Sunday, April 10, 2022

The #Sexy #Nerd #Review...The Look-Alike...#Mystery #Suspense #Family #Drama


From the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Girl and Justice for Sara comes a thrilling psychological drama about a woman who believes she escaped a brutal murder years ago—but does anyone else believe her?

Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she's returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered the course of her life.

In her mother’s shuttered house, an old fear that has haunted Sienna for years rears its ugly head —that it was she who had been the killer’s target that night. And now, with it, a new fear—that the killer not only intended to remedy his past mistake—he’s already begun. But are these fears any different from the ones that torment her mother?

As the walls close in, the line between truth and lie, reality and delusion disintegrate. Has Sienna’s worst nightmare come true? Or will she unmask a killer and finally prove she may be her mother’s look-alike, but she’s not her clone?

The Sexy Nerd's Review...

I realize when writing a mystery, there has to be a certain amount of “angst” to keep the reader hanging on and to dig deeper into the storyline to see if their super sleuth powers actually exist. But please notice the key word here being a “certain” amount of angst. When your entire story is built with that, it causes this reader to get frustrated to the point of abandonment and all my readers know I never abandon an author’s work no matter how horrible a story may be. I always give respect. However, having said that, this book almost made me do the one thing I never do.

Ten years ago while Sienna Scott was in college leaving the library around midnight, she stumbled and tripped on something. There was a terrible snow storm and she had no idea what she tripped over. As she tried to get up from the ground, she noticed all this red surrounding her. Her white coat and gloves were covered in it. What on earth could this red stuff be outside the library? That’s when Sienna noticed a body lying on the ground and her blood curdling screams were enough to wake the dead.

Needless to say, Sienna was distraught and terrified and had no idea who this person was. All she knew was she wanted to get as far away from this body as possible. Somehow the college campus police show up, as well as Tranquility Bluff’s police department. Sienna was advised to sit in the police cruiser and get warm and try to calm her nerves while they processed the scene. Of course, Sienna wanted none of that. She just wanted that nightmare to be over.

Now it’s present day and ten years later, Sienna has returned back home to Tranquility Bluff where her college friend, Madison Robie, was murdered. Her reasons for returning home was to prove she wasn’t anything at all like her look-alike mother, Viv. You see, Viv had mental issues and everyone in the town knew her to be the crazy lady. Unfortunately for Sienna, she was a spitting image of her mother, but was she also legally insane such as her mother? Hmmm? And this, readers, is where you’ll begin to put the pieces together.

Eh, I figured the story out within the first five percent of reading. This story didn’t make me work for the “whodunit” at all. I believe anyone can figure out what was really going on here. But what liked to drove me mad was Sienna’s, dare I say it, ‘fear’ of everything. This is all she thought about. Her every moment was constantly worrying that she was delusional like her mother and as far as I was concerned, I would take a gander that she was. OMG, if she worried once about being crazy, that’s all she ever did. Sheesh, how much worrying is a character supposed to do? To turn an entire story into worrying. Holy cow that was excessive and overkill in my opinion. If she worried once, she worried about everything. She even had the nerve to ask others that she was close to if she was “like her mother?” Ahh, that would be a yes! My goodness I never seen a character so caught up in fear. Overall, this story wasn’t bad. It will keep your interest, but like I said, there wasn’t a surprising ending nor did it keep me on the edge of my seat. I didn’t feel much of anything other than watching the percentage at the bottom of my Kindle wondering why it hadn’t moved within three or four taps of page turning? I found myself watching that percentage a lot. Not a good sign when I’m doing that while reading. I want to get lost in a story to take my mind off my life, but when I find myself wanting to get over the story, Houston…we definitely have a problem.

The Sexy Nerd gives The Look-alike three mirrors of reflection. This wasn’t a bad read but wasn’t for my reading tastes. If you enjoy mysteries and small-town lure, you will most likely enjoy reading this novel. Until next time, you know what to do!

Open a Book and Get Mind Blown!



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