Sweet Water is about a lot of things: family, different "sides of the track," wealthy vs. poor, mystery, marriage, betrayal, so much in this book that I loved.

Sarah and Martin are wealthy parents to two boys, Spencer and Finn. The story begins with the scene of a dead girl and the those who found her deciding what to do. I thought there were quite a few moral and ethical thoughts going on, at least by one person. The story exemplifies what lengths one might go through in order to protect loved ones. And, of course, we wouldn't all do the same thing necessarily so there is conflict about what the right thing is. In life, no one does the "right" thing all the time and the "right" thing isn't always black and white.

As for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and I kept changing my mind on whodoneit; however, I definitely didn't consider the ending and what actually happened, so I loved that. I didn't think the plot was predictable which made the story more engaging for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an e-ARC for my honest opinion.

#SweetWater #NetGalley

Sarah grew up with only her dad and financially they were lower middle class. They would sometimes drive through the wealthy neighborhood and Sarah fell in love with a house she called Stonehenge. She was given a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon and in her freshman year meets Martin, part of a wealthy and powerful family. Twenty years later they get a call in the middle of the night from their youngest son, Finn, that he is in the woods and in trouble and when they get there find the body of his girlfriend, Yazmin. Martin decides they have to cover it up and so they leave her body in the woods.

I didn't like Sarah. It seemed that her goal in life was to help people and also be one of the lucky ones, i.e. wealthy. She liked to think she saw the good in people but really she just wanted everything perfect and explained away Martin's and his family's behavior so she could continue to be "lucky." Martin was despicable but he was supposed to be. There were flashbacks to 1996 when Sarah met Joshua and then went to college and met Martin. There were so many red flags that I just wanted to shake her. While they did serve a purpose they seemed drawn out to me.

The mystery of what really happened in the woods that night was pretty good. Sarah finally started to develop a back bone and although I thought it was easy to figure out it was a page turner. I can't say I didn't like the book, I just didn't like most of the characters and I would recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a copy of this book.

Overall I liked this book but there were some things that I found irritating. Sarah has been married for 20 years and appears to have a charmed life. She knows she is very privileged to be living so affluently with her charming college sweetheart. She has some issues with his influential family but basically looks the other way. In the span of a few hours she changes her mind about her husband and her eyes are suddenly opened as to what he is capable of to keep his reputation perfect. When their son gets into a situation where he could be a murder suspect Sarah sees her husband breaking laws and covering up evidence to clear their son. I understand you would go to extreme measures to help your child although these were steps that a normal person could never have implemented nor should they. Once Sarah caught on it was like she had never truly seen her husband before. Once she does she laments for many pages how she won’t be under the family’s and her husband’s control.
I get it. She was horrified with what he had done but she completely reversed everything she thought of her husband in a minute and ranted about it for too much of the book. We understand. Her husband is terrible but we didn’t need to be constantly reminded of it.
Now having said all this I did enjoy the book. I was invested to find out more about the murder and to see what happened with these characters going forward. Overall this was an interesting domestic suspense novel!

I really enjoyed this book.
A mystery? Check
Was I was drawn in, and able to visualize this as a movie in my head? Check
Did I have trouble putting it down? Check

So what's not to like? I had a few issues with the mother. She had no backbone. Then she had a backbone. Then she didn't. I kind of wanted to shake her to be honest. I also disliked the dad.

However, when a book doesn't have any super likeable characters, but you still can't stop reading?? Thats good writing.

Thank you to #netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advance copy. This did not impact my review.

The begining of the book hooked me all the way up to about the last 1/3 of the book. It wasn't a terrible read but did find myself putting the book down every so often and pushing myself to finish. Would still recommend and overall enjoyed the storyline.

Copy provided by netgalley.

Sweet Water by Cara Reinard is a suspense novel about what parents will do to save their child and family from breaking. Parents Martin and Sarah are called to the woods in the middle of the night to find their youngest son barely conscience; Next to him is his girlfriend - dead. His parents go through a series of events to protect their son from what they believe happened. Sarah is getting wrapped up in deciding what is right and what is ultimately wrong.

Sarah and Martins worse nightmare is revealed when their son calls them for help, he's in the woods off his face on drugs and had an argument with his girlfriend only problem is once they get they they are faced with a dead Yasmin and an unconsciously Finn. In that moment they have to decide whether or not to call the police or to remove all evidence of Finns presents

Sarah could come off as a rich snob goodie to shoes she has so much money she spends her time working for NGOs. But Sarah married money she didn't have it. She is a strange one. She seems to think that she's better than others because she knows what it's like to be poor but she is quite patronising. I must say I wasn't sold on her character. She sees what she wants to see the story that tells her narrative

Martin although a complete tool at least he's honest about it , well during rhis part of the book its arguable he hadn't always been in their relationship however I believe that Sarah had rhe ability to iverlooj his faults like buying her, her dream house.

Finn is an interesting character. I would of liked to had followed hid story more so but I get why Sarah tells it. He knows his family will protect him no matter what.

In conclusion I enjoyed this book. Very easy read more psychological than thriller i will say. I found the proceedings quite realistic which is rare i these types of novels! 3 stars 🌟




Thank you to Netgalley, amazon publishers and the author for in exchange for free thank u

Sweet Water by Cara Reinard ⭐⭐⭐ How far is one woman willing to go to protect her family? Sarah Ellsworth is about to find out, when she gets a call from her panicked son, Finn. He's disoriented and lost in the woods, with the body of his dead girlfriend not far away. Sarah is quickly thrown into a cover up plot by her husband Martin and his uber wealthy family, but she soon realizes she doesn't know them as well as she thought.
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What I liked: While I didn't find this to be the best thriller, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Sarah infuriated me with her naivete and blindness to what was going on around her. However, I really appreciated that she eventually realizes that being unaware doesn't mean she isn't complicit and responsible for her actions. (Talk about a commentary on entitlement and wealth privilege!) Reinard was also really good at building tension- just when things were getting intense, she would have a flashback that built up their backstory and I became more eager to continue reading.
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What I didn't like: The characters were just horrible people and the "twists" were super obvious. I also found it straight up weird how obsessed with her house Sarah was. It slowed down the story and seemed unnecessary. And **spoiler alert** I didn't find that justice was really done for any of these people!《Dani》

Title: Sweet Water

Author: Cara Reinard

Genre: women crime fiction, domestic thriller, women psychological fiction

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: A book featuring three generations (grandparents, parents, child)

Thank you Netgalley for this book.

Somehow this book ended up on my TBR list. I can’t remember where I first heard about it, though. In any case, when I saw it available on NetGalley, I gladly requested it. Any books that I can knock off my TBR, I’m excited to find. Sadly, this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

From Goodreads: It’s what Sarah Ellsworth dreamed of. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until…A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.

But there are things Sarah finds hard to reconcile: a cover-up by Martin’s family that’s so unnervingly cold-blooded. Finn’s lies to the authorities are too comfortable, too proficient, not to arouse her suspicions. Even the secrets of the old house she lives in seem to be connected to the incident. As each troubling event unfolds, Sarah must decide how far she’ll go to save her perfect life.

Plot holes abound in this one. The Ellsworth family truly is the worst, and the fact that Sarah didn’t see through it was absurd. The hints as to who really did the crime were so obvious. I saw the ending coming a mile away. As a book editor, I just don’t see how a book goes through the entire editing and publishing process and ends up so riddled with issues. Plot and character believability should never been in question. Unfortunately, this book had both issues.

Excellent multilayered story about family and how far they will go to protect their own. When Sara met Marty in college she knew he was rich and had a very influential family, what she didn’t know was how far reaching the power of his family was. When Sara marries Marty (now going by Martin) she has many doubts, but goes through with it much to the chagrin of her father and her best friend. As Sara happily raises her two sons and and gets swept up in the world of the rich she enjoys all that goes with it until her youngest sons girlfriend ends up dead and he can’t remember what happened due to drugs. As Sara tries to protect her son and figure out what happened she learns way more about her husband and her in-laws than she ever excepted. Fantastic story that is impossible to put down.

This one was just okay. I felt like the mystery just never really pulled me in. I have such a hard time with relationships where they have kids 18+ years old but seem to act like they don't know each other at all. The college flashbacks felt disjointed and the bad guys felt a little too over the top. Meh, this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you Net Galley, Cara Reinard and Thomas and Mercer for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This book kept me up late reading with its mystery and suspense. How far would a mother go to protect her child? This story went back and forth between the present to the parents' college years. Family wealth , status , murder and deceit keep the pages turning. I will be adding Cara Reinard to my must read author list!

A rich, atmospheric tale of greed, deceit, and consequences. Does having money make you one of the lucky ones? What will you forfeit for that money? Your core principles, your goodness, your self worth? What price is too high? Well crafted characters drive the twisty plot. A great read!

what a gorgeous cover. over-compensation, yes? this was not a good time. sarah might be one of the most annoying fucking characters i've ever had to read. she was so FUCKING naive and stupid. so stupid. there is idealist naive and then there is just plain stupid naive. girl where's your spine??? the rest of the characters, especially martin and his family, were not developed at all. flat. flat as hell. flatter than my chest. the mystery itself was decently interesting and is what kept me from putting this down completely, but my goodness this was too fucking long. there were too many fucking flashbacks and time jumps and i just wanted to find out what happened in present time. i did something that i never do with books unless it's for school: i skimmed. i skimmed a number of chapters and passages because everything was dragging like a metal weight. and reinard's writing was just atrocious. it was way too much telling and no showing at all. it was boring, flat, and i only finished it to find the answer to the mystery, and the reveal wasn't even good! it was so predictable and expected, and i wasn't shocked at all. like, omg rich people use their money to cover their asses and get out of jail?!?!? omg, who would have thought???? in this society??? wow. sarah seemed so shocked to find this out like girl, you've lived in america all your life and didn't know this??? anyway, i want my time back.

This one was pretty much a middle of the road read for me. I enjoyed it overall. It kept me interested through out and turning the pages. However, the characters, especially Sarah, were rather annoying. And the "mystery" as it were, was rather predictable.

Such a good slow burn mystery. In the middle of the night, Finn calls his parents almost incoherent to come get him from the woods. His girlfriend, dead on the ground near him. This sets off a series of activities as the town races to find out how Yazmin died and Finn's involvement. We also travel back in time to see the evolution of Finn's parents relationship which proves ultimately critical to the story.

"Sweet Water" by Cara Reinard is an interesting and intriguing read. I can't say too much without giving away the happenings in this book but I recommend this book for fans of mystery and domestic thrillers. I found this one hard to put down and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Amazing novel!! The storyline was so great and really held my attention the whole way through. Definite must read!

The beginning was a bit slow, and the flashbacks confused me, but I was pulled in and wanted to know what happened. I got into the book about 30% in. A solid read.

Sweet Water by Cara Reinard was released on New Year's Day in 2021, and I found it via NetGalley. Reinard is a new author to me, but I was in need of a solid suspense novel, so I took a chance. I am thrilled to say this was fantastic, and I highly recommend it. The book is told in dual timelines: what happened during Sarah and Martin's courtship roughly 25 years ago and where they are today. But the book opening, where they are dealing with the death of their son's girlfriend, is one of the best I've read in years.

Sarah's father is the head maintenance technician at a college in Pennsylvania. Her mother passed away from cancer, and they are not at all rich. Martin is a fraternity guy from a wealthy family with a genuine and a slightly dark side. They fall in love, marry, have two children, and live happily ever after. Except they don't. Little things along the way cause Sarah to doubt Martin's ethics but it's never enough to do something irreversible. Years ago, she fell in love with a boy named Josh whose family owned a beautiful mansion near her house. She secretly met with Josh until he disappeared one day. Everything is connected in Sarah's new life as Martin's wife, but she doesn't realize every thread's purpose on her spool of life.

Ah! I loved it. It immediately gripped me and pushed me to read the entire book basically in one day. I didn't want to put it down because of how everything slowly unwound. Sure, Sarah makes a few mistakes, but she is generally a good wife and mother, and I feel a lot of empathy for her. Reinard built a beautiful set of characters who are flawed but have potential. Everything is gray for the most part, so it's hard to say (until the end) whether Martin is as bad as his family, if both children have inherited the good and the bad from their parents, whether Josh knows more than he's saying, and who really killed Yaz, the girlfriend.

I had a few small niggles (personality quirks that didn't quite add up, a couple of times where the author sorta hinted / crossed a line about something happening but then pulled back, and timing on a pregnancy and age) -- not enough to really cause any issues. I still put this one up there between 4.5 and 4.75 stars. Easily one of my top reads in the last year. Between the descriptions, the character growth, the balance of detail versus vague concepts... it all lets a reader choose their own interpretation while backing up scenarios with facts that point in multiple directions.

What would you do if your in-laws forced you into breaking the law? How would you protect your child but also do the right thing for a girl who's obviously been hurt? Where do you draw the line between natural behavior and drug-induced responses? It all added up to a complex yet straightforward mystery with tons of emotional suspense and solid, page-turning action. Not once was I bored. Never did I think it was implausible. It all could happen, even if it is probably a rarity... people generally aren't all bad, but I was glad to see no one tried to kill someone to be quiet about the truth. It was mostly a game of suspense and doubt... and who would end up winning was a story I fully got behind. I'll definitely read more by this author. Time to check her book list to find another!