"She met him through a dating app." That little sentence opens up a wealth of directions for a book to go...
Wren seems to have it all - and on the surface she does. When she meets Adam she thinks she's found the one. Until the day he leaves her with one last text and disappears. She's been ghosted. Instead of saying good riddance, Wren is determined to find him. Someone else is also looking for Adam - a private investigator looking for Adam's last girlfriend as she's gone missing...
I liked the premise, liked Wren, liked the PI and the possibilities Unger's plot held. Wren has a secret in her past and I really wanted to know what it was. She revealed it to Adam right before he left, but the reader has no idea what it is. Roughly halfway through the book Unger takes us back to Wren's childhood and we relive her past. Unger has come up with a background that also offers up lots of possibilities.
As the book heads towards the final pages and resolution, that initial 'I'm behind you Wren' feeling started to dissipate for me. She made some choices that I had a hard time with and honestly couldn't believe anyone would make. The ending was a bit too much and tied up a bit too pretty for me.
Unger is a talented writer and I will be picking up her next book. Last Girl Ghosted was good, but not great for this reader.
You know, I've recently read a few books where I liked the storyline and the suspense, but the choices and decisions and thought processes of the protagonist made me very frustrated. In quite a few of them I wanted to shout at them - 'What are you thinking?!?' 'Use your head.'
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking it may be about time for me to read a few police procedurals in a row. At least in those we are following along with crime solvers that do it for a living and usually have a modicum of sense. Ha!
And I so looked forward to this.But just read two books by another author..her first and her latest..and both relied on the protagonist being an absolute idiot to maintain the suspense.And yet her LAST one was an absolute corker.I wonder if authors get tired and occasionally fall back on what's easiest.
ReplyDeleteThey can't all be wins, especially for those authors who are creative enough to produce a new novel each year. I still have yet to read Unger, but I've seen enough positive reviews of her previous works to pique my interest. Sorry this one wasn't as good for you.
ReplyDeleteHa Kay! I do the same - it's my pragmatic nature. You're right - police procedurals behave a bit better!
ReplyDeleteEthan - yes, to write a book a year is intense. She's a good writer and I've really enjoyed past works. This one just didn't hit the same mark for me.
Anonymous - Yup, I want an intelligent protagonist. We can't love them all, can we?