Book Cover Image: Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda
" data-orig-size="265,400" sizes="(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" aperture="aperture" />BOTTOM LINE: The best type of messed-up relationship story
Genre: Suspense
Publication Date: 19 September 2017
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
“Paul Strom has the perfect life: a glittering career as an advertising executive, a beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in a wealthy suburb. And he’s the perfect husband: breadwinner, protector, provider. That’s why he’s planned a romantic weekend for his wife, Mia, at their lake house, just the two of them. And he’s promised today will be the best day ever.
But as Paul and Mia drive out of the city and toward the countryside, a spike of tension begins to wedge itself between them and doubts start to arise. How much do they trust each other? And how perfect is their marriage, or any marriage, really? “
My Thoughts: Most people should understand by now that the more disturbed a character is in a novel, the more I am drawn to the book. I like the twisted and mentally unstable. I like dark and disturbing. I like seeing how a person with those characteristics interacts with “normal” people. Novels with these types of characters are among my very favorite types to read. Best Day Ever definitely fits on all counts.
Even if you were to start the story completely blind, without having read even the synopsis of the novel, it does not take long to realize that Paul and Mia’s relationship is not quite what it might appear to be to outsiders. There is a tension that exists between the two as they set off on their perfect weekend getaway that you can feel right from the very beginning. Yet, the clues build slowly, so slowly at first that you question whether you are interpreting them correctly and projecting tension between the two where none exists. For once, you are not questioning the narrator’s reliability but your own ability to read and understand what you are reading.
It would be easy to describe Best Day Ever as another twisty shocker with an unreliable narrator, except that is not correct. Paul never hides who he is or what his agenda is for this best day ever. He is the antithesis of unreliable. If anything, he shares too much, and we learn just what type of person he is, but this only provides a fascinating viewpoint from which to observe the story.
As one can imagine, Paul and Mia’s Best Day Ever is not what it seems to be. Finding out the reasons for this and how they got to this point what makes the story so much fun. There are no twists meant to shock but rather a methodical unveiling of the truth that is entertaining in the same manner as disaster movies. Sometimes, there is nothing better than a good psychological thriller to while away the afternoon. Best Day Ever is a great choice for doing just that.
