This is the publisher's summary:
When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence.
From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination soon spirals into an addictive obsession that comes to a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account without so much as a warning.
Frantic and desperate to reconnect with her daughter, Autumn applies for a nanny position with the McMullens, manipulating herself into Grace's life under false pretenses. And it's only then that Autumn discovers pictures lie, the perfect family doesn't exist, and beautiful people? They have the ugliest secrets.
Uh... I am IN on this book!
When I read the summary I couldn't believe I had never come across a book with a plot like that. It's interesting, emotional, and very out of the box. An adoptive mother who stalks the new family? Sign me up!
I listened to the book on Audible as I usually do nowadays, and it was a decently long listen. I wanted the story to continue forever because I loved it so much. Being inside the mind of someone as insane as Autumn Carpenter was so interesting because she was so delusional. You almost had to feel bad for her because you could tell that she didn't understand that what she was doing was wrong.
Then, on the flip side, you have Daphne McMullen trying to keep her picture-perfect life together on the outside while inside it's falling apart. At some point, I did enjoy Daphne's point of view more than Autumn.
As all good suspense novels, tragedy does strike both Autumn's life and the McMullen's and it is incredibly intertwined, which creates an issue for both sides.
At some point, you think you have the book all figured out but Minka Kent threw a huge wrench in the entire thing... twice. There are two huge twists toward the end of the book, one makes total sense while the other I didn't see coming but it's probably the most interesting twist in a book I've ever experienced
When I realized the twist that was happening, I was on the subway escalator and I almost fell down I gasped so hard. People definitely stared at me but I didn't care -- the twist was insane.
I really liked how this book had many different parts: family, relationships, adoption, thrill, suspense, and at times, it was pretty funny.
I know I've said this about the last few books I read, and we'll break it down at the end of the year, but this was one of my favorite books to date. It is a definite must read/listen!
xoxo
B
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