SYNOPSIS
The perfect home. The perfect family. The perfect lie.
Jane Harris lives in a sparkling home in an oceanfront gated community in Orange County. It’s a place that seems too beautiful to be touched by sadness. But exactly one year ago, Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident and Jane has been grief-stricken ever since. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, she’s barely even left the house. Now that’s all about to change.
It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary and three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days—and nights—at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl—dutiful and loving. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?
The bonds between mothers and daughters, and husbands and wives should never be broken. But you never know how far someone will go to keep a family together…
Title: The favorite daughter
Author: Kaira Rouda
Publisher: Graydon House
Publication date: May 21, 2019
REVIEW
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐
This book was called "The favorite daughter" but it could have perfectly been called "All about Jane" too.
Do you know how there are characters we love to hate and characters we just hate? Well, guess which one was Jane. You guessed it! HATE! She was self centered, delusional, controlling, manipulative, narcissistic... Her life was a one woman show and, as such, she was the only star possible. She was, of course, an unreliable narrator, but her behavior was so outrageous and over the top that it managed to pull me out of the story time and time again.
Jane is, plain and simple, a horrible person with no morals at all. Ethics?
Even the fact that she was grieving her daughter's death didn't make it easier to feel some sympathy for her. I was gobsmacked by the way she and Betsy talked to each other. Talk about passive-agressive relationships! For all the love Jane said she had for her daughters she sure didn't show it the right way.
The story took a while to take off but, once it became clear Jane was not the doting mother she thought she was and that she suffered some kind of psychological disorder, the plot took some pretty predictable turns. She was so thirsty for revenge and believed herself so much smarter than everyone else that she could not see what was in front of her all the time. All that talk about her revenge plans made me think she would have some fireworks ready, so when all was revealed it felt a bit decaffeinated.
All her over the top behavior reached its climax in the last chapter, when she was a caricature of herself.
Quick and entertaining read that was ruined in part by its characters. If Jane's tone had been turned down a notch I'm sure I would have enjoyed this one more.
This sounds so good! I hate it when authors ruin a perfectly good plot with a deplorable character.
ReplyDeleteShe was terrible! She kinda ruined it for me!
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