The whole world seems to be plotting against Tegan Warner, so it seems.

Wow… this was my first Freida McFadden book. And it was wild. Are they all like this? lol

This story focuses on twenty-three year old Tegan Warner, who’s pregnant and just trying to turn her life around for her baby girl who is due soon. After a shocking revelation, she decides to visit her brother, Dennis, for a time. She packs up her things, heads into her car, and drives through a blizzard to reach her destination.

As it turns out, this decision is probably one of the worst she will ever make.

With her life and her baby’s life at risk, Tegan has to figure out how to survive… but not everything is as it seems. 

Spoilers Ahead

Like I said before, this one is a wild one. Tegan gets into a car crash while traveling which messes up her ankle, but she is saved by a scary looking man named Hank. He brings her back to his cabin, where his wife, Polly, remains. Tegan doesn’t trust Hank, but Polly seems to be her friend. At first.

Polly, who is infertile and struggles with the fact that she can’t have children, decides to keep Tegan in the basement until she has the baby. After finding a flask in her purse, Polly is convinced that Tegan got into a car accident due to drunk driving and that she’s too irresponsible to ever take care of a baby by herself. 

Now, Tegan is slated to be a single mother. She was raped by a rich, older man named Simon, who is trying to coerce her into signing a contract that ensures he will provide for Tegan and the baby so as long Tegan keeps silent about the true paternity of the baby from then on. But then Tegan remembers the night more clearly and realizes that Simon drugged her, making her want to go to the police instead of signing the contract. This context is important for later.

Also, Simon has a lawyer named Jackson who is incredibly fond of Tegan. He’s been helping Tegan figure out the stipulations of the contract and is probably her only true ally throughout this whole thing, although he did miss up at first by not believing her when she said Simon raped her.

Polly keeps Tegan in the basement against her will, much to Hank’s chagrin. He doesn’t want Tegan in their home and wants her to go to the hospital as she has a broken ankle, but Polly insists on keeping her. Polly even threatens to commit suicide if Hank brings her to the hospital, as she desperately wants a child and she feels as if this is her only shot at getting one.

Tegan’s condition deteriorates further and Polly gives her a castor oil infused drink that is supposed to provoke her labor. During an outing where Polly gets Tegan some antibiotics for the ankle infection, Hank finally takes Tegan to the hospital where she can get the necessary treatment.

Polly, knowing that Tegan is going to tell the police and get her and Hank arrested for kidnapping, dresses up in her old nurse scrubs and heads to the hospital, intending to kill Tegan. Side note: Polly is an ex-nurse but lost her job after she wouldn’t put down a newborn baby during her shift at the hospital. Then, she got sent to a psychiatric hospital for a time. So mentally, she’s not all there, clearly.

At the hospital, Polly actually saves Tegan’s life because Tegan’s brother, Dennis, was trying to kill her for not signing Simon’s contract that would’ve set her up for the rest of her life. There’s a whole subplot of Dennis and Simon being business partners and Dennis ending up being a money-hungry freak, but honestly this part was kind of outlandish for me. 

In the end, Tegan never tells the police about what happened to her in Hank and Polly’s home; Tegan has her baby and Jackson manages to secure money for her by blackmailing Simon; and Hank and Polly manage to get a daughter in the form of their next door neighbor’s little girl, who the man was abusing. Hank killed the abusive father, the little girl was left orphaned, and Hank and Polly eventually took her in.

Now, for the nitty gritty of this analysis.

I was kind of frustrated with Tegan at times because she was acting nonsensical towards Hank. She was so horrified of him, not realizing that Polly was the one orchestrating her kidnapping. Polly was the one who was literally intending to cut the baby out of her if things came to that, so Tegan’s attitude towards Hank got kind of annoying, especially near the end. I mean, women can be abusive and manipulative, too. Polly was threatening suicide over this, as well as taking advantage of Hank’s kindness and goodnaturedness and love for her. She really thought she’d be able to get away with the literal kidnap and perhaps attempted murder of a pregnant woman by keeping her husband shut up about the whole thing.

And Polly. Polly, Polly, Polly.

I seriously think that she got off too easy when everything was said and done. She had a change of heart at the end when she saved Tegan from her brother, but does that truly erase all the crazy things she did before the fact? Kidnap a pregnant woman, refuse to get her medical treatment, try to induce her labor in the basement where she could’ve easily died with no medical treatment. She nearly broke Tegan’s kneecap with a hammer. 

Not only that, but Polly was committing fraud by impersonating a doctor over the phone to get Tegan some antibiotics. I felt bad for her, obviously, because it’s clear that her infertility was messing with her mind but she was a danger to herself and others! But at the end she was still awarded a child? She needed another trip to the psychiatric hospital, clearly.

I can kind of see what the author was trying to do with her character. Like presenting her as this morally gray, “she’s damaged but she still has a good heart at the end of the day” attitude but what the heck. This is absolutely too far and Polly getting a child after nearly stealing a baby from another woman just doesn’t sit right with me. 

Hank was an alright character but he pissed me off with his inaction for most of the story. Like what? A pregnant woman is being kept in your basement by your wife and you’re just not doing anything about it? I get he loves her but c’mon. Only when Tegan was on the brink of death did he finally start moving.

Dennis is a confusing character. He ended up being an antagonist but there was no build up to this. No indication that he was money hungry or an associate of Simon’s. I felt indifferent towards this character as a whole, like the story could’ve just omitted him entirely and it would’ve been alright. He doesn’t make sense to me because why would he want to kill his little sister and his unborn niece because of money when these two are the only family he has left in the world? Maybe some people in real life act this way, but this was just ridiculous to me.

Jackson, the lawyer, was a decent guy. Again, he was probably the only person truly on Tegan’s side and managed to help her out when she needed it the most, which was nice.

I read through this story in one evening and it was absolutely fast-paced and exciting. But that ending with Polly… it somewhat soiled it for me since Polly was pissing me off the whole time.

I’d still give this thriller four out of five stars because it truly enthralled me despite these issues.

Happy reading!