The One Night Stand by Carissa Ann Lynch

☆☆☆☆
Kindle Edition, 179 pages
Expected publication: May 14th 2020 by HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter
About the Book:
What happens when a one-night stand becomes someone's last day on earth? Ivy Eames is a single mother struggling to get by. So, when her friends try to convince her to set up an online dating profile, she initially refuses. She doesn't have time to date; she's too busy keeping up with the bills and her troubled teenage daughter, Delanie. But that doesn't stop her friends from creating a profile for her anyway. Curious, and naturally shy, Ivy finds herself drawn to the idea of one-click-away companionship, and the ability to portray herself as a much more confident, attractive version of herself online. But what if this new-version of Ivy is out of control? When she wakes up with a stranger in her bed, she is traumatized to discover that he isn’t breathing. And when she pushes back the covers…Ivy has little doubt: someone murdered this man. But who? And how did he get in her bed in the first place? Instead of calling the police like she should have, Ivy tries to cover her tracks. She is fearful of her ex-husband trying to take custody of her daughter, and afraid of how this dead man in her bed will look to the police. To find out the truth, Ivy must retrace her steps over the last few months and figure out who the man is exactly, and why someone would want to kill him in her bed. An angry daughter, jealous co-workers, nosy neighbors with secrets, possessive men she’s met online, an ex-husband who wants custody, and her ex’s wife who wants her out of the picture completely…everyone seems to have a motive. And when the man turns out to be someone important, the truth of his death can’t stay hidden any longer. Ivy tries to dispose of the dead man and his belongings. But she should have known: nothing on the internet stays hidden for long. And someone hiding amongst a sea of normal profiles knows exactly what happened that night.

This was a fast moving whodunit and I managed to read it in one sitting. It's not a long book by any means but packs a punch in it's mere 179 pages. It was a compelling story, with believable characters and credible events, it left me wanting more. I felt I'd come to know these fractured people, some sympathetic, some despicable. I wondered, what would I do, in a similar situation. I emphatically believe that I would have called 911, then again with so many distractions and so much to lose, maybe I too would panic.

And that's the point, we think we know who we are, including our neighbors; but do we really? And aren't we all, to some extent, co-dependent on the people in our lives. Really, we don't know what we'd do until it's presented to us, especially when we're young. The ending blew me away as I did not see that coming...that says a lot coming from me. Is the plot a little out there? YES! But in the most magnificent way possible. If you're going to break the plausibility barrier this is the way to do it!

Thank you NetGalley, Carissa Ann Lynch, HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#NetGalley