Amanda Jayatissa

What could be worse than your ex-boyfriend marrying your childhood best friend? Getting accused of her murder… From the author of My Sweet Girl comes a dangerously addictive new thriller about a lavish Sri Lankan wedding celebration that not everyone will survive.

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after…

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Lindsay

I am many things— I am stronger than I give myself credit for, I am fiercely protective of the people I love, but I also need to heal. And healing is a solitary journey.

Because not understanding your mother tongue was somehow an increase in social status. I suppose we can thank colonialism for that.

I didn’t see it at first. It was almost like, well, like those rocks that get shaped by a river. How could something as soft, something as beautiful as a river have the ability to change the complete structure of something as hard as a rock? Because I was as hard as a rock. I’d lost my mother. I’d survived. I was indestructible.

Marriage was just window dressing. A decorative element in a society that places far more value on how things look rather than how they make you feel. No one cares if you’re married happily, after all, just that you have a husband.

I don’t know who circulated the memo that it was unbecoming of women to appreciate how they looked. Probably some insecure man.

In an age where we buy our groceries online and meet romantic partners online and do our banking online, why are online friendships considered any less valuable than real- life ones? So what if I’ve never met Beth in person? Why is the physical act of meeting considered such a big deal when you can literally grow up next to someone and not know them at all? 

Why do I feel more comfortable around Beth, whom I have never met, and Alexander, whom I have only met under very specific circumstances, and Dr. Dunn, who honestly feels like he’s just talking to me and me alone? Tell me, please, how that’s less real than the relationship I had with Spencer, who left me in shambles, or my friendship with Kaavi that hurt beyond words?

But there’s another type of breakup. The kind that’s not romantic. The kind that happens between friends. There are no movies made about that. Perhaps because the pain is too deep, too profound to even encapsulate.

People talk about romantic breakups like it’s the worst thing in the world. And it’s true, in a way. When Spencer and I ended, I thought my mangled heart would ooze out all the love I had ever known. That I would never really smile again. And I wasn’t wrong.

I wondered if he had changed too. How different can someone be after five years? Do we really change? Does what’s deep within us, in that place that makes us innately who we are, shift and move and evolve with time? Or are our lives like the window dressing of department stores— changed and updated with the seasons, leaving what’s inside in the same chaotic mess?

No one seems to understand that real loss never eases; we just become more adept at carrying a weight that settles deeper in our chests, smiling through it, pretending like we are totally fine whenever someone mentions them.

It’s funny what you call home. Some find it in a place, others in people. You can find it in a smell, in a smile, in a feeling. Home is where the heart is, people say. So where’s your home if your heart has been broken into a million pieces, over and over again? Do you have to dig through the rubble to find a sense of belonging, or has the idea of home disappeared, along with everything else?

It hurt, but I had to do it, for my own sake. It was the first of many decisions where I made myself a priority, and while it broke my heart, it freed me. For the first time, I was truly on my own.

My oldest friend was getting married, and here I was, in a ridiculous old hotel, getting my behind spanked once a month by a man whose face I have never even seen.

I enjoyed this one but I wasn’t OBSESSED with it. I think it was a solid well written story but again it’s nothing special. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a solid thriller. I also really enjoyed that this story dove into the customs of Sri Lanka weddings which is something I personally did not know a ton about before reading this. Overall would recommend but you don’t need to rush to read it 

Kerry Kalinoski

I had a hard time getting myself to care with this book. I don’t think it was bad, but thrillers are supposed to really have you guessing and wanting to get to the reveal. I wasn’t upset to get back to it but I wasn’t particularly motivated either. I didn’t really predict the twist which is good I suppose but I think someone who reads more thrillers probably would figure it out pretty quick. 

The characters were all pretty unlikable, not sure if there is a single one I liked really but that didn’t bug me too much. While I don’t know if I’d necessarily recommend this book, I don’t regret reading it. 

Laura Wilson

I had a hard time getting myself to care with this book. I don’t think it was bad, but thrillers are supposed to really have you guessing and wanting to get to the reveal. I wasn’t upset to get back to it but I wasn’t particularly motivated either. I didn’t really predict the twist which is good I suppose but I think someone who reads more thrillers probably would figure it out pretty quick. 

The characters were all pretty unlikable, not sure if there is a single one I liked really but that didn’t bug me too much. While I don’t know if I’d necessarily recommend this book, I don’t regret reading it. 

Nash

The only good thing about this book is that it compels you to keep reading in order to find out what the heck is going on. Unreliable narrator.. Unlikable characters everywhere. Everyone is so hateful that it made it almost Impossible to keep going forward. I’ve never had such a hard time to finish a book. It put me in a reading slump. The twists at the end were great but they don’t make up for a whole book of craziness.

Alexa M

Boring boring boring. And the end was waaay over the top corny.

Kristen Claiborn

I love thrillers…not quite as much as I love romance, but thrillers are a close second. Thrillers are the kind of books you start on your day off so you can simply read all day with few distractions. The twisty stories require complete attention. I love it when a thriller shows up next on my TBR queue (I recently saw a meme about how the word “queue” is just the letter Q with a line of letters behind it…a queue of letters, if you will). 
	I’m quite certain this is the first book I’ve ever read that was set in Sri Lanka. I know nothing of that country or it’s culture. The book doesn’t dive too deeply into the culture, but it’s still interesting to read books set in countries with which I’m unfamiliar. This book concerns the wedding of an affluent social media queen from Sri Lanka, marrying an American boy she met in college while he was dating her best friend. That scenario itself presents an interesting premise, but it just twists from there. We are introduced to Amaya at the beginning and we traverse about half the book from her point of view. She comes across as slightly unhinged for most of this story, so it’s easy to assume from the onset that Amaya is the antagonist of this story. However, she isn’t…not by a long shot (haha, that was unintentionally punny). 
	Every single character in this book has secrets…every one of them shares the role of antagonist. That’s quite a feat. I think the only people that aren’t evil or conniving are Nadia and Kaavi’s dad. By the end of this book, my head was spinning and I had to actually go back and reread a few parts just to make sure I understood everything. This book is expertly written, and it makes me wonder if this poor author has had some crappy experiences in her past. Is she ok? Can somebody check on her? The ONLY reason this one fell a tad short of the fifth star was the absolute lack of effective communication from Amaya. Had that girl just told her story, this book would have been boring as hell…and then when she had the opportunity to tell Kaavi the truth, she faltered. It made no sense to me. However, I suppose had Amaya found her voice, we wouldn’t have this amazing story. Read it.

Courtney

4⭐️. This was an intense pyschological thriller with an unreliable narrator and a wedding party full of secrets & lies. The plot twists were executed perfectly and the main characters were developed so well that you both liked and hated them throughout the book. I also enjoyed the Sri Lankan representation- I learned some things I wasn’t already familar with. I highly recommend this thriller.

Mabel Palomera

Gisela Ayala 

I could not put this down. At all. Ending was a bit rushed I think after the build up of the book but didn't stop me from enjoying the mystery. 

I'll leave this quote here: 

"Do we really change? Does what's deep within us, in that place that makes us innately who were are, shift and move and evolve with time? Or are our lives like the window dressing of department stores-changed and updated with season, leaving what's inside the same chaotic mess?"

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