Ursula Archer

2.75 stars

Amazing premise to a twisted plot, not yet read before. Unfortunately, this premise fell short. The dual narrative became repetitive and contentious at the same time. It pulled away from the plot, making it hard to get through the middle portion of the book. If I’m being honest, I was hooked at the beginning, and wanted to know what was going to happen, but then partway through the middle. I lost full interest, but Finished to be finished. Not sure I would recommend this read. However, the premise is pretty cool. For a psychological thriller, I always hope for a page turning mystery that pulls at the various ways that my brain thinks things through, and that’s where this book fell short.… (plus d'informations)

I loved the premise for this story, and the writing style immediately sucked me in. The setup is eerie in its realism. I wanted to know who these people were, and which one was either lying or crazy.

The story is told via short chapters that alternate narrators between Joanna and Erik, both written in first person. Initially this intrigued me, as we get to see things from both characters' perspectives. But soon the content becomes repetitive, with too much detail being rehashed from the other person's point of view. This slows the story down considerably, so that not much really happens, aside from a lot of tension, for the first half of the book.

The strained relationship with Joanna and her father is a major factor in the story, yet it's never explored in any sort of depth. We never find out why her father feels so strongly about a particular matter, despite the fact that the issue has a major impact on events.

As the story progresses, the characters' choices and actions border on ridiculous. The situation continually spirals out of control, when really there were far more logical actions for them both to take at just about every step of the way.

And, finally, the explanation for Joanna's memory loss, which was the basis for the entire convoluted plot, was too much of a stretch for me to buy into.

An epilogue clearly leaves us dangling for a sequel, but, for the most part, there is closure for the characters.

*I received an ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*… (plus d'informations)

Strangers by Ursula Archer and Arno Strobel is a highly recommended thriller.

Joanna Berrigan is home alone when she finds a stranger in her house. He has let himself in with a key and claims he is her fiancé. The problem is that Joanna has never seen this man before. He claims he lives with her, but there is no trace of anyone else living in her house. Joanna ends up spending the night locked in the pantry while the stranger spends the night outside the pantry door. Joanna also is having these strange flashes of hitting herself and then taking a knife and attacking him.

Erik Thieben comes home after a hard day at work to find that the woman he loves, his fiancée Jo, claims to not recognize him at all. She also appears to have removed all of his things from the house they share. Jo thinks he is crazy and there to harm or hurt her. Erik wants to protect her, find out what happened, what caused this mysterious amnesia. He gets Joanna to agree to see a neurologist, but she still doesn't trust him and tries to escape.

When a mutual friend confirms what he is telling Joanna is true, she is still reticent to trust him. He remains a total stranger to her. When the two seem to be having way more than their fair share of accidents, it might be time for them to try and, if not trust each other, at least work together while trying to figure out what is really happening.

The chapters in this fast-paced thriller alternate between the point-of-view of Joanna and Erik. It is truly a he said/she said situation that presents the reader with a dilemma on who to trust. Are they both telling the truth, and if that is the case, what happened to Joanna's memory? Or is one of them running some kind of con? And what would be the end game?

I personally liked having the chapters tell the story from each character's point-of-view, and I thought it worked in this novel. This marks Archer and Strobel's debut novel writing as a team and I thought they did an excellent job presenting the same situation through the individual character. My mind could conjure up so many possible reasons for the amnesia and the situation in which the two find themselves. The pace is quick in this novel and the chapters flew by quite quickly. They had me right in the palm of their hands until the end, at which point Strangers lost credibility for me with what felt like a rather recycled climax. It was at a strong 5 stars until the ending.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's Press via Netgalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/01/strangers.html… (plus d'informations)

2.5 Interesting premise. A woman hears someone in her house, she lives alone and has no one to help her. There is a an, a man who claims he lives with her, in fact her fiance, the trouble is she doesn't remember him, and nothing of his in her her house. Strange, right? Promising?

Unfortunately for me, I felt what follows is one contrived cat and mouse game, one preposterous scenario after another. Yes, it is fast paced, a quick read. However, I really felt nothing for these characters, and so many things didn't make sense, it only half heartedly pulled me in. Did enjoy this authors first endeavor though, so will doubtless try her again.

ARC from Netgalley.… (plus d'informations)