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Tonight I have a review of Her Pretty Face, an addictive domestic drama publishing tomorrow by Gallery/Scout Press.

My Thoughts:

Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4 second-guessing stars to Her Pretty Face! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I’m not second guessing giving four stars to Her Pretty Face. In fact, I’m awarding Her Pretty Face four stars for making me second guess myself throughout the entire novel! Four stars also for sleep loss because I found this book compulsively readable!

Her Pretty Face is told from three different points-of-view: Frances, a stay-at-home mom, Daisy, a teen, and DJ, a young child. Part of the fun in this book is figuring out how these voices are connected, so that’s all I’ll say about the narrators.

Frances is a stay-at-home needs a friend as much as her son, Marcus, who has some behavioral difficulties. She meets Kate who is beautiful, confident, and the opposite of Frances in every way. The two build a strong friendship just as their sons eventually do.

However, one of these women is actually a murderer by a different name. That’s where my guessing game took place because it was clearly narrowed down to two choices, Frances or Kate.

I was especially drawn to Daisy as a character. Robyn Harding did an exceptional job with characterizing a relatable, vulnerable, but strong, teen girl.

I noticed in the synopsis that Her Pretty Face is referred to as a domestic drama, and I think that is suitable. It was not intended to be a psychological thriller that gives me chills or makes me check the locks on the door, and it was not a jigsaw puzzle’s worth of analysis on my part trying to figure out what happened. Instead, I second-guessed myself over and over, and more and more, I’m finding myself enjoying the simplicity in that.

Overall, I found Her Pretty Face to be well-written, original, and addictive!

Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC. Her Pretty Face will be published on July 10, 2018.
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Synopsis:

The author of the bestselling novel The Party—lauded as “tense and riveting” by New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda—returns with a chilling new domestic drama about two women whose deep friendship is threatened by dark, long-buried secrets.

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

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.

In her masterful follow-up to The Party, Robyn Harding spins a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal, asking the question: Can people ever change? And even if they can, is it possible to forgive the past?

Do you have any recent favorite suspense reads to share? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR