Did not care for this book, I love a crazy narrator but Betty was just not sympathetic in the least, just boring, mean and not very interesting. And the ending was like"what, that's it"? No real resolution your just left with huh.

Wow!  This was even more menacing than a Du Maurier tale.  And felt just as real as the lifelong sibling rivalry of my evil sister and myslef.  I couldn't put it down until the last word, and then I was afraid to fall asleep.

'The loathing I experienced at the sight of her pulsed in that part of me, somewhere middle chest, a dark liverish thing that’s still there after all these years.'

Betty Stash knows she isn’t a beloved, no one is making her world spin with all things lovely and delightful nor breaking their backs to make her happy. She isn’t like her blessed, younger, golden sister Gloria that charms her way into everyone’s bones at first meeting. Nothing is easily won for Betty, she has had to fight for every crumb of love and attention since Gloria came into the world. She has the husband who was meant to be Betty’s, even her best friend  Alice was Betty’s first but this time, when their mother shocks everyone by leaving Gloria the family mansion, Betty isn’t going to go down without a fight. If it requires feeding the evil rot inside her soul, so be it. This time it will require extreme measures! The mansion doesn’t talk to Gloria and Henry as it does to Betty, despite the way they insinuated themselves within its crumbling walls during their mother’s lifetime. It’s a sacrilege the plans they have made to ‘renovate it’. She can’t bide her time much longer, each change to the home gutting her, enraging her! This is meant to be her inheritance!

The cracks in Betty’s marriage are no longer a thing she can patch up, especially now that an interloper has wielded her way in, usurped her position with the business and in the marriage bed while she has been away. Doesn’t it just figure Bert too has turned against her, isn’t that the way her entire life has been? Maybe she doesn’t love Bert any longer, but no way in hell is she going to cave in, give up yet another thing that is meant to be hers, and certainly not to so pathetic an adversary. Despite her schemes, fate has other plans. Is Betty is losing her mind, or simply coming home to herself?

This is a disturbingly dark book and it’s perfect in its rottenness. There is no redemption here, don’t look for it! Betty is always the victim, and nothing infuriates her more than goodness because for someone so gnarled and twisted up inside, light and purity in others is fraudulent, it’s make-believe! Don’t say it, but oh I felt bad for Betty, trapped in the wretchedness of her own mind. Just when you think she is redeemable the books laughs at your earnestness with the ending! The house will always be calling to her, old and crumbling or reborn, it needs her!

Leave all hope at the door… errr… first page. It’s so evil I love it, here is a character you can despise. Listen, this is a mind that is crumbling as much as the house. She manipulates, she is poisonous and as she is family, Gloria feels sisterly affection because that’s how it is with family, it’s love and hope. Gloria has too forgiving a nature to even imagine the horrors that spin in her  sister’s monstrous mind and she feels sorry for her.  Love gravitates to Gloria, she cannot face that the cursed luck comes with her older sister, it isn’t a reality she could ever understand. Henry is a little wiser, as is Alice. But Alice hasn’t enough time, even her plan to put distance between her dear friend Gloria and her former tormentor Betty isn’t cunning enough to outwit her.

Betty is the spider, the rest of the world is her meal.

Yes, yes, read it but make sure you aren’t in a dark head space already!

Publication Date: April 3, 2018

Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books

Betty Stash has never much cared for anyone or anything other than her parents house, which she expected to inherit on her mother's death. She appears to have been in a state of quiet jealous rage ever since her beautiful and "beloved" sister was born. Much of the action in this story takes place in Betty's mind for at least the first half of the book, which made it a little slow and draggy in my opinion, until at last Betty seemed to make the switch from petty, whining, narcissist to full on evil psycho.

A real edge of you seat thriller could not put it down

This book was so good, I couldn't stop reading it.  It is by all means a true psychological thriller.  My only issue with this book was the ending.  I felt like everything was flowing wonderfully and then all of a sudden, the book just ended.  There were so. many loose ends and things left unresolved, I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied with the ending.

Elizabeth has only cared for one thing in her whole life her home Pipits. But when her sister Gloria inherit the mansion along with her husband Henry thus begins our tale . Elizabeth begins to plot and plan how she will make the house that speaks to her hers. This is a gothic tale with a very unsympathetic narrator. However this is what keeps you turning the pages just to see what she will do next .

According to Betty Stash if you are a beloved you are lucky in life. You get all the breaks, people are attracted to you. Her little sister, Gloria is a beloved. She, is not. Betty knows her mother favors Gloria. Betty literally hated her with every cell in.her body. What makes it worse is when the family home and land is given to Gloria. She is the rightful heir of the home because she is the oldest.
Following her sociopathic tendencies, she becomes obsessed with owning the place, no matter what.
This character, Betty in this book go way beyond sibling rivalry. 
Nothing and no one will stop her once she is determined to accomplish what she wants. 
Murder, attempted murder, stalking, stealing, and much more is what she has made herself believe had to happen. If anyone is hurt or dies, well, it's their fault not hers.
Fascinating, entertaining, clever. One great story.
5 Stars

Oh I so desperately wanted to love this book!  The first 80% had me captivated, the way the characters were developed was great, and watching Betty dive deeper into her psychosis kept me turning pages, however, I just could not get over the ending.  It is like the book just lost all steam.  There were parts of the story line at the end that did not add anything to the story, and I did not feel as if there was any closure.

I received this in exchange for an honest review.  This was a good and fast passed, disturbing read.  It held my interest and is a true page turner.  The tone was kept through out, and while it was not what I expected at the end, I was thinking things would be resolved/ended.  I kept thinking it must be hard to keep up such hate.  
It does leave room for a second novel just to see where the author could take this.  
Betty does seem to get away with more than her fair share.

I received this through NetGalley in exchange for my review. The narrator of this book is dark and twisted. Feeling denied her inheritance of the home she loves, she sets out to recover it.  As she falls deeper into alcoholism and psychosis, her thoughts get darker. Good narrative and gothic feel. The end, however, seemed to veer off topic. This section would have been better earlier in the book, as it shows the protagonist’s character.

I still haven't decided whether I enjoyed this book or not. Told in the first person, the main character, Elizabeth, is an extremely unpleasant woman who suffers from a personality disorder. You get a glimpse of her sociopathic tendencies early on in the book, and you keep reading wanting to know what will happen to her. It's almost like watching one of those Housewives of (name of city) series that are so perversely fascinating because you wonder when everything will explode in their faces. I continued to read because I wanted to know whether Elizabeth would somehow end badly or whether she just goes on her merry and wicked way. The ending felt right and very realistic. The book was well-written with beautiful descriptions of her former home's gardens. It actually made me want to invest my time to learn more about plants. Good pacing and realistic dialogue.

The tale is told strictly from Betty's point of view. And this chick is nuttier than a fruitcake! From the beginning to the end, I kept picking my jaw up off the floor!

The more she tries to get what she feels belongs to her, the more it just blows up in her face.

I think the problem I have with the story is there was no real back story to give us a frame of reference for any of the characters odd behavior. We dive right into Crazy Town with page one. And there was quite a bit I could have done with out, the story devolved during the last quarter and left me wondering what the heck I had just read! I didn't care about any of them. Something was missing.

Netgalley/Gallery  April 3, 2018

Two people that have different views and what they will do to accomplish their goals.  A true study on the horrors of sociopathy.   All about greed.

Sibling rivalry has never been so alarmingly disturbing.
This book takes us into the bleak mind of Betty Stash. As a young girl Betty was painfully aware at how the world seemed to favor Gloria. She was a Beloved, someone who is loved by all and gets everything desired for and more. Betty is not a beloved and has grown up with a bitter resentment towards her sister and everyone who seems to have it too easy in life. 
When their mother dies and leaves their beloved childhood home to Gloria and her husband, Betty is beside herself with anger and grief at this last and greatest slight. She has a very unhealthy attachment to that home which she calls "Pipits" and will stop at nothing to have what she feels is rightfully hers.

This book would fall into the "unputdownable" category for me. From the first chapter I became fascinated by the unhealthy mind of Betty Stash. At first she seems like an innocently whiny, ungrateful and self-centered person who feels slight by the simplest of things...until you dive deeper into her personality and realize she is all that plus mentally ill. It was absolutely appalling to watch her character slowly become more and more malevolent and malicious.

I wanted to hate her and root for her sister Gloria throughout the whole book but I also secretly loved how unsettled her characters thoughts and actions made me feel. The author did such a great job with making her characters really well written, easily imagined and putting effort into their personal and relational developments. I really felt the tangibility of who each character was.  I am used to reading books where the main character is for the most part a good person, so it was interesting getting a unique protagonist who makes your skin crawl. 

This book left my feeling uneasy but thoroughly entertained. Definitely a wild ride from start to finish.
4.5/5 Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in a darkly alluring novel that will make you feel uncomfortable yet fully engaged till the last page.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Maureen Lindley, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to read an early copy.

An exploration of domestic derangement, as sinister as Daphne Du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, that plumbs the depths of sibling rivalry with wit and menace.

Oh, to be a Beloved—one of those lucky people for whom nothing ever goes wrong. Everything falls into their laps without effort: happiness, beauty, good fortune, allure.

Betty Stash is not a Beloved—but her little sister, the delightful Gloria, is. She’s the one with the golden curls and sunny disposition and captivating smile, the one whose best friend used to be Betty’s, the one whose husband should have been Betty’s. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Gloria inherits the family manse—a vast, gorgeous pile of ancient stone, imposing timbers, and lush gardens—that was never meant to be hers.

Losing what Betty considers her rightful inheritance is the final indignity. As she single-mindedly pursues her plan to see the estate returned to her in all its glory, her determined and increasingly unhinged behavior—aided by poisonous mushrooms, talking walls, and a phantom dog—escalates to the point of no return. The Beloveds will have you wondering if there’s a length to which an envious sister won’t go. 

The Beloveds is a fascinating, wicked good story. The characters are engrossing, but know that this is a slow burn. It's not quite action-packed, as it focuses more on characters, interactions, and thematics. There's something quite insidious about this story, and I absolutely loved it. The main character is unreliable, and the story itself isn't like the traditional thriller. However, give it a chance. I doubt you'll regret it!

If you love a twisted, dark protagonist, you will love this book. I was engaged from the beginning, but the ending left me less than satisfied. There was no resolution of tension so unless there is a sequel, I can't rate this any higher.

Wow, what a creepy book. The narrator is certainly very disturbed. And it's not just her obsession with the house, we're talking problems all over the place. Great read for anyone who likes a psychological thriller, and very well written. Read this in one day and enjoyed it very much, highly recommend.

Maybe some people will love this book, but I did not.  It wasted way too many pages with information about plants that grow in that area of England, how to transplant them, take care of them, their real names, etc.  Betty is jealous of her younger sister from the time she is born and does everything to get even with her for being born.   The characters of this book are all weak and no one stands out as a real "hero."  Betty gets wackier as the story progresses and I further lost interest as the story progressed.  I was glad to finally finish this book.  I was disappointed in this book.

Not your everyday thriller. This book leads you into the mind of a completely delusional woman and surprisingly makes it easy to see how she has become who she has become. You see the path of mental illness twist and wind through different occurrences in her life and create bigger and worse predicaments. Richly descriptive and well written, this book is a page turner. The character development is amazing and almost makes you feel as though you are going a little crazy along with Elizabeth. 
I highly recommend it.