Synopsis
Bestselling romance author Sarina Bowen’s debut thriller, about one woman’s search for the truth after receiving a text from her deceased ex.
She thought it was love. Then he vanished.
On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty’s phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it’s been several years since she learned he died.
Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.
Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her.
The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew.
With a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.
Mini audiobook review
4 stars
After having read romances by Sarina I was curious to see how she would pivot to the thriller genre.
Now I can say that she earned an honorable mention.
The story is told from Ariel’s POV mostly with interludes told from her ex boyfriend’s POV.
It all begins with a cell tower that had a problem for one hour five years ago and now is sending all the messages.
Imagine getting a message from your dead boyfriend telling you that there was trouble and asking to meet in secret.
Ariel, now single mom of a four years old is troubled and wonder what happened to her boyfriend five years ago.
Did he really leave her willingly?
Is he really dead?
And what is the link with the tec company her deceased father and uncle built together?
And was her father’s death really a suicide?
Helped by the chief security officer and nerd Zane, Ariel will enter a dangerous game where people don’t want anyone to uncover the truth.
This made for an enjoyable read with a reasonable amount of tension, guessing game and deadly situations.
Ariel was a character easy to love and root for and her little boy, Buzz, was the swoon factor of the story.
I listened to the story in a record time, engaged in the intrigue and even without a real « wow »factor, I have already added Sarina’s future thriller to my TBR.
Thanks for reading.
Sophie
I’m always curious when authors jump to another genre, and it sounds like this worked pretty well
Indeed it did!
I am not that surprised but still glad to hear that Bowen did a good job genre jumping. That has to be quite unsettling to get messages from someone you thought died.
That sounds chilling come to think of it!