Caroline Kepnes does not disappoint with her next book. Although missing a character as destructive as Joe Goldberg, Kepnes does a great job of weaving together a story of monsters and of love.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review. I was a little nervous going in. I normally don’t enjoy books of a supernatural genre. But come on, this was written by Caroline Kepnes! I had to give it a chance. I’m glad I did. I would say that this is a suspenseful, heart wrenching love story, with just a tad of supernatural aspects. I throughly enjoyed this book! I give it 4 shining stars!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Providence by Caroline Kepnes. I am such a fan of her previous books so to see a new novel out on the market was pure JOY!.
I thought at first this might be a YA book, but realized that time travel took the reader ahead in time.
Jon is a loner who loves his friend Chloe. Then Jon disappears, and Chole morns his disappearnce. Then four years later he retuns, but has no idea what has happened to him because he was kidnapped by a substitute teacher who really like him - ? Jon just knows something is different when he awakes, and he is fearful that these changes will hurt Chloe so he leaves. to protect her. He is then followed by a detective who is trying to solve murders and he is sure Jon is involved.
Not sure if this is a supernatural genre or a love story - Fans of Kepnes may not like this book because it is so unlike her previous novels. For me I did not engage with the characters and felt it lacked the depth for me to care. 2.5 stars.

I was quite disappointed with Providence, which I hate saying because I loved her first two books so much! I just felt like I couldn't connect with this story and the beginning portion of the book was more of the Young Adult genre, which I do not care for. I'm patiently waiting for a third Joe Goldberg book!

This is going to be a very polarizing book. Caroline Kepnes's first book, You, was such an iconic hit and people are not going to be able to resist the temptation to compare her latest, Providence, to that. While I can tell this is a book written by the same author, this is completely different from a Joe Goldberg book and you have to be okay with that going in.

Her strength is her character writing. Right from the beginning, I was drawn into the story. Jon is an outsider with odd interests like the daily news and Chloe is his best and only friend. Jon gets kidnapped early in the book- not a spoiler, just an early plot point- and he emerges as changed several years later. We're not entirely sure what happened to him, only that things are very, very different and that it's going to be hard for him to get close to anyone. Chloe mourns the loss of her former best friend but grows up, finding solace in her art. Down the road, we're introduced to Eggs, a dogged detective, and Lo, his wife. Eggs and Lo have a son with a serious disability and the couple works to find a way to best care for him.

There were a few too convenient plot points used to drive the narrative along but nothing to distract too much. My attention was certainly held. There's a lot of Lovecraft references that I absolutely skimmed over, but perhaps if you're a big Lovecraft fan you might like that element. I found myself rooting for Jon to fix himself, for Eggs to find Jon, and for Chloe to find herself. I would rather read a unique story like this from a writer I already love than the same stories written with different characters over and over. I usually like to recommend 'read alikes' to help other readers decide if they should read a book, but I honestly haven't read anything like Providence. One thing I'm sure of is that I wouldn't call this a thriller- it's more supernatural fiction than anything else.

Thanks Caroline Kepnes, Random House Publishing, and Netgalley for providing me with a free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw Caroline Kepnes' name on an upcoming book, I requested it from NetGalley. I loved You and her writing style. I was less enamored with Hidden Bodies, but that was just because it was so much like You that I didn't feel it was necessary. However, I still loved Kepnes' writing style and humor. Thankfully, I read some reviews on Goodreads that made it clear that I would be disappointed if I read this book as a comparison to You. I was able to go in open-minded about the mild supernatural/sci-fi aspect of the book. Turns out it was a good idea to do so.

I really enjoyed this book as an original, out-of-the-box story for a writer who has left such an impression with the main character of her first two novels, Joe Goldberg. In Providence, the lead is more of a victim overall. In some ways it was hard to root for him as he never seemed to have any fight in him toward his school bullies, even toward Chloe when she was not the kind of friend she should be. Then after the kidnapping, he became a victim of some unknown science experiment done on him while he was in captivity. At that point, all a reasonable person could do was feel empathy for his plight.

There was a large section in the middle of the book that dragged on with just more of the same about Chloe's day-to-day life and Jon's. I felt like Providence should have been about 50 pages shorter than it was. Also, while there was never anything revealed about Jon that made me think less of him as a human being, there was not enough development of Chloe to make me like her as much more than a guilt-ridden-quasi-mean-girl. I wanted to root for her more, but she just wasn't very likable to me.

I would recommend this book to someone who is new to Caroline Kepnes or someone who enjoys seeing an author take risks with her writing style and genre. I am still a big fan of this author and will read anything she puts out. In this case, a three star review means I enjoyed the book without LOVING it, but at no point was I tempted to DNF. It was an easy, engaging, quick read.

I think I might be in the minority here, but this was a miss for me. I spent most of the book lost and confused. There is no depth to the writing, abrupt time jumps and really no character development. The 2 main characters spent very little time together, didn't even speak for years, but they were soul mates??? And the ending......so unsatisfying.

I didn't read the synopsis for this book. All I needed to know was that Caroline Kepnes wrote it and I was not disappointed. As You and Hidden Bodies, Providence deals with obsession. Chloe knows that being in love with Jon is a bad idea, but she can't help it. Jon obviously doesn't want her, why is she throwing her life away pining for him? But Jon does care. He wants Chloe more than anything. He can't have her because he could literally kill her. He is powerful, but oh so lonely. Providence may seem like a love letter to Lovecraft, but it reminded me more of Frankenstein. Jon is the monster. He wants to connect, to love, to touch, but all that he brings is death. As extreme as their predicament is, the novel is strangely relatable and the characters are believable. There is a love triangle, but the real third wheel is Eggs, a cop who knows in his gut that a string of deaths are not what they seem. Young people are dying of heart attacks. It's unusual but it can't be anything but a fluke, right? Eggs doesn't think so, and he starts looking for a culprit. The story is suspenseful and touching, bitter and sweet. A five-star read.

3 1/2 stars

I really liked Kepnes' other works so I was excited to read this one (Thanks NetGalley and Random House)

Jon and Chloe are best buds in a small town. While on the way to school, Jon is kidnapped. Chloe has given up any hope of Jon coming back. Just before graduation, he returns. He wants to pick up where he and Chloe left off. However, he has no memory of what happened to him and suddenly discovers that he has strange powers that could hurt the ones that he cares about the most. He is terrified that he will hurt Chloe, so he runs away to seek answers. In Providence, healthy people with no connection to each other are dying. Detective Eggs suspects a serial killer, but he soon finds himself in a strange world seeking answers.

Guys, this book is weird. I'm not sure I am weird enough to quite understand it. I enjoyed Chloe and Jon, and the strange powers are kind of cool to read about. However, it just doesn't make sense enough for my mind to comprehend everything that is happening. Kepnes is a gifted writer and at no point did I want to put this book down. I just was confused at points. Again, it's almost too weird. I would still recommend it because there's nothing else like it. It's just strange. That's not a bad thing though. It's kind of like Stranger Things in a way. You don't quite know what is going on, but you keep going.

I absolutely adored the authors previous novels and could not wait to delve into her latest psychological thriller. The pace is lightening quick, the character development is strong, and the novel is strongly plot driven. Providence has all the makings of another fabulous read that you just want to devour and then miss once you reach the last page. However, there are too many questions left lingering. I realize that part of the resolution was intended to be unsettling and in fact, resisting resolution, but there were gaps in the backstory that needed to be filled. Overall, it has the potential to be another great read.

Amazing first read first read from this author! I think I gained an advantage here by not reading her You series before this one as I had nothing else to compare it to. If this is a taste of what her writing is like...sign me up for all the books!
I was captivated by this unique story of love and loss from the first page. Jon is an incredibly relatable character, I mean...we all know a Jon don't we? I sure do and that made me fall for Jon even more. Actually, all the characters were relatable and I loved how they all had their own story. It was like getting a glimpse into the lives of that guy and girl you went to high school with. You know the ones...always around but never really stood out? That's what this author did. She took basic, every day individuals, gave them lives that really weren't all that special and created an exciting mystery that brought them all along. It's fantastic, really.
The only reasoning for not 5-starring this book is that there were a few little things that bothered me. Eggs and Lo didn't really make that much sense to me, I mean I get the importance of them in the book, but them as a couple....Lo's "kids".....their son....his obsession....parts of all that just didn't really make much sense to me. I also really was bothered by the fact that we don't really get much reason for Blair taking Jon in the first place. Maybe that's something that will come later on...maybe in another book (hint, hint) but I was left slightly unsatisfied there. Those are really my only critiques and they were fairly minor.
Kepnes has created a story that is both original and classic, light hearted and incredibly dark, heartwarming as well as heartbreaking. Now, I'm off to the bookstore to pick up the rest of her books!!

I was really looking forward to this book...and the first part of it delivered but the last half I was just bored. I kept wondering when it was going to deliver. I honestly thought at one point there was a potential for aliens to be involved. Disappointing.

Loved it! The different narrators kept me guessing. The twists and surprises were just what I was hoping for. A very different style that You, which was amazingly executed and has me looking forward to more from this author!

woah, caroline. woah.

i had no idea what i was getting into when i got an advanced copy of providence. (thank you random house and netgalley!)

i know that i LOVED you & hidden bodies and i know that i'm seriously dying to see the t.v. adaptation of you! 

so, i went into this book figuring some sort of dark-ish story about love and protection. 

jon is the weird kid and chloe is the cool girl. and she's nice to him, and she likes him, and he loves her. and then he disappears. and then he comes back - 4 years later - but he's changed. he's strong. and he's not just strong, he's lethal - even when he doesn't want to be or mean to be. so he disappears again. he loves chloe so much has to leave because if he doesn't he'll destroy her. 

chloe is in love with jon in such an achingly familiar way. he disappears and she's lost without him. everything about her becomes about him. her artwork is him. her thoughts go back to him. she knows if he were to come back it would be him - always him. even when she is in other relationships it is so clear in how she is written that it will always be jon. 

and it is weird, and bizarre, and fascinating. i'm not really a fan of super power/curse stories. but the changes in jon after he is released from captivity didn't annoy me. i think they were written into his character so well that i didn't find them to be ridiculous or far fetched. 

providence is a love story. and a story of survival. and a story of protecting the ones you love even at a crushing detriment to yourself. 

if you're expecting a stalker love story a la you - you'll be disappointed. this book is nothing like kepnes' first two. i am amazed at how strong her voice is even though this story is so different. it is refreshing to read an author i love who in just 3 books has managed to master her voice without telling the same old story over and over. 

5/5 stars from this girl. i can't wait to get this hardcover beauty on my shelf!

The plot of the book is very original. However. I though it was going to go one way and ended up with a very bland ending. Some of the scientific stuff felt illogical and took away from the storyline of the characters.

It started off great and I really became attached to the characters but as the story progressed I just become confused as to where the book was going. I was really hoping for more answers and conclusions but the ending didn't give me any of that. All the characters are somewhat likeable and unlikeable through out the book.

I would only recommend this book if you are familiar with this genre as it is not a traditional thriller/mystery.

A suspenseful, sweet, and sad story with complex characters and rich heart, PROVIDENCE is a not so common dark fantasy that mixes romance with necessary separation, and the supernatural with the all too real.

Caroline is such an amazing writer - I can't say enough how she draws you in until you turn the last page. This is also such a big turn from her last two novels - You and Hidden Bodies. Silently hoping there's a sequel to this...

'He’s coming at me fast and it turns out I am not the kind of kid who springs into action when it’s time to fight. I freeze. I choke. Same way I do on the baseball field at reccess.'

This is certainly original, and very strange. Jon and Chloe are best friend living in New Hampshire, sweet on each other with a tender innocence. Safe to confide their passions and secrets in a shed it’s easy to see Jon is awkward. He’ll never be the cool guy, the athlete. He’s the sort of boy whose sweetness is his curse when it comes to other boys, his sensitivity making him a target. With his mind on Chloe, ready to tell her how much she means to him, hoping for more, his substitute teacher (Mr. Blair) kidnaps him. The teacher was obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, and seemed to despise all the kids who only cared about fitting in. He felt differently about Jon, but being his ‘special student’ is not a lucky turn of fate. Mr. Blair will want Jon to be ‘a part of something’ that will make humanity better. He is the chosen one.

Chloe is reeling when it happens. She is the only person who might know where he could have gone. At times embarrassed by her love for him, she wonders if her moment of meanness involving another boy, Carrig, has caused Jon to run away. Even when he is missing, there is cruelty in the excitement surrounding the kids. Tidbits of his behavior is gossip, like finding out he slept with his hamster. It’s evident she is the only one who liked him, who knew everything and understood who he was. She starts to resent that no one really cares, beyond pretending for the sake the drama, and she wants them all to know Jon will not be forgotten! There is shame that she was torn between Carrig and Jon, attracted to them both for different reasons. But Jon is the person she is her most real self with.

Chloe comes apart, for a time, distancing herself from her ‘cool’ friends but being a misfit isn’t going to bring Jon back, and it’s evident he is not coming back. She had remained loyal, saving issues of the Telegraph that he so loved, drawing pictures of him each night but still… he isn’t home. Life has to go on, she returns to her friends, she tries to fit in. But Jon is still so much a part of her. Then we are with Jon, four years have passed. We know something terrible has been done to him, but what? It sounds like some sort of experiment. All he knows is he has been ‘out’ for a long time, a long induced sleep, a coma and now he has incredible power. But what? He is special, but why? Special in what way?

Through a phone call, Chloe finds out they found Jon. As soon as he returns, he wants to run to her, but everything is wrong, as it always has been for him. This power may be yet another thing that stands in the way of the love they have always felt for one another. It all gets even weirder, it’s a supernatural sort of power and the funny thing is, now that he is back he knows he has to leave again to protect Chloe from his special gift. Terrible things are happening to others, a detective takes up the mysterious case, the creepy deaths and is soon after Jon. Is he involved? This is where the story of Lo and Eggs comes in. Eggs gives a raw emotional insight about his son Chuckie, whose room he now uses as his personal office. We know Chuckie suffers from an ‘affliction’, be it autism or something else and can no longer live with them, is in a special home. He can’t connect to this son with a ‘mess in his head’, there is a story inside of the detective that makes him more of a person and not just your typical ‘good guy’ on the trail of Jon. I think a younger reader will vilify Eggs, how he has been reacting to his son, keeping his distance. As much as he feels Chuckie is damned by whatever disorder he was born with, anyone can see he suffers as much as Jon, in a way. He can’t get past his emotional chaos enough to be with his son. A more mature audience can understand the struggle, the loss of what he hoped would be and what is. Not to say you won’t feel disgust that he distances himself from Chuckie, but maybe the real ‘head mess’ is in his own mind. For me, it was this story I loved the most. The very end pulled at my heart, but that’s the mother in me. Jon and Eggs share, at least for a time, the same emotional storms, but in different ways. The difference is, Eggs emotional barrier is self-induced.

As a reader you can dissect what it means, this ‘power’ that is more a tragic curse put upon Jon by a man who seemed to want to punish the world for his own loneliness. Jon is no longer the wimpy oddball, he is a ‘hunk’, he is a man! But their love is still damned. It’s an interesting story, because Mr. Blair is obviously the sort that can’t stand those who want to ‘fit in’, but the fact is even when we don’t, against our own inclinations the best of us find ourselves struggling with the herd mentality. It is impossible to get through life and be true to yourself with every breath, even the strongest of personalities has at some point conformed to ‘fit’. Yes, even the strongest of you out there marching to your own drum, you will conform in some way, go against your own nature, be it with family or strangers. Fate, fate is such a crapshoot for all the characters, for all of us. Mr. Blair has made it impossible for Jon to even try. With his copy of The Dunwich Horror and his written ‘clues’ from Mr. Blair, it is all he has to understand what the man did to him and why. Did it make the world better? Did it safeguard Jon from the pain of human connection? We shall see…

Publication Date: June 19, 2018

Random House
Lenny

*Spoiler Alert* Some minor elements may be given away.

I love Caroline Kepnes writing style. Lean, efficient, clever, and descriptive. When I saw Providence on NetGalley, I requested it based on name recognition alone. The plot didn’t sound like something I would normally read, but it was Caroline Kepnes, and I so thoroughly enjoyed YOU that I decided to try it. I did not, in any way, expect Providence to be anything like her other books, which is good—writers should stretch their legs—and Providence isn’t like You and Hidden Bodies, but my feelings about it aren’t based on that.

The good: with Caroline Kepnes, and maybe even unique to her, there are never any secondary characters. This book has a big cast and she does a commendable job creating such three-dimensional individuals that one never has to wonder who is whom. In the beginning, I loved underdog Jon. Teased and picked on and unrequited love Jon. Jon with the hamster. The ending of the opening chapter hooked me, and I was sure that even though I’m not a Lovecraft fan or into sci-fi (which this kind of feels like), I’m still going to love this book. Chloe didn’t sit as well with me, because she played both sides—Jon vs. Carrig, the bully who makes Jon miserable—and I decided early on that I didn’t like her. That feeling stuck, and by the end of the book, the Jon/Chloe magic was gone, because I plain didn’t like her. Her art. Her pining. Her whininess. Her willingness to be this or that. I went to school in a different time, but girls like Chloe did not hang out with boys like Jon, ever, not and date the Carrigs of the world.

Then come “Eggs” and “Lo.” A fantastic couple, I loved their backstory with Chuckie; how Eggs was trying to solve the riddle of their boy’s illness while Lo was just the removed mom. I had really thought this could go somewhere positive, but it doesn’t, and by the end, Eggs and Lo turned from a couple I enjoyed reading about to something more like Chloe: people I didn’t want to read about anymore. But I said this is the good, right? The setups for both stories are solid, and Caroline’s writing style is always spot-on, but the plot…

The bad: For as well-written as the characters in Providence are, the plot suffers. It starts strong, but with zero explanation given for Jon’s new abilities by the end of the book, I’m left feeling unsatisfied.

Same goes for Eggs’ and Lo’s story, because while Eggs finally goes to see Chuckie, there’s a whole side trip where I blinked and Eggs went from a middle-aged guy on a mission to a Stage IV cancer survivor with a colostomy bag?!? I feel like this rubbed me more wrong than it should have, but after reading Zoje Stage’s Baby Teeth, I have zero patience left for feces and colostomy stories. There’s no reason Eggs needed to be sick and it felt like a forced and underdeveloped subplot that failed on a lot of levels. I also feel like I missed the Introduction to Colostomies article in some recent issue of Writer’s Digest.

Overall, I think the book tried to accomplish too much and missed the mark on most of it. There’s no closure with Jon, and he and Chloe will continue pining and whining in perpetuity. Eggs and Lo are only a semi-solid couple, and sorry to be judge-y here, but kind of crappy people and kind of crappy parents. Lo substitutes her students for her son, calling them “her kids,” and it was good that this was her coping mechanism in the beginning, but hers and Marko’s relationship took a weird tone, and why on earth would Marko and his then girlfriend bring Eggs a post-chemo-recovery casserole and screw in his house?!?

Lo becomes very “me me me,” like Chloe, and it’s as if she begrudges all the “work” she put in keeping Eggs alive, which happens off-screen and is totally ineffective. And Eggs, in a span of months goes from death’s door to returning to work after a hiatus that seemed incredibly short and overlooked. I think this, too, bugs me more than it should, but I’ve seen someone through cancer treatment and know the toll it takes. I worked for fifteen years in medicine, including in a radiation oncology practice. I can’t buy Eggs returning to work or having nearly as much energy to chase Jon with as he does, and carrying Chloe to his car at the end… I just can’t get behind this subplot and I don’t like it. It really hurt the book for me.

I hesitate to call it this, but the plot feels half-baked, confusingly busy with too many instances of unbelievable coincidences, like Eggs figuring out the pseudonym “Peter Feder” out of thin air because of Spiderman and Grownups 2. The pop culture references feel forced, and while I think Caroline did a great job sprinkling in Lovecraft trivia, there are a whole lot of things about the character’s hometown I just don’t get—inside information about I am Providence and grain alcohol and “packies” and “townies.” I have no clue and have decided I am not this book’s target market. Caroline Kepnes has a knack for writing obsessive love, and if one is looking to see a glimmer of YOU and Hidden Bodies (and yes, I did say not to compare but people will because of the author’s name attached to it), it is in the early stages of Jon and Chloe’s relationship, when the two are so desperate to be back in proximity to one another. There’s a great undertone of want in all the relationships in this book, but just too much happening across multiple time breaks, in several locations, with too many aliases, and just too much. I feel like this is easily four books smashed into one, and for that, I say three stars, because I like Caroline Kepnes writing too much to give it two.

Thank you to NetGalley, Caroline Kepnes, and the publisher for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy.

After reading Providence, I saw this tale similar to what Kepnes’ did with Joe in You and Hidden Bodies. Instead of one character with an obsession, we have three characters who can’t let it go.

Where You and Hidden Bodies focused on a monster, Providence tells the tale of a monster’s protégé. Kidnapped as a child by a creepy substitute teacher, Jon is returned years later a changed teen who has a strange power to heal himself (the good) but kill others when he is confronted (the bad). When he realizes his family and close friend, Chloe, are in danger from him, he runs to protect them from himself. His obsession is to find the teacher/mad scientist who experimented on him and find a cure to make him normal again. Chloe’s obsession is to find Jon and discover why he abandoned her. A budding artist, she draws his face compulsively, she waits for him to return, she looks for him everywhere.

A third character, the detective, Eggs, obsesses with the trail of young adults who die of sudden heart attacks, chasing the clues to find a pattern where his captain and cohorts find none. His relentless obsession eventually leads him to Jon, who he considers a serial killer but with no evidence how Jon kills.

Jon and Chloe are like star crossed lovers, they can never be together in the same room. Kepnes could have taken the easy way out and kept their relationship to texts and e-mails, but she doesn’t. She lets Chloe feel abandoned so that she searches for the love she lost in the wrong person, Jon’s childhood nemesis, which culminates in the story’s climax.

I would’ve liked more time with Blair, the monster who turned Jon. I would have wished for more explanation on his motives and what he did to Jon during his captivity. (I’d like to hear that Kepne is writing a prequel/sequel.) Otherwise, I found this book to be another suspenseful page-turner with good character development. Kepnes knows how to write and has turned me into a fan. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC.