An Amazon Charts bestseller.It takes more than a lie to hide the dark secrets of this picture-perfect family.When the granddaughter of one of Florida’s most powerful judges disappears, it triggers a personal trauma for Detective Alice Garner: the kidnapping and murder of her own child. As a flood of painful memories comes rushing back, Alice sees herself in the guilt-ridden and emotionally … guilt-ridden and emotionally fragile mother Charlotte Burke, who has become the target of a rush to judgment.
All too familiar with Charlotte’s situation, Alice is reluctant to cast any blame. Her gut instincts tell her that Charlotte’s anguish is rooted in something else—somewhere too dark for the truth to be seen. And Alice believes that it’s hiding behind the facade of the illustrious and guarded Burke mansion.
But uncovering Charlotte’s past comes with a risk. For Alice’s own life is becoming entangled in the secrets and lies of the picture-perfect family—an image that is about to be shattered in so many unexpected ways.
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I. Did. NOT! See. That. Coming. An exquisite, spellbinding tale of loss. Watch for the nuance. Watch for the details. It’ll still blindside you.
A solid 4 read!! The family dynamics throughout this novel is very dark and telling, emotional connection for the win. A lot of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. Had me changing my mind about who was responsible for the crime with each chapter.
Awesome writing. I enjoyed the banter between Detective Nakamura and Detective Garner.
The flashbacks from past to present were confusing at first but later on in the chapters it all made sense, and I am glad I stuck with it. I would definitely read another book from this author.
This was a dark tale of rape, incest, kidnapping and murder. The protagonist, Alice Garner, is a cop whose daughter was murdered five years before she starts investigating the murder of another five-year-old girl, but Alice seems to deal with it fine…except something is off. She’s a little too angry, a little too preoccupied with memories as one would expect, but then the book goes in a completely different direction. I must admit I did not see the end coming, but getting through all the excessive descriptive narrative that the author threw in was a chore. In one scene where Alice walks into a coffee shop, every other character is described in such minute detail, it completely derailed my attention from the plot. I had to keep pulling myself back and reminding myself that I had to get through this to know what finally happens. I also found the end a little unrealistic.
So many secrets and lies in the Burke Family. Right from the start you could tell something was just off with them. The twists and turns are unreal, but so realistic. It’s hard to put into words. The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat and the ending was so unexpected.
3.5
Girls of Glass was a mediocre crime/mystery novel. Interesting enough to keep reading but not really keeping you at the edge of your sit. None of the characters were really likeable to me, so
I failed to feel any compassion for them, even though some of them went through very difficult situations.
My main problem was that it felt like nothing was really happening for the majority of the book. On the one hand, the detectives spent most of the time theorizing and trying to find the suspect to Ruby’s disappearance. On the other, there are the Burkes, who chapter after chapter we only learn how much of a messed up family they are. Neither of the above are leading any closer to find out what happen for most of the story. Instead all the information are thrown together at the end and the big twist happens. I have to say that I didn’t see that ending coming at all! It was pretty good and that’s what boost up my rating at the end.
I only wish the rest of the novel was more engaging, since I reached the end with a mild interest to find out what happened. It’s not a bad book in any way, but nothing great as well.
Wow! This book was so good. There were twists and turns I never expected. I really enjoyed reading this and looked forward to reading it every day. Here’s a synopsis:
Set in my home, the Tampa Bay Area, this book revolves around a St. Petersburg police detective named Alice, who along with her partner detective Nakamura are working on the case of a missing little girl. The little girl “Ruby” comes from a prominent family in St. Petersburg, where her grandfather is a judge. The family seems to have it all together, but as the story unfiolds you see there are a lot of secrets in their home, and the eyes of the law are on Ruby’s mother Charlotte as the potential kidnapper. Throughout the book you question whether Charlotte could have really harmed her daughter, or if she is truly a mother in turmoil over her missing child. Or did someone else in the dysfunctional family harm Ruby. You will be guessing until the very end. This book was very well written, and I would definitely recommend it to any book lovers who like the psychological thriller genre.
This was a hard book to get into. I didn’t like Alice, at all. She seemed to be paranoid and at the same time, whiny. She comes across as having a massive chip on her shoulder.
Alice’s daughter was kidnapped and killed two years ago. She is a Homicide detective in St. Petersburg. Never figured out why she was working a kidnapping before it became a murder. Five year old Ruby is kidnapped and everyone is worried that Alice will go over the edge because of the resemblance to the disappearance of her own child.
I wondered at a lot of the things Alice did, but I didn’t see the end coming.
I read the book to see how it ended, but probably won’t be reading anything else by Ms. Labuskes.
Girls of Glass by author Brianna Labuskes has a shocking conclusion! I could not stop reading this book once I started and when I realized the … Wait I cannot post spoilers!! This is such a heart-rending story.
Alice is a detective in search for answers regarding missing five-year-old Ruby. This case is especially hard for Alice because her daughter was abducted and murdered a few years earlier. She has purposed she will not let her past grief interfere with her pursuit of Ruby and later the murderers.
Charlotte is from a wealthy family. She has tried to be the perfect daughter, but she learned at an early age that monsters are real and sometimes they live in your own home. Her daughter Ruby is missing and she fears for her fate and the secrets which have affected the choices she has made in their lives.
Trudy is a teenager and lives in the home of her wealthy grandparents with her mom, her aunt Charlotte, and cousin Ruby. She knows what is like to be a prisoner in this home. She wants to escape her domineering grandmother, her nighttime monster grandfather, and her clueless mother.
So much conflict in one home comes together to form the perfect storm for this whole family.
The ending is riveting!
Publication Date: January 15, 2019
THIS REVIEW IS FOR BOTH THE AUDIOBOOK AND EBOOK VERSIONS
The narration was perfect and the story was well written. Sick twisted characters but I recommend it for anyone that has an interest in the sick and twisted.
It was a very good book. it was very unique. it was very twisted. But for some reason when 1st started listening to it it was so hard 2 pay attention. I had to restart the book four five times. I would just start randomly start thinking about something else or whatever.. I don’t usually have that problem but once I would realize I wasn’t paying attention, then I would start kind of listening and the story was good so I would restart it. Once I really got focused it was a very good book.
I thought this was a good, if somewhat dark and disturbing, story. I definitely did not foresee the twist at the end. I know some reviewers were unsatisfied with the ending but I rather liked it. On the down side, I had to work to care much about any of the characters, including the main one. Also, I have mixed feelings about the back-and-forth-between-two-timelines style of storytelling. On the whole, I think this is worth the read for the story but if you insist on likable characters or a standard happy ending you might want to look elsewhere.
This book had an interesting twist and really kept the reader guessing about who the real culprit was almost until the end.
Plot is not wound together. Things appear that don’t seem connected until forced to at the end. Characters very unlikeable!