Think twice before you swipe.
She met him through a dating app. An intriguing picture on a screen, a date at a downtown bar. What she thought might be just a quick hookup quickly became much more. She fell for him—hard. It happens sometimes, a powerful connection with a perfect stranger takes you by surprise. Could it be love?
But then, just as things were getting real, he stood her up. Then he disappeared—profiles deleted, phone disconnected. She was ghosted.
Maybe it was her fault. She shared too much, too fast. But isn’t that always what women think—that they’re the ones to blame? Soon she learns there were others. Girls who thought they were in love. Girls who later went missing. She had been looking for a connection, but now she’s looking for answers. Chasing a digital trail into his dark past—and hers—she finds herself on a dangerous hunt. And she’s not sure whether she’s the predator—or the prey.
Release Date: Oct 5, 2021
Publisher:Â Harlequin
Imprint:Â Park RowÂ
Price: $12.99
Wren Greenwood finally gives into her best friend’s Jax’s advice and begins using a dating app to find potential matches. Wren finds herself drawn to the profile of a man who isn’t conventionally handsome, but really appeals to her. Wren and Adam meet up and start seeing each other regularly. Things go great between them for three months, and Wren finds herself telling Adam things about her past that she hasn’t told anyone. Out of nowhere, he texts her saying he’s sorry, but something has happened and he has to go. Wren refuses to be ghosted by the man she thought could be her soulmate and wants answers. However, when handsome private detective Bailey Kirk shows up at Wren’s door, she begins to question whether she ever knew Adam at all.
This story is told mostly in the present from Wren’s point-of-view with some flashbacks to her childhood as well as stories from other women. These flashbacks provide some useful information about the characters, but sometimes slow the pace of the current story. Some of the current chapters are narrated in the second person as if Wren were speaking directly to Adam. That takes some time to get used to, but was fine once I did. It was interesting seeing the relationship between Wren and Adam grow and then reading about the immediate aftermath when he leaves.
Things get really intriguing when Bailey arrives on the scene with information that Wren isn’t the first girl Adam has ghosted. I like the friendship between Jax and Wren and they way the two childhood friends are there for each other. Wren also secretly writes an advice column and does a corresponding podcast and I really like that aspect of the story. Wren frequently references another friend from her childhood, Robin, and I was disappointed when the backstory to that friendship is revealed. The revelation about Robin and some of the other events that happen toward the end make the book less enjoyable than I thought it would be. It just became too much and too hard to relate to. However, this dark and sometimes strange story is a dramatic, compelling read that fans of this author should enjoy.
~ Christine
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