Claire Chastain is going through a bit of a rough patch. After abruptly leaving her life in NYC and moving to the DC area to help care for her ailing grandmother Claire receives a mysterious message from an old childhood friend who shortly after winds up dead. As if Claire's life couldn't get any more complicated, now she is being stalked by a creepy man in a Lincoln Continental. But as Claire begins to put the pieces together she realizes that her friend's death may not have been an accident after all and she needs to use her "steel trap" mind to solve the mystery behind his unexpected demise and save herself.
Based on the sample I read I had high expectations of this book. I was expecting a smart, strong female protagonist who would solve the mystery and save herself, and I got that, kinda. Claire Chastain IS smart and strong. She's an assertive woman who speaks her mind, but I hated that she spent half the novel apologizing for being a bitch. If she had been a male character there would have been no apologies. Towards the end of the novel when she starts to overcome some of her personal drama she embraces who she is and sees it as a strength if she had been that character from the get-go this would have been at least a four star read for me.
Overall it was a fun, quick thriller. But not something I would go back and read again. Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher Stolen Time Press for giving me a free ARC of this as an eBook to read in exchange for a free review. The Friday Cage will be available on July 14th, 2020.
Based on the sample I read I had high expectations of this book. I was expecting a smart, strong female protagonist who would solve the mystery and save herself, and I got that, kinda. Claire Chastain IS smart and strong. She's an assertive woman who speaks her mind, but I hated that she spent half the novel apologizing for being a bitch. If she had been a male character there would have been no apologies. Towards the end of the novel when she starts to overcome some of her personal drama she embraces who she is and sees it as a strength if she had been that character from the get-go this would have been at least a four star read for me.
Overall it was a fun, quick thriller. But not something I would go back and read again. Thank you to BookishFirst and the publisher Stolen Time Press for giving me a free ARC of this as an eBook to read in exchange for a free review. The Friday Cage will be available on July 14th, 2020.