Book Review: A Likeable Woman | May Cobb

I’m a big fan of May Cobb—she writes the best soapy, gossip-filled, summer reads with a bit of steam and a whole lot of bad behavior. That’s what I expected when I opened up her third novel, A Likeable Woman. This is a big departure in terms of style and tone from her previous two books, though no less engaging. Telling the story of a mother who took her own life and the daughter that has never stopped searching for answers, this is a gripping psychological suspense novel with a twist.

Review | A Likeable Woman

You probably know May Cobb as the beach read queen in the psychological thriller genre. Her first two books were hotter than the Texas heat, featuring bored, wealthy women behaving very badly (see The Hunting Wives and My Summer Darlings for more on that). I loved both of those books, and was excited for a third. It intrigues me that A Likeable Woman is such a drastic departure in tone. I love that it shows breadth and diversity in Cobb’s writing! I hope she hasn’t set aside her flair for bored housewives and their antics entirely, but I also loved to see this more serious domestic suspense novel. It has plenty of her signature elements, but as a whole this is a story that is more emotional than what we’ve seen so far. Let’s get into it, shall we?

What’s A Likeable Woman about?

It’s been twenty years since Kira has returned to her affluent Texas hometown. Kira fled after her mother’s mysterious death rocked her world and became fodder for the town gossip. The widely believed story is that her mother Sadie took her own life, but Kira has never been sure of that. In the wake of her grief, Kira fled to start over somewhere new. She’s been treading water since, unable to move on.

“I’m the fragile one, the potentially unstable one. Just like her mother, they shout-whispered. And also, I’m the only one who believes my mother was murdered, that she didn’t die by her own hand.”

When she receives an invitation to an old frenemy’s vow renewal party—which promises to be an action-packed weekend of painful catching up with her former friends—Kira is reluctant to return for many reasons, not the least of which is that the party is being held at The Farm where her mother died. But Kira’s grandmother has been texting her saying she has something of her mother’s she wants to give her that links to her death. That, plus the promise that her teenage crush and closest friend from home, Jack, will be there—and Kira agrees to make the trip.

From the moment Kira arrives at her grandmother’s house, everything is unsettling. Her grandmother seems to be on her best behavior, but she’s being cryptic and Kira isn’t sure she can trust her. When her grandmother gives her a memoir her mother was writing before her death, Kira can’t believe she has these words directly from her mother. But the journal also seems to detail the scandal that surrounded Sadie before her death, and Kira suspects it may have the answers to what really happened that night…

Why should you read this book?

I enjoyed how layered this story was. Despite her wealth, Sadie was unhappy. Through passages from her memoir, Sadie describes feeling lost after her parents died in a tragic accident. When she met her husband, he was nice and handsome and his life felt secure. Eventually without meaning to, she gave into doing what all their friends were doing—getting married, having kids, buying a big house, becoming a housewife. This is what Sadie calls her efforts to be “a likeable woman”.

“If I can impart one thing to you it’s this: Don’t be like me, don’t be a likeable woman.”

In the time leading up to her death, Sadie began to break away from the person she was expected to be—a likeable woman. She rediscovered her passion for art and creative endeavors. Her husband even built her a shed to have as her studio, though she admits that he didn’t do this to give her “a room of one’s own”—he did it to keep her away from the neighbors spying what a loose and troublesome woman she was. He did it for his own reputation. Sadie also details finding the person she actually loves—someone who accepted her fully as herself.

It’s easy to see the parallels between Kira’s life and Sadie’s. Kira rebelled against her’s much earlier, but in a quiet way. She left rather than face the judgment of going against the grain. Now that she’s back, she can feel the gossip that surrounds her and her mother. The women who were her friends are a throwback to the women from Cobb’s other books. These women could easily be the Hunting Wives with their unhappy marriages, vicious gossip, and infidelity, dropped right into this town. But this is not their story—in this case they are the in-group, and our narrators Kira and Sadie are the out-group. The non-popular ones. The “unlikeable women”.

Kira isn’t a shrinking violet though. She does the minimum she needs to in order to be a supportive “friend”, but she sneaks away when she is able to read more of Sadie’s journal. And to spend time with Jack. Oh boy, I fell hard for Kira and Jack! Their chemistry is undeniable, and they care for one another so deeply. Jack is in an unhappy marriage to a woman who (from the way it is described) entrapped him with a “surprise” pregnancy. Now they have a child together who has special needs, and Kira knows she can’t try again and ask Jack to leave his wife. Watching their relationship was bittersweet, even for the reader! I wasn’t proud of this, but I wanted Jack to cheat on his wife and leave her for Kira. They seem meant to be!

The central mystery is of course, what really happened to Sadie. Did she take her own life? Was it murder like Kira always suspected? The pieces written by Sadie in the past timeline were gripping and haunting. We know where it’s headed, and there are clues that could point in either direction, though the reader can’t help but side with Kira that painting Sadie as “unstable” was just another manifestation of how her free spirited nature wasn’t accepted in their social circle. I was so engrossed in Sadie’s story, I didn’t really theorize who might have played a role—I just watched it unfold. I was surprised by the way it played out in a good way. I didn’t guess the way the book would end, and I was riveted during the last several chapters. The epilogue was perfect and brought the closure to Kira and Sadie’s stories that I needed after that emotional roller coaster!

Final thoughts

This is a different style of book for May Cobb, but one I loved just as much as her soap-y thrillers. A Likeable Woman is much more poignant, character-driven, and layered. It has a slower pace and a subtle but impactful tension that slowly increases throughout the book. The ending unravels the mystery in a spectacular way. The epilogue was the perfect touch to close out the story of Kira and Sadie. Gripping, suspenseful, and powerful.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.

If you liked A Likeable Woman, what should you read next?

About the Author | May Cobb

May Cobb grew up in East Texas where many of her novels are set. After college, May moved to San Francisco to complete her Master’s degree focusing on Victorian literature, and specifically on detective novels from that era, such as Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White. May then lived and worked in Los Angeles for several years for writer/filmmaker Ron Shelton and his wife, the actress Lolita Davidovich. May currently lives in Austin, TX with her husband and son. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Austin Monthly, and Texas Highways Magazine.

About the Book | A Likeable Woman

She’s back in her affluent hometown for the first time in years and determined to unravel the secrets of her mother’s death hidden in the unpublished memoir she left behind…even if it kills her…

After her troublemaker mother’s mysterious death, Kira fled her wealthy Texas town and never looked back. Now, decades later, Kira is invited to an old frenemy’s vow renewal party. Though she is reluctant to go, there are things calling her back… like chilled wine and days spent by the pool… like her sexy childhood crush, Jack. But, more importantly, it’s the urgent texts from her grandmother who says she has something to give Kira. Something about her mother’s death, something that looks an awful lot like murder.

When her grandmother gives Kira a memoir that her mother had been working on before she died, she is pulled into the past and all of the sizzling secrets that come along with it. With few allies left in her gossipy, country club town, Kira turns to Jack for help. As she gets closer to what–and who–might have brought about her mother’s end, it becomes clear that someone wants the past to stay buried.

And Kira might be next.