Week 42 Review: What You Made Me Do

From Goodreads:

An expectant mother gets more than she bargained for when she marries into a seemingly perfect family in this gripping debut novel–a must read for fans of A. J. Finn and B. A. Paris. After surviving a nightmarish childhood, Anneliese Bakker is on the mend and searching for her birth mother. But when she meets Willem, she falls madly in love and finally finds a safe place to land. 

Engaged and expecting her first child, she moves into the Veldkamp mansion on a stately, tree-lined avenue in Amsterdam. And yet, nothing about Willem's family is as it seems. Instead of the loving home she has longed for her entire life, she's confronted with a cold and hostile household.Increasingly isolated, Anneliese is drawn to a creepy basement shrine to Louisa, Willem's mother. 

Louisa Veldkamp was a legendary Dutch pianist who presumably drowned–but whose body has never been found. Though still revered by her fans, Louisa is a taboo subject in the family home. Haunted by her own demons, Anneliese must dig into the family's past to untangle a dark web of secrets, inadvertently putting herself and her unborn child in grave danger.Not knowing who to trust, Anneliese has to decide just how far she is willing to go to safeguard the family life she so desperately seeks.

My Review:
Oh, this was such a fantastic book! The mystery with this family, as well as Anneliese and her past, it was all so intriguing, and I had to keep reading, and find out what was going to happen next! And boy, was it a shocking story!

We know right away that there's something wrong with the family, because we start when Willem is a kid, and the way his mom acted-including throwing something at his head.  So we know she's not a good person, she's obsessed with her own music, and the public's perception of her, and how her family reflects on her, that's not great!

This story was told through various perspectives, at various points of time, in the present with Anneliese and Willem in the present, and then in the past, both Anneliese's past, and Willem's, and Louisa (which is weird to write since that's my name and I hardly ever see it! Though it sucks to see it on an awful character.) To wonder what happened to her, the mystery was really intriguing!

I wasn't expecting all the directions that this story went! I guessed the one, but then another twist came, and then another, and it was just so thrilling and illicit and I loved it! I really wasn't expecting it to go in either of those big directions, and I just had to see how it was going to end! 

Loved reading this book and I'd love to read more by Barbara Gayle Austin! 

Author: Barbara Gayle Austin  
Read: October 18th, 2024 
Source: NetGalley  
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a DAC Book and a SAC 2024 Book! 
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Published: August 20th 2024

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars