Book Review: Every Vow You Break By Peter Swanson

A woman’s bachelorette weekend fling shows up at the exclusive island where she and her husband are honeymooning. It’s an intriguing premise. As Swanson introduces us to our mysterious setting, the plot thickens and becomes increasingly more intriguing. There’s definitely a Hitchcockian feel to this one, and parts had me on the edge of my seat. Other parts did not.

I’m a longtime fan of this author, but I almost put this one down several times. It took me a while to get into, and even after I did I wasn’t always feeling it. My chief complaints were that the MC felt very much like a man-written woman, the text felt repetitive, like he was trying to meet a minimum word count, and that parts read like he was dictating what he was going to write – she goes to the bathroom then washes her hands when something catches her attention and then she does this or that – detailing mundane things that did nothing to move the plot forward.

I ultimately did enjoy this book, and parts were very effective and creepy, but I was a little disappointed by it as well. 3.5 rounded up.

From Goodreads: A bride’s dream honeymoon becomes a nightmare when a man with whom she’s had a regrettable one-night stand shows up in this psychological thriller from the author of Eight Perfect Murders. Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.

Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something special and he’s tracked her down to prove it.

Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.