Happy book review day!
I've been putting off reviewing this book for a while because, quite frankly, I don't think I can do a fair job.
But I'm going to try.
This is the book I was reading when everything changed. And while I coped pretty well (part of my introverted heart actually thrived), I lost my reading momentum, so it took me a while to finish it, and then even longer to review.
I don't dislike thrillers but rarely read them, so this was interesting for me.
The premise of this novel follows Fiona, who comes home to find a couple moving into her house. The problem is, she didn't sell her house.
Fiona and Bram, her estranged husband, have a co-parenting arrangement called "bird's nest" shared custody. Essentially, they take turns staying at their beautiful house; the idea is that the children maintain stability as much as possible.
But this very arrangement allows for a domino effect of problems, and crimes, and secrets, and now strangers are moving into Fiona's house, and Bram and her children are missing.
The nest is taken apart and the story is unwoven, rather than woven, as the reader uncovers just what has happened and how it got to that point.
“Of course, if I had my time again I probably
wouldn’t touch a thing. I’d concentrate on the humans.
I’d re-purpose them before they destroyed themselves.”
This was an interesting read. Like I said, I don't read a lot of thrillers, but the ones I have read I've figured out the twists too early. Due to the storytelling (in pieces) style of this plot structure, I didn't "figure everything out" quite so early, and one of the last twists was a surprise.
I read most of this on the ski trip weekend we went on with my siblings the last weekend of the "before times". By the next weekend everything was shut down. But this weekend I was cuddled up with some adult hot chocolate in front of a fireplace on a ski hill, snuggled in and reading this book. And this was indeed a perfect book for that exact scenario. It was enjoyable, and I tore through the first three-quarters. But then I set it down, and didn't come back to it for quite a while.
Really my only complaint about this book was the pacing; it could have been tighter. There were a lot of asides that slowed things down, and only some contributed to the overall story or character development. I think a little more thorough editing would have made it flow better. It did drag on a fair bit in places.
That being said, if you're in the mood for a British cozy thriller, perfect with a hot chocolate and fireplace, well, this is a quintessential one.
Are you a fan of cozy thrillers? Any to recommend?
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