This book has been on my TBR for a few months. I received it from my Book of the Month Subscription a little while back and I have been wanting to read it for awhile but to be honest the cover just didn’t pull me in, so it kept getting pushed back. Finally I saw that it was listed on Scribed to listen to for free and I knew I had to dive in!
“Maybe we are all fools, one way or another, when it comes to seeing the totality of the people who love us—the people we try to love.”
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About The Book
Author: Laura Dave
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published Date: May 4th 2021
Page Count: 320 Pages
Main Genres: Mystery, Fiction and Thriller
GoodReads Rating: 3.93
“He never understood that I wasn’t scared of someone leaving me. I was scared that the wrong person would stay.”
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Synopsis
Hannah’s life gets thrown for a loop when she receives a note from her husband saying “Protect Her”. Hannah knows she is meant to protect her step daughter Bailey, who has already had a troubled life and most importantly who hates her. Why can’t her husband just tell this to her face, why send a note? Protect her from what?
When her husbands boss gets arrested and the FBI start knocking on her door and her husband is no where to be found she decides to start taking things into her own hands.
Taking her scared step daughter all the way to Texas, they start to unravel a very unsettling truth. Is her husband really who she thought he was?
“This is the terrible thing about a tragedy. It isn’t with you every minute. You forget it, and then you remember it again. And you see it with a stark quality: This is what is required of you now, just to get along.”
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Rating
“This is the thing about good and evil. They aren’t so far apart—and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.”
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Review

My favorite part about this book is that the daughters name is Bailey, I mean that is my name just spelt wrong! All jokes aside, I really did enjoy this book!
I went into this, like most books, blind. I hadn’t read a synopsis or very many detailed reviews. I knew it would be a mystery and I also knew it was on the GoodReads choice awards which really got me interested. Without knowing what I was really getting myself into I think the story really surprised me. It took turn’s that I wasn’t expecting and over all made a pretty great reading experience.
I started off not loving the characters, which frustrated me because I struggled to want to listen to the first maybe 30% of the book. But the book quickly picked up and the relationship between the characters really started to blossom and I ultimately made great connections with them. I think the over all character development between Hannah’s and Bailey’s relationship was the most touching part of the book and what really stuck with me even after reading. With that said, I didn’t really care why Owen was in hiding, I was just rooting for Hannah and Bailey to grow closer together.
I loved the audio book! I own the hard copy but wasn’t tempted to pick it up because the lady who voiced this book did such a wonderful job! I really recommend picking this one up on audio if you are on the fence.
QOTD: What book do you find yourself thinking back to the most?