HE STARTED IT BY SAMANTHA DOWNING

7/22/2020

He Started It is a slow moving domestic drama/thriller. While it wasn't really my cup of tea I think many readers would love the buildup and the way everything ended...

Rating: ★★★
Release Date: July 21, 2020
Genre: Domestic Drama. Domestic Thriller.
Series: None. Complete standalone.
Pages: 384 pages
Format: eBook. ARC.

From the twisted mind behind mega hit My Lovely Wife comes the story of a family—not unlike your own—just with a few more violent tendencies thrown in....

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.

But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.

It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car—and especially

when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.

But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

“Wholly original. Scarily clever. Completely mesmerizing. You will never look at family road trips the same way again.”--Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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READ MY BOOK REVIEW

Release Date: July 21, 2020
Actual Rating: 2.5 - 3 stars

Domestic Drama | Thriller

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚛𝚋 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕.

He Started It wasn’t a total bust for me, there were actually parts that I liked. However, because this book moves so slowly, I found myself getting bored. I never got a chance to read the authors debut novel, My Lovely Wife, but I will be reading it because the reviews are glowing. I won’t let the fact that I didn’t care for this book deter me from that. I do however hope that it’s much more exciting than this one.

So, what DID I like about this book? I liked the sibling rivalry that wasn’t so apparent in the beginning. The multiple twists at the end were cool even though the way this one ended SUCKED. I also enjoyed how this book is a story within a story. We get two different plots within one book (the road trip they were on when they were kids and then the second road trip as adults). The characters weren’t very likeable, but I didn’t mind reading about them. I just wished they had a bit more… relatable characteristics? I couldn’t find any.

What I didn’t like about it was house tedious and slow moving the plot was. Most of the book centers around a road trip in which nothing exciting happens. Sure, they may have someone following them but when we figure out who, what, and why, I found it underwhelming. The ending was horrible as well as it just ENDS with no resolution. I’m the type of reader who likes things tied up and that isn’t the case here which is very frustrating. When I spend my time on a book, I expect to know what happens and… nope. That didn’t occur. I also would have liked a little more info on the narrator. We learned some about her bit not enough to decide whether she was good or not. She was just.. blah. I think the author was going for a bit of mystery with her, but it didn’t work for me.

All in all, this book wasn’t my cup of tea. There were good parts but not enough to make me feel like it was a satisfying read. Be sure to check out other peoples review as so many people have loved it. Just not me!