{3.5 stars}

In the middle of an epic storm in Kauai, a stranded motorist knocks on Annie's door. She lets the woman in to wait out the storm and after a few glasses of wine begins to wonder if this woman may have other motives. Both women's pasts are slowly revealed as the storm rages outside and the tension and suspicion heightens with every page.

I want to say that it's hard to believe that someone would so easily let a stranger into their life in one afternoon, but I've seen this with people I know and this book is exactly why. You never know a stranger's motives and in this case for a good portion of this book, I doubted Annie's reliability as a narrator. That coupled with the danger of the storm made for a compelling page turner. I was hoping the ending would have a more sinister twist, it hints at it but I wish it had fully gone for it.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

This story started out a little slow for me, however it was hard to put down once it going going! I kind of saw the ending coming. I also wish the setting would have changed places a bit more.

Thank you @lynliaobutler @amazonpublishing @getredprbooks @letstalkbookspromo for my gifted copy. My thoughts are my own.

Annie is recovering from a traumatic time in her life, after the loss of her mother, her business, and her beloved dog, Lili. She also has experienced another tragedy that is not revealed until later in the story.

Needing to make a fresh start, Annie and her husband, Brody, make the decision to move from New York to Hawaii, where Annie has family.

One stormy night, Annie finds herself alone when a mysterious stranger suddenly knocks on her door. Annie reluctantly offers the stranger shelter during the storm. At first, the two women seem on their way to becoming friends until the stranger reveals a startling secret. Suddenly Annie realizes she is in danger, and she knows she must escape. But when she opens the door she discovers the river is flooding the area and she may not be able to safely escape.

The first half of the book is a slow-burn, that somehow still held my attention. (Maybe it was the locked room setting and the storm!) Then, things suddenly change and the tension increases as the action moves quickly to a startling conclusion. I really loved the setting, in Hawaii!

This book is currently free on Amazon, for anyone wanting to read it. I love myself a slow burn mystery, and this was just that. Yes, there were obvious red flags being thrown out in the conversations—and that was not my favorite, but other than that—it was a good read.

Similar to 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲, it was slow to start and mainly took place in 1 place with two characters talking to each other, only this time very repetitively and "how did you know that" style. The fast-paced ending did reveal twists, but none of this plot would have happened if the lady did not let in a complete stranger when home alone. I was left scratching my head as to why she opened the door in the middle of the storm and welcome her in the first place.

What’s it about: We meet the main protagonist, Annie Lin as her life slowly disintegrates as she loses her beloved dance studio, loses her mother and dog, and her young son is traumatized after a major accident. To make changes in her life, she decides to move to Hawaii as an attempt to heal. But, then, items from her past start turning up and she meets a woman, Serena, with whom she feels a deep connection with, but things seem to good to be true, and her life will change forever.

Thoughts 💭: The story begins as Annie meets Serena and is framed between their conversations and flashbacks on Annie’s laptop. When I first read the premise, I immediately wanted to check it out. It was also an Amazon First Reads. I enjoyed the tension between Annie and Serena. Motherhood shapes the tension that is at the heart of the novel and the repeated conversations between Serena and Annie.
Moreover, the novel explores interracial relationships as Annie navigates her relationship with her father, with whom she has a poignant conversation about retaining her heritage and tradition. Knowing that thrillers are a difficult genre to pull off, this novel definitely has a mesmerizing theme - what if a stranger appears in your life and claims that the child you have raised is theirs? This theme was explored in the Hindi film Dil Kya Kare, but it was shaped more like a family drama rather than a thriller. I also think that this novel as well teeters between the two genres. I found Serena's characterization extremely creepy, but some parts of the action that took place towards the end of the novel seemed just a tad bit unrealistic. With that said, however, I know that the thriller genre is a difficult one to pull off. I also think there were way too many conversations between the two women, and more action could have been portrayed perhaps through flashbacks - it seemed a little too black and white. Howeve,r overall I think the premise of the novel was good, and worth a read!

🌺 Someone Else’s Life 🌺

Short synopsis: When a stranger knocks on the door during a rainstorm, Annie let’s her in. Their quick friendship is paved with concern over how she knows the stranger Serena.

My thoughts: This was filled with lots of plot twists and page turning cliffhangers between chapters. The journal entry added a fun element to the story.

Overall, it was page turning where I wanted to know why Serena was suspicious and what happened in Annie’s past to strain her relationships with her husband and child. Towards the middle it got somewhat repetitive and I was just ready for answers.

Read if you love:
* “Locked Room” suspense
* Familiar strangers
* Family drama
* Chapter cliffhangers
* Journal entry elements

Good book. Repetitive at times. The cover and the description of Hawaii was my favorite thing about this book.

✨Book Review✨
Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @letstalkbookspromo @amazonpublishing for my eARC copy of this book for an honest review.

** Now available as a January Kindle First Reads Pick!

This was an okay read for me. A bit repetitive and the main character was gullible and too naive for my liking. I found her to be rather annoying through the whole read. Like just wanted to shake her and tell her to ‘open your eyes!’ 🙃

The descriptions of Hawaii and the food was the most enticing part. And can we talk about this beautiful cover! 😍 The black and white doesn’t do it justice.

The ending few chapters were the most exciting- a bit out there with twists. But for a debut it was okay. Definitely has potential

The author shows promise. And I’d be interested to see more from her in the future.

Read if you like rainstorms, one room thriller, tropical read.

That is all for now and as always, happy reading! 💕

A slow burn locked door thriller. Like, really slooow burn. Literally locked door. Annie was stuck in her home due to a rainstorm when an unknown woman knocked on her door seeking shelter when her car broke down. What transpired is a looong wait amidst really bad weather, with a dodgy lady who had her own agenda with Annie. See the premise is great but the execution lacked somewhat. For one, it really dragged on for too long. Firstly, Annie was immediately given the unreliable narrator role. We are hinted to some emotional baggage and bad history. Then we got weird conversations that was repetitive and constant red flag questioning of the mysterious woman, Annie seemed just too slow to react to anything. In fact alot of the parts just kept repeating itself. The big reveal only came about 70% of the way and even then, it still dragged on to the finish line. Quite unfortunate this ended up quite weak for my liking.

Annie’s a dancer with a fluorishing career when she got married and had her first baby. But then a series of unfortunate events occured forcing her and her family to relocate to Kauai to have a fresh start. The change seemed to have no effect, as Annie began to notice strange things happening —long lost items start reappearing out of nowhere. She wasn’t sure if her memory is failing her or she just forgot about them. She also felt that she’s being watched. When a stranger asked for shelter during a thunderstorm, she invited her in and, well, as this is a suspense thriller, we can guess how it goes down right?

There were so many times in the book that I screamed at Annie for her wrong decisions. But she did acknowledge them and to be fair, she’s in a vulnerable mental state so really, there shouldn’t be any judgement against her seemingly stupid actions.🤷🏻‍♀️ On the plus side, these provided the perfect setup for suspense buildup. Who is this stranger? What does she want with Annie? How come she knows a lot about her? I had so many questions and was so curious about the motives of the stranger that I binge-read this book! Never mind that I had to suspend disbelief on some parts of the story, the author was truly very good in keeping me engaged until the end. I guess the mouth-watering food descriptions helped 😂 and of course, the storm with rising flood - so atmospheric and fitting backdrop for danger! Plotwise, there were a lot of twists that will leave your jaw hanging so it’s a good thriller to add to your list. Just remember this is fiction and suspend your disbelief from time to time and you’re all good!😉

Thank you to the author, Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book, and the setting, are great. Unfortunately, the execution is anything but. Our protagonist's life has crumbled and fallen apart over the last few years, and she and her family have regrouped and moved to Hawaii to be near family. In spite of the move, the protagonist seems to be stuck in terms of making a fresh start, and there is a lot of (understandable) self-doubt and hesitation. And then, as the weather takes a nasty turn, with a huge storm developing, she lets a woman seeking shelter into her house - in spite of weird vibes from the beginning. This is when it all went off the rails for me. So, so many red flags are ignored, again and again. So much repetitive dialogue, and hints of the past teased that are never pulled into the narrative in a coherent way until much too late. Twists foreseeable from a mile off, and nothing to move the plot forward - this strained all my goodwill way past the limit and I was happy to finish and move on to reading something more enjoyable.

Annie and her family have relocated to Hawaii after a series of devastating events have forced them to start over. One night a storm like Hawaii doesn’t usually see comes through and Annie is home alone struggling with her inner demons when a stranger knocks on her door saying that her car has broken down and needs shelter from the storm. Reluctantly, Annie lets her in and the two soon find themselves bonding over bottles of wine and as they share personal stories, how eerily similar their lives are.
This was a slow burn, locked room thriller and the setting of Hawaii in a storm was perfect. The flaws for me were that so much of the conversation was repetitive and derivative and ultra simplistic. And there were so many red flags that Annie ignored which I know were necessary to propel the story forward but it made for me the read go “oh come on!” Maybe a bit of editing to shorten it some would have made me enjoy it a little more.
Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

This story takes place over one very stormy day in Hawaii. A stranger comes to Annie’s door because her car broke down and she needs a place to wait out the storm. As the two women start sharing their stories, the other woman seems to know a lot about Annie.

You have to just go with the story many times. Annie has many opportunities to leave her house and the woman but she does not despite her uneasiness with that woman. Disregard these moments and enjoy the rest of the story. It is full of gaslighting and twists. The setting, even with the heavy rain, is beautiful. I enjoyed this story a lot.

Someone Else’s Life is an unputdownable domestic suspense set on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. At just under 300 pages, this is a quick, fast-paced read perfect for a rainy day or lazy Sunday. The action-packed ending was exactly what I was hoping for, a final culmination of craziness that builds from the beginning.

Thank you to @letstalkbookspromo @amazonpublishing @getredprbooks and @lynliaobutler for the advanced copy and allowing me to be part of this tour!

I read this thriller in a day, and now I'm dying to visit Kauai to have a mai tai at Duke's.

Pick this one up if you love a:
🌴Tropical setting
🚪Locked room mystery
🔥Slow burn
🧠Psychological thriller
🤯Surprising twist

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for the copy to review.

After a traumatic experience in New York, Annie starts a new life in the paradise of Kauai with her family to try to heal and move forward. A major storm hits the island and Annie is stuck in her house when a stranger shows up and turns her world upside down. This was a slow burn thriller with a long build up. I loved the fact it mostly took place in one day during a crazy storm. The connections and parallelism between the two women’s lives were chilling. While I figured out what the main twist was, there were a few unexpected twists in the end that I didn’t see coming. This was a good and quick read if you love thrillers.

Annie’s life has fallen apart after losing her mother, her beloved dog, and her business. Then an incident with her son makes her husband decide it’s time to and move their family from New York to Kauai, Hawaii to be near her father and sisters in hopes this will help with her depression. When a major storm hits Kauai, Annie opens her door and home to a stranded stranger, Serena, but is she actually a stranger?

This book was definitely a page turner. I couldn’t put it down because I needed to know what would happen. It was a bit of a slow burn building up to why Serena really showed up at Annie’s door, but at about the 60% mark the action picks up.

I loved the setting of Hawaii. The author transported me to Kauai, making me want to go there to enjoy the beaches, food, and of course, the mai tais! The rainstorm was a great way to add tension to this locked room mystery. The author made me feel trapped in the ohana with Annie and Serena while reading.

There were times that I found the book repetitive and predictable. I wanted to yell at Annie while reading. Who lets a stranger in their house and shares all their personal information like that? Plus, some parts just weren’t believable, but there was a twist I didn’t see coming at the end which I appreciated.

Overall, this was a fast-paced psychological thriller filled with suspense. Read this book if you like tropical settings, locked room mysteries, and some unexpected twists.

I love a good story about obsession. This had that element for sure, but some things just didn't work for me here. This might get a tad spoilery, so if you want to keep the whole thing a surprise, just stop right here.

The tale starts out with this woman letting in a stranger into the house during the storm. She even has the thoughts of "remember the true crime shows, and don't do this" run through her head. Just as I was thinking the same thing. But also, this is Hawaii, and maybe hospitality and being nice to a stranger is different that where I'm from. Plus there's a bad storm. So we'll let that slide.

The two ladies start to chat, and it seems like there's this connection between them. Both, especially our MC starts to share all these deep dark secrets of her own, that she doesn't really share with anyone else. This is where the plot lost me. How and why would you do that? To a complete stranger? Unless this was alcohol induced (loose tongues and all), but it wasn't present as that. Yes, there was wine involved, but it seemed like the MC just wanted to share what has been burdening her all along. I just couldn't believe that. That, and all the bad vibes she was getting, but not really doing anything about it or stopping herself from sharing.

It was interesting enough to keep me reading, it had the suspense that domestic suspense should bring. It moved well, but got repetitive at times with the same thoughts parroted over and over. The twist - well, it wasn't a surprise. You could see where the build up was going towards. I thought overall it was still entertaining, even if unbelievable. One huge plus - so much good food mentioned, I was drooling and craving all of those dishes.