Review: Her Pretty Face

Title: Her Pretty Face
Author: Robyn Harding
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Release Date: July 10, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The author of the bestselling novel The Party—lauded as “tense and riveting” by New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda—returns with a chilling new domestic drama about two women whose deep friendship is threatened by dark, long-buried secrets.

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart…because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunick. And she’s a murderer.

In her masterful follow-up to The Party, Robyn Harding spins a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal, asking the question: Can people ever change? And even if they can, is it possible to forgive the past?

Review:

I read this book in one day. I couldn’t put it down!

At the beginning everything was a little confusing. There are three different narratives. One by Frances, the mother of an autistic boy. Another is by Daisy, the daughter of Kate and sister of Charles. Charles is friends with Frances’s son. The third one is by DJ, who tells the story of the trial for his sister’s murderer decades ago.

The connection between the three stories becomes clear about halfway through the story. I began to piece together who everyone was and how they were related to the larger story. This kind of thriller, that slowly unravels throughout the book, can be hard to write well, but this one was very good.

Even though I had figured out what was happening, I was excited to read until the end. This story didn’t have a dull moment! I really loved it.

Have you read this book? What did you think?