TLC Book Tours Book Review: What She Gave Away

About What She Gave Away

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (September 4, 2018)

Revenge is anything but sweet in this twisty thriller about two women with very different lives locked in the same deadly game.

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate.

Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband—a wealthy bank president—dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing. Then the FBI shows up, asking questions she can’t answer and freezing assets she once took for granted.

While Kathi struggles to outrun the mess caused by her husband’s mysterious death, Crystal seems focused on her game. But why? And who are her targets?

Spanning two years and told in Crystal’s and Kathi’s alternating voices, this tautly plotted novel reveals the power of choice and the price of revenge.

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Review:  As far as Thrillers go, this one didn't feel quite as menacing as some, but there was something about the two detestable female lead characters that really pulled me in and made the pages keep turning.

I don't think I've ever read a book where I hated both main characters so much, and that's including Gone Girl. Crystal and Kathi are both just awful. Crystal for all of her revenge motives and Kathi for being a wishy washy poor excuse for a human. She is the wimpiest worst excuse for a female ever! As you learn more about her marriage through her chapters and even through Crystal's mechanization, you almost feel sorry for her, but then again there's that nagging part of you that wonders how someone that was obviously educated (uh she was offered a job with a publishing house) could toss her life away for a jerk like Rich.

Where Kathi is gullible, Crystal is manipulative and scheming. She had a bad childhood, but that doesn't excuse her actions. She's a sociopath. She ends up with 2 strange friends, a fellow loan analyst and a homeless woman that's quasi-stalking her.

How everything wraps up is a bit too perfect and nice and almost HEA for a thriller. It left me shaking my head a bit, but I still have to say, I enjoyed this book and truthfully it was probably one of the best books I've read this year so far.

Rating: 4 flowers

About Catharine Riggs

Catharine Riggs lives and writes on California’s central coast. Before turning to writing fiction, Riggs worked as a business banker, an adjunct college instructor, and a nonprofit executive. What She Never Said is the second novel in her Santa Barbara Suspense series. The first, What She Gave Away, was published by Thomas & Mercer in September of 2018. Riggs is a member of the International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild, Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

Find out more about Catharine at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.