Her Pretty Face

By: Robyn Harding

Narrated by: Rebekkah Ross, Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne

The author of the best-selling novel The Party - lauded as “tense and riveting” by New York Times best-selling author Megan Miranda - returns with a chilling new domestic drama about two women whose deep friendship is threatened by dark, long-buried secrets.

Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat.

A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure, and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before.

Until she meets Kate Randolph.

Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. And for some reason, she’s not interested in being friends with any of the other Forrester moms - only Frances. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart...because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she’s a murderer.

In her masterful follow-up to The Party, Robyn Harding spins a web of lies, deceit, and betrayal, asking the question: Can people ever change? And even if they can, is it possible to forgive the past?

©2018 Robyn Harding (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Tell me your secrets

Frances Metcalfe hadn’t felt ostracized since high school. Sending her son Marcus to Forrester Academy was supposed to be a fresh start for her. When the other moms excluded her for her son’s behavioral issues it was Kate Randolph who stood up for her. From that day going forward Kate and Frances forged a fast friendship. Marcus and Kate’s son became fast friends as well. However, one of them is a hiding a secret.

Her Pretty Face focuses on the issues of children and the problems these children face when their mothers carry secrets.

Multiple points of view: Frances. Daisy. DJ
Frances is married to Jason. They have an eleven year old son named Marcus. Marcus is has behavioral issues. Frances clings to self doubt as a stay-at-home mother. Frances voice in the story reveals an unstable woman. She’s looking for a friend who doesn’t judge her for Marcus’s behavioral issues.
Daisy is Kate and Robert’s fourteen year old daughter. Daisy and Kate have a strained relationship. Kate behaves indifferent towards her while her father is distant. She’s the product of a cold useless home. Daisy’s voice in the story reveals a young reckless young teenager. She purposely pushes people away. However, she’s looking for someone to care about her.
DJ’s sister was murdered. His voice in the story is to bring awareness regarding the case of his sister who was murdered and raped by Shane Nelson.
This is my second read by Robyn Harding. Her writing voice is informative and intriguing. My first read was My Perfect Family. RH kept me guessing the entire time. With three narratives I wasn’t sure what she was cooking up. With each chapter the reader delves deeper into the lives of these three characters.

Narrators:
Rebekkah Ross
Cassandra Campbell
Kirby Hayborne
I’m not familiar with any of these three narrators. I can deduce that Kirby was the voice of DJ. The other two women I’m not sure which was performing for Frances or Daisy.
This was an unabridged audiobook. I listened using the audible app at 2X the speed.

wow!

first book by this author, I really enjoyed it! Great characters and story line.

Nicely done thriller/drama

Reminded me of “Big little lies” 👌🏻 not overly wordy and drawn out, keeping you captivated up to the last word.

Slow, anti-climactic ending

The story was slow to build. The middle was good, got my interest and I wanted to see what was going to happen. However, found the ending boring.
Performance voices were childish.

Excellent

Loved the narration and the story. Great twists until the end and then more twists highly recommend

Get this one.

This is my second book by this author. I love how the twists keep coming after you think you have it figured out. She’s definitely worth the listen.

Well Written

Well crafted mystery that kept me guessing but didn’t pander to the typical formula of a big showdown with just one loser. Amazing narration. Was missing some unknown element for me but I do recommend it.

I’m at the point though that Cassandra Campbell’s amazing voice is on too many audiobooks. Hard to get into a new character when it’s always her.

Compelling

4 STARS

Robyn Harding’s unputdownable books keep me turning the pages, eager to find out what happen next. HER PRETTY FACE grabbed me from page one, a newspaper article about the disappearance of a fifteen-year-old girl. One of the murderers, Amber Kunik, may have gotten off by blaming her abusive boyfriend. Flash forward twenty some years and Amber is now living as either malcontent Frances or her only friend, gorgeous housewife Kate. Both women have secret pasts. Both may be killers. Or neither may be.

Naming a genre for HER PRETTY FACE is difficult, because it’s not an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but a slow burn mystery where the answers are less the payoff for story than the over all story.

Told from the third person points of view of Frances, Daisy (Kate’s teenage daughter) and DJ (the murder victim’s younger brother) the timeline shifts from past to present as the answers become clearer.

Frances was complex, messy, needy and unlikable and at times unsympathetic. She was often her own worst obstacle, and her son’s. I couldn’t figure out what her husband saw in her. By the end of the book my thoughts about her changed dramatically. Young Daisy was so reckless, I wasn’t certain she would survive. My biggest sympathies were saved for DJ, a secondary victim of his sister’s murder and parents’ emotional collapse. Kate was an enigma, I was certain very different than the parts of her she showed the world.

HER PRETTY FACE will hold your interest and keep you thinking after the end.

Decent

Wasn’t the best or worst audio book. It had a decent storyline. Could’ve been better in my opinion.

Fabulous story!

Great book! Keeps one guessing...well written! Will recommend to my friends.
Interesting story line!