Elizabeth is a college professor whose ordinary semester takes a terrifying turn when one of her students submits a story that feels disturbingly familiar. It tells the story of her best friend’s affair with a teacher twenty years ago—and the murder that followed. A murder Elizabeth committed. Someone knows what she did, and they’re revealing the truth chapter by chapter. Now Elizabeth has to figure out who’s behind the story before her darkest secret reaches its final page.
Started this late last night and immediately got sucked in. From the synopsis, I somehow assumed Elizabeth’s friend had been willingly involved with the professor, but then… why would Elizabeth murder him unless something much darker was happening? Something wasn’t adding up. Elizabeth didn’t exactly have the easiest childhood either, growing up with an alcoholic mother who has now apparently found God and completely changed her life.
And then there’s Elizabeth’s current love life—or lack thereof. She has a detective friend-with-benefits situation going on with a man who very clearly wants more than sex, while she refuses to go there. Personally? I probably would. Hey, I’m trying to empathize with our main character here. :))
Anyway, Elizabeth returns to the town where she grew up because she suspects Ivy, her childhood best friend, might be the one sending her pages from this mysterious novel. Except Ivy was involved in what happened too, so exposing Elizabeth would mean exposing herself. And apparently these two weren’t exactly amazing at keeping their gigantic murder secret. Ivy confessed to a priest, Elizabeth confessed to someone whose identity we don’t know yet, AND the local police chief remembers them from back then—especially Elizabeth, because he once caught her sitting in the parking lot of the motel where the murder happened. Mega smart move, Elizabeth.
But then we got a sex scene in a bar and suddenly this thriller became approximately 10x better. Is hooking up in a bar bathroom gross? Absolutely. But if you’re going to get fucked like that… honestly, I’m not sure the surroundings matter anymore.
And OF COURSE Noah, the mysterious hot bathroom guy, turns out to be the son of the professor who was abusing his students. But he seems nice??? Listen. When a hot man and good sex are involved, my judgment becomes temporarily unavailable.
I was pretty sure I had figured out the first twist—and I DID. So proud of myself. But this book just kept getting more fucked up, and at that point my biggest question became: WHO THE HELL IS HANNAH?!
And woooow. I absolutely demolished this book. Started it last night and finished it today. We officially have a successful popcorn thriller on our hands! I guessed two of the three big twists. I definitely thought Hannah was going to be someone else, though, so that reveal actually got me GOOD. The book kept playing with my head, making me suspicious of basically everyone, and honestly? The sex scenes were ridiculously good for a thriller.
And no, I don’t think it’s weird that I’m rating the sex scenes too considering I basically survive on thrillers and dark romance.
What genres do you guys read? And please recommend me something that might actually drag me out of my comfort-reading zone.
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