Robyn Harding | HER PRETTY FACE

Plot (via Goodreads):

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms—only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart…because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunick. And she’s a murderer.

Review:

Last year I read and loved THE PARTY by Robyn Harding. It was a perfect summer domestic thriller and I was completely immersed in the story the entire time. Well, when I heard that Harding had a new novel coming out, I was expecting something similar. I was completely wrong. I was not only happily surprised, but dumbfounded when I read HER PRETTY FACE. 

HER PRETTY FACE is a darker thriller compared to THE PARTY...much darker. The theme, the story, the characters. It was psychologically stunning, atmospherically delectable, and easily my favorite read this month...out of seventeen books that I managed to devour. Robyn Harding stepped up a game with this novel that didn't even need improvement. I love that her novels feature tightly wound plots, spectacularly written characters, and stories that make you want to gobble up every single detail. Her writing is sparkling, her prose is glorious, and this novel is the closest thing to perfect for a thriller that I can imagine. 

I was addicted to this plot. Harding's novel begins with a twenty year old article about a fifteen year old girl who has gone missing. What? America has an obsession with missing girls and the literary world is no different. What I particularly enjoy about reading about these cases is how different each story is and the revelations are just completely different with each one. Unfortunately for this missing girl, a grizzly fate awaits her and takes the reader on a journey that is poignant, terrifying, and captivating. This novel is a psychological thriller that features a perspective from one of our main characters, a perspective from the other main characters teenage daughter, and the perspective of a teenage boy from twenty years ago as he and his family come to the realization of what really happened to his sister when she went missing. Robyn Harding is a genius. She can write about a woman in her 40s or 50s? Great. A teenage girl? Perfection. A teenage boy in the 90s? Brilliance. Hardings ability to not only write from these three perspectives with edge, intensity, and makes it believable. This is a novel that could have been written by three different authors because each voice is so distinct and well conceived. 

The present day story is paced better than any novel I have ever read. It starts off lighter and sort of like a domestic suspense read and then it slowly travels into a dark psychological place that just left me entranced. The story from twenty years ago is similar to almost a coming of age tale with a courtroom drama aspect and a harrowing story about how a case like this can affect a family. Harding doesn't hold back with any of this...at all. The details, the characterization, the ending...I couldn't get enough. Not one page is wasted in this stunning novel that kept me under a spell and dragged me into a world that I could not get enough of (even for how terrifying it was!)

I loved this book. The ending was fantastic and left me overly satisfied. You know, you read a book and you're satisfied with the ending. You got the answers to the questions you had, you're happy with the ending, you like the direction of the story. I had incredibly high hopes for this novel and not only did I get exactly what I wanted out of it by the time I finished the last page, but I got more than I anticipated. I give Robyn Harding a lot of credit. I wanted this novel to be nothing short of amazing and gave myself a little anxiety with how good I wanted this to be and Robyn Harding just completely blew me away. I already want to read this one again and it's been less than a week. If this novel is any indication on what book three will be like, I better prepare myself now.

Rating: 5/5