Lexi can't believe her daughter Quinn has sneaked off to Pinecrest- the location of the ill fated movie set that changed Lexi's life. And now sh'e's got to go get her, despite and because of the hurricane that's heading directly at the estate. Yeah this one has all the elements - there' s a dual time line, there's horror, there's a killer weather event, there's family and so on. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a fast paced and entertaining read that will have you turning the pages.

I love a good horror movie and I love the trend of having a book and a horror movie overlap. In this one Lexi was one the star of Breathless, a blockbuster horror movie. As her father in law is set to make a sequel, the previous movie seems to be playing out.

We have a dangerous location, the Florida Keys during a hurricane. An overlap of the same players, the father in law of Lexi’s deceased husband is producing the movie and her daughter may be an actor in the movie along with another original star and of course Lexi.

We live through Lexi’s eyes in the past during the filming of Breathless and today during the hurricane and aftermath. The author does a good job of eerily tying the two together. I was guessing as to what was really happening and what was real and what was just imagined.

I think horror movie lovers will fall in love with this one and it might even make a reader or two want to discover those old horror movies.

I went back and forth from the print to the audio and am not sure which one had me more on the edge of my seat. You can’t go wrong with either one.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.75/5 stars

This is my first book by Jacobs, and it was definitely a fun one! Perfect for fans of Riley Sager and horror movies/slashers!

👍🏻What I Liked:
-Horror movie references
-Dual timelines
-Haunting atmospheric, isolated setting
-The eerie, creepy setting and tone

👎🏻What I Disliked:
-Lack of character development. I found it really hard to like any of the characters or to get invested in them.
-Lack of suspense


Overall, this was a quick & fun read-perfect for spooky season!

Just in time for Halloween - R. J. Jacob’s latest novel hits all the horror check boxes.

Isolated location? Check.
Local lore and a serial killer in the loose? Check.
Skeleton cast, with unexpected visitors and twisting revelations? Check.
Horror movie references and insight into the film process? Check.

If you’re a lover of horror movies or thrillers with twists and turns, time hops, and red herrings this story is for you.

Set in the Florida Keys after a devastating hurricane, Lexi must go and rescue her daughter who’s at the infamous Pinecrest Estate - one Lexi has intimate knowledge of as her father in law owns it, she starred in a horror movie in it, and her husband mysteriously disappeared there. Over the course of 24 hours Lexi lives a real life horror nightmare - and the real question is, truly, will she make it out alive?

This book has it all - it’s a gripping story, that unfolds at a knee breaking pace while also hopping back in time. Every glimpse into the past informs the readers of a few key details but leaves more questions in their wake, and by the end you’ll be flying through the chapters as they unfold. R. J. Jacob’s storytelling is an art form - the plot is intricately woven with the nuances of a good horror film and is masterfully written. A must read this Halloween season!

What a fun thriller for fans of horror movies! I hadn't heard of this book until very recently, and knew that i wanted to read it as soon as possible. Once I dove in, it was hard to put it down. It's fast paced, it has a good alternating timeline between the modern day when Lexi is trapped on a hurricane ravaged Florida Key with her daughter and her former director/father in law, and the past when Lexi is actually filming the movie that has a seemingly cursed set. It allows for the pieces to come together in a deliberate way while still keeping at a clipped pace. I was fairly invested in what was happening in the modern day and who (or what?) was lurking in the shadows, but was VERY interested in the past timeline as Lexi goes from bit part extra to a named character as strange things happen on the set. The thing that I liked the most were all the fun meta references to slasher films , and how the tropes and beats come into play in this thriller mystery. It's clear that Jacobs loves horror movies, and has a fun time incorporating moments from classics into his story. It never comes off as gimmicky or hokey and always feels earnest.

I enjoyed ALWAYS THE FIRST TO DIE as a fan of both thriller novels and slasher films. We're close to the start of the Halloween season (arguably we are in it), and it's a good title to put on the spooky reads pile!

This was an interesting take on a "horror movie" thriller that had a unique setting and set-up, but the plotting seemed awkward at times and the finale felt rushed.

"What happens when your life begins to resemble a script?"

The premise of Always the First to Die sounded so fun! A group of people reunite to film a sequel to a slasher film twenty years after the original released. When real life starts resembling the plot a little too closely, things get... creepy!

This one sadly didn't work for me as much as I hoped it would. The writing style wasn't my favorite and the alternating timeline felt a little disjointed at times. Full disclosure: I think some minor grammatical errors added to the disconnect and I'm sure those will have been fixed in time for the finished copies!

This is a quick read with lots of mystery. The setting was perfectly sinister and the creative references to horror movies will entertain any film buff. Overall, a fun read that is perfect for a chilly fall weekend!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book; all opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me to be an early reader.

When I saw the cover of this book, I was drawn in. Then I read the blurb and I was sold. I don't love watching horror movies, but I do love books about them.

The book gripped me from the start with a first person POV of someone watching over Rick Plummer, horror film director, in the dark at night while he slept.

I loved the dual timeline, as well as the setting of an island cut off from everything during a hurricane for one of the storylines.

Lexi grew up in the area. Was in a Rick Plummer film when young. Married Cam, his son, has a daugther. Cam "went missing" a year ago and Lexi has cut herself off from Rick and the island and is trying to move on with life. Circumstances cause her to reluctantly return to the island, in the midst of a hurricane, and to Pinecrest, Rick's home and set of the movie she was in and currently a sequel. Pinecrest was also rumored to have been haunted and odd things happened during the original movie.

This story was well done and the charcters were well developed. You feel the suspense and the tension. You feel the strange family dynamics - first with Rick and his son in the earlier timeline, and between Rick, Lexi and Quinn later on. And we learn that Rick enjoyed the element of surprise and didn't always want his actors to know when things would happen. So when crazy things are going down post-hurricane, it's tense and you wonder - is it real? Or is it something Rick has set up? It will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

As a teen, Lexi was cast in the now-iconic horror movie Breathless filmed in the Florida Keys at Pinecrest Estate. It’s a summer she’ll never forget: falling in love with the son of the legendary movie director and learning the “curse” of Pinecrest may actually be real when cast and crew members begin to abruptly quit due to strange occurrences and then someone dies on set.
Years later, Lexi’s struggling with her husband’s death when she finds herself racing back to the Keys in the wake of a hurricane to find her daughter who is visiting her grandfather at Pinecrest. The island is without cell service or power and police presence is scarce. Now Lexi’s life will turn into a real life horror movie as she reckons with her past and someone who wants the director and cast of Breathless dead.
While the ending was a bit of a stretch for me, I loved that this was an homage to slasher films!
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Always the First to Die is scheduled for release on September 13, 2022.

While Always the First to Die definitely gave me Scream 3 and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer vibes, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a slasher. The setting of the story — a haunted mansion owned by a famous horror film director in the middle of a hurricane — was super creepy and really built up the suspense. Additionally, all the references to old school horror films was a nice touch. The story is told in alternate timelines, and the chapters from the late 90s just didn’t work for me as they didn’t really add anything to the plot. I found all the characters to be ordinary and enjoyable, except the teenage daughter. Quinn is 17 years old and the type of bratty and obtuse character I hate reading about. Finally, while I liked the ending of the story, I think the plot twist was predictable and there were a few loose ends that didn’t get fully resolved. Overall, this was a fun way to kick of my spooky season reading list.

There is so much about this book that I throughly enjoyed. The mystery had me from the get go, the incredible set pieces really set the mood and kept me in the mood for this kind of a read and the setting was fantastic.

I’ve been a film nerd forever and thought the references were really well done, just enough to delight me but not going on and on. Also, the references are perfect for those who may not be familiar with the movies, but would like to be.

Would definitely recommend this book, in fact, I already have.

Once upon a time, Lexi was a horror movie starlet, plucked from obscurity to play Casey the Party Girl, the first victim of the serial killer in cult horror director Rick Plummer’s smash hit film Breathless. As a teenager growing up on the Florida Keys, she’s long wanted to escape to the wider world. When a production crew filming on her island contacts her high school’s drama club asking for teenage extras, she leaps at the opportunity.

Her bit role in the movie shot at Rick’s storied Pinecrest Estate unexpectedly turns into a major part. Instead of pursuing this promise of movie stardom though, Lexi follows her heart. Cam Plummer, Rick’s son, is second assistant director but dreams of becoming a novelist far removed from his dad’s Hollywood world. After she and Cam fall in love, Lexi turns her back on acting, and not just because of her newfound romantic bliss. The end of filming was marred by a spectacular accident that claimed the life of one of the movie’s stars, capping a production plagued by strange accidents and disturbing incidents. Ghoulishly, Rick leveraged the publicity to catapult the movie into infamy, serving to estrange himself further from Cam and Lexi as they built their lives and, later, welcomed their daughter Quinn.

Now Quinn is the same age Lexi was when she starred in Breathless, and wants the same shot her mother had. While Lexi still lives in Florida, she hasn’t been back to Pinecrest in years, and forbids Quinn from traveling the three hours down to join Rick as he films the sequel. But Quinn has an ulterior motive for going that has its basis in Cam’s unexpected death in a boating accident there almost two years prior. When a frantic Lexi arrives at Pinecrest in pursuit of her wayward child, the teenager demands that they go collect her father’s personal effects:

QUOTE
“Jesus Christ, mom. I’ll go with you if you’re so scared.”

I turn on my heel. “Hey!”

Quinn clenches her jaw. I can tell she knows she’s gone too far.

I have to remember I’m talking to a teenager, a human with no developmental concept of risk. She’ll find the slimmest of margins to get to what she wants; I admire the determination while it scares me to death. She’s been talking about retrieving Cam’s typewriter since the week he passed. I force myself to breathe. What are the odds that whoever attacked Marla is still hiding in the estate now? Slim, but there’s no way I want her setting foot inside.
END QUOTE

You see, this latest iteration of filming is proving to be just as disaster-prone as the first was. Marla Moretti, the lead in the original movie, is unhappy with her part in the sequel, threatening loudly and often to shut the whole thing down. When Lexi encounters the actress while driving in to Pinecrest, she learns that Marla was attacked. Worse, Marla claims that Rick is the person trying to kill her. Lexi isn’t a hundred percent confident in Marla’s account, but she’s wary enough of the presence of some malevolent force to want to protect her daughter from any harm, whether it be from Rick, an unknown assailant or the hurricane devastating the Keys.

But when Quinn finally shows Lexi what she’s found over the course of her clandestine investigations, Lexi realizes that Quinn may be right, and that foul play has been at work not only on the set of Rick’s movies but also in Cam’s disappearance. With the hurricane stranding them on the island, Lexi must summon all the experience at her disposal in order to keep both herself and her daughter safe, as someone with murderous intentions hones in on them in the aftermath of the storm.

In this she’s helped by her acting experience and by her late husband’s extensive field of expertise. Before he died, Cam was working on a survival guide inspired by horror movies, as he explained to his wife:

QUOTE
[“]This will be more like how to survive by mastering the genre’s themes. Did you know horror is the only genre named for the feeling it aims to elicit,” he says.

“I… had never thought of that.”

“It’s true. And there’s something archetypal about it. Kids can describe the villains in scary movies they’ve never seen. The monsters become urban legends, probably because we’re all afraid of the same stuff.”
END QUOTE

Cam’s voice is her steadfast interior guide as disaster strikes and the body count rises. But what will Lexi do when it seems that her one true love has betrayed her?

Always The First To Die masterfully uses horror tropes and cinephile insights to present its fast-paced tale of suspense in the Florida Keys, as Lexi must force a reckoning between past and present in order to secure a future for her beloved daughter. There are plot twists aplenty as this novel ricochets from set piece to set piece. It’s an homage to slasher films with just the right amount of the supernatural mixed in, that also sensitively explores family bonds. Fans of scary movies will surely enjoy this tribute to the genre.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

Who knew being a extra in a horror film could cause you to have the main role in real life! This book had me on a movie set I absolutely loved every bit of it . The twist and turns throughout the book had me with my jaw to the floor. In a isolated island in Florida we have Lexi going back to a place in her past to try and bring her daughter back after she snuck off to see her grandfather , a famous horror movie director which Lexi herself starred in. The past comes back and it’s come back with a vengeance.

Lexi will never return to the Florida Keys. When her daughter sneaks there to visit her grandfather, who is a famous horror film director, she’s forced to go after her. As a hurricane hits, they become stranded on an island and someone is after them.

I don’t usually post DNF books but I really liked the picture my friend took for me and I think other will enjoy the book. I just could not get into it! I read about 20% and put it down. I didn’t get to the good, exciting parts before I put it down. I think If you like slasher, horror movies and can get through the background info in the beginning, you may enjoy this one. It just wasn’t for me.

Always the First to Die comes out 9/13

Fast-paced, immersive thrill ride that leveraged the aftermath of a hurricane and strained familial dynamics to craft a fantastic, unexpected slasher in an era when Final Girl stories are all the rage. Lexi's relationship with her daughter, her estranger father-in-law, and even her ex-husband all contribute to making this story one worth reading.

Lexi is a former actress who got her claim to fame by getting killed in a horror movie filmed at the Pinecrest Estate near her hometown in Florida. The movie was directed by her now father-in-law, Rick. She hasn't really been back since and a lot has changed since then. Her husband went missing a year ago at the Pinecrest and is presumed dead. Now Lexi is doing her best to raise their teenage daughter, Quinn, on her own.

Lexi finds out Quinn lied to her and went down to visit her grandfather and help him with his next film. Rick always loved scaring everyone and has always hyped up the "curse" that is said to be haunting the Pinecrest Estate. A hurricane is on the way and Lexi fears something terrible is about to happen. Once she gets down there, much of the area is desolate from the storm and people from the past are popping up. Lexi isn't sure who she can trust. Everything is starting to feel eerily like something in a horror movie. She just wants to get her daughter out of there. Will she be able to make it out of this situation alive?

I really enjoyed this book! There were twists and turns and many of the classic horror film vibes. The writing was great and at one point I could almost feel like I was blindly crawling around in this creepy mansion in the dark. So spooky!

Thank you to R.J. Jacobs, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange of my honest review.

Always The First To Die had me hooked. Told in dual time lines, this thriller takes place on an isolated island in Florida during a category four hurricane. Lexi was a member of the cast of a horror movie, Breathless, when she was a teenager. There she met her husband, the son of the famed horror director. Things go wrong, and she vows to never go back to Pinecrest Estate. Fast forward to the present and circumstances bring her back to this place, and the hurricane strands her there. People begin dying and it continues from there. This book is very atmospheric and I love the authors take on the Final Girl character. If you love old horror movies, this novel will be an extra treat as there are references to the old classics peppered throughout. I enjoyed the writing style and the dual timelines kept me turning pages and kept the pacing fast and intriguing. The characters were interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed the domestic/family drama aspect. Family secrets, secluded location, ominous atmosphere - I would definitely recommend this novel.

Lexi does not want to return to the Pinecrest Estate in the Florida Keys, especially after her husband vanished when staying there a year ago. When her daughter Quinn calls her in a panic after sneaking off to visit her grandfather, a famous horror movie director who owns and lives on the Pinecrest estate, she has no choice but to go. A storm has just ravished the island they are on and all the power is knocked out. Lexi dreads what she will find and has flashbacks of 20 years ago when she was an extra on a horror movie filmed at the Pinecrest Estate and all of the tragedy and weird occurrences that happened during filming. What’s even stranger is after arriving on the island after the storm, events start unfolding just like in the horror movie. Will Lexi be able to find Quinn and escape the island or will she end up like she did in the movie, dead?

This book drew me in with such an original plot. I love the “final girl, horror” genre of books and this one was fantastic. This book switches from the past, when Lexi was an extra on the horror film at Pinecrest Estate and the present which happens to be Halloween. The back and forth which can be confusing was done seamlessly. The way the book all came together at the end was done very well and was not what I expected at all.