I've been Aleatha'd (Again)
5
By Cindy Meyer
Entrapment is the fourth book in the Infidelity (not about cheating) series by author Aleatha Romig.
Just when Charli and Nox thought their life in New York was falling into place, a telephone call alerting Charli to her mother’s illness sends her running off to Savannah, despite Nox’s pleas that she wait for him. Delores and Clayton watch in powerless disbelief as Charli climbs into the backseat of her step-father’s limousine and is whisked away toward Montague Manor, or as Charli calls it, the house of horrors.
Charli (Alexandria) is trapped at Montague Manor. Nox is frantic. Adelaide is now a patient at Magnolia Woods, a mental health facility, trapped in her own mind as she fights detoxification from an overuse of prescription drugs. It’s a nightmare choreographed by Alton, Alex’s step-father, who insists that if Alexandria has any hope of saving her mother, she must fulfill her rightful duties as a Montague, including fulfilling her grandfather’s dying wish to marry Bryce.
If my heart was in my throat at the end of Deception, then consider me completely paralyzed now, at the end of Entrapment. As far as I’m concerned, Aleatha Romig is the undisputed queen of head games. Her characters play them against each other, and she, by extension, plays them against her readers. I feel paralyzed to say too much at the risk of giving something away. Besides, I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone of the same gasps and heart pounding shocks I endured.
Entrapment had me on the edge of my seat from the very first chapter. At one point, about 60% in, I remarked that the book was adding to my exercise routine, because there was so much anxiety, I had to repeatedly put the book down and walk away to breath.
As expected, the story of Nox and Charli continues to twist and turn occasionally in ways I sort of suspected, and at other times in ways that surprised, and sometimes horrified me. The Fitzgeralds, the Carmichaels and the Spencers are, collectively and individually, manipulative sociopaths. Their ability to maintain a pretense to the outside world, while privately eviscerating one another behind closed doors makes them, literally, some of the most terrifying characters I’ve ever read, right until the chilling end, which, if you haven’t guessed, will leave the reader hanging until Fidelity, the final installment of the series.
Five heart-pounding stars.