This is Audiobook Fanatic’s first listen from writer Freida McFadden, a practicing physician who has written multiple bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humour novels.
Eve and Nate Bennett are seemingly happily married and high school teachers at the same school. In truth, though, Eve has begun an affair with a local shoe salesman, as she’s dreadfully unhappy in her sexless marriage, where her husband treats her more as a roommate than a spouse. Last year, at the high school where Eve and Nate teach, one of the teachers was fired after an alleged student-teacher affair involving junior student Addie Severson. Eve is convinced that Addie can’t be trusted and has lied about her involvement with the fired teacher. In this new school year, Addie is assigned to both Eve’s and Nate’s classes. While Eve scolds Addie for her poor performance and alleged cheating, Nate warms to Addie and conducts himself in an unprofessional manner while alone with her. Soon Addie and Nate begin their own scandalous affair, but despite their best efforts to keep their relationship a secret, a kiss is caught on camera. What follows is a dangerous game of cat and mouse, as everyone’s secrets come crashing down.
The audiobook is entertaining and an extremely easy listen. Although the plot is not as complex or sophisticated as in other popular thrillers, there are a few clever twists in the second half and an epilogue that may have you shaking your head. To be critical, the final revelation at the very end does have some serious plausibility issues.
Narrator Leslie Howard does a fantastic job bringing both Eve and Addie to life and performs the two characters with great emotion and drama, convincingly portraying both an impulsive, unstable teenage girl and a bright, cynical woman struggling in an unhappy marriage. Narrator Danny Montooth delivers an admirable complementary performance as Nate, accurately portraying the character’s narcissistic personality with a lot of charisma and drama. If you’re in the mood for an entertaining listen that you can easily devour in one sitting or have enjoyed McFadden’s previous books, then you’ll surely enjoy this one.