Narcissism | Book Chatter

Emma in the Night
By Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Griffin, 9781250141422, August 2018, 336pp.

The Short of It:

No one can be trusted.

The Rest of It:

Three years ago the Tanner sisters disappeared without a trace. One day, Cass shows up on her mother’s doorstep, three years older but without her sister, Emma. When the investigators are called in to question her, she urgently pleads for them to find Emma, who is hopefully still on the island she just escaped from.

The investigators don’t fully believe the story Cass is telling them. Something is off. To complicate things, Cass and Emma’s mother is narcissistic and continues to turn the attention back to herself anytime Cass or Emma is in the spotlight. One of the investigators, Dr. Winter, is very familiar with this disorder since she dealt with it in her own childhood so she watches them all carefully to see if she can decipher what really happened to Emma and Cass.

Emma in the Night is super twisty and delves into some much deeper issues than you might expect. This family is beyond dysfunctional and no one can be trusted which makes for good reading. Until the final pages, I had an idea of what happened to them but nothing solid and I was somewhat off when it was finally revealed.

This is a smart, highly detailed story about a seriously messed-up family. It’s gritty and some parts will leave you cringing. Some of the story lines could be triggering as well so be warned. Overall, I’d recommend it.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Best Day Ever
By Kaira Rouda
Graydon House, 9781525811401, September 2017, 352pp.

The Short of It:

A narcissist and his beautiful wife vacation at their gorgeous lake house for what he promises is the best day ever but things quickly unravel when he begins to lose control of the situation.

The Rest of It:

This book was incredibly difficult to put down and, who would even want to? Food, work, kids? Who cares?

Paul & Mia Strom are THE perfect couple. She’s beautiful. He’s rich and successful. They live in a gorgeous suburban home and don’t have a care in the world. They are on their way to their lake house for a little R&R and all is good and perfect in the world.

This is all according to Paul.

But in reality, nothing is perfect. Paul has been hiding something from Mia. Actually, he’s been hiding a lot from her but in his head he is totally in control and doesn’t even entertain the possibility that failure is just around the corner. In other words, he is totally and completely out of his mind.

Throughout the story, Paul is convincing himself over and over again that all is okay. He’s brilliant and women want him so what could possibly go wrong on the best day ever?

Lots.

This was not a perfect story and towards the end, I was ready for my relationship with this couple to come to a close but I can’t deny how fun it was to read. Crazy is on every single page. Paul is so full of himself that he can’t see what is going on even when it’s right in front of him. To put it bluntly, it’s fun to read about Paul’s failures and missteps because he’s the type of guy you want to punch.

Best Day Ever is a super-fast read and extremely entertaining. I can see this one becoming a movie.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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