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Sweet Water
What did her son do in the woods last night? Does a mother really want to know?
It’s what Sarah Ellsworth dreamed of. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until…A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.
But there are things Sarah finds hard to a cover-up by Martin’s family that’s so unnervingly cold-blooded. Finn’s lies to the authorities are too comfortable, too proficient, not to arouse her suspicions. Even the secrets of the old house she lives in seem to be connected to the incident. As each troubling event unfolds, Sarah must decide how far she’ll go to save her perfect life.
It’s what Sarah Ellsworth dreamed of. Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until…A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.
But there are things Sarah finds hard to a cover-up by Martin’s family that’s so unnervingly cold-blooded. Finn’s lies to the authorities are too comfortable, too proficient, not to arouse her suspicions. Even the secrets of the old house she lives in seem to be connected to the incident. As each troubling event unfolds, Sarah must decide how far she’ll go to save her perfect life.
357 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 757 reviews
January 25, 2021
Sweet Water by Cara Reinard was released on New Year's Day in 2021, and I found it via NetGalley. Reinard is a new author to me, but I was in need of a solid suspense novel, so I took a chance. I am thrilled to say this was fantastic, and I highly recommend it. The book is told in dual timelines: what happened during Sarah and Martin's courtship roughly 25 years ago and where they are today. But the book opening, where they are dealing with the death of their son's girlfriend, is one of the best I've read in years.
Sarah's father is the head maintenance technician at a college in Pennsylvania. Her mother passed away from cancer, and they are not at all rich. Martin is a fraternity guy from a wealthy family with a genuine and a slightly dark side. They fall in love, marry, have two children, and live happily ever after. Except they don't. Little things along the way cause Sarah to doubt Martin's ethics but it's never enough to do something irreversible. Years ago, she fell in love with a boy named Josh whose family owned a beautiful mansion near her house. She secretly met with Josh until he disappeared one day. Everything is connected in Sarah's new life as Martin's wife, but she doesn't realize every thread's purpose on her spool of life.
Ah! I loved it. It immediately gripped me and pushed me to read the entire book basically in one day. I didn't want to put it down because of how everything slowly unwound. Sure, Sarah makes a few mistakes, but she is generally a good wife and mother, and I feel a lot of empathy for her. Reinard built a beautiful set of characters who are flawed but have potential. Everything is gray for the most part, so it's hard to say (until the end) whether Martin is as bad as his family, if both children have inherited the good and the bad from their parents, whether Josh knows more than he's saying, and who really killed Yaz, the girlfriend.
I had a few small niggles (personality quirks that didn't quite add up, a couple of times where the author sorta hinted / crossed a line about something happening but then pulled back, and timing on a pregnancy and age) -- not enough to really cause any issues. I still put this one up there between 4.5 and 4.75 stars. Easily one of my top reads in the last year. Between the descriptions, the character growth, the balance of detail versus vague concepts... it all lets a reader choose their own interpretation while backing up scenarios with facts that point in multiple directions.
What would you do if your in-laws forced you into breaking the law? How would you protect your child but also do the right thing for a girl who's obviously been hurt? Where do you draw the line between natural behavior and drug-induced responses? It all added up to a complex yet straightforward mystery with tons of emotional suspense and solid, page-turning action. Not once was I bored. Never did I think it was implausible. It all could happen, even if it is probably a rarity... people generally aren't all bad, but I was glad to see no one tried to kill someone to be quiet about the truth. It was mostly a game of suspense and doubt... and who would end up winning was a story I fully got behind. I'll definitely read more by this author. Time to check her book list to find another!
Sarah's father is the head maintenance technician at a college in Pennsylvania. Her mother passed away from cancer, and they are not at all rich. Martin is a fraternity guy from a wealthy family with a genuine and a slightly dark side. They fall in love, marry, have two children, and live happily ever after. Except they don't. Little things along the way cause Sarah to doubt Martin's ethics but it's never enough to do something irreversible. Years ago, she fell in love with a boy named Josh whose family owned a beautiful mansion near her house. She secretly met with Josh until he disappeared one day. Everything is connected in Sarah's new life as Martin's wife, but she doesn't realize every thread's purpose on her spool of life.
Ah! I loved it. It immediately gripped me and pushed me to read the entire book basically in one day. I didn't want to put it down because of how everything slowly unwound. Sure, Sarah makes a few mistakes, but she is generally a good wife and mother, and I feel a lot of empathy for her. Reinard built a beautiful set of characters who are flawed but have potential. Everything is gray for the most part, so it's hard to say (until the end) whether Martin is as bad as his family, if both children have inherited the good and the bad from their parents, whether Josh knows more than he's saying, and who really killed Yaz, the girlfriend.
I had a few small niggles (personality quirks that didn't quite add up, a couple of times where the author sorta hinted / crossed a line about something happening but then pulled back, and timing on a pregnancy and age) -- not enough to really cause any issues. I still put this one up there between 4.5 and 4.75 stars. Easily one of my top reads in the last year. Between the descriptions, the character growth, the balance of detail versus vague concepts... it all lets a reader choose their own interpretation while backing up scenarios with facts that point in multiple directions.
What would you do if your in-laws forced you into breaking the law? How would you protect your child but also do the right thing for a girl who's obviously been hurt? Where do you draw the line between natural behavior and drug-induced responses? It all added up to a complex yet straightforward mystery with tons of emotional suspense and solid, page-turning action. Not once was I bored. Never did I think it was implausible. It all could happen, even if it is probably a rarity... people generally aren't all bad, but I was glad to see no one tried to kill someone to be quiet about the truth. It was mostly a game of suspense and doubt... and who would end up winning was a story I fully got behind. I'll definitely read more by this author. Time to check her book list to find another!
December 3, 2020
My Kindle First choice this month but it turned out not to be my "thing" at all and just ended up frustrating and irritating me in equal measure. The way Sarah goes along with whatever Martin demands got on my nerves as, to listen to her, she had more backbone than that. Then, to back up her waste-of-space son and maybe covering up what he may have done I found appalling. The whole family are nightmares......rich and entitled with not a hint of moral fibre among them !! For one mother to act in the last way she'd expect another to behave was really awful behaviour.
I lost patience with it when they chose to keep Finn home from school....that was idiotic as police hadn't named the girl found by then, so how did they think they were going to explain that ? And Sarah blithely talked to Finn about the "accident" without even figuring out whether he remembered exactly what happened or not....she didn't even ASK him and for me that doesn't ring true at all.
I got to the line, "I decide this is a learning opportunity, but not one that he should go to jail for" and I'd seen enough. Like he'd mistakenly pushed another kid off a swing or something similar !! I mean, she's a nitwit !! I have to partly believe in something and none of this was ringing true to me at all. A pity as the idea was a great one.
I did give it an extra star as by the time I gave up, a quarter of the way in, I hadn't highlighted one mistake, which is great going.
I lost patience with it when they chose to keep Finn home from school....that was idiotic as police hadn't named the girl found by then, so how did they think they were going to explain that ? And Sarah blithely talked to Finn about the "accident" without even figuring out whether he remembered exactly what happened or not....she didn't even ASK him and for me that doesn't ring true at all.
I got to the line, "I decide this is a learning opportunity, but not one that he should go to jail for" and I'd seen enough. Like he'd mistakenly pushed another kid off a swing or something similar !! I mean, she's a nitwit !! I have to partly believe in something and none of this was ringing true to me at all. A pity as the idea was a great one.
I did give it an extra star as by the time I gave up, a quarter of the way in, I hadn't highlighted one mistake, which is great going.
March 24, 2021
I finished this yesterday and... my word! It was not good.
The plot was promising and the story started out well. HOWEVER. As soon as you got into it and the story started to thicken/get interesting, a new chapter started with a totally different - and much slower - tempo; a chapter focusing on events that happened years ago, when the protagonist (Sarah) was younger.
This kept happening and it totally killed the flow of the story for me! It was really annoying. So much so that I ended up skim-reading those 'Before' chapters just so I could get back to the 'Present' day where the main story was unfolding. So, the first issue was that: the tempo - and structure - of this book was totally off.
The second thing that I really disliked about this is the fact that the protagonist was insufferable and made little/no sense to me. This woman was incapable of connecting any dots, even when they were staring her in the face! The way she was 'written' was also very inconsistent. E.g. there she is, showing courage and acting strategically and then, suddenly, oh, there she also is making horrible decisions not rooted in any logic or common sense. I mean, her relationship with Josh? Seriously? That whole sub-plot really, it was absurd.
This brings me to the final issue I had with this book and that's that the 'supporting characters' were extremely weak; they sounded like caricatures concocted by teenagers. Josh, Cash, her father! These characters were so badly thought-up; any dialogue or scene with them was painful to read. “Baby girl" this, "baby girl" that from the father. The father himself! And then the saccharine cheesiness of Josh and the way the protagonist dealt with both him and her father, ugh. It was painful.
I do not recommend this book at all. It was especially disappointing because, like I said above, the plot WAS interesting and the story DID hold promise. Unfortunately however, this was not well-executed at all.
PS: I just remembered another thing that really annoyed me about this book: the amount of times 'sweet water' is mentioned! I get that it's the title of this book and it's sometimes clever to see the title appear in the book but the amount of times it was brought up here was frankly excruciating!
The plot was promising and the story started out well. HOWEVER. As soon as you got into it and the story started to thicken/get interesting, a new chapter started with a totally different - and much slower - tempo; a chapter focusing on events that happened years ago, when the protagonist (Sarah) was younger.
This kept happening and it totally killed the flow of the story for me! It was really annoying. So much so that I ended up skim-reading those 'Before' chapters just so I could get back to the 'Present' day where the main story was unfolding. So, the first issue was that: the tempo - and structure - of this book was totally off.
The second thing that I really disliked about this is the fact that the protagonist was insufferable and made little/no sense to me. This woman was incapable of connecting any dots, even when they were staring her in the face! The way she was 'written' was also very inconsistent. E.g. there she is, showing courage and acting strategically and then, suddenly, oh, there she also is making horrible decisions not rooted in any logic or common sense. I mean, her relationship with Josh? Seriously? That whole sub-plot really, it was absurd.
This brings me to the final issue I had with this book and that's that the 'supporting characters' were extremely weak; they sounded like caricatures concocted by teenagers. Josh, Cash, her father! These characters were so badly thought-up; any dialogue or scene with them was painful to read. “Baby girl" this, "baby girl" that from the father. The father himself! And then the saccharine cheesiness of Josh and the way the protagonist dealt with both him and her father, ugh. It was painful.
I do not recommend this book at all. It was especially disappointing because, like I said above, the plot WAS interesting and the story DID hold promise. Unfortunately however, this was not well-executed at all.
PS: I just remembered another thing that really annoyed me about this book: the amount of times 'sweet water' is mentioned! I get that it's the title of this book and it's sometimes clever to see the title appear in the book but the amount of times it was brought up here was frankly excruciating!
February 7, 2021
Sweet Water by Cara Reinard is a family drama that takes the reader down a path so twisted that you will not know what to expect. Sarah and Martin Ellsworth are awakened to a parent’s worse nightmare: a middle-of-the-night call from their teenage son Finn. They race to his location, a forest, where they find his girlfriend deceased and Finn drugged and beaten up. The Ellsworths, Martin and his parents, unite to cover their tracks and pretend that Finn was not involved in the young girl’s death. The story moves between the nineties when Sarah and Martin met at college to the present day’s chaos. What happened in the forest? Did Finn kill his girlfriend? What are Martin and his relatives covering up? Can Sarah find where her loyalties lie? Will the police arrest Finn? The characters are interesting and well-drawn. The plot is original and a challenging read. Sweet Water was enjoyable and tense. I look forward to reading more by Cara Reinard. Highly recommended. Thank you to Thomas & Mercer, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
December 19, 2020
Dreadful
I’m not sure why I kept reading this book, other than to find out the actual details of the young girl’s death. It’s so badly written! It’s hard to believe there was a real developmental editor consulting the author - there are so many terrible usage errors, and, worst of all, egregious repetition after repetition. The author never says or observes something once — she repeats it over and over, and then over again. The main character is impulsive, weak and indecisive, but then somehow develops a spine to save her son. Really, it’s impossible not to be irritated by all the characters (including the house!) and by the circuitous plot. I feel like I’ve lost hours of my life I’ll never get back — I should have just turned to the last chapter to find out how the author tied everything up with a charred bow and saved myself some irreplaceable time.
I’m not sure why I kept reading this book, other than to find out the actual details of the young girl’s death. It’s so badly written! It’s hard to believe there was a real developmental editor consulting the author - there are so many terrible usage errors, and, worst of all, egregious repetition after repetition. The author never says or observes something once — she repeats it over and over, and then over again. The main character is impulsive, weak and indecisive, but then somehow develops a spine to save her son. Really, it’s impossible not to be irritated by all the characters (including the house!) and by the circuitous plot. I feel like I’ve lost hours of my life I’ll never get back — I should have just turned to the last chapter to find out how the author tied everything up with a charred bow and saved myself some irreplaceable time.
January 22, 2021
A fast paced read that sucks you in immediately and holds you through the whole book. The main character was raised poor but ended up married to a rich heir. She learns it is really hard to hold her morals in a vilely evil family that is able to buy their way out of anything. A highly recommended thriller.
January 7, 2021
Beautiful cover, but blasé book.
Ways this book bored and annoyed me:
There is constant mention of "sweet water" on nearly every other page, like hey, we get it!
Sarah is not a full character, but a mere outline who has no distinguishable personality. Her backstory just took up space and repeated the same two things over and over: she slept with another dude once and he ran away from her and omg she would love to be rich.
Sarah's husband and his family are also cardboard cutouts of villains: they have money and no souls, and are boring rich people. That's all there is to them.
I spent the whole book waiting for Sarah to grow a spine and she never does. She's a weak meek wife who finally steps up by taking a book from her son's room and *gasp* wearing a boring dress to a ball. Also, her son who was in trouble is hardly in the story. Sarah spends the whole book willowing around thinking of the one other dude she's banged and feeling bad for herself and her son's dead girlfriend because she was poor. Dead girl's brother is named Cash and that's also all he cares about because duh, poor dark-skinned people do drugs and steal money.
I just realized as I type this that this book annoyed me more than I thought.
Ways this book bored and annoyed me:
There is constant mention of "sweet water" on nearly every other page, like hey, we get it!
Sarah is not a full character, but a mere outline who has no distinguishable personality. Her backstory just took up space and repeated the same two things over and over: she slept with another dude once and he ran away from her and omg she would love to be rich.
Sarah's husband and his family are also cardboard cutouts of villains: they have money and no souls, and are boring rich people. That's all there is to them.
I spent the whole book waiting for Sarah to grow a spine and she never does. She's a weak meek wife who finally steps up by taking a book from her son's room and *gasp* wearing a boring dress to a ball. Also, her son who was in trouble is hardly in the story. Sarah spends the whole book willowing around thinking of the one other dude she's banged and feeling bad for herself and her son's dead girlfriend because she was poor. Dead girl's brother is named Cash and that's also all he cares about because duh, poor dark-skinned people do drugs and steal money.
I just realized as I type this that this book annoyed me more than I thought.
December 3, 2020
For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...
This book neither blew me away nor kept me on tenterhooks. Overall, I found there was a lot of delay to the narrative progressing and a lot of idle chatter. However, I was curious to see how the protagonist, Sarah, would escape the folds of such a rich, influential family.
For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...
This book neither blew me away nor kept me on tenterhooks. Overall, I found there was a lot of delay to the narrative progressing and a lot of idle chatter. However, I was curious to see how the protagonist, Sarah, would escape the folds of such a rich, influential family.
For my full review, visit me at https://mrsbrownsbooks.wordpress.com/...
December 24, 2020
Had to stop halfway through. Not a fan of the whole anti-hero thing anyway and my life is too short to read a book where someone is this annoying and stupid.
December 6, 2020
This one had so much promise in the beginning but went downhill pretty fast. The premise is really intriguing and the first chapter hooked me, but the narration just falls into "this is the theme of the novel and I am telling you it right now" kind of telling that drives me crazy in novels.
Sarah's internal narration when she was in college was also not the greatest; college students have a lot more thoughts beyond "this boy is hot" and "I need to do my homework." I think Sarah had the potential to be a really interesting character, but the underdevelopment of her narration just made me irritated.
Suspense novels usually seem to have this problem--the authors focus so much on creating the world and the twists that they don't devote enough time to the narration to drive the lessons home more subtly.
There's a line where Sarah says something like "rich people problems" or "white people problems," which summarizes the entirety of the novel's plot quite nicely. To be clear, this wouldn't have necessarily been bad on its own, but combined with the narration issues and some plot points that drove me crazy, it made me lose patience for the novel.
(She also equates weed to "drugs" so many times I started laughing whenever it was brought up. She smells weed in the beginning and claims that makes Yazmin a "troubled girl." And we're supposed to believe that almost none of the kids at the rich private school smoked?)
A non-comprehensive list of the plot things that left me scratching my head:
Gave it two stars because it did hold my attention enough and the ending wasn't one of those "got you!" endings that don't make sense in suspense novels.
Though I am particularly picky about suspense novels and their narration, so you can take my review with a grain of salt if you typically like most of them.
Sarah's internal narration when she was in college was also not the greatest; college students have a lot more thoughts beyond "this boy is hot" and "I need to do my homework." I think Sarah had the potential to be a really interesting character, but the underdevelopment of her narration just made me irritated.
Suspense novels usually seem to have this problem--the authors focus so much on creating the world and the twists that they don't devote enough time to the narration to drive the lessons home more subtly.
There's a line where Sarah says something like "rich people problems" or "white people problems," which summarizes the entirety of the novel's plot quite nicely. To be clear, this wouldn't have necessarily been bad on its own, but combined with the narration issues and some plot points that drove me crazy, it made me lose patience for the novel.
(She also equates weed to "drugs" so many times I started laughing whenever it was brought up. She smells weed in the beginning and claims that makes Yazmin a "troubled girl." And we're supposed to believe that almost none of the kids at the rich private school smoked?)
A non-comprehensive list of the plot things that left me scratching my head:
Gave it two stars because it did hold my attention enough and the ending wasn't one of those "got you!" endings that don't make sense in suspense novels.
Though I am particularly picky about suspense novels and their narration, so you can take my review with a grain of salt if you typically like most of them.
February 5, 2021
This was one of the worst books I've ever read. It's a two timeline story, where the present is filled with the account of the unravelling of how Sarah's son's girlfriend died and her son ended up drugged and unable to remember, while Sarah suddenly realizes her husband for 20 years and his family are all controlling psychopaths who buy their way out of trouble like the rich dudes they are. The past explores Sarah's youth where she meets her future husband whom she is totally in love with but not so much that she doesn't fall in and out of an affair with some intangible musician completely her husband's opposite but just as much of an asshole.
It's a complete soap opera with highlights such as:
He lied about smoking pot! She was a drug addict and everyone knew! Her father died in a car accident! She knows who her father's killer is! He was trying to blackmail us! My grandfather knew who my son's girlfriend was all along! He's not my son's real father, you are! He paid them to be quiet! You bought my family's house, it should have been mine!
Etc.
Everyone in this is not only horrible but also badly written, there is no consistency to the characters whatsoever. They say and do things that make no sense at all, and I was hard-pressed to find anyone rempotely interesting or worthy of my time. Why did I keep reading? I guess I kept hoping there was some wild twist at the end that would somehow save this mess, but alas. Sarah remains contradictory and naive to the point of unbelievability and everyone else is stereotypical charicatures of real people, devoid of originality and inspiration.
It's a complete soap opera with highlights such as:
He lied about smoking pot! She was a drug addict and everyone knew! Her father died in a car accident! She knows who her father's killer is! He was trying to blackmail us! My grandfather knew who my son's girlfriend was all along! He's not my son's real father, you are! He paid them to be quiet! You bought my family's house, it should have been mine!
Etc.
Everyone in this is not only horrible but also badly written, there is no consistency to the characters whatsoever. They say and do things that make no sense at all, and I was hard-pressed to find anyone rempotely interesting or worthy of my time. Why did I keep reading? I guess I kept hoping there was some wild twist at the end that would somehow save this mess, but alas. Sarah remains contradictory and naive to the point of unbelievability and everyone else is stereotypical charicatures of real people, devoid of originality and inspiration.
December 15, 2020
So the rich pay people off to stay out of trouble. Who doesn't know that? Apparently the main character of this novel, Sarah Ellsworth. She meets Martin her first day of college. A few days later one of the pledges at Martin's frat house dies during a hazing ritual. Martin is the pledge master. Nothing happens to him or the fraternity. Yet although Sarah suspects it was hushed up because Martin's family is extremely rich, she continues to date him. Ever heard of Mary Jo Kopechne, Sarah?
I figured out most of the "mystery" about a third of the way through this novel. It was agonizing reading the author's turgid, repetitive prose, but I wanted to confirm my suspicions and considering the author's writing style, I knew I couldn't just flip to the end because she would probably take 20-25 pages to sum things up (she did).
The slowness of the pace, the random changes in verb tense, the unlikeable characters all contribute to the two-star rating. I don't think even a good editor could have helped the author improve this book. She should have just saved the computer file and chalked this one up to experience, and started over. I know that's harsh but seriously, I resent the time I spent reading this...well, not going to say what I would like to say because I've already been harsh enough.
I figured out most of the "mystery" about a third of the way through this novel. It was agonizing reading the author's turgid, repetitive prose, but I wanted to confirm my suspicions and considering the author's writing style, I knew I couldn't just flip to the end because she would probably take 20-25 pages to sum things up (she did).
The slowness of the pace, the random changes in verb tense, the unlikeable characters all contribute to the two-star rating. I don't think even a good editor could have helped the author improve this book. She should have just saved the computer file and chalked this one up to experience, and started over. I know that's harsh but seriously, I resent the time I spent reading this...well, not going to say what I would like to say because I've already been harsh enough.
December 8, 2020
Oh goodness.
I picked this as my First Reads selection, and I was very disappointed. I almost DNF'd many times, but I powered through. I kind of wish I had just put it down. The beginning was strong, that first chapter pulled me in, but then it was all downhill from there.
The story jumps between three different points in time, but the jumps are really choppy and don't flow together at all. The characters were not believable, or likable in any way. The main character's internal dialogue had so many cringe and eyeroll moments. I'm really not a fan of the "this characters is so smart, here's all the examples of why, but let's watch her act reallllly stupid". I'm also not a fan of when stories make the answers so obvious to everyone but the main character, who takes chapters to get to the logical conclusion. I found that infuriating, and not because I normally guess it all fairly quickly, but because this book beans you over the head with it. Really, the "twists" were anything but. You could see them coming from miles away and there was absolutely no subtly to them at all.
There were also so many plot holes and so many details that had absolutely no explanation.
The story missed the mark so badly. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
I picked this as my First Reads selection, and I was very disappointed. I almost DNF'd many times, but I powered through. I kind of wish I had just put it down. The beginning was strong, that first chapter pulled me in, but then it was all downhill from there.
The story jumps between three different points in time, but the jumps are really choppy and don't flow together at all. The characters were not believable, or likable in any way. The main character's internal dialogue had so many cringe and eyeroll moments. I'm really not a fan of the "this characters is so smart, here's all the examples of why, but let's watch her act reallllly stupid". I'm also not a fan of when stories make the answers so obvious to everyone but the main character, who takes chapters to get to the logical conclusion. I found that infuriating, and not because I normally guess it all fairly quickly, but because this book beans you over the head with it. Really, the "twists" were anything but. You could see them coming from miles away and there was absolutely no subtly to them at all.
There were also so many plot holes and so many details that had absolutely no explanation.
The story missed the mark so badly. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
July 30, 2021
Not the best read. It was long and drawn out and sometimes just boring.
January 29, 2021
"Sweet Water" started out with a pretty big bang. Then slowly fizzled out and dragged on. The "suspense" did not live up to the books hype. It was terribly predictable as well. I kept waiting for the big twist, but the plot just kept slowing down. I was not a fan of any of the characters. Each was deplorable in their own way. Sarah struck a nerve with me. This whimsy, hopeful, almost lost soul like person turned out to be weak, naïve, and just as bad as all the other characters. Martin was s rich, snob piece of garbage from the get go. I was had hoped Josh would be less predictable, more cleaver, and simply the hero in the story, yet he fell short in my opinion too.
December 12, 2020
Thank you Prime First Reads for loaning me this book.
Probably more of a 3.5 rating, but it kept me on the elliptical for so long, I bumped it up to a 4. There were a few 'sort of twists,' but since I figured them out before they were revealed, I don't really consider them twists. But that's okay because it was a good story. I cared about what happened, and there was enough tension to keep me gripped.
Probably more of a 3.5 rating, but it kept me on the elliptical for so long, I bumped it up to a 4. There were a few 'sort of twists,' but since I figured them out before they were revealed, I don't really consider them twists. But that's okay because it was a good story. I cared about what happened, and there was enough tension to keep me gripped.
May 14, 2022
Good grief, this was stupid. An annoying self-righteous main character who doesn't practice what she preaches and blames everyone else. Shows no feelings or empathy toward anyone in her life, including her son, except for some dude she used to bang in high school. This was just bizarre and flat.
December 6, 2020
I should just skip Prime First Reads. I haven’t found a good one in a while.
December 20, 2020
GR says I have read 787 books. 16 of those books I gave a 1 star, including this one. Enough said.
December 14, 2020
Started off strong. I did not want to put it down. The last 1/4 dragged on and it was a little hard to stay engaged. The twist was rather obvious and the ending seemed a little tacked on. Not a bad book. Not great, either.
January 18, 2021
Sarah grew up with only her dad and financially they were lower middle class. They would sometimes drive through the wealthy neighborhood and Sarah fell in love with a house she called Stonehenge. She was given a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon and in her freshman year meets Martin, part of a wealthy and powerful family. Twenty years later they get a call in the middle of the night from their youngest son, Finn, that he is in the woods and in trouble and when they get there find the body of his girlfriend, Yazmin. Martin decides they have to cover it up and so they leave her body in the woods.
I didn't like Sarah. It seemed that her goal in life was to help people and also be one of the lucky ones, i.e. wealthy. She liked to think she saw the good in people but really she just wanted everything perfect and explained away Martin's and his family's behavior so she could continue to be "lucky." Martin was despicable but he was supposed to be. There were flashbacks to 1996 when Sarah met Joshua and then went to college and met Martin. There were so many red flags that I just wanted to shake her. While they did serve a purpose they seemed drawn out to me.
The mystery of what really happened in the woods that night was pretty good. Sarah finally started to develop a back bone and although I thought it was easy to figure out it was a page turner. I can't say I didn't like the book, I just didn't like most of the characters and I would recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a copy of this book.
I didn't like Sarah. It seemed that her goal in life was to help people and also be one of the lucky ones, i.e. wealthy. She liked to think she saw the good in people but really she just wanted everything perfect and explained away Martin's and his family's behavior so she could continue to be "lucky." Martin was despicable but he was supposed to be. There were flashbacks to 1996 when Sarah met Joshua and then went to college and met Martin. There were so many red flags that I just wanted to shake her. While they did serve a purpose they seemed drawn out to me.
The mystery of what really happened in the woods that night was pretty good. Sarah finally started to develop a back bone and although I thought it was easy to figure out it was a page turner. I can't say I didn't like the book, I just didn't like most of the characters and I would recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a copy of this book.
January 24, 2021
I really liked this book. It dealt with some tough issues - hazing, mental health issues, lying, stealing. The characters were really believable, although I thought Sarah was naive or just looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. I really liked Josh's character, but I didn't like that he just disappeared when things went a little crazy.
I received an e-ARC of this book by the author and publishing via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
I received an e-ARC of this book by the author and publishing via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
January 18, 2021
Sweet Water is about a lot of things: family, different "sides of the track," wealthy vs. poor, mystery, marriage, betrayal, so much in this book that I loved.
Sarah and Martin are wealthy parents to two boys, Spencer and Finn. The story begins with the scene of a dead girl and the those who found her deciding what to do. I thought there were quite a few moral and ethical thoughts going on, at least by one person. The story exemplifies what lengths one might go through in order to protect loved ones. And, of course, we wouldn't all do the same thing necessarily so there is conflict about what the right thing is. In life, no one does the "right" thing all the time and the "right" thing isn't always black and white.
As for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and I kept changing my mind on whodoneit; however, I definitely didn't consider the ending and what actually happened, so I loved that. I didn't think the plot was predictable which made the story more engaging for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an e-ARC for my honest opinion.
#SweetWater #NetGalley
Sarah and Martin are wealthy parents to two boys, Spencer and Finn. The story begins with the scene of a dead girl and the those who found her deciding what to do. I thought there were quite a few moral and ethical thoughts going on, at least by one person. The story exemplifies what lengths one might go through in order to protect loved ones. And, of course, we wouldn't all do the same thing necessarily so there is conflict about what the right thing is. In life, no one does the "right" thing all the time and the "right" thing isn't always black and white.
As for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and I kept changing my mind on whodoneit; however, I definitely didn't consider the ending and what actually happened, so I loved that. I didn't think the plot was predictable which made the story more engaging for me.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an e-ARC for my honest opinion.
#SweetWater #NetGalley
December 1, 2020
I've received this free e-arc from Netgalley to post a honest review this fall. In Cara Reinard's newest domestic suspense debut, Sweet Water, this shocking tale will send bone-numbing shockwaves on every page from start to finish. For Sarah Denning, she had everything she could dream of when she married Martin Ellsworth, her college sweetheart, and lived in the life of luxury in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. But when Sarah and Martin discovers their son Finn next to a dead woman near the lake, it changed everything on what they did and didn't do. They left the crime scene and took their son back home for evaluation. She questioned everything about her relationship with Martin, like when she met him in college in flashbacks, and throughout her twenty-year marriage. The Ellsworth had political and law enforcement connections to control, manipulate, and distort everything like making evidence disappear to cover up their tracks. They've been doing it for year when law is powerful with money. As Sarah begins to learn more about what happened to Finn that night, the chain reaction of dominoes falls into place, and secrets resurface front and center. She's determined more than ever to discover the truth even if it might cost her everything until it came tumbling down when her house was set on fire. This gave her the encourage to free herself from her Martin and his family's house of cards to knock it down to the ground in a shocking and twisting ending you would never believe.
January 23, 2021
Good but predictable
I love the story, it was a different type of suspense book with so many raw emotions. Sarah is the protagonist and everyone else is just along for the ride. Their characters aren’t really developed, they’re just there. I figured out all the mystery (Yaz’s death, the accidents, etc) when I about 75% through with the book. It made the last 25% a drag. I felt it was a little rushed at the very end but overall a good read.
I love the story, it was a different type of suspense book with so many raw emotions. Sarah is the protagonist and everyone else is just along for the ride. Their characters aren’t really developed, they’re just there. I figured out all the mystery (Yaz’s death, the accidents, etc) when I about 75% through with the book. It made the last 25% a drag. I felt it was a little rushed at the very end but overall a good read.
April 18, 2021
Absolutely not the right book for me. I read 60 pages of the narrator whining and moaning about how awful her life is. Her in-laws are too rich; her husband has a huge trust fund; her teen son's girlfriend doesn't like her; her mansion isn't what she wanted; the family overwhelms her; her father was a single parent who doted on her constantly. Poor thing???
April 17, 2021
This book took me by surprise. But while I went in expecting a regular thriller, the story offered so many twists and turns it was all I could do to hold on.
Sarah and Martin get a call in the middle of the night. Finn, their son, is drugged and his girlfriend is dead. So what do they do? Do they let the police take their course or do they pretend that their son was not involved in his girlfriend's death at all?
Then we are taken back to the time when Sarah and Martin were in college. And then back and forth until the storylines converge.
What is the mystery that Martin's family is so desperate to cover-up? Did Finn kill his girlfriend? What will Sarah do?
The characters are well-written and human. The story is unpredictable.
An enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Cara Reinard for the ARC.
4 stars.
Sarah and Martin get a call in the middle of the night. Finn, their son, is drugged and his girlfriend is dead. So what do they do? Do they let the police take their course or do they pretend that their son was not involved in his girlfriend's death at all?
Then we are taken back to the time when Sarah and Martin were in college. And then back and forth until the storylines converge.
What is the mystery that Martin's family is so desperate to cover-up? Did Finn kill his girlfriend? What will Sarah do?
The characters are well-written and human. The story is unpredictable.
An enjoyable read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Cara Reinard for the ARC.
4 stars.
January 17, 2021
Sarah and Martins worse nightmare is revealed when their son calls them for help, he's in the woods off his face on drugs and had an argument with his girlfriend only problem is once they get they they are faced with a dead Yasmin and an unconsciously Finn. In that moment they have to decide whether or not to call the police or to remove all evidence of Finns presents
Sarah could come off as a rich snob goodie to shoes she has so much money she spends her time working for NGOs. But Sarah married money she didn't have it. She is a strange one. She seems to think that she's better than others because she knows what it's like to be poor but she is quite patronising. I must say I wasn't sold on her character. She sees what she wants to see the story that tells her narrative
Martin although a complete tool at least he's honest about it , well during rhis part of the book its arguable he hadn't always been in their relationship however I believe that Sarah had rhe ability to iverlooj his faults like buying her, her dream house.
Finn is an interesting character. I would of liked to had followed hid story more so but I get why Sarah tells it. He knows his family will protect him no matter what.
In conclusion I enjoyed this book. Very easy read more psychological than thriller i will say. I found the proceedings quite realistic which is rare i these types of novels! 3 stars 🌟
Thank you to Netgalley, amazon publishers and the author for in exchange for free thank u
Sarah could come off as a rich snob goodie to shoes she has so much money she spends her time working for NGOs. But Sarah married money she didn't have it. She is a strange one. She seems to think that she's better than others because she knows what it's like to be poor but she is quite patronising. I must say I wasn't sold on her character. She sees what she wants to see the story that tells her narrative
Martin although a complete tool at least he's honest about it , well during rhis part of the book its arguable he hadn't always been in their relationship however I believe that Sarah had rhe ability to iverlooj his faults like buying her, her dream house.
Finn is an interesting character. I would of liked to had followed hid story more so but I get why Sarah tells it. He knows his family will protect him no matter what.
In conclusion I enjoyed this book. Very easy read more psychological than thriller i will say. I found the proceedings quite realistic which is rare i these types of novels! 3 stars 🌟
Thank you to Netgalley, amazon publishers and the author for in exchange for free thank u
May 19, 2021
Update: Just gave one star to a book that romanticizes pedophilia. Bumping this from one star to two, because at least it doesn't do that.
Characters are see through
I didn't find this book very interesting and I thought the characters were very unevenly developed. The mother's internal struggle was so over played that I started skipping her long monologues (which may well be over half the book). They didn't add anything to the story after a certain point. There was also a disconnect between young Martin and old Martin. You don't see any glimpse of the menacing Martin in the flashbacks. It's hard to believe in the truth of what happened to Tush when the cover story was far more believable. At best, this novel should be condensed into a 60 page short story.
Characters are see through
I didn't find this book very interesting and I thought the characters were very unevenly developed. The mother's internal struggle was so over played that I started skipping her long monologues (which may well be over half the book). They didn't add anything to the story after a certain point. There was also a disconnect between young Martin and old Martin. You don't see any glimpse of the menacing Martin in the flashbacks. It's hard to believe in the truth of what happened to Tush when the cover story was far more believable. At best, this novel should be condensed into a 60 page short story.
February 5, 2021
I was struggling from the beginning...I tried to speed read this book so I could get my check mark. Then, I couldn’t do it. So eventually, I just skipped to the end and read what happened. It was plodding and boring...all those flash backs of things that happened in high school or early college. Sarah did seem clueless. She had obviously no ability to judge character. It took her 20 years to figure out she had married into a family of sociopaths? Her obsession with Josh was odd. We all had high school romances...mine was with Jack, but move on already.
Anyway, the author eventually tied it all up in a neat package but it was not compelling and the characters were not people I cared about.
Anyway, the author eventually tied it all up in a neat package but it was not compelling and the characters were not people I cared about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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