This was .......definitely a thriller but not as great as I was hoping.
A new to me author.
STORY SUMMARY
The Harris family appear to be the perfect Southern California family. Dad is David Harris whose parents are very wealthy and he was brought up to appreciate the finer things of life.
Mom is Jane and she has a great figure, is a former southern girl from Alabama, and maintains their large oceanfront home in the gated community known as The Cove. She's a wanna be Hollywood star who tells everyone she gave up her acting career to become a mother.
Jane and David adopted their oldest daughter Mary when she was newborn, with the agreement that the birth mother would not be able to contact the daughter. A year later, they had their biological daughter, Betsy.
Mary has died in a tragic accident, falling off a cliff in a park over the ocean. Jane is grief-stricken and a year later is just beginning to come out of her house and interact with people again.
However, much has changed in her family. Betsy now has secrets of her own and David is having an affair with his office assistant Kylie. In fact, it's just a few days from Betsy's high school graduation and he plans on moving in to a posh new home with Kylie and Betsy plans on going on an extended camping trip with friends and her new boyfriend, the substitute teacher known as Bo.
And then Jane begins to receive notes stating that someone knows that Mary's death was no accident.
What really happened to Mary?? Who is lying to whom? And will this family survive the aftermath?
MY THOUGHTS
I wanted to love this story.
It's creepy and Jane is a narcissist big time. I didn't like her character at all and I didn't like David either as he had absolutely no back bone until the very end.
The character development is superb though and I could totally picture this "happy, perfect family" in their ultra rich gated community.
I almost gave up reading it but I did want to see how the ending was going to play out (I guessed correctly).
It does show a twisted look at the bond between mothers and daughters and the very real mental illness of narcissism.
The story moves quickly and takes place in just a few short days.
My favorite character was Betsy and I found my self cheering her on.
I'm probably not going to search out the author's other books, however.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 7.
3 comments:
Interesting sounding book, and probably one I would pickup, just based on the title and cover blurb. Sounds like it was disappointing though, so I probably will pass it by. Thanks for the review!
I'll definitely try this one! Putting it on my TBR list now!
Sounds interesting but I have so many books like this to be read in my pile that I just can't add one more.
Post a Comment