Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Well, I was super excited by this premise and I was very happy to have received an eARC. But after reading it, I must say that it did not live up to my expectations. Here is my review:
Summary (Goodreads): Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was arrested and imprisoned for the brutal murder of a young girl. Now he’s the subject of a true-crime documentary that’s whipping up a frenzy online to uncover the truth and free a man who has been wrongly convicted.
A thousand miles away in England, Samantha is obsessed with Dennis’s case. She exchanges letters with him, and is quickly won over by his apparent charm and kindness to her. Soon she has left her old life behind to marry him and campaign for his release.
When the campaign is successful and Dennis is freed, however, Sam begins to discover new details that suggest he may not be quite so innocent after all.
But how do you confront your husband when you don’t want to know the truth?
Review:
Like I said, this story has a very interesting premise. I’ve heard numerous stories about people falling in love with prisoners on death row who have committed some horrendous crimes, and how they believe that the prisoner is innocent. I thought it would be interesting to see the author’s take on this situation, especially since in this story, the prisoner is said to be wrongly convicted.
But the story left me disappointed.
Everything just felt rushed. The initial contact between Samantha and Dennis that led to them “falling in love” was extremely unbelievable. It was definitely a case of insta-love – even if it didn’t happen instantaneously. There was no proper buildup; over the course of a few letters, they declared their feelings for each other and that was that.
The story showed some promise when Dennis was released and Samantha started having her doubts. It made me think that the story would finally redeem itself and be full of the tension I expect in a thriller.
And then it let me down again. The ending was rushed, and quite anticlimactic. It didn’t really make much sense, and I felt like I had been taken on a long ride that didn’t have any fun parts to it.
Overall, I thought the premise was interesting but the story’s execution left a lot to be desired. I know a lot of people really liked this book and it has won some awards as well but I just couldn’t love it. For those reasons, this book gets 2/5 stars from me.
Happy reading ~
Oooh I hope your next read is fab
Great review. The premise sounds great, so I have been interested in reading this book for a while. It’s a shame you didn’t like it.
I would definitely give it a go and see if you like it, as quite a few people have given it positive reviews. I just felt that it wasn’t as good as other thrillers out there due to pacing and writing style. Would love to hear what you think of it (if you read it)
I have just finished reading it, and I gave it the same rating as you. Looking at your review again, I definitely agree with you on a number of points.
Review now up on my blog.