Sara is a law student working as a part time bartender to fund her education. One night after closing, she helps a drunk woman named Sarah get into a rideshare and then hops into her own rideshare to head home. However, Sara accidentally took the rideshare intended for Sarah and ends up at Sarah’s home. Once Sara eventually makes it back to her neighbourhood, she is shocked to discover that the other Sarah has been murdered. But which woman was the intended victim?

I was so excited to read this book after hearing a plot summary at a Harper Collins Canada event. I love a good, twisty, mistaken identity thriller. Overall, this was an enjoyable and engaging read with some unexpected twists.

Some of the storylines did feel a bit distracting from the overall plot at times and I wish the book focused more on the murder and less on Sara’s past. I will say that the book did not quite live up to the plot summary for me. All in all, it was still a good read, I was just very excited for the book I expected based on the plot summary and this was not the same.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Canada for the advanced reading copy!

Loved the premise of this book. Take the wrong ride share and someone is murdered. Enjoyed the dual storylines but didn’t connect with Sara and felt the other Sarah could have had more depth of character. Overall not a bad read, just not great. Loved the ending, she knows who she is and what she wants. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGallery and Harper Collins Canada for the ARC of this novel.

The premise and synopsis of this book was really good! And the beginning was so amazing and totally hooked me.

Synopsis:

Despite a scholarship, law student Saraswati “Sara” Bhaduri holds down two jobs in order to make her way through school, but it’s still a struggle. She’s had to do things to pay the bills that most people wouldn’t expect “a nice Indian girl” to do. Sara is working at the campus bar one seemingly ordinary Tuesday night when her boss demands that she deal with a drunk girl in the bathroom.
The two women become fast friends. Why? Because they have the same name. And despite their different circumstances, they connect. At the end of the evening, each orders a rideshare home. They tumble into the back of their respective cars and head out into the night.
But sometime later, Sara wakes up in the car to find she’s on the wrong side of town—the rich side—and realizes that she and Sarah Ellis took the wrong cars home. With no money, Sara walks back to her apartment on the shady side of town only to see police lights flashing, illuminating a body crumpled on her doorstep: Sarah. But was the target Sarah Ellis or Sara Bhaduri? And why would anyone want either of them dead?

This book just wasn’t for me. I didn’t find it suspenseful or thrilling at all.

The main character Sara, I didn’t like at all. She is supposed to be 27 and in her final year of law school, but she came across as immature, snobby and like she has a chip on her shoulder. It also seemed like a lot of the story had nothing to do with the mystery of the ride share - which was super disappointing. This was just not a book for me 😞

This was so interesting! I enjoyed that it went back and forth between the two main characters. The story flowed nicely and I liked the short chapters, they kept up the suspension! The book picks up a lot during the middle and it’s a very interesting story of deceit, mystery and drama! I was not expecting the ending, that was my favourite part. It didn’t turn out how I thought it would but the build up to it, was perfect! I liked that at the end of the story, everything fell into place and all questions were answered. Loose ends were tied up. I highly recommend this!

A Sara and a Sarah leave a bar and get into their respective Lyfts. Sara realizes their error when her car drops her off in a posh neighbourhood miles away from the much humbler neighbourhood of her basement apartment. She makes the trek home on foot, only to find police cars in front of her apartment, and cops examining Sarah's dead body.

Who killed Sarah? Worse, even though Sarah was white and Sara is first generation Indian-American, they share the same build and hair colour, and would be easy to mistake for the other in the dark. Was Sara, a law student whose side hustles to pay for tuition weren't quite all above-board, the actual target?

Are You Sara? is a fast-paced, twisty, and entertaining thriller. As much as I like to think its premise is far-fetched, I'm afraid I find it all too easy to imagine. As if taking ride-shares wasn't a risky enough venture for any woman, now we have to worry that getting into the wrong one could prove fatal! Lalli did a great job developing the characters of both Sara and Sarah. This results in it being really easy for us to imagine either woman being the target of the crime, but it also means that even Sarah, whom we barely get to know before she gets killed, feels like a real person, one whose death we can genuinely regret.


The novel also explores some of the complex issues that women, and women of colour, have to deal with. We see both Sara and Sarah dealing with sexism and male entitlement, and with having their friends dismiss valid concerns, and we see Sara dealing with racism as a Brown woman pursuing a prestigious career.

Sara in particular is really skilled at getting people to open up to her and do what she wants them to, and I absolutely love how she uses this ability to turn others' racism and sexism on its head. There's a particularly masterful scene where Sara tries to negotiate a loan with a white male bank employee about her age. She senses immediately that he's both attracted to, and intimidated by, her, so she deliberately downplays her accomplishments and lets him ogle her chest. It's not quite a fully triumphant scene, because the guy was gross and unprofessional, and Sara shouldn't have had to put herself in that position just to pay for school. But it's a kind of code-switching I, at least, am familiar with, and I bet other readers are too. And there's a kind of sweet satisfaction in seeing the guy's behaviour through Sara's eyes, and how easily she plays him to respond as she needs him to in order to get that loan.

One, admittedly minor, snag with the book for me was that Sara's whole "I'm not really a 'good Indian girl'" confession seemed a lot more dramatic than her actual actions warranted. She didn't lead the quiet life her family expected, but on the whole, even her shadiest actions didn't turn out to be all that bad. There's a moment near the end where she gives the reader a hint of her future plans, and the narrative tone gave major gleeful villain vibes, but really, her big plans weren't at all shady or even all that shocking. Mostly, it felt like a straight-A student gleefully confessing about how she smoked one joint or cut one class, and part of me wished Lalli had had a bit more fun with the dark side Sara keeps telling us she has.

Another, also admittedly minor, snag is that I wish I'd gotten to know Sarah a bit more. The relationships within her friend group were interesting and felt realistic; I especially love how she was helping her best friend get alone time with her crush, and it's not because Sarah believed in their compatibility. Rather, Sarah knew her best friend deserved better, and she wanted her friend to get this dude out of her system so she can finally move on. I found it a pretty rational and thoughtful approach to her friend's crush, and actually a kinda mature (or cynical?) idea given their youth. Still, that kind of detail made her an intriguing character to me, and I wish we'd seen a bit more of her as a person outside of her relationships. I almost wish she'd survived the attack so we could follow both women through the aftermath. Which is a testament to how well Lalli writes characters, and hooks readers into their stories.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Are You Sara? It's a page-turner, and I finished it in a single day, which is pretty significant considering how long it's been taking me to read stuff these days. I highly recommend it!

+

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Compelling, shocking, Enthralling, extraordinary page turner, spellbinding, roller-coaster ride of unthinkable twists and turns you don't see coming, then the ending just bam after bam of shock and surprise, your not sure what just hit you!

This book touched on some very real problems in our society which I thought was great to shine a light on. There are a lot of sectors in our job market (and every day life) that discrimination is still a factor either due to race, ethnicity, sexual preference, sexual identification, financial means or family background, etc I could go on & on. There is so much talk about inclusion and not discriminating but it still happens and there will always be misogynistic men who treat less deserving men better than more qualified or better preforming women. I also believe that people with money will always get the job before the average Joe & will always get off easily in the legal system etc due to the fact that they have money for good lawyers & legal aid lawyers are swamped therefore can't do the job as well as they should for the less privileged. Which isn't right but it unfortunately won't change. The author also talks about what it's like for an immigrant being afraid to lose their job, being afraid to speak up & fear in general which is so unfair I wish I could change the way people are treated. Which hopefully compassion & caring will be brought to more people because of this book.

I loved the story line and the flow I thought the pace was great and I just couldn't put this book down, I too wanted to know what happened to Sarah that night why she was killed and of course who did it. I would have been just like Sara the Sara with no h that is and felt responsible, constantly wondering if I could have done something differently or if I could have simply done more. I also would have wondered if it was me that was meant to be murdered. So I personally felt that this was very realistic writing also I love it when I feel what the characters feel in a novel. I enjoyed the background into both sara & Sarah's lives leading up to the fateful night. I realize it would be a challenge to bring a characters past two years into the story line when they are murdered in the beginning of the book so I believe the journal entries were an exceptionally smart way for the reader to get vital insights into a character after her passing from her own words & feelings Bravo S.C Lalli.

I definitely rate this 5/5 stars it was interesting, intriguing, superbly woven together and had a twist at the end. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, suspense or just a nail biting thrill ride.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Harper Collins Canada & of course S.C Lalli for the ARC of this amazing novel

3.00 stars
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TW: Death, Drug use, Murder
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Is this simply a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, or does this tell the story of something more sinister? In Are you Sara, we follow the story of Law student Saraswati "Sara" who helps fellow Sarah (Ellis) into a rideshare after a shift at the bar where she works. The two girls have never met, but share a moment together after bonding over having the same name. Before Sara knows it, she's on the other side of town and figures she must have gotten into the wrong rideshare. What she doesn't know is that on the other side of town, Sarah (Ellis) is murdered after getting out of the rideshare intended for Sara. Their two stories start to intertwine as we uncover the mystery of what happened that fateful night.

Sara is a struggling Law student who had two jobs to survive, poor grades, and a family who needs their daughter to have a good job. I love watching how Sara's life turns upside down as she starts to question if she was the intended victim the entire time. For what I thought this story was going to be, it wasn't what I had expected. We flop between the present via Sara's perspective, and into the past with Sarah (Ellis), it was interesting seeing how the two stories intertwined and connected in the end.

I think this book would have been a lot more interesting with a more solid plot, at some points, I actually forgot about Sarah's (Ellis) death since Sara hides a lot more of her life and what she's done in the past. The killer comes out of the left-field, we don't really uncover the truth until the last few chapters when everything comes to light. Sarah (Ellis) finally reveals who she was afraid of that fateful night, and all of the pieces start to click into place. I really wanted to enjoy this one, but the story was just so vague that I had more questions than what I started with.

I would like to thank HarperCollins Canada and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Are You Sara? is twisty, slick, and dark. Both of the main characters are trying to break away from the familial and societal expectations placed on them. Fantastic psychological thriller debut from Lalli.

This book promised to be a fast paced and captivating thriller but sadly it was not. The main character made so many questionable decisions that I find it hard to root for her after a while. I did love the uniqueness of the story but the plot line just wasn’t established well enough

Sara bumps into Sarah at a bar and they quickly get to know each other. At the end of their time together they each get into their ride share to head home for the night. The next day Sarah turns up dead in front of Sara’s apartment.

Sarah becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Sara and wonders if her past is coming back to haunt her. Did someone really mean to kill her instead.

This book at a lot of promise and the premise was interesting to me and that’s what drew me to read it in the first place. I also love book that deal with the legal profession as I have experience working in it. I did not really expect the book to go in the direction it did and I don’t mean this is a bad way necessarily. I liked how the chapters went from present day to portions of Sarah’s diary entries from the past. I thought the Jason Knox and Sarah story line was fascinating and would make a great second book. I’m undecided if I loved who ended up being the one who killed Sarah and I thought of at least two other people who could have done it. Overall, a solid debut thriller from this author and can’t wait to see what she comes up with next

The book started off great it took a different direction than I thought just reading the synopsis.
It follows Sara, studying law who meets a 18 year old girl at the club she works at, they talk for a bit and each call a ride home, they mistakenly get into the wrong rides and the young girl ends up dead. Sara feels responsible and feels like they killed the wrong Sara and is determined to find out what really happened and if someone if after her.

I really liked this at the beginning and was interested in someone finding out who murdered this young girl Ellis. The story it takes a completely different direction, following Sara and events that happened in the past year and the reason why she thinks someone killed the wrong girl.

After everything that happened with Sara, things from her past, the person we are introduced to and her choices which lead her to where she is now I was greatly disappointed with her decisions at the end. This made me not like everything and rethink all that the character went though. I felt bad for her and what she went through but after her choice all my previous thoughts vanished!

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

The blurb for this novel really drew me in and I found it compelling throughout. The author keeps you guessing all the way through about whether Sarah died because she was mistaken for Sara or if there was someone in her own life who wanted to kill her. There are chapters set in Sarah's past, and sections where Sara looks back on the last couple of years of her life, but these have distinct narrative voices and never become confusing - it helps that Sarah is mostly called by her last name too.

A couple of things puzzled me: why did Sara think she was hiding from the person she feared when all she had done was buy a new phone? She was still living exactly where he had found her the first time. The resolution of that particular strand was satisfying in a dark way, but I didn't understand how the person she feared avoided getting implicated in his associates' crimes.

Recommended.

Two smart, educated women, with the same name and the same appearance, meet at a university bar, leave at the same time and each use the same app to book a ride home. They get into separate rideshares…but only one makes it home alive. When Sara’s rideshare reaches the destination, it’s not the address in the blue-collar neighbourhood Sara requested, but rather the upscale wealthier one on the other side of town. Suddenly, it occurs to her that they must have got into the wrong ride. Which Sara was the real target - Sarah Ellis or Sara Bhaduri?

Lalli’s debut psychological thriller is a twisty novel that delves into the things we are willing to do to get ahead in life. She explores the dangerous ambition of accumulating wealth as she peels back the layers in the lives of two women who are desperate to break away from their circumstances and the expectations placed on them.

Lalli postulates that living the life you want is only a role away. To support her premise, she’s crafted Saraswati (Sara) Bhaduri. The only thing Sara’s ever cared about is getting ahead and pulling her family along with her. She was going to be THE one in her immigrant Indian family to make it; to change her fate. She wanted to be the one who earned a place in society so that her family finally felt like they belonged. She was born into a role and she knew how to play it. She told herself “I will graduate from law school. I will find myself a husband and some job and I will eventually get us out of debt. We will live in a modest, middle-class life only slightly less sad than the one we live now.”

Unfortunately, working at the university dive bar while trying to put herself through law school wasn’t cutting it. She’d maxed out on bursaries, scholarships and grants. She was tired. And then she met suave lawyer, Jason Knox. He employs Sara to fill a position - one that will require her to become somebody she’s not. To play a role she’s not been born into. He sees the potential she has, not the legal education she’s earned, but what she’s capable of doing, and he taps into her potential. When Sara finally realizes what she’s capable of doing, it changes the rest of her life.

“He thought I didn’t have the luxury of saying no. But the truth is, I could have said no and avoided all of this. I simply chose not to.”

“It’s easy to play the role you are born into. When something is expected of you, it's the only part of you other people can see.”

There is no doubt in my mind that Lalli’s career as a legal journalist played a role in the success of this book. I really appreciated the thought-provoking issues she raised. This book will be perfect for book clubs or buddy reads and will have readers questioning what they will sacrifice for the chance to rise above. Are you Sara?

I was gifted this advance copy by S.C. Lalli, HarperCollins Canada, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.