Her Pretty Face

Author: Robyn Harding
Genre: Suspense, Canadian
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
First Published: July 10, 2018
First Line: "Phoenix - Courtney Carey, 15, left her parents' home in the Phoenix suburb of Tolleson on the evening of February 23 to meet friends, and has not been seen since."

Book Description from GoodReads: Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart…because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunick. And she’s a murderer.

In her masterful follow-up to The Party, Robyn Harding spins a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal, asking the question: Can people ever change? And even if they can, is it possible to forgive the past?

Disclaimer: This Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. 

My Rating: 2.5 stars (an okay read)

My Review: Her Pretty Face is a domestic thriller that deals with deceit, hidden pasts and whether people with heinous pasts can truly change. The book focuses on the lives of two suburban moms whose lives start to unravel as their pasts come back to haunt them. 

This was a quieter, fairly predictable read that I wouldn't consider an edge-of-your-seat thriller. The story is told via alternating points of view as well as flashbacks involving an old murder.  While there is no mention that the plot is based on a real-life crime, Canadians will easily recognize the striking similarities between a highly publicized, violent crimes that happened here in Ontario in the early 1990's. The book follows this notorious crime so much that the suspense suffered for those of us who still remember the details of Canada's notorious serial killers.

Overall, this was an okay, lighter read but could have been so much more with added twists, more complex characters and a stronger ending. While I don't consider it a thriller, it is an interesting look at whether a person can truly change after committing a horrendous crime.