By: Holly Brown
ISBN: 9780062456830
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: 1/17/2017
Format: Other
My Rating: 4.5 Stars Two women are caught in an escalating game of cat-and-mouse that leads to an explosive ending in this breathtaking psychological thriller from the author of A Necessary End and Don’t Try to Find Me. You’ll have your deposit within seven business days, just like it says on Getaway.com. I’ve put through a refund to your credit card for the full amount, minus $200 to replace the stained sheets...
Miranda
When 30-year-old Dawn reads Miranda’s email, she sees red. People have always told Dawn she’s beautiful, and she just hopes they don’t see beneath-to how she grew up, to what she’s always tried to outrun. She revels in her getaways with her perfect (maybe too perfect) husband, the occasional long weekend in luxurious homes, temporarily inhabiting other people’s privileged lives. Miranda’s email strikes a nerve, with its lying intimation that Dawn is so dirty you need to throw out her sheets.
Beware of your “host”
I wouldn’t have left a review at all, if I didn’t feel it was my civic duty to warn others…
57-year-old Miranda thought she’d seen it all, but she can’t believe her eyes when she reads Dawn’s review. She’s a doctor’s wife but she needs that rental money, desperately. People might think her life is privileged, but they don’t know what’s really going on. They don’t know about her son. She won’t take this threat to her livelihood-to her very life-lying down.
Two very different women with this in common: Each harbors her own secret, her own reason why she can’t just let this go. Neither can yield, not before they’ve dredged up all that’s hidden, even if it has the power to shatter all they’ve built.
This is not over. This is so not over.
Praise
This Is Not Over is an absolutely riveting novel that starts with a situation that could happen to any of us, and slowly and masterfully escalates it into a crisis of character for two women that is both nail-bitingly suspenseful and full of insight into our collective humanity.”
—Alice LaPlante, New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind
“An intricately plotted and highly entertaining tale of She Said, She Said, THIS IS NOT OVER takes a phenomenon of our times--the home away from home vacation rental--and exposes its potential to wreak havoc on a pair of ordinary lives. Holly Brown ratchets up the tension, twist by startling twist, as homeowner and vacationer refuse to let go of a minor dispute and insinuate themselves into each other’s lives. Brown manages to plunder the depths of social class, drug addiction, and family discord, all against a backdrop of everyday terror that should leave millions of readers wondering, “Whom did I tick off today?”
—Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling author of Cover of Snow, Ruin Falls, and As Night Falls
“Holly Brown’s This is Not Over is a hypnotic, psychological thriller that had me hooked from the opening sentence. Cleverly paced and pulsating with tension, This is Not Over is the heart-pounding account of two women who resort to desperate measures to protect what they love. With sharp wit and intricate detail, Brown takes the reader on a wild ride right up to the mind-bending conclusion. I thought I knew what was going to happen and was I wrong—brilliant!”
—Heather Gudenkauf New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Missing Pieces
“[A Necessary End] offers a glimpse of a writer whose sensitivity to the nature of the modern family, and all of its possibilities for tragedy, could soon lift her into a league with Paula Hawkins and Jodi Picoult.”
—USA Today
“Darkly funny and perfectly twisted, [...] a gritty look at infertility and adoption, and the implications of being deprived those things we want. With elaborate characters you’ll love to hate and an ending that will stun, Holly Brown proves herself a master storyteller and an expert of suspense.”
—Mary Kubica, international bestselling author of The Good Girl on A Necessary End
“The desire for a child — an occasion that should be joyful — turns into a deadly obsession in the highly stylized “A Necessary End.” In the “Gone Girl” mode, author Holly Brown fashions her second novel around three unlikable, but interesting people, making us care about the twists this domestic thriller takes. [...] Brown adds layer after layer to this well-constructed psychological drama, showing the unchecked emotions seething just below the surface. [...] “A Necessary End” illustrates how watching unsympathetic people battle each other can be quite satisfying.”
—Associated Press
“In Don’t Try to Find Me, Brown, a practicing family therapist, offers a nuanced portrayal of the complex dance of marriage and familial relations.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Holly Brown’s novels are irresistibly readable and infused with a profound understanding of human frailty.”
—Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of Woman with a Secret
“Impossible to put down. You’ll be begging friends, family, your book club, and maybe even your therapist (if you have one) to read DON’T TRY TO FIND ME. It’s the real thing.”
—Meg Cabot, New York Times bestselling author
“Intelligently crafted and rivetingly dark, this chilling tale of two women waging psychological warfare will hook you, capture you, and keep you reading as fast as you can. Timely, terrifying, and disturbingly believable”
—Hank Phillippi Ryan , Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark Award winning author of Say No More
About the Author
Holly Brown is (in no particular order): a novelist, wife, mother, marriage and family therapist, poker enthusiast, resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, member of the SF Writers Grotto, lover of some incredibly shameful reality TV, devotee of NPR (she owes a debt of gratitude for inspiring more than one novel), and a believer that people should always be willing to make mistakes and always be the first to apologize for them.
As a writer, she tends to be inspired by contemporary events and phenomena. With her first novel Don’t Try to Find Me, she was intrigued by a real-life story about how a parent’s use of social media helped find a runaway daughter. In A Necessary End, she was compelled by all the maddening hoops that people have to jump through in order to adopt a newborn and what this does to their psychologies and their relationships. This is Not Over is an escalating cat-and-mouse between two women after a house rental goes wrong. She likes to take an emotionally charged situation and then imagine the people within it. That’s where her background in human dynamics comes into play, and where the fun begins. Read More
