Print Length: 330 pages
Publisher: Inkubator Books (December 04. 2024)
From Goodreads.com: Two perfect families. Two beautiful homes. A one-way trip to hell.
When two families organize a house swap, it seems like the perfect holiday arrangement.
The Browns will exchange their London townhouse for a stunning chateau in the south of France, the perfect place to relax and rekindle their flagging marriage.
And the Lesters are looking forward to showing their son, Rafael, around their old haunts in the British capital.
Sounds wonderful. Except for one thing - both families are hiding dark secrets, and secrets have a way of coming out...
In France, there’s a mysterious break-in at the chateau. Then the Browns discover that a woman who lived there disappeared and was never seen again. Instead of feeling rested and relaxed, they now feel isolated and vulnerable.
Then, in London, 17-year-old Rafael vanishes without a trace.
As the tension mounts to an unbearable pitch, both couples are forced to face their darkest demons. Someone won’t be coming home…
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My Rating: 1 star out of 5
For a book that purports to be a thriller, I wasn't feeling very thrilled while reading which considering the potential this book could have had was very disappointing. So much of it was just the telling of mundane things that were going on that did nothing for the actual plot. The Browns attend a wine tasting at the vineyard next door to the chalet, Mrs. Lester goes out and buys expensive clothing that she knows they can't afford, only to return it the next day. Rafael makes friends with the neighbor, only to bail one day when he is hanging out with a group of people who are only a year or so older than he is. Elodie wanders around the village while Lewis is off one one of his many bike rides. Susan is acting shady while her husband is dealing with potentially life altering medical issues. See what I mean? So much that seemed to be thrown in just for the sake of adding to the word count.
Sadly, neither the house swap itself, nor the characters could save this one. To begin with, if this was a new venture that Elodie and her business partner Niall were undertaking, you would have thought they would do a more thorough job at vetting the houses. While Susan, Piers and Rafael get to spend two weeks in a lavish townhouse full of expensive things, Lewis and Elodie are meant to stay in a "chateau" that in reality is anything but. There is work being done on the outside, meaning work crews and loud noises, not to mention the constant references to the inside smelling "dank", hardly a fair trade if you ask me, even if it did have impressive views.
The characters were all barely likeable, each one whining about one thing or another, to the point that when the secrets started coming out, not only was I left less than impressed, it really felt like this was a case of too little, too late. I wish there had been more sprinkled out throughout the entire book, not just crammed into the last few chapters. As it was by the time I was finished, I felt as though the whole thing had been rather anti-climatic.
After seeing all of the higher reviews, I'm just going to chalk this up to being a case of me not being the right kind of reader for this book. I would give this author another chance down the road to see if maybe this was just an off book for them.
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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