Ever since the tragic death of her toddler, Ellie has been spiraling.  She's drinking too much, making reckless decisions, and acting out against her billionaire father.  One night, after too many cocktails, she literally stumbles into a handsome, successful real estate developer named Martin Cresswell-Smith.  His interest and gentle kindness are exactly what Ellie needs.  After a whirlwind courtship, the two are married and headed to Martin's native Australia, where they're heading up a multi-million dollar venture to build a luxury resort at Jarrawarra Bay, New South Wales.

Ellie's excited for this much-needed fresh start, but it's not long before her fairy tale life Down Under starts to dissolve.  Not everything about Martin and his building project is what it seems.  When the developer is brutally murdered, suspicion naturally turns to his unstable wife.  Did Ellie kill her new husband?  If so, why?  

Everyone in Jarrawarra Bay thinks Ellie murdered Martin.  Detective Senior Constable Lozza Bianchi isn't so sure.  She saw evidence of Ellie's fear of Martin firsthand.  Didn't she?  Can the widow be believed or is Ellie Cresswell-Smith manipulating everyone around her, including the police?  Lozza's already on thin ice with the department, but she will not stop digging until she knows what really happened to Martin.  The truth is far more sinister than even she imagined...

I'm always down for a compelling psychological thriller and In the Deep by Loreth Anne White sounded like just the ticket.  Was it?  There's no doubt that this is an engrossing novel.  It kept me on an uneven keel throughout, making me wonder who was telling the truth, who was hiding something, and who I could trust.  While I saw some of the plot twists coming, a couple caught me by surprise.  I like a mystery/thriller that keeps me guessing—and this one did.  Ish.  However, In the Deep is dark, violent, and disturbing.  It gave me more than one nightmare.  Not gonna lie, I kept asking myself, "Why am I reading this?"  It's compelling, that's why!  Bad dreams be darned, I wanted to find out what really happened between Ellie and Martin.  Still, the characters are an unlikable bunch who pretty much get exactly what they deserve.  Lozza is the only one I cared about, so I was disappointed that she didn't get more page time.  On the whole, then, I give this book props for being an unputdownable page-turner.  It loses points (at least for me) for being full of unlikable characters and for being too dark and depressing.  If this book is any indication, White's style is just too much for me.  I'll be giving her books a wide berth in future.    

(Readalikes:  I've seen White compared to Robert Dugoni, but I've only read one book by each of them so I'm not sure how apt the comparison is.  You?)

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Lettie Louw has always felt different from her girlfriends, who are beautiful, flirtatious, and adept at attracting masculine attention.  Getting her heart broken as a teenager propels her to seek education, not love.  After medical school she returns to her small South African hometown to work in her father's clinic.  All around her, Lettie's former classmates are getting married and having children.  Love still eludes the young doctor, who throws herself into her career.  Fulfilled but still lonely, Lettie tries to ignore the aching in her heart, the longing for a blissful romance of her own.  

Marco Romanelli has suffered a broken heart of his own.  After risking everything to protect the Jewish woman he loved, being thrown into a Nazi concentration camp, and barely surviving with his life, he's still trying to recover his health.  When his brother invites him to leave their native Italy and join him in South Africa, Marco goes, hoping the warm, dry climate will help clear his vulnerable lungs.  The last thing he expects is to fall in love with his physician, an intriguing woman who doesn't recognize her own beauty and strength.  

As Lettie and Marco take tentative steps toward the kind of grand romance neither one of them ever expected to find, they encounter stumbling blocks big and small.  When a heartbreaking discovery threatens to tear their world apart, the couple will have to travel a crooked, unimaginable path that will take them in an unexpected direction.  Can their faith and love see them through?

It's hard to describe The Crooked Path by South African author Irma Joubert because, truly, the novel has no plot.  It tells a sweeping story that spans Lettie's lifetime, but it's an unfocused, episodic tale that plods along for nearly 400 pages without really going anywhere.  In trying to cover too much ground, it's unevenly paced, which makes it feel even longer.  I appreciate that the story is squeaky clean and uplifting without being preachy; still, the tome was a chore for me to read.  Maybe Joubert's prose was more impressive before being translated into English, but in the version I read, it's very passive, very flat, and very dull.  The characters are all (well, mostly) perfectly nice—they're also one-dimensional, boring, and pretty much interchangeable.  Overall, then, I just had a difficult time reading The Crooked Path.  While it comes to a satisfying conclusion, the read was not worth the effort for me.  Ah, well.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I'm not sure to what I can compare it.  Ideas?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for violence and scenes of peril

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of The Crooked Path from the generous folks at Thomas Nelson via those at TLC Book Tours.  Thank you!

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