Published By: Sandycove
Pages: 384
Released On: 12/03/2026
If my sister hadn’t been beautiful, none of it would have happened.
Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode.
Across decades, the fallout leaves a wake of destruction behind Ruby in Dublin and Erin in Boston.
Not that Ruby wants to think about the past.
But it can’t stay a secret forever.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Sandycove for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I found this review quite difficult to write because I think you’ll get more enjoyment out of it if you go in knowing little about it.
Who doesn’t love a Liz Nugent book?
Like a lot of people I know, I came to know Liz through Strange Sally Diamond, and have since bought or been gifted a number of her previous books. I even had this one on pre-order until a lack of money forced my hand into cancelling it.
It isn’t an easy read. There are some very difficult topics mentioned, effectively from page one. But she’s done it in a very sensitive manner.
I really enjoy books that cover the same characters over different ages because we get to see how they change with time, so I loved that aspect.
I liked Ruby for the most part. And I get the idea we’re to meant to. But I couldn’t help it. Yes, bad things happened and she wasn’t always a hero, wasn’t always holier-than-thou, but I liked this dark, sort of morbid passion she had. Okay I admit, it became quite difficult to keep loving her as it went on, but part of me still felt for her.
Ruby and Erin are polar opposites. Ruby – dark, thin, virginial, Erin – light, curvy, and romantic. They were both interesting to read. I am not sure I have a favourite because they’re so different. Having one sister in America and one in Ireland helped add layers to that difference and it was fascinating to see how this impacted upon them individually and their relationship.
I’m used to Liz’s books being real thrillers, full of violence and deaths and whatnot. This was more of a psychological thriller, but it was no less fantastic than her others. This is more about humanity, relationships – romantic and familial – trust, lies, wants, hates, addictions. It is full on but fabulous.
It’s not as twist turny as other thrillers have been, but there are enough twists to keep you on your toes, and none I saw coming – but then again I am notoriously terrible at working out twists.
It’s nearly 400 pages, which isn’t a short book, but it’s so addictive and all-consuming that the page count just vanishes.
The first half is more shock value, and the second looks more at the long-term effects of those shocks. It’s very cleverly done and gives the reader lots of enjoy.
As far as I can tell, Sally Diamond was the big book of hers, the one that got lots of people interested in her work. And this will definitely be another bestseller and will have readers talking about it for a long time. I’m not in a book club but I can see this being a popular choice.
I’m not going to say whether I think it’s better or worse than her “normal” type of books because it’s completely different so to compare it like that would be unfair. But it is brilliant, tense, exciting, sad, dark, morbid, psychological, thrilling, and addictive. Perfection.
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