Two
women. Two families. Two lifetimes' worth of secrets.
In the wake of her husband’s sudden death, Cassie Costas finds her relationship
with her teenage stepdaughter unraveling. After their move to historic Tarpon
Springs, Florida, Savannah hates her new town, her school and most of all her
stepmom, whom she blames for her father’s death. Cassie has enough to contend
with as she searches for answers about the man she shared a life with,
including why all their savings have disappeared.
When Savannah’s rebellion culminates in an act that leaves single mother Amber
Blair and her sixteen-year-old son homeless, Cassie empathizes with the woman’s
predicament and invites the strangers to move in. As their lives intertwine,
Cassie realizes that Amber is hiding something. She’s evasive about her past,
but the fear in her eyes tells a darker story. Cassie wonders what the woman
living under her roof is running from… and what will happen if it finally
catches up to her.
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Harlequin
Sarah
– ☆☆☆
This is an almost painfully slow story about four people sharing a house in
Florida. The house belongs to Cassie and her stepdaughter, Savannah. The
houseguests are Amber and her son, Will. Cassie invites Amber to live with her
after Savannah steals Amber’s savings.
I really struggled with this book. There are a couple of storylines here that
should be exciting. Cassie is digging into the mysterious circumstances surrounding
the death of her husband, Savannah’s father. Amber is running from something –
and for the longest time, readers don’t know what. However, both of these
storylines drag along without any building tension. Interspersed between are
scenes where Cassie and Savannah struggle with grief, relocating, and being
poor(er) than they are accustomed to. Cassie reads as slightly useless, and
Savannah as spoilt, so I found it really difficult to have empathy for either
of them. Amber and Will are much more likeable, but Amber is too secretive and
guarded for readers to ever connect with.
With too many characters and too many narrative perspectives, this book becomes
unwieldy. I was unable to keep the additional supporting characters straight.
Cassie’s family members, her husband’s previous colleagues, the men Cassie and
Amber date, Savannah’s friends… It is all a bit much in a single story. There
are a couple of revelations at the end that should have been exciting, but they
just weren’t. I’m a fast reader and I read just about everything. It isn’t
often that I pick up, put down, and avoid a book as much as I did this one.
USA
Today bestselling author EMILIE RICHARDS has written more than seventy
novels. She has appeared on national television and been quoted in Reader’s
Digest, right between Oprah and Thomas Jefferson. Born in Bethesda,
Maryland, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Richards has been married for
more than forty years to her college sweetheart. She splits her time between
Florida and Western New York, where she is currently plotting her next novel.
Connect with
Emilie
Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Website ~ Goodreads
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided
a free copy of The House Guests by Emilie Richards to read and review.
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