My own copy, but it is available at the library
Genre: Mystery
Number of Pages: 320
📖PLOT SUMMARY📖
Why would the world’s most famous mystery writer disappear for eleven days? What makes a woman desperate enough to destroy another woman’s marriage? How deeply can a person crave revenge?
In 1925, Miss Nan O’Dea infiltrated the wealthy, rarefied world of author Agatha Christie and her husband, Archie. In every way, she became a part of their life––first, both Christies. Then, just Archie. Soon, Nan became Archie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted wife, desperate to marry him. Nan’s plot didn’t begin the day she met Archie and Agatha.
It began decades before, in Ireland, when Nan was a young girl. She and the man she loved were a star-crossed couple who were destined to be together––until the Great War, a pandemic, and shameful secrets tore them apart. Then acts of unspeakable cruelty kept them separated.
What drives someone to murder? What will someone do in the name of love? What kind of crime can someone never forgive? Nina de Gramont’s brilliant, unforgettable novel explores these questions and more.
💭MY THOUGHTS💭
This was my first buddy read and I have to say that I rather enjoyed it. It was nice knowing that there were other people reading the same thing as me and that we could all share our views.
It was an interesting book. I had seen it on Instagram a while ago and had it on my TBR shelf. I thought that it would be a good one for us all to read. For me it was a good read, with an excellent twist. It wasn’t outstanding, but I don’t regret reading it!
The writing was interesting in that it was from the point of view from ‘the other woman’. It also went back and forth in time, mixing the tenses and adding ‘future’ comments which I have to say at some points confused me. I ended up actually ignoring the chapter titles as they made matters worse. I did however like that it was written in a ‘chatty’ style and made you feel as if you were being spoken to directly.
The book itself was split into 3 parts. I am not entirely sure why it was done that way as it was very to and fro throughout the whole book. I usually enjoy a book’s chapter titles, but, as mentioned above, in this case it just confused me and so I ignored them.
The chapters themselves varied in length and some were split into smaller sections. This helped give the story a good pace. There was always something happening that kept my interest.
Whilst I enjoyed reading it at the time, once I had put it down I didn’t rush to pick it back up again. I was surprised at this because I thought that I would genuinely want to know how the story ended, but the feeling wasn’t there for me.
The characters however were excellent. I felt a mix of emotions towards the narrator and I enjoyed hearing from her about a fictional Agatha Christie and what she got up to during those eleven days.
Lastly the settings. I loved that we were taken on a journey around the UK and Ireland and enjoyed the number of different settings. I loved the little bits of detail about the places here and there. They definitely added to the story.
Overall a good read for me. Here are the thoughts from my sister (Elizabeth) and cousin (Bethany):
💭ELIZABETH’S THOUGHTS💭
“I tend to go for crime or thriller books and I was expecting this to fit into these categories. However, it wasn’t quite as fast paced with dramatic twists as I had hoped for the first half of the book.
I liked the characters and felt that they helped move the story along quite well even if there wasn’t much action happening. I liked reading about the younger mistress to understand her life beforehand and bring a little more context to the story.
There were a few small questions I wanted answered as the story progressed which encouraged me to keep reading, but otherwise I did find that I wasn’t itching to get back to reading it again.
However, the last 100 pages were well worth the wait. There were lots of twists and turns and unexpected revelations. I felt like most of the questions I had were answered but some mystery remained at the end.”
💭BETHANY’S THOUGHTS💭
“This book was not my usual genre of choice, and though at the beginning I struggled to fully immerse myself in the storyline, through persistence I managed to enjoy the book for the most part. With the many unexpected twists and emotional scenes I ended up sympathising with many of the characters, one of which was very surprising. It re-established the thought that there are many different sides to one story!”
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