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THE FIANCÉE



SYNOPSIS

They had everything they needed for a perfect family vacation: close-knit relatives, a bucolic setting . . . and a murderer in their midst?

Summer’s looking forward to a break from hustling for acting work in Manhattan when she, her husband Gabe, and Gabe’s nine-year-old son arrive at the annual family get-together at her in-laws’ sprawling estate. On the agenda are leisurely gourmet meals, tennis matches, and plenty of relaxation by the pool.

But this year, Gabe’s brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from a few years before. Oddly, her brother-in-law’s girlfriend claims not to know her. Yet she charms the other family members, and after Nick announces that he’s proposed to Hannah, Summer doesn’t have much choice but to grin and bear it.

Then the reunion is rocked by tragedy when a family member is found dead. Though the doctors attribute the loss to natural causes, a grieving Summer fears that the too-good-to-be-true Hannah is involved, even as Gabe dismisses her suspicions.

How far will Summer go to expose the truth? As she investigates just what Nick’s fiancée might have done to keep her perfect image intact, she begins to fear that the first death might only be the beginning .


Title: The fiancée
Author: Kate White
Publisher: Harper
Publication date: June 29, 2021


REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I’ve now read several books by Kate White and, while they don’t reinvent the mystery genre, they are all pretty enjoyable. The fiancée was not the exception. I got immediately hooked up! I love this family reunions gone wrong and here things went really wrong, although it took a while for it to take off.

Summer was a likeable character (I loved that she narrated audiobooks) although too naive at times. Never a good idea to go sharing your suspicions with each and every one! Gabe made me so mad! I’ll never understand when a character dismisses their spouse’s suspicions to believe the word of a person they just literally met.

There’re red herrings all throughout the story, making you doubt everyone in the Keaton family. I for sure did although I suspected one of them quite strongly from halfway through. I got it right but not their motivations. 

All the twists and turns made that there never was a dull moment. The plot moved at a nice pace and the narrator of the audiobook did a fantastic job with the characters.

The writing was good and the descriptions made me feel as if I was there vacationing with the Keatons.

There were some things I would have liked a bit better resolved (or explained), especially the one thing that made Summer all suspicious in the first place. 

Entertaining family drama/whodunit that will make for a great read by the pool this summer.   

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