Book ~ "Cross Her Heart" (2018) Sarah Pinborough

From Goodreads ~ Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job, and her best friend Marilyn, but when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him too. Maybe she’s ready now. Maybe she can trust again. Maybe it's time to let her terrifying secret past go. 

Then her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see. Lisa's world explodes, and she finds everything she has built threatened. Not knowing whom she can trust, it's up to her to face her past to save what she holds dear. 

Lisa is a single mom raising teenage daughter, Ava.  She's got a good job but she keeps a low profile.  Her best friend is Marilyn, who she works with.  Lisa is attracted to one of her clients and it seems like the feeling is mutual.

In the meantime Ava is turning 16.  Though she has a boyfriend, she has been messaging on Facebook with a fella who she loves and apparently loves her.  They haven't met yet (!!) but have arranged for that to happen next week ... and Ava is going to do anything she has to make sure it happens.  In today's world, with all the warnings, I found it hard to believe that a savvy 16-year-old would fall for something like this.

When Ava saves a boy from drowning, Ava and Lisa's pictures are plastered all over the news and Lisa's secret finally catches up with her.

This story was really convoluted.  I was buying into the potential "whodunits" but when the real "whodunit" was revealed it was ridiculous.  Seriously?  No way could this possibly happen!  The ending was a disappointment.

I thought the writing style was okay.  The book jumps back and forth in time and it took me a bit to get the rhythm but I was fine with it once I did.  I found the book a bit confusing at first, though.  The author was telling us about Lisa's life today but seemed to be trying to be coy when she jumped to the past to give us the background on her secret past.  I was happy when the secret past was finally revealed as I didn't have to keep wondering what the heck did Lisa do that was so terrible. I didn't find the characters likable.  As a head's up, there is swearing, child abuse and violence.

This is the first book I've read by this author.  Though I wasn't crazy about it and thought the ending was absurd, I'll give this author another chance and read another of her books.