I’ve read three of Carpenter’s books now and I’m so impressed by how vastly different each of her books are. There’s nothing formulaic about her books, she doesn’t regurgitate the same old tired storylines, instead she comes up with these unusual premises that end up being wildly entertaining.

This flips back and forth between Erin and her daughter Shorie and I adore multiple perspectives. While I liked and felt for Erin I was really enamored with Shorie and I think it’s because Carpenter captured the voice of a young woman so well. She felt genuine and believable and I kept thinking this one would even appeal to the YA crowd. This starts off on the slower side but then at the halfway point things get kicked into high gear and it was a nonstop race to the finish for me. Despite some slightly implausible moments I really enjoyed this one.

I’ve talked a lot before about how having the right expectations for certain books can really help and this is one where I feel like I should say this is exactly that sort of book. Is it a thriller? Yes, but it’s a slower burn with increasing tension as it progresses. Is it a mystery? Yes again, but parts are predictable for seasoned thriller readers so keep that in mind. Is it dark and menacing? Yes, but not in the usual way, there’s definitely danger but the menace is done in an over the top and dramatic fashion that certainly won’t be for everyone. Is it entertaining? Absolutely but the same kind of entertainment that I get when I watch a Lifetime movie, there’s definitely some moments where you have to suspend disbelief, some things are pretty far fetched. All of that to say that I enjoyed this one immensely and I hope by telling you what sort of book this truly is I’ll ensure you pick this one up with the right mindset.

I have enjoyed Emily Carpenter's books a lot, and was able to read an advanced copy of the book through Net Galley. Thank you to the publisher for making this book available.

Until the Day I Die is a mother/ daughter adventure that keeps you hooked on each chapter. Erin's husband Perry had mysteriously died leaving her and their daughter Shorie lost and fractured. Circumstances push them together. I like Shorie's new friendships with college friends and budding romance with Rhys. Because someone in her parents' company Jax is embezzling money, neither Erin nor Shorie know who to trust. Carpenter throws a red herring our way. I was definitely shocked. It definitely makes you wary of these pricy fancy rehabs. Even if there is a damsel in distress it wasn't a trope because of who saved her, and in part saved herself. The ending was a nice twist. Definitely pick up this book! You'll want to be in the Caribbean at a much safer resort.

Loved the book!! The lengths some people go to for money is scary. I now know if someone wants to send me away for some restoration, the answer is NO!!! I loved how the book alternated between Erin and Shorie. I was surprised how Erin's friends and family were treating her after the loss of her husband. How was Erin suppose to act? She just lost the love of her life and the father of her child. Then I realized they are acting perfectly normal for people with ulterior motives. Hidden Sands is definitely a resort I never want to visit. You have to wonder about family members who send their loved ones there. My guess is that person hates you.

I loved the characters, story and writing style. Rhys was still a bit of a mystery for me and a bit creepy. There was something about him I didn't really trust. His job at the school was just wrong. I would expect when the school found out, everyone involved would be in huge amounts of trouble. I was completely surprised when Shorie was on the plane and finally discovered who was involved in this crazy mess. I would have never guessed. The book was full of twists and and kept me guessing what was going to happen until the very end. Shorie and Erin were definitely my favorite characters. Both were strong and brave and also they were the only ones I trusted throughout the book. Shorie was one smart cookie and loved what she did at the end.

Definitely recommend the book. I loved all of the author's previous books and can't wait to read the next one.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Erin and her daughter Shorie are both grieving the untimely death of their husband and father. Erin's in a particularly difficult position as she has to cope not only with that but also with problems in his company- and those who work there. They convince her to take time and head for a resort in the Caribbean. But not all is what it seems, is it? Told from Erin and Shorie's viewpoints, this is more than a little predictable but the plot was saved, for me at least, by Shorie, who is terrific. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a fast read.

I had a hard time getting into this story. It was confusing and did not hold my attention at first. Eventually the elements began to make more sense and I was able to follow what was going on. Some of what happened was not believable. I would try reading other books by this author.

This book tore me in so many directions. While the storyline itself was twisty and unpredictable, the overall read of the book was slow. It was almost TOO chaotic, it was hard to keep everything straight. And not only that, but the chaos of the story took away from the characters, for me. It made them seem less genuine and harder to relate to. However, the writing style of this author is so incredible. She weaves the story in a way that, no matter how frustrated you may be, there is no way you are going to close the book before you are finished. While the story fell flat for me, I will definitely be back for future novels from this author.

***4-4.5 Stars ***
Expected Publication: March 12, 2019

This is my first Emily Carpenter read although I have had all of her other works on my TBR list. So when NetGalley approved this ARC for me in exchange for an honest review, I was thrilled.
Erin and husband Perry were part of a team that developed a major financial planning/budgeting app "Jax" and has become quite successful. Perry was killed in an accident and since then things have been difficult to say the least. Erin is working a ridiculous amount to hang on to the company and not coping with the grief of Perry's passing. Then there is Shorie, their daughter, who is starting her freshman year of college. The story alternates between Erin and Shorie's POV. The other partners of Jax decide it is best that Erin get away from work and go relax at a rehabilitation/retreat center to get away and heal. This was a fast paced read that I really enjoyed. I couldn't stop reading with all the twists and lies. Lots of suspense; Highly recommend.

The concept behind this story was intriguing but the actual events and situations that take place were a bit too far-fetched for me. What kept me reading was strictly curiosity to find out who the mastermind behind the crime was. In this case I didn’t have it all figured out, which was good because I do enjoy being surprised by a reveal. Unfortunately though, I was disappointed with the reveal - specifically with the motive the person had for their actions – too sinister and over the top in my opinion.

Well, I have already confessed that I pick books just because of their pretty covers. Other times, when it happens, I choose a book purely because one of the protagonists has the same first name as I do. Weird? Yes, probably a bit, but we readers all have our little quirks!

In Until the Day I Die, Erin Gaines and her teenage daughter, Shorie, are still coping with the untimely death of their beloved husband and father, Perry. As Shorie heads off to college, friends and family express their concern for Erin and decide to hold an "intervention." While her mother is sent to get better on a far off island, Shorie soon discovers that something is rotten within her parents' communications company. As she digs deeper, Shorie begins to question who can she trust and can she reach her mother before it is too late.

I read this in a single afternoon, but I find myself feeling a bit out of sorts in the story as a whole. There was plenty of intrigue and I wanted my questions answered, but Erin's storyline was a bit wacky( not sure if that is the correct word). Then again it is fiction and anything goes. As an aside,I think this would a great movie for Sandra Bullock though as it has the same pace as SpeedThere was certainly a feeling that this could possibly be shaping up to be a series based on the epilogue.

All in all, not a bad book, but not a great one either.


Goodreads review 06/03/19
Publication Date 12/03/19

Erin’s life started spiraling out of control with the loss of her husband. She has thrown herself into her work at the tech company Jax that they started with their best friends Ben and Sabine. Now it is time for Erin to send her only child, Shorie, off to college and it is almost more than she can handle.

Erin’s family and friends decide she needs to take some time away to regain control of her life. She begrudgingly agrees to go to Hidden Sands, a place of restoration, in an attempt to appease everyone.

Throughout the book it alternates the POV of Erin and Shorie. There were many terrifying moments for these two characters where I feared for their lives. I was right there with them and was unsure myself who they could and could not trust. The strained relationship between mother and daughter was very relatable. They are both likable characters and I rooted for them the entire way!

I popped in and out of this book for a few days, enjoying it, but not blown away. Once I hit the 50% mark things really picked up and I flew through the rest of it in an afternoon.

If you enjoy mystery and suspense, with a bit of family drama thrown in, then this is one you will enjoy!

Erin Gaines, her husband, and two friends created a tech company that has started to take off. Erin’s husband died unexpectedly, and Erin is grieving his loss. Her daughter Shorie is leaving for college, but wants to stay home and work at her parents company. Between their grieving and difference of opinions regarding Shorie’s future, the mother-daughter relationship has become strained. Erin is encouraged to go to an exclusive spa for help, but it turns out the spa is not the relaxing resort experience she was expecting.

Told with alternating viewpoints – Erin and Shorie. Erin is grieving, working too much, and doesn’t seem to be taking care of herself. Shorie is smart and resourceful, and wants to work with her parent’s tech company rather than go to college. Erin and Shorie love each other, but their relationship is strained with what is currently happening in their lives. Erin’s friends and family encourage her to attend a spa on a private island to help her get back on track. The island resort turns into a dangerous experience. While Erin is away on the island, Shorie starts to look into some questionable activity going on with the tech company.

An exciting thriller, especially the parts that take place in the jungle of the private island. This book combines a mystery at a tech company and a perilous island experience. Overall, a wild, mysterious, and fast-paced page turner.

I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, it was slow starting for me as I am not so technological advanced. My main problem and it may be my own fault, is that it left me with a big question, who is h, did i miss something during my reading, possible or did she leave us hanging on purpose. to suggest this could still happen again and on a bigger scale. If so that was a clever twist, if not on purpose then.......... why? any thoughts?

Once again a thriller with an interesting premise left me deeply disappointed. This time, a widow (Erin) is sent to a spa resort in the Caribbean islands by family and business partners, in hopes of dealing with her grief and frazzled mental state. Unfortunately, it’s not all rest and relaxation at the resort, and Erin begins to suspect she was sent there to disappear not recover. It’s up to her 18-year-old daughter (Shorie) to figure out which of her mother’s business partners cannot be trusted in hopes of helping her mother.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints among Erin, Shorie, and Perry (Erin’s deceased husband). It started off very slow, but I didn’t mind because I thought it would pick up with a lot of exciting twists. Unfortunately, it never did. It was also pretty predictable - I suspected who the villains were and why early on. Additionally, Erin was a bit annoying and self-centered so I didn’t really care what happened to her at the resort. For example, even though she and her late husband owned a business equally with another couple, she wanted to sell the company without even taking into consideration what the other couple might want to do. While she was happy selling and walking away with $2.5 million because she didn't want anything to do with the company anymore, they wanted to hold out for much more which seemed completely logical if the company was worth more. Also, it didn't appear she ever offered them the opportunity to buy out her shares. She also never considered Shorie, who wanted to work at the company her father had helped build.

The epilogue was probably the most exciting part of the book but also very confusing. It appears the author may be setting the book up for an unnecessary sequel?

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Emily Carpenter’s Weight of Lies and was pretty excited to be able to read this one but unfortunately, all I’m left with is disappointment. From the beginning, Shorie’s chapters stood out for me but the computer language ruined the flow for me, as it went right over my head. Then, just when I thought things were about to get interesting, they went in quite an odd direction that never really convinced me. For a supposedly savvy business woman, Erin seems to lack a backbone and I found it hard to keep using her husband’s death as an excuse. Somewhat far-fetched on one hand and predictable on the other, there was sadly very little here that was able to hold my attention.

My first novel by Emily Carpenter brought me tons of mystery, intrigue and family drama. Forget what you think you know about families and friendships in this novel as everything you take for granted here will be blown out of the water (in the best possible way...) From Carribean islands to dorm rooms in Southern colleges, nothing is off limits here. Can't wait to pick up more from Carpenter!

I received an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved Carpenter’s novel The Weight of Lies, which was one of my favourite books in 2017, with the “book-within-the-book” format also presenting one of the most original novels I have ever read. So I was overjoyed to receive the author’s latest novel Until the Day I Die, excited to find out what the author would come up with this time. And BTW, isn’t that cover absolutely stunning?

It is with some sadness that I have to say I have mixed feelings about this book. From the outset, I was struggling to fit it into a genre, comparing it in my mind to a hybrid between Seven Perfect Strangers, Lord of the Flies and a James Bond movie as the plot unfolded. Whilst I found some aspects of the plot thoroughly intriguing and mystifying (like the coding and computer stuff, which seemed like a foreign language to me), other elements seemed to be so farfetched and stereotypical they fit more into the Bond category than the mystery I had signed up for. There are more serious topics, too, like grief, mental health, a coming-of-age story, and the mother-daughter dynamics I so enjoyed in The Weight of Lies. Not to forget the adventure / survival stuff as Erin tries to brave the wilderness, which made for a faster pace in the second half of the book. At times, I was left wondering if some elements were supposed to be dystopian, or maybe I have just been living under a rock (or a book) and have no idea of what is happening in the real world?

It was all there for the taking, and yet it never fully came together for me. Erin, who is portrayed as your typical corporate power-woman, seems meek and helpless for some parts of the story, and feisty in others, which was confusing. She seems to come more into her own as the book progresses, which redeemed her character slightly for me, but I never really bonded with her. I much preferred her daughter Shorie, our second narrator, whose brilliant mind when it comes to all things computer was a force to behold. Whilst the mother-daughter dynamics didn’t have the same emotional impact on me as those in The Weight of Lies, they matured slightly towards the end of the book, so if you feel as disheartened as I did at the start, take heart that things will improve on that front at least!

But where are the gothic elements that I adored in The Weight of Lies and in Every Single Secret? I appreciate that readers’ expectations must be the most frustrating hurdle for an author trying to branch out and try something different. Forgive me – I tried to keep an open mind, I really did! But at times I struggled to believe that this book was written by the same author who made me virtually house-bound whilst reading The Weight of Lies, which would have required an amputation to prise it out of my hands. Whilst Until the Day I Die kept me turning the pages, it never quite got under my skin the way her previous works had. I found the beginning too slow, and just as I thought that things were finally coming together, there was that very far-fetched ending that I just couldn’t wrap my head around.

Ok, so here is my take on it: I recommend going into this one with an open mind and zero expectations. If you have read Carpenter’s work before, do a few deep breathing exercises and let all your preconceptions float off into the ether. Or maybe you are a reader who is a lot more flexible than my stubborn little mind, and won’t have any trouble enjoying this anyway. I am the first one to admit that my expectations ultimately were my downfall with this one, and that I may not be the right audience for the type of story that Carpenter is telling here. However, the plot contains enough elements to be entertaining and will undoubtedly be appreciated by many other readers, so please do not be deterred to pick this one up and judge for yourself! For now, let this just be a blip on the radar on my reading journey – I look forward to reading more from this author in future.

The book certainly misses a mark since it felt quite predictable. I wish I could have enjoyed it more than I did but it was too easy to know what'll follow next and that killed the excitement! The slow character development and plot development makes it a difficult read.

*spoilers*
Erin Gaines is introduced as she is dealing with the aftermath of her husband Perry’s sudden death and trying to hold It together for their daughter, Shorie. Erin wants her daughter to go to college and leave behind working for the company that her and Perry and some close friends have built.
While in town taking care of getting Shorie settled into college there is a questionable incident in which Erin shows up kind of out of it to a fraternity party thinking her daughter is in danger. After this embarrassing incident, Erin’s friends and family stage an intervention on her. She reluctantly agrees to go to this spa island to recoup and get her bearings after the rough months she has had. My suspicions are that this had to do with Erin wanting to sell Jax, the app they created and someone in the group not.
While in school, Shorie notices some suspicious glitches and transaction type pop up with Jax. This leads to her investigating and trying to figure out what’s going on and whose behind it. In the meantime, her mother is dealing with her own issues on a remote island that may not be the relaxation that was promised.
Overall this was a good slow burn thriller that seems to pick up towards the middle and end. It had good writing and decent characters but it was not my favorite. I kind of expected the twist towards the end to some extent.
Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I would give it a solid three stars.

Painfully predictable and completely implausible.

This is a difficult review to write. I have enjoyed Emily Carpenter’s books, but this one was just too far-fetched for me. From the beginning, I was questioning the feasibility of almost every element of the plot. While I was hoping things would settle in and I would be able to push my critical brain to the side, I was never able to do so. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I got to the ending-- I felt like I was watching a bad Lifetime Movie.

I did like Erin's and Shorie’s characters and was entertained at times, but due to my inability to suspend my disbelief I was never able to embrace Until the Day I Die.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Carpenter is an excellent author but this book missed a mark for me. The plot would have been so much better if the current trend of 3 first-person POVs weren’t used. All the women sounded the same and I just couldn’t get into the characters. I had to constantly figure out who was who. Fascinating story but not told as well as it could’ve been.