Single Sundays: The Trophy Wife

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for The Trophy Wife (from Goodreads):

“I’ve done something terrible.”

On a foggy Palm Beach morning, Cate Cabot waits at a local cafe to meet her best friend for coffee—and a confession. At least that’s what Cate assumes based on the frantic voicemail Odessa left her earlier that morning.

Only Odessa never shows.

And when Cate drives to her home she finds no trace of her. In fact, Odessa isn’t just missing—it’s suddenly as if she never existed in the first place. Even the staff who run her palatial home in the gated Paradise Cove community are claiming Cate must be mistaken, confused.

As Cate searches high and low for her friend who vanished into thin air on the cusp of a mysterious admission, the only thing she finds … is that the truth might be more terrible than she ever could have imagined.

Liking Odessa was easy. Admiring her perfect life, easier so. But finding her? It’s going to be downright impossible without untangling the cryptic web of lies the missing trophy wife left in her wake.

Author: Sunday Tomassetti (aka Winter Renshaw aka Minka Kent)
Genre: Adult, Mystery, Suspense, Contemporary
Heat Rating: cool
Point of View: First Person, Multiple
Publication Date: March 5, 2020
Source & Format: Author–eARC

Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:

I’m a huge Winter Renshaw fan so when she provided her ARC Team with a copy of her thriller pen name, I signed up right away. I’m always on the lookout for exciting contemporary-thrillers and in her contemporary romances, Winter throws in some great twists that never fail to surprise me. So this seemed like a no-brainer to pick up.

The Concept:

I don’t like when things that are mentioned in the synopsis don’t happen until the halfway point. It just makes the exposition seem overly long and lacklustre. I feel like the first half could have been condensed a bit more and still have gotten the necessary points across.

The Plot:

Because I thought Odessa’s disappearance would happen earlier in the book, I struggled to get into this as quickly as I wanted. Which is a shame because the latter half of the novel is exciting to read. I had figured out most of the solution but there were still some interesting tidbits that took me by surprise.

The Characters:

Cate in someways is a bit of an somber lead to follow. I’m sure part of that is intentional given the circumstances of the story. And in some ways, the idea that this everyday woman could find herself in this extraordinary situation is appealing as a reader.