Title: Too Good to Be True by Carola Lovering
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Suspense
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH.
Too Good to Be True is an obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from Carola Lovering, the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.
Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips—she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family—she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.
But now Burke—handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before—says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.
In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past—or will he find his way into her future?
On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.
Review:
Too Good to Be True by Carola Lovering is a twist-filled domestic mystery.
Skye Starling is from a wealthy family who works at home as a book editor. She is in her late twenties and despite her best efforts, a romantic relationship eludes her. Skye has a close group of friends whom she can always count on to support her. She is closest to her childhood best friend Andie who knows all of her secrets. Due to a tragic loss in her childhood, Skye suffers from OCD which is usually a deal breaker with anyone she dates. So, when she meets Burke Michaels during a girls’ weekend with Andie, she knows he will not stay with once he knows about her OCD. Or will he?
Skye is pleasantly surprised by her relationship with Burke, but his diary entries show him in a very different light. Of course, she knows nothing about what he is really up to until it is far too late. Skye instead completely trusts him and throws herself completely into their romance. Once it is far too late, she finds out the truth. With her heart completely broken, will she agree to listen Burk’s side of the story?
Another point of view adds much more information to the unfolding story. These entries paint a portrait of someone who desperately wants a life that seems tantalizingly out of reach. This person wants a particular lifestyle, but how far with they go to achieve their goal?
Too Good to Be True is a truly captivating mystery that is impossible to put down. The characters are not always likable but they are somewhat sympathetic. The plot is engaging and quite original. With shocking turns, Carola Lovering brings this marvelous mystery to a very unexpected conclusion. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this suspenseful mystery to fans of the genre.
