
The truth will set you free. But it’s the lies that keep you safe.
At the beginning of the book a woman dies, falling down from a treacherous mountain path and leaving her child motherless. Who is she? what kind of secrets and frustrations made her go on the fateful mountain climb when she was clearly not in the right kind of shape and state to do it?

And so our guessing game begins… We meet Lee, a single mom of Mason, a delightful and amazingly gifted child with a sensory processing disorder, which means Lee has to run hairstyling business from home, so that Mason can be homeschooled and given occupational therapy. We also meet Grace, Lee’s best friend, who is a kind and symathetic divorced mother of seven year old Luca. Lee became friends with a few playground mothers long time ago when Mason was still asymptomatic. They all want to help Lee, and they all have different strengths and roles, but it is Grace that Lee confides in and feels safe around. It does help that Grace adores and understands Mason better than anybody else.

Lee’s life is full of relentless responsibilities, so when her friends suggest a weekend away, she doesn’t even take it into serious consideration. Eventually, Noah, Mason’s tutor and occupational therapist, persuades her to go by saying he will take care of the boy and send hourly updates all weekend. But as we know forty-eight hours later a tragedy strikes.
We get three points of view in this book, as well as two timelines of present (before and after the fall) and past. Fairly quickly, we realise that Grace, lee and Noah are all keeping secrets from each other, secrets that they are not willing or not ready to share, because they can destroy the lives they have been carefully constructing.

Rea Frey’s writing is compelling and you get drawn into the book from page one. We see that the narrators are unreliable for various reasons, and the clues left by the author may or may not be leading us to the truth. I must admit I didn’t see the final revelation coming, which made it all even more fascinating, although not entirely believable.

What I liked the most about this book is the emotional engagement the author carefully creates. Any mother will recognise the worry of having a child diagnosed with a disorder that will require special care, the worry of not being able to meet their physical, emotional or developmental needs. How do you make sure your child is going to thrive and live their life to the fullest without exposing them to unmitigated risks? Similarly, any reader will understand a single mother’s desire to meet ‘an appropriate, responsible, honorable’ friend or a future partner.
A well-crafted domestic thriller with twists and turns that will keep you reading compulsively.
Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin’s Griffin for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
- Have you read Because you’re mine? What did you think of the ending?
- Is it on your tbr? Have you read Rea Frey’s previous book? Did you like it?
Great review, this sounds like a good one! I am not too keen on endings or final revelations which are too far-fetched, but if the rest of the story is gripping, I can live with it.
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Thank you! My feelings precisely🤗 The writing was very good, I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it. Plus, Mason is the key to the story and he is such a loveable character.
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Wow, this does sound interesting and your review has just made me want to read it all the more 😀 I love the images you’ve put into the post too by the way 🙂
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Thank you! The story was so gripping. I just have this compulsive need to add pictures that remind me of the events in the book.😁
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Fantastic review, Tony. I haven’t read Rea Frey before, nor have I tried the unreliable-narrator-thriller genre. Maybe this book will be the perfect introduction for me to this genre. 🙂
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Thank you, Debjani! She is a new author to me, but a lot of my friends also recommended her first book.
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Wow fantastic review. I loved the book too. But loved your review more. I haven’t read her earlier book that’s in my TBR
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Thank you, Shalini! This one had so many twists…I really didn’t see the final one coming, although in retrospect there were clues, of course. Glad you liked it too.
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Excellent review, Toni💜 This one gave me some of the biggest surprises ever.
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Thank you for recommending it to me! I loved your review so much that I decided to download it! You were lucky to do it as a buddy read. Did Tina guess the ending?
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No, we were both stunned! We were online at the same time as when we read that ending.
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I have this book sitting on my kindle. Now after reading your great review, I am very anxious to read it, even with a not so believable ending.
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Thank you, Marialyce! It was really gripping, she is definitely a very talented author. Didn’t see this ending coming at all 🙂 Will be looking forward to reading what you think of it.
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Sounds good. I’ve been looking for recommendations
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Hope you like it. Mason is such an adorable kid and he is the key to the story (this is not a spoiler :-))
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I’ll let you know. 🙂
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Wonderful review Toni. This sounds so good, and pretty realistic, despite the ending. Having a grandson with autism, I am very interested in reading this one. You are so right, parents look for others to share their concerns and time with who will understand where they are coming from. That is only natural. I can feel the emotions in your review. I definitely need to read this one.
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Mason was just amazing- I’m sure you’ll love his character. Thank you, Carla!
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