Review: Now You Are Mine by Amanda Brittany

Now You Are Mine

by Amanda Brittany

Release Date: September 9, 2024

2024 Boldwood Books

Ebook ARC; 299 Pages

ISBN: 978-9836171782

ASIN: B0D3P6CCKC

Audiobook: B0D94QPKG4

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

2.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

When Polly signs up to an art retreat in the Lake District, it's an escape from the stress of recent months, when a stalker preyed on her and her friend.

It's also an opportunity to find out more about her family as Polly believes her biological mother once lived here, at Lakeside House. But things quickly turn sinister. The previous owners supposedly took their own lives here, years before – and the glamorous new owners are now receiving disturbing threats. Someone is sabotaging Polly's artwork. The five other guests on the retreat all seem to be hiding something.

Then one of them goes missing.

My Thoughts

Now You Are Mine is one of those books that intrigued me because of the mystery surrounding her mother and her family. Plus, I like stories that revolve around sinister events from the past whereby the net generation has to go hunting for clues about mysterious disappearances and secrets. How I love secrets! This had all the elements that I love in a story. So, where did it go wrong? Well, I actually found a lot of it implausible and although I can suspend some level of belief, there is definitely a limit. And I wasn't a fan of the main character.

The overall character development was one-dimensional which made it really difficult to root for the characters or really care what happened to them. I didn't really care that they were written in both first and third person as I don't think that was the problem, but I am writing this almost two months later from my notes, and if I hadn't written those notes, I would not recall who was who as they were all bland. 

The first part of the book was the most interesting for me as I was intrigued by the mystery and I was interested in the setting and the threatening notes the new owners were receiving.  You have Polly's artwork being tampered with, some of the characters are behaving weirdly, other characters are definitely hiding things from their friends and their significant others, and then one of them just disappears.  Looking at all those things, it should have been a fascinating read, but the execution of it all just didn't work and felt excessive, like the author was trying too hard to create all of these strange scenarios, but couldn't keep track of all the threads.  And because the characters weren't all that engaging, I just couldn't get invested in the story and what was happening, flipping through the pages just to get to the end. 

I did enjoy the atmosphere of this book and thought the setting was intriguing, but then I love tunnels and secrets, so that was the part I enjoyed the most. I was actually grateful for the multiple POV as it gave me a break from Polly's story line as I found her irritating at times, and it was nice to learn what happened in the past and how it affected the future.  

Verdict

Now You Are Mine had a lot of elements that were interesting, but issues with character development and pacing definitely impacted the overall reading experience.  Some of the twists were a bit hard to believe, and overall, I found the book to be a bit forgettable with an average plot and average characters.