Book Review: Dead to Her

How it is only Wednesday, I'll never know. I woke up thinking for sure it was the weekend. But nope! This week is wiping me  out completely.

Dead to Her - Sarah Pinborough

Being the second wife can be murder . . .

“Once a cheat, always a cheat,” they say. Marcie Maddox has worked hard to get where she is after the illicit affair that started her new life a few years ago. But her world of country clubs, yachts and sumptuous houses in Savannah, Georgia, isn’t easy to maintain, no matter how hard she tries. Nor is keeping her husband, Jason, truly interested.

So, when Jason’s boss brings home a hot new wife from his trip to London, the young Mrs William Radford IV isn’t quite the souvenir everyone expected. Sexy, drop-dead gorgeous and black—Keisha quickly usurps Marcie’s place as the beautiful second wife. But when Marcie sees the extra spark in the room when Keisha and Jason are together and their obvious, magnetic attraction, the gloves come off.

Revenge is best served cold, but in the steamy Savannah heat, blood runs so hot that this summer it might just boil over into murder.

If you remember, I reviewed another book by this author called Cross Her Heart, and I didn't totally love it. It was OK but it wasn't great. I was a little hesitant going into this one and unfortunately a lot of the problems I had with Cross Her Heart were present here, too so it's either me with the issue or its just the author's writing style that isn't meshing well with me.

You know I am a big believer that characters in thrillers really all need flaws to keep them suspect and you really can't like them. While both of those things are in this book, it almost goes too far because I really, really, really didn't like any of these characters and I found myself rooting for a terrible end for all of them.

The book is really bizarre, we have Marcie who is the younger, hot second wife of Jason. We have Keisha, who is the new younger, hot wife of William (Jason's boss). Picture the Real Housewives of Literally Any City and that's what this entire circle is. While Marcie isn't exactly besties with any of the women in the circle, the introduction of Keisha threatens not only that, but Marcie's marriage to Jason, who suddenly centers his attention on Keisha. Jason convinces Marcie to befriend her and while they do become friendly, this ends up being bananas. I mean, bizarre. The little twist of southern voodoo in here surprised me and was a breath of energy into this book that I was having a hard time sticking with.

To be honest, this really isn't a thriller, its more like a strange regular ol' fiction with some steamy sex and supernatural stuff thrown in. I can see how fans of Liane Moriarty would enjoy this one, it should be shelved in that area but it really wasn't a thriller. I'm going to give this one 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

⭐⭐⭐

   

Thank you to William Morrow and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy! All thoughts are my own and this post contains affiliate links. 

Book Review: Cross Her Heart

I normally read thrillers in the fall but I've had a couple of good ones come across so I've squeezed them in. Plus, Sarah Pinborough has a new one coming (that I already have) so I thought perhaps I should read this one first so I know what to expect as far as writing style. It definitely kept me on my toes!

Cross Her Heart - Sarah Pinborough

Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job and her best friend Marilyn.

But when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him, too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it's time to let her terrifying secret past go.

But when her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see, Lisa's world explodes.

As she finds everything she has built threatened, and not knowing who she can trust, it's up to Lisa to face her past in order to save what she holds dear.

But someone has been pulling all their strings. And that someone is determined that both Lisa and Ava must suffer.

Because long ago Lisa broke a promise. And some promises aren't meant to be broken.

If you aren't able to dedicate some solid time to this book, you might get lost. The first half of it is terribly slow and Lisa is a pretty unlikable character. I really didn't like her and once everything started to unravel, I liked her even less. I mean, she had some awful stuff happen and I get it but man.... for as paranoid as she was she really wasn't great at hiding herself. I also felt terribly sorry for her daughter because not only does she have an incredibly protective mom but she has a mom who is relatively clueless as to what her daughter is actually doing.

My other issue is that once you get over the half way mark it all starts rolling downhill relatively quickly, and that's when you're going to want to read it in one sitting because it's so whack-a-doodle you'll be confused if you put it down a few times. It's a bizarre story and I didn't think it really warranted the lengths the main character went through. It reminded me of the cheesy thrillers on the Lifetime channel, where you expect Tori Spelling to be murdered or something.

My biggest issue with this was the incredibly slow pace because it made a book that should only have taken me, at most, two days to read stretch into a week and a half. I just had a hard time sticking with it and by the time I got to the end I'm not sure it was worth it? Overall I can only give this one 2 stars because while it wasn't awful, it's not one I would pick up again.

You can find this book, and tons others, on the HarperCollins website, and if you hang out on the page long enough a 20% coupon pops up, so that's always pretty great.

⭐⭐

   

A big thank you to William Morrow Books and TLC Book Tours for having me on this tour and sending me a copy! All thoughts are my own and this post contains affiliate links.