The Price of Honey by Liane Moriarty | Book Review

The Price of Honey by Liane Moriarty
Series: Deadly Ambition #1
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction
Pages: 34
Published By: Amazon Original Stories on 1st April, 2026
Format: Ebook
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Book Synopsis:

In the car on the way to her husband’s funeral, Honey Beckett still can hardly believe that Barney is actually dead. Granted, he was more than twice her age. But he was Barney Beckett, visionary tech genius, full of surprises—by turns romantic, inspirational, and controlling. Always in control. At the service, she impulsively goes to sit with the three ex-wives: practical Rita, fiery Svetlana, ambitious Meredith. Each broke up the other’s marriage in turn—and now, one final betrayal awaits.

Book Review

As part of my “Amazon Originals” Summer Project, I am reading through short stories published by Amazon.  A spin wheel picked them at random, and I ended up with getting the first book in the ‘Deadly Ambition’ series. I’d heard of this author before but never read any of their work, so I was curious to see what I thought of their writing. Because I have Amazon Prime, the eBook was included, so I didn’t have to pay for it either.

I’ll start by saying that perhaps I’m the problem rather than the book… Judging by the number of readers who enjoyed it (average of 3.5 star Goodreads rating), I suspect I either missed something important or simply failed to connect with it in the way the author intended. Whatever the reason, the experience didn’t work for me, despite its evident appeal to others.

I went into this book completely blind, knowing nothing about the plot, characters, or even what to expect from the story. Unfortunately, that sense of anticipation made the experience even more disappointing. What I hoped would be an engaging read ultimately feel flat, leaving me annoyed and confused by the time I reached the end.

This book is under the mystery/thriller and science fiction genres. However, I didn’t find any mystery in the story, and it never thrilled me while I was reading. It does feature AI so maybe being under the science fiction genre is a little more accurate…

Considering this is such a short story, I really struggled with staying engaged. I honestly didn’t care about anything that was happening or any of the characters. The author packed too much information into this novella, which made it overwhelming at times. Although there was a lot going on, very little of it seemed to serve a real purpose. Rather than adding depth to the story, it often felt unnecessary which distracted from the plot and made it difficult to stay interested.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this story but it’s all personal preference. If you decide to read it, you may end up liking this more than I did. I’m really apprehensive now about what the rest of the books in this series have to offer… Also, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to read another Liane Moriarty book any time soon.