Thursday, December 31, 2015

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart


Adrienne and Harper were unlikely best friends all through college. The were also part of what they called The Five: a group consisting of the two girls, Adrienne's twin brother Will, his friend Jackson, and David, the boy Adrienne has loved from a distance nearly all her life. But that was years ago and Adrienne and Harper have both run in opposite directions as fast as they can from the tragedy that took the life of one of The Five. Adrienne is now a nurse in a small village in West Africa and Harper, well Harper has gone so far from where and whom she used to be that she hardly recognizes herself. When the death of a family friend calls Adrienne back home she is finally forced to face the memories she has tried so hard to escape.

This book was a slow start and I was frustrated with all the hinting of something big that had happened with no real explanation. While I know this is a writing technique used to add drama, it kind of just annoys me. The author wants to keep the reader in the dark, but sometimes it goes on too long and the risk is that the reader will lose interest. I nearly did. I was 25% of the way through this book before it really grabbed me and that's too long. However, it did get interesting and I was glad I had stuck with it.

This book was unexpectedly a thriller. There was a bit of a mystery and some of the other story elements were very exciting. I really can't tell you more because it would ruin it for you, but I can tell you that it kept me up late at night reading. If you can just get through the first quarter of the book I think you'll really like it.

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