Too Good to be True by Carola Lovering
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
Publication Date: March 22, 2021
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
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Book Review
Skye Starling has always struggled in relationships. Her severe OCD is often an issue to prospective suitors. That is until she meets Burke. Burke is everything Skye has been looking for: charming, successful, and willing to overlook Skye’s “quirks”. But Burke is hiding a secret: he is still married to his first wife and is intentionally deceiving Skye to gain access to her fortune. When Burke proposes after only a few months, Skye is elated. But as the wedding date approaches, Burke’s scheme begins to unravel. And just when you think you know what’s going on, you realize you have no idea.
Too Good to be True is told in three parallel timelines from three different perspectives: Skye in the first person in the present, Heather in the first person twenty years in the past, and Burke as diary entries starting from when he met Skye. I really liked this style. The multiple perspectives really worked for the story and added to the mystery element.
I loved this twisty narrative. It is somewhat of a ridiculous, highly-improbable storyline, but I completely loved it. It has an addictive, propulsive pace.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the review copy! All opinions are my own.
Synopsis from Goodreads
ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH. An obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.
Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips—she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family—she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.
But now Burke—handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before—says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.
In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past—or will he find his way into her future?
On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.
About the Author
Carola Lovering is the author of TELL ME LIES (out now from Atria Books) and TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE (forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press, early 2021). She attended Colorado College, and her writing has appeared in W Magazine, National Geographic, Outside, and Yoga Journal, among other publications. She lives in Connecticut.
Erin Evelyn Reads 