I’m disappointed. Like really, really disappointed. I had some highest expectations for this book. It has so good reviews. But naah.
Honestly- this book is one very complicated and entangled family drama. With multiple points of view, from which Kate’s is the main one, the plot becomes watery. So much drama.
But let’s start from the beginning. Four university besties Kate, Rowan, Jennifer and Izzy, and their families are going together on holiday in France to celebrate their 40 birthdays. Jennifer - obsessed over her two boys, she quit her job to be a full-time mom. On the other side is Izzy - a free spirit, the only one on her own, without a family. Rowan- the businesswoman, the most prosperous of them all. And finally Kate - a crime scene investor, loving her job so much, she is completely blind about what’s going on with her family and children.
Yeah, sure - it is captivating and easygoing (kind of). But for me, it is a pure family drama with a bit of smoggy feeling on the background. 400 out of 500 pages - nothing. Kate is going back and forth about which one of her friends is her husband Sean mistress. And that’s it. At some point, it became really boring and you are craving for some action. I read the last 70 pages for like an hour while the first 400 took me a couple of days to go through them. The most part of the book is dedicated to Kate suspecting her friends for having an affair with her husband. It’s Rowan. No, it’s Jennifer. No, I’m sure it’s Izzy. Or maybe Rowan? I felt more tension in Kate’s wonders than in this murder at the end of the book.
"The human heart is a strange old thing, Kate."
The other line in the plot is Kate's daughter Lucy troubles. I suspected that there is a connection between Lucy troubles and Sean's odd behaviour. But Kate is the investigator. And it's told that she is a good one. How she couldn't find anything?
"I was constantly amazed by the capacity of teenage girls to be horrible to each other. Girls who were supposed to be friends but who seemed to delight in making each other miserable. Was I like that too, as a teenager? Did we still carry it with us now, this capacity to spite and sting and wound those closest to us, hidden under a thin veneer of adult civility?"
The only thing that I enjoyed is how the author plants that seeds of doubt. I was wondering if they are really good friends or they despise each other. Are they envy because of the success of the other in the fields they haven't been that lucky? The mystery of their friendship is the biggest one in this book.
This is no mystery, thriller or whatever (for me, at least). Don't hate me you, slow-burning thriller lovers. <3 The actual action happens in the last 70 pages. And the mystery is so easily and fastly unfold that it drives me nuts. Slow-burning thriller they said. It was way too slow for me.
Honestly- this book is one very complicated and entangled family drama. With multiple points of view, from which Kate’s is the main one, the plot becomes watery. So much drama.
But let’s start from the beginning. Four university besties Kate, Rowan, Jennifer and Izzy, and their families are going together on holiday in France to celebrate their 40 birthdays. Jennifer - obsessed over her two boys, she quit her job to be a full-time mom. On the other side is Izzy - a free spirit, the only one on her own, without a family. Rowan- the businesswoman, the most prosperous of them all. And finally Kate - a crime scene investor, loving her job so much, she is completely blind about what’s going on with her family and children.
Yeah, sure - it is captivating and easygoing (kind of). But for me, it is a pure family drama with a bit of smoggy feeling on the background. 400 out of 500 pages - nothing. Kate is going back and forth about which one of her friends is her husband Sean mistress. And that’s it. At some point, it became really boring and you are craving for some action. I read the last 70 pages for like an hour while the first 400 took me a couple of days to go through them. The most part of the book is dedicated to Kate suspecting her friends for having an affair with her husband. It’s Rowan. No, it’s Jennifer. No, I’m sure it’s Izzy. Or maybe Rowan? I felt more tension in Kate’s wonders than in this murder at the end of the book.
"The human heart is a strange old thing, Kate."
The other line in the plot is Kate's daughter Lucy troubles. I suspected that there is a connection between Lucy troubles and Sean's odd behaviour. But Kate is the investigator. And it's told that she is a good one. How she couldn't find anything?
"I was constantly amazed by the capacity of teenage girls to be horrible to each other. Girls who were supposed to be friends but who seemed to delight in making each other miserable. Was I like that too, as a teenager? Did we still carry it with us now, this capacity to spite and sting and wound those closest to us, hidden under a thin veneer of adult civility?"
The only thing that I enjoyed is how the author plants that seeds of doubt. I was wondering if they are really good friends or they despise each other. Are they envy because of the success of the other in the fields they haven't been that lucky? The mystery of their friendship is the biggest one in this book.
This is no mystery, thriller or whatever (for me, at least). Don't hate me you, slow-burning thriller lovers. <3 The actual action happens in the last 70 pages. And the mystery is so easily and fastly unfold that it drives me nuts. Slow-burning thriller they said. It was way too slow for me.