The Arrangement

Author: Robyn Harding
Genre: Suspense, Canadian
Type: Trade Paperback
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: Gallery Books
First Published: August 6, 2019

Book Description from GoodReads: Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy—a wealthy, older man who will pay her for dates, and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that’s required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. Sexual favours are optional.

Though more than thirty years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate, and within a month, they are madly in love. At least, Nat is…Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving.

So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. She begins drinking heavily and stalking him: watching him at work, spying on his wife, even befriending his daughter, who is not much younger than she is. But Gabe’s not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession, and, when a body is found near Gabe’s posh Upper East Side apartment, murder.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

My Review: I'm an avid reader of suspense so I sometimes feel like I've seen it all. It takes a lot to impress me. The Arrangement impressed me and took over my life for two days (the sign of an awesome read).

The story focuses around the 'arrangement' made between Nat, a poor, young art student in desperate need of money and Gabe a wealthy man willing to pay for her companionship … and possibly more. When the lines between their original arrangement become blurred things get oh-so-messy, tense and totally captivating. Normally, I don't enjoy books where I don't like the main characters, but Harding has written such well-developed main characters that I found myself waffling between hating and sympathizing with both Gabe and Natalie.

This is a dark domestic thriller about revenge, love and how easy it can occasionally slip into obsession. It is filled with great twists and short chapters that will have readers lying to themselves saying they'll put the book down after the next chapter (hint: no, you won't). While I found the ending a bit weaker than I had hoped, I still recommend this highly engrossing story about deceit, obsession and the lengths people will go when they're desperate.