Print Length: 322 pages
Publisher: Boldwood Books (November 27, 2024)
From Goodreads.com: Nothing is as perfect as it seems…
Hattie Gilby has not been back to her family home since the devastating events that took place there years ago. Events that changed Hattie and which continue to haunt her today. But one phone call changes everything.
Now Hattie is going back to her family home to face her brothers, Adam and Luke and to hear the last words of her dying mother.
Imogen Gilby hasn’t spoken a word since the night she was beaten almost to death and her husband was murdered. But now it’s time to reveal the truth about what happened that night and the secrets that almost destroyed her.
Hattie isn’t sure she wants to know the truth. And it seems someone close to them will do anything to make sure the secrets stay hidden forever…
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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5
This book took me much longer than I care to admit to finish because I could not stay engaged with it. To begin with none of the characters were particularly likable which made it hard to feel a connection to any of them, much less care about their fate. Luke came across as a petulant child most of the time, picking a fight with his sister for every little thing. I get it, he's mad that she left, but he could have too. They already had caregivers coming to their mother's house when she wasn't in the hospital and Adam had moved out, there was no reason Luke couldn't have as well. It seemed like he just wanted someone to blame and his sister was a handy target. And then there is Adam, who despite seeming to be the most sensible of the bunch, learns the cold hard truth and decides that not only can he not handle it, but the solution is to burn everything having to do with his parents. Things that could potentially hold more information than when they already knew; information that the police needed to know regardless of how it would make their parents look.
And while at first I held some sympathy for Hattie understanding what a difficult place she was in having to come back to the house her father was murdered in while harboring fears that she may have been inadvertently responsible, the more I got to know about her and the events the happened in the past, the more I started to dislike her. Yes, by all accounts she had lived a somewhat sheltered and privileged life (especially compared to some people), but there is no reason that she should have been just that naive at the age of nineteen. I also kept waiting for her to grow a backbone and stand up to her cousin instead of capitulating to every little thing that she wanted.
In fact, out of everyone in the novel, the one I felt the most sorry for was Sophie as even now, I cannot figure out what her purpose was in the book other than for what happened at the end to happen, and I can think of a much better way that things could have come to light without Sophie never being involved.
Sadly, the characters weren't the only problem I had with this book however. I felt like there was a lot of instances where there was just too much detail coming at me at once. I don't need to know about the inch thick layer of dust on every inch of the house (although why was there that much dust in rooms like the kitchen if Luke was still living there), or about the bookcases filled with encyclopedias (and more dust). Sometimes, less is really more and I think this story would benefit by cutting some of those details out. I also hope that because I read an advanced copy of this book, that the duplicate sentences were edited out before the official publication. One of these instances sticks out even after I finished the book because I thought my kindle was having issues. The passage in its entirety reads:
"Sophie impatiently pulled a small plastic bag out of her pocket, and ran her hand down the front of her jeans. 'Come on, Jasper, at least you could hurry up and do what you need to do for me...' Sophie said as she rolled her eyes and impatiently pulled a small plastic bag out of her pocket, running her hand down the front of her jeans."
Not to mention when Imogen's laptop is discovered, they put it on charge before Hattie leaves, making plans to look at it together when she gets back, only to have her return and Adam has destroyed everything (I'm surprised the laptop even still works considering he damaged the screen) to which he tells her that he put it on charge after she left and then decided to look through it. If it hadn't been charged/used in nine years it would have taken a long time to get enough juice in the battery to power on.
And finally, the ending. By the time we arrived at the "big reveal" I had already pretty much figured out not only what had been going on, but also who murdered Hattie's father. I'm having a little trouble believing the fact that given their current circumstances they were able to over power anyone much less enough to cause harm. But what really got under my skin was the cliff-hanger ending this one had. Not only do I hate cliff-hangers, but do they really expect to get away with it? When the truth of the past has been revealed, and the world is a much different place than it was nine years ago? It just didn't make sense.
That being said, I'm sure there are other people who will read this story and have a much different opinion than I did. So if this sounds like something you would enjoy, I encourage you to take what I've written as my own experience and read it for yourself.
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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