Real Easy tells the story of the The Lovely Lady strip club in 1999. Samantha has danced there for years, she makes good money, the dancers are mostly cordial to one another, and Dale, the club's owner seems to be a decent boss. Privately she has a boyfriend who doesn't love her job and she is a good mother figure to his daughter Rosie. At the club one evening a new dancer seems to be on drugs, so Samantha offers to drive her home but they never make it their destination. The police find the car abandoned on the side of the road and only one dead body. Where is Samantha? Is she alive? Who took her and why? The remainder of the story is told from multiple POV's of the dancers, cops and the abductor. The primary narrators are Samantha, fellow dancer Georgia, police detective Holly. With Samantha's profession and the people who frequent club there is no shortage of suspects.

Being equal parts plot and character driven I'd say this is more of a mystery than a thriller per se. Mysteries to me are more of a slow burn which is the case here, but I was still invested and wanted to know how everything would turn out. I loved the ending and I didn't see it coming. I am still not entirely sure what the title means/references.

3.5 stars Based on other reviews and the premise of this book, I was really excited to read this one. Unfortunately, this one did not live up to my expectations in a lot of ways. There were so many points of view, and the single narrator for the audiobook/the use of both stripper names & real names made it very confusing and difficult to follow. I also didn't find myself surprised at all by the ending-- I had my suspicions very early on and was disappointed when they turned out to be accurate. I found Rutkoski's inclusion of Samantha/Ruby having a rare chromosomal condition very interesting, and it was a wonderful added layer to to the beautiful relationship between Samantha/Ruby & Rosie. It seems that Rutkoski depicted the world of strip clubs accurately and authentically, which I appreciated. I just wish I had been captured by this plotline a bit more.

Note: this review is for the audiobook, which I had been approved for long before the book.

I really enjoyed this domestic drama about the life and times of being a stripper. Really interesting insight. Lots of secrets and so many twists and turns. Nicely developed characters.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

It’s 1999 and the new dancer that has attached herself to Samantha at the strip club is drugged out of her mind. Samantha offers to drive her home, but the two are run off the road. When the cops show up to the scene of the crash, there is one totaled car, and only one body. Now everyone is trying to figure out who killed Lady Jade, and where is Ruby (Samantha?)

Wow. This book was so unique and I kind of loved it. I love that we learn more about each of the dancers and find out why they are working at a strip club, what lead them to that life, and how they balance their home life with their late nights. Between the multiple perspectives, and mystery of who has Samantha, I could not stop reading this book. I definitely did not guess who the bad guy was! I highly recommend this one!

This book had so many POV’s and so many characters that it was a struggle for me to keep up enough to enjoy this. The basis of the book being a stripper murder mystery was different and interesting but having so many POV’s just threw me off.

Oh My Word People! "Real Easy" by Marie Rutkoski is a thrilling complex roller coaster ride!

Samantha works as a stripper. This is not her dream job, but she needs the money. In her personal life, Samantha lives with her boyfriend Nick and he is sometimes adusive. Nick has a daughter named Rosie, who is Samatha's world. She delights in spending time with Rosie, picking her up from school, and helping her with her homework. One evening Samantha's friend Jolene gets sick at work. Samantha drives her friend home and they are followed. Will they make it home?

"Real Easy" has many characters. At times the reader may feel it is a little bit difficult to figure out, but keep reading/listening. This book/audiobook is so worth it! Many times we forget that behind a job is real people with real lives. They are just trying to make a living and survive. The author, who has experienced this life tells the human side of the story. It reaches out and grabs the reader.

Warning: This book is not for the faint at heart. It has graphic scenes.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for allowing me to review this thrilling book!

I enjoyed every minute of it! "Real Easy" was published January 18, 2022.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

REAL EASY was a really compulsive thriller that was set in a strip club in Chicago called Lovely Lady. Samantha is the big money maker at the club. One night, the new dancer at the club, Lady Jade, needs a ride home and Samantha offers to take her. Then Lady Jade is found dead,band Samantha is missing.

There are lots of characters to keep track of in this one. Most are the dancers at the club, their families, and the detectives on the case, mainly Holly and patrons. This was a character driven murder mystery but also police procedural. It was never slow for me, and I had no idea who was involved in the murder and the disappearance. There were many characters that it could have been. I though this book was well written and suspenseful. Definitely a unique plot that I enjoyed.

Real Easy might be my favorite thriller published in years. I truly loved this book and Eva Kaminsky's amazing narration only added to the story. This is both one of the most unique and character driven stories Ive heard in a while.

Real Easy follows the girls at the Lovely Lady strip club. A death occurs tied to the club (don't wanna give details away as all the details surrounding the crime shocked me and the best part is uncovering the mystery yourself). The three main characters who drive the story include Samantha (or Ruby), Georgia (or Gigi), and Detected Holly Maitland. All three have a part to play in the crime and solving it.

My favorite part of this book is how each chapter has a new characters perspective so even the smallest characters are built out. This adds so much to the story as it truly helps you see the girls at the Lovely Lady as more than just their profession. You learn what drives each character from every employee and the Lovely Lady, to the killer, to the detectives.

I don't wanna spoil it but I also love how the crime is revealed and solved and with who takes the most initiative in solving it. I will say I guesses the killer a little before it was revealed but that didn't take away from the impact and how it unfolds in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, and I loved it! There was so much creep factor to this, but the thing that I loved most was the non-linear writing style. Things start to come together then fall apart again only to come together wonderfully at the end to make a plot twist you think you saw coming but never did! This was FANTASTIC! 5/5 stars!

Another note: this book humanized sex workers and that is always a win in my book.

This book was hard for me and I just feel really lost with all of the POV switching around so much. While I was intrigued by the premise of this story and have enjoyed Rutkoski's previous novels, this one just doesn't seem to be it for me. I do like the gritty feel of the mystery but for an audiobook the POV switching is confusing me.

This is one of my favorite literary thrillers. I loved the characters, the setting, and how Rutkoski was able to give us a handful of red herrings and the reveals in the end solidified this as such a fast paced and amazing story. I cannot wait to see what this author does next.

DNF @ 5%, so no rating.

I could tell right away that the writing style wasn't for me, and the main character wasn't very likeable. That's not a deal-breaker for me, but I at least need an intriguing or enjoyable story to go with it.

I loved this book, and then I realized it was based on the author’s real-life experiences and that just made me love it even more.

Real Easy was unlike anything else I’ve read recently. Sex workers and erotic dancers are often used as the victims in the thrillers and crime procedurals I love, but they’re rarely the main characters. I loved how Real Easy helped to humanize these women, showing them as real people just in need of some money instead of victims who life has chewed up and spit out.

The strip club angle made this thriller feel fresh. I’m always looking for an out-of-the-box thriller. I love this genre, but when I read too many the plots certainly get a little stale. Thank you to MR for bringing me out of my recent thriller rut!

I enjoyed the rapidly changing POVs, although it does take a few chapters to get a hold of the characters and who’s who. The author mentioned that she really tried to give each perspective a purpose: when the POV changes, it’s for a specific reason to advance the plot, not just to give that character some air time. She certainly achieved this, and it made the story fast-paced and captivating.

I do wish we got to know more about Samantha. I really liked her character at the beginning of the book, but she goes missing within the first few pages. The author did a good job of making the reader care about her through other perspectives, though.

For the reader that enjoys a dark literary mystery. Rutkowski writes a character-driven tale of the murder and disappearance of two dancers from a Midwestern strip club. The author drew real life inspiration for this debut as she herself worked as a stripper in her 20s. You can see she has a great compassion for each of the women in this story. Unfortunately, this didn’t quite live up to the hype for me and I think that’s for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the overabundance of POV’s. Most of the girls at the club go by two names so keeping track of who is who can be quite the task. Secondly, I expected this to be a compulsive and unputdownable read but found it dragging a little towards the middle. Overall, I appreciate what the author had to say and can see why other readers have sung its praises.

Loved this book so much. It is my first five star read of 2022, and I easily recommend it to anyone who likes smart, interesting thrillers. The setting of the Midwestern strip club made for a perfect thriller. There are many red herrings and the story still felt unexpected up until the very end.

Marie Rutkoski's Real Easy is a thriller following exotic dancers in a small American town in 1999. It starts when one dancer offers to drive another home, her car is ran off the road and her co-worker is killed and she is taken captive by a serial killer targeting dancers. I was thrilled to get a copy because I loved the author's YA fantasy novels for their beautiful, flowery prose and knew this would be such a stylistically different story and she didn't disappoint, the setting is vivid, I had several moments where I felt thrown back to the Y2K era, it bounces between more than 10 POV's that feel like real people and makes you invest in the dancers, their loved ones, and the detective struggling to put the pieces together. It gives you what you need to figure it out without being too obvious or overly misleading red herrings for a cheap bait and switch. Just a great story for a genre that usually leaves me underwhelmed. With a beautiful ending that reminds you there's joy in this dark world too.

I would suggest reading the physical book as opposed to listening to the audiobook. I thought the plot was interesting, but I struggled to keep track of the multiple characters and their POVs. The author interview at the end was a great touch!

Real Easy is such a great thriller! It is a tale of a murder in an Gentleman Woman's club. The plot was great, lots of character development and the book kept me on the edge of my seat. I was able to finish the book in a day. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced read copy of this book.

It was so engaging! There were enough hints for the reader to solve it first, but enough red herrings to keep me guessing/questioning myself until I was supposed to know the culprit. Can’t say it was a fun read, but I really enjoyed the thorough process. So well researched!

Marie Rutkoski is a wordsmith. If you've read her beautiful fantasy series The Winner's Trilogy, then this will be clear right from the start. This book, though so very different in scope, topic, and tone, gives the same atmospheric mastery all her other books hand. It's darker, grittier, and exactly as she wants it to be. The characters are complex, and you could see the amount of research that went into this. It's a thriller that is well done.