I LOVED this <b>4.5 Star</b> psychological thriller! It was a total cat and mouse game which kept me on the edge of my seat, reading way past my bedtime.
<b>SUMMARY</b>
Amy Way loves her life! It's a fairly simple one; she's a dive instructor in Pensacola, FL, very happily married, step mom to spirited15 year old Maddie and mom to eight month old Oliver. She lives in a middle class, family centric neighborhood and has many mom-friends. She has a very tight bond with her BFF, Char, who is one of her favorite people in the world.
Life is pretty nearly perfect except for a secret Amy has kept buried in her past. It is both her hidden shame and biggest regret. Although it happened more than 25 years ago, she still thinks about it almost every day.
One evening, a beautiful stranger, who has moved into the one and only neighborhood VRBO, shows up for Char's book club meeting. This stranger, Roux, manages to hijack the meeting, get everyone to drink too much and then, after most of the women leave, she convinces the remaining drinkers to play a version of <i>I Never</i>. Amy finds this very unsettling. Although she works hard to avoid answering any questions, she feels she has been singled out by this game. Maybe it's just guilt over her secret, but Amy feels Roux trying to corner her. Additionally, she finds out a few things about her neighbors that she really would rather not know. Pretty soon it becomes clear that Roux is not what she seems.
Told from Amy's POV, the story flips back and forth between the past, recounting Amy's secret, and the present as she and Roux face off against each other in a battle for everything Amy holds dear.
<b>WHAT I LOVED</b>
I really loved Amy! She was the kind of main character you wanted to see win in the end. As an overweight, marginalized teenager with an unrequited crush on her handsome BFF, it was so darn easy to sympathize with her. I desperately wanted her to find moments of happiness and of course I wanted the BFF, Tig, to love her back as more than a friend. Their personalities just clicked, it could have been great! Then, as the adult Amy; the one who had lost the weight, found herself and found the real love of her life, I wanted her to be able to hold on to this life. I loved how she managed to match wits with slippery Roux and hold her own. I loved how fiercely she loved not only her own baby, Oliver, but also her step daughter, husband and BFF Char. I completely admire that type of loyalty and the ability to love fully. She has definitely made a HUGE irreversible mistake or two in her life, but she knew it, she lived with it and suffered deeply from it. She really did try to set things right. It was one horrible mistake in an otherwise quite decent life.
I also loved Maddy. She was a spunky fifteen year old girl who called her step mom her "step monster" or just "monster" for short and it was truly a term of affection. I have an admiration for spirited girls both in literature and real life. They are just more fun.
The next best part of the book was the suspense. I kept thinking it was close to being done but then another twist would come along and I would realize there was more to come. I actually had to force myself to stop reading one night / morning when I realized it was 5 a.m.! I kept waiting for a good stopping point and never found one. I could not stop!! The ending was not at all what I expected!!! It took me by surprise!
<b>WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE</b>
There was one part near the very end that was pretty disturbing. I could have been just fine not having that in my head. Yuck. I don't want to say anything else about that because it leads to a big twist and it would be a huge spoiler.
<b>OVERALL</b>
Minus the part I mentioned above, this was a great story. It would make a fantastic book club selection; so many themes, moral and ethical grey areas to discuss and the characters would be so fun to dissect.
Manda T.
Tiffany