From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: Review of Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day

Author: Lori Rader-Day

Publisher: William Morrow Paperback

Date of publication: August 2018

Only in the dark can she find the truth . . .

Since her husband died, Eden Wallace’s life has diminished down to a tiny pinprick, like a far-off star in the night sky. She doesn’t work, has given up on her love of photography, and is so plagued by night terrors that she can’t sleep without the lights on. Everyone, including her family, has grown weary of her grief. So when she finds paperwork in her husband’s effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes. She’s ready to shed her fear and return to the living, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark.

But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings, all stuck in the orbit of their old college friendships. Horrified that her get-away has been taken over, Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone—including Eden—is a suspect.

Everyone is keeping secrets, but only one is a murderer. As mishaps continue to befall the group, Eden must make sense of the chaos and lies to evade a ruthless killer—and she’ll have to do it before dark falls…

It seems I'm still on the hunt for a truly "thrilling" psychological thriller. Unfortunately, Under a Dark Sky just didn't measure up. It takes place at a dark sky park (Who knew there was such a thing?). Eden finds the reservation in her dead husbands papers and goes there for a get away to mourn their next anniversary. She meets six strangers and when one of them is murdered, she becomes a suspect.

It wasn't a bad book. There was an actual mystery to be solved. That part of it was fairly good. But for me, the book suffered from a lack of likable characters and pacing. The characters were not very interesting. Even the main character, Eden, was fairly forgettable. The pacing was so slow. The book took way too long to get to the point. I was never sucked into the story and found easy to put the book down and go onto other things. I did like the ending and how things wrapped up for Eden. It isn't a bad book, it just wasn't as thrilling as I had hoped.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Lori Rader-Day

Photo by Iden Ford

Lori Rader-Day is the author of Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She is a three-time Mary Higgins Clark Award nominee, winning the award in 2016. Lori lives in Chicago.

Find out more about Lori at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Instagram Features

Tuesday, August 7th: Instagram: @_ebl_inc_

Wednesday, August 8th: Instagram: @read.write.coffee

Thursday, August 9th: Instagram: @brookesbooksandbrews

Saturday, August 11th: Instagram: @jenabrownwrites

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TBD: Instagram: @sweetbookobsession

Review Stops

Wednesday, August 8th: Wall-to-Wall Books

Thursday, August 9th: As I turn the pages