Never Have I Ever: A Novel

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When Roux proceeds to get the ladies sloshed, minus Charlotte, who is currently pregnant, Amy's suspicions begin to grow. I want to thank the publisher, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity even though it was a miss for me. Book club is well underway when the doorbell rings. Amy opens the door to a pretty woman with beautiful dark hair. The woman's name is Angelica Roux, Roux for short. She is a single mom with a teenage son and they are staying at the Airbnb next door. She thought she would come to book club to meet some new people. My suggestion is if you have enough patience, please keep reading. (Mostly I don’t but this time I trusted my guts not to put it down.) Because after the second half, too many twists are going to be GAME CHANGERS and when you were taking baby steps on this book, you are starting to run and then fly! Amy Whey is happily married, has a teenage stepdaughter, and a young son. She has a close friendship with her BFF, Charlotte, and lives in a nice home, in a nice community, and enjoys hosting Charlotte’s book club.

Another fun element is how Amy comes to see Roux, ironically, as the only person who really gets her. I couldn’t call her. I was not such a beaten dog that I would belly-creep for petting from the hand that held the whip. I bit and swallowed, tearing at the meat. What did it say about me that Roux was the only person I could be honest with? Only she saw me down to my core, dark and deep, bitter as wormwood. All the things that made me hate myself, she actively admired, and she was the only one who saw me whole.Roux keeps finding herself surprised that someone she had thought would be an easy mark had turned out to be a tough competitor in a game of spy versus spy. Frenemies on steroids. There is a nice scene in which Amy gives Roux a book to read, Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis, maybe hoping she would, on reading it, consider where she had gone wrong, maybe rue her current life gig? The author here is reminding those who are familiar with the book that many, many of us have not always lived our best lives. Take a bunch of regular women...wives, moms, adjuncts and administrators, professors, librarians and a dive instructor, and add into the mix one usurping stranger. One usurping stranger who exudes an attractive air of danger, who encourages confidences. She plays a dangerous and deadly game, one where only she knows the rules, one where she always wins. A twisting novel of domestic suspense in which a group of women play a harmless drinking game that escalates into a war of dark pasts. Make no mistake. Amy’s secret is a doozy to keep. And it seems Roux is determined to expose all. But why? What could she possibly gain? And why is Roux fixated on Amy’s secret and no one else’s? It turns out that Amy is not entirely sunk by Roux’s threat, but rises to the surface, gasping for air and finds a way to shore. The benefit of having kept secrets all her life is having a pretty decent feel for how to go about uncovering the secrets of others. It requires some pretty bold action, but having guts, plus an excellent brain, gives her the wherewithal to give Roux a serious run for her money.I have one gripe about the book. There is a point at which Amy misleads Roux by telling her something that was not true, hardly an unreasonable approach when dealing with the criminal element. But not having been clued in by the author makes Amy, who had seemed pretty reliable, an unreliable narrator. It seemed inconsistent.

To protect herself and her family and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins. Never Have I Ever starts off with my kind of evening, a book club meeting, wine and friends. What could go wrong? Soon things take a turn when a new neighbour changes the pace to a game of Never Have I Ever. Along with a little too much drink, things take a very intriguing turn and secrets start to come out or threaten to come out. I was hooked and couldn’t wait to find out more. The pace slows down a bit as the characters are developed and I began to get a little impatience and wanted things to move along a bit faster.New neighbour, Angelica Roux (call me Roux like the kangaroo) swoops into book club night, and immediately takes over, charming the other housewives. When she suggests a game of Never Have I Ever, the women are or for it, except for Amy, because the secrets she keeps are worse than most.

Amy has no intentions seeking Roux out, but she is worried. She tells herself that it’s impossible for Roux to know about her past. Truly impossible. But when Roux comes looking for her, Amy’s instincts are proven right. Roux wants something from her and if she doesn’t get it, she’s going to make Amy pay... Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it’s naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better.

On the night of bookclub, they are joined by a new neighbor, Roux, who immediately worms her way into the group with her charm. She needs no introductions. She captivates the room from the start.Tuesday, May 28, 1991, was the night that Amy’s life, as well as many others, changed forever. After that night, Amy tried a variety of ways to stuff her feelings. Eventually, it was diving that saved her. Being underwater was the only place she could forget… if just for a little while. Then Amy met Davis and his daughter, Maddy. They became her family, eventually adding baby Oliver to the mix. Finding a new best friend, Charlotte only added to Amy's happiness.