368 pages
English language
Published Nov. 14, 2022 by Grand Central Publishing.
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to …
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.
What a mindfuck. I stayed up all night reading this, finishing it only hours after barely sleeping for 5h straight. Insane. Usually I had books that are this tense. I get too tangled up in stories. However, I loved this. It's just so on point!
That was pretty messed up. :)
This is a departure from my usual genre fiction, but was recommended by someone with excellent taste. The amount of sexual focus threw me off at first and I wasn't sure if it was something coming from the romance background or not, but by the end of the story it was fully justified. Given such a small setting and the few characters it had a remarkable amount of tension and thrill. I didn't expect the ending either!
Things I liked:
- The suspense in the first part of the story, where nothing of interest happens but the tension is still very strong.
- The interesting plot idea
Things I did not like:
- The execution of the plot. The final plot twist is really kind of stupid and not believable at all.
- Flat characters. I mean, who is Jeremy, apart from a guy that likes to get his dick sucked? I still have no clue.
- Illogical and unnecessary plot lines. Why the horrific accident in the first pages? Why is the relationship with her agent given so much attention when it says so little?
All in all, this book left me disappointed.
2 1/2 stars
This book is hard to rate for a number of reasons. First off, it's not very good, so there's that. Secondly it does keep you reading to find out what fucked up things will happen next so there is that too. It's like a typical "pot boiler" type, easy enough reading, titillating sexual tidbits, which truth be told, I didn't care for, but I know a lot of women do, hense the popularity of books like 50 Shades of Gray etc... plot twists and a big "reveal" at the end which has you scratching your head going... ???!!! So that's kind of a positive because you end up thinking "wha...? What the hell?"
So, I guess I can understand why some people rate it so highly, because all that I mentioned is what they want from pleasure reading. And that's fine. We all have different tastes. I …
2 1/2 stars
This book is hard to rate for a number of reasons. First off, it's not very good, so there's that. Secondly it does keep you reading to find out what fucked up things will happen next so there is that too. It's like a typical "pot boiler" type, easy enough reading, titillating sexual tidbits, which truth be told, I didn't care for, but I know a lot of women do, hense the popularity of books like 50 Shades of Gray etc... plot twists and a big "reveal" at the end which has you scratching your head going... ???!!! So that's kind of a positive because you end up thinking "wha...? What the hell?"
So, I guess I can understand why some people rate it so highly, because all that I mentioned is what they want from pleasure reading. And that's fine. We all have different tastes. I mean some people voted for Trump. But, I don't know. For me I expect a better more believable overall story, better character development, better characters in general. I'm not really interested in thrillers for the most part anyway and hate books like Girl on a Train or Gone Girl.
I don't really have a hard time suspending disbelief. I mean, I read a lot of Stephen King for god's sake and general horror books and dystopian stories and some science fiction. So I CAN suspend disbelief and just go with it pretty easily. But I cannot take gaping plot holes and inexplicable behavior and just straight up kookiness from characters. I can't suspend disbelief that someone can fake being in a vegetative state for months and even medical professional don't catch on I mean, come on.
This book asked way too much from it's readers and I just wasn't interested in the characters or even the plot to forgive it's many flaws. Mostly, the story was boring in between the fucked up parts. Every character was horrible. The sex scenes were cringey. It seemed written from the general formula... unreliable narrator protagonist, hunky studly male character as love interest for protagonist, but maybe he is untrustworthy?, some kind of crime or fucked up thing the protagonist observes usually involving hunky stud and an antagonist, plot twist, some creepy things happeneing, big reveal, the end. Maybe some sex scenes but, hopefully not, haha.
If you like plot twists and fucked up reveals and sex scenes that lack any sexiness whatsoever then maybe this book will be for you. For me, not so much. But that's cool. You probably wouldn't like the kinds of books I rate highly. And I would never, ever, under any circumstance whatsoever, vote for Trump.
ps Team manuscript for life.
