I've been getting some thriller burn out lately, but Too Good to be True was fantastic. I could not put this down and it did not read like a debut. I think it's important to not know much about the plot, but know this will keep you guessing and is fantastic domestic suspense!

4.50 out of 5 stars

Skye Starling is smart, attractive and wealthy. She works as a book editor and it seems as if she should be happy but something is missing from her life. She is lonely. She just wants to find someone who can understand her sometimes paralyzing OCD and when she meets financial consultant Burke Michaels she believes she has finally found the one. Everyone tells her to go slow but she just can't bring herself to. This is the one or so Skye thinks. She should have listened to her friends.

This well written, dark and twisty thriller will keep you turning the pages all night long.

I read the synopsis for this book a long time ago but now I basically went into it blind because I had already forgotten what this was about now. I looked at the reviews before I started but I didn't actually read them just skimmed quickly and looked at star ratings mostly. I seen that it had mostly 4 to 5 stars so it got me a little excited to read it but unfortunately this one wasnt for me. Some people might like this soapy and dramatic filled love triangle story

To be honest I didnt finish it. I gave up somewhere in the middle after I already figured out the plot and where it everything was going. So after that I got bored with it. I may not know the finer details but its kinda easy to figure out those honestly. You get three POVs Skye, Heather and Burke's which was wrote in a letter format which was different but it didnt have a lot of dialogue. I honestly couldn't really relate to any of the characters except being from a drug infested town that was about it for me. A lot of the stuff in this book was kinda predictable. I honestly didnt feel like this was mystery novel at all. It felt more like a dark romance novel to me. Which would explain why I had a hard time sticking with this. I like romance in books dont get me wrong it just cant be the entire focus of the story. I would like to try something else from this author in the future though.


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy to read and review.

I enjoyed this book. It was a good psychological thriller that shares three different POVs which keeps your interest because you know they are intertwined in some way. Lovering does a good job describing the backstory of the characters such that their actions and development have a meaningful context behind it. This was an engaging book that I’d recommend, 4 stars ⭐️! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Wow! This book had more than a few twists. I had guessed some of it, but not nearly enough. I can't say that I really liked any of the characters, which usually helps me enjoy a book more. Even though I didn't, I did enjoy the books. The writing was good as I was able to imagine everything as it occurred. The book kept me hooked and I wanted to find out everything. I thought the ending was interesting. It really did keep me guessing at how it was all going to end up. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I went into this one completely blind, which I suggest is the best way to go with this one. Too much information would definitely spoil the story. I was interested right away. There are three point of views: Burke, Skye and Heather. Burke's POV is told in a letter format, which I initially thought was cool, but towards the end of it, I found it to be not so cool. I was bored with it. It was too much telling of information and not enough dialogue. I found myself skimming some of it.

Basically, the premise of the book...is Burke too good to be true for Skye? You have to decide. She is in her late twenties and has OCD and hasn't had too good of luck with men. Burke is in his mid forties and has apparently fallen for Skye, but it's much more complicated than that. (of course)

The first half of the book is much stronger than the second. The second half felt much slower and drawn out for me after the big reveal/twist. Speaking of twists, there is one that is pretty obvious, but one that is not. The ending could have been better as I would have liked it to end differently. I didn't find it too believable or satisfactory.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Skye Starlight seems to have the perfect life. She is a gorgeous trust fund baby with everything she could want; but her crippling OCD puts a real damper on her relationships. She meets Burke Michaels, who proposes shortly after and .they start wedding planning. We see another side of Burke through letters to his therapist that reveal he's married, with 3 kids and is using her for his own purposes. We also see a timeline in the past with a teenage Heather who is trying to break-up with a teenage bad-boy Burke to make a better life for herself. Paths collide and you'll be surprised by the real truth.

I loved this book!! I felt so invested in all of the characters, who were so well developed, that I actually liked all of them - even the ones you're not really supposed to? They all seemed human and relatable in some way, and I could see the way they acted stemming from an external circumstance. We flip between narration between the 3 main characters, Skye, Burke and Heather. I could not at all see what was coming and I loved that! It is a longer book and sometimes when an author adds so much detail there are loose ends, but I couldn't think of even one with this one.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a suspenseful thriller with an epic twist!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press & NetGalley for the eGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Honestly I'm gonna need a little bit to process this book, while some of the twists were predictable, the ending was a bit of a shock. Very good read and the details for Skye's OCD were well handled, I appreciated that!

I went into this book blind as in I didn’t read the synopsis and that was wholeheartedly my mistake. Too Good Too Be True is a love triangle.

I despise love triangles. And this one is probably one of the most disturbing and darkest love triangles I have read...ever.

I am sure there are a lot of readers who will love this book. It’s soapy and dramatic. The twists are predictable but entertaining. The ending is a little shocking but honestly, if it was a physical book and not my Kindle, I would have thrown in across the room.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

Wow...ok. This book was a lot to handle in many ways.

This book did many things well. It had a clever plot with some good twists. There was a great deal of character development. I just didn't necessarily "like" the characters. I connected well with the early portion of the book. However, as it continued to progress and unfold, I found myself not "caring" about the characters. There were things about them all that made me dislike them in one way or another. That held true for me through the remainder of the book. Unfortunately, that swayed my opinion of the story. In some ways, I was impressed that the author made me dislike them all so much....but you want to like at least one person. I'm sure many readers won't feel this way. However, for me, the storyline was a mixed bag of feelings. If I say much more, this review will require a spoiler alert and I really try to avoid those at all costs.

From reading this review, you'll probably think I didn't find it to be a good book. I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's a creative piece of work that was difficult for me to read at times because of the subject matter and how the characters treated one another. If you're looking for an unusual story with a twist or two and characters that aren't exactly good people, you will most likely enjoy this book. I think the author deserves kudos for her inventiveness.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review this book and the opinions contained within are my own.

4.5 STARS

LOVED this twisty, clever thriller! Please don't read any spoilers for this book, it is best to jump right in. I found this book to be wonderfully addictive. I could not put it down until I learned how each of the separate narratives were connected!

I don't know why but this book really lifted me out of a book slump when I read it. My favorite character was Skye, who has OCD. I loved how the author described the rituals Skye had to engage in and how Skye dealt with her behavior. I also loved the settings of the book. The author obviously knows New York City and the Hamptons and it shows!

Too Good to Be True is just one of those books that completely grabs your attention from the very beginning. I have to keep this review brief because I don't want to give anything away about the plot. I loved the clever details and the alternating narratives. Is one of the main characters lying? It was very hard to figure this one out. I truly enjoyed every minute of this book and highly recommend it. Try to avoid spoilers if you can!

(Thank you to the publisher for proving an advanced copy via NetGalley in return for an honest review.)

"The truth has to be somewhere in these tangled narratives. And I have to find it."

Honestly, Too Good to Be True is a very entertaining book. Skye and Burke meet and fall madly in love. In just a few months they are scheduling a wedding. Skye's best friend Andie warns her that they are moving too fast. Does Skye really know enough about Burke? Lovering does an excellent job of developing her characters. Skye suffers from OCD and this adds an interesting layer to her personality, There are many twists and turns that make this book hard to put down. Definitely fun to read and to discuss!

This book certainly has many twists and turns. After a whirlwind courtship with a much older man, Sky is happier than she had been since her mother has passed away. Unknown to Skye, the future is definitely tied to the past. Written from each of the primary characters point of view, from the present and the past this story will leave you guessing the outcome.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC, which I received in exchange for my honest review. Too Good to Be True is a domestic thriller told from three points of view. In present day, young heiress Skye Starling falls hard for older man Burke Michaels. He is the only man in her life who is accepts her OCD without question or judgment. Has Skye found the perfect man or is he too good to be true?

As you might guess from the title there is way more to Burke than meets the eye. Namely, his wife of 25 years, Heather. What is the connection between Heather and Skye? Is Skye a pawn in a game and if so, whose game is she playing?

This twisty thriller is full of surprises and was a very enjoyable read.

This domestic thriller surprised me! I went into it totally blind, and that's definitely the way to go with this book. I had no idea what to expect and the twist took me completely by surprise.
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The first half of the book flowed along pretty well, but the second half became a bit repetitious and I found myself losing interest slightly. All in all though, this was one of the better domestic thrillers I've read. If you like the genre, you definitely need to read Too Good To Be True. It is such a fun escape! Have some popcorn ready and save a few free hours for this one. I actually couldn't stop reading it. I stayed up way too late because I wanted to find out what was going on with Skye, Burke, and Heather.
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Tons of fun, drama, and a deep character dive too. I loved this!
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Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my copy.

A fun, bingeworthy thriller! Couldn't put this down - short chapters make it easy to fly through. A fun read for sure!

When Skye Starling meets a handsome older man whilst on a girls weekend she soon finds herself falling in love for the very first time. After a whirlwind romance they are set to marry but is it all too good to be true?

Spanning several decades, this is a story of love and hatred and revenge. Told from several points of view and swapping from the present to the past this book will have you hooked from the very beginning.

Can anything be Too Good To Be True? As I love the title, I thought it only fair to stick with this suspense novel which begins with the main female character’s personality conundrum. However, after reading more chapters, it didn’t have that thriller feel. Don’t get me wrong, twists abound, but you know the saying...two’s company, three’s a crowd! Although I have nothing against love triangles, it all seemed a tad unrealistic and not what I expected.

Goodness me! Is it possible for someone to have such a peculiarity? Well, according to Skye Starling who has had to learn to live with one, it’s all a matter of control. I felt sorry for her. So, when the dashing but older Burke Micheals walks into her life and takes her at face value, I applauded them both. Ahem, I shouldn’t have been so quick off the mark.

Little clues encouraged me to keep my eye on Burke. For the want of better words, deception is in the air. He voices his feelings on paper, slowly unravelling what was to be a shocking revelation. Unfortunately, it came too early for my liking. Although Heather’s story is in a different period, it most certainly reflects in the present day. All three involved having their say one way or another.

Despite having trouble getting through the second half of the book, seeing how their stories would meld together was worth the wait. The character development is good, the dialogue strong, and the plot interesting enough to keep me guessing.

HOLY WOW! I can't even begin to express how much I enjoyed this book!! Five stars doesn't do it justice and I have and will be recommending it to everyone I know! Too Good To Be True is definitely my favorite read of 2021 so far and I imagine it will be in my top ten (maybe top five!!) of the year!

Skye is a wealthy woman in her late 20s. She has a group of close girlfriends who she's steadily watching get married, have children, and settle down and Skye is wanting those things for herself. However, Skye is held back by her OCD - a disease that presents itself in the form of compulsions that she cannot control. Time and again, Skye has been humiliated and hurt by opening up about her disease with men she cares about and she worries that she's doomed to a life on her own.

Burke is down on his luck. After working for the same financial company for twenty years, he's unexpectedly let go with only two weeks' of severance. A wife and three children to care for, he's desperate for a new source of income. But Burke's past continues to haunt him. Shortly after his hard work to join a reputable financial firm out of college, Burke made a bad decision and ended up in prison for a year for insider trading. The crime was basically a death sentence to his future in finance, and now that he lost his low paying job at the only firm that would take him in, he seems to be out of options.

Needing an escape, Burke decides to treat himself to a nice weekend away. At the hotel, he sees Skye and is instantly taken in by her beauty. The two strike up a conversation and sparks immediately fly. And so begins Burke's web of lies to seduce Skye, deceive his wife, and possibly even support his family.

This book was full of SO MANY SURPRISES and in all the best ways. I'm often over or underwhelmed by the twists in a book - feeling they are too far fetched or too predictable. But Too Good To Be True was just the right amount of crazy and I couldn't flip the pages fast enough.

I loved the alternating viewpoints, timelines and styles of narration. We hear from Skye in real time, Heather (Burke's wife) back when Burke was courting her, and Burke about six months behind Skye in the form of an electronic diary. The book is also broken up into parts which worked well for the flow.

Lovering did a phenomenal job of creating complex and relatable characters. I felt so attached to them and had such strong feelings toward them that I often felt my blood pressure rising with anxiety as particularly stressful parts arose! I also loved how she handled Skye's OCD - though it was a debilitating diagnosis in many ways for Skye, we really learn that there's so much more to her than the label. I also think mental illnesses aren't portrayed enough in literature, particularly with main characters and in an overall positive light, so this was a fresh and unique approach to normalizing a stigmatizing diagnosis.

This is one of those books that you should go into as blind as possible. I thought it was so fun watching the story unfold and flipping back and forth between who I trusted and who I was rooting for. I really couldn't put it down and it kept me up well past my bedtime!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a copy of this exceptional novel.

Skye Starling has been unlucky in love her whole life, forced to battle grief, loneliness, and OCD alone, all while appearing picture perfect from the outside. When she meets older Burke Michaels, it seems her luck has changed, as she immediately feels the acceptance and security she’s been yearning for her whole life. Only after a romantic courtship and a whirlwind engagement does Skye realize that Burke’s motives are anything but pure.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I absolutely devoured this complex thriller, and liked that it had a winning combination of a solid mystery, twists I didn’t see coming, multiple timelines, and different points of view. Most importantly, Lovering provided a group of incredibly well developed characters, which I feel can be rare in the thriller genre. I don’t want to reveal too much in the description, as multiple bombs are dropped throughout the story that make the reader reconsider everything they thought they knew. Highly recommend this one!

Carla Lovering is a true gem, and an author whose book releases I’ll be eagerly anticipating in the years to come!