Careful What You Wish For by Hallie Ephron is a novel of suspense. Publisher: William Morrow, coming August 6, 2019.

From the New York Times bestselling author of There Was an Old Woman comes a novel about a professional organizer with a deadly problem she may not be able to clean up.

Emily Harlow is a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she’s married to man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. He’s filled their basement, attic, and garage with his finds.

Like other professionals who make a living decluttering peoples’ lives, Emily has devised a set of ironclad rules. When working with couples, she makes clear that the client is only allowed to declutter his or her own stuff. That stipulation has kept Emily’s own marriage together these past few years. She’d love nothing better than to toss out all her husband’s crap. He says he’s a collector. Emily knows better—he’s a hoarder. The larger his “collection” becomes, the deeper the distance grows between Emily and the man she married.

Luckily, Emily’s got two new clients to distract herself: an elderly widow whose husband left behind a storage unit she didn’t know existed, and a young wife whose husband won’t allow her stuff into their house. Emily’s initial meeting with the young wife takes a detour when, after too much wine, the women end up fantasizing about how much more pleasant life would be without their collecting spouses.

But the next day Emily finds herself in a mess that might be too big for her to clean up. Careful what you wish for, the old adage says . . . now Emily might lose her freedom, her marriage . . . and possibly her life.

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Emily is a professional organizer and little does she know that the rush job she takes on will have her life spiraling out of control and it is the author’s adept at crafting a story that sets the stage for an intriguing tale that quickly became a page turner as I had to know how this was going to end. A little harmless chatter would lead to the death of her client’s husband and somehow the police are looking at Emily as all the clues are pointing in her direction.

In this novel, the author tells a grippingly manipulating story that I was compelled to follow through as each scenario took me further down a road and around a bend of a tantalizing tale that had me completely immersed in the situations befalling Emily as she searches for some answers herself.

The author did a great job in creating a dynamic story with engaging dialogue that mirrored a film playing in my head. The flow and tempo of this story kept me in tuned to all that was happening and then BAM, the build-up cascaded in a frenetic pacing with several surprising revelation that knocked me off my feet and had me devouring every word on the page as this gripping narrative came to fruition and boy, did it ever. All I could say was “wow,” “omg,” “no way,” and a few others to express my thoughts as the pieces of the puzzle came together. Talk about a plot twist. Even a subway stop didn’t deter me as I had to see this to the finish. I’ve always enjoyed Hallie’s stories, but this one is by far the best.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.