TITLE: Mad (Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know Trilogy #1)
AUTHOR: Chloe Esposito
PUBLISHER: Dutton Books
PUBLISHING DATE: June 13, 2017
FROM GOODREADS: Alvie Knightly is a trainwreck: aimless, haphazard, and pretty much constantly drunk. Alvie's existence is made even more futile in contrast to that of her identical and perfect twin sister, Beth. Alvie lives on social media, eats kebabs for breakfast, and gets stopped at security when the sex toy in her carry-on starts buzzing. Beth is married to a hot, rich Italian, dotes on her beautiful baby boy, and has always been their mother's favorite. The twins' days of having anything in common besides their looks are long gone. When Beth sends Alvie a first-class plane ticket to visit her in Italy, Alvie is reluctant to go. But when she gets fired from the job she hates and her flatmates kick her out on the streets, a luxury villa in glitzy Taormina suddenly sounds more appealing. Beth asks Alvie to swap places with her for a few hours so she can go unnoticed by her husband. Alvie jumps at the chance to take over her sister's life -if only temporarily. But when the night ends with Beth dead at the bottom of the pool, Alvie realizes that this is her chance to change her life.
Alvie quickly discovers that living Beth's life is harder than she thought. What was her sister hiding from her husband? And why did Beth invite her to Italy at all? As Alvie digs deeper, she uncovers Mafia connections, secret lovers, attractive hitmen, and one extremely corrupt priest, all of whom are starting to catch on to her charade. Now Alvie has to rely on all the skills that made her unemployable - a turned-to-11 sex drive, a love of guns, lying to her mother - if she wants to keep her million-dollar prize. She is uncensored, unhinged, and unforgettable.
MY THOUGHTS: This book is a non-stop ride through Crazyville and whether it's because I needed a break from horror and thriller novels, or because the authpr's writing style sucked me up from the Prologue on, I devoured this book in less than 24 hours - not a bad way to start a vacation.
Alvie Knightly, the main character, is a cross between Lorelei Gilmore and Courtney Love. She is constantly on the go and talks and thinks a thousand words a minute but is crass, crazy and downright vicious at times. She has a foul mouth and an even fouler attitude. She is not a likable character at all, yet I found myself loving her. Alvie has recently lost her job (because apparently tweeting about watching porn at work on the company Twitter account was the last straw), is getting kicked out of her flat by two roommates who she doesn't even know their last names, and is off to Sicily to meet her identical twin sister Beth, her husband and their new son. Beth has a favor to ask Alvie - she wants her to trade places with her for just one evening and Alvie agrees to do it for a diamond necklace and an expensive pair of shoes. However, Alvie has no idea what she has agreed to do.
This book is part action, part mystery and part wild sex romp. Alvie has NO morals and NO guilt. In fact, I'm leaning toward thinking she's pretty much a sociopath. In one short week, she gets involved in more lies, deception and crazy adventures than humanly possible and to say she's over her head in the Sicilian mafia is an understatement.
This is not my usual type of read but I'm so glad I picked it up. Apparently it's the first book in a trilogy and while there is some sort of a cliffhanger at the end, it's not one where you immediately feel the need to pick up the next book. Like Alvie, when I finished it, I needed a break from all the chaos for a while. That being said, I will definitely be on the lookout for future installments and recommend this to anyone looking for a good summer read which is not all romance and fluff.
I received this book from Penguin's First to Read program in exchange for an honest review.
