Plot:

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces. 

Review:

The novel goes through Amber’s mind and her annoying jealousy and though you start to feel bad for gullible Daphne who is being scammed right under her nose – you also feel annoyed that she is missing the signs that are so clear to the reader. 

Throughout the first half of the novel, where we are Amber on the outside looking in, we begin to suspect something is amiss but nothing prepares us for what’s really happening in the Parrish household – and that surprise and the psychology behind it all is where it all lays.

I could talk all day about the psychology of Jackson Parrish, Daphne and Amber – but all I will say is that their characteristics played off of each really well and the topics were well researched.

I had issues of giving this a 3 or 4 because the juxtaposition between Amber’s viewpoint and Daphne’s is so stark it’s like you’re reading a completely different novel. The language and tone changes so distinctively that you are pulled in again with renewed interest just as the novel was starting to lose your interest.

As a newbie in this category of a psychological thriller I would definitely recommend this for an interesting read!

4/5 Stars