The Last Mrs Parrish [audiobook review]

The Last Mrs Parrish - Liv Constantine

Title: The Last Mrs Parrish
Author:  Liv Constantine
Publisher: HaperCollins
Format: Audiobook

[Synopsis]

Some women get everything. Some women get everything they deserve. 
Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.
To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.
Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

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[My Review]

This is an compelling read (or, as I listened on audiobook, ‘listen’) which I put on whilst doing some DIY and ended up getting really drawn into.
It’s quite a far-fetched plotin many ways, but if you suspend your disbelief you’ll no doubt get into the plotting and sneakiness of certain characters. The synopsis gives away quite a lot of what this book is about already, so you know Amber is trying to get herself fully embedded into Daphne’s life – she wants her life for herself, in fact. We know this from early on, so I’m not spoiling anything here, but what we don’t know is what exactly happened in Amber’s life prior to this, and whether she’ll get her comeuppance (something I desperately wanted to happen throughout!).
Read by Suzanne Elise Freeman and Meghan Wolf (I have to admit that, embarrassingly, I just assumed it was the same person narrating throughout until I came to write this review), the american accent is spot on, with that drawl I always imagine (probably incorrectly!) of the American upper classes – or those trying to fit in there, anyway! I listened to it on a faster speed though, as I’m impatient and the pace of narration is quite slow to start with.
I warn you – this is a story jam-packed with characters you won’t like – some worse than others admittedly. Almost everyone has their faults, some far bigger than others, but there are definitely some surprises along the way! There are very few likable people here… when someone is plotting cold-heartedly to steal someone else’s husband and break up a family, you know they’re a ‘questionable‘ character, shall we say!Almost everyone has their faults, some far bigger than others, but there are definitely some surprises along the way! Usually that would make me struggle to keep interested in a story, but I feel that it just works here – it’s a story all about indulgence, superficiality and the never-ending struggle to be ‘top dog’. It’s also a story about just how much goes on behind closed doors that outsiders can’t see.
This is a really easy novel to race through on a lazy weekend, whether reading or listening, and it’s good fun too!

[Rating: 3.5/5]

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5 comments

  1. I appreciate your honest review. I just read another novel that involved suspending some disbelief and don’t think I’m quite ready for another one yet.

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