Ward DeFleur is a best-selling writer. Each book seems to do better than the last, and her newest is no different. The first book signing of Mysterious Stranger has fans lined up just for a chance to get her autograph, maybe a photo. But when Bree meets Ward that night, all she can do is burst into tears. Ward is kind to her, but shortly after, Ward has to leave her own book signing. Her teenaged daughter Stevie had been abducted and brutally attacked.
After a year, Bree is finally getting her life back together. The breakup of her marriage had been difficult for her emotionally. So much so that she broke down in front of author Ward DeFleur at a book signing. Bu she’s feeling much stronger now. Although her teenage daughter Chloe is angry with her (what teenage daughter isn’t angry with her mother?), Bree is determined to get back out there. She has an interview with a local newspaper, and her friend Maggie is setting her up on a date.
But Bree can’t stop thinking about Ward. While her daughter had been rescued from her attacker, she had died in the hospital soon after. And then Ward disappeared. The rest of her book tour had been cancelled. She’d written no new books. Bree even tried talking to Ward’s publisher and her agent, but she got nowhere. Emails to Ward had gone unanswered. Calls no longer went through when they tried her cell phone. She just vanished. No one knew where she was.
But Bree is a journalist. She decides to keep digging, wanting to pitch it to her newspaper editor as a possible series on true crime. So she keeps digging. Bree finds out Ward’s real name. She finds a handsome, charming brother of Ward’s. And a source even tells her where she may be living now. And although Bree’s friends and family warn her about the danger, she refuses to listen and keeps digging.
But does she dig a hole she can’t dig herself out of?
Emily Liebert’s Perfectly Famous goes along like a house on fire. Alternating between Bree and Ward, this thriller builds in intensity and complexity for most of the book. It’s a quick and easy read, the pages going by like butter. I really loved this book, most of the way through. That ending though. There are a couple of scenes late in the book that are disarming and unsettling, and not in an enjoyable way. It’s unfortunate, as I was there for the ride for a good long time. I was just sad at those last couple of disappointing twists.
I’m not sorry that I read this book. It’s an interesting story and a lot of fun to spend time with, for the most part. But the ending doesn’t live up to the promise made to us for 90 percent of the book.
Galleys for Perfectly Famous were provided by Gallery Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.