Twenty years ago, a teenager is attacked in the house where she is babysitting 7-year-old twins. With the resultant diminished mental capacity, Emma doesn't recall anything about that night so she's unable to help the police find the person who did it. Emma was the most popular senior at River Glen High School and for a long time it was thought that the vicious deed was committed by one or more of the boys from school. No arrests. Unable to go to college as planned, Emma lives with her mother in town and works at a thrift shop.
When mom dies, her younger sister, Jamie, returns with her 15-year-old daughter, Harley, to live there with Emma and help care for her. Not too long later, Harley's new friend, Marissa, is babysitting in the same house when she is also attacked. In addition, there are other things going on in the town. A couple deaths. And it's quite convenient that the boy that Jamie had a crush on in high school happens to be a police detective there now. NO SPOILERS
I struggled throughout this book because I don't feel that it was quite what was advertised from the synopsis etc. It was not suspenseful, it was not a thriller, and it seemed super long -- so much so that I read it in starts and stops. There were way too many characters and so much going on that made the narrative so convoluted as to be underwhelming -- but it might have been saved had all that detail been really interesting. I didn't really like any of the characters and the whole story seemed very contrived with the coincidences and really hideous people. It's like nobody ever left the town and never grew up. And, it was easy to see where this was all going despite all the effort made to disguise the reveals with lots of description. I was quite disappointed and feel misled by so many positive reviews. I thought it was just OK.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone and is not part of any series.\
Genre - contemporary drama, romance, mystery
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