A gaslighting thriller with small town corruption thrown in. An accident after a celebratory dinner leaves Catherine in the hospital accused of causing an accident where a woman is killed. Her husband (Tom) tells the authorities she was driving and everyone believes him.

A fun premise that I was excited to dive into until…

My first issue was the over the top dialogue. It seemed almost campy and I had to check if this was satire.

The mystery of who was driving is too easy to prove which made the story fall apart. A BAC would definitely be taken at the hospital. Injuries would be noted and many professionals would have to go against their oaths for this story to play out. It was all too much

I listened to this book.
Stephanie Cannon did a good job with the narration. She made it easy to the listener to distinguish characters and kept it verbally interesting

I enjoyed the writing here, but the logic was fully missing. As much as I enjoyed the soap opera-ness of it all, I can't give this more than 3 stars given the glaring plot holes.

Premise - a man attempts to murder his wife on their anniversary (vehicular homicide) and then pin it on her (pretends she was the driver, even when the police have video evidence proving he was the driver). Despite this, she continues living with him through her recovery.

Um.... what? Holy plot hole:

<spoiler>

- Not one person at the hospital calls out the fact that her bruises support her sitting in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. Wouldn't there be forensic someone on the case?

- Even after the police discover dash cam footage proving her husband was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash, and even after the detective straight up tells her that her life is in danger, no one thinks to remove her from her husband's care??? She doesn't ask the detective and he doesn't suggest 'oh, hey, maybe you shouldn't live with the guy who just tried to murder you and pin the crash on you?'

- Katherine states she knows Tom (husband) is gaslighting her and wants her dead for some reason, but then a few paragraphs later she seems to have forgotten all that and couches everything in terms of having a 'bad feeling' about staying in the house? Make it make sense.

- The characters are 2D archetypes (the innocent, wide-eyed ingenue plucked out of adolescence by the wicked old man, etc. etc.). Katherine doesn't get to grow up between her selection at age 14 and her participation in the story's events as an adult - if anything, she regresses. I know 7 year olds less naive.

This was chaotic. Still, it had that fun telenovela energy and I enjoyed the voice! It's just underbaked, it needs way more time in development. I would read more from the author nonetheless, as I overall enjoyed it (hence the 3 stars).

Thanks, NetGalley and Bookouture, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Catherine was groomed, then married Tom, a man twice her age. On their 5th anniversary, they go out to dinner and on the way home Tom crashes into another car and kills a woman. While Catherine is unconscious, Tom moved her into the driver’s seat.

Will Catherine be held responsible for everything she accused of? Will she survive?

Gaslighting, lied, abuse, attempted murder. Tom seems to have power over the entire town.

Fast paced, twists and turns.

Character development, realism, convoluted nature, contributed to the rating.

Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced copy. This is an honest voluntary review.