For Better and Worse

By Margot Hunt

From Goodreads:

On their first date back in law school, Natalie and Will Clarke bonded over drinks, dinner and whether they could get away with murder. Now married, they’ll put the latter to the test when an unchecked danger in their community places their son in jeopardy. Working as a criminal defense attorney, Nat refuses to rely on the broken legal system to keep her family safe. She knows that if you want justice…you have to get it yourself.

Shocked to discover Nat’s taken matters into her own hands, Will has no choice but to dirty his, also. His family is in way too deep to back down now. He’s just not sure he recognizes the woman he married. Nat’s always been fiercely protective, but never this ruthless or calculating. With the police poking holes in their airtight plan, what will be the first to fall apart: their scandalous secret—or their marriage?

My thoughts on this book:

This book was definitely entertaining, but I still ended up with some mixed feelings…

My review contains unhidden spoilers..

Natalie and Will are married with an 11-year-old son named Charlie. In the beginning, their marriage was good, but as time went on everything seemed to fall apart with Will losing all interest in Nat. Their schedules are sort of crazy and everything seems controlled. Nat drops Charlie off at school one day and spots the police and questions why they’re at the school. It turns out that the principle (Robert) is being charged with a horrible crime against one of Charlie’s fellow schoolmates. All the parents are shocked, but Nat doesn’t even know yet that her son might be involved too. Being a defense attorney, Nat decides to take matters into her own hands with plans involving a murder.

The book covers difficult subjects, and I thought I might have to quit reading when I saw the direction it was taking, but because there’s more going on with the characters–an interesting subplot–I had to discover their outcome. On the subject of characters though–I really didn’t like Will. Here’s a man who gets bored with his wife (Nat), and decides to look for something more exciting. He doesn’t do a very good job covering it up either, in fact, he’s downright horrible at it, but luckily Nat doesn’t even seem to care. He becomes so hateful and angry toward her, and I wasn’t feeling any love in the relationship whatsoever. Of course Nat is preoccupied dealing with the cover-up and doesn’t have time to investigate what’s happening in her marriage. This whole ordeal just ended up annoying me though, and I began to wonder how anything could keep this couple together, regardless of the fact that they have a child. Nat seems forgiving, while Will becomes somewhat of a basket case who’s made poor decisions, and even at the end of the book it still isn’t clear whether he’s learned his lesson after he states how important his family is to him.

Robert’s sick and twisted behavior makes him easily hateable and luckily the author spared the details. After the plot to kill Robert, Nat wants to cover up every track, but some of her reckless choices just made no sense, especially coming from someone who knows the law like Nat does. It was parts like this that made her character a little confusing and less convincing as a vigilante. Just my opinion though.

I enjoyed the writing and appreciated that the author also included Will’s point of view at times, however, the ending of the book felt a little too quick and I can’t say I was satisfied with it. I feel like there was something thrown in the ending that was meant to be a twist, but it didn’t feel twisty and really felt unresolved to me. Maybe there’s another book coming? I know it seems that I’m being overcritical, and with all of that said, the book was STILL totally gripping and full of suspense. It was fast-paced, thrilling at times, and I was definitely entertained regardless of the annoyances. There were things I didn’t like about the weak characters and their behaviors, but I still wanted to finish the book and had a lot of feelings afterward. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more by this author.

If you like thrillers and suspense novels, definitely give this book a try.

3.5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for sharing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

Find this book on Amazon and Goodreads:

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: MIRA; Original edition (December 11, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778307905
• ISBN-13: 978-0778307907

This is book #25 For my Netgalley Challenge that is now complete. You can find it by clicking here.

Thanks for reading my review. Have you read this book? What did you think? You can share your thoughts below in the comment section. 

❤ Mischenko