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Tara Conklin: The House Girl (Hardcover, 2013, William Morrow) 4 stars

A stunning debut novel of love, family, and justice that intertwines the stories of an …

Review of 'The House Girl' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I powered through the last half of this book in a couple of hours because I really just wanted to know the fate of the characters. That might be a good or a bad thing. Really, I gave this the good old 5 stars because it kept me engaged until the very end (I really need to stop inflating my ratings).

To be honest, Conklin's writing is pretty damn flowery. Normally, the books that start out flowery, usually degrade in quality and I'm able to forget it was flowery in the first place. However, Conklin kept is consistent and was flowery throughout the whole entire thing! Once again, it's totally up to you as to whether or not that's a good thing.

While yes, everything falls into place a little too easily, I enjoyed it a lot.

I don't know why I'm so ready to disregard the flaws that others have pointed out. Another tbh but usually when people point out flaws in books, I agree but in this case I'm willing to brush it off and say "lol what are you even talking about." Although someone commented asking, "Why didn't Lina just Google her mother's death?" made me laugh (because it's so true). What a lawyer Lina is. Although, I guess sometimes, not everyone wants to really know the truth and will readily believe anything someone tells them. Humans aren't that simple. Or am I just blindly defending this book because I like it?

I just... Really do like it. A lot! The story was interesting, the mystery hooked me in from beginning to end, and I loved the switch in perspectives. Do we always need plenty of good reasons to like things? Probably. Oh well.

I think this is a hit or miss with most people. Read the first chapter and decide on whether or not you want to stick with it!