Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane




Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane
Release Date - December 29, 2020
Publisher Website - Harper Collins
Publisher Social Media - Twitter/Facebook/SavvyReader/Frenzy
Pages - 403 pages
My Rating - 3/5
**borrowed from library**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis
Lila Ridgefield lives in an idyllic college town, but not everything is what it seems. Lila isn’t what she seems. A student vanished months ago. Now, Lila’s husband, Aaron, is also missing. At first these cases are treated as horrible coincidences until it’s discovered the student is really the third of three unexplained disappearances over the last few years. The police are desperate to find the connection, if there even is one. Little do they know they might be stumbling over only part of the truth….

With the small town in an uproar, everyone is worried about the whereabouts of their beloved high school teacher. Everyone except Lila, his wife. She’s definitely confused about her missing husband but only because she was the last person to see his body, and now it’s gone. 

Domestic thrillers are always a fun read which is why they tend to be one of the mystery novel subgenres that I will routinely seek out. Pretty Little Wife takes a familiar premise and makes an enjoyable, page turning read.

The set up for this novel is so good. The synopsis tells you the wife was the last person to see the husband's body. It immediately gets you questioning everything. It starts the book off strong and captures the reader's attention immediately.

This is definitely a case where the plot is the standout. The characters are fine, but nothing really connects them with the reader. Lila should be fascinating but I found character development took a backseat to the plot. It makes it a breezy fun read but unlikely something I will be thinking about weeks from now. It does its job and delivers exactly what it's premise promises.

This reads as very cinematic. I could see this being adapted as a multipart Netflix series. There are enough cliffhangers/reveals to end episodes on and it reads like it was paced for television. 

This book does drag a little in the middle and in to the end. It is a solid, satisfying ending even if parts of it are telegraphed in advance. The final few paragraphs snapped everything in place for me and made me appreciate what the author was doing. The early half is definitely the stronger section of the book but the ending works with what has been laid out.

If you are looking for a fun thriller, one that will keep you up reading late into the night, I recommend checking this one out. It's twists and reveals make it worth the read. It pairs perfectly with some wine  and a cozy night in.

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