“I look at Ted, and for once, I see a brother instead of a rival. I wonder how long that will last.”
Beneath the Surface, Kaira Rouda
The basis of this book is a blend of Succession and Below Deck. Richard Kinglsey, the billionaire patriarch, has invited his three adult children on a yachting trip as he attempts to pick a successor. John, the oldest, has been working at the family company as the CFO. Ted, the middle child, had previously been ushered out of the family company under hushed circumstances. And Sibley, the youngest, has decided to go the efficient route, never working and simply collecting checks from her father. The plot had several twists and turns with a very intense third act.
As a fan of Below Deck and dark family dramas, I really thought this book would be a hit for me. Unfortunately, it was more of a miss. I was hoping for morally gray characters with conniving plans of familial destruction. Instead, each character felt whiny and not terribly motivated to do anything out of pocket.
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Overall, this book tried to be a thrilling family drama. Instead, it was a slow family drama. At 270 pages, I expected to feel like the story was flying past me with it’s many twists and turns. Instead, I felt like I was trudging through each plot point, begging for something to kick up the pace.
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