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Release date: January 29, 2019

Publisher: Kensington

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb:

Wanted: Assistant to provide maternity cover for high-powered TV producer. Must be bright, creative, with killer instincts.

Emma would do anything to work for the woman who has the job she wants. Carrie is at the top of her game, with a dream career, a baby on the way, and a handsome screenwriter husband. For Emma, with parents who don’t understand her ambition and a serious misstep behind her, this temp position might be her last chance.

Carrie has given up more than anyone knows to get to the top of a ruthless business. She won’t give up this baby too. But with Emma filling in for her at the office, her perfect life starts to unravel. Her bank account is inexplicably overdrawn, her husband seems strangely distant and colleagues are all too happy to take Emma’s creative direction. Carrie finds herself dying to get back to work . . . until a letter left at her door changes everything.

Trust and fear trade places in a love triangle that defies readers’ expectations at every turn. 

Review:

I want to start off my saying that I think I’m burnt out on slow burning thrillers in general and sick of waiting for a book to properly engage me for more than half of it. Unfortunately, that’s basically what happened here and I think I was so disinterested by the time things did speed up, I just didn’t care how great the twists were. So keep all of this in mind while I share my thoughts…

The premise of this sounded interesting enough, I loved the idea that a young, ambitious and crafty woman tries to replace someone else and also that it was set in the television industry, not too common for a thriller. But then not much really happened, there were a lot of subtle little hints about both Emma and Carrie’s lives, both past and present, but I was just so bored. So what kept me reading? Well Frances is a good writer and I guess I just kept hoping I would get hooked at some point but honestly waiting for that until like sixty percent is just too frustrating for me.

Another petty thing that irritated me was that it was divided into several parts, and in my experience before one part ends and another one begins, there’s usually some sort of surprise or twist and that really didn’t happen here. Each part was labeled with one characters name but then the chapters were told from everyone’s POV so what was the point of the labeling and separate parts even?! See, petty haha but it bothered me. I do want to say that the twist was decent and I didn’t predict it, but I just didn’t care in the end. If you don’t mind waiting for things to pick up you may like this though, I just think I need a break from the simmering tension style books for awhile.

Overall rating: 2.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.