Member Reviews
Overall a good book. The twin switcheroo concept has been repeatedly, but this one does a good job of not becoming too tiresome. My only drawback to this page turner is....parts of the book would not get out of the main characters head & seemed to become a repetitious, tedious conversation she was having with herself. Maybe a little less on her internal conversations with herself & flesh out a few other parts and it would have been superb. Would rate it 3.5 stars & worth a read for sure.
Started out slow and predictable with the good twin and evil twin. Mirror images of each other, so identical that no one (mother, brother, husbands, etc.) can tell them apart. Summer and Iris Carmichael, Summer is the bubbly good twin and Iris is the shadow always trying to be Summer. Greed and treachery and what folks will do for money. Really got good the last few chapters with a twist on top of a twist of an ending.
Not at all what I had expected. This book is definitely a page turner. How are is it to be your twin sister? And yes I would buy this book for myself or a friend.
The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle is a suspenseful and enjoyable novel that will leave the reader guessing until the very last page. The plot revolves around a pair of twins named Summer and Rose. Their father has died and in his will he has designated that all of his vast wealth will be inherited by the first child of his who has a son or daughter. This unusual request places frustrates many of his children alone with his widow and ex wives in a complete quandry.
The twins are the oldest offspring and the most probable to give birth first. Summer marries a rich husband named Adam. She seems to be so in love with him. Iris, on the other hand, marries a man named Noah with whom she intends to have a baby. Their marriage appears to be for the sole purpose of having the first baby. What transpires as the novel progresses is both shocking and perplexing. What exact is going on? There are so many twists and turns that take place. This novel will also have you examining what family means. How far would you go to inherit millions ? I would love to share more details of what happens in this novel but I do not want to spoil all the surprises that will occur! I’m sure readers will enjoy reading tThe Girl in the Mirror. Thank you to Rose Carlyle, HarperCollins Publishing and netgalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Thriller fans: get your hands on a copy of this. It's fast paced, entertaining, and it has a great ending! This was one of my most highly anticipated fall reads for spooky season and it didn't disappoint.
I knew there would be something creepy about a twin switcheroo. And while this book has been compared to The Wife Between Us and Something in the Water, I will tell you it's better than both of those. There's $100 million at stake and, as we know, the love of money is the root of all evil. So here we go on a dark journey toward the green.
All the characters are greedy and let me just say, if this becomes a movie, I see Kathy Bates as Francine's character. Do you ever cast books in your mind while you read them? I still can't decide who I think for Summer and Iris. Maybe Kristen Bell or Dakota Fanning? If you've read this one, comment below and let me know who you'd cast!
In any event, this thriller *is* predictable, and I did predict the twist about midway through. But the ending was great and well done so it's still going to be a highly recommend from me! There's just one unanswered question I wanted to know but that's what I have fellow readers for to chat about.
Let me finish with a HUGE thank you to William Morrow Publishing for a copy of this one! What a fantastic read on Halloween Eve.
4.5 stars!
3.5 Stars
Enjoyable & fast paced, but ultimately, not much to set it aside from all the other domestic thrillers of the past few years. This definitely had over the top, soapy vibes and is a quick binge, but there have just been a slew of thrillers in this vein lately.
Thank you to William Morrow for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.
Actual rating: 2.5
There were things I liked about this one, but ultimately a little hard to believe. The beginning was very slow and about half way the pace really picked up and then started to progress a little too quickly. Everyone here is pretty unlikable which made it fun to figure out all the angles they were working.
Iris also seemed pretty naive. Her relationship with Summer was pretty strained and she's clearly very jealous of her. She comes off as desperate and sad for a lot of the novel so it was hard to root for her at times. I wanted to slap her to wake her up and demand she stop being so stupid.
Twin sisters Iris and Summer are mirror twins. But look under the surface & there lies a darkness.
This is a twisty tale that’ll have you skipping meals and missing your bedtime as you become engrossed in this page turner. I couldn’t put it down as I tried to keep up with all the angles. Great reading!
This was a fast-paced, entertaining read. I loved the descriptions of sailing on the wide open ocean and the setting drew me in. I love books with killer twists but I did figure out the primary twist early on, hence 4 stars instead of 5. There was another twist at the end, though, that I did not see coming. I can’t wait to read more from this author.
Loved thelis book. It was written well to keep the reader interested and engaged the whole time. Every time I thought I figured out a plot twist another ine came along to change the perspective and keep you guessing.
Summer and Iris are mirror twins, and Iris has always felt inferior to her perfect sister. When Summer calls with an emergency that only Iris can help with, Iris flies to her aid and their lives are upended forever. I have so many feelings about this fast-paced thriller. It sucked me in from the start but then I got annoyed at the characters, But the ending? Wow. I'll be recommending this to anyone who loves the twists and turns of a family thriller.
This story about mirror twins Iris and Summer kept me on edge, armchair traveling along from Australia to Thailand to the Seychelles. If you enjoy family drama and intrigue, this is a book for you.
While fast moving, some parts just didn't seem believable along the way. If you're able to suspend that, it is really fun weekend read.
Thank you to Netgalley and to HarperCollins publishers for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked this book for the most part. I really liked the concept and the writing was very good. The book tells the story of two mirror twins, Iris and Summer. Iris has a somewhat hero worship relationship with her minutes older sister. She feels like she has always been in her shadow in everything in her life down to when she looks in the mirror. Throw in the mix their wealthy father’s will that states that which ever of his 7 heirs produces an heir 1st gets his $100 million inheritance. Summer asks Iris to sail the family yacht to the Seychelles with her. Mid trip Iris wakes up to find Summer gone. When she makes it to the Seychelles, With her mind messed up with grief and her father’s will on her mind she goes along with Summer’s husband, Adam, when he assumes she is Summer. She plays the part of Summer and thinks everything she wants is within her grasp. But is it?
The twist in this was amazing. There were parts that were pretty far fetched, but I still liked it. I could understand Iris’s feelings and her motivations to all her actions. None of the main characters were very likeable. Iris did eventually kind of grow on me, but my favorite character was a minor one. Every time I thought I had it figured out, I didn’t. I won’t go into detail about the things I didn’t care for as they would possibly be spoilers. Overall the book was great. The writing is good, its very hard to develop unlikeable characters, but Carlyle did that also.
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow and Harper Collins Publishing and Rose Carlyle, as well as The Scene of the Crime facebook group that gave me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book was 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. While I kept turning the pages, I was able to predict basically every twist. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I do like to have some surprises in a thriller. I will still definitely try other books from this author in the future because I did connect with her writing style.
3.5 stars, rounded up. Thank you Net Galley and Book Club Girl for my preview copy for my honest review. Wow, what a very twisted, complicated, crazy read! The book starts out covering the background of the lives of two mirror twins, Summer and Iris. Summer is the more popular, perfect, put together of the two. The key to their relationship is that they are mirror twins. So Summer is right-handed and Iris is left-handed. They were mere hours from being Siamese twins - so much that they have situs inversus - where there organs are mirrored in their bodies. Curiosity got the best of me on this one, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and although this condition is rare, it is real. This factor plays a huge role in the book. With this, Summer's heart is on her left, as normal, but Iris's are reversed - heart on right side, etc.
Ok...done with the nerdy talk - so Summer and Iris have a $100 million dollar inheritance up for grabs from their late father. What's the catch? They have to bare the firstborn blood grandchild, in wedlock, and they get the entire amount. The twins' father had 3 wives, so bring in some half-siblings to join in on the race. Summer and her husband, Adam, have just purchased Summer's father's yacht and they have to sail it from Thailand down to Australia, where they live. Summer knows how talented of a sailor Iris is, and how much she loves the yacht, so she invites her to be the captain for the voyage. Things go suddenly wrong when Summer disappears. Iris can't bare to lose her, or the fortune, so she becomes her - pregnant and all. And this is where the fun begins...
I recommend this book for anyone that enjoys suspenseful novels and family drama. A little disclaimer here though - there are some possible triggering events with injury to a child, rape, and violence. Not too much, but it was in the book.
Quote from the book: "I've got Summer's essence. I've been practicing for this all my life. I am Summer. And every man in sight is falling over himself to help me.
Identical twins are not really identical. This is especially true with Summer and Iris. Summer is perfect in every way, but Iris sees herself as an afterthought. This twisty tale will keep you guessing right to the end.
I enjoyed The Girl in the Mirror as it's the kind of luxury lifestyle laden thriller that definitely gets your mind off things, which is absolutely necessary for this week and the next few weeks of November 2020!
Part of what makes this such a great escapist read is that in addition to the aforementioned luxury lifestyle trappings (more fun in a book than seeing the "reality" on Instagram) the thriller elements of The Girl in the Mirror are familiar too. Don't get me wrong, I adore being surprised by a thriller but I found knowing what was coming made me feel better given that we are in the middle of an extremely frightening time and honestly, life is so stressful now that this feels like an escape valve! So yes, this is definitely a way to escape for a bit and we all need that!
Rose Carlyle's The Girl in the Mirror is a twisty tale of twins. Summer and Iris look a lot alike, but it's clear who the favorite is. Iris has always lived in her sister's shadow, but after a tragic accident, Iris gets the chance to actually live Summer's life.
But is it all Iris ever wanted?
Throw in a feuding family drama about a million-dollar inheritance that only goes to the child who bears an heir first, and you've got the makings for a dark tale with a surprise ending.
This is the perfect book to read during October because, in a way, it is a little spooky. And I loved the way it explored the family's dynamics and how the grass may not always be greener in somebody else's yacht.
The Girl in the Mirror is published by William Morrow and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free e-ARC in exchange for this review.
3.5/5
This one reminded me of a juicy soap opera with dramatic twists and over the top behavior of the characters. I don’t say that as a dig, I was a fan of The Young and the Restless for years, that’s just the vibe I got the entire time I was reading this. It had that same addictive quality and I kinda love nothing more than people behaving badly. It had a darkness to it that I also really liked, and is there anything more juicy than family members fighting over money?
This has a great and unique setting, a good portion of this is set on a yacht and I’ll just say I have no plans to sail anytime soon after finishing this. So besides it being atmospheric, it also kept me on my toes as you never know what exactly to believe. The ending was very strong if a tad bit over the top, but overall this was one of those fun thrillers! Recommended as one go binge in a weekend.
I really tried with this book. I got to about 40% and couldn’t care anymore. It’s an interesting story but just couldn’t hold my attention.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.