Book Tour // Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mahew Whalen

Note – I received a copy of this book from the publisher through TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

The Book

It was to be the perfect wedding—until the bride disappeared.

Annie Taft’s wedding is four days away, and it will be one of the grandest anyone can remember in her small South Carolina town. Preparations are in order. Friends and family are gathering in anticipation. Everything is going according to plan. Except that Annie herself has vanished. Did she have second thoughts?

Or has something much worse happened to the bride-to-be?

As the days pass, the list of suspects in her disappearance grows. Could it be the recently released man a young Annie misidentified as her mother’s killer? Could it be someone even closer to her?

While her loved ones frantically try to track her down, they’re forced to grapple with their own secrets—secrets with the power to reframe entire relationships, leaving each to wonder how well they really knew Annie and how well they know themselves.

My Thoughts

When I first picked this up I anticipated a thriller and I was excited for all the different nuances involved in this one. The last book I read was a thriller that was just… something else (more on that in June)… and I think that set me up to be a little disappointed by this one. While I didn’t want a book like that other one (it was too much), this wasn’t really a thriller, so I still felt a little let down by it.

This was a great contemporary with a mystery and it was a great character-driven novel. If that’s what I had been prepared for I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more than I did.

My favorite thing about the book was one character in particular (Laurel), who I didn’t like at the start. As the book went on I found her to be so relatable and she captured my heart.

I also loved the final chapter of this. It was beautiful and a fitting conclusion.

If you like character-driven contemporaries that have a mystery, this is definitely one to check out!

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

About Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Marybeth Mayhew Whalen is the author of When We Were Worthy, The Things We Wish Were True, and five previous novels. She speaks to women’s groups around the United States and is the cofounder of the popular women’s fiction site She Reads (www.shereads.org). Marybeth and her husband, Curt, have been married for twenty-seven years and are the parents of six children. Marybeth divides her time between the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, and the coastline of Sunset Beach, North Carolina. You can find her at www.marybethwhalen.com.