While sipping coffee at his favorite coffee shop, Zack lays his phone on the counter. A few minutes later he realizes that the man sitting next to him has inadvertently picked up Zack’s phone and left, leaving his identical phone behind. It should be easy to call the owner of the phone and get his phone back. But, not so fast. Zack looks at the stranger’s phone and realizes he’s not dealing with a regular businessman.

Die Next has a great premise and I had high hopes for an enjoyable read. But, it fell short on many dimensions. First, I would have liked to have been more sympathetic to Zack’s plight but, for me, he’s a difficult character to empathize with. Instead, I found myself rooting for Joey, the “villain” in the story.

Furthermore, the pace of the story was often quite slow and this was due, to the amount of time that Zack’s spends in reflecting on his circumstances, the motivations of others, and just life in general. There’s also more recaps of the circumstances and possible solutions to his dilemma than I think are necessary. A little can go a long way and it became repetitious and just not very interesting.

I think this is a book that will appeal to some readers but not so much for others. Unfortunately, I fall into that second category. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

This isn't a perfect read, but it sure is a fun one.

The author puts a lot of twists and turns in the relationships here that were simply delightful. I loved both of our main characters - and they're definitely unique.

The book is weirdly wholesome and had me smiling more than once.

It was a hair longer than it should have been - each time I thought it was over, it wasn't - but it was a blast of a read.

DIE NEXT is one of those books you are going to like or you won't. Unfortunately for me, I just couldn't get into the action.

Zack and Joey were both enjoying a coffee at a Greengirl Coffee Shop. Zack was waiting for his childhood best friend and Joey was on his phone. Joey looked like a business man. Zack was sitting next to Joey and happened to notice that him and Joey had the exact same phones. He also happened to observe Joey enter his password into his phone. Once Joey leaves the coffee shop, Zack realizes that Joey had taken his phone by mistake and the he now had Joey's phone. Zack wanted to do the appropriate thing and return Joey his phone and get his phone back. So Zack entered the password that he saw Joey enter and gave Joey a call to let him know about the innocent mix-up. What should have been an easy, simple exchange of phones, turns out to be a race against a murder for hire assassin. Can Zack outsmart Joey and if so will he live to tell the tale?

The story line for this book is so simple, two strangers in a coffee shop with identical phones sitting next to each other. One accidentally picks-up the wrong phone and the other individual wants to get his phone back. However, the story quickly becomes unbelievable and so far fetched when Zack realizes that he has a "die phone" because he accidentally switched phones with that of a murder for hire.

I quite enjoyed the characters that Jonathan Stone had created for this story. I especially liked, Joey the murder for hire assassin who has also been diagnosed as being on the spectrum or as having Asperger's. Joey's diagnosis is not one that you often find in a role like this one. I liked it because it goes to show that no matter what, you can be whoever you want to be, even if that is an assassin.

The story is filled with fear, anxiety, love, attempted murder, etc. It is also filled out heart break and unlikely friendships being formed. It is fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting more, especially since you never know what is going to happen next.

Rating: 5 out of 5 because it was fast paced, fly by the seat of your pants suspense. It kept me guessing and I love a book like that. I highly recommend this and it is a must read.

Published by Grand Central Publishing on April 14, 2020

The first part of Die Next reads like a mediocre short story. So mediocre, in fact, that I considered giving up on the rest of the novel. The good news is that the novel gets better. The unfortunate news is that, by the end, it descends back into mediocrity.

Zack Yellin is at the counter of a coffee shop when he notices that the guy next to him has the same iPhone. He happens to see the guy unlocking the phone by punching numbers in a simple pattern. The guy, Joey Richter, mistakenly takes Zack’s phone, leaving his own on the counter when he departs. Zack unlocks it using the password that he conveniently knows and calls his own phone to arrange for a swap. But when curiosity or nosiness causes him to look at the phone’s contents while waiting for Joey to return, Zack discovers that Joey is a hired killer. Joey took photos of his victims as proof of death and didn’t bother to delete them.

Zack’s dilemma is that Joey now knows that Zack may have seen incriminating evidence. Zack decides that fleeing is the better part of valor, but Joey now has Zack’s phone, giving him contact information for Zack’s girlfriend Emily and his best friend Steve, who both become targets Joey can use to get his phone back.

Why doesn’t Zack just go to the police? Because that would bring the story to an abrupt end. He actually does go the police but leaves because he doesn’t think the police will believe him, photographic evidence notwithstanding. The improbable decision not to report murder evidence to the police sets up an improbable resolution of the novel’s first act.

The novel becomes more interesting when Zack agrees to do a solid for Joey after Joey is improbably acquitted of murder. Yes, the story is based on a good many improbabilities, too many to overlook, which is the novel’s chief weakness.

Zack’s good nature leads to tension with Steve and Emily, both of whom Joey tried to kill before he was captured. Jonathan Stone kept me reading by bringing characters together and driving them apart. Steve and Emily both endure credible conflicts between their feelings about Zack and their failure to understand why he’s trying to help the man who tried to kill them all. I particularly like the portrayal of Joey, who prefers prison life to the real world, where he has no need to think for himself. Joey only works as a killer on the outside because he doesn’t know what else to do. I wouldn’t want to be Joey’s neighbor, but as sociopathic characters go, Joey seems realistic. He doesn’t have any particular desire to kill anyone, he just isn’t bothered by doing it.

While interesting characters and Stone’s straightforward prose style kept me engaged, I was put off by the contrivances that keep the story going. Stone doesn’t seem to understand much about the justice system. After Zack beats the first murder rap, he’s set free while prosecutors wait weeks to have him arrested on new charges. That’s not how prosecutors behave when they know they can bring new charges against a murderer. While Joey is waiting for the inevitable return to jail, a murder victim files a wrongful death suit against him that proceeds to trial within weeks after it is filed. Joey is the defendant but he only learns about the trial when he gets a subpoena to come to court for the first day of trial. That isn’t how the system works. It isn’t even how subpoenas work. But the plot needs to bring Joey to court to further a ridiculous scheme orchestrated by the guy who paid Joey to be a killer. That scheme again involves Zack and a confusion of phones. Nice try, but I just didn’t buy it.

Die Next is a novel that almost works, but not quite. While it doesn’t make for a disagreeable reading experience, the plot has too many flaws to earn an unqualified recommendation.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

So here is how I had to deal with this book. I really liked the beginning, the middle was the same thing over and over until I only read the conversations and skipped over the paragraphs without dialogue, and then I read the end to figure out what happened. That is really the only way I could get through it.

I really liked the idea. A hit man and an everyday man accidentally switch phones and the everyday man learns more than he should about who is going to “Die Next”. Like the synopsis says… Even if the police believe that this was an accidental switch when the hit man finds out he has all the information about his life in the phone he has. I mean isn’t our whole world in our phones?

But then the fillers started. The repeats of wording, the overly wordy descriptions, etc. But then I wanted to know how it ended so I popped back in towards the end.

This story had a lot of potential. Just too much time just to fill pages.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The son of wealthy parents, Zack’s never wanted for anything, including purpose or ambition.

Hired assassin Joey Richter’s never had anything in his life, not even meaningful connections to other people.

But that’s all about to change when they mistakenly swap cell phones.

“Die Next” by Jonathan Stone is a fast-paced technothriller that will have you second-guessing the information you keep on your cell phone.

_________________________

In a crowded coffee shop, Zack Yellin sits down next to a business man with a cell phone identical to his own. He watches without meaning to as the guy enters his password before making a call.

A few moments later, the man leaves — accidentally taking Zack’s phone with him. The problem seems easy enough to remedy. Zack uses the phone to dial his own. The two men agree to meet back at the same coffee shop in 20 minutes.

But as Zack waits, he looks through texts and pictures on the stranger’s phone. It turns out that the owner, Joey Richter, isn’t a business man at all. He’s a hired assassin, and the phone contains photographic evidence.

Zack’s smart enough to know the trouble it spells. Now that Joey knows he’s had access to his phone, he may feel the need to do away with Zack if he hangs around to return it. But if he doesn’t, Joey has access to all of the information on Zack’s phone. It’s information that he can use to locate him, his new girlfriend Emily, his best friend Steve, and all his other loved ones. The choices Zack makes next will put his life in danger, as well as the lives of others.

“Die Next” by Jonathan Stone starts out at a sprint and never slows down. Short sentences and quick chapters fuel the pace. Yet, the speed at which this action-packed novel moves doesn’t mean it lacks depth. The riveting plot is full of revenge, murder, and suspense. Both Zack and Joey are impulsive, multi-layered individuals. Their motivations and desperation rise off the page and create tension in the reader.

From beginning to end, “Die Next” is the ultimate adrenaline rush in book format. The last few chapters will (quite literally) have your heart racing. But through it all — through the cat and mouse chase between Zack and Joey and all the danger-filled twists and turns along the way — you’ll find yourself rooting (somewhat) for both men and hating it when the book comes to its satisfying end.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the eBook in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Jonathan Stone for creeping me out enough to remove some of the info on my phone — just in case.

Die Next for me was a fast-paced book that starts with two people at a coffee shop were one man picks up the wrong cell phone. Both phones look alike and when Zack who was still at the coffee shop realizes that he has the wrong phone he contacts his phone to get ahold of the person who has it. By also seeing the way the man entered his passcode which was a very simple code. He has also entered into other information from the phone belonging to a killer.
Missing the time when he was to meet with the man Zack is packed because he does not remember phone numbers or email addresses, these are all storied in his phone so he does not need his memory for those things anymore. He decides to go to the police station. Once there he realizes he will be looked at as another crazy New Yorker who would believe his story, he would not believe it but he is living it.
This is what made this book for me the beginning half, the turmoil that Zack was going through. You are also in the mind of the killer going through his past and what will happen to him by not completing the job, feeling like a failure. I also liked the part of Zack not knowing anyone's phone numbers which a lot of people have forgotten. I guess since I grew up with those old fashion rotary dial phones, I still remember numbers, crazy I know but this book brings to life the new age. Yes, there are times it drags somewhat but overall, this is a fast book with very intriguing characters from Zack’s girlfriend, his friend Steve to even later in the story the killer’s parent’s which was another added plus to the story. Overall a good book.

Die Next by Jonathan Stone is a great read! A real engrossing page-turner and worth the time of a read!!

This is the first book I have read by this author. When I read the description of the book I knew right away that it would be something I would like to read and I wasn't wrong.

Zack Yellin is waiting for a buddy in a coffee shop and like most of the other customers in the shop he's looking at his phone. He notices that the man next to him has the same phone and thinks nothing of it until they accidentally swap phones. Zack has no idea that the gentleman who has his phone is a "business" man but not in the way one would think. What happens next is a whirlwind of terror and suspense. Zack is on the run for his life and does not know whom he can trust.

I will be on the lookout for more books by Jonathan Stone!!

Die Next by Jonathan Stone

I enjoyed the book in the begnning and found it exciting and intriguing, but then it became monotonous and a bit unrealistic. The premise was a good idea—an assassin and an ordinary young man accidentally switch phones, and the story becomes a cat and mouse game of wits. But I noticed I skimmed a lot of pages and was still able to follow the story.

The short, choppy sentences, at first, added to the drama and action, but then it distracted from the overall enjoyment of the story and my reading experience.

I did like most of the characters, especially the main character of Zack, plus Emily and Detective Lopez. Detective Lopez, as the main character in another book, would be interesting.

Overall, the book was just okay for me. I would give a three out of five stars.

#NetGalley @GrandCentralPub