The Favorite Daughter

By: Kaira Rouda

Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney

“Will hit you right in the heart” -- Bustle

A PopSugar Best Book of Spring!

“An exceptional psychological thriller.” -- Publishers Weekly STARRED review

“Compulsively readable and deeply satisfying psychological suspense.” -- Christina Alger, USA TODAY betselling author of The Banker’s Wife

“Leaves you wanting more.” -- Liv Constantine, author of the national bestseller The Last Mrs. Parrish

“A smart, wickedly plotted psychological thriller brimming with dark surprises” -- Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author

“Intense, creepy, and classic Rouda. A chilling story, told so well. Don’t miss it!” -- J. T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author

From the author of Best Day Ever, another gripping novel of psychological suspense set in an upscale Southern California community, for fans of B.A. Paris and Shari Lapena.

The perfect home. The perfect family. The perfect lie.

Jane Harris lives in a sparkling home in an oceanfront gated community in Orange County. It’s a place that seems too beautiful to be touched by sadness. But exactly one year ago, Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident and Jane has been grief-stricken ever since. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, she’s barely even left the house. Now that’s all about to change.

It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary and three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days—and nights—at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl—dutiful and loving. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?

The bonds between mothers and daughters, and husbands and wives should never be broken. But you never know how far someone will go to keep a family together…

Deliciously delusional character and fantastic narration!

Kathleen McInerney nailed this book! She brought Jane to life and made the dialogue versus her inner monologue pop (something that can be hard to distinguish in audiobooks sometimes). Jane is the most delusional, fantastic character I’ve read in ages. The story is so twisted and wonderful. I loved it!

Too obvious to be believable

I liked the basic idea that drove the story but the character is so obvious her “evil” isn’t believable. It’s spelled out yet seems obvious the writer thinks you’ll be surprised. I’m not sure who’s being fooled. Certainly not the reader. It could have been clever but wasn’t.

Meh. It was ok.

I'm all about the unreliable narrator, but in order to successfully pull it off (for me), the reader shouldn't know right away that the narrator is unreliable, let alone HOW unreliable. I wasn't 10 minutes into this when I had a pretty good idea of how it would end. I knew who the villain was, had zero sympathy (or even empathy) for ANY of the characters, and the only question remaining was: will the villain's plan work, or will they be foiled at the last second? I surmised correctly, which meant there was absolutely no plot twists for me. The setups for the few surprise twists were far too obvious, which may have been forgivable if I cared AT ALL what happened to ANY of these characters. That said, it (grudgingly) held my interest for the most part and killed some time for me, but overall was pointless for anything other than a time filler. Most likely, that's just a personal preference thing, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

the perspective of a psycho

it was good if you like to read in perspective. Overall entertaining but kinda slow paced for my taste. There were no great twists- other than things you already saw coming but it is presented the reader nicely with a good amount of hints beforehand.

I don’t think I’ve hated a character more..

Jane had me rolling my eyes so much I lost count but she was so overtop and obvious that it makes you laugh. It was disturbing but in a totally different way, I couldn’t put it down.