Her Three Lives
Her Three Lives by Cate Holahan is a fast paced ride that will have you holding your breath with every turn of the page.
Her public life: Jade Thompson has it all. She’s an up-and-coming social media influencer, and she has a beautiful new home and a successful architect for a fiancé. But there’s trouble behind the scenes. To Greg’s children, his divorce from their mother and his new life can only mean a big mid-life crisis. To Jade, his suburban Connecticut upbringing isn’t an easy match with her Caribbean roots.
Her private life: A savage home invasion leaves Greg house-bound with a traumatic brain injury and glued to the live feeds from his ubiquitous security cameras. As the police investigate the crime and Greg’s frustration and rage grows, Jade begins to wonder what he may know about their attackers. And whether they are coming back.
Her secret life: As Greg watches Jade’s comings and goings, he becomes convinced that her behavior is suspicious and that she’s hiding a big secret. The more he sees, the more he wonders whether the break-in was really a random burglary. And whether he’s worth more to Jade if he were dead than alive.
I just finished reading this book with Erin, and I had a fabulous time discussing the characters, predictions as to who the guilty party was, and overall thoughts on the plot itself!
Each of the chapters in the story alternates between the point-of-view of Greg and Jade, and I loved this set-up as it kept the emotions intense and the suspense real. As I read, I realized that both Jade and Greg were dealing the the aftermath of the violence they were both victims to. This was the breeding ground for conflict and contention between the two. With the storyline progressing at a steady clip, it was abundantly clear that Greg was becoming increasingly paranoid and mistrustful, which is something that can intensify with his type of brain injury. Progressively, he becomes a poisonous character who is easily influenced by others, and the trust between the two is totally broken. Actually, I increasingly began to ask myself why Jade continued to stay with Greg. I understand she loves him, but most people would have reached a breaking point….I know I would have (but then just leaving would not make for good fiction, drama or thrills).
From the beginning of the story I felt that the characters really didn’t feel approachable, but I believe this was the authors intention. After all, this is a story where each character has their secrets and isn’t meant to be fully trusted, and this makes for a page turner full of intense breath-holding drama…Along with a total of six possible suspects that could have broken in and attacked Greg and Jade.
The writing in this story does shine and the drama helps to keep the storyline moving along as more and more information is provided, and the alternating thoughts and actions of the two characters are in direction opposition. But, it's really not so much about who arranged the break-in as it is why and how did he or she hide it. I found myself captivated by the relationships and the little secrets told to keep each possible guilty party from being suspicious. I did come close (50% accurate…if you want to get technical) to predicting the guilty party, but the final reveal and scene left me a quite speechless.
Erin and I both agreed that this is a book you are going to want to binge read, so set aside a chunk of time if you plan on picking this domestic thriller!
Thank you Grand Central Publishing for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
