Annie Ward

Ahhh! This psychological thriller will have you on the edge of your seat and rethinking everything you thought was going on. Warning- you may even get a little pissed at the characters. Traumatic brain injury, PTSD, alcoholism, obsessions and love are the catalysts for this story that I could not put down until it was finished.
Ward’s characters are realistic, interesting, humorous and scary as hell. The plot is rich with multicultural details, current events, and toddler tv shows which show more leads through one doozy of a twisting tale. The pit of your stomach will drop out on more than one occasion and you may even shed a tear for the victim, but you’ll not get the full picture until the end.
This full bodied novel had me transfixed, and I ran through the gamut of emotions more than once. Damn, you’ve got to read this one.
*I received an arc from the publisher through NetGalley for an honest review show less

This book starts with Maddie seeking help 12 weeks before. Before what? Then it jumps to the day of the killing. Who died? Why? This was a great way to ratchet up the suspense and keep you reading. Then we go back to explore the past. Maddie, a writer living in Sofia, Bulgaria and Jo, an aid worker in Skopje, Macedonia, are best friends and visit each other often. The author does an excellent job describing these locations and the wartime conditions in Macedonia in the 2001. The reader can show more feel the fear and despair. It is there they meet “the bodyguards”, a group of Englishmen who are private bodyguards for government officials. Maddie immediately falls for Ian but he seems more interested in Jo. The narrative goes back and forth in time between the early 2000s and present day Kansas where Ian and Maddie are living. Maddie, disfigured in a recent camping accident, decided to seek help through writing therapy. She describes a troubled marriage to a man she is still in love with but somewhat fears. The characters are well developed as Maddie sees them. The author has written a powerful story mostly from Maddie’s viewpoint. But there are always two sides to every story. I’d like to thank Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read and review this dark and twisty book show less

Another book with a choppy timeline leading up to a singular event. It’s becoming a more and more common technique with thrillers and one I’m not thrilled about. I think this forces the reader to spend too much time keeping track of who is doing what and when to really sink into a story compared to one that is told in a linear way. Grr. I didn't hate the book because of it, but I found it distracting.

In this case the singular event is “the killing” and on the day of we’ve got an show more officer on the scene where there is a lot of spilled blood and possibly a dead or injured child. But don’t get caught up in the idea that this will be an investigation story. Be prepared for a lot of backstory from Maddie. Her narrative switches from a couple weeks before “the killing”, many years ago when she and best friend Jo lived in war-torn countries like Macedonia. It’s there they meet Ian, a soldier and not-so-reliable guy. Ian has a bit of direct narrative as well, but it wasn’t really necessary in my opinion. A lot of it tried to contradict Maddie’s version and I felt it muddied already cloudy waters instead of rounding out Ian’s character. Basically he’s a controlling, paranoid asshole.

I won’t give too much away, but be patient. There is a somewhat satisfying payoff to the meandering story leading up to it. Through some transparent and not-so-transparent devices, you will be able to pick up some idea of what happened on the day of “the killing” and how, but others might be hard to spot. In some places it is a bit strange and unclear and I think that certain aspects of the story, designed to be significant or signposts for certain facts, could have been more sharply written. Even when the murder victim is revealed, I had to go back and read some things over again to figure out exactly who was killed. Also, some factors that turned out to be major in the end were way too downplayed and so came out of the blue. Further, I didn’t understand a lot of what made Jo and Maddie pissed off with each other. Everything that made them fight seemed meaningless and unintentional. Especially given how they behave at the end.

The very end itself is ambiguous up to a point and I don’t know if I view our flight case as victim or villain. show less

Complex, suspenseful, so many lies, so much manipulation, thrilling twists - I loved it.

Set in an elite private school, the book focuses on two rich women whose daughters are trying to get accepted into the UCLA soccer program, an office assistant, and the handsome assistant athletic director who has a contact at UCLA. These mothers, Brooke and Asha, will do whatever it takes to get what they want and to advance the prospects of their children.

The book grabbed me from the very beginning when show more Natalie wakes up in her car. She is in the school’s parking lot. She sees her own footsteps in the snow leading to the school’s gym…and then back to her car. She is groggy and does not remember what she saw and why she returned to her car. Now she goes back to the gym and sees a body lying in a pool of blood on the floor inside.

The story is a slow build, but I never lost interest in it. There is something juicy about eavesdropping into the lives of the privileged wealthy and observing their fall. Great characters, even if they are mostly unlikeable. They seemed real, and I loved their juicy secrets and lies.

I received an advance copy of the book. The opinions here are my own. show less