The Favorite Daughter

By: Kaira Rouda

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

“Will hit you right in the heart” (Bustle)

A PopSugar Best Book of Spring!

“An exceptional psychological thriller.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Compulsively readable and deeply satisfying psychological suspense.” (Christina Alger, USA Today best-selling author of The Banker’s Wife)

“Leaves you wanting more.” (Liv Constantine, author of the national best seller The Last Mrs. Parrish)

From the author of Best Day Ever, another gripping novel of psychological suspense set in an upscale Southern California community, for fans of B.A. Paris and Shari Lapena.

The perfect home. The perfect family. The perfect lie.

Jane Harris lives in a sparkling home in an oceanfront gated community in Orange County. It’s a place that seems too beautiful to be touched by sadness. But exactly one year ago, Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident, and Jane has been grief-stricken ever since. Lost in a haze of antidepressants, she’s barely even left the house. Now, that’s all about to change.

It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary, and three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days - and nights - at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl - dutiful and loving. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?

The bonds between mothers and daughters and husbands and wives should never be broken. But you never know how far someone will go to keep a family together....

©2019 Kaira Rouda (P)2019 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Deliciously delusional character and fantastic narration!

Kathleen McInerney nailed this book! She brought Jane to life and made the dialogue versus her inner monologue pop (something that can be hard to distinguish in audiobooks sometimes). Jane is the most delusional, fantastic character I’ve read in ages. The story is so twisted and wonderful. I loved it!

Too obvious to be believable

I liked the basic idea that drove the story but the character is so obvious her “evil” isn’t believable. It’s spelled out yet seems obvious the writer thinks you’ll be surprised. I’m not sure who’s being fooled. Certainly not the reader. It could have been clever but wasn’t.

Meh. It was ok.

I'm all about the unreliable narrator, but in order to successfully pull it off (for me), the reader shouldn't know right away that the narrator is unreliable, let alone HOW unreliable. I wasn't 10 minutes into this when I had a pretty good idea of how it would end. I knew who the villain was, had zero sympathy (or even empathy) for ANY of the characters, and the only question remaining was: will the villain's plan work, or will they be foiled at the last second? I surmised correctly, which meant there was absolutely no plot twists for me. The setups for the few surprise twists were far too obvious, which may have been forgivable if I cared AT ALL what happened to ANY of these characters. That said, it (grudgingly) held my interest for the most part and killed some time for me, but overall was pointless for anything other than a time filler. Most likely, that's just a personal preference thing, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

the perspective of a psycho

it was good if you like to read in perspective. Overall entertaining but kinda slow paced for my taste. There were no great twists- other than things you already saw coming but it is presented the reader nicely with a good amount of hints beforehand.

Excellent psychological thriller

NPD is truly having its moment as the personality disorder everyone thinks they know, and as usual with any trend, it finds itself in fiction, especially a thriller eventually. Sometimes, it’s well done, other times it feeds into vile stereotypes but this is one of those times that ring true both in terms of personal experience and studying & other peoples anecdotes.

This is about a family who has just had one of the two teenaged daughters die. The cause isn’t said beyond a cliff being involved in the beginning (not finished yet but several hours in now & having Thoughts), but it’s clearly had an impact on family dynamics.

The story itself is told from the perspective of the mother who clearly suffers delusions of some sort & is an unreliable narrator on EVERY single aspect of the family. She is unlikeable and I find myself wondering how someone like her could trick someone into marrying her & staying married for at least 20 years, and how anyone who has to be around her didn’t already go to prison for at least attempted murder but as usual with most disorders of empathy, she was wearing a completely different personality from her true one until the daughter, Mary, went to university.

Then, the mask started to slip and as she admits freely, “my true self made herself known, she’d just been in hiding these past years.” I’ve met too many people like this for it all to seem too extreme & I almost returned it because memories popped up but the writing & narrating is so good, I kept reading & I am so glad that I did.
5/5 stars.

I don’t think I’ve hated a character more..

Jane had me rolling my eyes so much I lost count but she was so overtop and obvious that it makes you laugh. It was disturbing but in a totally different way, I couldn’t put it down.

Good but ...

i felt a little letdown by the ending. The story moved along with interesting characters - none of which I really identified with, but still interesting. i was especially enjoying the sarcasm. But the ending was anticlimactic and expected. i needed a nice big twist at the end to give this one more stars.

loved every minute of it! couldn't stop listening!

I loved listening to this book sooo much! I couldnt stop listening to it! I love psychological aspects of the way it is written! you find yourself identifying with the main character! the farther you get in the story, the more you realize how Jane unravels!

very different.

This book kept my interest way into the night, I would recommend this book if you are looking for something different.

Good story

I wasnt sure who was the crazy one for most of the book. Good entertaining read, unrelateable characters.