Better Left Buried

Publication Date: August 2024 |Thanks Netgalley for an ARC

Overall Verdict: A cool premise that falls short. The secrets long buried don’t make up for the journey to discover them.

1/5 Stars

Book Summary: Lucy’s spring break takes a drastic detour when her private investigator mother brings her along to one of her cases. When they come across a body at the abandoned amusement park, she knows they’re going to be staying awhile. What Lucy doesn’t expect however is the connection her mother has to this town and just how many secrets are buried. Swept up in the investigation herself, Lucy partners with Audrey, a local with a personal vendetta, to figure out what exactly is going on in this creepy small town.

My Analysis: I feel like I have been hit with letdowns lately when it comes to ARC’s. I wanted to like this one based on the premise, but it fell woefully short. I thought this was going to be more about the mom/daughter relationship, but the mom barely confides anything in her daughter and they’re at odds for the most part. The whole novel is this huge build up to a secret that her mother can’t bring herself to talk about, while also investigating a murder that you’re trying to unfold the details of. The ENTIRE thing is build up. And the conclusion was a let down. Honestly the only thing that kept me going was thinking I was going to find out something crazy, but I personally didn’t think it made up for powering through the book. The relationship between Lucy and Audrey is cute, almost a little too cute, but they offer each other a nice balance. That being said, this book is dual POV of the two of them, and for characters that are supposed to be so different, I sometimes forgot whose perspective I was in the middle of reading. I think it would have been better served all from Lucy’s perspective or even having a dual POV with Lucy and her mother. I unfortunately don’t have much positive to say about this one other than the cover is awesome.