Rating: 3 Stars
Days it Took to Read: 6

Review: I liked but did not love this book. It was pretty similar to two of my recent reads (The Waiting Room and What She Gave Away)...it had similar plot points but combined them into one book with a few extra twists. This book was translated so that may also be a reason it didn’t quite click for me. Definitely would be enjoyable to some thriller/mystery readers, just had higher hopes for this one. If you’ve been to Stockholm, Sweden, you may enjoy this book more and understand the setting better.

The book was narrated in the first person by three different characters: Stella, Isabelle, and Kerstin. Stella believes that Isabelle is her daughter Alice who was kidnapped as a baby while Kerstin claims she is Isabelle’s biological mom and does everything she can to protect her daughter from Stella. Having the three viewpoints really allows the reader to navigate through the mystery and try to figure out if there is any truth to Stella’s claim. With insight from these three characters, I kept going back and forth between believing Stella and thinking she is completely crazy.

The conclusion (no spoiler) is somewhat open-ended so the reader can decide what happens to the characters in the end. That is something I usually enjoy, but it also drives me crazy because I just have to know how everyone ends up…even minor characters.

I definitely think I would have appreciated this book more if I were familiar with Stockholm and did not read two similar books beforehand. Although it was not the most unique thriller, there were some twists I liked. I would definitely consider reading books by this author again and would recommend this book to the right person.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for an advanced copy of this book for my honest review!