The Exes: A GMA Book Club Pick
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
“THE BEST BOOK OF 2026” (KATIE COURIC MEDIA)
“[This] twist-filled thriller… promises to keep readers guessing from the first page to the last.” —Parade
Who hasn’t wanted to murder an ex—figuratively, at least?
Natalie has only ever wanted one thing: a kind man and a chance to create the happy family she never had. There’s just one problem—her boyfriends keep turning up dead.
Enter James. Handsome, wonderful, perfect James. Natalie is convinced her luck has finally turned. He’s everything she’s ever wanted. More importantly, he’s still breathing.
But the harder Natalie tries to play the role of the normal, happy wife, the more her dark past threatens to tear her new life apart. As dangerous secrets and cryptic warnings arrive at her front door, Natalie is forced to question everything she knows about her own history. Is a villain toying with her from the outside? Or is there a monster lurking inside Natalie herself?
To save her marriage—and her husband's life—Natalie must uncover the terrifying truth behind her dead exes. But in a game of toxic love and fatal secrets, does anyone really deserve to survive?
For fans of explosive suspense, The Exes is a razor-sharp, twisty debut thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Slick and psychologically charged, this tale turns modern romance into a nerve-tight mystery about memory and trust. For years, Natalie has been searching for the right partner and the steady life she never had. When she meets James, she dares to believe security is finally within reach…until old relationships begin casting new shadows. As a hidden history surfaces, Natalie is forced to question what happened to the men in her past and what her marriage is built on. Balancing twisty plotting with sharp emotional logic, author Leodora Darlington lands every reveal with surprise and consequence. She moves briskly across timelines and clues without losing sight of her characters, digging into Natalie’s internal life so that every twist feels well-earned. All the while, observations about power, intimacy, and self-protection keep the suspense grounded in human stakes. Smart, fast, and unsettling in just the right ways, The Exes delivers a pageturner that lingers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Darlington's nail-biting debut, a woman faces the ghosts of her past relationships as her seemingly happy marriage fractures. Natalie believes that her recent union to brewery owner James is a significant improvement over failed romances with exes Marc, Luca, and George. But when James loans the money that Natalie had been saving for IVF to his brother, Will, she's furious. Then James tells her that Will blackmailed him, threatening to leak evidence that Natalie murdered Marc, Luca, and George. Withholding details about Natalie's precise involvement with each of those men's deaths, Darlington describes therapy sessions in which Natalie discusses the deaths and wrestles with an anger problem she hopes to keep at bay. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal the abuses Natalie suffered at the hands of each of her exes. In the present, Natalie gradually comes to suspect that James is hiding major secrets of his own. Darlington keeps the pace fleet and the twists flying as she perceptively explores the contradictory power dynamics of contemporary heterosexual romance. It's a promising first outing.
