The Book:
It Could Be Anyone by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Published May 31, 2022 by Scarlet
Date read: December 25, 2022
The Characters:
Trevor is marrying Fiona. He dies at the beginning.
Fiona’s friends Emma, Allie, Veejay, Dutch, Ethan made up the wedding party
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
Murder motives abound when the groom dies at a destination wedding in this new novel by the author of Finding Tessa
To anyone on their flight out of New York, they appear to be five best friends excited for a destination wedding in Miami. No one would guess that each of them has a reason to want the groom dead.
Trevor Vaughn, the groom in question, wooed his bride-to-be by first becoming close with her friends—which is to say that he learned all of the five’s darkest, most dangerous secrets and blackmailed them into convincing Fiona to say “I do.” The friends were forced to convince a doubting Fiona to go through with the wedding, no matter what, and now the charade is set to continue all the way to the altar.
Trevor has his own reasons for wanting to marry into Fiona’s family, and he’ll stop at nothing to make his plan a reality. But when he dies of an apparent allergic reaction at the wedding, surrounded by such close enemies, the possibility of murder isn’t far behind. And for the authorities investigating the case, anyone present could be a suspect…
A suspenseful tale of a deadly destination wedding, It Could Be Anyone is a twisty domestic thriller that will appeal to readers of Liane Moriarty, May Cobb, and Lisa Jewell; its unforgettable characters and unpredictable plot will stay with you long after the last page.
The Reveal:
Trevor had gone to each of the friends in the days before he proposed to Fiona, threatening that he would tell their secrets if they didn’t convince Fiona that marrying him was a great idea.
Emma’s secret was that her niece Bianca was actually her and Veejay’s child. She gave her up to hide her affair from Ethan.
Ethan’s secret was that he had slept with Fiona.
Veejay’s secret was that he was responsible for the death of Allie’s mother, back home in India. His parents hid the accident and sent him to America, where he happened to befriend Allie.
Allie’s secret was that she was being investigated for insider trading and didn’t want her father to know before he died.
Dutch’s secret was that he had forced a girl to OD while partying, and it was caught on video. The girl had been Trevor’s girlfriend. Trevor worked his way into their friend group to get back at Dutch for killing his girlfriend.
Roger’s secret, which had been spilled when Roger refused to play ball, was that he was sleeping with Dutch’s mom.
Emma had slept with Trevor to get the upper hand over him. She wasn’t really pregnant, but she was pretending that she was to make Trevor think it was his to blackmail him back.
Emma and V bought peanut powder to try to trigger an allergic reaction. Ethan put peanut oil in Trevor’s cigar to do the same. The funny part, though, was that Trevor’s allergy was to tree nuts, not peanuts, so none of their machinations had killed him.
The Ending:
Allie was the successful murderer. She had hidden a few almonds from her trail mix in Trevor’s cheese. Emma conveniently removed the Epi-pen from Fiona’s purse, which just helped Allie succeed.
The Review:
I loved this deceitful mess of a book! It opens with a tragedy at a wedding: the groom has died, possibly under suspicious circumstances. Come to find out, everyone in the wedding party had reason to want him dead.
I will say that there are a lot of characters to keep straight. The narration switches between the POVs of all the members of the wedding party and the timeline jumps from past to present, so it definitely takes some focus until you get the hang of the cast. I started this one on audio and admittedly got completely lost, so this is one book I really recommend reading a physical copy of.
The pacing was wonderful, and I was on my toes the whole time. I couldn’t guess who the killer was, since everyone had motive and opportunity! This is the second thriller I’ve really enjoyed from Jaime Lynn Hendricks, so I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Follow me on Bloglovin’!
