Underwater by Julia McDermott

If you’re into reading a story that is purely character driven, then this would be a book to read since the conflict is between two characters, Candice Morgan, a wealthy entrepreneur, and her brother Monty. Much of the conflict is based on the death of their mother, which has driven a wedge between the two, causing them to blame each other for their mother’s death since it happened during a car accident which involved all of these characters. 

Julie McDermott does a great job of portraying Candace as a business woman, covering all the bases that include what a business goes through with social media. It creates a great conflict with Julie and Monty since there is a lot at stake for Candace if she loses her business. 

The book works well as a page turner since Monty is portrayed as a vile character to say the least. He is the type of character that will cause the reader to grind their teeth, shake their head, and even throw something against the wall, hoping that Monty will face the worst kind of death at the very end of the story. 

Underwater does have problems though since the point of view switches to different characters in the story. At times, I lost count and it does make the book harder to follow since there are a lot of characters introduced during the story, which makes it more difficult since you may not remember the roles the characters play in the story. 

In addition, Monty is a vile character and there may be times when you might question if he is a believable character. Since this is a story about a dysfunctional relationship based on manipulation and guilt, I had to wonder many times if Monty’s character was a little too overwhelming to be believed and if Candice was believable in her reactions to Monty, especially towards the end of the story.
As far as the ending was concerned, I had to wonder in the back of my mind if that was close to believable since it involved Monty and his wife. The climax leading up to it was riveting but the ending just left me shaking my head even more. With all this said, I would give this book 3 stars.