You’re Invited – ARC Book Review

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, Amaya is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best-friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: she must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost.

But Amaya might not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, the evidence points towards Amaya.

Caught between excessive Sri Lankan wedding celebrations, old wounds and dark secrets, will Amaya be able to prove she’s being framed for a murder she’s almost positive she didn’t commit?

After reading My Sweet Girl by this author, I was excited to read her second novel but I kind of enjoyed this book and not as much as I did with the first book. However, this book did not disappoint me at all.

Amaya gets a surprise wedding invitation from her ex-best friend Kaavi, whom she hadn’t talked for many years. The worst of it was, Kaavi is set to marry Amaya’s ex-boyfriend, Spencer. Now Amaya is determined to stop the wedding at all cost that she travelled all the way from Los Angeles to back to Sri Lanka. But on the wedding day, Kaavi goes missing and all evidence seemed to pointing against Amaya…

Trigger warning–BDSM, Self-Harm

Amaya seems to be a very unreliable and a disturbed character who seemed to be stalking her friend on social media by using other alias accounts. She is also a very unreliable narrator. I do like the fact that the story takes place in Sri Lanka and very rarely I have read a thriller based in Sri Lanka. As a Sri Lankan, I am familiar with all the cultures, the pre-wedding jitters and all the life of a high society Sri Lankan in Colombo–I had gone to school and been friends with girls who belong to the Colombo high society family. Kaavi is the epitome of the high society girl so I am glad that the author did a good job of mingling the high society of Colombo with traditional Sri Lankan culture. The use of Sinhala words gave a warm sense of home to me as a Sri Lankan and I am glad that the author used those Sinhala words so maybe the foreign readers could get a glimpse of a life of a rich and wealthy Sri Lankan would be. Mount Lavinia Hotel is in fact real–one of the oldest hotels in Sri Lanka and even I have been to the hotel multiple times. The front cover in the book seemed to be the picture of Mount Lavinia Hotel taken near the beach. The poruwa ceremony, the description of wedding dresses and of course Kaavi’s mother’s infatuation with horoscopes (which is typical of most Sri Lankan parents including mine) was all too realistic.

Aside from all the Sri Lankan things, as a book, this was good. The first part was slightly boring and but towards the middle, the story started getting more and more interesting. The interrogation parts are the ones where it got more interesting as the security started interviewing the guests. The ending was completely unexpected particularly when reading Kaavi’s part. Kaavi’s part was the one that actually drew me more into the story and making me at the edge of the seat. The twists and turns started coming towards the end and it completely blew my mind away Overall, I actually enjoyed this book and looking forward to read her third book! Worth four stars!

Many thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and Netgalley for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.