I had a lot of fun reading this book — couldn’t put it down — and then I got to the ending. Womp womp.
Amber and Nick have separated and decided to sell the home that his mother, Barb, sold to them a few years earlier to make into a home for themselves and their two children. Now that their marriage has fallen apart, Amber wants to sell quickly so she can move on with her new boyfriend, Richard, but Barb is dead set against her selling the house, and she’ll do anything to stop her.
There’s a big deal made early on in the book of an open house that Carl, their shady real estate agent, convinces them to have, and while Amber is secretly watching through the video doorbell, she sees thirteen people enter the house for the open house, but only counts twelve leaving. This is followed by her children talking about the man in the house who only they seem to be able to see, which makes Amber want to sell even faster.
It’s a great premise, and the book moves really fast. You won’t want to put it down. But then you get to the end — just the last few chapters — and it stopped working for me. To be clear, I did figure out the weird issue with Richard really early on in the book, so that twist wasn’t even my problem (although, eww.) It just had one twist too many with Wayne and Carl and Barb and Davina. (All these random characters that didn’t actually do anything compelling in the book.) And then Amber, while kind of sort of wanting to protect her kids and have her happy-ever-after ending, just kind of stops being anything more than a flat, stereotypical character and makes the ending an easy out for the book.
Again, I was in it for the first 90-95% of the book. But, the last few chapters were disappointing.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for my honest opinion. It has not influenced my opinion.