Member Reviews

Three friends go on a weekend trip to get a break from dissolving relationships. When they end up stranded in the hometown of one of the ex's and and then one of the women goes missing, the weekend plans are supremely interrupted. Then a body is found.

This was an engaging suspense set between the POV of two of the women. I enjoyed the tension of the story and how it built with the well-timed revelations, of which there were many!

I have to say there were so many decisions made that I cannot fathom making, but as fiction goes, how else would murders occur! There were also some possible triggers of pregnancy loss and terminations that I felt were dealt with compassion, but could be hard for some readers.

For fans of suspenseful mysteries and thrillers, I think this will be a quick and enjoyable psychological thriller that you may think you have pinned down, but that last chapter will surprise you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the E-ARC! Pub date is January 4th!

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Where to start.
I really liked the premise of this thriller but the characters were so unlikable but not in a good way. All the women characters were so weak. They all were so hung up on men that were losers and they acted like it was horrible to be alone.

There were some decent twist and turns bit I just really was put off by the weakness of all the women. I’m not usually that concerned with a weaker character but all of them were and it was annoying.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book had so many twist and turns and a surprise ending that normally automatically makes me love thrillers. But this book just fell short for me. It just kinda dragged on for me with a lot of repeating the same information multiple times which was a bit much in my book. The characters weren’t really all that likable with each one having multiple faults and secrets to figure out as the book went one.

Overall I gave this book 3 stars for I liked it. I would recommend this for a reader who is just starting with the thriller genre as an ease into the genre.

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Oh wow.
This is the first book I've read from this author. I now need to find and read them all.

The amount of suspense and twists in this book. Wow. Just wow.

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I really wanted to like this one. A girls' weekend gone tragically wrong? Right up my alley. However, it felt a little too much like all of the other thrillers out there right now. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It was a decent book, but nothing to write home about.

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The plan is the perfect escape for these friends, but quickly turns out to be anything but. This psychological thriller pulls you in and keeps you guessing where the story will lead. There are twists and turns that keep packing punch after punch. Buckle up and take a ride with these three best friends because you are sure to love it if you're a fan of thrillers.

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Sam, Margaret and Diana have become friends by bonding over their recent divorces. A fun weekend getaway quickly turns into a nightmare. Dark secrets start to come to light when Diana goes missing.

The Perfect Escape is far from “perfect” for these three women. The alternating point of views between Sam and Margaret really move the story along. Once you think you know the whole story, more secrets keep popping up. I loved the twisty and unbelievably good ending!

Thank you NetGalley and Putnam books for this e-ARC!

My review has been posted on Instagram @thrillersandcoffee

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First and fore more, HOLY S**T! I wasn't expecting this book to drag me in the way it did. I had wholly different expectations for this book. First I thought it was about college kids (it says they are divorcee's but I'm an idiot), so it being in women in their thirties was something that really threw me in the beginning. Even still it was an amazing book! I will admit to knowing who the culprit was pretty soon off, BUT I did not guess the circumstances/ motive until the very end. It really did keep me guessing and I will 1000000% say that I didn't trust ANY of those weridos. They just all seemed suspicious. And once we finally solved it? BOOM PLOT TWIST.

I guess the one really big question is, Who would go on a weekend trip over 4 hours away with women you've only known for at maximum 3 months? The answer? NOT THIS GIRL!

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Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook ARC of this book, though this was not a title I chose for myself, it was offered by the publisher.

I'm sorry to say I did not enjoy this book, It was a chore to finish - many times I wanted to toss my e-reader against the wall because these women are so annoying and foolish. This is a book that is supposed to be full of twists and turns and all that, but all these women do is drink to drunkenness', lie, cheat, complain. It's like all the worst parts of bad supposed rom-coms combined with the tragedy of a LifeTime movie.

I'm sure someone will enjoy this, but it sure wasn't me, and I wouldn't suggest, recommend or buy it for anyone I know.

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Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Putnum
for a free eARC in return for an honest review.
Sam, Margaret, and Diana have become friends after bonding over something they all have something in common: relationships issues with spouses. They decide to leave the city and head to the mountains for a girls getaway.
After losing the car keys the ladies have to stay in the Catskills for what should be overnight and they can resume their trip. When one of them go missing, the secrets starts coming out and it raises the question: how well do you know your friends?
5🌟
Fast paced, multiple povs, chalked full of plot twists to the very end. I will recommend this to my friends.

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✨Review✨

The Perfect Escape
By Leah Konen
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Rating: 3/5⭐️
Pub date: 1-4-2022

Three women head out on a weekend getaway. By the next morning, only two of the women are still there.

“People don’t realize, when your world breaks apart, you’ll do anything for the chance to put it back together.”

I really enjoyed the growth and development of one of the POVs and the big twist was one I didn’t see coming. The middle of the book, however, could have been cut down to make the story tighter. I also think more careful editing could have given the big twist a lot more impact.

Overall, I thought it was a good concept with a mildly creepy vibe. There were multiple likable characters, which made it more fun to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review!

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Perfect escaping:


Another fun popcorn thriller of 3 women going through a separation. Sam, has her husband Harry going to back to another woman. Margaret (TW: pregnant loss) cannot connect with her drunk husband Lars, and Diana, life of the party, but has to keep her life on the hush because of her obsessive ex Brandon.

This reads like a normal popcorn thriller. Girls trip gone wrong! The woman lose their key to their rental while at the gas station (umm.. ok) and have to stay in Catskill before finishing their trip to Saratoga Springs. While there, Sam knows her soon to be ex and his lover live there and makes a ploy to get him to see her. While they’re drunker than me at a bottomless mimosa bunch at 22, Margaret finds comfort in a man, and well, Diana goes missing. As Margaret and Sam try to find her, they stumble across uncomfortable truths to hope to save her.

This plays out how you think it would. They all have issues and bigger secrets. They all aren’t forthcoming and are who they say they are. But it was still enjoyable. Alex was probably my favorite character (and Rosie) and it was nice to see them for who they were when all their lies were stripped. I’m still over the “obsessive/unstable” woman trope, so I do wish this were done a bit different.

The very last page was shocking and really left me satisfied. It’s what I was actually kind of hoping for, and executed well. You’ll need to suspend reality for a hot minute if you’re going to enjoy this. If you are a fan of The Girl In the Mirror or Friends Like These I think you’d really enjoy the rollercoaster of a book. Thank you so much Putnam for the gifted copy! The Perfect Escape.

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This was my first Leah Konen book, but I enjoyed it so much that I immediately read her earlier suspense novel "All the Broken People" and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Perfect fun, escape literature for a cold winter night!

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The Perfect Escape was a really fun read. The story line was fluid and I was easily able to finish this in one sitting. Once you start, you are not going to want to put this one down. I could not wait to find out what happened!

I love stories that circle around "girls night out" or "girls weekend" so this was right up my alley. This story develops around Sam, Diana, and Margaret who plan a weekend getaway but they end up stranded along the way. I loved the fact that the chapters are told from multiple points of view as you are really able to see the story come together and it made the character really come to life.

Between the short chapters that really moved the book along, to the character development, this was an outstanding read.

Five Stars.

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What's it about (in a nutshell):
The Perfect Escape by Leah Konen is a complex and compelling psychological thriller about a group of friends who go away for a girls' weekend. When one of the friends goes missing, the remaining two friends are taken on a journey of secrets and lies from which they may never return.

What I Enjoyed:

This is one of those stories that I will tread carefully so as not to reveal too much. It's a roller coaster ride of a psychological thriller that left me just breathless.

I absolutely loved the fast pace, the pervasive tension, and the continuous action from start to finish. If I hadn't had other things going on in my life that forced me to read this book at a slow pace, I could see where I usually would tear through it in a day. The twists and turns just had my head spinning as more and more was revealed about the three friends and their former husbands.

The Perfect Escape is easy to read – perfect for the beach or by the fire. It's an ideal escape for readers if not for the characters in the story. Even though it is an easy read, the story is very smartly constructed, complex, and led me down all sorts of rabbit holes. It is told from multiple perspectives, which are all arguable unreliable. Sometimes it gets a bit confusing regarding which view I was reading, but mostly it worked well and seamlessly.


Characters:
The three friends bonding over the dissolution of their relationships are developed enough that I could understand them but not so much that secrets were revealed before their time:

Sam is grieving the loss of her marriage which had barely just begun.

Margaret is escaping her ex-husband Lars, whom she has been estranged from ever since the miscarriage.

And Diana is running in fear that her ex-husband Brandon will find her.

What I Wish:

None of the characters are very likable. I would have loved for at least one character, even a support character, to be that character I could hold onto throughout this crazy ride of a book.

To Read or Not to Read:
If you are ready for a crazy thrill ride of a story, The Perfect Escape will catapult you into a roller coaster that you won't soon forget.

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This review will be posted on January 3, 2022 to: https://instagram.com/amandas.bookshelf

A girls' weekend goes awry in this twisty and turns thriller. After a confusing start re: dates and Sam's timeline, I quickly got sucked into the mystery. The two narrators, Sam and Margaret, were the very definitions of unreliable. Overall, this was satisfactory and exactly what you'd expect from a murder-mystery. But, it didn't wow me. That said, I enjoyed reading it in the moment and can easily see this being a perfect beach read on summer 2022. #ThePerfectEscape Rating: 😐 / meh, it was ok

This book is scheduled for publication on January 4, 2022. Thank you @penguinrandomhouse for providing me this digital ARC via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, I was provided an ARC of The Perfect Escape by Leah Konan via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

****Coming Out January 4, 2022****

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Diana, Sam and Margaret, are all divorced and new friends. They decide to take a much needed girls weekend, in order to leave their stresses and worries behind tohave some fun! When the first mishaps occurs with losing the car keys at their first rest stop and after a night out, Diana goes missing, is it a perfect escape? Are people who they say they are? This page turner will keep you guessing until the end with all the unexpected twists and turns.

A book that will keep you entertained from Start to Finish, so perfect for taking it on vacation. A great book club book pick as well, since there is plenty to discuss and hash out!

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This is a fun thrill ride from start to finish. When a group of new friends decide to go on a girls' trip together, they could never imagine what will lie in store for them. When one of the group goes missing, the other begin to learn just how little they all know about each other. I'll admit that the premise for this one grabbed me right away, even if it isn't the most original idea ever. However, the twists and turns kept me guessing and I thoroughly enjoyed learning all about the characters, who are unique and feel like well-rounded characters when they could easily have been caricatures. I recommend this one highly for fans of Shari Lapena and Megan Miranda.

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This book sucked me in from the first page, and kept me guessing until the very end. All of the twists and turns keep you guessing to where the story is going to go next.

Margaret, Sam, and Diana are going for a girls weekend, when their car ends up in the shop in the Catskills they end up at a bar and decide to have a good time.. However the next morning Diana is nowhere to be found. Sam and Margaret call her for hours, until they decide to get the police involved.. As the investigation into Diana dissapearance goes on lots of secrets are being revealed.. and those secrets could be the clues to figuring out whats truley going on.. I loved that we get to see the story from all of our main characters povs.. It really helps move the story along, especially when the chapters end on juicy cliffhangers... Also the way this ended was completely unexpected and I loved it!!

I have never read anything by this author before, but I will definitely be checking out her back list after reading this one.

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Three friend leave for a girls trip together. All of them are trying to escape from one thing or another. This trip will be the perfect distraction from all that is going on in their personal lives. When things start to take a turn and the trip is derailed, two of the friends Sam and Margaret are left trying to figure out what happened to their third friend Diana who has gone missing. Their pasts are not so easily escaped, and are just lurking around the corner waiting to resurface. Can Sam and Margaret figure out what is actually going on before one of them is accused of murder? Will dark secrets kept from even the closest friends be the clues to solving what is happening?

This book sucks you in from page one. I just honestly both love and hate books that are written from different perspectives when it comes to a mystery. I love it because you get different sides of the story. I hate it because authors are so bloody good at leaving the best chapters on a cliff hanger. I know this is how they drive you through the story, but it so hard to get through the next chapter when you want to know what is going on with the last person. Just overall a great book. Perfect for snuggling up by a fire and getting lost in a different world. And that finally twist at the end. Man does it get you.

Thank you so much PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

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