Member Reviews
This was my first Brandi Reeds novel. The description yanked me in and made me want to devour the entire thing in one sitting. And I did!
I know some thriller/suspense novels have moments where they need to slow things down before they heat ramps back up, but I felt this book drag more than I liked. The characters were amazing and the story was written beautifully. The twists and turns were great, but those slow moments were difficult at times because I was so eager for the next twist.
Overall, I really liked this book and will definitely read from this author in the future!
I thought the plot of this one sounded interesting. It did start of strong for me and I was intrigued and invested in the story and outcome. I just didn't like the characters and I really hated the ending.
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book even though I did not finish this book.
Suspenseful and twisted in the best possible way! Brandi Reeds is a new to me author, but I will definitely be checkout out more of her books in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a much appreciated digital copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
In an attempt to try to rectify my pathetic netgalley stats, I’ve been making an effort to review old titles. Trespassing is a domestic thriller that instantly caught my eye when I first came across it, but never made the time for it. Until now. And I’m kicking myself for letting it sit so long!
Veronica’s life seems to be ripping apart at the seams. Her latest round of fertility treatments has failed, her 3-year-old has a new imaginary friend that seems more evil than innocent, and her pilot husband has just left for a flight…and doesn’t come back home. Veronica tries to hold it together and not fret, but Elizabella keeps insisting her imaginary friend told her Daddy’s dead. What follows is a cat-and-mouse thriller, from fake paystubs to a fully-paid house in the Florida Keys. Veronica’s grasp of reality loosens as she realizes her husband wasn’t the man she thought he was – and is someone after her now?
Despite the size of this novel, I tore through it, fully invested and engaged. I needed to know what was going on, I wanted explanations from her husband nearly as bad as Veronica did! While the ended was a little overdone, I really liked this one and can’t wait for Reeds’ next novel!
Trespassing by Brandi Reeds is not quite what I was expecting, in a good way of course. Veronica is basically at her wits end because of her inability to get pregnant, even with all of the infertility drugs she's ravaging her body with. Along with that, her three year old daughter Elizabella has a new imaginary friend-who seems to know a little too much for Veronica's liking. When Veronica's husband goes missing, the imaginary friend tells Bella that he's gone to God Land. How could she even know this?
Through being a suspect in her husbands disappearance and trying to understand the eery statements coming from her daughter's imaginary friend through Bella, Veronica must go on a very intricate cat and mouse game to find out what really happened to her husband. Is he dead or not? Does he have a secret family? What is God Land?
Not only was this book a hard one for me to pick apart and figure out the twist, it sent me on a million emotional rollercoasters. At times, I didn't like Veronica and didn't believe if she had anything to do with her husband's disappearance or not. Other times, I really wanted her to figure out what the hell was going on. One thing that bothers me, that I've seen in quite a lot of books lately, is that the author will use a woman's mental illness to portray her as unreliable. It's kind of a cop out these days, but regardless of that, this book really got me.
I had a hell of a good time reading this, I think I got it done in about 2 days, wishing and hoping I could find the answers myself and Veronica were so desperately looking for. The ending was interesting, and the whole ride was exciting. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this title. It just wasn't a good fit for me. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this title. I will not be posting a review online, in order not to skew the ratings.
Thank you Lake Union and Netgalley for this ARC.
I enjoyed this novel of suspense. A great way to while away a weekend.
oh how I enjoyed this book. With a plot that just kept twisting and turning in ways the reader never sees coming it makes you question your own life. The ending did leave me wondering what really happened though.
A book you won’t want to stop reading! Every time you think you know what’s going to happen the story takes an unexpected turn!
This is one of the best books I have read lately. I thoroughly enjoyed how small facts were thrown in at the beginning, so I wasn’t quite sure if the main character, Veronica, was losing her mind. There were also doubts about her daughter, Elizabella and her imaginary friend, Nini. Nini knew things before they happened, and even seemed to know of future events before they happened. What in the world was going?
The author, Brandi Reeds, peels back the layers and tosses out tidbits a little at a time. That quality definitely kept me hooked and reading well into the night when I should have been sleeping. It’s almost impossible to put this book down, so don’t read it when you are swamped with work responsibilities.
This book was so confusing. The story comes together a little at a time through the unreliable perspective of a woman who suspects she is losing her mind. Throughout the book, it is never clear what is really happening and what she may have imagined.
If that weren’t enough, her 3-year-old daughter comes up with bizarre ideas that reveal clues and seem just way too far fetched for my taste.
It does seem like a crazy coincidence that the last two books I’ve read both have women who question their sanity as main characters.
This book was an interesting mystery. A woman who has a history of mental illness in her family explores the mysterious disappearance of her pilot husband.
Full of suspense, the reader is forced to question the narrator, her husband, and what may or may not be reality as the main character deals with her husband, a found deed, the past with her former college roommate, fertility treatments, and her daughter's spooky invisible friend who is beginning to make some dire predictions.
I really enjoyed the writing style of Ms. Reeds and the move of location to Key West.
I will be looking forward to her next book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free review copy of the book.
This was quite brilliant for a debut novel. It was interesting and yes, thrilling. The pacing was consistent and it was well written. I read it in one sitting because I ended up wanting to see how it ended. I did find this one to be quite similar to the other thrillers on the rise, the whole “borderline” insanity thing was pretty prevalent here. Still, a good read all around.
Wow! So glad I got the opportunity to read this book. So much suspense and intrigue I couldn't put it down!!!! Loved the smaller chapters that kept me flying thru the book. This book definitely had me guessing. Get this book today you will NOT be disappointed!!
A great quality read. I was engrossed in the story line. I hope you all got this from the Kindle First deal. If not, it's definitely worth the purchase and read
Veronica is dealing with infertility, treatments, a husband who is normally gone a lot and is now missing, a handful of a 3 year old precocious daughter, worries that she and/or her daughter may have inherited her mother's schizophrenia, her daughter's imaginary playmate, and a myriad of other problems. With too much on her plate, Veronica and her world, are falling apart. Then along comes a police investigation into her missing husband and shadowy figures that seem to be stalking her and Veronica feels like she has nowhere to turn for help during a time when her life may be in danger. If her missing husband is dead, the police consider her a prime suspect in his disappearance and/or murder.
From the start of the book, Veronica is not a happy person and it was hard to feel invested in all her wants and needs. But then I began to understand where her sense of unfulfillment, frustration, and fear of going crazy, was coming from. Her mostly absentee husband didn't really seem to be very understanding of her feelings, when we meet him, she has been isolated from former friends, never really got to make more than one friend in her new home, and has no family of her own. Even her husband's family is overseas and when in the states, she only has contact with her mother-in-law.
I began to feel her paranoia...her fear of the things her daughter was spouting, the fear that the investigative officers were zeroing in on her for the disappearance of her husband, and/or insinuating that she knew more than she was telling about where he was and his activities. When she knows she is being followed, she escapes with her daughter to a new location and this seems to land her in even more hot water and her safety becomes even more elusive. Can she trust anyone? Can she trust her fragile mind and memories? Has anything about her relationships and life been real? I could not put this book down until the end...it is very much worth reading.
Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Trespassing by Brandi Reeds is a novel of psychological suspense in which readers start off meeting Veronica Cavanaugh, a young mother who is in the midst of fertility treatments while dealing with her precocious three year old. Veronica feels that she and her husband have the perfect marriage with the one exception of having such difficulty getting pregnant.
Veronica begins to worry about her daughter, Elizabella, when it seems she has conjured an imaginary playmate and with mental illness in the family history it is a bit concerning. The doctors however reassure Veronica this is absolutely normal but Veronica isn’t quite convinced when her daughter begins telling everyone Nini said her father is now in God land.
Since her husband is a private pilot and has just left on a trip to New York with a client Veronica begins to worry when she doesn’t hear from him like normal and when he doesn’t come home at all when planned she calls in the police. As the investigation into the disappearance goes on of course Veronica as the wife becomes a suspect but all she wanted was for her husband to return home, that is until the secrets and lies begin to unravel.
Picking up Trespassing I was honestly getting a little worried after seeing several mention that this one was slow moving and anyone that knows me knows I lose patience pretty quickly. When finished however I wonder if I read the same book as those that mentioned slowness because I was never once bored with this one and thought the drama unfolded at a steady pace and it kept my attention quite easily. The description of a novel of mounting psychological suspense was quite perfect as at each turn of a page it seemed to go deeper and deeper in intensity.
It’s pretty apparent that I enjoyed the suspense and following along with the plot in this one but what also won me completely over was when it headed to Key West. I’ve actually been there and I felt like I was walking right along with them and taking in the sights yet again so I loved that setting. I also loved having the focus around a little girl and her imaginary friend and the questions that came along with that. So when you bundle all of this together I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and found this one rather exciting myself.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Six stars. Couldn't put it down. Plenty of good twists and a real play on the "cheating husband" that just kept you rolling. Literally didn't know what was coming next. Loved it and can highly recommend. Any time you think you know what's going on, you don't. There's some which you might get suspicious about, but you really don't know. The opposite of predictable. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in ages.
This latest entry in the missing husband genre didn't float my boat, in part because while I tried, I couldn't pull up much sympathy for Veronica. AND, while I liked the concept of the imaginary friend, Bella is written much too old for three year old. Too many threads and not enough attention to detail made this a satisfactory but not engaging read for me. This is a classic case of an author who would have benefited from a critical reader to pare some away. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.