whitneydaniell

by: Rachel Hawkins
published: Jan 09, 2024
genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
320 Pages, E-Book ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
GoodReads Link

This is my second book from Rachel Hawkins, and I went into it with an open mind. Goodreads is full of so many great reviews about this title, and I tried not to read any of them until I finished the book. To kick off this review, it was a quick read in the e-book format, and I was intrigued for about 15% of the book. *DISCLAIMER* This review will be very vague because I don’t want to spoil any part of it.

Head over to GoodReads to read the synopsis — it’s long so for brevities sake, I’m going to skip it as a part of my review.

I. Characters

The story is told through the point of view of Camden, Ruby McTavish’s sole heir, her adopted son. Camden has spent his entire adult life running away from Tavistock, NC, and running from the evils that lurk behind the walls of his childhood home. Escaping the ghosts of his past, he’s landed in Colorado with his wife of 10 years, Jules.

We meet Jules as his wife however, she is more connected to the whole story, we just have to be patient to figure out how. In Colorado, Jules is over her quiet, unassuming life. Her job frustrates her. She doesn’t have many friends, some co-workers who have become friends but, for the most part, it is just her and Cam. When Cam’s past is dredged up and they need to make a trek across the country to North Carolina, Jules has more invested in this trip than we think. Jules has her eyes set on fortune and riches far beyond anything she. has ever seen in her life.

Both Camden and Jules were predictable as characters. I’m not sure if it’s because I felt like, I have read this trope before or, what but, I saw it all coming. I was also disappointed in the lack of character development. In the end, I don’t feel like I knew Cam or Jules – I don’t feel like I knew their intentions, the “why”. While I must admit, Camden’s development is there loosely, it’s woven into the letters written by his mother, Ruby. It’s there between the dialogue with his cousins, Ben and Libby. I see it but, I just didn’t feel it. Poor Jules, I’ve got nothing from her. Yeah, I think the attempt was to wrap her up in the epilogue but, that felt rushed to me. Very, meh.

II. The Story / Plot

Again, like I mentioned above, this trope really felt like something I’d read or seen in a movie before – it felt, familiar. With the inclusion of Ruby’s letters, it slipped into, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo territory. As a reader, it all just felt very predictable.

Without spoiling it, the plot twist, the confrontation, the reaction, the secrets, everything about the story once they arrive to Ashby House is predictable.

III. The Writing

I have nothing bad to say about the writing, I think Rachel Hawkins did a great job with the dialogue, the description, and the overall writing. I could picture Ashby House. I could picture Ben and Ruby and Libby. I think all of that was great. The only word I found that, in my opinion, was out of place was, septuagenarian — like, I know there are 100s of other words that could have been used.

Ruby’s letters, I felt were too elaborate, I can’t imagine an elderly writing in such detail – idk. I would have liked to see a timeline jump and have Ruby’s POV be from her, instead of in letter format.

My Final Thoughts: To be fair, this was a super advance reader copy, it’s not available for published release to the general public for another 5 months (and honestly, I’ve had it for a month already) so, that could mean by publication things could be slightly different. However, with the copy that I have read, I wasn’t impressed by what I read.

I know that Rachel Hawkins’ has had much success with her other books such as The Villa and The Wife Upstairs. Although I’ve only read Reckless Girls and this title, I won’t count her out in the future.