This didn't make sense. I get that it is a ARC but this book read like a rambly bunch of nothing. The characters don't make sense, the scenery was blah and it was just bad.

Unfortunately this was not the thriller for me. It was not my cup of tea. I just was not invested in the storyline and sadly got bored. For me, I need the story to grip me from the beginning and it did not do that. I didn't feel the story was progressing the way I wanted it to after reading a third of the book. I truly try to power through books, but this just wasn't my cup of tea and that's okay. I know many others will enjoy this book.

This book sounded right up my alley. I love mysteries with plot twists. I did struggle getting into it a bit because Deborah was the first character intro. I struggled with her at first. Then once things started coming together, I couldn’t put this book down. I did figure out who the culprit was in the very beginning and why but as the book progressed it was a swing back and forth between the two main characters on who was seeing things clearer than the other. I wasn’t sure whose point of view was true during several parts of this book. It truly was a roller coaster for a bit. I honestly read this whole book in 2 days. Highly recommend.

Wow. Talk about an unreliable narrator! Both of them were very unreliable. I’m still not sure what was real and what wasn’t. I am really glad, though, that the epilogue cleared up some of my questions.
I wanted to grab both of these women and just shake them. Sibley, with her drinking and stealing pills. Deborah with her popping pills. It always seemed like they were messed up in something and going to sleep.
The one thing I wasn’t a fan of was how time wasn’t really addressed. Everything was just later. Maybe it was to add to the unreliability. I’m not sure.
This book reminded me of one of the lifetime mystery movies.

Unfortunately, this one was a DNF @40%
Ok, I'm done. Maybe I'll pick it back up some other time, but probably not.
Almost half way into it and it just feels like a convoluted hot mess.

As much as I wanted to like this one, it was ultimately a DNF for me. I typically get about 1/3 of the way through a book before I decide to give up, but this wasn't the book for me.

2/5 Stars

When Sibley's life starts taking going on a downhill spiral she makes an impulse decision to go back home to get some closure on her childhood trauma. What comes next is a series of events she never expects. Lies, murder and a handful of unreliable characters? What else could a psychological thriller need?

Sibley seems like she has the perfect life. She is a successful divorce attorney and has a wonderful marriage, except she has a major drinking problem on the side that stands to risk it all. After being forced to take a leave of absence from work, she decides to reconcile with her estranged mother to resolve her childhood trauma. What she finds is a confused Deborah who leaves her with more questions that answers.

This book had so many twist and turns. The characters were all the perfect example of unreliable characters. It was a quick and easy read. I had no idea what to expect from Marin Montgomery as this was my first read from her. Overall a 3.5 rounded to a 4 star for me. There were a few parts where the story rambled a bit but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you NetGalley and Marin for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Mother.
Daughter.
Imposter.

After a horrific attack, Deborah is understandably rattled and paranoid every day. Living alone on an isolated farm can be frightening enough, especially when there is a prison nearby that inmates keep escaping from, and people in town care more about your past than they do about your safety. When Deborah's daughter, Sibley, comes ripping into town with her own demons in tow, the two estranged women must finally face one another for the first time in decades. The only question is, is Sibley really who she claims to be? And can either woman be trusted?
In this dual-perspective thriller, ghosts from the past and family feuds are a staple in a small farming town. I found myself constantly questioning characters and events, wondering who could be trusted and what was real or imagined. Every time I thought I had things figured out, new information would be thrown into the story and I had to try and piece things together again. I would like to thank Marin Montgomery for reaching out to me and inviting me to read this novel, as I enjoyed The Imposter and look forward to reading more of her work. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a quick read and a twisty-turny thriller.

In the beginning we're introduced to SIbley, a prominent lawyer with a secret and a few vices. Then, we're introduced Deborah, an older lady who we later find out is Sibley's mother. Then, they come together when Sibley tries visiting Deborah after many years in order to heal from her past. The story is told from Sibley and Deborah's perspective. At this point I was looking forward to seeing what happens from there. However, in many of the sections, there were flashbacks of stories that happened in the past and it was challenging to keep straight whether we were reading about past tense, or present tense. This made it extremely confusing for me to follow what was happening in the story, what was real and what was imagined, etc. The ending was super twisty though and I appreciated the craziness of the ending. It was wrapped together nicely, but I spent most of the book being confused.

The Imposter follows the story of a mother and daughter, reunited after a long estrangement. Both of their lives are falling apart; Sibley is looking to heal from her past and Deborah is looking to move-on from and forget that same past.

I've seen a lot of posts about this one, and most of them were not great, so going into it, I was a little bit uncertain what I was getting in to. The story is definitely confusing and hard to follow, but I figured there was a reason for that, and I hoped the pieces would all come together. Most of the characters are pretty unlikeable, which I always think is a testament to the author's writing ability; I assume it has to be hard to make someone come across as so compellingly unlikeable, you're not sure you want resolution for their lives. When the big reveal does happen for why the storytelling is occurring the way it is, I do definitely understand the author's choice, and it made it more bearable while we sorted out the last few unanswered questions. That being said, I'm not totally happy with the overall resolution.

Overall, I give this one ⭐⭐.75 stars. I was engaged in the book, mostly because I really wanted to figure it out, and I would definitely try something from Montgomery again; I think with the right story, her voice for thrillers could be excellent and engaging. And, while it may not totally sound like it, I did enjoy this one more than I expected. But, all of that just didn't make up for an unsatisfying story and reader experience.

CW: Alocholism, drugs, death, sexual harassment

Thank you NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer, books for this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
*
OK so I really did want to like this book- and I power read the whole thing. I will say it does get better.

This is a psychological thrilled told in the perspective of the two main characters; Sibley and her mother Deborah. Sibley is a 34 year old lawyer, with a major drinking problem. Such a big problem in fact the partners at the firm have ask she take a leave of absence to go to rehab. She felt beyond betrayed to know her husband had already spoken with the firm and was completely on board.
WELL- Sibley thought she needed to confront her past in order to actually start a healing process. Her past was confronting her mother. You see, Sibley left home right after graduating and never looked back; because her father died tragically and she had a horrible go at HS when everyone in town gossiped how her mother was a cheater.
Deborah lives out on the family farmland all by herself; has been that way since Sibley left and she distanced herself from everyone in town. She recently started dating someone from her past- who has convinced her to see a Dr. to help talk things out with. When Sibley shows up, Deborah seems to start losing grip with reality. Seeing people who aren’t there, seeing double, she can’t even tell if it’s Sibley or Soren in front of her. Things go from strange to even stranger the more that gets uncovered. By the end of the book everything wrapped in a pretty little bow- which was a bit of a letdown; I wish we could have gotten more of an epilogue and follow up.
*
Overall I’m not sure if I would classify this as a thriller, or psychological thriller. All I know is at points I was a bit too confused where I thought I was going crazy. As Marin continued to unravel her tale the more I needed to know what was happening to Deborah and the house.

The Imposter scared me to death. It's just so...PLAUSIBLE. This could totally happen, which lends to the shiver factor of the story. Will be ordering for the library's collection!

I went into this book not knowing what to expect. I had multiple friends DNF it, but I decided to push through because I just had to know if it got better...it did, but it didn’t.

The Imposter is a dual narrative, focusing on Sibley and her estranged mother, Deborah. After an unfortunate incident, Sibley must flee back to her small hometown and all the problems she left behind there. But both women have changed and neither are sure who they can trust.

Overall, I give this 2.5 stars out of 5. I rounded it up to 3 on Goodreads because I didn’t think it deserved only 2. Not to be a broken record from other reviews, but I can’t think of a better term than disjointed for this one. While the end was satisfying, the utter confusion I experienced reading this was insurmountable. As confused as I was, I had the culprits pegged early on. Also, the characters were so unlikeable. Every. Single. One. Really wish I was able to enjoy this one more.

Thank you to @netgalley and the author for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for this book and thank you to the author

Sibley a successful attorney seems to have the perfect life. She has everything the job, the husband and an alcohol problem that begins derailing both her personal and professional life. Estranged from her mother Deborah she decides it's finally time to get answers and goes back to her home town. But going back to the small town where she grew up gives her more than she bargained for.

Deborah still lives in the farm where she raised her family, where her husband died. But Sibley isn't the only one who's life appears to be derailing. Deborah is on edge all the time, with convicts breaking out of a nearby prison recently, she is scared of an intruder on her property, wary of her daughter who's come digging for the truth after all these years.

The Imposter switches between the narratives of both Sibley and Deborah unveiling years of history and secrets in this intense fast paced thriller. I enjoyed trying to figure out which way the story would take me, only to be taken in a completely different direction in the end. Both characters are unreliable and unstable for different circumstances leaving you unsure at what to believe.

This is the story of Deborah and Sibley, mother and daughter, who have been estranged for 16 years since Sibley's father died. Deborah has been living in the family home since then but has started seeing things and people and is mysteriously attacked one night at home.

Sibley is a prominent divorce attorney married to Holden. However, she has a drinking problem and has to go into rehab. She decides she is going to go home, unannounced, and visit her mother.

What transpires is a confusing journey through Deborah's forgetfulness (forgetting her daughter is in the house) and Sibley's drinking in an attempt to get away from her mom. Sibley also uncovers some hidden family secrets.

It was quite confusing and took me a while to get through this one. It was meh.

Sibley left her rural Midwestern hometown after a tragedy. Years later she returns to reconnect with her estranged mother, but both mother and daughter have their own issues and uncover family secrets along the way.

The story alternates from Sibley and her mother Deborah's perspectives, and both characters are so unreliable. I had a hard time trying to distinguish what was real and actually happening versus made up in their own heads. It got to be frustrating and felt a bit repetitive and I was tired of and confused by their unreliability.

By the latter half of the book the twists and revelations kept me engaged because you wanted to figure out what the heck was happening and tried piecing together the possibilities. There were a lot of moments of suspense and mystery and I was intrigued and surprised as it all unfolded in the end. I think it could have been a little shorter in some spots to keep it moving but would still recommend it for those who like slow burn psychological thrillers.

Very intriguing storyline, was really drawn in by the descriptive writing and held in the suspense! Lots of questions are raised from early on and then added to as the book progresses. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t decide which character was behind everything that was happening.

I did have sneaky suspicions on what was happening with a couple of the characters just not quite adding up to me, but the last 15% of the book was intense!! It was quite a complicated conclusion which made it really difficult to guess, and I really enjoyed this book.

This book was good but not great. I was invested in finding out "what happened?!" but the writing style was a challenge and I did not feel very invested in either main character - in fact, I disliked them both (which, if that was the goal of the author - great job! I did not like either of them!)

The story is set (mostly) in a small town in the Midwest. I will say - the setting is one of the highlights of the book. The farm - the old house + the barn + the land - is like a completely separate character of the story. There are two main characters, a mother and daughter, and they are estranged. We are dropped into Deborah's story immediately, which I think leads to the disjointed feeling of the story. We know that "something" has happened - but what that is, and why we should care, is a mystery. I will say, I think there is an effort to show Deborah's madness - and we do wonder, throughout the story, if Deborah is suffering from mental illness - but that has the effect of making the story seem choppy.

When we switch over to Deborah's daughter, Sibley, I became much more invested. Maybe it is because Sibley is an attorney - so am I - but I was able to get a better sense of who she was, what she was doing, and her motivations behind it. Still, as Sibley continues to make bad decision after bad decision - I stopped rooting for her be successful and started becoming frustrated with her decisions.

This book was definitely creepy - I'd call it a psychological thriller plus family drama. If you like slow burn stories and unlikable characters (and some folks do! always having a "good guy" can be annoying sometimes, too) - then you should definitely check this out.

I really appreciate NetGalley, the publisher, and particularly the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

“The Imposter” by Marin Montgomery entangles the story of both mother and daughter, dealing with their own illnesses and pasts. Between the medication and the alcohol, readers will be baffled between truth and fiction as both women see people, hear things, and recall memories that may or may not be real. Is this all hazy imaginings or is something more sinister going on at the family farm?

This book was completely wild. I love how Montgomery blurs the line between fantasy and reality for these two characters. This is one of my favorite writing techniques because it’s hard to know what’s real or not real. Part of the way in, I had suspicions of what was actually going on, but I wasn’t sure how everything connected. Being able to keep me guessing, kept me hooked til the very end.

Montgomery does excellent work connecting all the intricate storylines to make a satisfying ending. While I wish we could have lived in the flashback moments a little longer to have more detail, I think that part of Montgomery’s style is leaving readers wanting more. Also, I can’t deny sometimes less is more and allows the imagination to amplify past situations, adding mystery and thrill.

In the end, I gave this book 4 stars. I loved the writing style and storyline. This book is definitely a thrill ride.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Many years have passed since Sibley left her rural Midwestern hometown following a tragic event. Sibley returns home to reunite with her estranged mother, Deborah, and bury their past tensions. Mother and daughter have a multitude of issues and shocking family secrets uncovered along the way.

The book divided into three parts, with chapters written in first-person and third-person narration, alternating between the two female protagonist characters. I will be honest and say I did not fully invest in the characters and story until part three, around the half-way mark. It took some time for me to establish a connection between the two protagonists. That said, I am glad I stuck with the plot as the second half was a page-turner! This domestic and psychological thriller had plenty of suspense, twists and turns throughout and was a little haunting in places. The psychological elements of the plot were interesting, along with the mystery surrounding the mother's behaviours.

I didn't find the plot predictable and left with the big question of whodunnit right up to the final scenes. The authors descriptive writing was vivid, enabling me to imagine the farm setting. It also gave me the heebie-jeebies at times! I recommend this for anyone who enjoys a great mystery story.

The Imposter is the first book I have read by this author. I look forward to reading some of her other thrillers.

Thank you, Marin, for very kindly sending me a copy of your novel for my honest review.