Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn – a Review

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Description:
Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband drowned on their honeymoon, his body never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. She’s excited to finally begin a new chapter in her life and start a family.

But out of the blue, she sees him—Josh, her first husband. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that her husband never died in the first place?

June tries to forget about this vision, chalking it up to grief and nerves, but soon enough, she stumbles across a website for a winery in Napa, and the owner in the photo is identical to her dead husband. With her upcoming wedding looming and a fiancé who’s already worried she hasn’t quite left her past behind, June secretly flies to Napa for answers. But she’s not prepared for all the secrets she’s about to unlock because everything she thought she knew about her first love is a lie.

Review:

Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn is a standalone suspenseful novel. The story revolves around two POV’s in different timelines; June in present time and Bev, around 20 years ago.  We meet June, in the present time, as she owns a wine bar in Brooklyn, and is engaged to a Kyle, who is always supportive of June. 10 years ago, June was married to Josh for a short time, as he drowned and his body was never found. One day at the wine bar, she notices someone who looks like her deceased husband; thinking she is having delusions, she searches the internet, which leads her to a family winery, Andrew and Sadie Smith, with Andrew looking exactly like her husband Josh.  June decides to pretend she is looking into the winery and goes to Napa to find the answers.

Bev, is married to David, who runs their winery, and has a son Josh, and a baby, Kieran.  Bev discovers her husband has cheated on her, and kicks him out, until she can learn more about who was the woman he was with.  During this timeline, Josh is a young adult, with a number of girlfriends, where he does get into trouble. We also know that Bev finds herself falling for her friend, Emilia, but isn’t sure she can get past David’s betrayal. Within Bev’s past pov, she knows that she wants something with Emilia, and after a bit, her sister Camille will come up with an idea to allow her to swap places, and be with the woman she loves.

Back into the present, June visits an older Bev, and when she explains thinking that Josh is still alive, she will get the shock of her life.  Josh was a twin, and Andrew is his brother, with both of them not getting along: as Andrew was sent to boarding school. Bev explains that Josh did drown, and the man she sees is Andrew, who is married to Sadie. June decides she wants more information about what happened to Josh all those years ago.  Kyle, June’s fiancée wants to help her, and flies to Napa to give her support. 

The last third of the book picked up a lot, with June determined to find the truths about Josh’s death.  When Kyle arrives, Andrew suspects Kyle of Josh’s death all those years ago, as he found a photo of Kyle, which led to Kyle to prove his innocence; since he really did not know Josh. There were a number of twists as we raced to the climax. I did like Kyle, who totally loved June, and in the end, they will move forward to embrace a new chapter in their lives.  The epilogue is a surprising twist that reveals how Josh died and who was sadly responsible.  I did think this was an unexpected revelation.

Till Death Do Us Part was a suspenseful journey, filled with emotions, family drama, mystery and lots of surprising twists along the way.  Till Death Do Us Part was very well written by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, though early on it was a bit slow.  If you enjoy suspense mysteries, I suggest you read Till Death Do Us Part.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher