I've heard SO much about Freida McFadden ... even though psychological thrillers aren't really books I enjoy ( I'm too judgmental, always looking for the twist) I figured I should give this author a try. Okay, I did. Not for me. This one had the text included in KU, with audio available on Hoopla.  1st person (Brooke's POV), present tense - even with two timelines. There were a few flashbacks to eleven years earlier. It was noted in the headers, but NOT in the Table of Contents, which is not convenient, if one wanted to go back and check the "past" chapters ... can't tell which they are from the TOC. Having the past in past tense would have helped keep things a little straighter for me. 

There were SO MANY "just happened to happen" things ... required way too much suspension of disbelief.  We/the reader, are IN Brooke's head. There is an internal monologue going throughout so much of the book, and the things this girl thinks, the things she thinks she "knows" ... it was an ordeal to be in her head. I just wanted her to stop and shut up. 

Spoilers ...

that Brooke would get hired at a prison when she had a personal relationship with one of the prisoners ... try to explain it, no, it wouldn't happen. It's SO obvious that the author is trying to set up Tim that you can't think it really is Tim, because that's too obvious. Very little mention of how much Shane's defense went for reasonable doubt in the first place, what was the motive for this sudden murder spree? Brooke really had NO idea then, or now, for her to be a star witness. That Shane was released so quickly, then Tim released after that ... the flip flop of the legal/prison system in that town, it had to take a HUGE hit, no one would ever believe law&order correct after all this. Marjorie ... that was SO over the top. That the whole thing was planned from the beginning, that Brooke was the target and "oh we'll just kill three other kids" because they are there. Seriously? If they wanted to hurt Brooke, her father, her family ... I think they would have found something a little less murdery, right in their own house no less. And then that she killed Brooke's parents too, and then killed to set Tim up. Boy, murder is absolutely easy to get away with if this little old lady can do all that without getting caught, or even investigated. Honestly, while some have said the epilogue was a "twist" ... I absolutely expected that. No surprise whatsoever. Of course.

Glancing through the other reviews - the top one (1*) ... I see why so many have liked it. It says most everything that needs to be said about this book. 

I really don't think I'll be trying any more by this author.
Surprisingly, no proFanity. Some sex, but not explicit.