What She Gave Away

By: Catharine Riggs

Narrated by: Renee Raudman, Amy Rubinate

Revenge is anything but sweet in this twisty thriller about two women with very different lives locked in the same deadly game.

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate.

Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband - a wealthy bank president - dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing. Then the FBI shows up, asking questions she can’t answer and freezing assets she once took for granted.

While Kathi struggles to outrun the mess caused by her husband’s mysterious death, Crystal seems focused on her game. But why? And who are her targets?

Spanning two years and told in Crystal’s and Kathi’s alternating voices, this tautly plotted novel reveals the power of choice and the price of revenge.

©2018 Catharine Elizabeth Manset Morreale (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

Nice read!

Narrators perfectly depicted the characters and I was quite surprised with the twist at the end! Can’t wait to see what Catharine Riggs comes up with next.

Fascinating, disgusting psychological study

I had to keep reading to find out how it ended. Occasionally, I wanted to confront the main characters because their life choices were so bizarre. The women in this story are stereotypical, but mostly as a result of their backstories.

Great Storyline Saves the Book

I enjoyed the book except for the character of Cathy. She was so clueless and naive. It was very painful listening to her whine her way through the story. She just lets the husband manipulate and the villain do serious acts without a fight. The character acted so dumb it was hard to finish.

Spell binding

Packed with deceit a d loss,with an unexpected ending. An unexpected happy ending, enjoyable read

Could not finish, too much fat shaming

Would have liked to finish the book. Story seemed interesting, but the fat shaming keep taking me out of the story. returned to trying to read it several times, but ultimately decided it was not worth continuing as the fat shaming keeps returning.

Too hard to like

I hung in there with this book until about Chapter 20, but I just couldn't take listening to either one of these characters anymore. Written from the point of view of two different women, one of whom is bitter and sarcastic, the other a pathetic airhead, it was hard to find anyone to root for, leaving me less and less interested in the actual plot, which revolved around banking fraud, a subject not too enticing to me as it is.

It's not a poorly written book, but the two narration styles were incredibly annoying (which I think they were meant to be, to an extent.) The voiceovers could have contributed more to the dislikability of the characters than if I had read it in my "head voice", and although the Cathy character was voiced as appropriately irritating, and the Crystal character's voice was sneeringly dry, after so many chapters, I just couldn't bear it.

not impressed

just couldn't get into the characters and the narrator voice was so annoying to me. not a fan of this book.