I was really looking forward to reading this domestic/family thriller, but unfortunately it fell completely flat for me!
It's about a family who lost their youngest daughter, Ruby-May, in a tragic accident a year ago. One year later, the family have booked a holiday to Italy to mark the first anniversary of her death. Once the family are all gathered at the luxury villa it quickly becomes clear that some members of the family have been keeping secrets for the past year
I didn't particularly enjoy anything about this book unfortunately! (apart from the beautiful cover/spine). The narrative of the past chapters was a little odd. They were posed as "one year ago" perspectives but were written as if the protagonists were looking back from the present. So it wasn't written from their present perspective in the past, but from the present looking back...if that makes sense! It probably wouldn't annoy anyone else but that style decision really bothered me!
I also found it a little odd that, in a book about a dead child, the child's parents and remaining siblings were very one dimensional! We begin with the perspective of Ruby-May's mother, Amy, but the main protagonist seems to be her uncle, Nick. He's the one who pieces the mystery together which, again, seems like an odd choice as we began with Amy's POV
It wasn't just the immediate family, but all of the characters were very one dimensional, and there was also a lot of them. I kept confusing their names and forgetting which one's were married, which were siblings, and which were children!
Overall, I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I thought the characters, plot, and mystery were lacking. The thing I enjoyed the most was the Italian setting, as I've visited Italy a few times (although that was also flat!)
It's about a family who lost their youngest daughter, Ruby-May, in a tragic accident a year ago. One year later, the family have booked a holiday to Italy to mark the first anniversary of her death. Once the family are all gathered at the luxury villa it quickly becomes clear that some members of the family have been keeping secrets for the past year
I didn't particularly enjoy anything about this book unfortunately! (apart from the beautiful cover/spine). The narrative of the past chapters was a little odd. They were posed as "one year ago" perspectives but were written as if the protagonists were looking back from the present. So it wasn't written from their present perspective in the past, but from the present looking back...if that makes sense! It probably wouldn't annoy anyone else but that style decision really bothered me!
I also found it a little odd that, in a book about a dead child, the child's parents and remaining siblings were very one dimensional! We begin with the perspective of Ruby-May's mother, Amy, but the main protagonist seems to be her uncle, Nick. He's the one who pieces the mystery together which, again, seems like an odd choice as we began with Amy's POV
It wasn't just the immediate family, but all of the characters were very one dimensional, and there was also a lot of them. I kept confusing their names and forgetting which one's were married, which were siblings, and which were children!
Overall, I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I thought the characters, plot, and mystery were lacking. The thing I enjoyed the most was the Italian setting, as I've visited Italy a few times (although that was also flat!)