TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

The second novel from Lovering more than lives up to the promise of her debut, Tell Me Lies (2018).

Skye Starling appears to have it all—an enviable Manhattan apartment, a cool and successful book-editing job, and a pleasantly girly group of longtime friends. Still, her struggles with OCD have been a romantic-relationship deal breaker in the past. So when Skye meets the incredibly handsome Burke Michaels beachside at Montauk, the stage is seemingly set for a fairy-tale love story: Within six months they are engaged—much to the consternation of Skye’s BFF, Andie—and Skye is over the moon. But there are multiple clamoring voices in this chilling narrative that suggest all may not be well: We read Burke's diary entries, written at the behest of his marriage counselor—yup, Mr. Perfect-for-Skye already has a wife, a startling fact we learn within the early pages of the book; a former toxic boyfriend of Skye’s keeps emailing her creepy and threatening messages; and a decades-earlier narrative by Heather, Burke’s wife, confounds the dizzying plotline even further. Lovering, a master of manipulation to rival her own characters, does a skillful job of gradually unspooling her intricate tapestry of psychological intrigue while deftly juggling her multiple narratives. And neatly nested in this tale of just who is deceiving whom is a none-too-gentle critique of our system’s rigid social and economic inequities.

A nifty cat-and-mouse thriller that doesn’t stint when it comes to twists, turns, and “gotcha!” surprises.