The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

Cover Art Courtesy of  Goodreads

The thriller kick I've been on lately is going strong! This book sounded right up my alley so I knew I had to give it a try. Unfortunately it left something to be desired. The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel follows Lane, who moves back to Kansas to live with her grandparents after her mother's suicide. What she doesn't know about is all the family secrets lurking within the walls of Roanoke, her family's home for generations. While at first she truly feels at home, as she gets older she soon realizes she needs to run, only coming back years later after her cousin Allegra's disappearance.

A huge trigger warning for incest is necessary here, although that's not why I didn't really like this book. The first half was great, really building to what I thought would be an epic finish, but the ending left something to be desired and kind of just fell off the thrill wagon. While I liked Lane, I didn't particularly like Allegra, and I thought there was too much Tommy and not enough Cooper in the story. And I won't even get started on how twisted the grandparents are, because that's half the plot right there.

This was a quick read with easy to follow writing, told in present day and flashbacks with occasional snippets from other Roanoke Girls from years past mixed in. It wasn't great, but it definitely wasn't bad, and I'm still glad I read it even if it was a bit of a disappointment at the end.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

This book was sent to me by Blogging for Books for an honest review.