Jackie loved her best friend Theresa from the moment they met nearly fifteen years ago. Now, Theresa is dead and everyone knows who killed her. Jackie Newsome wants to be many things, but a martyr has never been one of them. She is an ex-emotional eater and mother of four, who has finally lost the weight she long yearned to be free of. In her new, sharp-edged body, leaving her old self behind proves harder than she ever imagined. And while she believes she should be happier, a new hunger chases her, and motherhood threatens to subsume what little is left of her.
She finds comfort in her best friend Theresa, whose seemingly perfect life she desperately covets. The two navigate the trials of motherhood side by side – Theresa with her quiet, cherubic daughter, and Jacquelyn with her rambunctious, unruly boys. Their bond is tight, but it is not enough to keep Jacquelyn, finally moving through the world in the body she has always wanted, from stealing a bit of Theresa’s perfect life by having an increasingly torrid affair with Theresa’s husband, Adam.
Hot Springs Drive is a dark, heart-pounding exploration of one woman’s deepest desires, and the lives she will destroy to satisfy them. In her third and fiercest novel, acclaimed literary voice Lindsay Hunter deftly peels back the fragile veneer of two suburban families and the secrets roiling between them.
An unputdownable, unmissable, vicious blade of a novel that peels back the fragile veneer of two suburban families and the deadly secrets roiling between them.
Book Info: 288 pages. Publisher: Renegade Books. Publication Date: 7 Nov 2023
My Thoughts:
O-er! Thinking about this book weeks after I finished it I still feel a little bit dirty and rather uncomfortable and I’m sure this is one of those books that will divide the readers but personally I rather enjoyed it in a squirmy voyeuristic way.
Hot Springs Drive is about two women who meet in a hospital maternity ward almost 15 years ago and become best friends. They couldn’t be more different from one another. Jackie is loud, chaotic and a stressed mother of four wild boys whilst Theresa has a seemingly peaceful and quiet life with her husband Adam and her only daughter, Cece.
The book is written in 3 parts and to be honest I found the first part odd, the narration is blunt, with no emotion and sticks to the facts, but slowly introduces the reader to the house on Hot Springs Drive where something AWFUL has happened.
Each chapter is narrated by a different character, some voices are more disturbing than others but everyone retells their version of events that led up to a tragedy that has caused long lasting effects on both families.
This is a story of friendship and motherhood, of marriage, love, trust and deceit. It’s a powerful tale of the pressure women face every day, pressure from the outside world and the internal pressure they subject themselves to as mothers, wives and friends. Hot Springs Drive is a brutal and raw story of betrayal, obsession and desire.
