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An ARC copy of this book was provided to me in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.
MY REVIEW:
You Look Beautiful Tonight is the story of Mia. She works her dream job as a librarian, has two best friends (Jack and Jess), and she’s close with her parents – even if there are strains in their relationship. Her entire life, Mia has felt invisible, and this right here is the crux of the entire story. When we look closely at ourselves, I’m sure we can all at least quietly admit that we’ve had moments in time of feeling invisible. Some of those periods of time may be longer and others shorter. But Mia has spent a large portion of her life convincing herself that she truly is invisible. Going out of her way to repeatedly prove the point to those around her.
Through this behavior, Mia is driven into a cycle of self reflection that if she cannot see through the barriers and walls she herself has created, then she will struggle to overcome this stalker that has arrived in her life that seems to understand and relate with her level of “invisibility”. There are LOTS of twists and turns in this one that I did not see coming right away, but the stalker feel and vibe does justice to making you feel as uncomfortable as Mia herself feels.
This is the kind of book that makes you stop in your tracks and evaluate your relationships with everyone around you. It dives deep into buried emotional issues for the main character, as well as all the activity happening around her. What I love most about Mia is that she’s always critical – even with the chaos of a crazy stalker whirling around her – she’s always questioning the things she’s seeing and what’s happening to her. This is a critical element of characters that mean the most to me. She’s not duped into thinking in the wrong direction or questioning what’s happening.
The ending felt rushed to me though and I wanted to spend some more time in the realization phase of what had happened with Mia. This was my only drawback on the entire book – the revelation and conclusion felt too fast for me and I wanted more time with these characters.
An absolute treat of a story though and had me genuinely creeped out for days feeling slightly paranoid about my own information online.
GET IT HERE:
A secret admirer’s devotion turns deadly in a twisting novel of psychological suspense.
Mia Anderson is an invisible woman. An unremarkable thirty-two-year-old Tennessee librarian, she’s accustomed to disappearing in a crowd, unseen and unheard. Then she receives an anonymous note: You look beautiful today.
It doesn’t stop there. The attentive stranger—a secret admirer named Adam—has plans for Mia. With each new text comes a suggestion for her hair, clothes, or attitude, and for the first time in memory, Mia feels noticed. Slowly, she develops a confidence in herself she’s never had. But Adam has a surprise coming…and Mia finally sees him for who he is and what he’s prepared to do for her. Even kill.
Fearing she could be implicated in the murder, Mia’s forced to turn to the stranger in the shadows watching her every move. Adam’s game of cat and mouse begins with Mia as the prey. In order to survive, she must also become the predator.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
aka Lisa Renee Jones
L.R. Jones is a pseudonym for New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, whose dark, edgy fiction includes the highly acclaimed novels The Poet, A Perfect Lie, and the Lilah Love series. Prior to publishing, Lisa owned a multistate staffing agency recognized by the Austin Business Journal. Lisa was listed as #7 in Entrepreneur magazine’s list of growing women-owned businesses. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a cat who always has something to say, and a golden retriever who’s afraid of her own bark. For more information, visit www.lisareneejones.com.
Adventures in Literature 