The Girlfriend - K.L. Slater

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

My husband’s dead. She’s at my door. She owns my home…
The doorbell rings, just days after my beloved husband’s sudden death. I don’t recognise the woman on our doorstep, with her buttery blonde highlights, a diamond bracelet identical to my own and a bouncing baby boy in her arms.
As I show her inside, I notice her eyes grow wide as she takes in our spacious hallway, and the big squashy sofas that we all used to pile on. She glances at the silver-framed family photos and my little daughter hiding behind my skirts.
She looks at me, her blue eyes serious. ‘I’m sorry’ she says. ‘I know this will be hard to hear. But I am your husband’s girlfriend. And this is his son.’
My world implodes. And then she tells me that she owns our home – and that she’s not going anywhere…

My Thoughts:

I’ve always enjoyed K.L. Slater’s books, but I have noticed that the last couple released have been somewhat lacking, and I’ve struggled to get through them. I think it is time for me to step away from this author’s future books as I’m just not enjoying them anymore. Slater is the author that got me into reading Psychological Thriller books, and I will always be grateful to her for that.
This book centres around Cole and the disaster his life leaves behind in his death. The entire story seemed unrealistic, and it was hard to feel any affiliation with the characters. There were long periods of the book where it just sort of coasted along. I wanted more; I wanted to be suspicious. I wanted to be left wondering and guessing at the end of each chapter. None of this happened, and I kind of just plodded on through it. There was no intensity and certainly nothing thrilling about the story. The only thing that sort of kept me on the edge of my seat was Jennifer's dire situation. She had no money and no home unless she gave in to the crazy demands of Sara.
What infuriated me the most was that Jennifer wasn’t even trying to do anything to better her situation. She was more worried about the shopping and what was in the fridge than securing a job to be able to put a roof over her and her kids’ heads. So, in the end, even this part of the story lost my interest.
So overall a very slow story and not one I think should be given the tagline of ‘An utterly gripping psychological thriller’ as it was none of these things. I’m afraid this is the lowest star rating I have given this author, but it is just two stars from me on this one, and as I said, I don’t think I’ll be reading any more of her books. Such a shame, as her early work is beyond fantastic!