Rose Carlyle’s debut novel The Girl in the Mirror is so full of twists and turns, you may wish you had some of the navigational maps used by the characters on their sailing adventure!
While this novel is engaging, exciting, and sometimes shocking, it is a difficult book to review because I don’t want to spoil anything! There are some books out there (The Girl in the Mirror being one of them) that the best “review” is someone handing you the book and just saying, “trust me!” It is a story you will absolutely be wrapped up in from page one.
At its core, this novel is about twin sisters Summer and Iris. Both have inherited wealth, but Summer has everything that Iris wishes she had. Summer has a wonderful husband who is also financially secure, a stepson she adores, a life of travel and luxury, and is likely to be the one to inherit the remainder of their father’s estate, which is a significant amount. Iris has a failed marriage, has always felt adrift, and feels certain that her family has always viewed her as “unnecessary” since they have Summer in their lives.
Circumstances arise that cause the reader to start wondering just how much jealousy Iris has in her heart, and how far she would go to have all the things she envies in her sister’s life. Family secrets, greed, lust, and lies all play roles in this complicated, but fascinating tale.
Rose Carlyle is clearly a yachting and sailing expert, and she is able to put that knowledge proudly on display in this story. For someone like myself, who knows little more than what a boat and a sail look like, there are times when the technical details get just a little overwhelming. But knowledge of how to sail is certainly not necessary to keep up with the intensity and excitement the author maintains throughout.
Carlyle tells the story of what is happening in Summer and Iris’s life currently, but interweaves chapters explaining their past, what they have been through that brought them closer as twins, as well as what events started to push them apart. These bits and pieces from the past fit right in to each part of the story so the reader begins to gradually see the bigger picture of the lives and the drives of these twin sisters.
Most important of all, for me, in a thriller is the ability to give the reader that “audible gasp moment.” Like Clare Mackintosh’s I Let You Go, or The Wife Between Us from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, Rose Carlyle is the latest addition to the list of authors who can give readers that shocking gasp-out-loud moment that thriller lovers can’t get enough of!
The Girl in the Mirror is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 20th 2020.
Will you be picking up The Girl in the Mirror? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Written with the chilling, twisty suspense of The Wife Between Us and Something in the Water, a seductive debut thriller about greed, lust, secrets, and deadly lies involving identical twin sisters.
Twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beyond what the eye can see lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of Summer’s seemingly never-ending good fortune, including her perfect husband Adam.
Called to Thailand to help her sister sail the family yacht to the Seychelles, Iris nurtures her own secret hopes for what might happen on the journey. But when she unexpectedly finds herself alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, everything changes. When she makes it to land, Iris allows herself to be swept up by Adam, who assumes that she is Summer.
Iris recklessly goes along with his mistake. Not only does she finally have the golden life she’s always envied, with her sister gone, she’s one step closer to the hundred-million-dollar inheritance left by her manipulative father. All Iris has to do is be the first of his seven children to produce an heir.
Iris’s “new” life lurches between glamorous dream and paranoid nightmare. On the edge of being exposed, how far will she go to ensure no one discovers the truth?
And just what did happen to Summer on the yacht?
Only Iris knows . . .
