I received this book for free from the TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Published by William Morrow on February 11, 2020
Genres: Adult, Adultery, Contemporary, Contemporary, Psychological Suspense
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: TLC Book Tours
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For fans of Liane Moriarty, Liv Constantine and Lisa Jewell, a twisty psychological thriller about a savvy second wife who will do almost anything to come out on top from the New York Times bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes.
Marriage can be murder…
SOMETHING OLD
Marcie’s affair with Jason Maddox catapulted her into the world of the elite.
Old money, old ties, old secrets. Marcie may have married into this world—
but she’ll never be part of it.
SOMETHING NEW
Then Jason’s boss brings back a new wife from his trip to London.
Young, attractive, reckless—nobody can take their eyes off Keisha.
Including Marcie’s husband.
SOMETHING YOU CAN NEVER, EVER UNDO…
Some people would kill for the life Marcie has—what will she do to keep it?
My first Sarah Pinborough book was Cross Her Heart, and I enjoyed it, marking her as an author to definitely read in the future. Her latest release, Dead to Her, is very different from the book that I’d read, and I mean that in a good way. Deliciously ambiguously motivated characters are favorites of mine, but unreliable narrators rank supreme in my book–and Dead to Her has both in spades!
Marcie is used to being the young, attractive second wife to attorney Jason, finally feeling like she fits in among their upper-crust elitist friends in Savannah, Georgia. But when Jason’s best friend/work partner William comes home six months early from his European vacation after the untimely death of his longtime wife to cancer, no one expected him to return with a forty-years-younger new wife in tow. British Keisha is everything that this WASPy-set isn’t: young, loud, boisterous, uncultured, and exciting. Immediately Marcie feels threatened by this younger woman, both because she could take her place as the newer-model wife and because her own husband seems to be enamored with Keisha’s exotic beauty.
But not all is as perfect as it seems among the rich, snobbish couples, and everyone seems to have dark secrets to hide. Marcie and Keisha become unlikely friends as both of their relationships unravel, and things turn dangerous for someone close to them. Both women have pasts that they’d rather keep hidden, but those kinds of things have a way of resurfacing to bite you in the end. Marcie knows what it takes to climb her way out of poverty into this kind of social class and stay there, while Keisha is just starting that journey. Both women handle things much differently, and with both of their past traumas, it makes for very interesting reading to see how they handle their relationships with their husbands and those around them–especially when things start to unravel.
I give Dead to Her a 4.5 out of 5. The tension in this book just grew as the story was told in four different parts, and while it grew from a domestic suspense into a full-out mystery in the last parts, I could not put this book down. I just had to keep reading to find out what was really going on. The big reveal in the end was quite satisfying, and while I did guess who was responsible for it all early on, I changed my mind quite quickly because the misdirection and red herrings were so subtle that the answer wasn’t obvious until the end. The twists that Sarah Pinborough plots into her stories is clever, and just when I think I had a character figured out, they did a one-eighty. Toxic relationships, hidden pasts, scheming men and women, adultery, and a bit of voodoo make for an intense domestic suspense.
Find DEAD TO HER
Amazon | Harper Collins | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
About Sarah Pinborough
Sarah Pinborough is the number one Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thriller Behind Her Eyes, and more than twenty other novels and novellas, including The Death House and a young adult thriller, 13 Minutes. She has also written for the BBC. She lives in England.
Find out more about Sarah at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.
Connect with Sarah Pinborough
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
Sarah Pinborough’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS for DEAD TO HER:
Instagram Features
Tuesday, February 11th: Instagram: @thatgirlrunswithbluntscissors
Wednesday, February 12th: Instagram: @the.magicalpages
Thursday, February 13th: Instagram: @beritaudiokilledthebookmark
Friday, February 14th: Instagram: @downtogetthefictionon
Saturday, February 15th: Instagram: @readingbetweenthe__wines
Saturday, February 15th: Instagram: @readingwithmere
Sunday, February 16th: Instagram: @jennsbookvibes
Monday, February 17th: Instagram: @basicbsguide
Tuesday, February 18th: Instagram: @kmc_reads
Wednesday, February 19th: Instagram: @storiesandcoffee
Thursday, February 20th: Instagram: @momandmadread
Review Stops
Tuesday, February 11th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Wednesday, February 12th: Bewitched Bookworms
Thursday, February 13th: Instagram: @tbretc
Friday, February 14th: PhDiva
Monday, February 17th: Always With a Book
Tuesday, February 18th: Instagram: @crystals_library
Friday, February 19th: Instagram: @babygotbooks13
Wednesday, February 19th: Instagram: @kraysbookclub
Thursday, February 20th: Instagram: @mamajustwantstoread
Thursday, February 20th: Instagram: @jess_reads_books
Thursday, February 20th: Instagram: @lavieestbooks
Friday, February 21st: Jennifer ~ Tar Heel Reader
Monday, February 24th: Books and Bindings
Monday, February 24th: Instagram: @beauty_andthebook_
Tuesday, February 25th: Into the Hall of Books
Wednesday, February 26th: Stranded in Chaos
Thursday, February 27th: Instagram: @bookapotamus
Friday, February 28th: Write – Read – Life
Monday, March 2nd: Instagram: @katieladyreads
Tuesday, March 3rd: Instagram: @shereadswithcats
Wednesday, March 4th: Openly Bookish
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I’m starting this one over the weekend and I’m more excited about this one than the last one because I’ve seen some great early reviews. Thank you for being on this tour! Sara @ TLC Book Tours
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I really enjoyed Dead to Her more than Cross Her Heart, so hopefully you love it as much as I did. Happy reading!!
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