Review: Her Dark Lies

Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a little. This book was kind of all over the place. The premise sounded good: the glamorous destination wedding of a billionaire and a young artist, on an isolated island during a violent storm. The reader knows something is going to happen, but is not quite sure what. The soon-to-be bride is feeling a bit overwhelmed, especially when suspicious activity begins to occur, both at home and at the incredibly posh Italian villa where the wedding will soon be held.
The author does a fairly good job of ratcheting up the tension at the beginning of the book, creating an atmosphere of ominous gloom, isolation, and slight creepiness. About a quarter of the way in, though, the book seems to lose that focus. Other points of view are added in, and instead of upping the suspense and contributing to the story, it just gets kind of muddy. At about about halfway the action and plot (while a bit unbelievable) get more exciting, but at three-quarters the wheels just kind of fall off. I wasn't sure where the author was going and wasn't really sure that I cared.
The characters were at best naive, at worst cartoonish. There were quite a few murders and dead bodies, but instead of adding suspense and gravitas, they were treated a bit off-handedly.
I wanted to like this book, but I didn't. I wouldn't recommend it.

View all my reviews