Good Intentions by Marisa Walz

 

My thoughts

This was a pretty good debut. I hated how often the main character, Cady, said Dana. Dana was her sister's name. Her twin sister. Dana was killed in an auto accident. Dana was also ten weeks pregnant. It was horrible and I do understand where Cady was coming from as she navigated her life without her sister. Though I do believe she should have shown the man who hit her sister's car a little sympathy. Especially after reading the ending. 

It took me the whole book to understand Cady's obsession with Morgan. Seemed like Cady had a great life. With the exception of losing her twin she did have it all. She ran her own event planning business and was doing extremely well. She was married to the love of her life. She had not been able to have a baby and had miscarried not that long ago. But she could try again. She could learn to stop lying. I hated that about her. She was a horrible lying person. She convinced herself it was all for whoever's good. Whoever she was doing wrong at the time. The way she treated her husband was unexceptable. Maybe I should give her a little slack but good grief she was so busy stalking and sticking her nose in other people's business she just didn't have time to keep her business afloat. Her great employees were doing so much for her. But did she appreciate them? And always accusing Matt of infidelity. The poor man was so worried about her he didn't know what was happening. Until he did...

This book was pretty well written. I could picture Cady as she sat in her car. As she convinced a group of her losses. As she yelled to Matt. She should have put her life first. Her marriage that is. But the whole book is about the crazy things she is doing. It didn't all start after losing her twin either. That was why I didn't find it so believable that she just flipped after that accident. She was always sort of weak and possessive. Always a kind of control freak. I would have felt bad for Cady but when she did what she did and I read about it I just wanted to smack her. Wake up. See what you have. Dana would have wanted her to hold on to her life and do the right thing.

Turn back around and take responsibility.....

Great narration. The narrator kept the story flowing great. Did pretty good with each character. 

Thank you St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the ARCs. 

4 stars 

About

A deft and immersive psychological suspense debut about a luxury party planner who becomes obsessed with a woman she encounters in a hospital waiting room.

Cady has worked hard to have a good life. She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man she’s loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her beyond best friend, her most trusted confidante. When Cady gets a call that Dana has been in a serious accident and arrives moments too late to say goodbye, her world falls apart.

But to Cady’s family’s growing concern and confusion, it’s not Dana’s death that consumes her. It’s Morgan, a grieving mother Cady encountered in the hospital waiting room, the day her sister died. It can’t be a coincidence, that they both experienced tragedy at the same moment, in the same place—Cady doesn't believe in coincidences. Instead, she is convinced that she must help this stranger overcome her tragedy, in order to come to terms with her own.

Or...is there more to it? Is it possible that Cady wants something else from Morgan? Something she can’t even admit to herself?

Slyly twisted and deeply provocative, Good Intentions captures the moral ambiguity that can arise in the face of impossible choices. Like the aftermath of a car accident—and against your better judgment—you won't be able to look away.