Print Length: pages
Publisher: Inkubator Books (September 29, 2024)
From Goodreads.com: An old house. A new marriage. A deadly obsession.
James Devery has fallen in love with his boss’s wife, the glamorous Mrs. Eastman. He dreams about her. He writes about her. He wants to be with her forever.
But that won’t be easy. Because James is just a young builder’s apprentice, hired to work on the Eastmans’ enormous mansion.
On the surface, it seems James doesn’t stand a chance. And yet… he suspects Mrs. Eastman isn’t entirely happy with her handsome, successful husband. The cracks in their marriage are starting to show, and James is determined to make the most of them.
Because he has a dark secret. A secret that means he can’t give Mrs. Eastman up, he absolutely must have her. And he’ll do anything – anything at all - to be with her.
What he doesn’t realise is his single-minded obsession will fuel a spiral of lust and treachery, taking all three to a hell beyond their wildest imaginings.
My Rating: 2 stars out of 5
I feel as though this was a solid idea, but the plot was so all over the place that it made it hard to muddle though, much less care about any of the characters or what happened to them. There were also a few discrepancies that I found, but as I read an advanced copy of this book, I am hoping they will be corrected before going to print, but even so, I will point them out in my review as well so the author can take note if they have not done so already. In a better effort to break down my thoughts, I'm going to do them in sections. My thoughts on the main plot, my thoughts after the first twist, my thoughts on the second twist, and then my overall thoughts on the story.
The main plot - Got old quickly. We have four main characters. Richard, his wife Virginia, his sister Gillian, and then the mysterious James. Then we have a couple of background characters (namely PJ & Simone). And absolutely NONE of these characters are likeable in the slightest.
Gillian seems to do little else than lay on the couch and make trouble for everyone (and she is the cause of two of the discrepancies I mentioned earlier). First we are told that she is eighteen years old, then later on it is said that she is seventeen. Either way, she was not a child, and the fact that Richard continued to refer to her as such was annoying. She was more than capable of doing what Virginia accused her of doing, and I hated how she was constantly painted as this traumatized child who didn't know right from wrong. She also in one chapter says she will be eating the chicken dinner Virginia was preparing, but then says later on (conveniently after the entire freezer of meat has been defrosted and ruined) that it couldn't possibly be her because she's a vegan.
Richard is a self-centered arrogant jerk, and I hated the way he constantly spoke down to Virginia, especially when some of the things he said made no sense. For example, she tries to tell Richard who she thinks is behind the vandalization and suggests that they set up cameras around their property to catch the person in the act, and he tells her that having camera on his property are a "non-starter". Why? What is he afraid they are going to catch?
Virginia, has issues. I get it. But she needed to grow a backbone and stand up to her husband instead of hoping the issues would clear up on their own (especially when she finds out he has not deposited money in her account since before they moved and she couldn't afford her medication).
As for the background characters, they go out of their way to make her feel unwelcome and as though she doesn't belong there. And while I get their motivations (to an extent), they were still the hired help and I found it absurd that not only did they act that way towards her, but she did nothing but take it from them.
To be honest, I found James to be the most interesting character of them all. It was easy to see how he was taken in by V, and how she was using him to forget about her troubles at home.
And then we got to the first twist - and wow. That was something that I did not see coming at all. And I will admit that I had things wrong, even though I was certain I had it figured out. In fact, I was preparing to give this book a three star rating just for that alone. And I probably would have, had the book not taken on that second twist, but I'll get to that one in a minute.
Once everything is out in the open, I fear the book became a bit predicable, slipping into the preposterous category more than once (for example, Richard and Virginia took a helicopter during a blizzard to reach their destination, however someone else arrives shortly after they do by vehicle). This was also where I noticed another discrepancy (again involving Gillian), Virginia says when Gillian storms out of the house, that she took Virginia's car keys, yet when she sees her car parked outside the cabin she thinks to herself that Gillian must have stolen her keys.
Some other things happen inside of said cabin that I wish I could talk about without giving too much away, although I can say that I have no idea why a certain lie was told in the end, because it was clearly a case of self-defense.
Now, in regards to the second twist, it was just so out of this realm unbelievable that I was immediately disgusted. Unfortunately, once again, I cannot go into detail without giving away spoilers, but it just felt like shoddy writing on the author's part after the triumph of the first twist.
Overall, I believe this author has a solid writing style, they just need to tone down on things a bit to make their stories more believable. I would give this author another read in the future.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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