This is a wonderful thriller. Nina Sadowsky constructs a book that compels you to read from the very beginning until it ends. A perfectly paced plot with well-detailed characters, make it a whodunit of amazing proportions. There are many losses in this book. What initially brings down this Machiavellian crafted house of cards is a husband, friend and a son, who is tragically killed in a car accident. Add to the mix his mother, who has a shady backstory of her own, and you get a wonderful book that keeps you guessing until the very last page. What a diabolical duo. The son definitely follows in his mother's shoes. I definitely recommend this book.

I would like to thank Nina Sadowsky, Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The novel begins at a funeral. Annie is widowed at age 31 as her husband, Justin met his death at the bottom of a cliff when his car veered off the road. She is devastated as is his best friend, Will and Justin's mother, Carol. Told from these three perspectives, we relive the early days of Annie and Justin's courtship and marriage, Will and Justin's friendship and business ventures, and Carol's adoration of her son. Of course there are secrets, lies, and deceit; who is telling the truth and who are we to believe? It's a thrill ride for sure that will have you guessing until the end!

When you first meet Annie, she’s recounting the story of how she met her husband, who just happens to be dead. From there the story takes off through layers of recounting memories and delving deeper into the lives of those we hold so close to us. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the alternating perspectives, and twists that the book took. I read it in a day; that’s how great it was! Thank you to Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this outstanding book. I look forward to reading more books from this author.

"A charismatic man's death exposes the secrets he kept, revealing him to family and friends as an unrepentant pathological liar in this explosive thriller from film producer and author Nina Sadowsky.

Justin Childs is handsome, likeable, smart. A devoted son to his mother, Carol; a loving husband to his wife, Annie; and a sure-footed, savvy business partner to his best friend from college, Will. To so many, the perfect man.
He's also a liar. And now he's dead.As the secrets and betrayals pile up, Annie, Carol, and Will realize their beloved Justin was not the man they thought he was. And why was he found dead with Valium in his system when he notoriously detested drugs? Was the crash that killed him really an accident--or did Justin finally get caught in something he couldn't lie his way out of?"

This book started a little slow, albeit interesting, as we learned the back story of the characters. But once the plot started moving, hold on, because it was like a snowball rolling down a mountain - gaining speed and intensity every second! The characters are interesting and fun, I liked the 3 different narrators, and the plot was great. Definitely had a "movie" ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

First, a thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I feel terribly guilty about the fact that I got busy and waited to long to write this review, so I fear I won't be able to do it justice. I do recall that I really liked it and it's not that it was memorable - it's just been a while and I've read many books since then. It's not exactly a story that hasn't been done before, but there are certainly elements that are unique and I enjoyed the two primary characters. It also has a certain something that screams sick & twisted - thankfully not the gory kind. You get enough sense to see where the story is going, but not so much that the story isn't shocking. Would definitely read more books by the author and this would make a good movie. Not Gone Girl since most of the characters are actually likable and it would be a fun movie it's own right.

Annie and Justin haven't been married for long. Justin is the kind of guy who makes friends everywhere he goes and is always the life of the party. He and Annie met under rather unusual circumstances, but it must have been fate since they fell madly in love and are the perfect couple.
Annie is devastated when Justin dies in a car accident. She and Will, Justin's best friend, and business partner barely have time to mourn when things about Justin, truly distressing things come to light. How could they have misjudged the perfect husband, friend, businessman, and the perfect son to his mother Carol? As they compare stories, they soon realize that they did not know Justin at all.
Told from Annie, Will, and Carol's perspectives in alternating chapters, a picture of a true sociopath emerges. Even in death, Justin's twisted games don't end, and someone may pay a high price. Did Justin commit suicide or was this just an accident? Could he have been murdered by someone who had enough of his lies?
I did find myself shaking my head a few times as Justin's deceptions are so easily uncovered. Then I stopped thinking about 'real-life' sociopaths and their Ponzi schemes. I imagined that Justin was just so full of himself, that he didn't even feel the need to put much effort into concealing his secrets. He would always find a way out of trouble. A vile man who made me question what could have made him that way. Luckily, his mother provided backstory and wow, there are some real revelations in her chapters.
I read this in my backyard on a hot and sunny day. I didn't put Convince Me down until I was done, so this one reeled me in. 4.5 stars.

This book is a slow burn in the beginning but then rapidly picks up and does not disappoint. It is a thrilling, unique psychological thriller that had me racing to finish it to see what happens next. I'm sure we've all known someone like Justin.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Nina Sadowsky for my advanced copy.

It's funny - even while I was reading this one I kept thinking that the author was short-handing an awful lot of things and skipping over the how and the why of the revelations as they poured out, in favor of moving the narrative along. Normally, that's a thing that drives me crazy and either sends me into skimming-pages mode or setting the book down all together. But I just could not stop reading this one! I think at the end of the day the author was more concerned in exploring the relationships and aftermath than in the minutiae, and with the writing style and characterization presented, that didn't bother me at all. This is highly unusual for me, and I take it as a testament to Sadowsky's writing, which was engaging and well-paced and kept things moving at a brisk clip no matter what was going on... It made for a fun and easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will definitely be looking for her in the future!

In Convince Me by Nina Sadowsky, every wife’s nightmare comes true. Your husband isn’t who you thought he was. How did she not know who this man really was?

When Annie’s husband Justin dies, she learns the man she married has lied and deceived her. Narrated by Annie, along with Justin’s mother, Carol plus friend Will, this book will have you hooked. By about by halfway through I was turning the pages as quickly as possible.

Take a look:

Justin Childs is handsome, likable, smart. A devoted son to his mother, Carol; a loving husband to his wife, Annie; and a sure-footed, savvy business partner to his best friend from college, Will. To so many, the perfect man. He’s also a liar. And now he’s dead.

When Justin’s body is retrieved from the wreckage of a car accident, his death leaves his loved ones with more questions than answers. In life, his charm and easygoing nature inspired trust, making him friends wherever he went. Now that he’s gone, the cracks begin to show: disturbing discrepancies in his company’s financials, unaccounted-for absences, a medical record that appears to be entirely fabricated.

As the secrets and betrayals pile up, Annie, Carol, and Will realize their beloved Justin was not the man they thought he was. And why was he found dead with Valium in his system when he notoriously detested drugs? Was the crash that killed him really an accident—or did Justin finally get caught in something he couldn’t lie his way out of?

I loved the premise of this novel. It’s crazy how this sociopath misled people and you will definitely have to add this to your TO READ list!

Coming out on August 4, you can pre-order it here.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn’t my favorite psychological thriller of late, but it was perfectly serviceable and did the job. The epitome of a three star thriller

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I found this book extremely slow and predictable. I kept waiting for something to happen and it just didn't unfortunately.

A tense chilling read slowly drew me in kept me turning the pages.An author whose words flow characters that come alive kept me up reading late into the night.Will be recommending,#netgalley #ballentinebooks

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It centers around Annie, whose husband Justin has just died, as well as Justin's best friend, WIll, and mother, Carol, alternating chapters between them. The first part of the book talks about experiences with Justin from all 3 of these POVs. I liked this because we all know someone like this who is super charismatic and makes us feel like we are the center of the universe.

As the book goes on, though, you start to see some inconsistencies that alert you to the fact that Justin might not be exactly who everyone thought he was. I also found this interesting, as it started off subtly, leading the reader to connect the dots. Without giving spoilers, we find out a lot about Justin but there is also another twist that I kind of saw coming, but not to the extent that it actually showed up.

I liked the book but did have a couple issues. One is that the plot meandered for most of the book (which I didn't mind, as the content was interesting) but all got tied up really quickly at the end. It felt abrupt to go from the pace of most of the book to the pace of the end of the book. Also, I found it rather hard to believe that Justin got away with some of the things he did without anyone noticing, being that his wife and his business partner both felt that they were fully connected. It seems that some of this stuff would have been questioned but either one of them or other people at the company.

All in all, though, I thought it was a good read and I was interested in seeing what happened. The characters were well developed, and even if the ending wasn't a huge shock, there were some twists and I liked the overall plot. I'd recommend it for those who like psychological/domestic suspense books.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Do you blindly believe everything your loved one tells you? Do you ever think that you don't want to ask questions because you would rather not know the truth? This book will make you question what it is you don't really know about your loved ones. This book is told from three points of view: Annie who is married to Justin, Will who is Justin's best friend and Carol who is Justin's mother. We are told how Annie and Justin met and then there is a flash forward to Justin's funeral after he died in a car accident. After Justin died Annie started realizing she might not have know everything there was to know about her husband. Justin had created a web of lies that he convinced all of his loved ones were true. But what happens when these lies all come to the surface. I enjoyed this book and the twist at the end.

Mystery with twists and turns. The language takes away from the story instead of driving it. THris is a character driven novel-not setting or storyline. What will one do next? One never knows. You might read to find out. This book is not my favorite.

What a fantastic thriller! I literally tuned out the real world and got completely lost in Convince Me! Nina Sadowsky is so darn good a writing addictive suspense novels that will blow you away! The entire time I was reading I was trying to put all of the pieces together and the storyline is so incredibly developed that I never figured it out! I’ve read Nina Sadowsky before and I really enjoy her writing style so I had high hopes for Convince Me and let me say that my expectations were completely exceeded with 5 star gem! I highly recommend this fabulously chilling read to everyone!

Bless you, Nina Sadowsky, for writing a novel so compelling that I was riveted for the entire book. During these days of being home bound, I have found it hard to concentrate, but with something this engaging, no problem.

An appropriate title for a book built around the death and puzzle of Justin, a master manipulator and convincer. It is narrated by his widow, his mother and his best friend. The slow realization of who Justin was and his misdeeds drew me into the plot.

Amazing, so many people fooled for so long by this charismatic man. The end brings our growing suspicion to a great Ahah moment. Obviously, I really enjoyed this book. An interesting choice for reading groups since women discovering truths after a spouses dies is not as uncommon as one might expect.

Thank you Netgalley for this engaging experience.

Justin was the perfect man, beloved by his wife, his neighbors, his mother and his coworkers. But he wasn’t the man people thought he was and now that he’s dead, the truth about him is slowly emerging. Was the automobile crash that killed him really an accident? And why did he have such a large amount of Valium in his system? Sometimes the people we think we know the best are the ones we don’t know at all

Oo y’all I was so surprised with this book.!!! It definitely exceeded my expectations. I loved the storyline and how suspenseful it was! Great writing.

TEN STARS to this author. I was blown away, firstly, by her writing. It's hard to describe, but the sentences just seem to flow to form a perfect story. The plot is mind-blowing, the characters realistic and mesmerizing. One of the best mystery/suspense books I have ever read. Do NOT miss this one.

Some people can write well, others think they can but really can't, and SOME PEOPLE CAN REALLY WRITE! Ms. Sadowsky is definitely one of the latter.