By Sarah Pinborough
Goodreads Synopsis
“Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job, and her best friend Marilyn, but when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it’s time to let her terrifying secret past go. Then her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see. Lisa’s world explodes, and she finds everything she has built threatened. Not knowing whom she can trust, it’s up to her to face her past to save what she holds dear.” (Goodreads)
My Take
Character Connection 
Cross Her Heart weaves the story line from the varied perspectives of Lisa, Ava, and Marilyn in the present-day while also jumping back in time to give us glimpses of Lisa’s childhood. As much as I wanted to root for our main protagonist, Lisa – she wasn’t very likable. However, as an empath, I did find myself feeling very deeply in regards to her childhood trauma and how that could affect her as a present-day adult.
Twisty-Turns
This book did have a “big reveal” that tried to stay hidden until our climax. In my humble opinion, the points of trauma played a greater role than the big-bad reveal. The reader is left guessing who to believe: the unreliable, drug-induced, ramblings of our narrator or our other characters who are trying alongside us to figure out the truth. Overall, I felt it was twisty….but in all the wrong ways.
Psych-Links
Post-Traumatic Stress is a BIG player here. There is also child abuse mentioned both overtly and in ways that you know what happens even if it’s not written. Personally, if I had known this prior to reading I probably would not have picked it up. We all have our limits, and for me it’s abuse, neglect, or any trauma dealing with children. That being said, consider this your trigger warning.
Cine-ability
In all honesty, I don’t think I would want this made for the screen. It does have some cinematic elements that I think could work but I wouldn’t watch something that portrayed child abuse on the screen. Directors could choose to simply allude to it, but the childhood trauma plays such a large role in the formation of our narrator that I feel it would be difficult. If it was made – here’s my cast:
The Merry Murderino’s Overall Rating
Average Goodreads rating is 3.68, so I may be a little pickier than some of you. I did enjoy some parts of this book – multiple perspectives, time-jumping, and twists leading to a big reveal. For me, it’s just a personal block when it comes to kids and abuse. This is the type of book that drives me to grab a sweet Rom-Com or makes me watch a few episodes of The Office to clear my mind 🙂
Wanna read this book? Get it from Amazon right HERE
The Merry Murderino 
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