Author: Lindsay Cameron
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Mystery/Thrillers
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 304
Date of Publication: July 27, 2021
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
A young woman's escalating obsession with a seemingly perfect man leads her down a dangerous path in this novel of suspense brimming with envy, desire, and deception.
Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are.
Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, Cassie finds the only way she can pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. The daily drudgery amplifies all that her life is lacking--love, friends, stability--and leaves her with too much time on her hands, which she spends fixating on the mistakes that brought her to this point.
While sorting through a relentless deluge of emails, something catches her eye: the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn't read them. But it's just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can't look away.
Every day, twenty floors below Forest's corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their apparently perfect life, Cassie finds renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks.
Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry, because she wants this life more than anything. Maybe if she plays make-believe long enough, it will become real for her. But when Cassie orchestrates a "chance" meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws the state of his marriage into question, the fantasy she's been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn't simply admire Annabelle--she wants to take her place. And she's armed with the tools to make that happen.
MY THOUGHTS:
Get ready for the ride of your life when you pick up this thrilling book by Lindsay Cameron. Cassie lost her job as an attorney and is forced to take a no-name temp job in order to make ends meet - Temp 021 - just another cog in the wheel. The new girl from the temp agency. Cassie has been disgraced. What is more is that she clearly has mental issues. Having suffered great loss in her life, her judgment is way off.
As if life hasn't take enough turns for Cassie, she is the queen of bad judgment. Her latest foible is stumbling across sensitive exchanges between a lawyer named Forest Watts and his wife Annabelle. Cassie starts reading the exchanges and this leads her to fantasizing what it would be like if she were in Annabelle's shoes. What it would be like if Forest was writing these messages to her. What it would be like if she took Annabelle's place.
What a rocky, chilling ride from beginning to end. Recently I read The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter, which reminded me of You by Caroline Kepnes. Well, that is exactly what this book, Just One Look, does. Internet stalking gone bad. Very bad. Unashamedly, Cassie sets a plan in action and it is this very plan that was doomed from the very first look.
Many thanks to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Lindsay Cameron worked as a corporate lawyer for many years in Vancouver and New York City before leaving the law behind to write books. Her first novel, Biglaw, was published in 2015. Just One Look is her suspense debut. She lives in New York City where she is currently at work on her next book.
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