Excuse my language, but holy fuck that was bad. Just like, really really bad.

I guess I can see how people could get entertainment out of it— in a soap opera/Lifetime movie way, but I could not. It is not suspenseful, it does not have twists, it does not have morally gray characters or anything beyond one-dimension when it came to its characters…. what it does have is hilariously bad dialogue (“Please, Jack, please let me go” “Never! I will never be your perfect wife”), a plot that gives away the “twist” in the first 1/4 of the book, and some of the most unbelievable events that I’ve ever read in a book.

How can you not just leave? They go out in public. Run!! How is that hard? Am I really supposed to believe that in modern day a husband can just restrain his wife who is shouting that he abuses her and holds her prisoner, and the police officer just takes his word for it that she’s crazy and allows him to drag her off??? I’m sorry, but that is insane. They had this guy acting like we’re living in the pre-1950’s when a man was completely in charge of his wife.

They go to friend’s houses for dinner and out to restaurants with friends. How does she not just say, hey I’m not going back with you. What is he going to do? Drag her out of a restaurant in front of everyone? Drag her out of their friends houses? Like howwww is this plausible???

Also, what a dumb ass villain. He just lays it out there like: hey this is what I’m doing, you have 18 months to try to stop me! I have to believe that any sociopath who spent 40 years planning his perfect set-up would maybe not go all villain’s monologue and actually wait those 18 months to spring his trap rather than to have to be one step ahead of (an admiringly dim) prisoner.

I don’t know, maybe I’m not meant to look this deep into it, but ughhh it was aggravating! ( )

** spoiler alert ** What did I miss? This started off pretty strong, but it went nowhere pretty quickly for me. This just never developed into what I wanted or thought it would.

This was the same thing over and over again; a threat and being locked up. It never strayed from this. I would say if you want that feel without many details around the mental torture or torture he planned, this may be for you. I am not saying I wanted this either, but I was just expecting more. He was a psychopath who had murdered someone in the past, and all he did was threaten her constantly. It all just did not fit for me.

This was just too slow for me. The ending was thrown in pretty quickly and I was just underwhelmed. ( )

This was altogether entirely creepy, and I'm glad that I was tucked up in bed when I read most of it.

I was extremely impressed by how well the author set up the scenario. Sometimes it was a tad difficult to believe, but then again, Jack had been waiting all of his life for a woman like Grace. Being a Kiwi, I felt a bit defensive at the way New Zealand became a place to get rid of people who aren't necessary, but that's my problem.

I enjoyed the fascination with fear that played through this book. By "enjoyed," I mean I hated it. But it was new, not something I had seen quite so developed in other books, and the emotional abuse was what really drove this book forward.

Highly engrossing and fast paced, I began this with the intention of only reading a few chapters before reading a library book about to expire, but ended up completely unable to stop reading this and to find out what happened.

One of the main characters in the book, Grace's sister Millie, has Down syndrome, and while I don't have much personal experience with similar people, I was pleased by the portrayal and how Millie was a feisty sweetheart and not just a trope. I loved scenes with her around because they, while building on the tension, made me laugh.

I saw the ending just before it happened yet still had my heart in my mouth the whole time. In a way, Grace's strength and the way she held herself together in order to protect the ones she did love were really admirable and inspiring.

This one will be haunting me for a while.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Kept me interested until the end. Will definitely be following this author. Can't wait to read more of their books. ( )

Kept me interested until the end. Will definitely be following this author. Can't wait to read more of their books. ( )