Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Disclaimer: Reading is all about discovery, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of a look inside the good and bad of a book.
The Analysis:
This book came out of nowhere and jumped the line in my TBR. I believe it was a recommendation by a booktuber. Yay, for Suspense/thrillers.
Here’s the Blurb:
Her private life A savage home invasion leaves Greg house-bound with a traumatic brain injury and glued to the live feeds from his ubiquitous security cameras. As the police investigate the crime and Greg’s frustration and rage grows, Jade begins to wonder what he may know about their attackers. And whether they are coming back.
Her secret life As Greg watches Jade’s comings and goings, he becomes convinced that her behavior is suspicious and that she’s hiding a big secret. The more he sees, the more he wonders whether the break-in was really a random burglary. And whether he’s worth more to Jade if he were dead than alive.
I love this cover. It perfectly encompasses the genre. I enjoyed seeing a black girl on the front and for once she wasn't the crazy killer per some domestic thrillers. A+++
Now The Story:
Book Info:
Pages: 352
Author: Cate Holahan
Available: Google Play
Can I write a book review and find nothing considerably wrong with it? The book Illegal Parts 1 and 2, says no. But this book said, absolutely yes.
A home invasion comes with deadly consequences for the hero and heroine of this story. They have an unconventional marriage because of their age gap to say nothing about their cultural differences. But they seem to genuinely love each other.
But the heroine is hiding a secret and it's not that annoying. It is unreasonable, though. She thinks the robbers could be someone connected to her past. She alerts the detectives, but not her husband. Because of the messiness of this secret, she's not ready to unburden herself to a husband that's suffering life-altering illness and potentially the adult children that would judge her because of it.
She has just cause to worry about the adult children. But I think she should trust her husband enough to tell him anyway. However, as I'm reading I don't get the impression that she's been keeping this secret for a year with no let-up. The book moves pretty quickly and is an easy read. She's just as surprised by this almost deadly as the next person. And she wants to solve it without bringing any more pain to her husband.
The hero isnt wholly likeable either. His illness has him paranoid and installs a camera system like Fort Knox. That he only primarily uses to stalk his wife while she's at home. Is she keeping a secret? Yes. Does he know that? Not really. He also says some things about marriage and his relationships that make you think typical male pig. But that only made the characters seem more real.
The only person I hated was Violet, the hero's adult daughter, from his first wife. She was cliche and unlikable. Still trying to "find" herself she was surviving off snarkiness and as many mean-spirited jabs as possible forget water and food. Our introduction to her was after the hero wakes up from a coma to have her snapping about his young wife and the will. That just screams love, doesn't it. She gets worse throughout the book and it's framed as her speaking her mind. I beg to differ. But her scenes failed to turn me off from the story.
Major spoilers past this point in the book review:
I got really anxious wanting to know the answer of who started all this lol.
There were a couple of chapters towards the end where it seemed like everybody did it. First the heroine accused the daughter, then ex-wife, then her own husband. And I'm going along for the ride accusing every body too. Too happy and wrong when I thought it was Violet. Falling for the obvious I guess, don't shoot, I dont read a lot in this genre so it can still surprise me. Like I was sufficiently surprised to learn that it was the son.
I think I was 7 chapters from the end and found myself staying up late into the night to finish it. The book ends rather abruptly on a gun shot before skipping to the epilogue.
The epilogue does a nice job of summing up everything we missed and giving the reader a peek into the characters' futures. Yes, I would've shaved 2 chapters from the middle and added them to the end, but I won't harp on it. It does end in a HEA with an asterisk of everyone needing to emotionally heal.
Author note/w slight tie in of the epigraph:
I don't know how the title applies to the story. The heroine didn't seem to have three lives, at least not in the way I'd expect for a story like this. She had a secret life and a private one. Her public wasn't too different from her private. It wasn't as if she were posting fake pics of her extended family on her blog while secretly fighting behind the scenes. I got the impression what you saw on her blog wasn't too far from what one would see if they met her in person. (I didn't see the author's explanation in the blurb until this review. Before it was a recommendation from another book review. Although, I don't think my opinion changes much.)
The quote in the epigraph was, everyone has three lives, secret, private, and public, struck me as true going into the story blind. However, I was thrown into confusion reading the author notes that someone should be judged on their actions and efforts and nothing else. I assume she's referring to the heroine as this is a theme that frequently occurs in the book. It's largely why she's so easily painted as the robber by the hero.
If you want to make a statement like this though, try womens fiction, an angsty contemporary romance, sure, but not a psychological thriller. Stating the obvious, the heroine did judge the heros adult children by their actions. That led her to believe the killer was the man's daughter and the friend was the man's son. When it was clearly the other way around. There's no amount of getting to know someone based off the content of their character that would reveal such glaring secrets from someone trying to hide their true motives. Sure, not everyone in your life's a killer. But this is the story you're choosing for this rightful moral lesson.
I agreed with it though on the surface. I also often wished, especially towards the end, that Greg would just have a little more faith in his wife. If I think about it too hard I might question if they even deserve to be together after some of the things he's done. So I won't.
Instead, I'll give this book review:
Story At A Glance:
Recommendation: 4 out of 5
Read Series Continuation: N/A
The Ratings:
Book Cover Appeal:
🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓
Story & Narration:
🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓
Romance:
🍓🍓
Character/(s) Personality:
🍓🍓🍓🍓
