Member Reviews
When @htp_hive offered up the opportunity to read this book before the movie adaptation, I joined immediately. Not only am I a sucker for a good buddy read, I’m also a fan of seductive thrillers.
Nick and Anna meet for their first date after seeing one another on a dating website. Nick only uses his profile to meet women for one night stands, and hardly ever dates for love. Anna created her profile to find the love of her life, she wants a doting husband and to have children someday.
Anna is timid, sweet, and is nothing like the other women he meets online. They only date for a couple months before Nick proposes and they agree to get married next year, but Anna wants to marry in eight short weeks! Before they tie the knot, Anna desperately wants Nick to meet her twin sister, Zoe. Zoe may look identical, but she’s the complete opposite of Anna which startles Nick at first. Zoe’s main goal is to break them up before Nick breaks Anna’s heart because Zoe can’t bear to pick up the pieces of Anna’s broken heart…again. 💔
This seductive thriller was told through multiple POV’s where the characters were both lovable and scandalous. I flew through this book, only stopping to yell at Nick with his decisiveness and stupidity. Even though I guessed a bit of the twist, the ending was still shocking and it took me a few days to wrap my mind around what had just happened. 🫢
My god this was such a wild ride from beginning to end. A story involving twins one who prefers to follow her own path without feeling the need to mold herself to fit the standards of others. The other who just wants to be loved and not inconvenience others at all even if it means sacrificing her needs. Anna is the sweet responsible twin and Zoe is the carefree fun-loving twin, even though they have different personalities they are still quite close. While Anna lives in London her sister Zoe lives in the States, they still keep in touch constantly calling each other and keeping update on what they are doing. Anna wants to fall in love and marriage as she feels lonely and thinks that she's at the age where she should already be in a relationship and starting a family ( just like so many of her friends/acquaintances). After much consideration she decides to give online dating a shot though Zoe thinks that's not such a great idea, while discussing her profile with her sister Anna decides to lie about her age, and there's a secret she's hiding as well. She matches with Nick who isn't looking for anything serious at first but he slowly starts to fall for Anna. Their relationship progresses rather quickly after that and Zoe is not happy at all and finds it quite suspicious. Anna then invites Zoe to come meet Nick. From there so many things happen, there's betrayal, secrets, and quite a few twists until the end. You get somewhat an idea of how things will turn out from the beginning but things are not quite as they seem.
Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this ARC!
Oh wow, The Image of You is a messy tale of sisterhood and deception! And that ending!!! My recommendation is to go in blind and enjoy this very wild ride -- from the slow build-up to the freefall ending.
I can see why this book is being made into a movie. It's a great pick.
Thank you to HTP The Hive for a copy of this book.
I finished this book in 1 day. I was hooked from the start! The ending blew me away! I did suspect a little in the middle but I couldn’t figure out how it would make sense. The story flowed great, I was able to keep up and understand what was happening. We got enough detail from all the characters to keep us on our toes. I’m would recommend this book, I definitely enjoyed it!
Well, that was a nice surprise. Shout out to The Hive at HTP books for the gifted opportunity. This psychological suspense story is about to hit theaters May 10th, with that being said, I’d read this bad boy before it hits the big screen! So glad I was able to read the book first as I am always the opposite.
Girl meets boy. Anna and Nick. Anna is the reserved quiet type, watching out for what she says. She is longing for a nice boyfriend who would eventually become her husband. She has no problem addressing these feelings to Nick. Nick on the other hand is a piece of work. His goals are to keep it casual. Sort of like a smash-n-dash 🤣. Ya know, a hit-it-n-quit-it kinda dude.
Meet Zoe, Anna’s twin sister. They could not be more opposite. Zoe isn’t keen on Anna’s new beau. What is really going on here with Nick and what’s the motive for the twins?
That's all the breadcrumbs I am leaving here. The reader will have to read The Image of you to find out! If domestic thrillers are your jam, pick this bad boy up.
Thank you so much Harlequin Trade Publishing and Brianna at The Hive for inviting me to buddy read. It was my pleasure to read and review The Image of You by Adele Parks.
#imageofyoureadalong
This book was a wild ride. I unfortunately figured out the twist pretty early on in the book. However, even though I figured it out I still wanted to fly through to see if I was correct. I was surprised that the male main character didn’t have any inkling that they might not be the same person. He was a book smart person but not very perceptive for sure.
At the end of the book I would have thought Anna would have been more in denial about her taking on Daphnes personality. She seemed as though she could just turn it off. Which I wasn’t aware that was how it worked.
The relationship between the male main character, Nick, and Daphne illicited so many feelings from me. Anger and betrayal for sure! I have such strong negative feelings towards cheating and this was so blatant and continuous that it really gave me Icky feelings towards them both.
I do think that this story would make a great movie and I’m excited to watch!
Thank you @htp_hive and Adele for the ability to join this speed buddy read!
A psychological thriller that really digs deep into the relationship of twins, Anna and Zoe. It definitely is a book you need to go into blind. Intense family dynamics that delve into mental illness and at times the book just feels heavy with grief. I enjoyed it, but it will leave you feeling very melancholy.
I was gifted an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Anna and Zoe are identical twins with very different personalities. When sweet-hearted Anna meets Nick online and begins to fall for him, the more free-spirited twin Zoe is sure that this will end badly.
This one is so hard to talk about without revealing anything important, so let's just say it is a wild, provocative ride full of passion, secrets, and painful lies. I was suspicious of the actions of every single character, and once I hit a certain point I absolutely couldn't stop.
The book was originally released in 2018, but is being re-released just in time for the movie to come out in May. The trailer looks SO GOOD, and this is a book that I can definitely see translating extremely well onto the screen.
That being said, a few things here also didn't work for me. The book gets very wordy at times, to the point where I was doing some skimming to get past multiple repetitive paragraphs. I also had trouble with the changing perspective in the POVs. I would have preferred for the various perspectives to all be first person or all be third person; it felt jarring switching back and forth.
Thank you to NetGalley and Mira Books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
I read this as part of HTPs The Hive read-along in advance of the movie adaptation release. This was such an engrossing novel! Part romance, part psychological suspense, part thriller...genre bending in the best way. I loved how I identified with the characters at the beginning of the book (despite superficially having nothing in common with them), and my opinions of them rose up and down as the story morphed. This was my first introduction to Adele Parks, and I'm ecstatic to see she's got a huge backlist for me to read my way through. I'd definitely recommend reading The Image of You before watching the adaptation next month.
4⭐️. 1.5🌶️
I went into this book not knowing much about the story and also it is the first time I read a book from this author. The beginning of the book really hooked me and I thought that is was going to be a sweet romance but too soon Anna and Nick were to get married. And then things started to happen.
Then the story took a turn that I never saw coming and it was just wow for me. At that point I didn’t know what to feel anymore towards these characters. But the plot twist did blew my mind🤯.
I never in my life had been so mad and upset about the cheating trope in a book. I wanted to slapped both of these characters. One thing I do want to complain about is that there was so much filling in this book that could have been edited. I really don’t know why we get Nick’s mom POV, to me it felt irrelevant.
I still don’t know in what category or genre but this book. But the story was good and unexpected.
By the way the movie for this book is coming out soon I’m really curious about it.
Thank you so much @htp_hive @htpbooks for a copy of this book!
✨ 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ✨
This book is a trip!
Anna and Zoe could not be more different, even as identical twins. Anna is conservative and always put together. Zoe is outgoing and unashamed of who she is. Both are so close to one another, even if they see the world differently.
Anna meets Nick on an online dating site, and things are progressing fast. I think it was funny how online dating was described as just a way men used to meet new women all the time, and not for anything serious. Zoe is protective of Anna and believes all men are pretty much bad news, especially the ones Anna picks. Zoe heavily influences Anna, even when Anna doesn’t want her to.
Nick meets Zoe and Zoe does not trust Nick. She thinks he is a liar and will not treat Anna well and wants to put him to the test. Anna has been cheated on before and Zoe thinks Nick will do the same to her.
At first I liked Nick, then as the story progressed I definitely did not. He is human and everyone makes bad choices, but he seemed to be fulfilling a certain stereotype of an unfaithful man which was annoying to read about at length. If there was a bit more to his character than that, I may have liked him more but we didn’t really get to see any redeeming qualities to his character.
While I read this book, I quickly jumped to some theories and conclusions about what was happening or potentially happening, and my theories were correct! I think some chapters were repetitive and could have been skipped over. Nevertheless, the ending was a big surprise for me… the author was in it to trick us a bit! But I liked it, and it left things on a positive note.
This book is being made into a movie that is out very soon, and I think it will translate over well to the movie. The actress Sasha Pieterse from Pretty Little Liars (Ali) will play Anna and Zoe, and I think she will be excellent in their roles!
✨ 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
♦️ Psychological Thrillers
♦️ Complicated (Twin) Family Dynamics
♦️ Online Dating
♦️ Mental Health Rep
This one is almost impossible to review without accidentally giving away spoilers! It starts more like a romance mixed with a family drama. It then morphs into a psychological thriller while still focusing on the intense bond between Anna and Zoe. The author depicted the intricacies and extremes of this relationship rather well. We start to see the effects of betrayal and what happens as everyone's secrets drip out! Told in both first and third person, this is multi-POV, with a significant focus on the MCs' internal dialogue and whether they are characters you like or dislike, you will get a peek inside their heads and wonder who, if anyone, can be trusted.
Despite guessing the major twist, there were still secrets to be revealed, and I was curious to see how the author would wrap everything up in the end.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing MIRA and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC
Anna and Zoe are twins but could not be any more different. Anna is shy, compassionate, and practical while Zoe is bold, sexy, and cunning. Anna is a hopeless romantic, tired of being swindled by the men on dating apps. She eventually meets charismatic Nick, who she is convinced is the one, and the two rush into an engagement. Zoe is convinced Nick is a no-good liar, and will stop at nothing to do what she believes will protect her sister.
This book was packed full of drama from start to finish. I found the plot a bit one dimensional and think the book could benefit from being slightly shorter; I also was able to see the plot twist coming from a mile away, but nonetheless this is still a fun read! I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller.
This story was wild, and was such an addictive read. The prologue immediately drew me into the story, and I couldn’t wait to see where the story was heading. The characters were well developed, and this story was more character-driven. I couldn’t wait to see what they were going to do next.
Though I did figure out what was going on, and where the story was heading, there was still a small part of me that was unsure of everything until the big reveal. It did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book however.
This was my first book by the author, and I am excited to read more by her. This is exactly the kind of book that will make an excellent movie. The film adaptation comes out on May 10th, and I highly recommend reading this one before then!
Read if you enjoy:
✔️Multiple POVs
✔️Character driven stories
✔️Unlikeable characters
Thank you @htp_hive for hosting this speed buddy read, and for my copy of the book.
This was such an intricately layered thriller! I cannot wait for the film release! This storyline will blow people away.
I did spot an "oops" around Chapter 18. There was conflicting information given by the author, and it gave away the final twist. I am not sure if that was an intentional nugget placed in there, but I'm almost certain it wasn't. It did make the rest of the book feel predictable, so the "thrill" diminished a little after that. Overall, a great book that I absolutely recommend!
Anna and Zoe are twins, identical in appearance but completely opposite in personality. Anna meets Nick on a dating app and after a whirlwind romance, they get engaged. Sweet, naïve Anna is sure Nick is her true love, but savvy and skeptical Zoe is just as sure he’s not, and she’s determined to prove it. But is she protecting her sister or destroying her chance at happiness and putting them all in danger?
This multiple POV sexy suspense is clever and descriptive, with vividly drawn characters that are so much fun to hate! This gripping story hooked me right away, so even though I had a pretty good hunch what the big twist would be fairly early on, it was still a fun read to see how things would get there. The movie adaptation of this novel is hitting the big screen in less than a month, and I think it’ll make for a wild ride of a flick!
Many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA Books, and HTP Hive for providing me an advance copy of this book.
Synopsis:
Twins Anna and Zoe are identical in appearance and utterly different in personality. They share a bond so close that nothing - and no one - can rip them apart. Until Anna meets charismatic Nick. Anna is trusting, romantic and hopeful; she thinks Nick is perfect. Zoe is daring, dangerous and extreme; she thinks Nick is a liar. Zoe has seen Anna betrayed by men before. She'll stop at nothing to discover the truth about Nick.
Review:
This felt like a romance to start but then starts to get eerie and thrilling as you read on. I feel like most people are fascinated by twins so reading about the nuances in a twin relationship was really fascinating - especially when they are complete opposites. Add some suspense and you're going on a thrilling ride. This is coming out as a movie on May 24th. I will definitely be watching it!
Thanks to HTP Publishing for my digital copy!
This book had me sucked in and captivated by the storyline. The second half just flew by!! Anna and Zoe are twins. They look identical but have many different personality traits that are totally different. Anna is more shy reserved, quiet type. Zoe is more outgoing, life of party, wild girl. Anna meets Nick and they start dating. Nick comes from a wild past and seems really shady. As they get to know once another something just seems off. I really enjoyed this story. Go in blind- I typically do with every book I read. This one I could see how many of the surprises could be innocently spoiled so just be cautious reading reviews. I’d just jump in and be along for this twisty wild ride! Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
I enjoyed this read as part of the Hive. It was thrilling and exciting. I didn’t want it to end!! A lot of deception and with online romances you never know what you’re going to get!
From a slow burn romance to unexpected twists, this book was a really fun read! I started this read along with HTP Hive, but I couldn’t put it down today… I had to know what happened! So I read ahead. Whoops.
There was a tad too much personal introspection for my taste that made parts feel a tad slow, but somehow, at the same time, the first 1/2 of the book flew by. By the 75% mark I had the ending figured out, BUT it was still exciting to read and confirm my suspicions.
Thriller, spice, a little bit of something for everyone. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait to see the motion picture adaptation!