Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger

Goodreads Synopsis:

Everyone has a secret… Now she knows yours.

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

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My Thoughts

Selena starts a conversation with Martha on the 7:45 train on her way home from work. Martha confesses to Selena that she is having an affair with her boss, and Selena declares that her nanny and her husband are having an affair. After the nanny goes missing, Selena suspects Martha might have something to do with this after her confession. Can Selena trust Martha to keep this secret? Can she trust her husband?

This was such a wild ride. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. As you guys know I’ve been on the psychological thriller kick lately, and this book did not disappoint! Confessions on the 7:45 is a thriller like I’ve never read before. I was so invested in all the characters; I needed to know more about each one.

This book is told in multiple perspectives, but mostly in Selena’s. I normally don’t like multiple perspective books, but this one was tactfully done and with a purpose for each perspective offering more insight into the story. I was trying to connect the dots to how the characters were linked to each other. That was the fun part of this; trying to make connections between the characters and how they were related to each other and their story lines.

The characters wear so many different disguises, they change who they are to better fit into a role. It made me question the real identities of them all, I didn’t know who to trust, if they were being themselves or pretending to be someone else. The layers that were created for each character was brilliantly done, the lies that were interwoven throughout made me question what was real and what was fabricated by a character. There was a lot of depth to each character; no small detail could be overlooked. The writing of each person made them jump off the page for me; they felt like normal people almost as if they could be my neighbours, it was fantastic writing!

I can’t help but praise Unger for her writing, it was astounding and this book will sit with me for a while. I can’t wait until October when I can buy more of her books!

The plot was perfectly paced—the writing blew me away, the unpredictably made it a compelling read. At a fundamental level this book is about revenge and I love a good revenge story! Everything was so fragile in this, one strong gust of wind and everything you think you knew was blown away. I’m a huge fan of books dealing with family dynamics—the more secrets, the more lies the better read it is for me.

I’m a very expressive reader when it comes to thrillers, ask any of my family members and they’ll tell you I scream at my books when a twist happens or something is revealed. This book was no exception. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time; I could not put this book down! I let out several shrieks as more details were revealed throughout the book.

This is a must-read for 2020 for fans of psychological thrillers. Confessions on the 7:45 has made me want to pick up more Lisa Unger books! Recommend me your favourites or books that are similar to this one please!