Author: Jane Casey
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Rating: 1/5
Cover Impressions: Pretty but predictable. I love the colors and the stormy sea.
The Gist: Jess Tennant has been dragged to her mother's hometown while she recovers from her recent divorce. Jess quickly realizes that she bears a remarkable resemblance to her cousin Freya, who died a year ago of an apparent suicide. Something about Freya's death doesn't seem right and Jess throws herself into the investigation. Everyone is a suspect and Jess begins to learn that Port Sentinel is not the sleepy little town that she had expected.
Review:
Wow, I was really disappointed in this book. I'm actually pretty surprised. I was excited by the premise, I was in the mood for a good, grabbing mystery, it had pretty decent ratings on Goodreads... I just didn't like it.
First of all, the main character annoyed the heck out of me. She had a particularly bland personality with some boring facts (like a bad breakup and being the child of divorce) thrown in in a futile attempt to give her some depth. She was meant to be determined and committed, but she came off as stubborn and irritating. Her only investigative tool was to ask incessant questions until the person she was interrogating got angry. Eventually she came up with a dumbass, dangerous plan that would never have worked in real life and would and resulted in her getting killed.
To be honest, there weren't really any characters in this novel that I enjoyed. The mother basically disappears, only emerging in order to look have some angsty scene with a married man that leaves her looking desperate, idiotic and pathetic. The police officer/mom's love interest seriously skeeved me out and neither of the main character's love interests were particularly appealing.
First of all, the main character annoyed the heck out of me. She had a particularly bland personality with some boring facts (like a bad breakup and being the child of divorce) thrown in in a futile attempt to give her some depth. She was meant to be determined and committed, but she came off as stubborn and irritating. Her only investigative tool was to ask incessant questions until the person she was interrogating got angry. Eventually she came up with a dumbass, dangerous plan that would never have worked in real life and would and resulted in her getting killed.
To be honest, there weren't really any characters in this novel that I enjoyed. The mother basically disappears, only emerging in order to look have some angsty scene with a married man that leaves her looking desperate, idiotic and pathetic. The police officer/mom's love interest seriously skeeved me out and neither of the main character's love interests were particularly appealing.
The mystery isn't so much of a mystery and there wasn't nearly as much action as I was hoping. I think I would have been more invested in the story if we had been given an opportunity to get to know Freya as she seems like a much more interesting character than Jess. The ending was particularly drawn out and boring. Once the main mystery was uncovered, there were pages and pages of angsty crap while we sorted out things that were very obviously going to happen. I was even more disappointed to see a sneak peak at the end of this book, meaning that the author seems to have found a way to toss another mystery in Jess' path and more time to devote to her incessant questioning. I, for one, will not be signing on for that story.
Teaching/Parental Notes:
Age: 13 and up
Sex: Kissing
Violence: Falling from a cliff
Inappropriate Language: Slut, Bitch, Bastard
Substance Use/Abuse: Smoking
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