3.5* from me.

The book was intriguing, definitely wanted to keep reading although some parts were slow.

Whitney - I hated her from the start.
Jade - what the hell?
Abby - I also hate you.
Brooke - I didn’t like how the book ended. Yes it was portrayed that she was mentally unstable but the whole premise of it was her fighting for her innocence so for it to end like that was meh.
Kiersten - I’m sorry but how do you steal somebody’s embryos not once, but twice. That’s just so unrealistic.

This book was unhinged about the Hollywood Elite wives, but a lot of parts were just average.

I was very excited to read this book. I've been hearing wonderful things about Berry's books on Booktok, and I even follow her. Unfortunately, this book was very difficult for me. Here's why:

While the story itself was good... a group of mothers torn apart by the murder of one of their friends, full of red herrings to keep the reader from guessing the ending, paced unveilings and a heart racing finish...

The book was heavily unedited. I was shocked to read there was a team of professionals working on this book with Berry.

I am going to spoil now so be aware.

At one point Jade brings baby Iris to Whit's house while she is taking her older daughter to an appointment. Whit then installs a carseat into her car so she can bring both her son, Asher, and Jade's Iris with her in the car. When Whit arrives at her destination, there is mention of Whit holding Asher but where is Iris? As this story line progresses, Jade never returns to pick up Iris, if you've read the book you will understand why this could not have been left out, if Jade and Whit would have interacted in any way to return Iris, it would have been incredibly impactful to the plot. Fastforward hours later, Whit goes to Jade's house. Jade's husband is at the store with both of their children. I was yelling at the book - WHERE IS IRIS?! and HOW DID RYAN GET IRIS?!?!

The other entire plot point that was just so sloppy I could not excuse it was Abby living in Whit's house. We have an entire interaction between Jade and Whit, another between Colin and Whit, we have a concern about a second carseat being seen by Colin all while we are to believe Abby is at the house with her son? No. There is no way she was there. The interaction between Colin and Whit would have been completely different if Abby was actually staying there.

And the third point. Tommy and Colin were best friends from college. Kiersten met Tommy then introduced Whit to his best friend Colin. That is how they hooked up. At the end of the book Colin tells Whit that he was screened by Kiersten through the dating ap. No you were not! You were Tommy's best friend! None of that happened! I almost threw the book in the river when I read that!

These three major plot issues had me distracted to the point where if I had not been so excited to read this book, I would have put it down. Then there were the minor issues like believing Whit was shocked Kiersten was pregnant, Kiersten not knowing about Colin's gambling addiction, Whit saying they shared husbands regularly but then we switch to it happened a couple times in 20 years.

Many people loved this book. I just can't excuse such massive plot issues.

Spoiler

This book was a 4-star story until the very end. I didn’t love how rushed the Brooke/Abby story wrapped up. Then the stolen embryos just pushed it over the top (in a bad way). There was no need for that to be added. It felt it was added for shock value that wasn’t necessary.

This was my second book of Lucinda Berry’s and I immediately started reading it after loving The Best of Friends. This one had a lot of similarities, but unfortunately fell a little flat for me.

A group of girlfriends is completely unraveled after one of them turns up dead at a party. We get a glimpse into multiple lives and POVs, and although it works it’s also a lot to keep track of. I love a good friend group/housewife drama trope, but this was too much. Too many people, too much going on, too many twists happening at once.

It’s a good read overall, I like Berry’s storytelling and her character development is pretty solid even with a large amount of main characters. The twists were good, fairly unexpected, and you really don’t know what’s going to happen next. That being said, the dual storylines definitely start to blur together and get jumbled. There were also a lot of questions left unanswered, and one of my biggest pet peeves in a book is loose ends that remain untied. It’s so frustrating and it’s such an easy thing to fix. This book would’ve been significantly better for me if we had all the answers in the end.

The ending felt very rushed, it’s a pretty slow burn and then suddenly tons of bombs get dropped at once. Some of them could easily have been left out and it wouldn’t have impacted the story. And some of them are just utterly ridiculous and way too unbelievable.

Worth the read I’d say, very quick and easy. It’s cozy mystery esque but still suspenseful enough. Looking forward to my next Lucinda Berry novel.