TW/CW: pregnancy, miscarriage, infertility, mental illness, infidelity, manipulative parents, parental abandonment, sexual assault
This book utilizes one of my favorite mystery/suspense tropes but I can't say which one because it would be a spoiler. There is a "Dear Reader" note from the editor at the beginning of the book that I felt hinted at this particular trope a little too obviously. I read an ARC, so I'm not sure if that reader note will be in the final copy or not, but I would recommend skipping it initially and read it after you've finished the book. It sort of plants the seed of what to look out for in your mind so I found myself constantly re-reading and checking if maybe this part is what the editor was hinting about. The Dear Reader note does go into Day's own background, including how she had her own struggles with fertility and miscarriage so I do think it adds some nice framing to the story overall.
Pregnancy and motherhood are big themes in the story and while I don't have a particularly strong emotional connection to either of those themes, I did think they were handled well. As the editor pointed out in the Dear Reader note, Day has personal experience with navigating these tough situations and decisions and I think that really comes through in the story. I think Day really captures the highs and lows of the trying-to-conceive rollercoaster and the strain of how that can affect every aspect of a couple's life. We see a lot of the lower-points directly on page and they are presented in a very matter-of-fact way that does not overly romanticize or dramatize the events while still keeping the emotional center of the scene. I also liked how we get some characters with outdated views and opinions about families and conception. These characters mean well, but often say the wrong thing because they've never had to struggle to conceive. These views are challenged and the main couple is a team and makes their decisions about their relationship together but we do see how these comments are hurtful.
I really loved the midpoint turn in this book. It was one of the most well executed twists I've read in a while and I think I really would have been absolutely on the floor if it wasn't for the previously mentioned Dear Reader note. I was so excited to keep reading and see what other reveals we were going to get (since we often will get at least one or two more in the second half of the story). We did get some more reveals, but I didn't feel like they came anywhere close to the same magnitude. I think the story peaked at the midpoint for me and then from there it was a slow roll to the ending. I liked the reveals we get later from a plot perspective, but they didn't ramp up the tension or stakes in the same way as the midpoint turn did. It also felt like these later reveals should have more of an emotional impact to the reader but I didn't find the characters directly involved in those reveals were developed enough for me to really empathize with them.
We move back and forth in time in this story and it didn't always work well for me. We're pretty much shoved right into the action when Marissa and Jake are moving into a house together to start their family. We get some backstory as to how they met and how their relationship developed, but we're mostly just moving forward pretty quickly with Kate moving in, Marissa getting pregnant, and tensions start growing from there. Then, we get the big midpoint turn and suddenly we're back in time jumping between Kate and Marissa. We now get to see the build up of the relationship and all those details I wanted earlier, but they feel so unimportant at this point because all I want to do is get back to the present day and see how that midpoint reveal threw everything out of balance. I did like how this going back in time allowed us to see some of the plot points from earlier from a different POV. I just wish some of these more mundane moments were shown earlier (by flashbacks or however) and then we could just move forward with the juicy details.
I would categorize this as a domestic suspense read, but I feel like the suspense part ends pretty quickly after the midpoint reveal and then it started to feel like more of a domestic fiction. I really didn't feel suspenseful or nervous about what was going to happen after about the 65% mark. It seemed like the main conflict was resolved pretty quickly and any side conflicts that did remain were much less severe, in comparison. I kept trying to inject my own suspense feeling into the book while I was reading by trying to read specific details about characters in a purposefully sinister manner. However, even when I was trying to make everyone a villain and question everyone's motives, the actual book just didn't support that reading and, overall, I think everything just moved right along without much drama at all. I did feel that in the lead up to the ending reveal that Day was trying to mirror the same ramp up of tension that we saw before the midpoint but I wasn't buying into it at that point (but maybe other readers would).
Overall, this was a fine domestic suspense read. I really enjoyed the midpoint reveal but wish we kept ramping up the tension in the second half of the story. This did have one of my favorite tropes that was executed very well but I just didn't find the follow-through to be enough for me to really love it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC
Expected publication date is May 3, 2022
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