Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda

So after reading Gone With the Wind, I needed something a little bit closer to my usual likes, because as much as I loved Gone With the Wind, my heart belongs to thrillers and crimes. So when I was scrolling through my online Silent Book Club and saw someone post about Best Day Ever, I was intrigued and decided why not. While it started out a bit rough, I ended up devouring the book in a day, a feat that I have not done since The Elizas by Sara Shepard last April.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

Paul has the perfect life: beautiful wife, wonderful sons, dream job, and a big house in a perfect suburb. He has planned the best day ever for his wife Mia-after all, she deserves it, she has been so sick lately. As they drive out to their lake house on Lake Erie, tension begins to build between them and you learn that Paul's life is not as perfect as it seems on the surface. He is hiding girlfriends, a lost job, and a lot of debt. But that is far from the worst secret he has. His other secret is downright deadly.

I hated Paul from the beginning. I was a few pages in and thought about quitting because I really hated him, and I did not know any of his secrets yet. It was simply the way he talked. You could tell he was a misogynist and I am sorry but I do not have time for that kind of behavior.

"I drove the boys to school, reminded them that the babysitter would be picking them up afterward. When I returned to the house, I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. I can be helpful when I want to be, although I don't want to remind Mia of this fact as she may come to expect it." (p. 10)

(Source: Giphy)

We are on page 10 and already this asshole is saying that he does not want his wife to expect him to do the dishes?! I am sorry, but you are a grown ass adult, you can do the dishes. But it only gets worse, oh so much worse. When Mia mentions the incident with the female coworker, I knew he was cheating on his wife, but did not know to what extent. I also quickly put together that there were financial troubles that Mia was not privy to. I also questioned in the beginning if he was the reason Mia was sick, but was not able to put that together as quickly as I would have liked to. 

I cannot really say what kept me reading, but I could not put it down after a certain point. I wanted to untangle all of his lies, and I wanted to know what was going to happen to Mia. I also wanted to know if he was right in thinking that Mia was having an affair with their lake house neighbor, Buck. Another thing that I was very curious about was that when I listened to the audio book, it said that it was read by Graham Halstead and Amy McFadden, meaning that Paul's parts would be read by Graham and Mia's parts by Amy, but the further into the book I got, I did not find any parts from Mia's perspective. 

************This next paragraph contains spoilers. Read at your own risk!************

(Source: Giphy)

I got my answer in the final chapter when it is finally told from Mia's point of view, and I really liked that touch. Mia talks about how she discovered her husbands sociopath tendencies thanks to Buck, and how she planned her escape when she learned that he was poisoning her with arsenic. But I do not fully agree with how Mia left everything. I agree she did the right thing by emptying out the house and getting the boys away from everything and having someone there when she delivered the news about leaving Paul. My issue is the separation agreement with accompanying dissolution. I know she was trying to protect the boys from anything more Paul could do, but not only did Paul almost kill Buck, threaten Mia and his girlfriend Gretchen, and blow up a neighbors house, he is free to do all of his crimes again on other women, or come back and harm Mia, Buck, Mia's parents, the babysitter that helped Mia flee, or the boys. Also, from what I read, it does not seem like a dissolution would have been an applicable course of action, but every state is different and I am not here to argue semantics. I also was not a fan that one year later, Mia and Buck are engaged and her parents are totally fine with it. Paul frequently said that Mia's parents, her father in particular, never really trusted him, and part of that had to do with their short courtship and engagement. So while Buck helped save her, why would they be okay with a short courtship again after she almost nearly died? And I want to believe that a person strong enough to leave that situation is strong enough to stand on their own for a little bit to re-learn themselves. I feel like Rouda could have taken a different approach there.

Spoilers are over!

Aside from that, the book was good if you can get past Paul's lying and betraying. The characters have depth and the writing is very well done. Rouda drops little nuggets to keep you guessing and coming back for more.

Rating: 8/10

Author: Kaira Rouda

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense

Dates Read: May 30, 2019