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There is also an interesting moral dilemma for the reader as to wether you forgive something truly horrific in a characters past when they repent Short, snappy chapters kept this moving along at a brisk pace! You never knew when another revelation might be dropped in a casual conversation so it was important to pay attention to ALL of the secrets and lies being exposed! My favourite part was the show of how a thing as murder can shake and change relationships that seemed strong before. How one can stop trusting a person and question their intentions, even though prior the big event they would swear on their life for them. This is one of those books where a really good review could completely spoil the plot. So i will proceed without spoilers. But a family scandal shows that nothing is as it seems. Bina’s oldest friendship starts to unravel and she finds herself as an outsider in the community she helped build. Suhani discovers that her perfect marriage isn’t as solid as she thought. Natasha faces a series of rejections that send her into a downward spiral.
Good thing is that it was easy to read, but a bad thing is that it was too repetitive, so many things that were already said were mentioned again and again... I’ve read all of Shari Lapena’s suspense novels (except her last one, which I plan to make right soon), and I have loved all of them. I rarely DNF books, and I almost never do it when I get a review copy, but I completely understand why one would chose not to finish this novel, as it was too repetitive with all the he said she said parts that it became boring.Suhani, Natasha and Anuj are the American children of Indian immigrants Deepak, a psychiatrist like his oldest daughter Suhani, and Bina, a former Bollywood actress with a promising career cut short and a prominent member of her local Desi community in Atlanta, Georgia. The three children have all faced different pressures from different aspects of their parents and surrounding community. If you enjoy books with: shite people who are fun to read about, multiple suspects, and multiple motives...READ THIS! I've read quite a few Shari Lapena books now, and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. I think I've finally figured out that I adore her mysteries (someone is killed and there are multiple suspects), while I don't like her domestic thrillers (husband or wife could be lying, so are they or aren't they). This mystery definitely goes onto my list of favorites from her. The downside? Since there are only so many characters to choose from...I felt I could eliminate the 'obvious' suspects at about 60-70%. I had a very interesting ending in mind that I was hoping would somehow be accurate (and provide me with the crazy twisted ending I was looking for) but it didn't come to pass.
The Wishbones return home, and their circumstances change. Frank stands up for himself at work after putting a photo of their family adventure and the frozen Dracula on his desk, Max's bully has realised the error of his ways and befriends him, and Fay meets a nerd in a knight's costume at a costume party that Emma throws at home. Baba Yaga, Renfield, and the three bats crash the party. The family takes another photo together, showing their happiness. Practice manager, Beth has a happy life, two children she adores, a great job she loves and good friends (although all her best friends are much older than she is, around the same age as her mother – 😉 read into that what you will). And, talking of mothers, Beth’s mum walked out on her and her father some thirty years ago when Beth was ten.I did guess early on though,-I just felt it in me that the ending was who I thought it would be and it made me cry when the DNA proved it, I couldn't of been more happier. Then there's the two other women we get to meet Robyn her housekeeper n nanny and a lovely homeless lady Nadia. Both women seem like ladies you want as friends so I just loved the part they play in Beth's life.
Yes! Unfortunately knives are not out! Because the poor caretaker Irena already washed away the murder weapon, cleaning the traces of blood and fingertips of the murderer. She has good intentions. She literally raised those kids and she truly knows how they suffered from controlling monster a.k.a real psychopath father of the year with a big ugly secret. This was a fast-paced read, centered on divorced mom of two, Beth, whose mother walked out on her 30 years ago when she was just 10 years old. Beth lives a happy and fulfilled life, but always felt like something was missing due to the absence of her mother in her life. One day, out of the blue, her mother appears at her door. Now available from Pamela Dorman Books. I thank my local library for providing me with a copy through the drive-up window. 🤣 But for me, the real star of the show was Bina. I thought getting her perspective in the book made it so much more interesting. So often in family dramas the parents are to blame for everything and their perspective and experience, especially as middle-aged members of the unit, are often overlooked. That was not the case here. I loved Bina so much even though in initial chapters told from the perspective of her children I thought I would not. Her struggles were so real and the pressures put on her by her culture, society, and experience as an immigrant made for such an interesting character. I thought she was an amazingly strong woman and would love to go to one of her coveted Chats Over Chai meetings! Dr Beth Mosley MBE is one of the UK’s most experienced and respected consultant clinical psychologists, and she works with children, young people and their families every day. In this groundbreaking guide aimed at parents of children aged 4-21, she offers a comprehensive toolkit that will help you make sense of what your child is going through and give you the hope and reassurance you need to make a change.My favorite character was of course Suhani. She’s the epitome of who I want to be. Up until recently I had actually not read or seen a lot of Indian women going into the field of medicine because they actually wanted to rather than their parents just telling them they should. Anyways, I felt like Suhani was a reflection of myself and her relationship with Natasha, her sister, definitely had some similarities to my sister and I’s relationship. Besides the wonderful cast of characters, I thought the writing style was easy to read without being juvenile which is an aspect that I was looking for in a South Asian adult fiction book. I found that many SA adult fiction books had characters or contained writing that came across as juvenile which is just difficult for me to relate to because of how I was raised and the independence I’ve had from an early age. This book was not for me. First, it had body shaming in it. That is a big no-no, and I really, really wish the character involved would have said, "I'm a real woman. I've had children. This is what a real body looks like." Instead, the character just felt guilty and self conscious. Second, the portrayal of the MC was nauseating. She was acting entirely silly and non-sensical, ignoring perfectly obvious signs and things that were wrong. She also let her ex run all over her, allowing him to take the kids, yell at her, burst into her home when he felt like it. That's not how things work these days. One parent cannot just unilaterally terminate a parent's rights. The MC talks about how she and her ex get along great. If that is the case, he should respect some boundaries. Third, the book was so entirely predictable. I guessed the ending very early on. Fourth, the pacing was really off. Typically, I tend to enjoy slower paced books, but this was just too slow even for me. The storytelling just was not there. The Happy Family did not seem to build in anticipation, and there was far too much foreshadowing. The premise is that Beth is a divorced women with two children, a boy and a girl. The relationship with her ex and his new partner is excellent and the children are happy to live with Beth and equally happy to spend time with Dad and Crystal. Her father is in a brilliant care home and she visits him regularly. She works as a practice manager for a doctors’ surgery. She is friendly, efficient and happy. She has good friends at work and two very good friends as neighbours. The only blot on her horizon is the nightmares that frequent her dreams. These she associates with the disappearance of her mother when she was very young. She can recall the unhappy woman and can almost understand why she left her father who was 40 years older than her. Still… But that’s all in the past. Life is looking up for Beth. She got to keep her large house after the divorce, has an amicable relationship with her ex husband, and a close circle of friends among her colleagues at the health centre and her neighbours.
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