If you are a fan of the show "How to Get Away with Murder" you'll love this book! It really reminded me of some of the cases with the rich families Annalise dealt with. You won't know who to trust, but that's what makes it fun to read!

This book is a domestic thriller involving Jade and her fiancée, Greg, who suffer through a home invasion. Jade believes it has something to do with her past while Greg is becoming suspicious of Jade and her possible involvement in the attack. I feel that the book would have benefitted from better character development; it also overall felt a bit too predictable.

Jade Thompson has it all. She has a successful lifestyle/design blog. She is engaged to a handsome older man, a wealthy architect, Greg Hamlin. And they are having a baby. It’s everything she ever wanted, until that night.

When Greg heard a noise outside their front door, he assumed it was another delivery for the baby’s room and went to answer the door. Instead, he was met by 2 men in black, who overpower him. One stays with him and the other runs upstairs, where Jade is getting ready for Greg’s work event. When Greg tries to fight back, he is struck in the head with a crowbar. Meanwhile, upstairs, Jade is physically assaulted and her engagement ring is stolen.

In the weeks that follow, Greg has to recover from a brain injury so severe he’d had to have part of his skull removed. Jade stays by his side in the hospital as much as possible, but she is also recovering, from her miscarriage caused by the punches to her stomach.

The police investigation doesn’t seem to get anywhere on the home invasion, but then Jade starts finding threatening notes sent to her and Greg and she starts to think it may be someone from her past. She tells the investigators but also does some checking on her own. She hadn’t been entirely honest with Greg about her past. But it turns out that he’s keeping secrets too.

Greg’s in the middle of a divorce from his wife and the mother of his two college-aged children. Because of his net worth, he wants to protect himself in the divorce as he gets set to build a new life with his new wife and child. But there is some boiling resentment based on how he moved out and moved on. His daughter is not shy about making her feelings known about Jade, and Jade starts to wonder if she could have been involved in the attack on them.

To feel safer at home, Greg installs security cameras throughout the house and adds an app to Jade’s phone so he can track her movements. But watching her every move just makes him suspicious and paranoid. He starts to think that maybe she was behind the attack, and when his daughter tells him that he needs a gun, he wonders if she might be right.

Between the accusations and suspicions, the cameras and the gun, all the drama simmers to a boiling point. And when the intruder is revealed and all the secrets come out, will everyone survive the fallout? Will anyone?

Her Three Lives is the latest domestic thriller from Cate Holahan. By putting a relationship under the microscope, you can see how the secrets create weak spots that can be exploited, how spying breeds suspicion, and how important paying attention can be.

While I liked the slow build of the story of Her Three Lives, I struggled to like the characters. Both Jade and Greg seemed to be calculating more than caring, and despite what they had been through, I didn’t feel a vulnerability that I could relate to. I really wanted to like this novel more than I did. It’s not bad. It’s not as great as I had hoped.

Egalleys for Her Three Lives were provided by Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.

In her fifth novel, “Her Three Lives,” Cate Holahan effectively updates the domestic thriller for 2021 by introducing complications due to differences in race and culture and access to surveillance technology. These elements add depth and a contemporary edge to essential domestic suspense tropes, all of which Cate Holahan handles with great skill. Greg is a wealthy and successful (and white) architect with an icy ex-wife and two challenging adult kids. His significantly younger fiancee, the Caribbean-born Jade, is a social media influencer caught between the suspicion and resentment of Greg’s family and the domestic pressure of her own traditional mother. When Greg is brutally attacked, it pushes an already fraught family situation to a dangerous edge. While healing at home, Greg takes on the hyper-vigilance of the hero in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” but instead of directing his surveillance and eventual toward neighbors and strangers, Greg turns a wondering eye towards Jade. It’s a great setup, well executed. For lovers of suspense, this story should feel like a refreshing twist on a favorite treat.

This was an ok book but there was nothing that really hooked me and made me what to keep reading. I did not find it suspenseful and I disliked the characters. The writing was ok, but I grew bored reading. Not for me.

Greg is a well-to-do early fifty something, Harvard educated, and a successful architect. After only six months, he has invited Jade Thompson to share a rental until they are married and have the baby in their new home. She is the product of the Caribbean and a strong social media influencer. She is also the May to his December.

This is not his first marriage, nor his first child, and although he met Jade after he separated from his wife of twenty-five years, his soon to be ex and both of his children are more than a little unsettled at being replaced.

From the outset, there is the failure of disclosure. She harbors secrets. So when they are attacked and he’s left with a serious brain injury and she loses their baby, it sets off a devastating chain of events.

Greg’s daughter is planting venom in his mind regarding Jade, adding to his insecurity and paranoia. He has wealth. Is it his money? Does the attack stem from her father, his associates, or one of his victims?

I had a problem getting into this one. It dragged a bit for me. Not so much a thriller as a slow build of suspense. It gradually makes it to conclusion, but by then a matter of eliminating one or the other (not that many and a bit obvious). 3.5 stars

“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.” Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez provides a peek where this novel is headed with a lead-off quote from his book “Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life.”

“Her Three Lives” examines the feelings we experience as humans, and how we justify those feelings. When we suspect a loved one is not treating us the way we feel we should be treated, it is easy to believe the worst if those purported facts bolster the narrative in our heads. S/he did something to us, and as we search for reasons why, our brains permit an immersion in the thoughts that strengthen the way we want to feel, justifying our resolve and allowing us to assign blame. We may be wrong, but we fervently follow the path we have shown our brain that we want to follow, and whatever emotions we feel – even if they are negative – still make us feel good, or more to the point, righteous in our final conclusion.

Readers will receive intimate knowledge of how that looks in practice by examining the thoughts of the two main characters, Greg and Jade. Author Cate Holohan provides numerous examples of how easily facts can be misinterpreted, especially when a horrific event precedes the sifting of potential motivations. When coupled with outside influences, one can easily see how things can go bad with barely any notice.

The book is a slow-building thriller, moving along at a perfect pace until the climax. Ms. Holohan leaves no unexplained threads lying about, deftly fitting everything together and providing a satisfactory experience for the reader. Five stars.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Her Three Lives by Cate Holahan.
A young woman, Jade, meets an older man, Greg - he's rich and has solid finances - she's an up and coming influencer - but they make it work.
Tragedy strikes and Jade and Greg's wonderful life has changed - and things are not looking solid any longer. There is mystery around the event that changes their charmed life, and a pool of suspects, secrets, lies, and a sinister vibe all around.
Who wants to hurt these two people and why - their wonderful life is gone and someone wants Greg and Jade to burn - but who???
This book is slow, but provides good background and descriptions of the characters.
Dramatic - 3 stars.

The three lives title comes from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez quote, referring to everyone having three metaphorical lives - public, private and secret. Publicly, Jade has a perfect life; an up-and-coming social media influencer, pregnant and engaged to successful architect Greg. Even though he’s a lot older than her, in the middle of a divorce and his kids hate her, Jade loves him. Their lives are upended, though, by a vicious attack which leaves Greg fighting for his life and Jade devastated by a miscarriage. In the wake of the attack, wondering who and why consumes them both. Secrets Jade hasn’t shared with Greg might be the cause, and desperate to spare him further pain, she hides her investigation from him… unaware that Greg is being fed bad information about her, making him paranoid and convinced she’s out to get him.

There’s an added layer of nuance here in the fact that Jade is Black, of Jamaican origins, and Greg is white. He has no conceptions of the micro-aggressions she faces on a daily basis, even living a fairly privileged life.

I really didn’t like Greg at all, to be honest. Even knowing he had a brain injury, his actions were beyond the pale; at one point he physically strikes Jade and that’s a deal-breaker for me, so I’m afraid I did not like the ending of the book where they appear to be living a happily ever after together. He crossed a line there’s no coming back from, and literally the only thing Jade is guilty of is wanting to be better than her origins, so it was just unforgivable.

It was fairly obvious from early on that the suspect pool was quite small and what the motivation was likely to be, but I didn’t see the exact way things played out coming. It was actually predictable considering Greg’s character failings, that his past actions had set up the present problems… which left me wondering if, even after everything that happened, he had fundamentally changed enough not to fail in such a way again, leaving others to pay the price.

This is well written and Jade was a sympathetic protagonist, but I struggled to see what she saw in Greg and why on earth she would go back to him at the end of the story. Overall, I’ll give it four stars.

Holahan knows how to write a page turner, and while this wasn’t my favorite of her novels, I still stayed up too late to get to the last page. Greg and his new, much younger fiancé, Jade, are attacked in their home and Greg sustains a traumatic head injury. When Greg is able to return home he suffers from PTSD and immediately starts questioning those around him. When his daughter, Violet, feeds his paranoia by suggesting Jade was behind the attack, Greg starts adding everything up and things come up short. Jade has secrets, but is she capable of planning the cold blooded attack?

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

Jade lives three lives. The public life for her blog followers is flourishing and she seems to have it all. But in her private life, things are falling apart. At the hands of a home invasion, her fiance, Greg, is left with a traumatic brain injury and Jade miscarries their baby. When Greg comes home to recover, he becomes paranoid watching their home security footage, which leads him to discover Jade has a secret life that he's none too happy with.

This book was just okay for me. I normally do not read thrillers, but the synopsis really intrigued me. At first, the book felt slow at the beginning with the set up. It was almost 100 pages in before I felt like I had my footing with what was happening. In a way, the synopsis was a tad misleading, because we really didn't get to see much of the "public life," save for a few blogs posts and the "private life" was a series of misunderstandings.

I did enjoy Jade's character being a woman of color and her perspective on adding flavor and Caribbean themes into your life. I also liked that she was a blogger and designer and could see the connection between her and Greg. For 30, she was well put together in some aspects of her life, but in others, she was a little too naive, forgiving and pure for my taste. Greg seemed fairly normal at the beginning, but he turned ultra-paranoid quick. I could see why with what he went through with the attack, but it continued to intensify and became too much for me toward the end of the book.

Her Three Lives was a quick read and I read it in one evening. If you are a fan of thrillers, you should definitely check this out.

I liked the characters, but unfortunately, the plot fell short for me. I did not find this one “thrilling”. It is a slow burn and I wanted more from the ending. Rating: 3.5 stars

This story was more of a domestic suspense than a thriller for me. I wanted to love it, but in the end I found it to be just ok.

It definitely is a slow burn and I kept waiting for it to pick up! I also wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending but I was certainly intrigued throughout and stuck with it to figure out the whodunit!

I do still encourage you to check out as there are lots of great reviews out there and I’m interested enough to check out some of her other work!

“𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀: 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰, 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁”

I really struggled with this one, which surprised me, as I was quite interested after reading the summary. However, I just didn't connect with the characters, and the writing never pulled me in. I expected a fast, engaging novel, and sadly, that's not what I found. Even the "twists" didn't surprise me. The suspense factor was lacking for this genre.

"All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret"

Her Three Lives is a psychological thriller that starts with a brutal home invasion and turns darker.

CW: home invasion, stalking, PTSD, anxiety, miscarriage

This thriller kept me guessing with Cate Holahan throwing suspicion in different directions. Jade and Greg were happy before the home invasion, but afterward suspicions are high about who attacked them and why. I was anxious about Greg's growing paranoia and the miscommunication between him and Jade. I understood why Jade kept the secrets she did. The lack of communication resulted in me being suspicious of everyone but Jade. Greg watching her constantly freaked me out, but is plausible and feasible in today's technologically advanced age. I didn't like the way Greg's first family treated Jade, especially regarding the suspicion around the loss of her baby. The motivation felt real. I think that Jade deserved better in the end though.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers, I think you'd enjoy this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest psychological thriller by Cate Holahan - 4 stars for a book that will keep you guessing!

Greg and Jade are engaged, expecting a new baby and preparing to move into a newly-remodeled dream home. Life is good even though Greg's divorce isn't finalized and his children aren't completely on board with Greg's much younger fiancé. The couple are getting ready to go out when they are brutally attacked and Greg is left for dead. But as Greg recovers from his brain injury, he becomes increasingly paranoid and distrustful, setting up cameras everywhere in the house and watching Jade's every move. But Jade has secrets of her own.

“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.” This quote from the front of the book and its title emphasize that we never know what goes on behind closed doors and in people's lives. Especially in this day of social media where good fronts are all that are on display. There are a lot of characters in this book and the author is skilled at leaving lots of questions as to who is doing what to whom. Another solid book from Cate Holahan!

“All human beings have three lives. Public, Private, and Secret” Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A very appropriate quote to start off the book. This standalone thriller is the latest from Holahan and it’s a twisty one.

Greg is a recently divorced architect who met Jade, twenty years his junior and fell head over heels for her six months ago. His ex-wife, Leah, got the house and the grown kids so Jade and Greg are living in a rental while their forever home is built and with Jade pregnant, they will all be glad when things calm down.

Jade’s public life is pretty good. She’s a media influencer and designer. She is in love with Greg, having a baby, and living the good life. Divorce after 25 years and two kids is not going to be a lovefest. The kids hate her and the ex is a nut.

Jade’s private life is complicated. When one evening she and Greg are going out. She is still in the bathroom when she hears the doorbell and then hears screaming. Running out of the bathroom she’s met by an intruder. While Greg survives, the baby does not. Someone deliberately made sure the baby did not live.

As they try to piece together what happened and why I kept thinking someone was trying to gaslight them. But who? And why? Greg goes into full security mode and installs cameras in every room, alarms, and trackers. He’s also very paranoid.

Jade’s secret life is not as bad as she believes it to be, but when you leave it off of your dating profile, it becomes something that could hurt you.

With the ‘help’ of Violet, Greg’s daughter, he begins to doubt Jade. Is she trying to kill him for money? Was she even pregnant and why is she visiting a prison?

Oh what a tangled web this was. These kids were just vile and their mother a loon.

So what did I think? It was a good idea for a book, but to me, there was no sense of urgency and Greg was a pretty limp character.

NetGalley/ April 20th, 2021 Grand Central Publishing

This was a very mind twisting phycological thriller. I did enjoy reading this, but the one thing that did drive me nuts was the constant switching from Wife to fiance and ex-wife to almost ex-wife. Like just pick on and stick to it so we aren't confused lol. Although I do believe Greg might be bi polar or have something going on even before the accident. He's mind is all over the place in this book which is also partly his daughters fault. I did not expect the attacker to be who it was. From the title I assumed Jade lived three different lives so that on took me by surprise.

I didn't even make it to 20% before I started skimming - which is not something I normally do. I think it was Greg's narrative tone that really rubbed me the wrong way: the arrogance, the entitlement, the sheer "boys' world" vibe he gives off. Plus I guess I found myself... Not all that curious? The characters are lying to each other constantly, both paranoid and mistrustful (Jade of herself and Greg of Jade - which, we're not even going to talk about what kind of precedent that sets) before they've even gotten married. Especially since, in the very beginning, we're set up to believe that Jade orchestrated the whole thing for Greg's life insurance.

Perhaps this one turns out to be a fantastic story of domestic suspense, but that's not really my thing. I requested this one out of author recognition (having really enjoyed Lies She Wrote a few years ago) without taking into account the changes in my own reading preferences. A case of "it's not you, it's me" through and through.

This was a weird one for me y’all, I don’t even know exactly how I feel just that I wasn’t a huge fan. As much as I had issues with it, I did read it fairly quickly so there was something compelling about it and I never contemplated setting it aside. But I also found it kinda silly and boring too. I think my biggest issue was there was a lack of suspense for me, which made me not really care about what was going to happen to the characters. I was really in the mood for a fast and entertaining domestic suspense when I started this so I was disappointed that this wasn’t it. Between a lack of connection to the characters, not enough thrills and suspense, and a plot that I easily figured out, I just can’t get excited about this one.