The Image of You

By Adele Parks

What it’s about?

Can you ever trust someone you meet online?

Twins Anna and Zoe are identical in appearance and utterly different in personality. They share a bond so close that nothing – and no one – can rip them apart.

Until Anna meets charismatic Nick.

Anna is trusting, romantic and hopeful; she thinks Nick is perfect.
Zoe is daring, dangerous and extreme; she thinks Nick is a liar.

Zoe has seen Anna betrayed by men before. She’ll stop at nothing to discover the truth about Nick.

Lies may hurt. But honesty can kill…

What I think:

This starts off as a love story – Anna is ready to settle down and have a family. She is looking for a fairytale. She meets Nick on a dating app – he’s perfect on paper, but he generally looks for sex rather than love. Anna takes him by surprise and he soon falls for her, taking her to meet his parents and quickly asking her to marry him.

Anna’s twin sister Zoe, has concerns. She’s a firm believer that if it seems too good to be true then it absolutely is. She sets out to prove Nick is not who he seems.

Anna and Zoe are so different, it’s hard to believe they are sisters.

The character that develops the most is Nick. Meeting Anna brings out a more thoughtful and caring side to him. He changes from being a womaniser who has casual one night stands to falling in love and planning a future. Despite this he is very drawn to Zoe’s sexual energy and passionate nature. It’s clear Nick has not completely changed his ways.

This gets darker and twistier as Anna and Nick’s wedding approaches. It becomes clear that their relationship is based on a series of lies on both sides. And the lies get bigger.

There are twists coming. I did catch a couple of details, but they certainly didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book.

There’s a recent film version, which I haven’t seen and will definitely be watching soon.