Book Review: Her Pretty Face (Robyn Harding) @SimonSchusterCA

Anyone still out there?!

I’m alive and well over here after a very extended blogging break.  Between a new position at school, adjusting to married life and general life, I found myself in one of the biggest book slumps that I have ever had!   However, this past week, I felt the urge to read and found myself completely drawn to one of my favourite authors, Robyn Harding, and her sophomore novel Her Pretty Face.

Now, a little back story here, I have been listening to the My Favourite Murder podcast on my 45-minute commute pretty much daily and I recently listened to a live episode that talked about killer couples (specifically a Canadian couple who were active near my hometown!).  As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I knew that I had to read it ASAP!

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.

I binge read this one in a single evening and, days later, found myself thinking about it still!  I love the writing style of Robyn Harding; she has the uncanny ability to captivate her reader with quick prose and eloquent storytelling.  This novel is NOT a traditional domestic thriller and if you are expecting Gone Girl-esque thrills, you are opening the wrong book.  However, if you are after complex characters, strong plot, and realism, then this is the book for you!

Essentially, the story unfolds through multiple narrators and throughout varying time periods.  In the present, as Kate’s present unravels and mixes with her past, I found myself torn with a moral dilemma.  Can someone change?  Should people be judged based on their past?  In true Robyn Harding style, like The Party, the chapters were short and sweet.

I am absolutely floored with some of the negative comments that I was reading about this book on Goodreads.  I didn’t feel like this novel was even supposed to be a domestic thriller, instead, I found it to be a character study, a domestic drama and a snapshot of a psychopath.

I’d recommend this one, it got me out of my slump!