Book: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

★★★¹⁄₂/★★★★★

“When I look at him I feel dismayed as I always do at how normal he looks, because surely there should be something--pointed ears or a pair of horns--to warn people of his evilness.”

 It's been a while since I last read a good thriller so after reading good reviews of Behind Closed Door I decided to pick it up. While this one is a page turner, I didn't find it as thrilling as I was promised. There's a bit of suspense, yes, but I wasn't surprised to see how things turned out because I pretty much expected everything from the start.

 Behind Closed Doors is told from Grace's POV, alternating between the past and the present which I think helps building what little suspense the book has because you just can't wait to know what happens next. Regarding the main characters, Jack and Grace both succeeded in making me feel anxious but Jack, oh my god I'd kill him for Grace if only I could! Right from the beginning I already felt that there's something off about him, about how perfect he is. Yes, he's a gentleman and he's nice and he treats Grace and Millie well (this is before they got married) but there's just something about him that makes me wary. Sure enough when the story starts to unfold we see Jack's true self. And honestly, I was hoping for him to turn out to be this sadistic awful guy just to prove me right and well, I was right. Grace, on the other hand, made me want to scream out of frustration. She was so helpless I wanted to just hug her and help her kill Jack! Sometimes I tried putting myself in her position and well, I'm not sure if I can be as resilient as her. And thinking how Jack can easily punish her for trying to escape or doing something wrong, I can't blame her for submitting to him that easily after all. But her love for Millie, her sister with Down Syndrome, kept her going and that's what saved her.

This book also reminds me so much of the book Safe Haven with Grace as Katie. Katie ran away from his sadistic husband in Safe Haven but in this book Grace wasn't able to run away but dealt with her husband in a different (but deserved) way.

Another issue I had with this book was that it took me a while to finally enjoy it. I wasn't initially attached to it, just waiting for something to happen, for the twist to happen but even then I wasn't hooked. I mean, maybe because I already figured out Jack from the beginning because come on, he's too good to be true! So I waited some more and soon, about halfway through the book, things began to get more interesting. And have I told you that I loved Esther? Because she's nosy and it helped!

Overall, I think you just have to be patient with this book and even though you want to strangle Jack yourself, again, be patient. Because I think that's the best part of this book, seeing Jack's end! Seeing it unfold is so satisfying you would want to congratulate Grace no matter how wrong it was! 

There's a new B.A. Paris book The Breakdown but I'm not eager to read that one. Maybe some time soon.