He Started It

Eddie, Beth and Portia are siblings who have not all been together in years. But they are thrown together now because of their grandfather's will. According to his will the siblings must take the same cross country trip they took with him 20 years ago, stopping at all the same sights ( the Bonnie and Clyde museum, Helen Keller's house, Codger Pole, UFO Watchtower to name a few). Once they get to the end he wants his ashes spread and then they can get their money. There is a reason they have not been together in years, they do not really like each other, or trust each other.Eddie is an a**hole, Beth is a liar and Portia is a kleptomaniac. Such a fun group to all be going on a 2 week road trip together. The road trip they took with their grandfather when they were kids was no picnic. And the same is true this time. They all have secrets, and they are being followed but a couple of guys in a black truck.This book is told from the POV of Beth, both in the present and also in the past during the original road trip.None of these characters are likable (heck Beth even tells us when the book starts that we are not going to like her) But it works so well in this book. And even though none of them were likable, I was rooting for Beth and Portia lolThe back and forth banter between the siblings and the eye rolls they give each other, just had me chuckling at times.This book was full of twists and turns, that sneak up on you. I thought I had some things figured out and then, Plot twist! And the end. OMG! So did not see that coming. I actually had a very different ending in mind. And I was actually a little sad it didn't happen LOLBut the way it ended. OMG! I was like Noooooo! you cannot end it like that, there must be more pages. I love it cause you are making me think, But I want more LOLAnd all of the places they stopped at during the road trips, are real tourist attractions. The author did her research. I want to jump in my car and drive across the country and see them, just maybe not with my siblings LOLThis book kept me engrossed and entertained the whole way though. Another great read by Samantha Downing.

...but who or what will finish it? "He Started It", by Samantha Downing is an absolutely rip-roaring, fascinating, delightfully horrible tale of a road trip down memory lane. At the behest and bequest of their late grandfather, Beth Morgan and her siblings (along with two of their spouses) undertake the repeat of a cross-country road trip that they had taken with their grandfather twenty years earlier. It is a journey that will end with the three of them spreading his ashes where their last trip had ended. When they complete that, the three of them will inherit their grandfather's not-insignificant fortune.There's nothing like reading about true dysfunction, and these three take the cake. The short chapters ensure a near-compulsion to keep reading, because we all know that twists and turns in a plot can keep you hooked, and man, let me tell you, the plot convolutions, twists, revelations, knots, and 180 degree turns kept me flipping the Kindle pages at an unhealthy, carpal-tunnel-inducing rate.Where do all of these twists go? You need to get on this metaphorical ride with our spectacularly uncharming narrator and her equally suspicious family and follow their diabolical road trip, complete with visits to the country's weirdest museums and collections of bizarre curios. Alternating with sections from the family's previous trip twenty years in the past and a travel journal is Beth's present narrative.So: What exactly are the siblings doing? I can't even begin to tell you, since there are so many strands of this story that interweave in the narrative. Any one thing could be a spoiler. Rest assured: this is a FANTASTIC novel to read and enjoy. Will you love the characters? No. Are you rooting for them? No. But you will root for the writing, the narrative, and the tense, forward-moving plot, that drives the readers inexorably toward a sudden, unexpected, horrifying conclusion.

Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance. But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone. It’s even harder when you’re all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won’t stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there’s a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons. But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.My Thoughts: What a road trip we join with the Morgan family in He Started It. The current road trip was one that their grandfather had taken them on years before, and which they are duplicating in order to get their sizable inheritance.As we join the family in the present, we are offered glimpses into the original road trip, and we know immediately that there are big secrets…from that first trip and from their family lives. Grandpa is not a cuddly old man, and each of the siblings has major flaws and lies they are covering. Whenever something went amiss, they didn’t accept responsibility, because, as they said of Grandpa: “He started it!”I thought I could guess the conclusion, as Beth, our first-person narrator, keeps us up on how her mind is working through her flashbacks and internal monologue. But is she telling the truth, or is she hiding the biggest secrets of all? And all along, we ask ourselves what is the real meaning of this duplicated trip?I was stunned as each new revelation gripped me, and the final denouement left me with my mouth hanging open. 4.5 stars.

This was a great book. Loads of red herrings, twists and turns, I never knew what was going to happen next. Parts of the story are slow and uneventful, but that's what being on the road is like. I felt the author portrayed her setting extremely well. The characters are generally unlikeable, particularly the protagonist, Beth. She does nothing much other than complain about her mediocre life with her boring husband, however she treats her husband pretty terribly. There is one moment in the story that I was completely shocked by; I had to read it a couple of times in order to process it. I love moments like this in a book, when you are completely blind sided. The same thing happened with the ending, although not so successfully. I found it deflating compared to the rest of the novel and, to be honest, more than a little silly. Felt quite frustrated as it was almost like the author got bored and rushed it. The end didn't really do the rest of the story justice. With a different ending this could easily have been 5 stars, but I loved her first book so I'd definitely read the next.

Samantha Downing is irrefutably a fantastic author, and the overwhelming majority of this book is an engrossing, well-paced thriller, which delights in very carefully feeding the reader captivating details, and ever-so-slowly pulling back the curtain on some wonderfully twisted characters.However, it saddens me deeply that such a compelling story was spoiled by a deeply unsatisfying ending, which retroactively poisoned the rest of the experience for me.Downing’s characters in “He Started It” are so exceedingly captivating, which makes the ending of this story so maddeningly upsetting, as the novel warranted an ending as clever and gripping as the rest of the nail-biting adventure.Once the road trip hits its final stop, things rapidly fall apart, and the final pages of this story seemed to favour shock value over quality, which does not reflect Downing’s spectacular writing, and characterisation.I hope that “He Started It” gets some kind of continuation, because the ending found here is a flat and dismal conclusion to an otherwise remarkable story.A bad ending from an incompetent author is one thing, but a lackluster ending from an author as sensational as Downing is so much more disappointing.

He Started It is a novel about a road trip. Scratch that, it’s a novel about a power trip, both in the present and past storyline.After their grandpa died Beth, along with her siblings Eddie and Portia stand to inherit his estate, car and liquid funds. All they have to do to receive their inheritance is go on a road trip. Well not just any road trip but THE road trip, following the exact same route as the only other road trip they went on when they were children and their grandpa took them on to give their parents time alone to sort their differences.He Started It is filled to the brim with secrets and lies, the characters are generally untrustworthy and greedy. Her older brother Eddie is the opposite of a charming angel, her younger sister Portia stole from her even when she was 6 years old so she might be up to her old tricks in the present. As for Beth herself, she doesn’t call herself a good person, she makes it clear from the start that she’s not hero, and she really isn’t a good person either but in the end I did still feel for her! Mission accomplished you amazing author!This was literally the road trip from (the opposite from heaven), it all starts going haywire fairly soon when they feel they are being followed by another car, but who and why? Are they even being followed or is it also a lie, Beth doesn’t know for sure. Strange things do start to happen when they’re not looking, things go missing, but is it an outsider or an insider… you just don’t know! On top of that the author drops plenty of twists and turns in the past roadtrip as well with great shock value. It only added to the suspense and it had me question every few pages what went wrong on that first roadtrip and what secret they’re not talking about.This was unlike any other roadtrip I ever read about and I loved every second of this crazy trip. Maybe I would have liked it more if Beth was the one good person but in this family, how could she? I had no idea how this would end and this novel managed to surprise me right up to when I read the very last lines.I can’t believe it’s only the first novel I read by Samantha Downing, but it will certainly not be my last! If you enjoy unpredictable stories, then you really need to add this one to your list!

I read My Lovely Wife and absolutely loved it. As a debut novel it really hit the mark and more for a thriller. Seeing the authors second book was available I brought it and looked forward to reading it wondering how she would top her previous. Fast forward two years and as buddy read with Chloe and I got to it.Three siblings, one road trip and an inheritance. What could go wrong? It sounds pretty straight forward but not for these three.Siblings that hate each go on an essential repeat road trip they did 20 years earlier in order to fulfil their Grandads final wishes in his will but the twist is they have to replicate the trip to receive their inheritance.This slow burn, twisty story really is very clever. It’s a straightforward storytelling of the trip split into two timelines past and present. It is just that, a retelling of the original road trip. There are a few incidents through the trip, twists and a good finale but that’s about all it is.There were some really good elements but then the ending I feel really let it down. It felt rushed, was a little unbelievable and like one twist wasn’t quite enough so another was thrown in, but with no conclusion. It could have been so good especially with it being a slow burn novel, but I expected so much more from the ending but it just fell flat.It didn’t blow me away like the first did however it was enjoyable until those last few chapters. I may be in the minority with my thoughts though so don’t be put off reading if you plan to.

Wow! What was there not to love? Sinister road trip, intriguing characters with unknown agendas, and a persistent air of something trailing behind them. There are twists and turns galore making this a what-the-hell read ~ in a really good way.I enjoyed main character, Beth’s, telling of the story. She’s super flawed and inquisitive; then that personality kept throwing surprises at me which I lapped up. ‘He Started It,’ kept me on my toes. It was an easy and fast read. I loved the actual journey too and appreciated the research that went along with it. I feel as though I’ve had an interesting tour of the USA along with them.The other two main characters, Eddie and Portia, were both strongly written and well layered. The peppered story of their pasts show how they got to where they were.A fantastic and fun psychological thriller! Loved it!