14 Days to Die by A.B. Whelan

3.5 Stars

 

“Is it possible that we all have darkness within us; only some of us never have a chance to act upon it while others are left with no choice?”

I read this book over a month ago, but never got around to reviewing it since I suck. I’m also currently dealing with a situation at work that looks like this . . . .



Which has left me feeling a bit like this . . .



(Hence today's featured coffee mug.)

So you’re gonna get what you get with this review. (I know, I know but somehow you’ll have to go on without the real high caliber quality you’re used to seeing in my review space.)

Alright, so 14 Days to Die was quite the unexpected little thriller. I’d never heard of this author before but couldn’t resist running to grab an ARC when several of my friends read/enjoyed it.

Things started off very well . . .

“It was a fine winter day that eighth of February when I decided to kill my husband.”

Uhhhhh, yes please . . .



Sarah and Mike have been happily married for a long time. Or so Sarah thought . . .

“After fourteen years of marriage, caring, cleaning, dirty laundry, cooking, love, kisses, and hugs, all I’m left with are two options: kill or be killed.”

The decision is Sarah’s to make after she receives a call from her potential murderer. Sarah has two choices – let things play out as is and wind up dead at the hands of a hired killer or come up with double the amount of money and flip the script on her darling hubs instead. The only problem? Sarah has about zero dollars and killer-for-hire is severely lacking in the patience department . . .



I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to psych thrillers (probably because I read so many of them), so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one. Things that worked well for me? The ending was presented right from the jump so there was no let down or “boooooo I saw that coming” moment. The characters were well-developed and even though I wanted to kick Sarah’s ass sometimes she seemed fairly realistic. Speaking of realistic, there were some “Lifetime Television for Women” moments thrown in, but somehow I didn’t want to stab someone in the face when they occurred. And finally the pacing was spot-on. At barely over 250 pages there was little time for lulls in the story.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley!