December is my favorite month when it comes to reading. Because I know that the new year (and new books!) will be upon me shortly, I become frantic and try to get through my ever-growing pile of books to read and review. December gives me the motivation I need to sit and read book after book, and write review after review, until I’m left with a much more manageable book list that I can continue to work on in the new year. I desperately wanted to finish this book before January, and I was able to get through it in a mere 3 hours!
Zoe is a child genius, a musical prodigy – the perfect daughter. But a party gone wrong led to the death of three teenagers – and Zoe was the one to take the blame. She faced the courts, served her time. And now she’s free. Her mother remarried and now Zoe has a stepfather and stepbrother in her life, along with a half-sister. As Zoe Maisey, life should go back to normal again. But on the night when Zoe decides to give a piano performance, there is a disruption that threatens to bring her past back to the forefront. By midnight, Zoe’s mother is dead. Who killed Zoe’s mother and why? And what will happen now to this “perfect” family?
One of the things I liked about this novel was how it was split into two parts and went back and forth between different character perspectives as well as between different points in time. This ensured that the reader was attentive; I like to be kept on my toes because it makes me work that much harder to make connections – and sometimes, a challenge is a good thing!
While I enjoyed reading from the perspective of different characters and found the events leading up to the murder interesting, I didn’t really find Zoe to be a well-developed character. For one thing, the whole genius aspect had no purpose so it didn’t really even need to be included in the story. I thought that it was mentioned because it would lead to something somewhere but it didn’t, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Her character just made me sad but I couldn’t connect with her or feel anything other than marginal pity. I feel like she could have been a lot more complex, especially in showing her emotions regarding her mother’s death.
I also found the character of the solicitor to be quite unnecessary. I thought that the author had included him and his perspective for a purpose but he pretty much did nothing throughout the whole novel and had his own mini sidestory going on that I didn’t really care about. I pretty much hate when authors include things that have no bearing or purpose so the solicitor was definitely a disappointing character for me.
While the premise was interesting, and the whodunit aspect had me hyped, finding out what happened and the way that it resolved itself was a bit lacking in the wow factor, so I didn’t get that thrill that I was hoping for.
Overall, this is a well-written novel that incorporated many different perspectives and timelines. However, it was lackluster in terms of creating complex characters, and did not deliver on the thrill factor as strongly as I had hoped. Still a decent read, and worth giving a shot!
Happy reading ~
