A review by obsidian_blue
The Ex by Freida McFadden

4.0

Not a bad thriller. I loved the twists. I only gave it four stars though because it feels similar to another ending by this author I just read. I have a hard time with people figuring out a murderer and just tra la laing afterwards.

Full review: I loved how this was set up, you follow a man named Joel's ex, Franchesca, and his current girlfriend, Cassie. We quickly find out that Joel's ex has been with him for about 10 years, she's ready to get married and thinks he is going to propose, however, he breaks up with her. She has a hard time moving on and starts some light stalking of Cassie.

Cassie though is looking for some Wuthering Heights type of love. Aside here, did no one read that book and find Heathcliff and Caty toxic? Just me? Anyhoo, Cassie likes Joel, but is not sure he's the one. But she starts to like him more and more while hiding a secret from Joel and dealing with minor vandalism to her bookstore. Cassie then starts to wonder if Joel's ex has something to do with things.

There's secondary characters in this one, Cassie's bookstore partner and former friends of Franchesca. I thought they were developed pretty well. I also thought the flow and dialogue worked. The big reason why I only gave this four stars is that the twist/reveal was brilliantly done, but the ending with [redacted] realizing what happened and keeping quiet did not feel right to me at all.