The Fiancée: Kate White

The Fiancée

Summer is spending time with her in-law’s family and hopes to take in some sun and work on her play. But something would change it all when her brother in law’s girlfriend shows up and Sumner remembers her from a showcase they both did. Why does she lie? Hannah Kane has a secret past and what Summer learns from someone connected to the showcase shocks her and telling what she knows to her husband he blows it off. Hannah claims it was not her and she never met her at all. Why lie?

Things get out if hand as the reader gets to hear conversations about opinions related to Hannah and Claire explains the flowers in her garden to her and the dangers of foxgloves. Added in dinners, lunches and games of all types but something about Hannah is off. Then Henry, Gabe’s son overheard a heated conversation between Claire and someone else. This upsets him and enforces why Summer is suspicious of her and her past relationship with her brother-in-law Marcus who is married to Kiera and seems not thrilled that she is there. When the cook does not see Claire when it is time to decide on the dishes for a meal imagine finding her sprawled on the floor , 911 called and family members going to the hospital, but no one would ever think she would not make it.

Summer becomes suspicious of Hannah and thinks that she might be responsible for what happened to  because Henry her stepson overhears a conversation but who is it that Claire was threatening to enlighten someone about what she had done? What exactly was Hannah’s motive for even being there? Lies, betrayals and then Summer asks Blake’s wife Wendy to ask a friend to do some research on Hannah and what they learn you will not believe but this does not stop what is about to happen next.

This family is tight and wants to protect Ash, the father from anymore grief but events change, and his assistant shows up and it looks like it’s more than just a work relationship. Did Claire know? Then the morning after the confrontation with Claire, she went to the study and hunted on the book on poisonous plants at times she might have seen in the past. She would  have learned known from the garden tours she was given by Claire that Foxgloves are poisonous. She also learned from someone that Clare took a diuretic which would make ingesting digitalis more dangerous. Just who was the killer and why was it that every time Summer tried to tell Gabe her suspicions about Hannah he became angry and blew her off. Added in the brothers were keeping information about business issues from Gabe and things began to escalate in the wrong direction even more.

Bonnie the housekeeper was a major help and when finding Claire and continuing to help the family you realize that she is someone caring, trustworthy and loyal and hires someone else to help her along with family members that chip in their time. Hannah needed support and went to one family member for that but never realized that by doing that she endangered herself and she had a secret that she held over this person’s head and she was supposed to be the next victim, but a rain slicker would save her when someone else was mistaken for her and killed.

Nick surprised everyone when he told them he was engaged to Hannah the same time that Wendy told the family she was going to be a mother. Henry overhears something one night and although Summer and Gabe want to believe him it is not until after Claire’s funeral that she learns more from him and she should have paid closer attention.

Different family members have different views about Claire and the will shocks everyone as what they think was supposed to be left to Ash was not going to happen. She leaves money to each of her sons and hopes it will help them with their businesses and the truth about what she thinks Ash and his assistant had going might be the reason she changed her will. When Jillian is found dead and all the family members are questioned is it Hannah who killed her, was Hannah the intended victim if so why?
Throughout the novel we learn more about each member of the family, Marcus and Keira and their relationship as well as Keira’s uncomfortable feeling around Hannah who once dated her husband. Nick at times feels oblivious to Hannah’s faults and when meeting with Summer who claims she  has met her before you realize that there is a serious rivalry and what Hannah pulls at the funeral says it all.

Claire was smart, resourceful and controlling and wanted her family and their lives perfectly orchestrated the way she wanted and even at the funeral her best friend, Ellen, says she was judgmental and formed her own opinions of people and that at times she was extremely hard. Did Ash have an affair with Jillian? Did Claire know? Would they ever figure out how the foxgloves got into her tea and killed her?
A family torn apart and at times separated will they ever be able to feel as one again? Henry a smart nine-year-old senses trouble and can explain what he thinks he heard and at times Summer is sorry she did not listen harder.

Author Kate White takes us deep inside this family’s dynamics and we learn the truth about each one of the brothers, sister in laws and just how close they were or were not. Lies, betrayals, deceptions and it all comes down in the end to the almighty dollar and greed as author Kate White creates a killer so diabolical and so clever and might have gotten away with it if this person had not tried to take out Summer too.

Characters that have flaws, their own private agendas and in the end just what do you think about Hannah the Fiancée?