I received an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: Alex Marks is surprised when she’s hired to take the place of her favorite advice columnist after her shocking murder. While trying to navigate the landscape of her new job, she finds herself compelled to solve the case of her predecessor’s demise, which leads to a surprising reckoning with her own past. I was immediately drawn to the concept of this book. I love pretty much any thriller, but especially one with a kind of twist before the story even starts, and the advice column did that for me. I hadn’t ever really considered how vulnerable and open the giver of advice would be in that situation, and that’s exactly what happens to Alex when she manages to snag the job of the idolized writer who came before her. The insights about giving advice were a fun addition to the fraught narrative.

Plot: I read a lot of thrillers, which I really do try to consider before I mark a plot down as predictable. I did feel like the author was assuming I was more in the dark about certain aspects of the story than I really was, and I think people who are naturally drawn to these types of books will probably figure out a lot of the turns before they get to the end. That’s the only reason I docked this book a star. But I have to say that it’s not that the journey there wasn’t fun. It was just that some of it was pretty obvious, and in a genre known for twists, readers aren’t necessarily going to appreciate that.

Style: The style here was very straightforward, and also very intimate. I really felt drawn in by Alex’s inner struggles, which colored most of her actions throughout the novel. I thought that was very realistic and a good way to approach her as a main character.

Trigger Warnings: Murder, infidelity, domestic abuse.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I thought this was an intriguing and uplifting addition to the thriller genre. It’s rare that a thriller’s ending feels so happy, if that makes sense. I don’t want to say too much and spoil things, but Alex was better off by the end, rather than having been traumatized by what she just went through, and that was kind of nice. I’d definitely read other books by this author, and I think thriller readers will like this addition to the genre, even if they guess the ending first.