This is yet another phenomenal Thriller that will be added to my favorites list of 2022! I haven’t read anything by Hillier prior to this book, but now I need to go through her backlist because wow. Just WOW. 

Starting with the characters, I thought everyone was fleshed out, which is great. But, I was invested in Paris from page one; I was curious to know where her story was going to go, and whew, was I taken for a ride! I couldn’t wait to learn more about her, WTF actually happened to her husband, and her connection to others throughout the story. 

As for Joey (🫢) , my heart broke for her a million times over. She was failed by literally everyone in her life (Ruby deserves the absolute worst ❤️) and all I wanted to do was hug her and tell her that one day, things will get better, and the people who wronged her will get theirs in the end. To expand on that a bit more, I typically don’t read books that have topics centering around child and s*xual abuse, so this book was very difficult to read at times. It was a painful reminder that there are so many (WAY too many) people in the world experiencing or who have experienced what Joey went through and it infuriates me. There were only a few silver linings for her, but I appreciated when they did appear and shine bright. 

I also wanted to note that I did figure out some of the plot twists pretty early on, but because there is so much to unpack within this story, it didn’t bother me as much. I still found myself peeling back layers and layers of each character involved which still made the story interesting and engaging, and all of these factors made everything tie together nicely in the end.