Whispered rumors tickled the ears of the residents of an entire town for decades about the disturbing secrets of the old Halstead House, dating all the way back to the early 1920s. Most people didn’t believe them. Several people will soon discover they should have listened.
Three years after struggling to cope with the death of her beloved father and escaping an abusive relationship, Samantha Chapman decides it’s time to return to her hometown of Hot Springs. She buys the ramshackle Halstead House, eager to transform the dilapidated, abandoned piece of history into her new law office and residence, hoping it will be the start of a brighter chapter and a safe haven to escape her personal demons.
Instead of newfound freedom, things take a dark turn when the resurrection of the old home reveals the disturbing secrets hidden within its walls. When youthful transgressions of numerous people come to light, including ones some members of the Chapman family are desperate to contain, it reveals the sins of the past. They collide with the grave mistakes of the present, creating a perfect storm of chaos and death for not only the Chapman family but others as well.
Some will survive.
Others will get burned.
Sam and her loved ones realize some family secrets should have remained buried.
I received an audible code via Audiobookboom for an honest review. What follows here is my honest opinion and I wasn’t compensated for this review.
I actually love Southern Fiction. It is a favorite literary genre of mine since college. Final Agreements very much follows the Southern Fiction genre. Aside from being set in the South (United States in case anyone needs to know), the book deals with family secrets.
Some of the secrets you actually learn really early on, but there is still an underlying suspense on how everything will be resolved. Really, the book is more about the family dynamic than the issues they are dealing with.
Since I listened to the audiobook, let me talk about the narration. The narrator herself wasn’t bad. There were times where the accent or the voice changes confused me as to who was speaking at the time, but the narration itself wasn’t bad.
The prose of the story was well put. When something is supposed to spur the suspense of the story, the reader is pulled in. It isn’t a book that is hard to follow though there are parts I felt that were just a bit like a soap opera and semi-resolved rather quickly in the story. That said, none of the characters themselves felt too out of their normal personality.
Final Rating: 3/5
Casia's Corner 