvious he isn't going to end up doing that and the whole book just feels a bit like a soap opera. The opening chapter was so strong and it just goes downhill for me from there and that ending is honestly awful. We skip ALL of the potential mystery and intrigue, and jump to an unspecified amount of time later and it just wraps up. WHAT IS THE POINT. The author makes the mistake of literally skipping every action scene and jumping to the aftermath; Heather going to meet Mr Right Now or Chloe getting shot; it ruins the narrative for the audience because you can't react to anything.
None of the characters are overly likeable; apart from perhaps Joan who is entertaining at times, the men are all painted to be devils including Paige's Uncle who had the gall not to die instead of his twin brother. Like Paige hates him for not being dead.
If this was presented as being a soap opera/family drama it would probably fair a lot better because it's definitely not a mystery. One of my biggest pet peeves is misleading books... not sure i'd read any of the authors other books.