November Book of the Month Review

Liane Moriarty has been one of my favorite authors since I read Big Little Lies last year. Since then, I’ve read almost every one of her books including: What Alice Forgot and Truly Madly Guilty. So, when her new novel was one of the choices for this month’s Book of the Month, I jumped up for joy.

Her new novel is called Nine Perfect Strangers. The novel is about nine strangers who meet while going to a health spa. The cast of characters are diverse, and includes an ex-sports car, a couple who wants to save their marriage, a family recovering from loss, and a romance author rebounding from a bad review and a bad experience.

Now the health spa is pretty unique, with extreme forms of healing. However, one extreme method of ‘healing’ brings these guys together to create an interesting bond to say the least.

Overall, the book was one of her better ones. At first, the book started off slow. But, as soon as you reach the midpoint of the novel things pick up — and you don’t want to put it down.

One thing that I really liked about this book is that Moriarty doesn’t reveal everything up right up front. The characters are like onions, and you have to peel them one layer at a time. She does this in all of her books, which as a reader makes it enjoyable and keeps it interesting. In this novel, she does this with all of the characters, including Frances the romance novelist. At first, you wonder why Frances is in the state that she is in. Overtime, it is revealed that she was involved in an online dating scam, where she lost some money. 

The only thing I didn’t like was the main character Masha, who has a dark past and reinvents herself — not just once, but several times. And, while she was the villain, it was hard to hate her. The woman almost died, and she lost a child. But, this woman was intense and rude. I’m not sure if this had anything to do with her past, but I definitely didn’t like how she treated her guests. There was definitely something wrong with her, but her intensity definitely intensified things.

With that being said, I highly recommend this book to all of those who are looking for a great read during holiday travel, or just a good book to curl up with to unwind during the holiday season.