Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring a recent read, Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger. The excerpts shared are an advance reader copy I received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

 

 

Beginning:  Part 1

All Our Little Secrets

Prologue

She watched.  That was her gift.  To disappear into the black, sink into the shadows behind and between.  That's where you really saw things for what they were, when people revealed their true natures.

 

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56% of eBook:  The face swam before his eyes, oddly familiar.  He knew her.  He'd seen her before.

 

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My thoughts:  What begins as a casual encounter at the end of a workday between two women on a commuter train, devolves into a chain of events that will forever change the course of both their lives. As they sit on a stalled train, Selena and Martha begin a conversation in which each shares some information about their troubled relationships. Afterwards Selena is a bit embarrassed at having shared personal details that she has until now kept closely guarded. Nevertheless, she puts her unease to rest, thinking she will never see or hear from Martha again.

As Selena's home life further unravels and Martha crosses her path yet again, a complicated web of lies and deceptions unfolds. As truths emerge, how will Selena, Martha, and others in their orbit come to terms with the consequences? Unger's newest novel is a perfectly paced page-turner that readers won't soon forget.

 

 

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From GoodReads:  From master of suspense Lisa Unger comes a riveting thriller about a chance encounter that unravels a stunning web of lies and deceit.

Everyone has a secret… Now she knows yours.

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

Expertly plotted and reminiscent of the timeless classic Strangers on a Train, Confessions on the 7:45 is a gripping thriller about the delicate facades we create around our lives.

 

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.