Review: The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

2**

To be honest, I almost feel I am being generous with two stars, but then I did finish it, so I feel bad giving it a lower rating. There was something about The Last Mrs. Parrish that made it a very easy read, but that just wasn't enough. My disappointment in the book really comes from my dislike of the characters, or at the very least my apathy towards them. Amber is despicable, but her bad personality is written so overtly there is no mystery, no build up of atmosphere to give the story some tension. The author tells us all about Amber's sneakiness, instead of just showing it,which ruins the suspense in my opinion. I could even get on board when the protagonist is unlikable, as long as there is some ambiguity, yet there was none of that here. dded to that, Amber's goal is really just to be rich, which felt too superficial and not interesting enough to make her a compelling character. I did feel for Daphne, however, I also felt her character was fairly bland and her part in the story quite easy to guess as well. The mystery itself was so predictable that I kept thinking, "Is this it?" The book is also just shy of 400 pages, which is too long given the rather minimal amount of actual plot. Though, as I say, the writing is easy and makes the book very readable, the author does make use of many a cliché and in many cases I thought, do people really talk/think like this? "She loved the feel of this singularly superior vehicle" - is just one example of awkward, unrealistic language, which I found to be a little irritating. I know I am being hard on this book and maybe unfairly since so many readers loved it, but after all the attention it received, I had hoped for something more exciting and more inventive than I got. All that being said, it's probably a decent vacation read, or even a book club read, because I imagine people could have a lot to say about this book. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.