You Are Not Alone Review

Genre: Suspense Thriller
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date:  March 3, 2020
Purchase Link:  Amazon

My Rating: 4 Menacing Hearts

*Special thanks to St. Martin's Press for an arc of this book via Netgalley.

The #1 Bestselling authors of THE WIFE BETWEEN US and AN ANONYMOUS GIRL deliver a thriller about a circle of friends with deadly intentions--where trust is their weapon and revenge is their trigger....

Synopsis:
You probably know someone like Shay Miller
She wants to find love, but it eludes her.
She wants to be fulfilled,t her job is a dead end.
She wants to belong, but her life is becoming increasingly isolated.
 
You probably don't know anyone like the Moore sisters
They have an unbreakable circle of friends.
They live a life of glamour and perfection.
They always get what they desire.

Shay thinks she wants their life.

But what they really want is hers.

Review:

The dynamic duo writing team of Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen have left me speechless once again.  Their talent to deliver compelling, convoluted thrillers time and again is truly amazing.  You Are Not Alone is a chaotic story of deception, revenge, manipulation, and obsession.  Told from multiple points of view and shifting past/present timelines, the story is divided into three parts and hinges on the reader solving the mystery on their own as the story unfolds.

In Part One, characters are introduced and as their paths crossed and they began interacting, my curiosity peaked.  Marketing Researcher Shay Miller is obviously lonely, obsessed with statistics, and in need of a new job, residence, and life.  Once again, she's on the outside looking in just as she's been most of her life.  Completely by chance, she witnesses the horrifying suicide of a woman in a subway station and becomes haunted and obsessed with what she saw. Shay is left in emotional turmoil feeling an unreasonable need to discover more about the woman and what drove her to take her own life.  While Part One moved a bit slow for me, I was intrigued and appreciated the author's meticulous attention to detail knowing it would be important to the story later on.  In Part Two, I was quickly put on high alert by a shift in story ambiance with an increasing sense of malice and suspense.  Shay's obsession has intensified, and as a result she pings on the radar of sisters Cassandra & Jane who befriend her.  At this point, I began questioning everything and everybody and strongly suspected that things were on the verge of spiraling out of control for someone.  In Part Three, the fantastic writing duo's many beautifully intertwined plot threads began to unravel, and my  trepidation quickly elevated.  For me, the tone and sense of urgency was reminiscent of Poe's Tell Tale Heart - rapidly rising along with Shay's paranoia.  Like the assumed sound of the beating heart in Poe's short story, my own heartbeat grew louder and louder and louder in my head as I maneuvered all the twists and turns.  And true to form, the authors withheld the final twist until the end.  While I figured out some things along the way, I in no way saw this final one coming.

After finishing You Are Not Alone in the wee hours of the morning, I looked over to see my husband peacefully sleeping and was indeed glad I was not alone.  Hendricks & Pekkenen excel at writing suspense thrillers with a frantic tone and pace that never fails to sweep readers up and hurl them like an angry wave toward the distant shore.  Short chapters reinforce the dark, edgy, sinister tone as does the writing style.  Characterizations are spot-on, in-depth and complete with background information and glimpses into the questionable mental psyche of these women.  The result is another fantastic, riveting, sinister tale that fans of mystery, suspense, and psychological thrillers will devour!  Highly Recommended!

My Rating:  4 Menacing Hearts

Cross My Heart . . . xxx

♥Sandra♥