A compelling page-turner, Sweet Water is a sweet read.

Sarah and her father lived on the wrong side of the tracks. On Sundays, they would drive through the upscale neighborhoods in their corner of Pennsylvania and make up nicknames for their favorite mansions. “Stonehenge” was always her favorite. Coveting the mansion for years, Sarah can’t believe her luck when her new husband Martin buys it for them. The perfect start to a marriage she believes will provide the perfect life.

But rich people have problems too. They just have a lot more resources at their disposal to deal with issues—like dead bodies and sons who make terrible mistakes. The premise of Cara Reinard’s novel Sweet Water may not be new, but her voice is.

Told in first person, readers follow Sarah Ellsworth as she discovers her son’s girlfriend Yazmin dead in the woods and her unconscious son nearby. No longer believing herself living a charmed life, Sarah must soon face the true nature of the family she married into. The nagging sense that something was wrong with her in-laws turns into self-reflection at her own participation in the life carved out for her by others.

As with all good domestic suspense, the walls of Sarah’s world close in around her. The deeper she gets into the events following Yazmin’s death, the more she must admit that she has buried her own head in the sand for a very long time.

Reinard’s writing is fast-paced, but also done in a “storytelling” style. Privy to every thought Sarah has, it’s as if she whispers into the reader’s ear to narrate her experiences. The style creates an intimate, if passive, read, forcing us to stand alongside Sarah every step of the way.

How far will Sarah go to protect the life she has or will she become her own person and take the necessary—if dangerous steps—to find the life she’s meant to live? It isn’t until the final pages of the novel that readers get the answer.

A compelling page-turner, Sweet Water is a sweet read.

First off, I'd like to thank Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and Cara Reinard for the e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet water is the type of mystery/thriller I love. It's suspenseful from the start with two teens in the woods - one has died and the other can't remember what has happened. The parents of the teen who is alive are sure there is no way their child could hurt anyone else so they decide to protect him at all costs but the lies are eating away at his mother and she wants to know the truth. I loved all of the twists and turns this book took right up until the very end.

This book took me by surprise. But while I went in expecting a regular thriller, the story offered so many twists and turns it was all I could do to hold on.

Sarah and Martin get a call in the middle of the night. Finn, their son, is drugged and his girlfriend is dead. So what do they do? Do they let the police take their course or do they pretend that their son was not involved in his girlfriend's death at all?

Then we are taken back to the time when Sarah and Martin were in college. And then back and forth until the storylines converge.

What is the mystery that Martin's family is so desperate to cover-up? Did Finn kill his girlfriend? What will Sarah do?

The characters are well-written and human. The story is unpredictable.

An enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Cara Reinard for the ARC.

4 stars.

Sarah Ellsworth has the perfect life. She married her childhood sweetheart. Together they have a wonderful lifestyle. And they have Finn, a teenage son with a bright future ahead of him ....

Until ....

They get a call in the middle of the night. It's Finn and he's in trouble. Sarah and Martin make their way to the woods where they find Finn, dazed, crying, and next to him is the body of his girlfriend ... dead.

The decisions the parents make at that moment involve a cover up. Sarah believes that her son is innocent, there's no way he could have hurt his girlfriend, let alone kill her. But at time goes by, Sarah has suspicions. Finn is just a little nonchalant when he speaks to the police.

This was a slow starter, did not come across as a thriller, suspense seemed to be low key. The characters were not particularly likeable, especially Martin's parents. The ending was a bit predictable. This was just an okay read for me.

Many thanks to the author / Thomas & Mercer / Amazon Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

The plot of this book sounded quite intriguing even if it has been used before. A woman thinks that she has the perfect life. She is wealthy, lives in a good community, thinks that she has a good marriage and is parent to a teenager who seems to have the world at his feet.

This is the story of what happens when all of these illusions are taken away. The family has power and wants to use it to protect their son. Is this the right course of action? How will they all fare as they move away from what is right?

This book has gotten mixed reviews. See what you think.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

I expected a fantastic thriller with this book, so reading it i felt it was a bit of a letdown really.
Sarah was a walkover and a bit paranoid, her husband just crap , his family over the top, her son needed a slap around the head and that poor girl.
Told in both the present time and the past where we see Sarah's connections to the house in which she lives, it all seems a bit put on and really the end is almost expected.
A meh read for me.

I was able to read this book thanks to NetGalley. I enjoyed the characters and the setting and found the book to be very entertaining. It was a quick read for me. I will absolutely be recommending it to all of my book loving friends. Thanks again to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I've received this free e-arc from NetGalley to post a honest review This book grabbed my attention from the start. The story contains secrets, murder, and lies (the lies of others and what we tell ourselves). Recommend the book!

Reading this book is like an exercise in delayed gartification. I want to follow the story at present but unfortunately the book is structured such that it alternately hops between the main character's present and past life. Honestly, it's exasperating but it also affords you the best scenario when you get to the end.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this free ARC. This review is made of my own accord, with no monetary compensation, whatsoever from the names mentioned above and/or the rightful owners of this ARC.

This was just an OK read for me, but the premise was REALLY interesting- how far would you go to protect your children if you had the means to do so, whether they were innocent or not? Sarah is the protagonist in this story- married to her college sweetheart and living in her dream house in an exclusive Pittsburgh community- when one night she gets a call from her son Finn and finds him drugged beyond comprehension near the dead body of his girlfriend. Sarah's husband's family has the means to make this all go away, but Sarah is torn between protecting her son and telling the truth.

The story is told through a mix of real-time narration and flashbacks, which give us additional information about Sarah's upbringing, marriage, and other relationships. I find this to be a good and engaging way to tell a story. I found the story itself somewhat predictable, and was able to figure out the twists far before Sarah could.

Speaking of Sarah, I didn't connect with her. She seemed to let everyone push her around I just didn't feel like I got to know her as a wife and parent versus just an older version of the person she was in college.

Overall, I found this (mostly) fast-paced and covering an interesting subject, but the book itself didn't totally grab me. It was a quick read, and I finished it in about a day. I am not sorry I read the book, but not sure I will find it super memorable as time goes on. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Ellsworth is a wonderful woman, she's married, a mother of two who works helping women recover from violent situations.
From the outside her life looks great, she has everything, plus a beautiful and historic house, one where she always dreamed of living, but with another man: her teenage love: Josh. Instead, she lives there with her husband Martin, and their two sons: Finn and Spencer.
One night Sarah receives a call from Finn who is in a forest and needs help, when Sarah and Martin find him they discover a situation for which they were not prepared. Their son's girlfriend is dead and Finn seems to be the responsible.
From there they begin a series of events that will reveal that Sarah has always lived a lie.
Sweet Water is the first book by Cara Reinard that I have read, but I doubt it will be the last. She has a very good writing style.
Sarah's character develops sublimely in front of our eyes, thanks to those flashbacks from her childhood to her early years in college. Some mysteries were obvious to the reader, but not to Sarah and that's what it's all about.
Very good suspense story and 150% recommended.

I only got about halfway through this book before I gave up. The protagonist, Sarah, irritated me so much that I just couldn't continue. The way she allows herself to get pushed around by her husband and his family was just too infiruiating.

Sweet Water was an ok read, although it didn't thrill me as much as I hoped it would. It was a bit drawn out and predictable but it was ok.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

WOW, the book was full of shady, cold people. I read Sweet Water in one setting. Some people reminded me of the real folks you knew. I was slow in the review due to family loss. You will love Sweet Water as we are still in the midst of the ugly covid.

What would you do for your child? Would you lie, cheat, steal, or even break the law? Sarah and Martin are the wealthy parents of Finn and Spencer. When they receive a call, they find Finn hurt, and a girl dead. Does it really even matter what happened? After all, the girl will still be dead, and all they can do is protect the living, right?
Well, not so much for Sarah, who seems to have averted her eyes to the privilege and wealth that Martin has always taken for granted. Told in the present and the past by Sarah, we learn a lot of secrets about her husband and his family, as well as information on who Sarah was and who she has become.
This fell somewhere between an I liked it and I really liked it book. I never really warmed up to Sarah, and that definitely affected my enjoyment of the story. I wasn't furiously flipping pages, but I did want to know how everything would turn out. I will try another book by this author though, so something about the writing intrigued me. 3.5 stars.

Working my way through some of NetGalley reads and Sweet Water was great! I was in a sorority in college so I loved the flashbacks to Greek life. The main theme is secrets! So many secrets come out that are shocking but still realistic. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5!
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#bookstagram #booklover #bookobsessed #bookaddict #sweetwater

This book kept me entertained with the mystery of what really happened in the woods. Started off strong, and I did not want to put it down. I did like the story, it was really intriguing. I felt the book missed several opportunities to develop the characters and story.

A quickly paced read that sucked you in from the start and holds your attention through the whole book.

The main character was raised lower class, but ends up marrying someone rich.

She learns it is really hard to hold her standards in this new evil family that is able to get out of anything bad with their name and their money. A highly recommended thriller.

It’s what Sarah Ellsworth dreamed of. Marriage to her college sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until…A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.

But there are things Sarah finds hard to reconcile: a cover-up by Martin’s family that’s so unnervingly cold-blooded. Finn’s lies to the authorities are too comfortable, too proficient, not to arouse her suspicions. Even the secrets of the old house she lives in seem to be connected to the incident. As each troubling event unfolds, Sarah must decide how far she’ll go to save her perfect life

This was one quick read! It was obvious to me, from the beginning, where this story was going, so it was interesting to watch Sarah as things unraveled. Sarah was a very down-to-earth character, and the family she married into was not. As I was reading, I was questioning what I would do in her situation, so this would be a good pick for book clubs to read and discuss.

Oh my God that was a very long read, and in my opinion it should have been the half at least.
The story start very promising and the synopsis of the book was very intriguing.. but boy it was so irritating, i really struggle to finish the book.
I really dislike the main character, it just pointless to make her look so stupid.. And what about the Joshua character and that he is a father of one of her sons? why put the characters that you never actually gonna develop, and its not just Joshua and Spencer. And please don't let me start about the main story,one rich family that "accidentally" killed bystanders and of course get away with it.
okay I'm just going to leave it here and say that there's so many wrong things going on in this book that just irritating, pointless and without actually suspense or twists.

Thanks you Netgalley for providing me with this digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.