Reviews

I don't spend much time reading other reviews, other than the obligatory quick scroll to make sure that a book isn't universally reviled or authored by a questionable human. However, I find myself incredibly intrigued by the reaction to this book - many found it to be a run-of-the-mill thriller, others lamented its predictability and suggested it for those new to the genre.

While the premise of Every Vow You Break is, admittedly, your standard thriller fare (a normal woman marries a very wealthy man and chaos ensues - apparently, this is also a favorite trope of Swanson's as well), I found the reveal and plot beyond this to be a breath of fresh air in this current landscape of copy and paste domestic dramas. To be fair, anything not set directly in the home gets a thumbs up from me at this point.

As far as being predictable, if you read enough then yes, you will be able to sniff out some suspicious behavior and perhaps deduce that someone here is not telling the whole truth, but there were several points where I found myself thinking "oh, I didn't think we were gonna take *that* kind of turn."

I feel like Every Vow You Break is a solid, interesting read. Sure, it's imperfect - the writing in the first, say, half of the book is weirdly choppy and has next to no flow. But I also recently read Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing and found it to be, while well-written and interesting, overrated in the grand scheme of thrillers. It was compared to Gone Girl (a descriptor that sets any book up to fail, if you ask me) and I thought that was a bit of a stretch.

Is this book for everyone? Certainly not. I myself agree with/find myself thinking deeply about what other reviews say about how misogyny is portrayed here - are the women given a fair write? Does the unlikable nature of characters detract from the book? How do we as readers reconcile misogyny as a plot device with our own sensibilities? I'm not sure what the answers are, but I do know that reading this one made me think hard about these things.

gianna89's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

srangrej's review against another edition

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3.0

Abigail is set to marry Bruce and before her wedding on her bachelorette party, she has an intense night with Scott. She receives an email before the wedding from Scott (she wonders how he got her email considering they didn’t share their names the night of the affair) where he asks Abigail to meet him up. Abigail sees him in her town when the email is sent, but she sends him an email back saying she’s going to marry Bruce and to not bother her anymore. Abigail and Bruce get married and for their honeymoon, they fly to a secret island that Bruce always goes to entertain his clients. When they get to the island, the first night, she sees Scott. She wonders how he followed her and knew she was going to be there. Scott eventually runs into her and he says “I need you to sleep with me one more time to show me that it meant nothing.” Abigail is completely terrified and wonders if she should tell Bruce. Abigail gets her best friend to dish dirt out on Scott and it turns out that it’s not his real name and that he’s someone else. One night, Abigail sees one of the women running through the woods. Abigail has them start a search party, but the pilot from the island and everyone says that they checked out and she must be mistaken by what she sees. Eventually, she’s held captive where she also sees the girl she had seen running through the woods and she eventually gets murdered. Same thing had happened to that girl where she also cheated on her husband on her bachelorette night and the guy also appears on the island. It turns out that the island is for women that break their trust and its to teach them a lesson. Everyone, including the pilot, Scott, Bruce, island owner.. they are all in on this.

kthilmer's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

3.0

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