Too Good to Be True ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Genre: Thriller
US Publication: March 2, 2021
Print: 352 pages
Audio: 12 hours 20 minutes
Confetti Rating: 4 stars
REVIEW:
Too Good to Be True is an intriguing, well-written thriller that is being distributed by a major publishing house, so don't let the blah cover that looks like a self-published DIY job fool you.
Carola Lovering has crafted a story that will pull you in and make you feel for characters you might otherwise despise at the hands of a lesser author. It's particularly interesting that one suffers from OCD, which feels like a fresh plot point for the thriller genre.
There are dual timelines and multiple POVs, but the novel is well structured and easy to follow. There are also many twists, but unfortunately (what I assume is supposed to be) the main shocker was pretty obvious to this reader. Had I not seen it coming so blatantly, it might have been a 5-star read for me. Many of my fellow early readers have raved about the surprises at the end, so I’m in the minority there. ;)
(Trigger warnings for drug use, rape, cancer, and the death of a child.)
My thanks to the author and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy for review.
PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:
ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH.
Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips―she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family―she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.
But now Burke―handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before―says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.
In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past―or will he find his way into her future?
On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.