MY SWEET GIRL

SYNOPSIS

Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she'll never live up to them.

Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.

Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there's no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.

 

Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?

Title: My Sweet Girl

Author: Amanda Jayatissa

Publisher: Berkley

Publication date: September 14, 2021

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

When a few weeks back Abby from @crimebythebook named My Sweet Girl as her favorite debut of 2021 I knew I had to read it. I had never heard about it but it immediately went up to the top of my TBR, so when a few days later I was offered a widget I was over the moon.

Sometimes it takes me several days to write a review, trying to find a way to convey my thoughts, but with My Sweet Girl I’ve found myself writing it the minute I finished it. It writes by itself! 2021 is being a year of phenomenal debuts and My Sweet Girl is now part of that list.

I went in almost blind and that was such a wise choice. You just need to know that the MC is Paloma, a 30 yo girl from Sri Lanka who was adopted by a wealthy American couple when she was 12. Now, 18 years later, some secrets from her past are about to come to light but she will do anything to prevent it.

Paloma was such an interesting character. Her belligerence and abrasiveness, alongside her permanent anger with the world prompted some funny moments among all the paranoia surrounding her. She’s also an unreliable narrator and I love when you can’t fully trust your narrator cause that usually means lots of surprises ahead.

The past timeline offered glimpses of her life as a child in an orphanage in Sri Lanka and I loved reading it. It’s the first time I read a story set in Sri Lanka, so it’s nice to see some different scenarios in the psychological thriller genre. I visited the country a few years back and fell in love with it. The Sri Lankan folklore and ghost tales were a nice touch and added a fantastic creep factor.

I became so engrossed from the first page that I actually missed my train stop. The positive side was I had longer to keep on reading, and you won’t want to stop reading once you’ve started.

The only reason this was not 5 stars is because I called the twist early on, but that did not detract at all from my enjoyment.

Qué será, será

Whatever will be, will be

The future’s not ours to see….  But it is! And I predict a future where My Sweet Girl is a huge hit!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.