More twists than Rapunzel’s hair – Sheila

On the afternoon of Eden Fox’s first Gallery Exhibit of her artwork, she goes for a run. Running has always been a way for Eden to find her center, calm the edges of her mind, and let go of worry, stress, and worldly things. She brings nothing with her – no distractions of a phone, nothing on her but her running clothes and shoes, and the key to her home.. as close to earthly bliss as she can get.

When she returns home to her and her husband’s fairly new home, Spyglass, an older, intriguing home in Hope Falls with good bones, she finds her key does not work in the door.

And the woman who comes to the door is claiming to be her husband’s wife….

And Eden’s husband, standing next to this stranger, with his hand on her shoulder, is saying the same.

What sort of Rabbit Hole is this?

First up – snaps for Alice Feeney, last year when I read her book, Beautiful Ugly, I found the book intriguing. Then, probably like many of you, I started to hear the raves of this book… and more recently ran into this post on Facebook:

And so here I sit in the minority.

For most of the book, I found myself scrambling to keep up… there is the whole death day storyline, there is the detective(s) storyline…. and there are the two Eden Fox’s that the whole town all claim the woman at the door is THE Eden Fox. Then you have the original Eden Fox ( or at least as far as we know) – and she has no one – NO ONE that can prove she is who she says she is…. no close friends, no family, and one adult child who is not talking – ( more on that in the book)

As she is out running – she has no identity on her – she didn’t wear her wedding rings, she doesn’t have her driver’s license, and conveniently, while she was running – the house has been wiped clean of her personal things (photos, identity, etc…)

I love a good twisty read – but for whatever reason, this one did not click for me. I listened ( yes audio) to the whole thing in hopes that in the end it would be an “aha” moment… but no. As one person said in a review, “If you get to the end of the book and feel you need to read it again to understand it, the Author has missed the mark”. I would agree.

As always, come up with your own opinion – MANY reviews say otherwise. MANY loved it. I typically do not read reviews on a book until I have written my own, but I was so baffled in the end that I had to read some just to see if they were getting something I just missed.

Rated: 2.5 out of 5 (A for effort – but too unbelievable for me)
Read Author Before: Yes
Read Author Again: Most likely
Where Read: Fort Myers, Florida

Book Club Worthy – tough call. I have a feeling my Book Club would struggle with this one as I did. On the flip side of that, often the hard ones/weird ones are fun to shred.
The whole “know your death date” is definitely discussion-worthy (although I think I know my Books Clubs answer to that one)