Gia and Abby have been BFFs since childhood. Gia, a poor little rich girl with a distant father and mentally ill mother and Abby, the daughter of the cook. Gia's father, seeing the good influence that Abby could have on his impulsive daughter, pays for her schooling - an opportunity that Abby does not take for granted as it wasn't until this particular job that she and her mother were able to crawl their way out of poverty. Further bonding Gia and Abby together is a tragedy that occurred on a tiny Greek island (Gia's father owns a villa there - because of course he does) when they were 18, when a young man ends up dead. The incident was deemed as justifiable homicide and of course Gia goes on to publish a pseudo-memoir about the incident that gained her some notoriety, which has since faded into Where Are They Now? territory.
Then, Gia's father dies and ultimately leaves the bulk of his fortune to charity. Abby is a fledgling new attorney working 16-hour days while Gia continues to drift through her life until she falls head over heels in love with Garrett. They marry just a few short months after meeting and when Abby doesn't drop her life to fly to Europe to attend the quickie nuptials but also has the gall to say to Gia that she might want to slow down just a wee bit - the friends don't speak again for months. That is until Gia talks her into going on a bucket-list vacation to see the northern lights in Sweden. Abby is all set to say no again (work, work, work) until she finds out Gia's brother, Benny, is also coming. Naturally there's unrequited, complicated feelings there, but Abby shuffles some things around at work, digs out her passport, and hops a flight to Sweden. Except once she and Benny arrive, there's no Gia. Benny was in Greece a month ago visiting Gia, Garrett and some new friends staying with them. Between the weird scene that Benny experienced on his visit and the fact they can't get ahold of Gia now? Yeah, they change plans to fly to Greece to find out what's going on. Where is Gia?
The book is told in alternating points of view - Abby's and through a series of manuscript pages written by Gia that details her life in Greece with Garrett. They're staying in the family villa for a few months, getting some renovations done, in preparation for selling the place to Gia's stepmother. Gia doesn't want to sell but she needs the money - apparently so does Garrett, who is in more financial trouble than he's letting on to his new wife. These manuscript pages eventually become the main clue in helping Benny and Abby find out what happened to Gia.
Rich people behaving badly, Greece, and a load of secrets - this sounds like a perfect beach read. Except, unfortunately, it is not. It's really slow to get moving along. It takes about half the book to really cook and by then you just want to scream at Gia for being such a trusting dumb bunny. You'd kind of expect Abby to be the moral center to take up the slack, except you'd be wrong. That incident that happened on the island when they were both 18 and a guy ends up dead? Yeah, let's just Abby doesn't come off looking real good there and I'll leave it at that.
But things do eventually heat up and Lord helped me I got sucked in once it's clear that Gia is missing. Unfortunately the whole thing is undone by my least favorite plot device in suspense novels and thrillers.
That's right folks, we have a "you as the reader decide" ambiguous ending.
Like a "romance novel" without a happy ending - these need to be lit on fire and shot into the sun afterward for good measure.
What did our "bad guy" know and when did they know it? Is our "bad guy" Machiavellian or just a delusional narcissist? Did our "bad guy" have intent?
No idea. Couldn't tell you. It's an ending without being an ending and I hate everyone here thanks for asking.
There's a reason I read genre fiction folks and ambiguous endings ain't it. If it wanted this kind of shit I'd spend a lot more of my leisure time reading general fiction.
So a book I wasn't madly in love with but was easily a "it's OK, YMMV may vary" ends up sinking like a stone with that ending. Oh well, one more off my catch-up pile I guess?
Final Grade = D
3 comments:
No, no, no, oh hell, NO.
(This is how authors got in my "would not read if it was the only written material in a desert island" list--fuck that noise)
Aaaarrrggghhhh. How frustrating. Happily, I didn't fall for that email but I have fallen for many others.
This one really doesn't sound interesting...
Although I did read one of her Katherine St John's books and kind of liked it. It wasn't the most perfectly explained plot, but there were some secondary elements I liked in that book.
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