Ah, December. The merriest and readiest month of the year because all I want to do is sit under a blanket drinking tea and reading books.
This December I have quite the challenge, however. I’ve read 74 books this year so far, but my goal is 85. And I read a lot, but I’m thinking 11 books in the next 24 days may be a bit much, even for me.
Today I’m reviewing book #74 for the year, The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler. I loved the cover on this one! What do you think?
From the Publisher:
Sienna Scott grew up in the dark shadow of her mother’s paranoid delusions. Now, she’s returned home to confront her past and the unsolved murder that altered the course of her life.
In her mother’s shuttered house, an old fear that has haunted Sienna for years rears its ugly head—that it was she who had been the killer’s target that night. And now, with it, a new fear—that the killer not only intended to remedy his past mistake—he’s already begun. But are these fears any different from the ones that torment her mother?
As the walls close in, the line between truth and lie, reality and delusion disintegrate. Has Sienna’s worst nightmare come true? Or will she unmask a killer and finally prove she may be her mother’s look-alike, but she’s not her clone?
My Review
Sienna returning home is like the return of the prodigal daughter. She was her parent’s golden girl, in the time before her childhood fell apart. Her father was successful, but not the warmest to his children, and her mother descended into insanity when she was still a young girl.
Of course, the cherry on top of her childhood was that as a young woman in college, she discovered a dead girl wearing the same winter coat as her, on a secluded path across campus that she took every Tuesday at midnight. Coincidence?
Sienna has been gone for the last 10 years, living with an aunt in London. Her father sent her away because he was worried that the killer was after her and wouldn’t stop until she had met the same fate as the girl on the path. Besides the same coat, it’s unclear why the family was so paranoid when there were no real suspects.
The story is an intriguing one, but the details didn’t quite all come together as well as I’d like. I had a hard time envisioning Sienna’s childhood, a harder time picturing her life in London where she had lived for the past 10 years, and I just wasn’t feeling the characters.
Still, it’s a fast-paced thriller and Spindler does a good enough job slowly revealing answers to the mystery with twists and turns along the way. And honestly, it looks like a lot of the other reviewers loved this one. Books are like pizza, everybody has different favorites.
Special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one releases January 28, 2020. Get your copy!
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