Thank you HarperCollins Publishing and NetGalley for this fantastic read. I expected a simple chic-lit type read. Well, while it was chick-lot, it was very engrossing with the story line and the way the author used multi-media types of writing. She did an amazing job of developing the characters and making you feel like you knew them while really pulling for Lora. But that ending. Blew. Me. Away. It was a solid 4 stars until the last 2-3 pages. Wow. Just. Wow. Could not put this one down and glad that I chose to read it when I did. I highly recommend buying it the day it is released, 4/5/22. You won’t regret it.

Life isn’t going well for Lora Ricci - she worked so hard to get a scholarship to NYU only to find that she doesn’t fit in and she is flunking out of school. When she starts an internship at Elle magazine is at the lowest part of her life - she has lost her scholarship and is getting kicked out of school. However, Lori’s luck is about to change. During her time as an intern, she meets Cat Wolff who takes her under her wing. Before long she is living with her in a suite in the plaza and ghost writing her stories. It’s the perfect life, right?

Wow, this a clever story! I really loved the epistolary style where the story was revealed through diary entries, emails, transcripts and more. These made for short snappy chapters that made me feel immersed in the plot really quickly. I felt like I got a intriguing glimpse into what was going on behind the scenes and it provided sharp contrast to Lora’s naive narrative, which felt like witnessing a train wreck in slow motion. It’s really funny in parts too. I guessed one element of the ending but it still made me gasp when I got to it. When I looked back for hints hidden in the book, it was seamless.

It was an easy read which kept me entertained throughout, with a brilliant thought provoking ending.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this book about 15 hours ago and I have not stopped thinking about it since. A lot of that, admittedly, has to do with the ending. When I first read it I gasped audibly (very rare for me) and then I immediately went back in my mind to see if I could pick up the breadcrumbs. I will say, there are still a few loose threads for me that are have kept the ending from feeling fully true but I would probably need to read this again from the beginning to really determine whether the author was successful. That said, beyond the ending I found this book incredibly more-ish, engrossing and entertaining. Combining, fictionalizing and riffing on the real-life scandals of Anna Delvey and Caroline Calloway was a great idea and one I think was executed well overall. This should be on many people's beach read list for this summer!

This was an enjoyable read, and I liked the mixed mediaesque way of telling the story, but the twist was contrived and came WAY too late in the novel. Some plot points of deception were never properly explained and not in an "oh show don't tell is powerful" way. The motivations of Cat/Olesya weren't clear, and didn't mesh with her desperate determination. I liked the book, but there are a lot of flaws if you look too closely (which is its meta narrative).

The characters drew me in. I found myself rooting for the main character but also perplexed. The twist at the end became clearer the closer to the end of the book. I enjoyed this book and would need to re-read the beginning to see if it all fits together.

What an interesting ride of a story. Just when you think you know what is happening you get thrown a curve ball. I read it in one day. I enjoyed the alternating between diary entries, text messages and newspaper articles.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A fun look into the fashion journalism world. The story line was intriguing however the alternating journal entries with social media posts and instant messaging was hard to follow. Stick with the storyline though - the twist at the end will blow your mind!

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti is a have-to-read novel! Rigetti tells her tale in a unique style, with complex characters, and an unexpected twist. I'm not sure what I was expecting this book to be - but it surprised me at every turn.

#netgalley #coverstory

This book was clearly a fictionalized version of aspects of the Anna Delvey scam, but I enjoyed it. I really liked how it was written in the form of diary entries, Instagram captions, etc. and I enjoyed the twist at the end. It was a very fun Saturday read.

Thank you to Book Club Girl (https://www.instagram.com/bookclubgirl/) and William Morrow Custom House for early access to Cover Story by Susan Rigetti. I have an appreciation for stories about toxic, parasitic "friendships" as well as stories that involve writing and deception. This book reminded me, in good ways, of some other recent books that use these themes well, including Other People's Clothes, A Novel Obsession, The Plot, Dream Girl, and Who is Maud Dixon. The range of approaches to revealing the plot worked well for me, I am impressed by how Ms. Rigetti was able to reveal plot twists and keep the narrative ,moving via use of emails, texts, and other forms of correspondence; I think keeping interest in a plot using this style is a nice change of pace style.

3 things I liked
1. As noted, these are themes I really like, toxic friendships, writing/writers, and a blending of social class groups. These themes are nicely developed.
2. The story is engaging, I am seeing a general trend of interest in stories that involve deception and the darker side of the pursuit for perhaps notoriety and attention/glamour and this book fits in with books and media about this (other people's clothes, inventing anna).
3. I like mystery/procedural themes about investigations when I can somewhat be a part of the investigation so to speak, I enjoyed The Appeal which came out recently because it was a story that involved the reader in the investigation through use of emails and texts. This brings a depth to the suspense!

Thanks to Book Club Girl for the early release of this book. I enjoyed this book and it was a perfect beach read, however, I am always a little hit or miss with books in email/letter/correspondence formatting. Sometimes it's perfect and others, it feels a tad too choppy. It kinda worked here, but it wasn't my favorite. I can't say this story will stick with me, but for a light and quick summertime read... I would definitely grab this in the airport bookshop.

Love this book! When the main character Lora interns at Elle she meets an enigmatic writer Cat Wolff and gets caught up in the glamor of New York City for the wealthy. The story consists mainly of Lora's diary, but also with FBI reports, texts, Instagram posts, and emails mixed through the timeline.

It doesn't take long to get into the rhythm of it, and by a third of the way through, I was hooked & read it every chance I got. The details are rich and vivid. The plot is careful and smart. The book seems solidly inspired by the Anna Sorokin story and has a Gossip Girl feel to it. I can imagine high school girls obsessing over it. There are many fun and completely unexpected twists. I didn't anticipate the ending. It's very clever, and although I leave it with mixed feelings, that's all part of the book's experience.

Cover Story is fast-paced and on trend, told primarily from the perspective of twenty-three-year-old Lora Ricci’s diary entries as she becomes friends with Cat Wolff during her internship at Elle magazine. When the internship is complete she forgoes a chance to sort out a scholarship at NYU to move into Cat’s apartment at The Plaza Hotel to serve as a ghostwriter, the dream of a lifetime for a young woman pursuing a career in writing. The only problem is that Cat is not who she says she is. In fact she’s a lot of people – a consummate con woman running multiple schemes all at the same time. It’s almost dizzying trying to keep track of all of her different identities, and whether or not they’re supposed to be connected to one another. The reader also has correspondence of Cat’s, as well as correspondence of the people trying to catch her interspersed with Lora’s diary entries so they are privy to information Lora is not. But…pretty much every reader will probably read this book and wonder how Lora could be so naïve, trusting and idiotic – I know I did. She drove me absolutely crazy! Turns out Cat may not be the only one playing a long game, because the twist at the end of this story is excellent! A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm obsessed with this book. It's exactly what I wanted to read at the time, and especially since it's similar to the Anna Delvey case, I was even more obsessed. And the cover on this is GORGEOUS.

The writing in this was different than I have read before, a mix between diary entries and chats and newspaper articles, it was fun to read like that and kept you wondering where it was all headed. I liked this book and the ending was totally unexpected and made me rethink everything. Great book.

Thank you to The Book Club Girls, HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t love it. I liked the story well enough. It was a quick read, told through diary entries, emails, memos and such so there wasn’t a constant flow of story. It was interesting enough but the characters all seemed cliche and I didn’t like any of them very much. Also, what was that ending all about?

Cover Story by Susan Rigetti tells the story of con artist Cat Wollf. OMG!!! What a story!! The format of the book using diary entry, emails, and newspaper articles to tell the story was brilliant!! I liked the characters. I felt their emotions also. The ending floored me! I stayed up late to finish it then couldn’t fall asleep because I was thinking about the ending! I will recommend this book. Thank you for allowing me to review it!

Great story of a grifter in the glamorous world of New York publishing. A quick, fun read with an unexpected twist.
Highly recommend!

This was a great, fast read! I loved the details and dialogue. It definitely kept me hooked. I’m just extremely confused by the ending. I felt like it was thrown in to add a twist, but just didn’t make sense. There needed to be more to wrap it up.