Who hasn’t wanted to murder an ex—figuratively, at least? In this explosive debut thriller, a woman’s seemingly perfect romantic life is on the verge of collapse as she uncovers a hidden history surfacing dark secrets that have deadly consequences.

Natalie has only ever wanted to find “the one.” The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, she’s bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. And that was before the night of the Big Fallout that left her even more alone.

Then along comes James—wonderful, handsome James—and Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe he’s the one for her. Maybe he’s the one she’s been waiting for all along. Maybe he won’t wind up dead.

But the harder Natalie tries to be a “normal” wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what she’ll do . . . leaving her to question whether there is a monster within her or whether there is a villain toying with her from the outside.

What’s the secret story behind Natalie’s dead exes? Will she and James survive their marriage? And do either of them deserve to?

This is one of those books that’s easy to fly through. It’s engaging, tightly written, and paced in a way that makes it very readable. I finished it quickly and enjoyed the ride, even if I wasn’t totally sold on where it ultimately ended up.

The premise is immediately intriguing. Natalie has a trail of dead exes behind her, and while she insists she’s just unlucky in love, the body count says otherwise. Now she’s married to James, who seems to be everything she’s ever wanted. Kind, attractive, stable. The question hanging over the entire book is whether Natalie has finally found “the one” or if James is just next in line.

What I liked most is the way the story is structured. We don’t just get one version of Natalie. We get several. There’s Natalie’s internal voice, which is anxious, self-justifying, and often unreliable. There’s the version of Natalie she presents to her therapist. And then there’s the Natalie she shows to her husband, family, and friends. Watching those versions shift and contradict one another was easily the most compelling part of the book.

The past-and-present structure works well, too. As we move through Natalie’s previous relationships, patterns start to emerge. The book doesn’t hide the fact that something is off. In fact, it almost dares the reader to put the pieces together early, which I appreciated. I had a pretty strong sense of what was going on well before the official reveal, but I often do with thrillers, so that’s not necessarily a shortcoming. Often when I read a thriller I guess what’s happening early and the tension comes not from what is happening, but from watching the story inch closer to confirming what I already suspect.

That said, the reveal itself is where the book lost me a bit. Not because I didn’t see it coming, but because there was an extra reveal that came with an explanation that felt overcooked. The logic behind it stretched just far enough that I had trouble fully buying in. It felt like the kind of twist that exists because a thriller is “supposed” to have one, rather than something that naturally grew out of the story’s emotional groundwork.

The book had already done the work of making Natalie interesting through her contradictions and unreliable narration and issues in her marriage. I honestly don’t think we needed that extra reveal.

Still, I don’t regret reading this. The writing is clean and efficient. The pacing keeps things moving. And the character work, especially in how Natalie presents herself differently depending on who’s listening, is genuinely well done. Even when I wasn’t fully convinced by the final explanation, I was still invested in Natalie as a character.

This is a solid debut that will absolutely work for a lot of thriller readers, especially those who enjoy psychological tension and don’t mind a twist that prioritizes drama over logic. If you’re someone who needs every reveal to line up perfectly, this one may frustrate you. But if you’re in it for the ride and enjoy peeling back layers of a deeply unreliable narrator, it’s an entertaining, fast-paced read that mostly delivers.

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