I previously read Jones other book "The Other Woman" so thought I give this one a whirl. This was just plotted badly in my opinion. Some parts of it were really interesting and I think she gave the two women in this book very distinctive voices. But when we get to what is going on and why and who people really were I just went, I need a flowchart. This is a mess. The ending saved things in my view. 

"The First Mistake" follows Alice. Alice is the successful owner of a design firm. She and her late husband Tom built the business up. Alice still misses her husband, but is getting more settled with her second husband, Nathan who now works for her at the firm. Alice we see struggles with anxiety over Nathan and her two daughters because of how she lost Tom. When she starts to suspect that Nathan may possibly be cheating on her, she is confronted about how well she knew her first husband and if everything she believed is a lie. Alice's best friend, Beth, is trying to decide what to do about telling the father of her daughter about her existence. Alice feels for Beth and wants to help her, but starts to realize that maybe there are things about Beth she really doesn't want to know. 

Jones shows Alice's POV for the majority of the book though we do get Beth's POV as well. You feel for both women since there definitely seems to be questions concerning their personal relationships. I think I liked Alice more though. She seems at times a bit much with her hysterics and her inability to really move on from Tom. When she starts to realize things don't feel right though I am glad she doesn't ignore it. 

I honestly think thought that most of this book had way too many coincidences to be believed after a while which does not a good thriller make to my eyes. The flow does get pretty bad after we leave from Beth's POV. As a reader you start to put things together and you start to get impatient for all of the characters to catch a clue. 

I did like the ending, it was very vague about what happens and if you don't read closely you may not understand what happens. I liked it and thought it was very much set up to end like an old black and white movie. 

Not bad. Interesting thriller but a little too many coincidences.

Alice appears to have it all but she loses her first husband in mysterious circumstances and then her second one starts to act strangely. The first part was a bit dull and I wondered if it was going to be a DNF but it certainly sprang to life when Beth (Alice’s best friend) tells her story and from then on I was hooked and had to keep reading with mouth agape at all the antics on the pages! Well worth the time invested in it and thoroughly enjoyable.

The more I read of The First Mistake, the more my feelings about it waffled. In the end, it was in the fair to midland range for me. Sandie Jones writes a fast-paced and entertaining story with interesting characters. However, this one was totally predictable. I can even point out the exact moment I had most of it figured out. I even bookmarked it because when I read it, I thought 'surely not, it can't be that simple.' Turns out it can be and was. The problem was that point I bookmarked was pretty early in the story, and from there, it was easy to see why certain other things led to the same conclusion. I think we're given a little too much information too soon and the only thing left is to either finish the book to see if we're right or skim the rest of it. Either way would lead to the same thing. For me, the characters and writing did hold my interest enough to finish, but it was a little disappointing to find the book so thoroughly predictable.