Marybeth Mayhew Whalen | ONLY EVER HER

Plot (via Goodreads):

Annie Taft’s wedding is four days away, and it will be one of the grandest anyone can remember in her small South Carolina town. Preparations are in order. Friends and family are gathering in anticipation. Everything is going according to plan. Except that Annie herself has vanished. Did she have second thoughts?

Or has something much worse happened to the bride-to-be?

As the days pass, the list of suspects in her disappearance grows. Could it be the recently released man a young Annie misidentified as her mother’s killer? Could it be someone even closer to her?

While her loved ones frantically try to track her down, they’re forced to grapple with their own secrets—secrets with the power to reframe entire relationships, leaving each to wonder how well they really knew Annie and how well they know themselves.

Review:

Only Ever Her is a domestic suspense novel that features a complex missing woman, multiple character perspectives, and a plethora of red herrings. I actually really liked this story a lot. I loved the different takes on Annie from each character and how they all viewed her a little differently. I loved the backstory into Annie's past and the ominous vibe that made a missing persons case even more unsettling. I loved the realistic and heartbreaking ending.

One thing that I didn't enjoy with this story were all of the little subplots and events that kind of distracted me from Annie. I get that this is often done to build characterization, but between the fact that a few of these story-lines kind of distracted me from the main story and also introduced a few characters that I felt weren't needed, I found myself skimming a few times and looking forward to getting back to the mystery of the story.

Overall, this was a solid read with an ending that I wasn't expecting and some rather enjoyable moments.I liked the Southern feel to it and  felt the setting fit the story perfectly and loved the voices within some of these characters. I'll definitely be checking out Whalen's next novel and would be open to reading more of her work!

Special thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Amazon for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5