Too Far Standing Still by Lisette Brodey #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Too Far Standing Still is the third fast-paced, character-driven psychological drama / suspense novel set in New York City, written by talented Lisette Brodey.

How far would you go to realize your dreams?

Too Far Standing Still by Lisette Brodey ~ Blurb:

Tilly Henley was raised in a life of privilege. The daughter of prominent, wealthy New Yorkers, she wants for little. In her late twenties, she marries attorney Jim McNaughton, and the two of them happily plan to start a family. But, for the first time in her life, Tilly learns that being born into money doesn’t guarantee you get everything you want. Far from it. Unable to conceive, and now, after years of failed IVF treatments, her dream of motherhood is slipping away—and so is her marriage.

Complicating matters, Tilly and Jim also covet the $50 million trust her grandfather left for his great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, Tilly’s father, who controls the money, has his reasons for wanting the trust to go only to biological Henleys, making adoption out of the question.

With time running out, desperation turns to recklessness. What begins as whispered “what ifs” spirals into dangerous games of deception, betrayal, and unfathomable choices that could destroy everything.

When the stakes are this high, how far is too far?

Too Far Standing Still by Lisette Brodey, my review:

Lisette Brodey’s Too Far Standing Still is a psychological thriller that understands, with unsettling clarity, how privilege can fracture when desire goes unmet. Tilly Henley grows up cushioned by wealth and expectation, marries the right man and together they assume life will unfold as planned. Until motherhood remains stubbornly out of reach. Years of failed IVF treatments hollow out not only her dreams but the passion in their marriage, leaving behind a dangerous vacuum where resentment, secrets and greed begin to thrive. Brodey is sharp-eyed here, refusing easy sympathy and instead examining how desperation can corrode even the most carefully curated lives.

Structured through multiple first-person journals, Too Far Standing Still braids together the voices of three women bound by friendship yet divided by grief, disappointment, and competing needs. What begins as intimacy – shared fears, whispered confidences – slowly curdles into suspicion and betrayal.

Brodey’s writing style is blunt, confessional, and deliberately intimate, using first-person journals to collapse the distance between reader and character. Dialogue crackles with raw emotion and dark humor, while interior monologue exposes rationalizations as quickly as it exposes wounds; the effect is claustrophobic in the best way, mirroring how secrets, suspicion, and obsession tighten around the characters until there is no neutral ground left. The prose favors immediacy over lyricism, pushing the psychological tension forward with sharp pacing and an almost voyeuristic honesty. Indeed, the first-person journal format lends the story an unnerving immediacy: each voice insists on its own truth, even as those truths collide. Brodey is particularly adept at showing how pain might have united these women, but instead becomes the fault line along which greed and lies split them apart.

Greed, here, is never crude; it is intimate, rationalized, fueled by passion in all its volatile forms: lust, longing, and fear. As time runs out, caution gives way to recklessness while quiet “what ifs” escalate into choices that cannot be undone.

Too Far Standing Still moves at a relentless pace; driven by emotional urgency rather than shock alone and this is what I enjoyed about this novel. Although there’s a chaos of greed and passion, it leaves the reader with a lingering unease: once acted upon, choices cannot be undone and consequences are forever. Brodey makes this very clear in the final chapters, as she neatly wraps-up all the loose threads.

I found the title is cleverly chosen. Too Far Standing Still means going dangerously far without outward movement traveling great moral and emotional distances while remaining fixed in one consuming desire. Tilly’s longing for motherhood keeps her psychologically stuck and in that stasis her mind crosses ethical lines she once believed immovable. The title reflects how desperation, when left unchecked, drives people “too far” not through action, but through the quiet decisions they justify while telling themselves nothing has changed.

Too Far Standing Still is a novel that suggests grief can soften hearts, but unchecked desire sharpens them and, once sharpened, they are capable of cutting through everything that once held.

Content warning: This novel contains adult language, explicit sexual references, and depictions of infidelity and emotional manipulation, which may not be suitable for all readers.

To buy the book Amazon US or Amazon UK or universal link mybook.to/TFSS

Too Far Standing Still is the third book in Lisette Brodey’s non-series and you can discover on her blog, here, why she gave it this title.

Lisette Brodey is a multigenre author of fifteen books. She was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She spent ten years in New York City and now resides in Los Angeles. When she’s not writing, she loves connecting with friends, spending time in nature, and photographing the beauty around her.