Read Completed 2/13/25 | 3 stars | Book #15 of 2025 

I wasn’t super into this for most of the book, but I trusted that the twists were going to take me where I needed to be, and that was true! I did see one of them coming and it was actually exciting to see that particular piece slot into place. I didn’t have the whole thing right, so there was also still an element of surprise there. The ending also had another little gem for me, so I was happy to see another fun twist and reveal something I wasn’t expecting. 

Really, the writing of this one let me down. I wouldn’t say it felt like Freida McFadden, but I did have some similar feelings from when I’ve read her books. For a lot of people, that’s a good thing. For me, it was overly dramatic, I didn’t like the insinuation that things were almost horror like the constantly talking about how the house had feelings of its own — it’s not haunted, the house doesn’t have feelings. It’s a thriller, not a horror novel. There was a LOT going on. The pieces did all come together so I was happy that the author really did use every piece. I didn’t find it hard to follow because of how much was going on but it became less enjoyable. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time on some parts of the story and I could have felt a much bigger emotional impact. 

This was a little over-the-top and I don’t mind that in some thrillers because they’re supposed to shock us, but this was just a tad much for me. If the writing was a little tighter, I might not have cared.