An evocative drama about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other, and the true-crime writer who becomes obsessed with telling her story--this masterful work of literary suspense marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer. In 1985, Dolores "Lore" Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families ...
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An evocative drama about a woman caught leading a double life after one husband murders the other, and the true-crime writer who becomes obsessed with telling her story--this masterful work of literary suspense marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer. In 1985, Dolores "Lore" Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families, until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, while trawling the internet for the latest, most sensational news reports, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: Why would a woman risk her family, career, and social standing for a secret double marriage? Cassie sees an opportunity, she'll track Lore down and capture the full picture, the choices, the deceptions that led to disaster. But the more time she spends with Lore, the more Cassie questions the facts surrounding the murder itself. Soon, her determination to uncover the truth could threaten to derail Lore's now quiet life, and expose the many secrets both women are hiding
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Seller's Description:
New in new dust jacket. New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
New in new dust jacket. New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory.
I have felt bad about missing out on some of the releases from 2022 due to a hectic work schedule so I was excited to get to my final 2022 ARC - More Than You'll Ever Know. Sadly, I'm afraid this one is a DNF at 40% for me.
The plot really intrigued me from the blurb, a woman with two lives - two marriages which ended in murder and a journalist obsessed to find out the truth. Although this initially sounded interesting, I think the book was sorely let down by its editing. At 450 pages, this book is a beast, and it really, really didn't need to be. To put it into perspective, I've just finished reading quite a few fantasy books of around the same length which introduced a multitude of characters, entire worlds, magic systems, lore and politics in the same amount of time this book managed to tell me what I already knew from the blurb. The only thing the book managed to do in the over 200 pages I read was make me dislike all of the characters!
Lore is the mysterious woman at the heart of the story, but I never really felt much sympathy towards her. She was unhappy in her marriage and lied to a man to start having an affair. It wasn't exactly gripping. Cassie is a blogger and comes off as unlikeable with a shady family history and a weird obsession with this case that I didn't really understand. We flipped between narrators and time periods so frequently which led to confusion as I tried to work out where we were in the timeline.
I also didn't understand the need for random peppering of Spanish phrases in the prose and it felt very jarring at times. Using Cuates instead of twins was ok but there are some pieces of dialogue entirely in Spanish with no hint of a translation which got frustrating. There didn't seem to be a standard convention for when these were used either. As someone who knows only a few rudimental words of Spanish, this added an unnecessary obstacle to reading the book, which I wish I had known before I chose to request it.
When reading other reviews to work out whether it was worth trying to plough ahead, I accidentally came across a spoiler and sadly, I had actually correctly worked out what had happened from one conversation point with a particular character. At that point, I put the book down and have no intention of picking it back up, I'm afraid.
Overall, More Than You'l Ever Know is far too long for its content, with unlikeable characters and a predictable, slow moving plot. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Random House - Michael Joseph for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.
