I sadly cannot bring myself to keep reading The Imposter. This book was such a hot mess for me and one wild and confusing ride. In the first two chapters we have all the events that would make a complete book without any context, reason, or background information. I could not understand the plot, the characters and didn't care to see how the story would turn out.

I liked the writing style in this book, but that's about it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Marin Montgomery for this book.

Attorney Sibley Sawyer's life goes down in flames when her drinking finally catches up with her. Forced to take a leave of absence from her firm, Sibley seeks the perceived source of her problems: her mother, Deborah. The two have been estranged since Sibley fled home in her late teens. But when Sibley returns to the Midwestern farm where she grew up, she realizes her mother is acting odd. Perhaps it's due to her recent attack, when an intruder brutally beat her. Either way, as Sidney tries to make peace with Deborah, she starts to recall why she left in the first place--and uncovers even more shocking secrets about long ago happenings on the farm.

Well, the synopsis for this one sounded interesting, but this was a hot mess for me. I did not like much of this book at all, but kept reading because I needed to find out what happened. I think I was as confused as these hapless and unlikable characters, honestly. Deborah is clearly disoriented and bewildered throughout the book--alone and terrified on the farm--and it's nearly impossible to muddle through what's going on in her brain. Sidney is drinking heavily, and while I have complete sympathy for the disease of alcoholism, having lost a beloved relative to it, I'm tired of authors using the trope to give us an unreliable narrator with no real effort for a backstory or anything else.

Neither character comes across as particularly sympathetic, and I got rather tired of reading a book with my brow perpetually furrowed. It was not exciting, just confusing. The plot is truly bizarre, with some weird twists, but I felt I was reading to work out a bad puzzle. Maybe all this befuddlement would have been worth it if the probable "bad guy" had not been telegraphed from a mile away, but I had the outline of this figured out from the start.

Overall, as much as I regret it, this thriller did not work for me at all. It's confusing--but not in an exciting, psychological way, predictable, and filled with narrative threads that never seem to link back together. Others seemed to enjoy it more, so I hope that's the case for you if you pick it up.

When Sibley Sawyers life starts to fall apart, she makes an impulsive decision to visit her mother Deborah. Its been years since they have talked and Sibleys unexpected reunion couldn't have happened at the worse time.
Deborah is recovering from a recent attack at her home. Her head trauma has brought back bad memories she has never dealt with. When Sibley shows up, she panics. She is not ready to deal with Sibley's questions.
Together they need to go over what happened that night that tore their family apart. The truth needs to come out before someone else gets hurt.

This Imposter is a slow build thriller filled with buried secrets and deciet. The two main characters, Sibley and Deborah, are both battling inner demons stemming from an abusive relationship. Alcohol and domestic abuse play a huge part in this book, making some of it hard to read.
The last 20% of the book was a little confusing. The big twist was so unexpected I'm not sure it worked as well as it could have. I felt like all the secrets and the big reveal were kind of thrown out all at once to close out the book. All my questions were answered, but I was left unsatisfied.
I do think the book would make a great Lifetime Movie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Marin Montgomery for the advanced copy in return for my honest review. The Imposter is available to read on March 9, 2021!

Sibley is at the lowest point in her life - she was suspended from her job, on the brink of divorce, and sent to rehab by her husband. Instead of rehab, she takes a detour to a small town to visit her mother. It is here when she realizes that her mom is struggling mentally and Sibley is unsure of how to handle the relationship with her estranged mother. While visiting, Sibley also uncovers a major secret from her past that leads to other secrets being revealed.

This was a really tough read for me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and honestly just found the plot to be really boring. I wasn’t interested or invested in the outcome of the story line and was just wanting to get to the end for it to be over. I had a bit of a hard time following when it came to timelines as the story would jump backwards in time without warning from one paragraph to the next. Unfortunately, this one fell extremely flat for me.

**I always cringe when I have to give a poor review as I know the author spends massive amounts of time creating something for the world to see. As an avid reader, I have the utmost respect for authors and am grateful for the content they create for us.

This is an amazingly mind boggling story of mothers & daughters. It has so many twists & turns you are surprised by every chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is an amazing story and I highly recommend it!!!!!!!

The first section of this book was a little tough for me to get through but I am so glad I did! This book kept me guessing and had me hooked! Such a great read.

This story starts with Deborah and then progresses.

It’s quite a slow book to read with lots going on.

quite a complicated psychological thriller. I wasn’t over keen on the characters but the story was interesting.

This was a confusing wild ride. Unreliable characters with secrets and twists and lots of very crazy vengeful people. I enjoy reading books with over the top villains that are completely unreedemable in this was the case. Everything makes sense at the end but of course that are a lot of unrealistic situations that fit thrillers books. The writing was good, easy to follow Even when the plot was a little convoluted but it was fine cause everything made sense at the end. Satisfying ending and lots of action at the end.

Sibley has been sent to rehab for her drinking but, rather unwisely, she decides to go home to try to reconcile with her mother Deborah. It's a toss up as to which of these women has more secrets (well, to be honest, it's not- it's Deborah) and who is telling what truth they can. I know that sounds confusing but parts of this are confusing, Something happened 16 years ago to precipitate their estrangement and, as you can guess, they both have their own version, I didn't especially like either woman but I appreciated how Montgomery built her story. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

For such an intricate plot, I was amazed that I was able to follow along so easily. Marin Montgomery is a great writer. I would definitely read more from her.

So now I have to go and read all the other books by this author! It is a good thing and a bad thing when you enjoy a book only to find it is one of many. Good because you get to enjoy more by the same author but bad because you miss the continuity which reading in order can bring. The good outweighs the bad! This is well written and dark but engaging story. All too credible, the relationship between mother and daughter is symbiotic and often toxic. This was well done and the author reminds us constantly that things are rarely what they seem.

⭐️⭐️💫/5

This book starts by giving us a glimpse into the life of Deborah, a widow who is attacked outside her home on a freezing cold winter night. Interesting premise... but then we meet Sibley. Sibley is a thirty-something lawyer and a functioning alcoholic. Caught in a scandal by her job and her husband, she’s shipped off to rehab to work on herself and her addiction.

I felt so-so about Sibley until she snaps at her husband for sending her to rehab after a drunk driving accident, then I really started to hate her. And at this point in the book I realized she’s planning something shady...

The verdict: The beginning was good, the end was okay, the middle was a wild mess.

The Imposter is told from multiple perspectives. The story starts with Deborah. Deborah is home and gets a mysterious letter from someone who seems to know something about events that happened in her past. She is later attacked by an unknown assailant and ends up in the hospital for a while. Since she has been through a lot of trauma, decides to go to therapy after her new significant other recommends it. A few chapters in, it switches over to Sibley. Sibley is an up and coming attorney at a law firm. She is quickly thrown a curveball as a result of her struggles with alcohol consumption and other factors leading to her being put on leave from the law firm. Unbeknownst to her, her concerned husband got with her employer to arrange getting her the help she needs in order to return to work. She takes a detour on the way to rehab and goes home to visit her estranged mother Deborah to set things right, in hopes that will help her succeed in rehab. Once Sibley gets into town, she is confronted with a few things from her own past and uncovers secrets from her mother’s past that also affect her.

While this book had a slow build, it was unpredictable and I kept trying to figure out where the title would come into play. Overall I enjoyed the whole book. I found Sibley’s perspective the most entertaining. Deborah would make me flip between feeling bad for her and thinking she had really gone bonkers. The supporting characters were entertaining and added to the story well. Thank you Marin Montgomery and Netgalley for the chance to read/review!

I love the cover for this book. Unfortunately that’s about all I loved. Something about the writing style I didn’t like? It was also a bit slow moving.

This was a good psychological thriller featuring an estranged mother and daughter. Told through both Deborah and Sibley’s POV it definitely kept you guessing. I enjoyed Sibley’s POV a little bit more as Deborah’s was confusing at times, but as I read further I understood why it was written the way it was.They both had problems they were dealing with so I kept going back and forth on whose events I believed more and that is what kept me reading. The first half was a little slow but it set up the second half of the book nicely after multiple twists were revealed in a short amount of time. Certain parts really got my heart pumping and made me not want to be home alone, but yet I couldn't stop reading. I liked how everything was explained/wrapped up in the end. Will definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to Marin Montgomery and Netgalley for the gifted copy.

This book is very different in the way it is written. I enjoyed all of the many unexpected twists and believe me there are many. I also like the past and present narration of events. However I could not connect to either mother of daughter. There wasn't anything likable about these untrustworthy women. I did enjoy the fact that I was unable to figure out what was coming next right up to the very end. This stop has a great plot and I would like to read more by this author. I highly recommend.

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read this amazing arc for my honest review.

The Imposter features the mother/daughter duo Deborah and Sibley who both have their own demons that they are fighting.

Neither are likeable or trustworthy but there is something about these 2 that keeps you reading to see what their story actually is.

Deborah lives on the family farm is hiding a secret about the death of her abusive husband.

Sibley is an alcoholic, sent on leave from her law firm to get help but in all her wisdom, Sibley ends up at the family farm where she realizes her Mum is not well .

Is she trying to kill her Sibley wonders.

The book draws you in slowly, you empathize with both ladies and the twists and turns keep those pages turning.

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer for an intriguing read.

I got to read this #arc courtesy of @netgalley and @marinmont18 . This was a psychological thriller told from mother and daughter perspectives and the event in their past that changed the way the town saw them and how they interact with each other- or don't.
I had a little bit of a hard time following the mom's story line at times, eventually I found out why but at first it threw me off. I found reading the daughter's chapters a little faster paced and kept my interest in the story. Overall, a good read with a good twist at the end! Look for it in March 2021!

The Imposter was a page-turning thriller! Such a unique plot and so many great twists that I never saw coming.

Eerily mysterious. This is one of those 'Everything Is Not What it Seems' type of book. No one can be trusted. ⁣
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Divided into 3 parts, the first is all about Deborah, giving an insight into her life. She's fragile, lonely, living on a farm. It seems something is bothering her quite a lot and recently, there have been invasions in the area including her house. The most shocking thing is how someone has been sending her mails claiming to be her dead daughter. ⁣
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The second part is about Sibley. Now we don't know who Sibley really is. All we can understand is that she's a lawyer, about to get kicked out of her job, an alcoholic and is in a marriage crises with Holden, her husband. Towards the end of the second part, she decides to visit her mom, unknown to Holden who thinks she's at a rehab. ⁣
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Personally, the book has a slow start. Deborah's POV was quite lame, boring at times. I found it very hard to continue reading. ⁣
The most intriguing part is the third. A mixture of both Deborah and Sibley's POV. My most interesting part 😃 ⁣
We see the two MCs close up, each with her own thoughts and ideas. ⁣
After Sibley returns home to her mother, things take a different turn. Deborah starts seeing and hearing things all the while, Sibley's uncovering dark secrets of the past.⁣
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From the beginning i doubted both of them. They hide things from their own selves. Sibley's thinking her mom is deranged and Deborah thinking Sibley's not who she says she is but An Imposter. Who is telling the truth?⁣
The descriptions went haywire at times, and the switch between the two characters seemed a bit too much. Other than that, the book has a great plot, with emotionally driven characters.⁣