Thank you Get Red PR , #partner, for the finished copy of Someone Else’s Life in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: February 1, 2023
Summary:
A new life in paradise should have healed her wounds. But for a woman struggling to hold on to her family and her sanity, one stormy night could change everything.
Blow by blow, Annie Lin’s life crumbles. Her dance studio goes bankrupt. Her mother and beloved dog are gone the same year. Then a terrible accident leaves her young son traumatized.
It’s time for a change.
Palm trees, mai tais, peace and quiet―Annie should be at ease, safe in her new Kauai home with her husband and son. She hopes proximity to her family can provide them all with a sense of belonging and calm. But soon items from her past start turning up―her dog’s collar, a bracelet that disappeared years ago―and she has the unnerving sensation she’s being watched. Reality begins to fracture, and Annie’s panic attacks return. When, during a brewing storm, a woman appears on her doorstep looking for shelter, Annie is relieved to have the company and feels an unexplainable bond with her visitor.
As the night progresses, Annie realizes the woman is no stranger. Their lives are inextricably intertwined―and Annie might just lose everything.
My thoughts:
This is the first book I’ve read by Lyn Liao Butler but it certainly will not be the last. It is this month’s #GetRedPRBookclub pick and we are discussing it tonight and I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say about her book and her writing process all everything else!
I love a good psychological thriller and this one certainly kept me on edge all the way through. Yes, it was a little bit of a slow-burn to start, but boy does it build over time, mirroring the storm that is hitting the area so that you are so unsettled you aren’t sure which is worse – what is happening due to the weather or what is going on with the characters. I loved that right from the start, I wondered who I could trust – I love when there is the idea of an unreliable narrator along with other questionable characters. It immediately puts me on guard and I was definitely feeling it here.
This book had some crazy twists and while I did see some of them coming, others totally blindsided me. But this book had its hooks in me…once I started reading it, I could not put it down until I finished – I needed to know how it was going to play out! There was no waiting until the morning to see what happened…I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. It’s just that type of story – I was totally consumed by it! Why was this stranger in Annie’s house and how did she know so much about her life? And what happened to Finn to cause Annie and her family to move to Hawaii in the first place?
This story unfolds at just the right pace, keeping you flipping the pages as you try to put the pieces together yourself. I had so many theories running through my mind and never did I work out what really happened. And on top of all that, the author deftly manages to weave in mental health, a little bit about the Taiwanese culture, motherhood and jealousy. It all comes together for one crazy, thrilling ride that kept me engaged and invested in these characters all the way through! As I said, this was my first time reading this author and now I’m quite eager to check out her other books!
