THE PRETTIEST ONE: A THRILLER
By: James Hankins
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
402 pages
Caitlin Sommers finds herself in a deserted parking lot covered in blood. She has no memory of where she has been for the last several months. This is the beginning of Caitlin’s story. She is desperate to find out where she’s been, but afraid, at the same time, to face the truth.
A thrill ride that takes you on a journey that is not for the “faint of heart.” Wonderful character development, believable storyline, a true page turner, with an ending that I was not expecting. My intentions were to read this book over the course of a few days. That didn’t happened. Once I started reading, I had to know what happened next.5 stars!

This book was really just OK. I found myself interested in the mystery story that was unfolding, and the concept of the book, but the characters were just entirely too predictable, and hard to believe. The main character was without flaw, which is simply difficult to stomach chapter after chapter. The way EVERYONE in this book feels about her is excruciatingly annoying. I feel like there are many other mystery/thriller books out there that are much more worth the read than this one.

This book amazed me
Mainly that it got 4 stars on Amazon.
The premise of a woman who goes into a dissociative fugue for seven months was difficult to swallow. I could let that ride until the two men in her life show up. I don't know any men that talk like that. Really. It's like the men's dialog was written by someone who had never spoken to a man before but imagined how they would talk. The constant teasing of the macho guy directed at the nerdy guy quickly became annoying and predictable.
Yeah - give this one a pass. I wish I did.

The Prettiest One was a fast paced, engaging thriller about a woman, Caitlin, suffering from memory loss. As amnesia stories go, this was definitely one of the better ones. It gripped me right from the start, and I felt the plot and the characters were well developed. I enjoyed the witty interactions between Josh, Caitlin's husband, and Bix, Caitlin's fiancé. I was never quite sure where the plot was heading, so full marks for unpredictability. The only reason why I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is my issue with some of the writing. There was a lot of repetition, the same information being rehashed as if the author wasn't quite sure the reader would get it the first time round, so better mention it again, but just in slightly different words. That became a bit annoying.
Apart from that, a solid enjoyable thriller.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Do yourself a favor and just don't read this. Bad writing, bad plot, bad dialogue, far-fetched nonsense.

The Prettiest One started off promising and then just fell off and dragged on for 80% of the book. The final 20% when things started coming together was slightly more interesting but dissatisfying. There were a few plot holes that didn't make sense and were integral to the story and the way it was told.

I have mixed feelings about The Prettiest One. I picked this book up as my Kindle First read for the month, and based on the reviews I was seeing and the premise for the book, I really expected to enjoy it.

It wasn't as amazing as I was hoping for. This was a solid 2.5 / 5 stars for me.

There were parts of the plot that went against logic, and if the reader can look past those moments, it's an enjoyable enough read. I had trouble connecting to the main character (who is referred to by so many different names over the course of the book). The one character I did find myself liking was Bix. I particularly liked the bantering that happens back and forth between Bix and Josh. I found the plot twists to be predictable, and the story didn't pull me in enough to make me overlook that fact.

I listened to the audio version of this book and probably wouldn't have finished it if I had been reading it. I find it easier to listen to books that I'm not really into than reading them.

I will start with the good. I kind of enjoyed a couple of the characters. I liked Caitlin, the main character and I liked Bix. I also did want to know what would happen next.

I thought the dialog was not real and it was corny. Also, the same corny jokes were made over and over. I rolled my eyes quite a few times listening to this book. The story was not told in a way that made it believable at all. The "bad guys" in the book seemed totally unrealistic to me. There were things that just happened for no reason and never went anywhere. Overall, I just wasn't a fan.

While it was a fairly typical suspense thriller, it did have some interesting twists. I did very much like the characters of Caitlin and Bix. I felt it was all a bit too tidy though.

This book had its ups and downs but leaned more heavily toward the downs for me. Caitlin/Katie entered a fugue state as the result of a traumatic events and has no memory of the last seven months of her life. She and her husband return to the town where she spent the last seven months and team up with the boyfriend she had during that time period to determine what happened while she was in the fugue state. Interesting premise but the execution was just so-so. There were a lot of loose ends, and I just could not understand why Josh and Caitlin would not call the police. I stuck with it just to find out the backstory and to see where it all ended, but I don't foresee this book staying with me for the long haul.