That one
night: she thought he was proposing; he thought they were breaking up.
Was there
someone else?
Not yet.
“Much more
than I ever hated Joel, I came to hate this nameless, faceless woman. I wanted
to get back at him for what he did to me. That was my intention from the
beginning. When Joel dumped me that night, he took away my entire
life—my home, my
friends, my dignity.
I could never get
any of that
back. All I wanted was to even
the score. I never meant to kill anyone. I swear.” (11)
Present day:
Twenty-six year old Cassie is struggling to make her family’s bookstore
business thrive again. The last thing she had time for was a relationship. Then
in walks HD (Hot Doctor A.K.A. Joel.)
Meanwhile,
the Ex quietly stands aside and waits…waits to see what Joel does and where he
goes…just waits for him to come back.
“Is he
embarrassed that his
new girlfriend is
apparently a dead
ringer for his
old girlfriend?” (50) That’s kind of a creep factor.
I thought
this story was interesting. It had that frightening suspense angle of the
psychotic ex, but it also had that touch of human empathy because you also get the ex’s side of the
story, which relayed her loss, loneliness, and financial (and mental)
instability.
It’s truly a
rarity for me to like all the characters in a book. I liked Cassie’s love for
books and her resolve to save the bookstore; I felt bad about the Ex’s money
troubles and feared that she may end up in the street. I felt Cassie’s euphoric
high at starting a new relationship, hoping the two would last; and I felt the
Ex’s growing jealousy and resentment, hoping the two would break up. Since the
book is written in the POV’s of the Ex and the New Girl, you feel for and enjoy
these characters the most. The diary format can sometimes be too explicit,
exacerbating the drama more than it should. Obsession is the key element here
and the two girls have a lot of it. In fact, they torture themselves with it,
and you hear all about it in their “diary”—it can get a little tiring
sometimes. I mean, it’s clear that they
both had crazy issues. The constant shift between the two POV’s did slow down
the pace in what follows for a standard psychological thriller. I wish it
would’ve had more action and less whining. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was
“unputdownable,” as indicated on the retail page, but it’s still pretty good.
My rating: 3.5 stars
Intriguing twists but very shallow characters.
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