Book Review: EVERY VOW YOU BREAK by Peter Swanson

EVERY VOW YOU BREAK by Peter Swanson

William Morrow; 3/23/21

CBTB Rating: 3.5/5

The Verdict: page-turning suspense with an uneven finale

Peter Swanson, author of acclaimed thrillers including The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders, returns this spring with his newest story of Hitchcockian suspense: EVERY VOW YOU BREAK. Following a bride whose honeymoon with her beloved new husband takes a dark and sinister turn, EVERY VOW YOU BREAK asks the age-old question that has fueled so many domestic and psychological thrillers: how well do we really know the people who we allow into our lives? In this book, it’s no spoiler to say that the answer to that question is not very well at all—and the things they are hiding just might be deadly. EVERY VOW YOU BREAK is dripping in sinister atmosphere and built to be devoured in one or two sittings. Unfortunately, the book’s finale leaves something to be desired, managing to be both fairly predictable and over-the-top all at once. If you are a newcomer to Peter Swanson’s work, you may be better served trying one of his previous releases: check out his books Eight Perfect Murders (perfect for fans of classic mysteries and crime fiction!) or Her Every Fear (perfect for readers looking for top-notch suspense with shades of Hitchcock).

Plot Details:

Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb. He’s a good guy, stable, level-headed, kind—a refreshing twist from her previous relationships.

But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident—and the sexy guy who wouldn’t give her his real name—out of her mind, and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life.

Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears—and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something much, much more. Something special. Something real—and he’s tracked her down to prove it.

Does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own? To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen. She sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss… including her perfect new husband.

There seems to be something of a trend developing in recent crime fiction: weddings are the new hot foundation upon which to build a crime story. Having not too long ago read and loved Lucy Foley’s THE GUEST LIST, and more recently read and thoroughly enjoyed J.T. Ellison’s HER DARK LIES, I was somewhat hesitant when diving into yet another thriller that involves a wedding. Would this setting feel tired at this point? I’m happy to report that I had no such problem with EVERY VOW YOU BREAK. Peter Swanson puts his own unique spin on the idea of marital bliss taking a dark and sinister turn in his newest release, which focuses not on a wedding itself, but on what comes after. In EVERY VOW YOU BREAK, readers are introduced to Abigail and her devoted fiancé, Bruce. After a drunken one-night-stand with a stranger on her bachelorette weekend, Abigail is wracked with guilt, but determined to put this mistake in the past and move forward with her upcoming nuptials. Abigail and Bruce’s wedding day comes and goes almost without a hitch, and Abigail believes she has safely buried her indiscretion. The newlyweds soon head off for their honeymoon: a stay in an exclusive, luxurious campground-turned-resort on a small island off the coast of New England. At this resort, the couple will be given a true escape from the real world—there’s no cell service on the island, and the elite guests who can afford to stay there can devote their days not to emails and work calls but to swimming, hiking, sailing, and lounging about in the camp’s perfectly-appointed cabins. It should be a dream getaway with her new spouse, but for Abigail, things are about to take a dark turn. Little clues that something isn’t quite right on this island come quickly and in many forms—most alarming of which is the reappearance of the very same man Abigail slept with on her bachelorette party, who claims to be a guest at the lodge himself. But could it really be a coincidence, or has her one-night-stand become her stalker? As days pass and tensions rise, Abigail finds herself fearing for her safety. Unable to leave the island, and unable to tell her fiancé the truth about the stranger who appears to have followed her there, Abigail’s honeymoon soon becomes a desperate fight to protect her new marriage—and to get off this island alive.

My experience with EVERY VOW YOU BREAK was undeniably a mixed one, but let’s start with a discussion of this book’s pros, of which there are quite a few. EVERY VOW YOU BREAK is a suspense novel that begs to be read in a couple of sittings at most, and its page-turning pacing is an asset to this story. Swanson expertly moves his story along at a pacey clip; within the book’s first chapters, he establishes a rich backstory for protagonist Abigail, allows readers to witness the moment Abigail first meets her would-be stalker, Scottie, and gets Abigail married to Bruce and on the way to her honeymoon. Swanson knows exactly when to put his story’s pacing on overdrive and when to slow it down and sink into the details—and sink into the details he does when Abigail and Bruce arrive at their honeymoon destination. This destination provides another strong selling point of EVERY VOW YOU BREAK. Set on a little island off the coast of New England, this story plays out against the backdrop of an old campground that has been converted into a luxurious, members-only resort, intended to give its powerful and wealthy clientele an escape from the real world. The feeling of isolation inherent to this setting lends the story an instant-dose of claustrophobia, and Swanson does an excellent job using this isolation to raise the story’s tension and stakes as the book progresses. Like everything in this novel, the resort at first appears idyllic… but that is far from its whole story. The more time Abigail spends exploring the island and mingling with its (suspiciously male-dominated) staff and guests, the more convinced she becomes that something is off about the resort. Swanson expertly manipulates our perception of this story’s setting, over the course of the novel transforming it in front of readers’ eyes from a dream getaway to a nightmarish stage upon which a deadly show is playing out. In EVERY VOW YOU BREAK, nothing—and no one—is what they first appear to be, and Swanson effectively builds a palpable sense of paranoia over the course of this story.

EVERY VOW YOU BREAK delves deep into the dark secrets of its characters, setting up a cleverly-constructed trap into which protagonist Abigail has no choice but to fall. Swanson does an excellent job establishing a sense of unease and manipulation throughout the book, a quality that kept me hooked and eagerly anticipating how the story would tie together. Unfortunately, when it arrived, this book’s finale was a letdown. Oddly enough, I found the book’s conclusion both predictable and over-the-top, a combination that left me quite a bit disappointed. I saw the key twists in this book’s finale coming, yet somehow still found their execution overdone when they arrived. The closer I got to the book’s conclusion, the more I found myself hoping the story wouldn’t go where I suspected it was heading… but it did exactly that. So much of what I was enjoying about EVERY VOW YOU BREAK came in its subtly unsettling atmosphere, and readers’ ever-shifting perceptions of what was really at the heart of this story, and the book’s over-the-top conclusion unfortunately felt forced to me. If the first three quarters of the book are all subtle, paranoia-inducing manipulation, its finale attempts to pull the rug out from under readers with a perspective-shattering reveal and falls short, instead delivering a conclusion that feels crafted primarily for shock value. The finale of EVERY VOW YOU BREAK simply pushes things too far, and too larger-than-life, to fit the subtle, dread-inducing paranoia that Swanson so carefully crafted over the course of the book.

Peter Swanson’s aptly-titled new thriller delves into love, obsession, and the very fine line between the two. In this psychological suspense novel, no one can be trusted, and no one is getting out unscathed. While this wasn’t my favorite Swanson book ever, there were nevertheless elements of this suspense novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you’re interested in trying this one out, perhaps consider picking up a copy from your local library.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.

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Book Details:

Publisher : William Morrow (March 23, 2021)

Language : English

Hardcover : 320 pages

ISBN-10 : 0062980033

ISBN-13 : 978-0062980038

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