3.5 rounded to 4 stars
Annie's husband, Justin Childs, is dead from a tragic car accident. As she and Will, Justin's best friend, try to cope with the sudden death of Justin, they begin to uncover details of Justin's life. It seems Justin carefully crafted a persona of a successful and charming man, when the truth was completely different. Justin's mother, Carol, was also devastated about her son's death, and wants to protect Annie. Carol lived to make sure that Justin's reputation was safe from any scandal.
An interesting novel, had a lot of potential, but fell a bit short. The ending seemed rushed to me.

Convince me exceeded all my expectations! This was a great Psychological Thriller. These characters will seriously impress! Perfectly paced. Highly recommend.

Justin Childs is dead. He was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife Annie, his mother Carol, and a hip tech company that he built with his best friend Will. Justin was loved. He made friends wherever he went. Everyone adored him. And now he’s gone.

Annie met him one day when her car slipped on the ice when she had been on a skiing weekend. Justin had showed up to help get her out of the car, get her medical treatment, and even ended up giving her a ride back home. That was the start of their relationship, and from his epic engagement to their beautiful wedding, it was like a fairy tale for Annie.

Will was in business school, scraping by on a shoestring budget when he met Justin. Justin knew where to get the best food for the least amount of cash. When Justin had to leave school to help his family—his brother had tried to commit suicide, and he had to go home to help his family. But years later, Justin showed up out of the blue, and Will was thrilled to have his friend back. Justin had a new idea for a business and asked Will to be his partner. They were just getting ready to launch their virtual reality software when Justin was killed. Will is going to have to figure out how to run the company on his own.

Carol was a single mother. Her husband had been killed when Justin was young, and that’s after she lost her parents and sister to a house fire back when she was in high school. Life has not been easy for Carol. but she worked hard selling real estate, and she worked hard to keep her family together. And now she is alone again.

But once the funeral has passed and life is getting back to, well, as normal as possible, Will starts to notice some discrepancies at the company. Their biggest backer wasn’t as Will’s funeral, and when Justin has a mutual friend get in touch with him, the man claimed not to know Justin or his company. Then Will finds out that Justin had spent company money without talking to Will about it. He’d bought a boat. He had a second apartment. He had credit cards that were in Justin’s name, with high balances. And then Will finds out that there is an issue with their software.

When Will talks to Annie about what he finds, she takes a look at Justin’s home office. She finds out that their home is mortgaged. There are credit cards in her name with high balances. And when she finds out that a friend of hers has gone missing, that sets off a series of actions that will change Annie forever. But when Will is arrested, will Annie ever be able to figure out what is truth and what is lies?

Convince Me is a slow-burn thriller from Nina Sadowsky, a former entertainment lawyer and screenwriter who clearly knows a thing or two about building tension. This book is filled with slow reveals of a sociopath, with clues being thrown before readers like breadcrumbs, until the point where the real truth gets served up on a silver tray.

I really enjoyed Convince Me. I was sucked into the story early on and didn’t want to stop listening until it was done. It’s interesting and compelling. Told through three narrators—Justin’s wife, mother, and business partner, the story unfolds from different directions, as the reader gets each character’s story, each new piece of information comes together to add more color to the full picture.

This was a fun book to listen to. There are three narrators, each telling the story of one character. With Caitlyn Davies as Annie, Carol Monda as Carol, and Sean Kenin as Will, the audio book embraces the three main characters, letting each one tell their own story, and letting Justin’s story be told in the spaces between. I enjoyed experiencing the story this way, and I think readers who enjoy a good thriller about a sociopath or who loves a slow-burn story will enjoy it also.

Egalleys for Convince Me were provided by Ballentine Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I also bought the audiobook through Chirp Books.

I can’t imagine being a young widow. On top of that, having to learn your spouse wasn’t at all who you thought they were would be devastating. Justin is a charismatic man who always seems to work things in his favor. He charms everyone including his best friend Will, wife Annie and his mother. This book has some great twists that made me reread the page a few times!

I love a good domestic thriller and this one did not disappoint. It has all the twists and turns and mysteries that you would expect. Also, the change of POVs was a nice addition. Thank you Netgalley.

This was a decent read and one that held my attention so the pace was good. Some smaller twists that worked well too

Not my most favorite of the year. Didn’t really fit my normal thriller likes. It definitely had an interesting premise though which is what drew me in but was a bit slow.

I love a thriller with Alternating POV’s. I feel like it helps flesh out the characters a bit more in a thriller.
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What happens when you think you know someone but everything you thought you knew could be a lie? No one is safe, and everyone can and does surprise us in this one.
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Justin is a son, a husband, a best friend, handsome, dead, smart, a liar, charming, and easy going. Did I mention that he’s a liar and dead? After his death in a car accident his true life comes to light and nothing is as it seemed.
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Told in chapters from Annie, Carol and
Will’s POV (his wife, mom and best friend respectively ) secrets are unveiled in this fast paced thriller with a shocker of an ending.
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Thank you to #NetGalley and #BallantineBooks for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read an advanced digital copy of this novel courtesy on the publisher through NetGalley. Review available on goodreads.

A very well written thriller! Wow! I would give this book more than five stars. It was so fast-paced that the plot and characterization just rolled along. With four main characters, the author did a fantastic job of creating a realistic portrait of each of them, revealing their character traits slowly and methodically. I loved it and I highly recommend it.

Convince me is an excellent look back on how one man could deceive those closest to him and how it was so easy for him to do so. This book reminds me of an advent calendar. Every chapter was like opening a little window onto the search for the truth.
We meet Justin Childs at his funeral....what an opener. He has died in a car accident. His car went off the road, killing him immediately. He leaves behind his wife, Annie, his mother, Carol and his best friend, Will. As the investigation into the accident start to raise questions, their picture of Justin begins to change. Each character tells their version of Justin then learns that their belief in him was based on lies. Or at least Annie and Will learn some hard truths. As the story unwinds, it begins to look as if Carol was an enabler for her son.
A really good thriller that also happens to be a fast read. Just try and arrive at the truth before Nina Sadowsky reveals the truth of Justin's life and times.

First, I've got to say that I absolutely love the dedication in this book I won't quote it here because of the language, and you know, some things tend to get dinged on some sites. But I will say that even if I hadn't liked the story, that dedication would've received an extra star. However, I did like the book. It's twisty enough to make your head spin, and with each new chapter comes a new revelation. The story isn't exactly realistic but darned if it didn't keep me turning the pages. Some of it isn't hard to figure out, at least in part, but that didn't diminish the story for me in the slightest. This is one of those edge of your seat, can't wait to see what's next, heart in your throat books, and was perfect for a late-night read.

Do you ever really know someone as well as you think you do? This is a very good murder mystery/thriller that had twists aplenty. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest review.

I loved this author and this book did not disappoint. Such a twisty thriller about a domestic affair. I love the character development and the authors writing style.

"Life is long and complicated. You can live many lives in the course of one."

No one knew that better than Justin Childs. Not only did he live a thousand lies, he destroyed many lives in the process. Not often that one man can deceive and manipulate everyone who knew him, but Justin had that gift. And he got away with it. Until he didn't. NO SPOILERS.

This was really a fast, fun read told from various points of view painting a picture of a man who used people to get what he wanted. After his sudden death in a car accident, his widow, Annie, his best friend and business partner, Will, and his loving mother, Carol, are grief-stricken, bewildered, and eventually left feeling betrayed. Justin was definitely a sociopath. The revelations of his machinations were dropped in the narrative with precision in this well-written psychological drama and I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

I’m generally not a fan of domestic thrillers, but this one was loads of fun. I devoured it in less than 24 hours.

I read the first book in Nina Sadowsky’s Burial Society series earlier this year and thought it was just ok, so Convince Me was an especially pleasant surprise.

There’s plenty of menace lurking in the story from the beginning, but there’s also an almost gothic slow build taking place as the characters’ stories begin to unravel. It’s deliciously eerie and beautifully executed.

Sociopath books are also generally not my favorite, mostly because villains without concrete motives just aren’t that interesting to hear about. But the villain here is as fascinating as they are diabolical. Sadowsky did a much better job than most authors do of making this type of character riveting to read.

It also helped that she gave us a couple of very likable good guys in the other protagonists to offset some of the nastiness. And a further bonus for writing a super creepy domestic thriller with NO rape/sexual assault ick factor.

The book does unfortunately have a fatal flaw, and it’s sadly couched in the big reveal/solve at the end. The “who” is excellent, but the “why” fails to satisfy, and it’s not something that can be written off for an otherwise great book because it’s essentially the climax of the story.

Despite that one major issue, I really enjoyed this one. It’s well-paced, compelling, and delightfully creepy.

This is such a fun suspenseful filled read ! I loved this book and read it straight through. This is the perfect read to escape and engage the reader to conclusion. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity.

The perfect husband dies in a car accident and leaves secrets behind that are haunting his family They soon find out he was a clever sociopath and the secrets they uncover are shocking them to their core.

This is absolutely one of my favorite Net Galley reads of 2020. The writing is fast paced, the charcters are richly drawn and the story is fascinating. I highly recommend this book for your reading enjoyment. Very well done to the author !

Whoaaaaa. This is a twisted, messed up, weird in the best possible way kind of read. I really enjoyed this one and it got me hooked and out of my current stressful environment (which is what I was looking for). The twist is one you'll see coming, but honestly I'm over the "twist just for the sake of a twist" trope and sometimes it's okay to figure things out.

3.5 stars.

Love this genre! A mix of murder mystery and thriller, Convince Me is a wonderful example.
The characters are so well drawn that you feel like you know them. Justin, Will, Annie and Carol are not types of characters; they are people. And they are not always perfect or perfectly lovable.
Justin can be too much at times. But, you do get the feeling that there is something else going on with him.
His best friend, Will, is clearly a "nice" guy, but also more 3-dimensional.
His wife, Annie, really spoke to me as a woman who did not believe in her own worth.
And Carol, Justin's mother, will remind you of a friend's mother. Or, your own mother. Or, maybe yourself.
I was completely sucked into the story pretty early on. As it moved along, I was making educated guesses. But, no, I was wrong. The contents of the refrigerator was a real surprise.
I don't want to give away too much. If you like this genre, you'll love this one. If you don't usually read these, you're in for a treat.
The author, Nina Sadowsky, has apparently written 3 other novels. I plan to read them.
While I can't give it 5 stars, I'm giving it 4, but I would have liked to rate it 4-1/2 stars.

A really fun, twisty novel of psychological suspense. I read this book in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed the characters and plot. My first time reading Nina Sadowsky.