Jen Hansen has just gone through a rough divorce and has moved from Austin back to Cedartown, Texas, into her childhood home, where her parents are graciously allowing her and her teen son to live, rent free. She's trying to pick up the pieces of her life, with the help of friends Kittie Spears and Cynthia Nichols, but then she spies hot new neighbor, Will Harding, who has just moved into the mansion at the end of the block. Since Kittie and Cynthia are both quite married, Jen sets her sites on Tall, Dark and European Will, with her friends egging her on. Truth told, her "friends" were born into wealth and continue on the tradition, while Jen is financially struggling. Leggy blonde Kittie has always been the bold ringleader, with athletic natural beauty Jen tagging along, and beautiful-but-quiet Cynthia is just friends with Jen because she hangs around Kittie. Despite this, the three enjoy weekly "Wine Night" at Kittie's house and plot how Jen can win over Will before the town bimbo, real estate agent Brandi, gets her hooks into him. Kittie decides to throw a neighborhood BBQ to set things in motion, but it seems Jen has already caught Will's eye… but she's not the only one.
Kittie can't stand not being the center of attention, so being the bad "friend" that she is, she can't help wearing her shortest shorts and throwing herself at Will every time she sees him, even though it is obvious he is interested in Jen. And Will is a man, after all, so he definitely notices Kittie. Then there's Cynthia, who gets Will's attention with her quiet beauty and her love of art and architecture. Before you know it, he is involved with all three, but with Will and his secrets, there could be even more he is hiding.
The story unfolds by jumping back and forth between the beginning of the summer when Jen returns to Cedartown and Will moves in, to the present and it is told from the perspective of the three women, whether it is Jen and Kittie's musings to themselves, Cynthia's journal entries, or the desperate panic of the woman who has been seriously injured in the woods behind the neighborhood in the present time, but you just don't know who that woman is until the very end of the book.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed how this book unfolded and it kept me guessing until the end, which I always appreciate. May Cobb is a gifted thriller writer and again, while I am not a prude, I do appreciate how she keeps it classy, so to speak. There's plenty of sex that happens and it's definitely not puritanical, but I didn't feel like I was reading a romance novel. I felt like I was reading a thriller about three very horny and not too bright suburban housewives and how they get played by a slick dude with deadly intentions. While I didn't relate to the characters in the book, and they made some tremendously stupid choices – all of them – I did enjoy reading what happens to them, in a sort of train wreck way. I will definitely have May Cobb on my radar for any future books she releases. Highly recommended if you are looking for a steamy beach read that doesn't fail to send shivers up your spine in all the right ways.
