Rapid Falls was intriguing and hard to put down! It was full of underlying memories and feelings of the characters that are introduced little by little as the story goes on. Cara and her younger sister Anna are involved in a terrible crash on prom night in Rapid Falls. Cara’s boyfriend dies in the accident and Anna is sentenced to prison for his murder. This is the turning point in Cara and Anna’s family. Rapid Falls is a small town and nothing is the same there for their family after the accident. Many years later, Cara is married to a good man and they have a young daughter. Cara is a devoted wife and mother. Meanwhile, Anna continually falls into drinking and other self-destructive activities from her guilt from what happened in the past. Anna just can’t get past what happened. Cara keeps helping Anna every time she falls apart. But Cara and Anna’s relationship is complicated, as is the relationship that each of them has with their parents. The story is told in different parts switching from the present to back in the past when the girls are younger. As the story unfolds, I started to see all of the characters differently. This book was a great debut full of mystery and suspense!

When tragedy ripples through a small town, one person is pegged with the blame. But time does not heal all wounds. Cara and her boyfriend Jesse were supposed to be together forever, but a car accident on the night of their prom leaves Jesse dead, and Cara and her sister Anna injured. Anna is charged with DUI, and spends time in prison for the accident, but she cannot remember anything that happened that night. She has snippets of memory, but nothing concrete.

As time moves forward, Cara has moved on with her life, but Anna cannot. She has sunk into drugs and alcohol, forever relying on her sister to bail her out of trouble. As questions begin to surface in Anna's mind about the night of the accident, Cara is desperate to keep them quiet. She does not want her husband to know about their past.

Cara is about to discover that secrets can only be kept for so long before they bubble to the surface.... and some secrets are better left buried in the past...

OH MY GOODNESS. This book was amazing! I read through it in one sitting, and could not have loved it anymore. Family secrets, haunting dreams, and desperation all come together in one thrilling novel that will leave you gasping for more!

Welcome to Rapid Falls where there are 300 kids in Cara's graduating class; where the prom is festive and everyone is invited to celebrate graduation at a party at the Field. A tragic accident happens that night that leaves Cara, her sister Anna, and the town broken; Cara's boyfriend, Jesse, is killed in an accident where Anna was the driver (not a spoiler).

Told in dual timelines to Cara's life in the present, where she has her dream job, dream husband and daughter, and the past leading up to that fateful prom night. What really happened that night? While this was a quick, suspenseful yet somewhat predictable read, I found Cara unlikeable, though I believe that fans of domestic suspense will enjoy the drama, secrets and lies that are hidden within.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing for the advanced copy; all opinions are my own.

Rapid Falls.....what deep, dark, swirling secrets does the river hold? "The river is a part of us all. It was a landscape of our lives for many years. It isn't good or bad; it drowns, it saves, and it never stops." This line in the book said so much to me.
This book had me riding the rapids of a very dark, dysfunctional, and jealous sibling rivalry between two sisters, Cara and Anna. Each one has pushed and vied for the love and attention that they believe the other sister is not deserving of. Whether it be as children growing up or as teens in school or even as adults. The rivalry is there but just under the surface bubbling and churning like a rapid in a river you don't know when or what is going to float to the surface.
This book takes the reader on a twisted psychological tale of deceit, lies and hidden agenda. Which sister is the victim? Which sister is the culprit? Is it either one or was it a tragic accident? This story had me turning the pages and wove a story that I would think I had it figured out and then again, I was believing something else a few pages later. Another line that was powerful..."But the truth is always there, even if you make yourself not believe it." Wow....self deception or guilty accusation.
It was a great story with subtly dropped hints all the way through. The characters weren't touchy, feely in any way but very believable and well developed psychologically. The author was able to make the issues each character had believable.
This book is written in a dual time line with some flashback scenes in each time line and that worked well in the book for me.
This is a great debut novel for Amber Cowie and I definitely look forward to reading more of her works.
Thank you Lake Union, Netgalley and Amber Cowie for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book takes sibling rivalry to a whole new level! Cara and Anna grew up comparing themselves to one another and there was definitely no shortage of jealousy between the two. They each seem intent on making life difficult for the other, that is until after Anna is released from jail and Cara seems to be the only one interested in helping her.

The story itself definitely kept my attention, even though I had some suspicions about the events that actually unfolded on that fateful night when Cara's boyfriend died. What I found the most interesting were the family dynamics - not just between Cara and Anna, but between the sisters and their parents.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing for providing a copy for review.

This was a page turner from the beginning. The author has created a psychologic thriller that involves what you could see from the outside as a normal family until a terrible tragedy on Graduation night changes everything. I had some ideas about what I thought the ending was going to be with the little hints through out the book but the author keeps you reading. Cara, such a dark and twisted person and will not take being #2 in any stage in life. It's heartbreaking to see what this tragedy has done to them and the lengths a parent will do to triage.

Cowie ever so slowly and skillfully unwraps this terrifying account of a family and community torn apart by tragedy. Cowie’s characters are at once likeable, relatable and deliciously complicated, drawing the reader deep into the world of Rapid Falls and the Piper family. Peeling back the layers, the story unfolds to expose the darkest corners of our human psyche. The plot’s twists and turns keep the reader on their toes. Clear your schedule, because once you start reading this book – you won’t be able to put it down. A solid debut novel, I can’t wait to see what Cowie comes up with next!

Wow this book is dark, twisty, and turny! 20 years ago, Cara's boyfriend died in a car accident and her sister Anna went to jail, Now Anna is released from jail but has become an alcoholic. Cara is married with a daughter. The sister's lives couldn't be more different. The book is in dual timelines from the year of the accident and the present. Pay attention or you may miss something! I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it had so many twists and turns and keeps you on the edge of your seat! I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing. All opinions are my own.

My immediate thought after finishing this was, now THAT is how you write a psychological thriller! I’m blown away that this is a debut, Cowie’s writing is polished and sharp and she plotted one hell of a story, if this is how she begins her career as an author I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

This follows two sisters, Anna and Cara and flips between the late nineties and 2016. The girls were in high school in 1997 and were both in a tragic accident that killed Cara’s boyfriend. Anna’s life went down the drain afterwards, she spent time in prison and developed an alcohol addiction while Cara moved on and has a picture perfect life with her husband and daughter. Two very different outcomes and both women were interesting and complex.

The events leading up to the accident are slowly revealed in alternating chapters as you begin to piece together what really happened. Let me tell you, I thought I knew what happened and I was way off, this had a good reveal, a twist if you wanna call it that but it’s not a book that’s solely dependent on a shocking twist but instead was awesome all the way through. If you can’t tell, I loved this one and highly recommend it to thriller fans!

Strap on your seatbelt for this very twisted, winding story in which you will become confused, sucked into the book and unable to let go. I'd relate to one character only to think no, that person is the bad guy and then when I'd catch my breath, I'd decided someone else was the evil one.

This truly was a great read and one that I highly recommend.

What a treat this book is! It drops just enough clues along the way to hint at something darker but without being at all predictable. I just had to keep turning the pages to get to the bottom of it all. The relationships between the characters are fascinating as is how they each deal with the story as it unfolds and I found my sympathies being pulled this way and that as I learned more of what had really happened. Amber Cowie also conjures up the pressures of living in a small town where everyone thinks they know your business so evocatively that I kept turning round to see who was watching me. A great read.

"Proof is not the same as knowing."
This quote will probably be best understood at the end of this remarkable book. It is indeed an amazing novel- intriguing plot, splendidly written, unusual characters and a definite page turner.
It is basically a story of a dysfunctional family. Selfishness, anger, hatred, jealously and betrayal are fostered by their inability to communicate truthfully with each other. Alcoholism and sibling rivalry add to the stress and eventually help to lead to the staggering tragedy that will haunt the family and the town of Rapid Falls and never really be resolved. Actually there is more than one tragedy that is not even recognized.
There are so many twists in this plot, so be prepared to stay glued to the book. Not only is this an engrossing story, it has a moral or two we can learn from: honesty, acceptance, and self knowledge to name just a few.
Excellent!!

Twisted debut novel! Things are not always what they seem. Cara has life all planned out after graduation...college, marriage to her boyfriend...happily ever after. But, as we all know, life never goes as planned. Family has a way of getting in the way!

Pay attention while reading this book! Ms. Cowie throws subtle hints thoughtout the story, so pay attention. Found myself a few times going back to see if I missed something. Tragic family dynamics, great character development.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Wow, this is a real psychological thriller, alternating between two time periods, twenty years apart. Sisters, Cara and Anna are in a fatal accident that claims the life of Cara’s boyfriend Jesse and Anna is charged with a felony DUI. The time frames relate incidents over the period prior, during and following the tragedy, then covers twenty years later, as the participants continue to struggle in their lives in the aftermath.
It is a story of sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, teenage craziness and the toll bad choices take on young lives. This is a debut novel by Amber Crowe, but had all the maturity and poise of an experienced novelist. Her character development was wonderful, as we saw the growth that came from love, life and experiences, during the twenty year span. But unresolved questions involving the tragedy, have prevented those involved, from moving on. Her descriptions of the town and the scenery of Rapid Falls, made me feel as if I had been there, an observer of this bizarre tale.
The twists and turns of the story kept me reading, and anticipating the ending that was going to be a gut check, and it was!
I received this ARC from Lake Union Publishers and Net Galley and I thank them for the opportunity to read this 5 star thriller.

WOW this book is so intriguing! You think it is going to be pretty straight forward and then it turns into an amazing thriller. This is the first book I’ve read in awhile that I didn’t know what was going to happen in the first couple of chapters. I will definitely be watching this author