The Ex

I have posts for you, hopefully later this week. Things haven't been good, and I'm just trying to stay afloat. Since I can't sleep at night, I've been reading every night and this one was a fabulous page turner!

The Ex - Alafair Burke

Twenty years ago she ruined his life.

Now she has the chance to save it.

Olivia Randall is one of New York City’s best criminal defense lawyers. When she hears that her former fiancé, Jack Harris, has been arrested for a triple homicide—and that one of the victims was connected to his wife’s murder three years earlier—there is no doubt in her mind as to his innocence. The only question is, who would go to such great lengths to frame him—and why?

For Olivia, representing Jack is a way to make up for past regrets and absolve herself of guilt from a tragic decision, a secret she has held for twenty years. But as the evidence against him mounts, she is forced to confront her doubts. The man she knew could not have done this. But what if she never really knew him?

OK, so I know I'm not alone when I tell you that I was riveted by the Netflix series Making a Murderer, and this is such a great choice for reading material that will give you a similar feel. I read one of Alafair's earlier books that I wasn't totally thrilled with, it felt like it wasn't as good of a web as I thought she could do. Fortunately this book more than makes up for that- she hit it out of the ballpark and I wasn't able to put this book down. Fun fact: I can go to the bathroom without stopping my reading. That's how great of a multi-tasker I am.

So the story centers around Olivia who is a New York City defense attorney. Her personal life has kind of been in a tail spin since her breakup with Jack twenty years ago that resulted in him losing his mind completely, his brother's death, and her guilt. Fast forward and life turns around for Jack until his wife is gunned down with several others in Penn Station, victims of a random shooting, and Jack finds himself single parenting their daughter Buckley. All is well until Jack is arrested for the shooting of three people in the middle of the day, with ties to the assailant who killed his wife.

From there, Olivia finds herself as Jack's defense lawyer and while her gut instinct is telling her that there is no way the Jack she knew would do this, she is cognizant to realize it has been twenty something years, what if he isn't the same Jack? What if the trauma she inflicted him changed him to the core and she doesn't know who he is or what he's even capable of anymore?

I kept flipping back and forth on whether I thought Jack was guilty or not. When you find out what REALLY happened, you are pretty much blown away. I kind of suspected it just for a bit but I quickly dismissed it because no way, and how mentally calculating it would have been to get all of the dots to line up just right in order for this person to go free? Holy moly.

Such a great book, and it comes in around 320 pages which sounds hefty, but I promise you that you will fly through it. And when you do, let's discuss it because wow- such a great ending. HUGE improvement from the first book of Alafair Burke's that I've read and I am excited to see what she does next!

You can order your copy of The Ex on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you want to keep up to date with Alafair Burke, you can find her on her website, Facebook, and Twitter!