Book Review for The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen

 The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen

Published May 7, 2024 by Harper Paperbacks

Genre:  Mystery Thriller

Taken from Goodreads:  Dead men don’t send texts…

On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty's phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it's been several years since she learned he died.
Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.
Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her. 
The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew. 

 

My Thoughts:  Holy! Cow!   This book had me on the edge of my seat.   I was reading the words, devouring the chapters, and turning pages wanting this book to never end.   I was invested in Ariel’s safety, I wanted to see the truth of Drew, and I wanted those who were doing wrong to be taken care of. 

Ariel receives a text from the past and it turns her entire life upside down.   She questions what she thinks she knows.   She realizes that what she thought she knew was not all of what she needed to know.   She must find the truth and that is a dangerous path to take. 

While the mystery is phenomenal, I love how protective Ariel is of Buzz, her young son.   Their relationship is obviously the most important thing in the world to Ariel.    She goes to great lengths to protect him.   There is never a doubt that Buzz is the most important person in her world and she knows that she must follow the clues to text just to keep him safe.

Thank you Harper Books for a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Meet Sarina Bowen (taken from her website):  Sarina Bowen is a 24-time USA Today bestselling author, and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. Formerly a derivatives trader on Wall Street, Sarina holds a BA in economics from Yale University.

A New Englander whose Vermont ancestors cut timber and farmed the north country in the 1760s, Sarina is grateful for the invention of indoor plumbing and wi-fi during the intervening 250 years. She lives with her family on a few wooded acres in New Hampshire.

Sarina's books are published in over a dozen languages with fifteen international publishers.