ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH. Too Good to Be True is an obsessive, addictive love story for fans of Lisa Jewell and The Wife Upstairs, from Carola Lovering, the beloved author of Tell Me Lies.Skye Starling is overjoyed when her boyfriend, Burke Michaels, proposes after a whirlwind courtship. Though Skye seems to have the world at her fingertips—she’s smart, … world at her fingertips—she’s smart, beautiful, and from a well-off family—she’s also battled crippling OCD ever since her mother’s death when she was eleven, and her romantic relationships have suffered as a result.
But now Burke—handsome, older, and more emotionally mature than any man she’s met before—says he wants her. Forever. Except, Burke isn’t who he claims to be. And interspersed letters to his therapist reveal the truth: he’s happily married, and using Skye for his own, deceptive ends.
In a third perspective, set thirty years earlier, a scrappy seventeen-year-old named Heather is determined to end things with Burke, a local bad boy, and make a better life for herself in New York City. But can her adolescent love stay firmly in her past—or will he find his way into her future?
On a collision course she doesn’t see coming, Skye throws herself into wedding planning, as Burke’s scheme grows ever more twisted. But of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. And just when you think you know where this story is going, you’ll discover that there’s more than one way to spin the truth.
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An unpredictable story with intriguing layers, deep, dimensional characters with unique and engaging voices. I really thought I knew where the story was going, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. A great ride of a book.
Where to begin with this book? The plotting is nimble, the writing fresh, and the characters so richly drawn that I felt their joy and agony to the core. There are surprises galore in this thriller, meted out with remarkable patience and skill. I loved it.
Too Good to Be True is a twisted thriller replete with surprising plot developments and deliciously untrustworthy narrations.
At the center of the story is Skye Starling, a beautiful, wealthy, twenty-nine-year-old editor living in New York City. She has a close-knit group of loyal girlfriends, chief among them Andie. But a long-lasting romantic relationship has eluded Skye. For a time, she thought she might find happiness with Max LaPointe, her on-again, off-again crush, but the relationship ended badly. The men she has dated so far have been unable to handle the fact that Skye has a serious case of OCD. She is compelled to engage in certain behaviors, and medication and therapy have not succeeded in controlling those urges. For instance, she must twice tap eight times on doors before exiting rooms, counting from one to eight and back down to one, and touch and tap everything in the room constructed from wood before leaving. As an adolescent, she was subjected to cruel derision, humiliated in front of her classmates. And now she is watching her other friends’ lives progress into marriage and parenthood while she remains single. Even Andie has been with her boyfriend, Spencer, since college, although they are not yet engaged.
Everything changes one sunny afternoon in Montauk. A “quiet girls’ weekend” at an exclusive club in the Hamptons with Andie, drinks by the pool . . . and a handsome forty-six-year-old man who strikes up a conversation with them lead to a walk on the beach after Andie departs to call Spencer. “Text me tomorrow,” Skye tells Burke before entering her telephone number into his phone and leaving to join Andie for dinner. Just like that, Skye and Burke become enamored with each other. Within a couple of months Burke moves into her apartment with her. Before long, despite the misgivings of her closest friend, they are engaged and planning a September wedding. She is determined not to let the threatening emails she has suddenly begun to receive from Max diminish her joy at finally having found a man who loves and accepts her just as she is — Burke is not bothered by her OCD. Skye has never been so happy . . .it all feels just too good to be true.
Interspersed with Skye’s first-person narrative in which she details the tragic ways in which OCD has negatively impacted her life — she was diagnosed just three months after losing her mother — and her whirlwind romance with Burke, is Burke’s diary. He writes to Dr. K, the expensive couples therapist who does not accept insurance that he and his wife, Heather, saw a few times. Dr. K suggested that Burke and Heather write down their thoughts daily in order to get to know themselves better as individuals, apart and independent from their status as long-time spouses. Burke and Heather have been married for twenty-five years, and Burke is not, as he convinced Skye, a wealth manager. When he leaves Sky’s apartment, he does not really go to a “WeWork” location to communicate with clients. Burke lost his long-time job as a data entry specialist. After his brilliant Wall Street career was cut short when he did something “bad,” he was lucky to get any job with a wealth-management firm. He’s been applying for jobs for months, with no success, while Heather is an Uber driver. Their daughter’s tuition is due and they don’t have enough cash to make the mortgage payment.
And the third narrative, relating Heather’s point of view, begins in 1989 when she and Burke were in high school. Essentially on her own, Heather cares for her little brother, Gus. Her life irrevocably changed the day glamorous Libby Fontaine answered the ad she posted in the general store offering to babysit. Libby hires Heather to look after her four-year-old son and three-month-old daughter, paying her an astronomical $15 per hour. But the fabulous Libby is not impressed when Burke drops Heather off in his rusty Chevrolet pickup, flicking his cigarette butt onto Libby’s pristine front lawn. As Heather becomes increasingly enamored with Libby and seeks to emulate her every movement, word, and thought, she is determined to leave Burke and the little town of Langs Valley behind. But Heather details how she came to regret ever meeting Libby . . . and eventually married Burke and watched her dreams evaporate. The life she is living is a far cry from the one she imagined for herself all those years ago in Langs Valley.
Too Good to Be True is more than a mystery in which a con man lures a vulnerable young woman into marriage and she eventually learns the truth, and the fallout leads to the story’s resolution. It’s a compelling character study of three damaged people and their motivations to change their circumstances. Skye is a sympathetic protagonist because, despite all the advantages she has enjoyed in her life, she has also suffered tragedy and sadness. Losing her mother at the young age of eleven was traumatic and shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with OCD, which created a panoply of complications for her both socially and emotionally. Burke is plainly more than an amoral scam artist. He expresses his deep love for Heather, devotion to his children, and genuine appreciation of and attraction to Skye. Heather is fascinating, revealing her history in a linear fashion as her timeline gradually catches up to the present day. Like Skye, she expands on the ways in which great losses and numerous disappointments have informed her choices and inspired her actions.
Lovering’s story is cleverly-plotted and engrossing. The various narratives are deftly woven together into a cohesive whole that moves at steady pace. Lovering delivers jaw-dropping revelations at expertly-timed junctures that make it impossible to put the book down until the whole truth is divulged. Or is it the truth? The narrators are unreliable, yet persuasive, enhancing the shock value of the disclosures.
Too Good to Be True is an insightful and suspenseful exploration of the power of greed, betrayal, and revenge. It’s a thoughtful and compassionate examination of the ways in which heartbreak and loss affect and influence us, the extent of our capacity to forgive, and the ways in which we are willing to compromise in the name of love. It is sure to be viewed as one of the best psychological thrillers of 2021.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
This book will take you on quite a ride through the lives of three individuals – Burke, Heather, and Skye. Their stories flip from the past to the present and the deception that is revealed is shocking and at times, unbelievable. The book is divided into two parts and this book reminds me of Gone Girl in a way, that you believe one thing to be true and then find out that you couldn’t have been more wrong.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to share what I liked without giving away too much. I will say that I missed some obvious clues about these three and how their stories intersect. But maybe I didn’t and they were just obvious in the second part of the book. It is quite an eye opener and how I felt about the different characters changed and those that I liked or felt sorry for, I now despised. This book definitely got into my head.
I think Skye is the most likable character and the one that I felt sorry for because I thought she was an innocent pawn in this whole debacle. Not that she is totally innocent, but I can see how she got swept up in her feelings for Burke and what he provided for her. You will learn about Skye’s OCD compulsions which are a part of her self image issues. But considering how cruel people can be, especially when they are teenagers, it isn’t a huge surprise.
I had mixed feelings about Burke and Heather. I liked them and hated them all at the same time, especially when the truth is revealed near the end. I think Heather is a bit naive too and she learns near the end of the book what might make her happy isn’t quite as fulfilling as she thought. I fear if I say too much more it will spoil the story.
This is a look into the psyche of the characters and what makes them tick and what lengths are they willing to go to in order to ensure happiness. You might be surprised at their discoveries by the end.
This is definitely a book that will get into your head and we give it 5 paws up.
Have you ever driven in the mountains? This book is just like that, with all the twists and turns! It is so very interesting and the characters are just so life like and so real. It is a hard book to put down so don’t start it until you have lots of time to read!
One love story, or is it two? Is it even love or just opportunistic, insecure, dumb people connecting?
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…shallow characters, no emotional hook, predictable, boring. Learned everything within the first half; made finishing a slog.
As an author, I was amazed at the way in which Lovering plotted out this story. The twists, the POV, all of it. If you’re looking for a page-turning thriller, this is it!
Too Good to Be True was an intriguing mystery full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Skye Starling has finally found the man she’s ready to spend the rest of her life with and is ecstatic when he proposes. To the world, Skye seems to have it all; she’s smart, beautiful, has the perfect guy, and she’s from a well-off family. But hidden from the world is the fact she’s living with severe OCD. With her chance at the fairytale, Skye throws herself into planning her wedding. But what Skye doesn’t know is that Burke Michaels isn’t who he claims to be. That’s he’s already married and is using Skye for his own end.
Too Good to Be True is told in three alternating points of view; Skye’s, Burke’s, and Heather’s (Burke’s wife). Skye’s perspective is set in present day and we follow her from her engagement onward. Burke’s perspective is told in letters/journal entries to his therapist starting from the beginning of his relationship with Skye to the present. Heather’s perspective is set in two different time periods; the first half is set thirty years ago and the second in present day. I liked the alternating perspectives as it kept things interesting as you would learn things in one point of view that would soon directly influence another. The author did a great job at making each voice unique, so I always knew who I was reading from.
The characters in this book aren’t inherently likeable but that makes them no less interesting. Skye is desperate for love and with her OCD, she feels like it won’t happen for her. She’s very naïve at times but it comes from a place of wanting to be accepted for who she is which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Burke I had a bit of a hard time with as I didn’t see him as charming or sweet or however else Skye saw him. I struggled with the relationship between these two because of this and just couldn’t figure out what Skye saw in him. In my mind he was a manipulative liar which made him hard to like but I feel like he was well written for what he was. Heather was the most interesting of the three characters to me. She’s quite different in the first half of the book compared to the second, but once you know why she’s that way, it makes perfect sense.
Ultimately what dropped this book from a four stars to a three was the ending. I didn’t like the ending at all and will explain why under a spoiler tag. (view spoiler)
Overall while I didn’t like the ending, Too Good to Be True was still an enjoyable read and I would recommend it if you’re looking for an intriguing thriller.
**I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Beautiful Skye Starling has everything she could want in life, except love. Skye is smart, beautiful, caring and rich, a catch for anyone. But, she has a form of OCD that cripples her everyday life. Each time she enters or leaves a room, she must knock on the door 16 times. If she glances at a clock and it has double digits, she needs to kiss the clock to correspond to the number. Sometimes she has to knock on all the wood in a room. Then she meets Burke, a handsome older man who claims that her OCD is part of her, and he loves her unequivocally. Which he does. It’s just that he also loves his wife, Heather, and now, Heather is mad.
This thriller is all about betrayal, revenge exacted through deception, greed, and a woman scorned. The story is told over a 30-year time span, alternating between Skye, Burke and Heather. Don’t let that deter you as It is immensely readable and so well-written there is no confusion with the plot. The story will keep you wondering, and great character development makes this one you will want to pick-up. I wavered between 3 and 4 stars, just because the last half of the book bogs down a bit and the ending was just a bit too neat.
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WOW! This book has such a conniving and manipulating plotline that readers won’t know WHO to trust or even what lies ahead. I feel like it’s been a long time since I read a book that was so convoluted like this one and I am SO HERE FOR IT! This synopsis of this book gives readers a fairly good idea what to expect: “ONE LOVE STORY. TWO MARRIAGES. THREE VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH” but not what happens in between. And it’s this stuff that happens that will leave your head spinning, your heart pumping, and your butt unable to leave your seat! Carola Loring is a new to me author but after reading this one I am super excited to see what she comes up with next (I’ll also have to go back and read her debut which sounds fantastic).
Too Good to Be True is a novel that reads best if the reader goes into it blind. There are too many spoilery things that could come about even if I try and described this novel, so I won’t even do that. I will say though that it’s an excellent plot filled with secrets, lies, and revenge! It’s one of those thrillers that leave you shocked until the very end! I enjoyed it so much! Glad I chose it as an add on for my book of the month box!
So why only 4 stars? The only thing that stopped me from giving this book a full five stars is that the ending was almost too easy for the characters involved. I get why the MC made the decisions that she did, but it felt way too easy for everything she went through. Also, I would have liked to know a little bit more about Burke and what happens after the fact… I can’t say in what way, but I know many who have read this or DO read this will understand what I’m talking about. An extra epilogue would have helped!
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• Twisted plots and unreliable characters
• Domestic and Marriage Thrillers
• Tarryn Fisher, Rachel Hawkins, and Darby Kane
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You simply must go into this book with no prior knowledge of the events that will occur. It is a fabulously written book. The characters are good, yet bad. They are flawed but caring. It is a melding of contrasts that will keep you guessing while the turns jump out unexpectedly.
An absolute must read. I was unfamiliar with Carola Lovering before I read this book. She is now on my list of authors to watch for. Too Good to Be True is sure to be a best seller. I loved this book and couldn’t put it down. I recommend it to anyone who asks for a book suggestion.
I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.
When Burke meets Skye it’s almost love at first sight. Things move quickly, and Skye’s friends are concerned when they get engaged after barely a year of knowing each other. Is Burke too good to be true?
It’s a fun maze of a story with plenty of surprises. We get a delightfully clever and twisted villain who’s plot is made easier by gullible and stupid victims. Though, you’re not quite just who are the villains and victims until near the end of the book.
When something is too good to be true, it usually is, so watch out!
Skye Starling is deeply in love with Burke Michaels and after just 6 months, they become engaged. Her friends warn her that she doesn’t know enough about Burke, and to please wait. But, Skye is convinced this is real.
Burke is hiding something from Skye–he is married with 3 children, and has targeted Skye because she is wealthy, and he needs her financial assistance.
Heather is Burke’s wife, who Burke married when they were teenagers. According to his journal, he is desperately in love with Heather.
The story is told from multiple perspectives, Skye, Burke, and Heather. There are several twists in the novel which are a surprise when they are revealed.
I enjoyed this psychological thriller. I am always amazed at how devious some people can be.
#TooGoodToBeTrue #NetGalley
This review will be short and sweet, since this is one of those books where, when attempting to review it, the less said the better. I’m that reader that doesn’t even want to know a twist is coming in a book, because I end up reading and trying to guess what the twist will be. So I won’t say much beyond what’s in the synopsis. It kept me guessing – it’s told from three points of view and you really aren’t sure if any of the three are really reliable narrators. I’ll just say that despite the fact a bit of suspension of disbelief was required, ultimately I very much enjoyed this one.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy for an unbiased review.
The overview boasted emotionally nuanced psychological suspense. I kept waiting for the suspense. It never arrived for me. Too Good to be True is told by three characters, Heather, her husband, Burke, and Skye Starling. It begins with Heather and her then boyfriend Burke. Heather accepts a babysitting job with Libby Fontaine, and the two of them quickly form a close friendship. Heather is even invited on Libby’s family vacation which ends abruptly with a tragic death which leads to the end of Libby and Heather’s friendship. We are fast-forwarded to the future, and Heather is still obsessed with Libby, and now Heather and Burke formulate The Plan which now involves Skye. We find out later who Skye really is, and the story takes on a new angle. I really did not like any of the characters, except perhaps Skye’s best friend, Andie. It held my interest, but not the suspense I was hoping for.
The author gives multi viewpoints from the characters. This is perfect to give more depth in a triangle of excellent drama. As a reader, you are not left with unanswered questions. If anything, you will be overwhelmed with emotions. By far the best book of the year.
Intricate, creepy, and twisty!
Too Good to Be True is a sinister, psychological thriller that introduces us to three main characters. Skye Starline a young woman with looks, money, and a great career but unlucky in love, until recently, due to her often debilitating OCD, Burke Michaels, a handsome, mature father of three who seems to be the perfect fiancé except for the fact he’s broke and actually already married, and Heather, a middle-aged wife with a past littered with heartbreak and loss and a compulsive desire to have all the good things in life.
The prose is taut and intense. The characters are suspicious, secretive, and vulnerable. And the plot using a mix of narration, diary entries, and flashbacks, and told from multiple POVs, intertwines and unravels effortlessly into a machiavellian tale of deception, lies, manipulation, jealousy, secrets, revelations, and mind-blowing mayhem.
Overall, Too Good to Be True is an unpredictable, tight, satisfying thrill ride by Lovering that had just the right amount of twists, turns, and surprises to keep me thoroughly engrossed from start to finish.
Does doing a bad thing make someone a bad person?
“Too Good to Be True” unfolds in three separate narratives in that shift back and forth in time. Readers observe how characters get to the current storyline and how the past influences the present. Events are told from several perspectives so readers know what characters do not, at least for a while. The characters are distinct with different personalities, different motivations, and very different goals. There are lots of red flags, but the problem with red flags is they have to be recognized to be of any help. Someone is not telling the truth, or perhaps none of them are.
Skye Starling has issues, a strand of OCD complete with compulsions to touch things and knock on doors in a specific pattern. People worry about Skye, her “problem,” her relationships, her coping ability. She, however, is quite satisfied with her personal sense of control in a world that is wildly uncontrollable. She also has a fiancé, Burke Michaels. Michaels says he is devoted to Sky, the woman he has searched for all his life, perhaps because she has a specific element that attracted him. He is seeing a therapist and keeping a journal filled with dramatic revelations. He has secrets, big secrets, but again, at least he has a last name that ends in a consonant. Heather’s narrative opens when she is sixteen; her then boyfriend, Burke, drops her off to babysit. She loves the job and the family, but it turns out to be the unluckiest occasion of her life. One event is the catalyst for continued pain and devastation.
Deception unfolds page after page; details are revealed, and lives come crashing down. Readers are left to wonder if doing a bad thing makes someone a bad person. I received a review copy of “Too Good to Be True” from Carol Lovering and St. Martin’s Press. It was a preposterous collision that one could see coming but could not believe. It is absorbing, compelling, and unreliable right to the end.
#EveryoneIsUnreliable #TwistsAndTurns”
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for unbiased review from Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press.
Be prepared for a twisted, unexpected story when reading, Too Good to Be True. In March 2019, Skye Starling is a young, beautiful free lance editor of young adult fiction with a wedding to plan. She had never dreamed that she would ever find love due to her severe OCD condition which began after her mother died when she was 12 years old. It has been a source of constant stress and embarrassment for her preventing long term relationships due to her ritualistic behavior. Skye works from home which allows her to avoid people staring at her when she needs to knock on wood 8 times before exiting a room. Her father sold his profitable pharmaceutical company to J&J and so money has never been problem for the family.
She has some close, protective friends from college who understand her condition and help provide her with much needed socialization. It is on a girl’s trip to Montauk Gurneys resort with her best friend, Andie that Skye meets Burke Michaels, a tall handsome, 47 year old. Despite her friends and family cautioning her not to move too fast, she falls head over heels in love with Burke after only dating 6 months. Meanwhile, there is another story being told via “Burke Michael’s diary” beginning in September 2018 that proves to add a spin to the story. It seems that Burke Michaels is living two different lives in which he is also married to Heather his high school sweetheart. The question is which one is the “real” life Burke Michaels wants to live.
The story mixes the past with the present in which the truth is hard to discern. When Burke proposes to Skye she feels blessed to have found the love of her life. The couple seem to have an idyllic life when reality is exposed and everyone is unprepared for the fall out. What follows is an unbelievable web of truths and lies which are more convoluted than originally shared. If you love twisted, psychological stories then this is for you.
Skye Starling is happier than she’s ever been. Burke Michaels proposes after they have a whirlwind courtship. Not everyone is happy for Skye. her best friend senses something off about Burke … they haven’t known each other long, maybe it’s just jumping the gun a bit. Her father isn’t too keen either, but this is his only daughter so he might just be a little protective. At least this is what Skye tells herself.
The wedding goes forward, but then just a few days after they return from their honeymoon, her friend mistakenly gets a text message from Burke meant for someone else.
Skye’s friend has no choice but to show it to her .. and that changes everything for all of them.
Burke isn’t exactly who he claims to be. And he has an agenda that grows more unstable as time passes. But again, not everything is as it seems.
Filled with twists and turns, the story is told by three different people, Skye and then Burke tells his story in journals he’s kept .. and then there’s one other person. Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? And what is the end game? The characters are solidly drawn, Suspense starts at the very first and maintains a high level until the unexpected conclusion.
Many thanks to the author / St Martin’s Press / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.