Vera Kurian's storytelling is so compelling and immersive that I could not put this book down at all. The premise is so unusual yet so intriguing. The characters, the plot, the suspense, all of it was larger than life, and so fun to read! I have read many thrillers in the past year , but this one really stood out to me because of the excellent writing and the unique plot. All the best! This will definitely become a best-seller this year.

This incredible thriller kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page. The characters draw you in and the plot is fast paced. I love when the author has you rooting for an unlikely character.

When I think of Psychotic disorders, I assume they have abnormal behaviors compared to society norms, so I was not expecting to find some people can lead a normal life with their psychosis under control. My assumptions were put to their demise after reading about a college study of 7 psychotic students living among the average. Wearing a smartwatch to track their emotions, they penetrated the college dorms and fraternity scene, without the knowledge of their classmates. Strangely, they did not know who was in the program themselves. Not until students in the program were being murdered, did they seek each other out.

Chloe is part of the study but has a mission of her own to kill. Her focus is on an upperclassmen, Will, who raped her when she was twelve years old and videoed it. She becomes friends with his frat brothers to get closer to him. Andre and Charles, also study participants, battle opinions of Chloe's quest. Charles hunts for clues that she may be the one killing off their fellow students while Chloe has her own opinion of him...leaving Andre in between their notions.

There are moments when they lack empathy and guilt making you second guess who is real. Adding more characters to the hunt and a professor with a shady past, you won't lack for a thrill.

This is told in multiple POVs and guides you right to the killer with a surprise ending. Putting pieces together, this is a story of elimination of who is the most dangerous and sometimes you have to trust your instinct. This is definitely a psychotic thriller with a lot of psychotic students, which is more in the YA category.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Chloe Sevre is not your typical college freshman. Sure, she goes to classes, attends frat parties, and hangs out with friends – but she’s also a diagnosed psychopath, on a full ride scholarship as part of a psychology study, and she’s secretly plotting the murder of a fellow student who wronged her years before. Before she can exact her revenge, however, one of the other students in the psychopathy study is murdered. And then another. It seems clear to Chloe that someone is hunting them down – hunting her, when she’s supposed to be the hunter. And she has no one to trust but a handful of her fellow psychopaths.

As a number of the main characters of the novel are psychopaths, this understandably makes them less sympathetic and not especially likeable, but they still manage to be interesting, in part because of the glimpse we get into how differently their minds work than the average person. I did like Andre’s character, but unfortunately I also felt like he was unnecessary to the story, almost like he was added in as an afterthought, someone the audience would find relatable in amongst the other, less likeable POVs. Perhaps in part due to that, the pacing of the book was somewhat uneven, which is unfortunate in a thriller, but I still found it compelling enough to keep going.

TW: rape, drug use, violence. Also, if you can’t deal with an unlikeable, unsympathetic or unreliable narrator, this probably is not the book for you.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book, you will meet three main characters, Chloe, Charles and Andre who are all part of a university program that is for psychopaths... yes, you read that right. Students are tracked with a smart watch and have to answer questions, what they aren't supposed to know, is who else is in the program. When two other students in the program are murdered, Chloe, Charles, and Andre join forces to try to figure out if someone in the program did it, someone else, or even one of them? An interesting premise from start to finish, had me flying through it wanting to see what happens.

Psychopaths, sociopaths, and a serial killer? I read this in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. Kurian did a wonderful job putting the reader into the mind of someone without empathy so we could better understand what it's truly like. Highly recommend!

Overall I really enjoyed Never Saw Me Coming. The story is exciting and fast paced, and the characters are interesting. The romance between Charles and Chloe did seem a little forced and pointless, but it didn’t detract from the story too much. On the whole, a fun read.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this, it was really hard for me to get into. I would be open to reading from this author in the future. The e-book was also really hard to read because the sentences were cut off and put in different places on the screen.

Chloe, Charles, and Andre are normal college students. They go to classes, they party, and they all have the same scholarship… the scholarship that requires participation in the psychopathy study. Yes, the three of them are psychopaths, but they are the ones who are in danger. Someone at the school knows about the study and is targeting all the participants. The three team up; though they do not necessarily trust one another, they must figure out who is after them. Told from the different perspectives of the characters, including the psychologist who runs the study, readers get a unique look into each character’s motives and ideas. Chloe is the only character who is represented by a first-person perspective while the rest are limited third person narrators. The plot and concept of this novel is extremely unique, and Kurian keeps readers guessing the whole time. While these characters are very unlikeable, Kurian still makes readers care what happens to them. Readers of Liane Moriarity will want to pick up this thriller.

This story was WILD! I absolutely loved this book and the author for writing it. She creates such realistic characters that make the story so addicting.

Received invite, I was looking for a thriller

College's Psychology Dept has a program studying Psychology Psychopaths

You will want to know
how this books ends!

This was a great, twisty read with an exciting and original premise. Several students are recruited to a college and given free tuition in exchange for their participation in a clinical study. Because these students are psychopaths. Chloe is one of them, and she's got her own agenda: avenging a past wrong by killing another student. But when a series of murders begins to occur on campus, it's the psychopaths who start to wonder if they're the ones being hunted. Fast-paced and suspenseful, you'll be rooting for the psychopaths in this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Never Saw Me Coming.

The premise hooked me from the get-go so I was super excited when my request was approved.

Sadly, this didn't live up to my expectations.

I was thrilled at the idea of a female psychopath hunting another psychopath but the characters, writing style, tone and narrative turned me off.

I liked the idea of Chloe, her psychopathy, and her perspective and self reflection: I definitely understood her need for vengeance but that's where it stopped for me.

The writing style and tone made this sound more YA than it should; the 'romance' between Charles and Chloe was unnecessary. A little flirtation, some sexy eye glances, sure, no problem, and I'm all up for a sexy love scene when it fits the narrative. It didn't fit here.

Naturally, the typical cliches inherent in these types of books are plentiful here; they're both incredibly attractive and devious. Of course they should hook up, right? And there are so many attractive psychopaths roaming around, especially at this particular fictional college.

The narrative lacked suspense and drama; for the most part, I wasn't engaged and the constant POV switches was distracting.

There are quite a few names to keep track of, and though character development is decent for the three main characters, only meager details are offered for the others, namely the frat bros, Chloe's roomies, the detectives, which I get. But, the cast of characters is large and hard to keep track of.

As some reviewers noted, there are quite a number of hard to suspend disbelief moments and if its easy for you to do, you'll enjoy this. It wasn't hard for me, but it wasn't easy, either.

Another moment of disbelief came at the end, the identity of the killer. By this time, I just went along for it because it was the end and I wanted my suspicions to be confirmed. It was.

The premise had such potential but the writing style and the lack of a connection to any of the characters made this an average read for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian is a novel based around a group of psychopaths taking part in a secret study at University. Suddenly, it seems that someone is targeting them as they start to turn up dead. But in a group of psychopaths - who can you trust?

I really enjoyed this book. I loved that even as the reader I didn't trust any of the characters and wasn't even sure that the main character wasn't hiding something from me. This book was not a fast burn but I felt like this built up the suspense and made me question all of the characters. Seeing the world from the point of view of a psychopath was also very interesting! I am deducting one star as the ending left me a little flat however I still enjoyed this book and would recommend!

A unique premise for a thriller- walk in the shoes of a psychopath??
I think so !

I enjoyed this one. At least, I enjoyed the beginning. The writing style is slightly out of my norm. But it was easy to digest .
Revenge, gore, horror psychological tragedy, chaotic thoughts . You don't know who to trust in this one ! . And you spend the first half not wanting to put it down. .
However , I have to deduct 2 stars because it was such a slow burn . To call it a pulse pounding, edge of your seat thriller is a bit of an overstatement.
It almost seemed to long , because of this ; its repetitive. .
Solid 3/5 ⭐
Its worth a read !

Chloe Sevre is a psychopath with a mission: to kill Will Bachman. She's a freshman at a DC college as part of a study of psychopaths - no one outside the program administration knows her status, and she doesn't even know the other students in the program. That is, until another student in the program is murdered, and Chloe realizes that she's not the only killer on the loose.

I love dark academia and cat and mouse games, and I was sucked into this novel from the beginning. Chloe was a fun character to get to know - twisted enough to be interesting but still relatable. Her revenge story was quite captivating, and Kurian did a good job introducing secondary characters to help her with her mission. The dual plots of Chloe and the other killer did make the book a little unwieldy in the middle, but I still enjoyed the ride. The ending was very much a surprise!

If you like psychological thrillers, you'll likely enjoy this book! 4 stars.

Thank you to Harlequin-Park Row Books for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book, it started off kind of slow, but it picked up steam and I was interested the whole time in finding out who the killer was..

“The day it happened, I didn’t go to the police, or my clueless mom. I stayed at home and decided that one day, I would kill Will Bachman.” Chloe, a diagnosed “psychopath”, has been waiting to put her plan into action. Chloe knows what’s right and wrong, he was wrong and she would be right in killing him.

This is one of those fun books where every single character is unreliable. Everyone has their own plans and plays whatever games necessary to reach their end goal.
I liked the characters and had a lot of fun being inside the minds of psychopaths. The twists were not all that surprising but I wasn’t entirely disappointed with the ending.
Definitely a great read for thriller and true crime fans.

Oh yes, this is what I was waiting for.! A thriller that is about something I had not read before. - seven college age psychopaths! It was so much fun reading about how their minds worked, how they related to others and especially how a young woman, Chloe, makes it her mission to go after the boy that wronged her as a child. This one is hard to put down as you go from chapter to chapter to see what these psychopaths do in their lives as otherwise "normal" college students. Which psychopaths do you root for and which ones are the worst? It's a bunch of twists and turns that led to a great ending. A sit back and be entertained read, which I love!! Thank you #NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book. It's one I will recommend to others and will definitely put on our book club list!