2.5 stars, rounded up
For the most part, this more of a family domestic drama than a thriller. Toward the end there is a bit of a mystery, but the pacing is quite uneven throughout.
There are too many issues that aren't a part of the main story about Jess, Kate, and Lauren and whether or not Jess is really their sister. The unraveling of that plot is fairly convoluted--the things that Jess lies about didn't make much sense in the scope of things. If the three of them would have been honest with each other from the start, they could have cleared things up so much sooner with the pooling of their individual knowledge.
[Rose was a real piece of work, and that's fairly apropos for Jones and her books. The mother or the mother-in-law always seems to be the villain in her stories (or at least appears to be anyway). Rose's flat out denials about every little thing just got so very old, it was pretty obvious from early on that she was hiding many things (hide spoiler)]
Overall, I couldn't really decide what this book was supposed to be, and it suffered from a lack of cohesive direction either as a domestic drama or as a suspense thriller. It just didn't deliver fully either way unfortunately.
For the most part, this more of a family domestic drama than a thriller. Toward the end there is a bit of a mystery, but the pacing is quite uneven throughout.
There are too many issues that aren't a part of the main story about Jess, Kate, and Lauren and whether or not Jess is really their sister. The unraveling of that plot is fairly convoluted--the things that Jess lies about didn't make much sense in the scope of things. If the three of them would have been honest with each other from the start, they could have cleared things up so much sooner with the pooling of their individual knowledge.
[Rose was a real piece of work, and that's fairly apropos for Jones and her books. The mother or the mother-in-law always seems to be the villain in her stories (or at least appears to be anyway). Rose's flat out denials about every little thing just got so very old, it was pretty obvious from early on that she was hiding many things (hide spoiler)]
Overall, I couldn't really decide what this book was supposed to be, and it suffered from a lack of cohesive direction either as a domestic drama or as a suspense thriller. It just didn't deliver fully either way unfortunately.