Review of Her Name was Rose by Claire Allan

2/5 stars

One sentence plot summary: After witnessing the death of a woman named Rose, the protagonist, who is so bland I’ve momentarily forgotten her name, tries to replace her in a desperate bid for happiness.

I’m not even going to look up her name. I’m just going to see if it ever comes to me or if she’s so forgettable that I literally cannot come up with her name three minutes after finishing this book.


As you can probably tell, I did not like this one. Yes, it had it’s compelling moments. The ending, for example, was very strong. For most of the book, though, it was like reading a less well written version of The Girl on the Train. Speaking of which, that triggered the memory for me: the main character of this book is Emily, which is, coincedentally, the name of the actress who plays the main character in The Girl on the Train. At this point, you’ve probably caught on to the fact that I think this book was way too similar to GOtT and let me just say, I’m not suggesting this book was plagiarism or anything like that, just that it wasn’t original. It relies way too heavily on tropes that are super overused lately: unreliable narrator. Scorned woman desperate for the attentions of another woman’s fella. Potential mental illness. Substance abuse that perpetuates the narrator’s unreliability. Just too much of the same and not done nearly as well.

In additition, the pacing was god awful. There was way too much love and lining over the abusive husband, Cian. Almost kissing. Hands on the arm. Ugh, it wasn’t even fast paced as smut, but for a mystery/thriller book, stuff just wasn’t happening fast enough.

Look, I’m not saying this book was the worst. I’ve read worse. I’m just saying if you’ve read five mysteries this year, skip this one because it’s just a composite of what you’ve read.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC I was provided in exchange for a fair and honest review.