I finished this book yesterday and I’ve forgotten what this was about already.
Oh, sorry, you need more from a review?
I guess it was okay.
Really, guys, I’m not sure what else to tell you. It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t super interesting, and it was forgettable.
Alright. Fine.
It’s about a girl named Hope. A decade or so ago, Hope was in a car crash, driving a stolen vehicle. She had no idea and woke up in the hospital with complete memory loss and no idea of her own identity. The woman who found her is an attorney named Lindsay and throughout the years, she and Hope have remained close. Very close, almost obsessively so, so when Hope decides to move away to another town, Lindsay tries not to take it too personally. When Hope then stops texting her back everyone tells her to give her friend some space, but Linsday isn’t buying it and tries to figure out where Hope has gone.
I think my main problem with this book, aside from the fact that I don’t really remember much about it, is that it hinges on both a set of tropes that I don’t really like and a whole lot of it-doesn’t-work-that-way. I’ve read Burke’s books before and those were better, but this one wasn’t helped by the uninspiring main characters; Lindsay and Hope are kind of similar and they really shouldn’t be. They’re both bland; there’s not much to their personalties. Detective Ellie Hatcher – on whom this series is based – is better, but that still wasn’t really enough to keep my interests piqued. There’s another character who’s a detective who could’ve been fun to read, but he is completely underutilised.
What bugged me is the lazy approach to research that went into this. Burke was a district attorney before she became an author, so the legal aspects of the book are well covered. But it’s like she thought she’d done enough research for the rest of her life and just made up the rest as she went along. I’m no psychologist but even I know memory loss doesn’t work like that. It’s a lazy trope and it’s executed even more lazily. The same goes for the tropes that are used. Without wanting to give too much away, the plot relies on these tropes but doesn’t really fully explore them. It could’ve been handled with much more care and sensitivity than it is here: there are a few serious issues and they’re lazily brushed over in the interest of moving the plot forward. I wonder why that is. It’s a slim volume and it only would’ve improved the book.
I would still recommend this author, but this book? Unless you’re really invested in the series (which I’m not), give it a miss.