Dead To Her, Sarah Pinborough 3.5/5

Marcie Maddox has worked to get where she is, beautiful, wealthy, well known after an illicit affair elevated her into a strong position, but this life in Savannah isn’t all it appears to be and keeping the interest of husband Jason is harder than she realises. When Jasons boss brings home a young, attractive British wife from a holiday Mrs William Radford quickly usurps Marcia as the “beautiful second wife”

As the sparks start to fly in the Savannah heat, the gloves are pulled off and everyone will learn that revenge is best served cold.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarperCollins for my copy of this book!

This is a steamy, lusty summer read, perfect for relaxing in the sun with a cocktail. I LOVE the tale of a second wife, full of twists, turns and delicious betrayals.

Pour a cocktail, lie back and enjoy the thrill.

Definitely not Sarah Pinborough's best, but not terrible either. Having seen many negative reviews about this book, I was somewhat skeptical going into this read. I was hoping that I was going to enjoy it but I wasn't holding my breath. The good news is that I quite enjoyed this one. Here's a brief summary of my thoughts:

What I liked:
* I thought that the first 70% of this book was really interesting and I was gripped by the way the story was developing, and the different relationships that were being formed
* It was clear at all times that the story was building and that something disastrous was going to happen. I enjoyed that feeling of suspense.
* Lots of secrets and plenty of domestic drama.
* The pacing was fairly good, and the story moved along. For the most part, I didn't feel bored and I was interested in seeing where things were going because it wasn't always clear.

What I didn't like:
* The last 30% seemed to veer off track and suddenly there were so many characters coming into the picture, and events from the past coming to light, most of which just came straight out of the blue.
* Many of the characters were unlikable, and all of them were privileged, wealthy and very superficial. I didn't form strong bonds with any of them.
* The voodoo elements didn't bother me particularly, but I just failed to see what they really added to the story.
* This story lacked a real OMW moment, and there wasn't really much of a twist. The reveal at the end about who-dunnit was pretty boring and didn't come as that much of a surprise.

Overall, this was an average read. I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time, nor did I feel rewarded for the hours spent reading this book. It was okay.

Another incredible book by Sarah Pinborough. Not only is it well written the plot is interesting and the characters are amazing. I loved how she managed to create such a thrilling read. I was captivated until the end

I really wanted to like this book but I struggled with it.
I love a psychological thriller but when the author throws voodoo in to the mix with a side order of the supernatural it’s not for me.
Had it stayed with the synopsis of high society relationships, adultery and murder I would have been happier but this one just wasn’t for me and it was the first book in a long time I didn’t/couldn’t finish.

Thank you to the Author, Publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for my ARC Sorry but unfortunately due to recent events I have lost my reading mojo. When it returns this book will be top of my list and I will leave my review in the usual places

Marcie and Keisha both from impoverished backgrounds end up as the younger, second wives in society Savannah, Georgia. I thought it would be going one way but the plot threw me. Tension filled with secrets, jealousy, voodoo and passion. A gripping read with a good plot.

This book is pretty hard to surmise without giving away two many spoilers. Basically it follows the lives of some members of high society in a small Georgia town, in particular the two ‘outsiders’ as such, who had married into that world. At first everything is as you’d expect in those circles but as things get tense between these main two couples, one of the wealthy husbands is taken unwell. What has happened soon becomes clear but how it happens will keep you guessing right up to the end.

If you’re a fan of sordid love affairs, high society rules, cheating partners, trust issues and a good ole fashion ‘who dunnit’ then this is a book for you. Pinborough takes time to build a world of high class where standards are everything and one must do everything to maintain them. Within this she also takes the time to weave all the elements needed for later as the mystery plays out. This is where the twists and turns began to happen. As each new pieces of the puzzle was uncovered more questions were raised until eventually it all linked up into a neat, all loose-ends tied in conclusion, one I’m betting most won’t figure out.

However, this wasn’t the book for me. It seemed to meander through the first 60% or so before the plot twists, lies and subterfuge started to happen and it wasn’t until around 75% in that these started to come together to create all the questions. I would have preferred to have sped through to this part and spent more time in the throes of uncertainty. I also found myself really disliking the characters and finding them totally unrelatable which probably didn’t help.

This book has its merits but as I said, it wasn’t really my thing. I have enjoyed Pinborough’s work in the past though so don’t let me put you off. Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I loved behind her eyes so I was excited to get the chance to read a new book by the same author on netgalley. I really tried to get into this one but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me and I have had to DNF it.

My first Sarah Pinborough novel 'Behind Her Eyes' remains one of my favourite thrillers. I've recommended it to many people and received an extremely split response so I think that her blend of realism and the supernatural isn't for everyone. Personally it's a welcome change from thrillers where I so often lose interest in or guess the ending so far in advance of finishing the book.

The second of her novels that I read, 'Cross Her Heart', wasn't quite so intriguing to me and was weirdly similar to another book that come out at around the same time, so I was simultaneously excited and cautious about 'Dead To Her'. In short it came somewhere in-between for me. More than anything else it was compulsively readable. At the moment I have loads to read and plenty of reading time but I'm finding it more difficult than usual to get into and stick with a book that doesn't immediately grab me. This one did that with ease and I was happily drawn into the high society, money-centric, deep south world that these characters inhabit. Like in 'Behind Her Eyes', love and sex are woven into the plot and, quite quickly, I was just as invested in their personal relationships as I was in the ever-evolving plot line of magic and murder. The suspects and motives spiralled out quite quickly and I never felt like I second-guessed where Pinborough was going which, again, is my favourite thing about her writing.

There was a strong focus on voodoo and race within the novel which was essential to the plot. While I found that interesting, particularly the discussions about an older white man (William Radford) bringing home a young, Black second wife (Keisha) and how Keisha's acceptance into their society would have differed a generation ago, I've recently become more aware of how aspects of a novel can be read differently by readers of different ethnicities and backgrounds. I would be interested to know whether the reading experience was similar for a Black reader. The dichotomy between Keisha's new role in their society and the undercurrent of racism was intriguing, and I'm keen to know whether it felt well drawn to a non-white reader or whether it was superficial.

Additionally, I don't know anything about voodoo and some of the information, particularly the fact that it spanned two countries and a lifetime, felt overwhelming and almost distracting. I had to put aside any questions or concerns I had about how realistic it was in order to allow myself to be fully immersed in the book. It wasn't my favourite aspect of the story for this reason, something about it jarred with me, but having now finished reading I'll likely research the topic of voodoo further.

Much of this is a reflection a day after reading the book. While reading it my main sensation was one of enjoyment. I found myself desperate to pick up my iPad to continue reading and blew through the book in a couple of days.

I love a good thriller set in modern day. This book had great pace and I read it in a couple of days. Thankyou for the early access

I really didn't like this at all.
A lot was thrown in this book, every twist you could think of was in here and it was just too much and didn't work.
There was almost too much mystery surrounding everything at some points and we really were only getting little snippets of information and I just lost interest pretty quickly.

The characters I found a bit one dimensional, they're not likeable, Marcie is hypocritical, jealous and annoying and the others really aren't much better. They felt like a carbon copy of the same toxic template.

Some of the content I found completely unnecessary, there are similar conversations had multiple times that don't need to be, I found it quite repetitive.

The ending was boring and over too quickly, for all that was added to the book, not all of it was really explained properly rendering it pretty useless to the story.

I feel like there could have been loads of other ways the author could of gone with this that could have been so so much better, but this route unfortunately didn't work for me at all.

I got an ARC from Net Galley for this one so I wanted to give it a good chance, as I know thrillers sometimes pick up right at the end, but if it wasn't an ARC I probably would have DNFed it.

One good note is there is LGBTQ representation in this book, which I always love to see

I enjoyed this book, it was trashy, full of twists and unlikeable characters.
Towards the end I couldn't put it down, I guessed part of the ending, but it was well written.
I would love to see this book made into a film or tv show.

I found this book really hard to get into, and struggled to get going with it. I did persevere because I had read other by this author and wanted to give it the chance. Sadly it didn’t quite live up to the other fantastic books.,

The story is told from multiple points of view, which does work but the characters don’t come accross as very likeable.

There are quite a few twists in the story but I had already guessed them and what was about to happen. It’s well written but a little far fetched and Unnecessarily graphic at times.

“Men knew nothing about the tricky waters of mutual mistrust women swam in.”

But who can you trust when your place in society depends maintaining a veneer of respectability over your true self?

Marcie Maddox thought her position in society was secure, but just as she’s beginning to settle into her life as the beautiful, second wife of Jason Maddox, a partner in their widower friend William’s law firm, William arrives home from a tour abroad with a younger, beautiful second wife. Blowing in like a whirlwind, Keisha upsets the very fabric of their social circle and threatens to tear their world apart.

Will Marcie be able to save her marriage as jealousy sets in? Will she be able to keep her past a secret, and stop it from toppling her from her place in society?

And when it comes down to it, who will she decide to put her faith in?

What can I say?? This book is SUPER well written and unputdownable, to use a word I hate to use!

The characters are great, the setting, with the heat and sultriness of the south, the perfect backdrop to this whodunnit tale of lies and secrets.

Is anyone who they say they are? Are the stories they’ve told of themselves anything close to the truth, if true at all?

It’s a fast ride through a web of deceit and darkness, with a sprinkle of voodoo adding to the intrigue.

And that ending? Maybe everyone should always be looking over their shoulder.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The story is centred around a group of elite people in America. It is told from two perspectives - Marcie and Keisha. Marcie is married to Jason (high on the social ladder) and Keisha is the new and much younger English wife of William (the head of their professional and social lives). William married very quickly to Keisha not long after his first wife, Eleanor, passed away.
Keisha struggles to fit in with this set of people and feels they all look down on her, except Jason, who flirts with her at every opportunity. Keisha forces Marcie to be friends with her, and often mentions how she’d love her husband to die as he is awful and controlling, and trying to mould her into what he wants her to be rather than love her for who she is. Marcie is jealous of Jason’s flirting, and feels he is hiding something from her. And when someone attempts to end William’s life it turns out that they all have secrets they’d rather be kept hidden.

I really enjoyed the story, and once past the first few chapters of getting to know the many characters and who was married to who, I found I read this quite quickly. I started off not liking the character of Keisha but found Marcie to be quite likeable. But as the story unfolded I began to feel sorry for Keisha, and started rooting for her. William and Jason were really unlikable though - everything you could imagine men with money and power could be is what they were.

Overall I loved this book, bit racy in places, but Sarah Pinborough has done it again and written a gem!!

I loved this book! Psychological thrillers have been my go to genre for a good while now and they tend to have a familiar format and lead you to guess ‘whodunnit’ I enjoy these books and I can usually skim read to a degree just looking for dialogue but in the book the details grabbed my attention. I also found the New Orleans and voodoo culture aspect interesting and also the enjoyed the main characters being well off and the stereotype that brings. My only dislike (spoiler alert!) was the lesbian relationship but then I think this was to reduce the chance of guessing some of the storyline.

Another great book from Sarah Pinborough. It grabs you right from the beginning, you just have to keep reading.
It’s glamorous with some very interesting and unlikeable characters, you’re never quite sure who to root for. It’s a fast-paced thriller and full of twists and turns.

The best sort of thrillers are bi lady thrillers, that’s a concrete fact. So, when I found out this book was one of them, I had to read it.

It’s just a shame it didn’t work out for me.

The first clue was probably in the characters because Dead to Her follows a bunch of rich people.

Now, it’s not as if I don’t like to read about rich people. Actually, it sort of is, but the contexts in which I can enjoy reading about them is them getting torn down and all their wealth redistributed. That was not the case here.

Because another problem I had with this book was that I was expecting a whole different story (see above contexts in which I can stomach rich people problems). Obviously, that’s on me for not reading the blurb/more reviews of the book before picking it up. But it didn’t help me in trying to like the book.

Not only was the plot not quite what I had hoped for, it was also very slow. I mean, the promised for death didn’t even happen until gone halfway through. So I had to deal with half a book’s worth of rich people doing rich people things and having rich people problems.

Not fun.

Add onto this the parts I was...not exactly keen on (namely, gay characters who are stereotypically camp, the unease I had with how the bi mcs were presented - as cheaters and the Black mc was in particular very sexualised, and the whole voodoo storyline). Well you can see why I had to drag myself through this.

But I still maintain that bi lady thrillers are the best thrillers. This was just a blip.

When I started this book, I made the assumption that it was going to be a typical “southern belle – oh my” type of drama - how wrong could I be? Yes, it is set in deep south Savannah amongst an elite old money type clique of old friends but the appearance of the new young and beautiful wife of the most powerful man amongst them sends ripples that become waves as events unfold. In this story you get psychological tension, mystery, drama and sub-stories galore which add to the drama. It is a rollercoaster of a story and I didn’t want to it to stop even with the voodoo spookiness added in. The new wife struggles with her new life and the problems she bought with her. Treacherous, duplicitous dealings end up affecting a number of this insincere group of friends. I never guessed who the main perpetrator was until it was disclosed and the final unexpected reveal took me completely by surprise. I loved this book.

This was a mixed bag for me, having loved her previous book, I was really looking forward to this. Started great with a lot of promise, but I found it lacking in depth at times and I struggled with some of the characters- like they were just there to fatten it out a bit. Slightly disappointed, but it wouldn’t put me off her next one.