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MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Thriller, Suspense, Second Chance
Rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐
On the surface, this is a book about a suspicious murder and a woman who lost her husband in a questionable way that she was never able to accept. She has a second chance at life ten years later when she’s met another man she absolutely adores, but then she starts seeing her dead husband everywhere around her. There’s a lot of mystery to follow along with here and it kept me on my toes all the way through.
But also within these pages, there is a story about how families each have their own struggles. Siblings that argue, marriages that are challenged, motherhood and fatherhood that is not always for everyone in the way they think it will be. But everyone finds themselves bound to those they love and also willing to sacrifice everything to protect them.
The alternating timelines were laid out very well. Having a current timeline where June is investigating the appearance of her dead husband and following leads back to his hometown. Alongside the past timeline told from the dead husband’s mother, Bev. Allowing the progression of both timelines to culminate with the inevitable reveal of what I thought I knew was going to happen, and being absolutely stunned with how it unfolds. Leaving me with lots of questions afterwards. Those are the best kinds of books; the ones that leave me thinking about them for days afterwards.
I was also really impressed with the layers of mystery and suspense that filled this one. I’d even thought I figured out the entire story about halfway through and was waiting for my expected outcome to play out – which it never did. It went in an entirely different direction, one that worked really well, and kept me guessing and surprised at every turn.
In the beginning half of the book, I thought June’s character was a standard fleeced woman that just couldn’t see how awful things were and was sugar coating her memory of events. A woman that had been duped by an evil man and left with a memory of someone that only she had. But as the story unfolded, I quickly understood that she is actually a better judge of character than anyone else in this book could hope to be.
Filled with characters that are struggling with their own emotional turmoil, sometimes driven to do awful things that threaten to tear apart their families, but always a central message about caring for those we love. I would say this story sat with me as a reminder to be true to ourselves and be there for those that need us.
GET IT HERE:
The author of The Girls Are All So Nice Here returns with a thriller set in the vineyards of Napa Valley that asks: what happens when the husband you thought died years ago shows up alive?
Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband drowned on their honeymoon, his body never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. She’s excited to finally begin a new chapter in her life and start a family.
But out of the blue, she sees him—Josh, her first husband. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that her husband never died in the first place?
June tries to forget about this vision, chalking it up to grief and nerves, but soon enough, she stumbles across a website for a winery in Napa, and the owner in the photo is identical to her dead husband. With her upcoming wedding looming and a fiancé who’s already worried she hasn’t quite left her past behind, June secretly flies to Napa for answers. But she’s not prepared for all the secrets she’s about to unlock because everything she thought she knew about her first love is a lie.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Laurie Elizabeth Flynn is a former model who lives in London, Ontario with her husband and their four children. She is the author of three young adult novels: Firsts, Last Girl Lied To and All Eyes On Her, under the name L.E. Flynn.
Her adult fiction debut, The Girls Are All So Nice Here, was named a USA Today Best Book of 2021 and became an instant bestseller in Canada. It has sold in 11 territories worldwide. Her second adult novel, Till Death Do Us Part, will be released in August 2024.
When she’s not writing, you can likely find her hiking in the woods, perusing thrift stores for vintage dresses, or bingeing on reality TV dating shows.
Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
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