The story was slow to start and truthfully, I didn't understand where it was going. Once the plot was a little more put together, everything started to made sense and I became more intrigued.
Publisher's Summary
THE WIFE: For Alice, life has never been better. With her second husband, she has a successful business, two children, and a beautiful house.
HER HUSBAND: Alice knows that life could have been different if her first husband had lived, but Nathan’s arrival into her life gave her back the happiness she craved.
HER BEST FRIEND: Through the ups and downs of life, from celebratory nights out to comfort each other through loss, Alice knows that with her best friend Beth by her side, they can survive anything together. So when Nathan starts acting strangely, Alice turns to Beth for help. But soon, Alice begins to wonder whether her trust has been misplaced . . .
The first mistake could be her last.
My Thoughts
As I said before, the book started a little slow and I couldn't put my finger on what was going to happen. The story starts off with Alice noticing some odd things about her husband Nathan; flowers are sent to the house, she finds texts and emails, and everything points to his cheating.
Her best friend, Beth, is acting a little weird as well as other people in Alice's life. As a reader, your head starts to spin with all the different plotlines that could play, especially if you read a lot of domestic thrillers.
Alice has a lucrative home business, two children, and what seems to be an undying love for her first husband who tragically passed away. She has a fear of flying that prevents her from doing a lot but tries to hold it together as much as possible.
The more things start to unravel for Alice, the more she starts to spiral without having any concrete answers. Once everyone, Alice and the reader, finds out what's going on, the point of view of the book changes and you get more of the full story. The reader starts to understand why things are the way they are, but you also become incredibly confused.
The character of Alice was a bit annoying and I couldn't stand Nathan or Beth either. They seemed a little whiny and just strange. I wasn't crazy about the writing either but that's beside the point...
Jones' big twist, the entire point of the story, was pretty shocking and made everything worth it. It was something I didn't see coming and I honestly don't think anyone could ever predict the 'twist'. That part of the story, the big arc, made everything worth it and I'd re-read the book just to get that adrenaline rush of finding out what happened again.
The second half of the book was much better than the first, and like I said, it made everything worth it. What I didn't like about "The First Mistake"? The ending! Oh, the ending made me so angry. It was left super open-ended and came at you way too fast.
It was so fast that I couldn't even really understand what was going on; I had to go back and re-read a few pages because I was so confused. It wasn't satisfying and just overly annoying.
Would I recommend this book? Probably not. I think there are better ones out there. I know a lot of people love Sadie Jones and while this wasn't my favorite, it was a nice introduction to the author and I'm curious to read one of her other books.
Did you read "The First Mistake"? What did you think?
xoxo
B
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