A Stranger on the Beach is a twisted tale of treachery and deceit. Why is the stranger so mesmerized by one particular house on the beach? Who is the owner of this house and what does she think of the stranger? Michele Campbell takes the reader on a wild ride in this thriller.
- Title: A Stranger on the Beach
- Author: Michele Campbell
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press on July 23, 2019
- Genre: Thriller
- Pages: 392
- Format: eARC
- Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
Synopsis from Goodreads:
“There is a stranger outside Caroline’s house.”
“Her spectacular new beach house, built for hosting expensive parties and vacationing with the family she thought she’d have. But her husband is lying to her and everything in her life is upside down, so when the stranger, Aiden, shows up as a bartender at the same party where Caroline and her husband have a very public fight, it doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary.”
“As her marriage collapses around her and the lavish lifestyle she’s built for herself starts to crumble, Caroline turns to Aiden for comfort…and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling that means nothing to Caroline and everything to him, Aiden’s obsession with Caroline, her family, and her house grows more and more disturbing. And when Caroline’s husband goes missing, her life descends into a nightmare that leaves her accused of her own husband’s murder.”
My Review:
Caroline is a rich, uptown lady with a brand new beach house on Long Island. Aiden is a small-town guy, with a troubled past just trying to make ends meet. What happens when they meet becomes a confusing and wild tale for the reader.
Sucked in by the premise, I found the cover exciting, and the title screamed at me to read the book.
As I held my breath, excitement coursed through me as I tried to get into the meat of this novel that is being heralded as the “Thriller of the Summer” by critics. Unfortunately, I must respectfully disagree.
Consequently, I had the hardest time reading this novel. The differing perspectives of Caroline and Aiden were the most confusing thing I have ever read. However, I still ended up guessing the ending after the first time the author spoke as Aiden.
The story was too recognizable, the protagonist is too unlikable, and the only person I cared about was Aiden. His naivete and relentless search for someone to love was only too familiar. I feel as though I have read this story many times before, but in different settings.
I badly wanted to love this book, but I didn’t, regretfully, I couldn’t get past the writing style and the predictability of the plot. As such, I award A Stranger on the Beach 3 out of 5 stars.
I would love to hear from those of you who have read the book. I need to hear other ideas to help me figure out why I had so much trouble with this book. So, if you have read it, please let me know in the comments.
If you have not read it yet and would like to pick up a copy for yourself, you can purchase it on Amazon and if you use my special link in the image below, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
HUGS
Kimberly xoxo
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn’t a huge fan of this one either, so you aren’t alone in that.
I hate to give a bad review, but I was just so confused through the whole thing. I mean the premise was great and it had so much potential to be a great book, but the writing style turned me off.
It only took a couple of perspective shifts on this one for me to figure out where it was going. But yeah, I really wasn’t a huge fan.
It’s a real shame though because it had the capacity to be good.