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vj_thompson's review against another edition
The writing was hard to follow. There also topic in the book that made it hard to enjoy the story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Grief
booksbytheglass's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
after having the unpopular opinion of the decade on WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME (spoiler, I wasn’t a fan), I’m so happy that this one was a win in my book!!
the story surrounds julia, a detective in the middle of a mental breakdown, and her case to find a missing women. while the plot, unfortunately, sounds familiar, I promise you, nothing about this story is! it’s full of twists and turns, and I swear, the ending had me pumping my fist in the air!!!
gillian’s writing is so dang clever - I would absolutely love to see her spreadsheets and post-it walls to figure out how she’s able to craft such an intrigue timeline!!
there’s one plot twist towards the middle of the book that I did not see coming, and I’m equal parts mad and impressed that I didn’t 🤣 I actually had to put the book down, scream into the void, and then go back and tab to see what the heck I missed the first time
however, the remaining twists in the plot seemed not to pay out as I would have liked to see. there were a few unbelievable moments when it came to the publicity of missing women as well as the ability to effectively lie to the police so easily … and I definitely wanted more from the ending!! it felt super rushed 😭
overall, this was such a bingeable thriller to start off spooky season! I’m so happy I was able to snag a copy of this one through BOTM!
rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: rioja red blend
the story surrounds julia, a detective in the middle of a mental breakdown, and her case to find a missing women. while the plot, unfortunately, sounds familiar, I promise you, nothing about this story is! it’s full of twists and turns, and I swear, the ending had me pumping my fist in the air!!!
gillian’s writing is so dang clever - I would absolutely love to see her spreadsheets and post-it walls to figure out how she’s able to craft such an intrigue timeline!!
there’s one plot twist towards the middle of the book that I did not see coming, and I’m equal parts mad and impressed that I didn’t 🤣 I actually had to put the book down, scream into the void, and then go back and tab to see what the heck I missed the first time
however, the remaining twists in the plot seemed not to pay out as I would have liked to see. there were a few unbelievable moments when it came to the publicity of missing women as well as the ability to effectively lie to the police so easily … and I definitely wanted more from the ending!! it felt super rushed 😭
overall, this was such a bingeable thriller to start off spooky season! I’m so happy I was able to snag a copy of this one through BOTM!
rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: rioja red blend
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Minor: Infidelity
bekah1210's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking
Minor: Infidelity and Trafficking
3readingcircus's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, and Stalking
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Infertility, Death of parent, Cancer, and Suicide
alisonannk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, and Infidelity
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Deportation, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Police brutality, and Blood
outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When a 22-year-old woman goes missing, the detective who catches the case is determined to find her. Olivia is captured on CCTV entering a dead-end alley & after that she seemingly disappears into thin air. This is the second case of a missing young woman that Julia has worked on recently, but the first woman, Sadie, was never found. Julia feels guilty over this as she knows her eye wasn't on the ball due to an incident involving her daughter, Genevieve & she vows to do better with Olivia's case. As she heads out to go to the house where Olivia had recently moved to, she is panicked to find a masked man sat in the back of her car. He hands her a bag containing a cigarette butt & a glass & tells her that if she wants her (& Genevieve's) secrets kept under wraps, she needs to frame someone called Matthew James for Olivia's murder. Can Julia find out what happened to Olivia & prevent a possibly innocent man from being blamed without endangering herself & her daughter?
I really enjoyed the author's "Wrong Place Wrong Time" so requesting this ARC was a no-brainer. The first half was a bit slow & I didn't really enjoy it much due to the main character. This is a police detective of experience & yet when she is being blackmailed & forced to frame Matthew James, Julia immediately starts 1) trying to get CPS to charge him for murder with no body found, 2) missing vital avenues of evidence, 3) accessing online records & recordings & leaving a digital trace of what she was doing - in short, acting so squirrely that all her colleagues notice there is something not quite right. Surely the opposite of what she would have wanted when trying to protect her daughter.
It also bothered me that the evidence against Matthew was basically a cigarette butt & fingerprints on a glass - both found in the missing girl's room. Now, maybe I've watched too much CSI, but it struck me as strange that nobody pointed out (even Matthew's solicitor) that the only DNA evidence at the scene was found on portable items & that his fingerprints or DNA (not even a stray hair) were not found anywhere else in the room or indeed the house, & that those items could easily have been planted (which indeed they were). None of the above is a spoiler by the way, it's all laid out very early on.
The second half of the book actually saved it though. There were some good twists & the main plot line itself was very well done. I did find it a bit annoying how easily Julia forgave her husband for cheating with a colleague after the memorable line of (I'm paraphrasing) "I was so drunk, it could have been anyone". Well, I mean, that's ok then?! Verdict: first half slow & MC was difficult to empathise with, but the second half pulled it round with some well-timed twists.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
I really enjoyed the author's "Wrong Place Wrong Time" so requesting this ARC was a no-brainer. The first half was a bit slow & I didn't really enjoy it much due to the main character. This is a police detective of experience & yet when she is being blackmailed & forced to frame Matthew James, Julia immediately starts 1) trying to get CPS to charge him for murder with no body found, 2) missing vital avenues of evidence, 3) accessing online records & recordings & leaving a digital trace of what she was doing - in short, acting so squirrely that all her colleagues notice there is something not quite right. Surely the opposite of what she would have wanted when trying to protect her daughter.
It also bothered me that the evidence against Matthew was basically a cigarette butt & fingerprints on a glass - both found in the missing girl's room. Now, maybe I've watched too much CSI, but it struck me as strange that nobody pointed out (even Matthew's solicitor) that the only DNA evidence at the scene was found on portable items & that his fingerprints or DNA (not even a stray hair) were not found anywhere else in the room or indeed the house, & that those items could easily have been planted (which indeed they were). None of the above is a spoiler by the way, it's all laid out very early on.
The second half of the book actually saved it though. There were some good twists & the main plot line itself was very well done. I did find it a bit annoying how easily Julia forgave her husband for cheating with a colleague after the memorable line of (I'm paraphrasing) "I was so drunk, it could have been anyone". Well, I mean, that's ok then?! Verdict: first half slow & MC was difficult to empathise with, but the second half pulled it round with some well-timed twists.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Penguin Random House/Michael Joseph, for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Infidelity
bringmybooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thank you to Edelweiss, William Morrow, & HarperCollins for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.
✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷
HI HEY HELLO I NEED YOU TO KNOW THIS WAS FAB
Okay, so I picked up Wrong Place Wrong Time last year at a crazy going out of business sale (it was like $4 for the HC, how can you go wrong?) and read it shortly thereafter - read it, devoured it, tomato, tomatoh, what have you. I have recommended that book to SO many people since reading it and I’m so stoked to say that I will be recommending this one just as much!
It took me a tiny little bit to get fully sunk into the story and kind of understand how the different POVs connected (and one of my hunches was correct which obvs made me feel like a genius), but once I did I was HOOKED. The plot itself was ingenious (similar to Wrong Place Wrong Time!) and I loved how it all came together.
This is also one of those books that, while not what you would necessarily consider for a book club, would be PERFECT for the occasion. There is a lot to unpack/unravel here and I cannot wait for other people to read this in August so I can talk to them about it!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Death
Minor: Kidnapping, Deportation, Violence, Murder, Trafficking, and Gun violence
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