A deliciously twisted story of friendship, retribution, and betrayal about a homeless woman fleeing a dangerous past—and the wealthy society wife she saves from drowning, who pulls her into a dark web of secrets and lies.
Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets—no one ever does—but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her Toyota Corolla. In Seattle, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move—until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Lee has thwarted her one chance to escape her life.
Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.
The Sexy Nerd's Review. . .
One thing I know to be true is Harding is going to give you a story so juicy your eyes will be salivating the words and hungry for more. That’s exactly how I felt reading The Drowning Woman. My eyes were glued to each page as I would get extremely irritated when my reading alarm would go off signaling it was time for me to go to work. Uggg!
Lee Gulliver was a woman who used to have it all. In fact, if anyone would have told her she would be living on the streets and fighting for her survival to just exist, she would have laughed in that person’s face. The pandemic hit and it knocked Lee flat on her ass when she lost her restaurant. Everything she had worked for gone in a blink of an eye. Funny, there were times when Lee would see homeless people and bums living in the street and she never truly gave them a second thought. Isn’t it strange how the tide can turn at a moment’s glance.
It's one thing to lose everything but being a woman living in her car was dangerous enough. Having society look down on her as if she was a wasted piece of human flesh didn’t help matters none either. After one rough night fighting some men who were trying to rob her, Lee seeks shelter in a neighborhood that would be considered a “good” one and tried to find some peace in an otherwise crazy mixed-up world.
As she was about to doze off, she heard what appeared to be someone crying. A woman crying she believed. She heard her speaking but not sure who else was there. The next thing she knows there’s a splash and Lee realizes this woman leapt in the water and she did not resurface. Lee’s survivor mode kicked into high gear and throwing caution to the wind, she jumped in the water to save this woman who was clearly going to drown.
After bringing her to safety and making sure she was breathing, the woman seems to come to and when she does immediately, she’s angry with Lee. Hmm…that’s not exactly the response one would assume to receive for having saved someone’s life, right? This woman was irate with Lee. How dare she intervene? Who did she think she was for saving her life? Did she have any idea what harm she has caused her? Lee was confused and upset as well. Jeez, this is the thanks you get for saving someone’s life.
But unbeknownst to Lee, this drowning woman had a real reason for wanting to die. She was in an abusive relationship and by her saving her life set off a chain of events that neither of them could have ever imagined.
Wow! Talk about getting the popcorn and your favorite drink and read to your heart’s content. OMG! I would love to see this book turned into a movie, if it hasn’t already been commissioned? If not, it most definitely should. I could not get enough of this story. So, imagine my surprise after having read such an incredible edge-of-your-seat, nail-bitingly, excitable story, I get to the end, and I felt so deflated. I can’t think of any other word to truly capture what I felt. Pure deflation.
I was so bummed and it’s not for reasons that you might think. The ending was perfect, but it’s so not what I had expected would happen. What you must understand is, I had five different scenarios going on inside my head while Harding took me on this wild and crazy journey of Lee and Hazel, the drowning woman, if I didn’t mention before. I just knew Harding was going to give me a surprise ending to really bring home all the excitement I felt reading this story and when she didn’t give that to me, I felt cheated—deflated. I had nothing. I looked around the room and tried to figure out why did she choose this ending? Again, the ending is not bad at all. It truly isn’t and maybe other readers might have felt it was justified but to this reader, when you give me all these red herrings and twists and turns, I am expecting an ending that matches if not surpasses what I’d been reading. When that didn’t happen and it just ended on a good note, I felt almost like I’d been tricked or robbed so to speak. I was not expecting that from a Harding novel.
Having said that, this book was so damn good. I cannot deny that. It was truly a great read, and I just wished she would have jumped inside my mind and picked one of the great endings I had for this story which would have made it even juicier if that were even possible.
The Sexy Nerd gives The Drowning Woman four stars. This is a five-star read but because the ending wasn’t exciting to me, I deducted one. Even though I wanted something crazy to happen in the end, it does not take away from the great read. This novel was amazing. Harding is such a good writer. If you’ve never experienced her writing before, I encourage you to give this one a try. You will most likely be able to read this in one setting—it’s that good. Until next time, Nerds, you know how we do!
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