Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! Slow at times but a good story. I wasn't completely taken in and read it slowly. I rate it a 3.1

Thank you, Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for the review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Someone Else's Life by Lyn Liao Butler was an enjoyable read for me. It was fast paced and I liked the mystery/thriller aspect to it. While it was a little bit predictable for me, it wasn't too bad where I didn't enjoy it.

Parts of it were a little unbelievable or far-fetched - or maybe it was just me because I couldn't imagine myself doing the same thing if I were in Annie's position (letting a rando into my house and then becoming bffs with them even though they were being kinda sketchy).

This book is great if you enjoy psychological thrillers and mystery.

Overall I'd rate it a 3-3.5.

First of all, love a good mystery/thriller with an Asian protagonist. There definitely needs to be more. There was some serious exploration of how mental health is treated in Asian families and how that impacted on Annie's life, the fact that she felt like she couldn't be open about it, couldn't look for support, and ended up internalising it to her detriment. I really liked how the author interwove Serena into the story too. It was a bit of a slow burn at the beginning, but in a good way, a chilling introduction into who Serena is, why she's so 'obsessed' with Annie, and I really loved how the author set this up. The numbing realisation on Annie's part as she realised that Serena wasn't just some random person she made friends with was also done really well. All in all, I really enjoyed this story!

Book Rating: 3/5
Audiobook Rating: 2/5

This is a hard one for me, and I'm still a little torn about my feelings surrounding Someone Else’s Life by Lyn Liao Butler. On one hand, it was (in my eyes) very original and ended with a pretty wild storyline, but then on the other hand it was also totally and completely unbelievable. I don't mind if a storyline is unbelievable, but some of the choices our MC makes just didn't jive with her other decisions in the book and it had me scratching my head. The majority of the book is set on one night during a storm, and through this, we learn more about Annie's past and the horrific accident that her son goes through. I loved the way Butler kept me guessing about what the accident was and how the stranger would come into play in Annie's life.

I think this book would definitely work for a lot of readers, but it is my personal opinion that you should at minimum avoid the audiobook at all costs. The narrator is Angela Lin and it made me nervous to listen to anything else she narrates. I would have loved her except for the fact that it sounded like she had a cold or something and it made her very hard to understand. She sounded very muffled like she was talking around a mouthful of cotton, and that just doesn't work when it comes to audio for me. If you love getting lost in an escapist read and want to read a book based in a gorgeous setting (hello Hawaii), then I would definitely recommend giving Someone Else’s Life a read.

I love the cover of this book. It's so pretty! I don't think I'm the right audience for this one though. I think this really is a me issue. I couldn't put reality aside enough to be convinced that the main character has lived as long as she has and made every wrong decision possible during this book.

Basically- Annie is going through some things, her family moved to Kauai and she's home alone during a storm and a stranger knocks on her door. From there we are taken on a wild ride.

Even with my issues with believability, I still wanted to know how it all wrapped up.

This one is a prime first reads option if you want to pick it up and you get two picks this month!

Thank you to @letstalkbookspromo @getredprbooks @amazonpublishing @lynliaobutler for my copy of this.

#letstalkbookspromo #someoneelseslife #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookreview #amazonfirstreads

I found it a little difficult to get past the first chapters and was very tempted to just drop the book. The main character wasn't particularly interesting or relatable. There were so many questions left unanswered till around the last few chapters and even then it felt a little too much, too unrealistic. I only really got hooked from the second half of the book. I feel like there was so much potential for it to have been so much better as the concept was really intriguing. I enjoyed it quite well still.
Thank you to the author and publisher and netgalley for this ARC copy.

The synopsis had me in its grips...the book, however, was not it. I was lost, and confused. Everything seemed really out there. The characters seemed flat. I didn't vibe with this book very much and it seems as though that's the general consensus with this book. I really had more hopes for this book and it did not live up to expectations.

This was a little far fetched. I think parts of it were good but I just had a hard time going along with everything and I really didn't like the main cast of characters.

This one had me for at least the first 1/4. I found the mystery interesting as I tried to figure out what was wrong with the main character and who this was that showed up at her door. I liked the added suspense of the storm - but the location didn't seem to play much a part.

But somewhere around the middle, I started getting frustrated we didn't have answers. Annie, the MC, was just so wishy-washy. How does she not know what she did or didn't say? Is she checking out mid-sentence? Does her husband have her unsteady? What is going on here?

By about 70%, I was pretty frustrated. We STILL didn't have a lot of answers and I was finding the coincindeces to be just a bit too much. You can sell me on a lot of things, but same birthday and all that was just a step too far. The last 4 or 5 chapters were just a drawn out end to the story. Meh, I wish I'd love it but instead found it unbelievable and took too long to reveal anything to the reader.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Interesting story of a family moving from NY to Hawaii. It centers on Annie who feels like she has had a rough few years and needs to make a change. She doesn’t know what to do to better a wife, mother, or version of herself. A really bad storm in Hawaii brings Serena to her door and Annie thinks she has found a new friend… or has she?

The premise and atmospheric setting sounded amazing for this tropical book, however I struggled with reading it. I had a hard time and felt like it was slow and confusing.

thank you @netgalley & pubisher for the opportunity!

I loved the concept of this story! It has all the makings of an excellent thriller. But, that is where the excitement ends for me. I found this book to be really tedious and difficult to get through. Also unbelievable at times. Who lets a complete stranger into their home when alone? Storm or not, seriously, how is that even believable? Then to become basically best friends with this complete stranger? That feels about as intelligent as the murder victim running upstairs in the Scream movie. There's nothing to really figure out. No exciting plot twist or impending danger. Just two people talking to each other. That's about it. Which was beyond disappointing to me. I wanted so, so much more from this book. Because it has the seeds of excellence there. But it hasn't matured into something yet, and it should have been nurtured a lot more before it was published.

I am in agreement with several other reviewers that I felt lost reading this. It had high hopes from me based on the synopsis, but it wasn’t for me.

I truly loved this book. It was the kind of book you can hunker down with at the beach or laying by the pool. I loved the setting and the cover is stunning. Loved the authors writing and most of the characters (as you should in any good thriller)!

Thank you Thomas & Mercer, Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for this arc. It us always hard to read about methal health but it is also good to read and see what cab happen. Really brinf sedness but make you want to know more

I found it very difficult to read. Some parts were interesting, other parts were slow, and then there are parts that I was lost.

Thank you netgalley for opportunity to read this ARC. Unfortunately I did not enjoy it as much as I would've liked to. The beginning was slow and the characters bland. The mystery woman Serena kept on repeating how perfect Anna's life was. That repetition made the story stagnant and killed the suspence. There was enough mystery in this novel to be intriguing.

Someone Else’s Life is an interesting novel, but a bit of a mixed bag. While the first half of it was a struggle for me, the second half was better, and there were some thoughtful themes woven throughout.

One thing I liked about Someone Else’s Life is its discussion of mental health. From the beginning, it’s clear that Annie has been struggling for some years. After losing her mother, her dog, and her business in the same year, she’s been depressed and has no healthy ways of coping. Her family, with their Taiwanese culture, downplay mental health and discourage therapy, so Annie has instead turned to wine. It takes an unexpected scare before she looks at mental health with a more open mind and considers how she can take better care of herself.

Another interesting theme is how we understand people who do bad things. What if you can see some of yourself in someone who does something nefarious? Is it healthy to humanize and sympathize with them? What does that say about you? One silver lining of this whole scenario may be that Annie gains new perspective on herself through her interactions with the stranger in her house.

Motherhood, family, and the reliability of a partner are also important aspects here. Fears of being a bad mother and not understanding her son plague Annie almost from his birth. While I’m not a mother myself, worries surrounding parenthood feel relatable and heartfelt. In many ways, Annie is struggling, and some of that comes down to how she relates to and communicates with others. This is another valuable lesson she must learn.

While I appreciated the above topics, Someone Else’s Life was tedious and even frustrating in the first half. Much of it is based on Annie’s conversations with the strange woman in her house. The way Annie talks to her is often overly defensive or shocked; the conversations they have feel at once overly familiar and dully unimportant. On top of that, Annie has frequent flashbacks to earlier events in her life, both big and small. These are, ultimately, consequential clues… but the presentation didn’t always work for me. The way information is revealed is a bit clunky. Moreover, the pacing feels uneven, with the first half being a slog and the second half being much for interesting and fast-paced. These two issues make me think this story may have worked better as a novella, or at least could have been strengthened with different structuring in the first half.

Although Someone Else’s Life isn’t perfect, it brings forth interesting themes, and I do plan to read more from Lyn Liao Butler. I have The Tiger Mom’s Tale on my shelf already, and if that goes well, I’ll pick up Red Thread of Fate, too.

This was chilling and hooked me from the start, but as it went on got more and more unrealistic and I lost interest. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early read.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Lyn Liao Butler for an ARC of this book!**

There are exactly two (and ONLY two) things that I enjoyed about this book.

1) The cover is BEAUTIFUL.

2) It takes place in Hawaii.

If only I'd stopped there...If only. I'd have many hours of my life back...and perhaps fewer gray hairs and eye-rolling induced headaches to talk about...but sad to say, curiosity certainly killed the cat when it came to this book.

Annie is looking to start life anew in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, after a Series of Unfortunate Events in NYC caused her to flee the city and shoot for take two in a tropical locale. Annie's firefighting husband Brody is with her and she also has a young son Finn, who she feels she has never bonded with, giving her a sense of unease. While her sister is watching Finn one day, a terrible storm traps her in her home...and lo and behold, there's a knock at the door and a mysterious stranger named Serena who is desperate for respite.

After letting her glass (okay, many glasses) of wine do the thinking for her, Annie invites Serena in...and lets her stay. The two seem to form an instant bond, and although Serena somehow seems to know a LITTLE bit too much about Annie, the pair keeps palling around while the storm rages outside. When Annie's recurring issue with losing bits of time and losing random objects creeps up on her YET again, she starts to wonder if this 'too-good-to-be-true' bestie is well, just that. But with the terrifying weather holding them both hostage, has Annie saved Serena from the storm...but put HERSELF in harm's way instead?

It's hard to know where to start with my thoughts on this book, because it's been a while since I was THIS disappointed, frustrated, and honestly laughing out loud (in the 'this is just ridiculous way') after reading a thriller. Lyn Liao Butler is new to this genre (as far as I can tell) and unfortunately this book sort of screams that at the reader. Main character Annie is ALL sorts of things that drive seasoned thriller readers berserk: she happily drinks to excess just because, has some sort of memory problem that means she can't remember what she did sporadically or if she can trust her own judgment, and frankly acts like she's lacking any sort of common sense.

She chooses to let Serena in, basically knows it's a bad choice, but then acts thrilled to be with her and can't stop gushing about how great she is...even when Serena drops GIANT HINT after GIANT HINT that she knows things she shouldn't know about Annie. There were more red flags here than matador capes in Pamplona and I just couldn't believe ANYONE with so many mental, emotional, and possibly physical problems going on would welcome a literal stranger into their lives and divulge all of their deepest, darkest secrets for no reason at all.

Needless to say, with Annie at the helm, this book has nowhere good to go and the plot gets even more ridiculous and unbelievable as it goes on. Honestly, by the end I wished that the storm had washed them BOTH away because Finn (and even the dog Marley) deserved so much better.

I'll leave you with a sentence that just about sums up how Annie's mind works (and by the way, this one happens around 94%!) and you can judge for yourself whether you want to go on this journey with her:

"Annie had vowed to stop drinking so much and mixing wine with sleeping pills, but she'd let herself have just one glass with dinner."

2 stars