Everybody lies. Even the ones you think you know best of all . . .
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Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can’t be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately  wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she’s at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park.
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DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park’s son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don’t have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold—or how many children he has sired.
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As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?
Release Date:Â Feb 21, 2023
Publisher:Â Harlequin
Imprint:Â MIRAÂ
Price: $13.99
Olivia Bender loves her career as an upscale interior home designer, but more than anything, she wants to become a mother. Sadly, she has had nothing but heartbreak on that journey – experiencing miscarriages and unsuccessful fertility treatments. She’s sure it’s a mistake when two police detectives show up on their doorstep claiming that DNA on a murder victim’s body indicates the killer is her husband Park’s son. Eventually, Park admits he was a sperm donor when he was in grad school and doesn’t know how many children he has fathered. This bombshell is just the beginning of the nightmares the couple will experience as things escalate with the killer and old secrets come out.
I have enjoyed several thrillers written by this author and had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it starts out very slowly written in a stilted, passive style. It is told from several different points of view and a couple different timelines with mixed results. Things get better after a couple of chapters, but the pacing remains uneven. The thriller aspects of the book are well-done, with several red herrings that keep the reader guessing, at least for a little while, about who the killer really is. However, the author makes a choice to reveal the identity of the murderer well before the end of the book, which lowers the tension level.
The legal and ethical questions raised by the way the donor clinic operates are intriguing and are a great basis for a mystery and I wish there would have been more of a focus on that. Instead, a love triangle between Olivia, Park, and Park’s brother Perry is revealed early on and continues throughout the book taking away from the parts of the story that I found more interesting. The ending of the book requires some suspension of disbelief, but most of the subplots successfully come together. The author’s note at the end about her own experiences with infertility is very touching and it’s clear how personal this story is for her. Overall, there are several parts of the book I enjoyed, but the potential was there to be so much better.
~ Christine
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