See Jane Die by Erica Spindler

The fifteen-year old Jane was a survivor of a horrific accident when she skipped school together with her sister, Stacy and her friends. She accepted their dare to swim in the lake and little did she know, that day in the water would change her life forever.

Now, seventeen years later after so many series of surgeries to fix her face, she was married to a renowned and successful plastic surgeon Dr. Ian Westbrook and pregnant with their first child. Then a brutal crime occurred which happened to have a connection to her husband.  In an attempt to prove his innocence, she realized along the way that this crime was somewhat connected to the near death accident she had experience seventeen years ago.

I don’t know if it’s just because this is the first book that I decided to read after not reading for a long while, if you have been a reader of mine, you would know how much I love crime-thrillers and that goes hand-in-hand with Erica Spindler but in this book, I just didn’t get that Spindler magic. There was no blood rushing/pumping in my veins, no mind exploding moments. Sure the guessing game in here as to who culprit was good, it gave me a headache. There were a lot of scenes wherein I caught myself gasp and sigh out of shock, pity, disappointment and excitement.

The story was narrated in a third person point of view in which I must say whilst reading this book I realized that I prefer the first person point of view narration style because in my opinion, it gives more in-depth details as to what the character is feeling and gives us better understanding about their way of thinking and mindset. Don’t get me wrong, that didn’t bother me in any way at all, just stating my realization.

As for character development, I really like how Jane and Stacy’s characters progressed and portrayed in the book. In my view, they are opposite and yet the same in a way. Jane, when you think of what she had been through, you couldn’t help to think that she’s fragile, all beauty and no brawn but as time gone by she became strong and successful for the same reason as well. Stacy on the other hand, is a tough cookie. Being a woman in the force she endured, persevered and worked hard so that she would be respected and treated equal by her colleagues which she deservedly earned.

The twist in the ending, though I cannot say that it came out of nowhere because I kind of expected it, there was something in there that I wasn’t so sold. Maybe it was the gravity of the culprit’s reason as to why he did what he did or maybe I am just still in denial of it because even though I was suspicious of him I still liked him until the twist came and it completely broke my heart.

All in all, it is a great book. A fun and entertaining read. It is gripping and undeniably a page-turner can’t put down kind of book. I caught the bad guy (in my head). I suspected him somewhere in the beginning, still suspicious in the middle and boom in the end he was the culprit. I’m proud. I think this feeling of ambivalence rooted from me not considering that my reading gears hasn’t been fully fueled, hasn’t been oiled well and has not been completely warmed up yet and I’ve already  set the bar high. Do I recommend this? Of course, no doubt on that.

How about you, what have you been reading these days?