Okay so I picked this one up expecting a beach read romance situation - I mean, Bora Bora honeymoon? Gorgeous couple? Reese's Book Club pick? The vibes seemed immaculate. I was working on a logo redesign for a local bakery, Frida was doing her judgy loaf thing on my desk, and I needed something to keep me company through the tedious color matching phase.
Reader, this is NOT a romance. I repeat: NOT. A. ROMANCE.
(Yes, I know it says thriller right there in the genre tags. But the honeymoon! The scuba diving! The pretty cover! I was fooled.)
When Your Dream Honeymoon Becomes a Moral Nightmare
Here's the thing about this book - it starts off feeling like you're watching a documentary about a couple who has it all. Erin's a filmmaker, Mark's in banking, they're beautiful and in love and planning this gorgeous tropical wedding. And then Mark loses his job and suddenly you're watching their carefully constructed life start to crack at the edges. Catherine Steadman does this slow unraveling thing that had me pausing my work to actually pay attention.
The discovery they make while scuba diving - I won't spoil it, but it's the kind of moral dilemma that had me literally talking to my cats about what I would do. Diego did not care. Frida seemed vaguely judgmental about my answers. Standard.
What got me was how quickly "good people" can rationalize terrible decisions. Like, I kept thinking about my abuela and how she would have been clutching her rosary through this whole thing, whispering about how nothing good comes from secrets. She would have KNOWN these two were headed for disaster from the moment they made that first choice. Abuela always knew.
When the Author Steps Behind the Mic
So here's where it gets interesting - Steadman narrates her own book. She's an actress (she was in Downton Abbey, apparently?), and honestly? She's pretty solid. There's this intimacy you get when an author reads their own work - like you're getting the story exactly how it played in their head.
Her voice has this quality that works for Erin - educated, a little anxious, increasingly desperate. When things start spiraling, you can hear the panic creeping in. She does a decent job differentiating between characters, though I'll be honest - some of the male voices felt a bit flat. Mark especially needed more... something. More presence. He's supposed to be this charismatic banker type and sometimes he just sounded like Erin doing a slightly lower voice.
But - and this is a big but - she nails the tension. There were moments where I forgot I was supposed to be picking hex codes for croissant illustrations because I was so wrapped up in whether these two idiots were going to get caught.
Racing Heart, Dry Eyes (And That's Okay)
Look, I'm the person who ugly-cried four times during Beach Read. I keep a spreadsheet of books that make me weep. This one? Dry eyes. But my heart was RACING. Different kind of emotional experience, you know?
The pacing is genuinely good - Steadman knows how to end chapters on these little hooks that made me keep saying "just one more" while my design deadline crept closer. The Bora Bora sections are lush and beautiful and then everything gets progressively darker and more claustrophobic as Erin and Mark dig themselves deeper into their lie.
What didn't totally work for me: some of the plot felt a little convenient? Like things lined up almost too neatly in places. And there's this whole subplot about Erin's documentary work that I kept wanting more of - she's filming these interviews with convicted criminals and it's FASCINATING but it feels underdeveloped compared to the main thriller plot.
Also - and maybe this is just me - I never fully connected with Erin emotionally. I understood her choices intellectually, but I didn't FEEL them in my chest the way I need to for a book to really wreck me. She's compelling but kept at arm's length somehow.
Who's Going to Love This (And Who Should Scroll Past)
If you want a "what would YOU do" moral thriller with decent narration and a tropical backdrop that turns sinister - this is your book. Skip it if you're expecting romance because of the honeymoon setting, or if you need deep emotional connection to your protagonists to stay invested.
It reminded me a bit of The Girl on the Train in terms of that domestic thriller vibe, but with more... action? Before We Were Yours had that same propulsive quality—moral stakes that kept building until I couldn't look away. Things actually HAPPEN here instead of just people drinking wine and being unreliable narrators.
Frida's Final Judgment
Honestly? Probably wouldn't listen again. But I'm glad I listened once. It's a solid thriller that kept me engaged through about 12 hours of design work, which is no small thing.
My heart didn't shatter. But it definitely beat faster. Sometimes that's enough.
