I loved this thriller/mystery and was very shocked at how the story went! This story is about Annie, who is getting married in four days! While preparations are getting ready, Annie vanishes without a trace. There’s familial secrets along the way, let’s just say you won’t be able to put this book down!
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was hoping this would be more a thriller based book, but it was a slow burn reading. I kept waiting for a big reveal regarding what happened to the main character, but that did not really seem to happen. I loved the setting in the story, but I wish there was more character development.

This is not a grab you by the throat and keep you up at night mystery, much less thriller. I am afraid it is a disappointing story, the Private Personal Point of Views of four main characters get to be boring in all honesty. I prefer more interaction between characters, lively discussion, action, something to keep me interested. If you prefer introspective behavior then this is for you.
Thank you.
carolintallahassee.com

Rating 3.5 stars!

For any of you that actually know me, you know 2019 was a tough year.  In addition to my own medical issues, I stopped reading, blogging, running, everything due to a loss in my family.  So now, here I am going through all the old emails and books, and doing my best to honor my promise to read and review them.

The e-book that is the subject of this post, Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen was provided to me by Lake Union Publishing. The cover of the book intrigued me enough to want to read what was inside.

Annie Taft lives in small-town South Carolina and her wedding is only four days away.  Everyone’s talking about it since it's to be such a grand affair  Then Annie vanishes, and now everyone is talking about that: did she run away with cold feet or has something happened to her?

As the list of suspects gets longer as it seems like someone may have hurt Annie. Her family and friends continue to search for her and secrets are unearthed that make them question what they know about Annie and each other.  This story focuses on community and shows how people come together and support each other during hard times.

Adding Faye's 7-Up Chicken Salad Recipe at the end of the book was a nice thought by the author.   Only Ever Her is an interesting and poignant read that features well written characters. While it was a bit slow to start, I found myself invested by the second half of the book. I really enjoy what Whalen can do with her small town personalities.

I was provided with a complimentary digital copy of this book from Lake Union through NetGalley in exchange for my review.  All views expressed are my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy.

I could not connect with the writing style/plot of the novel and decided to put it down.

I absolutely loved When We Were Worthy so this pains me to say it, but this was the most boring novel I have read in awhile. I tried and tried to get into the storyline and the characters, but just never felt compelled to care. I will certainly try this author again, but this was not a good fit for me.

*Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This one just sort of meandered around until it just ended. There was no suspense and the stories begun never came together is a satisfying way. I was expecting more action, more to happen. Instead we jump from one thin character to another. A bit disappointing.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. My reviews can be read on my GoodReads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly

I'm not overly fond of thrillers, and had hoped it was an satisfying ending to this book. It was not, not for me anyhow. But the book itself was interesting enough.

One of the very first authors that ever reached out to me when I was a brand new bookstagrammer was Mary Beth Whalen. I had the privilege of meeting her in person at the SIBA conference in New Orleans two years ago and I am here to tell you that she is the real deal. I absolutely loved her book, When We Were Worthy, so I was super excited when I saw she had a new release out!
If nuanced characters set in small Southern towns are your jam, then you are going to want to pick this one up immediately!

Too much going on at one time for me. I put this book down several times, but i did end up finishing it. I know there will be others who find this book enjoyable and maybe it was that I was in the mood more for a chick lit than a mystery. I may give this one another shot sometime in the future. Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

Annie Taft is 26, ready to marry Scott Hanson, and move somewhere fresh. Away from the town of Ludlow, where she is known as the daughter of the murdered woman. Cordell Lewis was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Annie's mother, Lydia Taft--largely on the word of Annie, who was only three. But his lawyer is advocating for a new trial--and Cordell's release. It's now four days before Annie's wedding; Cordell is out of jail, and Annie has disappeared. At first, Annie's aunt, Faye, who has raised her niece since the age of three, thinks she has hidden away due to nerves. But as the wedding date inches closer, Faye and her daughter, Clary, realize something is amiss. Was it Cordell, seeking revenge after all this time? Or someone who knows Annie well?

"Some people hear their mother's voices in their heads, but Annie hears her aunt's, the closest thing she has to a mother."

This book wasn't anything like what I was expecting, and honestly, it was a rather strange tale, but it was still rather interesting. It's a character-driven read, not a suspense novel, but wow, I got really attached to some of these characters. I picked this one up based solely on the strength of the last Marybeth Mayhew Whalen novel I read, WHEN WE WERE WORTHY. She has a real knack for capturing her characters: they jump off they page and stick with you. In particular, I fell hard for Faye and Clary in this one. And, of course, there was Annie, who was always there, motivating nearly every character:

When Annie Taft was three years old, she was the only witness to her mother’s murder, and her testimony sent Cordell Lewis to prison for life. Now, twenty years later and two weeks before her wedding, Lewis’s lawyer writes Annie to say there’s evidence that Lewis did not kill Annie’s mother, and to ask for Annie’s support in reopening the case.

Four days before the wedding, Annie disappears.

With this set-up, I was expecting a strong mystery tying together past and present. Instead, Only Ever Her concentrates on the interior lives of certain people in the small South Carolina town where Annie’s mother was murdered and where she was raised: her Aunt Faye, who raised her and has romantic secrets of her own; her secret “best friend” Kenny, a town outcast; former high school rival turned newspaper reporter Laurel; and her cousin Clary, raised like a sister to Annie and who has a secret in her past as well.

See the link below to read the rest of the review.

Two big milestones are happening simultaneously in Annie Taft's life: her wedding is just a couple of days away, and at the same time, the purported murderer of her mother is getting released from prison. When Annie goes missing just before the wedding, her family and her small South Carolina town are left wondering whether it's a runaway bride situation, or whether something more sinister is afoot. I am a person who is willing to suspend disbelief for fiction, but when the characters don't seem to have any consistency with themselves, when their motivation isn't made clear to me until way too late in the story, or when they are just rather one-dimensional, I am not up for that. Also was never all that engrossed in the story for something that was billed as more of a thriller... rather forgettable for me. Too bad, because I really enjoyed her book When We Were Worthy, kind of a Big Little Lies type read with a small Southern football town setting.

I enjoyed this story. I thought the characters were very distinct from each other. The plot was good but I though there would be more mystery.

Oddly, I did not have sympathy for Annie Taft, despite her casting as the central character that this book is built around. She was just 3 years old when she witnessed her mother's murder, and it was Annie's testimony that sent the man to jail. Just as he is released from prison 23 years later, which also happens to be a few days before her wedding, Annie goes missing.

Did she have cold feet? Or did something more sinister happen? As Annie's fiance, family, friends and reporters search for clues, the perfect girl who wanted the perfect husband and life is revealed under a harsher lens.

The sharper focus is on Kenny, the childhood friend who knows her best; Aunt Faye, who raised Annie like a daughter; Clary, Annie's cousin who grew up with her like a sister; and Laurel, the former classmate turned journalist who aspired for bigger dreams than working on a hometown newspaper. As their stories intertwine, finding Annie has a different meaning for each person.

For all intents, finding out what happened to Annie drives this story so when it finally was revealed, for me it fell flat given all the build up. What was actually more surprising was learning the truth about who murdered Annie's mother.

I felt this story could have been shorter and not have lost anything in the telling.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #OnlyEverHer.

Grabbed me and then dropped me fast! I just couldn’t feel better abt this book despite wanting to. It’s goid, not great, but not awful or bad.

Great thought for a story but I wasn’t completely believing it! I liked this book but I could easily put it down and wait a day or two before I wanted more.

For some reason I had a hard time connecting with the characters in this book. I found myself skimming towards the end just to find out what happened. It was well written, just not for me at this time.

Only Ever Her is the latest novel from author Marybeth Mayhew Whalen, and although it's the first of hers I've read, it absolutely will not be the last. It's a quiet story, the sort that sneaks up on you with its surprisingly deep insights and remarkably imperfect characters.

Practically everyone in town knows Annie Taft. Her mother was murdered twenty-three years earlier, and it was the surprisingly clear testimony of then three-year-old Annie that finally brought the killer to justice. Now, Annie is all grown up and about to be married, and the whole town is set to wish her well. After all, no one is more deserving of a fresh start than Annie.

Then just four days before the big day, Annie goes missing, throwing the town into complete and utter turmoil. The police are quickly called, and friends and acquaintances rally round Annie's aunt Faye and her cousin Clary, the only family Annie has. No one knows what to think. Where has Annie gone, and what could possibly cause her to disappear right before her wedding?

As days pass with no trace of Annie, those closest to her slowly begin to unravel. Faye and Clary try to remain hopeful, but it's hard when constant searching turns up absolutely nothing. Faye wonders if Annie's disappearance is somehow linked to the death of her mother, especially since the man accused of the crime has recently been released from prison. Could he have abducted Annie as a way of getting back at her for implicating him in the long ago murder?

It soon becomes clear to the reader that practically no one in town is who they seem to be. Everyone appears to have something to hide, making it difficult to know who to trust. Even the people who claim to have little personal connection to Annie are called into question. We see the story from several different points of view, making it even trickier to determine what is true and what is a carefully crafted falsehood, since each of our various narrators has a different take on who Annie Taft actually is and what has befallen her.

This is not a fast-paced thriller. Instead, the author builds the tension slowly and carefully, allowing the reader to get tiny glimpses behind the façades of those who love Annie. The story is propelled forward by the inner turmoil of the characters rather than by tons of unexpected twists. Even so, I found myself unable to put the book down.

Marybeth Mayhew Whalen definitely knows how to create flawed characters, the kind that will linger in your heart and mind long after you've finished the book. I loved her ability to give everyone, even those who appear the most loathsome, a convincing and relatable backstory. No one is either all good or all bad, and part of this novel's magic lies in the tangled webs of deceit Annie, her friends, and her family have woven over the years.

Some readers might find the story's ending to be a bit on the anticlimactic side, but I thought it was a perfect fit. It's nothing flashy. You won't gasp aloud when you finally learn the truth, but if you're at all like me, you'll come away with a feeling of utter rightness. The author didn't set out to shock her readers. Instead, she wove a complex story that could be about anyone you know in real life, and that's a big part of why Only Ever Her is among my favorite books of 2019.

Buy it at: Amazon
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