While my preferred genre is romance to read, I do branch out occasionally and read a wide variety of genres and lately I’ve been reading a ton of suspense. So I figured what would be better than a suspense written by a romance writer? Under the name Victoria Dahl she writes funny romances that I generally love. She decided to branch out and didn’t want to have readers get confused when they got something darker so chose a different pen name for these.

At the opening of the book Hannah is at the start of a whole new chapter of her life. Her marriage has freshly just ended and she’s moved back home recently to help care for her mother who, having dementia, promptly forgets who Hannah is almost daily and tells her she’s not her daughter. But a medical mix-up reveals that this is actually the truth and sends Hannah reeling and looking for the truth wherever she can find it. So, even though she’s essentially *just* started something brand new in her new life back home she sets off to find that truth.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book, which was pretty much Hannah and her family and her uncertainty in her new life. She’s dealing with a lot of insecurities within her own family and in the first part of the book I felt like we were right along for the ride with her, discovering the new truths that she’d never known. Each new aspect of her life that she discovers impacts how she feels about herself and her family and I really thought that part was well done.

At this point Hannah goes on a literal journey of self discovery to California to find out where she came from. This is where the book started to lose its effect on me. As a darker book, with suspense, I expected to be in suspense and have some twists and turns that I would be waiting for the outcomes. But, while there are twists and turns in the second part of the book, none of them were ones that had me on the edge of my seat. And that’s what I really wanted from this book.

I did find Hannah’s character to be well fleshed out, and the plot was definitely there. This one just needed…a little more for me.

Rating: 3 Stars

Reviewer: Melinda

Title: Half Past

Author: Victoria Helen Stone

Release Date: September 19, 2017

Don’t miss any of the bookish fun. Subscribe now!