Someone Else's Daughter: A gripping emotional page turner with a twist

· Bookouture
4.7
3 reviews
Ebook
350
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Someone Else’s Daughter: A gripping emotional page-turner with a twist


We should have protected her…



They’d left their daughter with us, their only child, and we hadn’t protected her. That was all they would see when they looked at us—that we had failed them.


I count down the days until we can leave the city behind and return to the beach house. Where James and Katie can roam free over the dunes, like they did as children, and Peter will swap his 6 a.m. starts for the stacks of fluffy pancakes he lovingly serves up for our family breakfasts. These sun-drenched, golden days, just the four of us, are what I hold on to all year long.


But this summer Katie’s best friend will be coming with us. I tell myself the girls will have fun together, pushing aside the doubts I have about this uninvited guest. Isa. With her corn-silk hair and luminous skin, who manages to overshadow my daughter at every turn. Who has been dumped on us by her own parents, too caught up in their petty dramas to see what is right in front of them.


Because I can see it. There is something dangerous about Isa. Something more than a carefree girl, testing boundaries as she approaches adulthood. She threatens to cast storm clouds across my beach house days. I feel as powerless to stop her as I would in the face of a hurricane.


By the end of the summer, Isa will be dead. And I will have to face her mother. I don’t know if I will be able to find the words. How can I begin to explain that she never really knew her daughter at all?


A gripping story of the darkness than lurks beneath the surface of the most picture-perfect lives and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Fans of Big Little Lies, Kerry Fisher and Diane Chamberlain will be held totally in thrall by this emotional, twisty read.

Ratings and reviews

4.7
3 reviews
Jackie
June 18, 2020
I highly recommend this book! I was hooked since the beginning and couldn’t put it down! It was very well written, and Jennifer Harvey perfectly portrayed how each of the individuals thought and felt. The characters were well developed, and I felt like I could understand them, relate to them in some ways, and even felt like I knew them on a personal level. The emotions (and resulting actions) of the characters was just as important as the plot and tragic event. The realistic emphasis on emotions is part of what made the book so great! Jennifer Harvey’s ability to bring the characters to life, and let you feel what they felt, is incredible! I think other readers would especially enjoy this book because many people would be able to relate to the “what if” scenario. What if you allowed one of your child’s friends to go somewhere with you, and the results were tragic? This book goes back and forth, primarily between the mother (Louise) and daughter (Katie); however, they clearly express how the other characters felt and acted so that you are able to get a full perspective from all of the characters. Plot: Louise, her husband, their teenage son and daughter (James and Katie) have plans for their summer vacation trip to a beach house. They’ve been going there for so many summers that Katie has even become friends with some of the others kids who go there too (although she secretly wishes one of her male friends was more than just a friend). It’s the perfect escape from theIr hectic lifestyles in NYC. Isa, Katie’s questionable friend, will be joining them this summer for the month because Isa’s parents feel a desperate need to have a dramatic “second honeymoon” as an attempt to save their marriage, and ask if Isa can go with Katie’s family. Despite Louise’s Initial hesitations, she agrees to allow Isa come because the mothers and daughters have known each other since the girls were toddlers. Isa is the girl who you love, and also the girl who you love to hate. Katie has known Isa since they were young, and hopes that the vacation will allow them to become close again. Isa’s charm and wit keeps Katie hanging on and feeling desperate to be best friends again. She feels hurt over their on again, off again status as best friends, and genuinely hopes they’ll be able to reconnect and put the past behind them. She knows Isa can inflict just as much hurt and pain as she can kindness and care though. From the moment they get to the beach house Katie is instantly put into the position of making a sacrifice in order to please Isa. Despite being inwardly upset, she does though because she misses her best friend. Katie feels her own self worth is less than Isa’s because how can anyone compare to Isa? Isa knows how cruel she is sometime, and considers it a powerful ability to gain whatever she wants at all costs. Isa doesn’t care who gets hurt in the wake of her actions. Katie has just accepted that that’s just how Isa is, and is determined to not take it personally. It seems as if their friendship is as good as ever before, but are all of their feelings and actions real or just for show? Is the friendship more one sided now, and if so why? The problems of their past are in the past now, so have both girls truly gotten over it? What caused such a huge rift in their friendship to begin with? Isa acts as if nothing bad ever happened between the two of them, and Katie certainly doesn’t talk about the thing they dont talk about, so maybe things have improved. Is Isa really as bad as Katie makes her sound? Isa’s parents claim that she was never in any type of trouble and are dumbfounded. Katie’s family has seen a whole other side to Isa though. Who really knows Isa best, and who is trying desperately to hide information? Who is at fault when everyone is hiding secrets? Thank you Jennifer Harvey, Bookouture, and Netgalley for allowing me the privilege of reading Someone Else’s Daughter for free. My review is voluntary and honest.
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Kathleen Hughes
June 18, 2020
An innocent summer vacation turns devastating in Someone Else’s Daughter, a psychological thriller with so many twists. Told in alternating voices by Katie and her mother Louise, the story progresses slowly and deliberately to an ending you know is coming but don’t know how to stop. Peter and Louise agree to take Sarah and Wilhelm’s daughter Isa along with Katie and brother James on their annual summer vacation to their home in Montauk, NY. The families have been friends for years and the children have grown up together. Everyone is hiding something. Behind the idyllic beach scenes, alliances are made and betrayals develop. Secrets are revealed and lead to a heartbreaking discovery. That discovery sends ripples into the lives of both families leading to further tragedy. It’s hard to put his book down. It’s a story of love, jealousy, deception and tragedy and will stay with you for a long time. 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Jennifer Harvey for this ARC.
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