Book Review: Best Intentions by Emily Listfield

Best Intentions by Emily Listfield has a bit of everything I love. There’s a murder mixed with high drama and lies in both marital relationships and the relationships we carry on with our friends. This novel started out slowly for me but I was intrigued and once it took off I was hooked. I could not put it down until I finished it and it ended far before I was ready. I found it quite suspenseful and I found myself flying through the pages to find out what would happen next.

This story is mainly centered on Lisa, a successful business woman, wife, mother and friend. It’s about what happens when a reunion of four college friends spark memories that result in a downward spiral towards disaster. It’s about the unknown and how it can drive you crazy after Lisa, for some reason even she doesn’t know, decides to listen to a message left on her husband Sam’s phone. She was already feeling bad enough about their marriage, feeling like the spark had gone out and now this-a message from another woman!

To top things off she’s already feeling the pressure from their own financial troubles of having to keep their two daughters in an exclusive boarding school. She’d love to just put them in the ‘free’ public school system but her husband won’t hear of it. Lisa feels really out of her element with all the society moms at the school. It’s just not her thing and not the life she had expected to have. Then to add insult to injury, her boss sells the company that Lisa has been practically running and that starts yet another snowballing disaster.

Lisa shares her fears with her best friend Dierdre but Dierdre insists it can’t be possible. Really though, can Lisa trust Dierdre’s opinion when she’s never really had the best judgment when it comes to men-probably not. As the drama unfolds Lisa is left with more questions than answers when it comes to her husband’s faithfulness and she finds herself drawn to another man in friendship, but maybe more?

Then Jack, the final part of the four from college arrives in town. He and Dierdre had a stormy relationship back in college and it looks as though Jack would like to rekindle that. It seems that things really unravel in Lisa’s life from this point on and she finds herself on a horrible rollercoaster ride that just won’t quit where love and loss collide.

I also really liked the character development in this novel especially Lisa’s. You feel drawn into her life, her troubles. By the time the murder occurs halfway through the novel you are well acquainted with everyone and it makes trying to figure out who committed the murder even more enticing. For myself, I really wasn’t positive on the killer and the story follows to an ending that was perfect.

I also really enjoyed Emily’s writing style. There are many great quotes to share in this novel but I’ve only picked a few…

• ‘Suspicion crackles and pulls, nags and infiltrates, it coils around your brain, distorting your perceptions, it is the smoke you see everything through that refuses to lift. But a lie, hard and indisputable, freezes in your lungs, its ice spreading through your pores, chilling every synapse; a lie once discovered paralyzes you.’ (page 73)
• ‘The past is never really over. Our interpretation of it may shift like a kaleidoscope, it may inform us or lead us astray, it may bring comfort or delusion, an excuse to hate or a reason to love. Some of us race too quickly to try to escape it, some of us cling so tightly it blinds us to the present. But one way or another, it is always with us.’ (page 331)

Emily Listfield has a really good novel here. It makes us ask questions like, ‘do we ever really know the people closest to us?’, and ultimately in the end, ‘who can we really trust?’. This is a good book for those who like a fast paced, suspenseful read with lots of twists and turns.

Make sure to visit Emily’s website here and her blog here. Best Intentions was released May 5, 2009 and you can purchase it here in the US and here in Canada.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow at Peeking Between the Pages for a guest post from Emily and more! Many thanks to Lauren for sending me Best Intentions to read!

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