Kitty rescues Luke from a suicide attempt and he, as it will evolve, rescues her from Johan the Viking. This is a fast paced action thriller about a failed actor accused of murdering his wife Lisa, who simply disappeared, and an aspiring actress who supports herself by running drugs, What a combo. Johan thinks Kitty has been skimming from him and he wants his money back but that's not going to happen. What is going to happen is that Kitty and Luke are on a quest to find Lisa while being chased by the bad guys. I liked the caustic view of how Hollywood treats those on the down side of fame. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC, Youers knows how to hook the reader and keep the pages turning. A good travel book (and would make a boffo movie).

This book was not for me. I didn’t care for the main characters or the storyline. I gave it about 100 pages and then skimmed through the rest of it. If you are a reader that likes thrillers with violence, revenge and drugs as part of the plot/mystery, than this may be for you!

This was my first experience with Rio Youers. I'm not sure what I've been waiting for. This book had great characters (and a great villain), great plot, great pacing (couldn't put it down). Will definitely have to read more from Rio Youers. #NoSecondChances #NetGalley

This was a damn good book, but not as good as Lola on Fire. Lola makes a cameo appearance in this one though, so that was awesome! 3.5 stars rounded up, because the action in this one was insane. I really had no idea what would happen, which is always my favorite thing to have happen. The writing style and subjects reminds me very much of Don Winslow. I enjoyed this and will definitely read more by this author.

4.5 stars

No Second Chances by Rio Youers is an excellent California noir Thriller!

The female protagonist is Kitty, a beautiful Black woman from Kentucky, who rides her skateboard working for a minor drug dealer and dreams of making it in Hollywood. Her neighbor Luke is a former action star who is a pariah in the industry after he is accused and convicted in the Court of Public Opinion of murdering his missing wife, Lisa. They become unlikely friends after they both cross paths with a violent, sadistic drug dealer, Johan.
There will be no spoilers in this review, but I will say there is plenty of action, some graphic violence, and a lot humanity in this story. This is a gritty contemporary novel, with solid grounding in real life locales, and central characters who are flawed but likeable. The evil is identifiable, and easy to dislike. The plot unfolds relentlessly and propulsively, with a few surprises and a well-thought-out conclusion.
I highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy novels of suspense, with great dramatic tension, loads of action and richly drawn characters.

Thank you to William Morrow/Scene of the Crime for the ARC. This is my enthusiastic review.

Rio Youers has me hooked. It all started with his novel "Lola on Fire:", a fast paced thriller with a strong female protagonist I loved. In this, the second book I've read by Youers, he has cemented his ability create charismatic lead characters, an especially vile villain and a noir sense of place that combine to produce an amazingly well plotted thriller that never lets up.

Kitty Rae, an aspiring actress, uproots herself from Kentucky to Los Angeles with stars in her eyes. Things don't start off that great when her first job is distributing for drug dealer to the rich and famous and wanna be Viking, Johan Fly. She meets her neighbor, Luke Kingsley, a former Hollywood star whose career took a nose dive when his wife went missing three years before, when she rescues him from a failed suicide attempt. Talk about unusual first impressions! Then Kitty's own life is in danger when Johan discovers she has been skimming from him and vows to kill her. Enter Luke to help free her from Johan's clutches.

The story is dark at times but I found myself carried along and captivated by the characters, both good and evil. The writing is excellent with crisp dialogue and pacing that never lets up.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance copy. The publication date is February 22, 2022.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Luke's life is in shambles after his wife went missing and he is suspected of killing her. There marriage was not the best. He later meets a woman named Kitty who he tries to save. This book tended to drag on in a few places.

No Second Chances is a fast-paced thriller with lots of plot twists and turns. Set in Hollywood, the main characters are very appealing even though they are both flawed. Luke was an actor, ready to really make it big when his wife disappears and he is accused of killing her. He’s now labeled as a has-been in Hollywood, struggling with just waking up each day. Kitty arrived from Kentucky, looking to be a star. She takes a job with a drug dealer trying to make money and get auditions but runs afoul of a Viking-want-to-be social media celebrity who is actually a crime boss. He is determined to silence Kitty and Luke is the only one able to help her. The action is unending as they both try to avoid the Viking. It was great to read about the friendship between Luke and Kitty and not have it turn into a romantic relationship. This book was exciting and hard to put down. I can see this making a great movie. Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is quite an action-packed thriller, full of twists and turns! It definitely kept my attention throughout. It is well written, with flawed, complex characters. The heroic victims each have their own dark secrets. Nightmarish is the best term to describe the primary villain, and his cohorts complete his circle of evil. It is set in the Hollywood area, and the crimes center on the drug trade, and the mad scramble for something new and profitable. The violence is, at times, a bit over the top, but good fiction, nevertheless. I did receive a complimentary copy from Netgalley, the publisher, and Scene of the Crime and I am glad I did!

An action-packed read with sympathetic, flawed characters as well as horrifying, evil ones. The pace is fast and furious with lots of blood and gore, but the characters are developed well as the book progresses.

Advertised as a thriller (and it is), No Second Chances is more like an out of control roller coaster. There are ups and downs with brief lulls where you feel safe, then wham!, it speeds up again.
Kitty, an out of work, recently arrived to the Hollywood scene young actress wannabe, has opted to be a courier for the local drug scene as a way to make ends meet until her big break comes along. Luke is a culture canceled ex-actor and suspect in his wife's possible murder and Kitty's neighbor. Fate and Kitty's big heart draw them together. Then there is Johan, the charismatic dealer to the stars. He's also a psychopath and violence runs deep within his Viking veins. With a cast of supporting characters, No Second Chances has created a vision of Hollywood that is all too believable. And, like all thriller movie endings out of Hollywood, the crescendo takes up approximately the last quarter of the book, car chases and all. Similar in nature to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and The Ozarks, reader beware, it has all the trigger warnings.
Thank you to Scene of the Crime facebook group and William Morrow Publisher for an early copy. All opinions are mine.

This book had me interested at the beginning. an aspiring actress, working for drug dealers and an has been actor who was accused of killing his wife. By the second half, it went to just action and a lot of violence and I lost interest, just skimmed through it as it served no real purpose for me. Others might like it, the bad guys were very bad

No Second Chances is an exceptional, cinematic literary masterpiece that moves at ludicrous speed with a brilliant combination of extraordinary violence and undying hopefulness. Rio Youers has created something unbelievably special that will go down as one of the best modern thrillers ever published. Straight up, this book is required and essential reading for anyone who considers themselves a thriller fan.

Kitty Rae is an aspiring actor who moved from Kentucky to Los Angeles to chase her show business dream. While working towards her big break she makes a decent living as a drug courier, starting by making meth drops in public garbage cans before moving up to transporting a designer drug to the homes of the Hollywood Elite for her boss Johan Fly, a drug dealer with a modern legitimate front as a famous YouTuber and Instagram influencer. But when she’s caught stealing some of the expensive product she’s supposed to be delivering, Johan, who fancies himself a descendant of Vikings, vows to kill her in an excruciatingly slow and most sadistic manner. Enter Luke Kingsley – a disgraced actor, alleged wife-killer and neighbor Kitty has befriended – who cooks up a scheme to keep Kitty safe from the deranged Cali Viking. Meanwhile, Luke, who has maintained his innocence for 3 years, is on a mission to find out what happened to his wife while under the watchful eye of a persistent former LAPD-detective turned private investigator whose singular purpose in life is putting Luke in jail for the rest of his life. Together, the unlikely pair of Luke and Kitty will go through hell in an attempt to find answers for Luke while trying to escape Johan’s quest for vengeance with their lives. Survival is not guaranteed, but “when you don’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose.”

The brilliance of No Second Chances knows no bounds. It’s an emotional roller coaster that will have you gasping at the unadulterated brutality one moment before having you in tears the next. The action is unrelenting, building tension so high that you feel it in your bones before a final vicious eruption leaves you in desperate need of a cigarette. The characters are sublimely created, with complicated histories that provide real depth and increased appreciation for their journey as they level up in real time to find strength and purpose they never thought possible. And while Kitty and Luke are beyond fantastic, and the supporting characters are all outstanding, the showstopper/scene stealer is undoubtedly Johan Fly. This Viking villain is one of the most malicious, deranged, all-time great bad guys ever to grace the pages of a novel. He will haunt your dreams. Enough said.

Holy crap! Have I mentioned how much I love No Second Chances? I want to scream it from a mountain top because it’s simply incredible. A flawless piece of work. A surefire hit. Hang it in the Louvre. It’s impossible to overstate how amazing this book is. It’s just that insanely good. Bravo Rio Youers! I can’t wait for No Second Chances to hit shelves and see the reactions of readers far and wide, watching it pile up awards and plaudits as it rockets its way up bestseller lists and finds itself included in “best of” posts for 2022. Preorder it now and thank me later.

"Holy shit!" was something I uttered on countless occasions through this book. Initially I thought it was an interesting LA story about an innocent girl caught up in the drug trade while trying to make her big break... then Rio just absolutely cranked up the intensity and off we went!

This is an absolutely fantastic story that will coming back for every book Rio puts out.

Rio just has a way of writing violence that jumps off the page and kicks you in the face . I am exhausted after reading. Plot isn’t always the strongest but the action more then makes up for it

No Second Chances cuts through all the competition in the vast ocean of thrillers with a sharp plot and larger than life characters wrapped in a stylized narrative that feels real and current.
Rio Youres writes a beautifully compelling story with all the bling and darkness of Hollywood we have come to love from Michael Connolly’s Bosch series. Luke Kingsley, a down on his luck actor after being accused of murdering his wife, crosses paths with a kind and wild young spirited woman, Kitty Rae, when she saves him from a suicide attempt. Kitty dreams of becoming a Hollywood icon when she is not working as a drug courier. When she runs afoul of a Nordic crime boss and social media celebrity, she has no one but Luke to help her escape from dangerous killers hellbent on punishing Kitty for her transgressions. For Luke, this offers a purpose in his life again as well as an opportunity to find out what happened to his wife.
This is not your usual run-of-the-mill thriller. It ticks all the right boxes; riveting pacing, edge-of-your-seat action, and shocking twists that flip the narrative on its head. At the same time, it’s supercharged to convey the gut-wrenching emotions in a realistic tone that resonates with readers. The characters feel like they might be your next-door neighbors. The protagonists are given their due diligence in setting up rich histories that pave the way for their well-conceived choices, good and bad.
The action is perhaps one of the finest and most realistic depictions of combat in a civilian capacity. Luke Kingsley’s weapons training for action movies give him the advantage of knowing his way around weapons but doesn’t make him invincible. The shootouts, car chases, and fisticuffs cater to the physicality and backgrounds of the characters and are written with the cinematic flair of going the extra mile in visualization that elevates the reading experience for thriller aficionados.
Besides the fantastic heroes, the spotlight also shines on the distinctive villain. Johan Fly, an ambitious criminal with a strong social media following and a secret violent streak. His Nordic ancestry comes out in his proclivity to use a special axe in taking out his victims. Rio Youres’s bone-chilling descriptions of Johan Fly strike fear deep into readers and Luke and Kitty alike. Having a well-established and frightening villain is hard to achieve in a thriller but Youres makes it happen.
This is a once-in-a-year reading experience that actually nails every single aspect ranging from emotional depth to brutal action and transcends genres to appeal to all readers. Rio Youres’s No Second Chances is a phenomenal book from cover to cover and there aren’t many books like it. A must-read!

Full review with blurb image posted on: https://www.bestthrillerbooks.com/kashif-hussain/no-second-chances-by-rio-youres

I was able to read this book as an ARC from Netgalley.
If you are in the mood for a thriller with lots of action, this is the book for you. Luke Kingsley and Kitty Rae are the compelling protagonists in the story, while Johann Fly and a cast of muscleheads make up compelling antagonists. There was a lot to like- I enjoyed how the protagonists were flawed in their own ways. Each with their own demons and sources of shame. I liked how Luke was a fallen celebrity and what it must be like to live in Hollywood once your star has fallen. It was a wise choice by the author to actually allow a friendship between a man and a woman that didn't have to involve sex or a relationship. I enjoyed the first 70% of the novel very much. Where the novel lost me was the amount of ridiculous action and fights. It just didn't come off as believable and frankly wasn't necessary for the story. If you enjoy lots of action, and are willing to suspend your belief of reality for a little while- then you might really enjoy this book.