Cassandra Bowden is no stranger to hungover mornings. She’s a binge drinker, her job with the airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts seem to be inevitable. She lives with them–and the accompanying self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together, counting the minutes until she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police–she’s a single woman alone in a hotel room far from home–Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it’s too late to come clean-or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?

Let me start by saying the open pages of this book are brilliant — I fully plan to use them as an example in my writing classes (how to start a suspense novel).

However, despite the intrigue and interesting start, I found myself bored with the story. I made it a few chapters into part two of the book, but it just dragged on for me (I get it–she drinks too much and has made a lot of mistakes). I’m not sure how much I read (25-30%?) before I skipped to the end and read the last few chapters.

Maybe it was me or my mood. I’ll definitely try reading it again (especially after that stellar opening), but I couldn’t get into it this time.

PG-13/R-rated for drinking, sex, and violence. Get your copy here!

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