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Michelle Harder

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  • 442
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Writing Style Engaging, Story Just Ok

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-15-25

Super slow start, and there wasn't much suspense. In fact, the entire book felt like the setup, then the last 15 minutes or so was the actual plot, if that makes sense. I enjoyed the author's writing style, which is the only reason I stuck with it. I was never bored, just never fully engaged, and was left at the end feeling a little bit like the whole thing could have been a short story. The story was very character driveb, and the main characters were sympathetic (for me, at least), but there was little actual character development aside from a final redeeming decision made close to the end, so it felt a bit flat. Definitely predictable for anyone who has read this genre for any length of time, and called for serious suspension of disbelief at the end. If you, as an author, have to spell out very clearly, "this type of thing never would have worked anywhere else in the world except this little place where every set of circumstances and every person and every coincidence all just happened to line up perfectly despite being well out of the characters' control for this totally implausible thing to work, then you're really not doing all of the heavy lifting that you should be doing to MAKE this thing possible without 60% prep 40% luck. It should be 99% prep, 1% luck.

Also, spoiler here, so if you want to read the book and don't want the ending SPOILED for you, don't read any further, but IMO, the punishment did NOT fit the crime. I hate cheaters as much as the next person, and I have a deep loathing for narcissists who take advantage of women and do a number on their self esteem, but while the husband was a cad, a heel, a lazy narcissistic cheater and manipulator, nearly 2 decades of prison for a crime he didn't commit was a bit much. The author missed an opportunity to describe coercive control and make him a little more of a bad guy so that the punishment didn't feel quite so out of proportion to the crime.

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Pretty Good. Kept My Interest

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-18-25

Not groundbreaking or particularly memorable, but the story was enjoyable, and it held my interest, which is what I needed..

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Passed the Time Well Enough

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-04-25

I enjoyed the story, though the end was a bit unrealistic. It kept me engaged and passed the time, which is what I needed it to do.

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One of my favorites from this author

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-03-25

I really found this one to be enjoyable. One of the best I've read from her. I devoured it in one sitting, and was really routing for the characters.

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Decent Short Story

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 02-02-25

Nothing spectacular, but it was a nice litte story and good performances from the narrators. It killed a couple of hours.

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1.5 🌟 for effort

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-31-25

Let me start with the one positive. It held my interest, and i would read another from this author in a few years to see if they mature. So if you're looking for a time filler and don't care about plausibility and a massive suspension of disbelief, go for it. But...

These authors are trying too hard to be the next Gone Girl that they're writing the book to fit a "twist you'll never see coming," but the reason you won't see it coming is because it's absolutely implausible, impossible, and utterly ridiculous.

This is the 2nd book I've read in a row where the investigation was so utterly impossibly bad that even a first year Sheriff in a small town wouldn't explain it.


*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****
Removing identifying marks from a body (hair, teeth, fingerprints, etc) ONLY WORKS IF THEY DON'T KNOW WHO THE VICTIM IS SUPPOSED TO BE!!! It doesn't remove their "DNA," it just makes it difficult to trace who they are if their DNA isn't already in the system, and if they don't have any idea who the victim is. How would a publisher allow this glaring error of fact to stand? The only way this twist would have worked is if it had been set back in a time before DNA identification was as advanced as it is now...and that would have meant the author would have had to find a new way to frame the sister. You can't have it both ways: DNA technology advanced enough to detect DNA under the fingernails and in the nose of a corpse submerged in water AND have it not advanced enough to identify a whole body with DNA evidence and every last one of their belongings and their family members available.

Removing identifying features certainly doesn't work to make them think it's someone else when you have the entire family of the person it's supposed to be right there being interrogated, and they wouldn't trust one of the suspects as the only person to provide a positive ID. It's ludicrous to think that you can have a whole body that you've removed identifying features from to try to pass it off as someone else, and yet you can plant someone else's DNA to frame them for the wrong person's murder and the planted DNA will show up, but they won't be able to pull DNA from the actual corpse and cross reference it with familial matches or with items that the suspected deceased person used. They'd be able to rule out that corpse as the loved one immediately. These authors don't seem to know how DNA works.

Thus, the whole premise of the story is DOA from the moment of the first scene. We don't learn this until halfway through the book, and by then, I was invested in the story, which does say something for the skill of the author as far as writing style goes.

Also, the portrayal of a person with Bipolar Disorder is uninformed and flat out insulting. That character was written as if they author was trying to write someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Bipolar Disorder does not manifest in the way that this character was written. The husband was written fairly well, as was the wife, but then we get to the actual confession from the villain, and it's ludicrous, unbelievable, impossible, and also insulting because it's just as bad as having a scene where the villain of the story gets their 5 - 10 minute diatribe as they have the protagonist in their clutches as a lazy way to wrap everything up. Yet even with entire chapters dedicated to the confession, it still managed to leave plot holes. It also confirmed some of the more predictable twists (such as the fact that it was pretty obvious that the untimely death of the parents was connected to the case, and it was obvious that the absent brother was somehow involved, and it was also obvious once we knew that the wife was still alive that it was someone who was supposed to love her who took her.

All in all, while it was an interesting read, it just got more and more implausible with each twist and each revealed. By the very end, I just had to shake my head at how sloppy the plot was. And yet, still, I did finish the book, and mostly enjoyed the ride even as I cringed at the lack of research and basic knowledge that this author had about several of the subjects they tried to write about.

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Empathetic main character, ludicrous plot

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-12-25

The writing style of the author, the main character, and the performance of the narrators was able to hold my interest, but this story calls for a massive suspension of disbelief in so many different areas. Also, the actual synopsis of the story should never have revealed the connection between the boss and her new hire. That would have been a decent reveal if done correctly. It could have created more tension, suspense, intrigue. Instead, it was instantly clear that the hiring was no coincidence because that connection was revealed before the story even started. Why would you choose to put a huge spoiler in the synopsis???

Spoilers ahead for anyone who has read the book and came to confirm that they're not alone in their frustration with some of the ridiculous plot points. The motivations of the villain made absolutely NO sense. If a woman already believes she's about to be exposed for embezzlement, it makes no sense to hire someone to mess with them and take the chance that you'll further expose yourself. Her energy would have been better spent trying to further cover her crimes, not add to them. And that was a plot point that went NOWHERE. It was ludicrous that after her "death," the truth of what she had been doing was never mentioned again. Surely, if she was that close to being caught, the police would have uncovered it in a murder investigation? It would have been at least cause to lend credibility to the suicide theory. But once she's supposedly murdered, it just disappears from the story as if it didn't exist. And the investigation didn't catch the fact that it wasn't even her body?? Not unless every person on the case from the responding officers, the detectives, and the coroner was completely incompetent. Time of death wouldn't match, the condition of the body certainly wouldn't line up with a fall like that. There would have been very little blood (if any) rigor mortis would have already set in, there would have been mottling on the body indicating that it had been inside if a container and in a certain position for so long... Not only that, but what about the bruise she put on her own arm to send in the text, no one noticed that mark wasn't on the corpse?? Lastly, NO WAY are the police going to open an manhunt for a woman who has already been declared dead and whose alleged killer has already confessed to her murder at the word of the incarcerated man's wife. And for them to never have found her body? They wouldn't have released him on the word of the wife that she happened to stumble on this woman alive, ESPECIALLY when the body never turned up. Clothes with her DNA wouldn't have been enough. And since when did we start doing DNA in this story?? We certainly didn't do it on the literal corpse that was dead for a day before having been thrown off of a balcony to confirm it was even the right one. All of the major plot points of this story fall between unlikely, improbable and impossible.

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Not Great, Not Bad

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-06-25

A little slow to start, and somewhat predictable second half. A few surprises, and mostly held my interest. The twist in the very end didn't make much sense, and felt like it was thrown in just for an extra twist.

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DNF - First in a LONG Time

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-29-24

I absolutely LOVED All the Little Raindrops and at least one of her other books that was more on the suspense/mystery side than romance, but I just couldn't get into this one. The inner dialog of the lead male character was just cringe. I mean, like...I've seen less cheese in a Wisconsin curd shop. I tried to get past it for the sake of the story because the actual dialog between characters was fairly normal, but then we get the villain's POV for the first time, and it was equally as cheesy. I can't stand it when authors write villains in a way that is utterly over the top dripping with evil villainousness, like they're trying too hard to make you hate them. It feels so one dimensional. I need a little bit of inner conflict, a little bit of sympathy for the bad guy, at least to start with, but a couple minutes into the intro to the bad guy, and it was clear he was meant to be hated and lacked any depth. This just clearly wasn't my cup of tea. I wanted to like it...and maybe the story is good, but I just couldn't get past the writing of the male Character, Life is too short to listen to something that makes you cringe internally for minutes on end...

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Predictable

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-27-24

I don't know if it's a me thing...maybe I need to swap genres for a while, but I saw where this was going from very early on. I clocked every twist that made sense. There were some threads that went nowhere, and a couple twists that had no reasonable lead-ups, but I knew the main villain from very early on and knew several of the things that happened well before they happened. I also had a hard time empathizing with the protagonist because she brought a lot of it on herself, and her motives for doing so made very little sense. I understand being a people pleaser. I spent most of my life being one. Never in my most people pleasing of people pleasing days would I have ever taken such drastic measures to avoid a conflict. Her disappearing and starting a new life to avoid drama would have been less drastic than what she did, and with less potential for harmful outcome...but then we wouldn't have had a story, and that's problematic for me. When the whole premise of the story is built on one massively nonsensical decision made by the protagonist, the whole plot is questionable. This story just didn't do much for me. That said, I enjoy the general writing style of the author, and enjoyed the last story I read from her, so I will give her another shot.

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