Her Three Lives - Cate Holahan

Cate Holahan's latest book is Her Three Lives. The cover is suitably ominous with the torn background for the title. The covered mouth as well.

What's it about? From Grand Central Publishing: (My thoughts follow)

"Her public life: Jade Thompson has it all. She’s an up-and-coming social media influencer, and she has a beautiful new home and a successful architect for a fiancé. But there’s trouble behind the scenes. To Greg’s children, his divorce from their mother and his new life can only mean a big mid-life crisis. To Jade, his suburban Connecticut upbringing isn’t an easy match with her Caribbean roots.

 

Her private life: A savage home invasion leaves Greg house-bound with a traumatic brain injury and glued to the live feeds from his ubiquitous security cameras. As the police investigate the crime and Greg’s frustration and rage grows, Jade begins to wonder what he may know about their attackers. And whether they are coming back.

 

Her secret life: As Greg watches Jade’s comings and goings, he becomes convinced that her behavior is suspicious and that she’s hiding a big secret.  The more he sees, the more he wonders whether the break-in was really a random burglary. And whether he’s worth more to Jade if he were dead than alive."

My Thoughts:

I liked Jade as a lead character  - she seems to truly love Greg. (Although I can't see why) Abigay, Jade's mother has the clearest thinking of anyone in this novel. Jade should have listened to her mama! I can understand the anger Greg's adult children and soon to be ex feel towards Jade, but the vitriol thrown by Greg's daughter Violet is really over the top. Jade takes it - I wouldn't and I don't understand why Greg lets it happen.

Greg's brain injury opens up some interesting avenues for the plot to go, as well as a choice of suspects. Kudos to Holahan for the chapters written from Greg's point of view - they are quite frightening. This part of the book kept my attention. And I was ready for the resolution....but. Yes, there's a 'but' for me. The ending Holahan has chosen just doesn't sit well with me. I'm not going to provide spoilers, but I found the ending to be unrealistic, far fetched and disappointing.

This one ended up being just an okay read for me. The 'thriller' descriptor fell short for this reader. But see for yourself - here's an excerpt of Her Three Lies.

Thank you to the Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publising for the review copy.