Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with an E-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

★★★★/4

Alex Kenna’s debut novel centers around Kate Myles, a promising Los Angeles police detective, until an accident and opioid addiction blew up her family and destroyed her career. While she stuggles to rebuild her life, she tries her hand at private detective work.
When renowned artist Margot Starling's found dead in her apartment, the cause of death was assumed to be suicide. With a troubled past and a closetful of secrets, it looked like it was a chronicle of a death foretold. But his father differs, so, he hires Kate to investigate into her daughter's strange demise.

I was on the edge of my sit while reading this most of the time. Kennas’s writing is accessible and fast-paced, this book despicts a very poignant reflection on what it means to be — an artist and suffer for your art. Specially how the toxic relationships we find along the way shapes us and changes us; sometimes into shapes that we didn't think we were possible.
We get to see our protagonists, both Kate and Margot, navigate through relationships with different men in their lives — boyfriends, ex-husband, coworkers — and these come with their own set of power dynamics. As a character, each of them are individually different: Kate road to recovering through an opiod addiction and learning to deal with cronical pain, while on the other hand Margot a fairly confident woman in her own morality, in the supremacy of it, even despite her position within a flawed art world that she has chosen to opt in to.

One of the aspects of What Meets the Eye that struck me most was our protagonist’s relationship with her past issues and how she deals with them in order to get her case together and find out what happened to Margot. Instead of giving up, she goes ahead and passes all the tests to prove herself, and dismantle an organization that follows a dirty trail that leads straight into the heart of the city's deadly underworld.
The depiction of the characters felt so raw and real, and Kenna did an amazing job of capturing the complexity of the different dynamics between the two female protagonists.

The only thing I wished was different was to only have two point of views: Kate's and Margot's. In between her pov's, we get other characters, that are relevant to the story but that I kinda felt unnecessary. We could as well meet the same information from our two protagonists. But overall, I enjoyed reading this story so much, what Kenna delivers is so much more nuanced and depth that I was expecting, which I loved.

What Meets the Eye by Alex Kenna is a smartly crafted thriller mystery set in the art world with an interesting set of morally grey and complex cast of characters. An intriguing look at the art world itself, identity, betrayal and retribution. I was amazed by how Kenna designed each of the characters they felt fleshed out, making them even the most unlikable ones.

I highly recommend this pulse-pounding story filled of secrets, retribution within the art and forgery world, to anyone who wants to read an intense thriller filled with twists and turns and such well crafted characters that made the story unique in its genre.

What Meets the Eye by Alex Kenna comes out December 6th 2022!

This was good! I liked the pacing, it was engaging and I found myself turning the pages quickly enough -- I did pause a bit in the middle because it slowed down very slightly, but after trudging a bit, it picked back up.

I love mysteries and thrillers, but I almost wish this had been a bit more... twisty for me? It left me wanting a bit more, unfortunately. That isn't to say it was awful or anything, just felt like *more* could've been done to up the stakes a bit, or make this feel a little bit more tense and suspenseful. As it is, it's a bit more tame in comparison to a lot of other things in the genre that I've read - although that may appeal to people who aren't super into the same kinds of twisty thrills as I am!!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free ARC via NetGalley.

What Meets the Eye by Alex Kenna is a stunning debut novel.

Reading Kate's story was very interesting and honestly I couldn't have enjoyed it any more than I already did!

This novel was immediately engaging, a page-turner even.
Fast-paced, logical, with relatable characters, offering excellent insight and also a pretty great story.
The plot was perfectly thought out and executed throughout the book, with surprises I didn’t even expect.
Her writing is just brilliant, and it’s authors like her that make me LOVE this genre.
The writing is solid and pacey. This book was almost a one-nighter for me.
What Meets the Eye hooked me from the first chapter and then it was on, I couldn't stop.
I love a good mystery filled with believable twist and this book delivered perfectly.

Alex Kenna takes you on a wild ride that you want to stay on until the very end.
I enjoyed her writing style and can't wait to see more of her work in the future.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Crooked Lane Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

Margot Starling was a super-successful artist, with a reputation for being a difficult person and very financially wealthy. However, Margot's story takes a tragic turn when she is found in her apartment hanging in an alleged suicide.
And I say alleged because her parents don’t believe that was happen and therefore decide to hire P.I. Kate Myles, an ex-cop from Los Angeles to investigate the details of the event and give a more accurate explanation.
Myles has her own story to tell, while she was a police officer, she was involved in a terrible accident that affected her spine, which led to a medical retirement. Then she became a painkillers addict, her marriage went down the drain and she managed to lose custody of her little daughter.
Searching for the truth of the Starling case will lead Myles to look beyond the appearances of many people, including her former co-workers.
Mystery in every chapter of this first book by Alex Kenna is fully present and fascinating. I don't think there is ever a moment when the reader gets bored and stops concocting a thousand theories.
Two factors prevent me from rating it with 5 stars, the use of the word now when narrating in the past tense doesn’t make sense. Also, the use of several narrators, I think this story should have been told only by Kate and Margot.
However, I will continue to keep an eye out for upcoming Ms. Kenna releases.

What Meets the Eye
A Novel
by Alex Kenna

I was very pleased that This book was provided to me via Kindle, Crooked Lane Books, and #NetGalley. Thanks to all.
From debut author Alex Kenna comes a pulse-pounding tapestry of secrets, retribution, and greed. Alex Kenna writes as though he has been doing it a very long time. The story was unusually paced just right... to keep the story very true and full of suspense. I say, MORE!! Loved it, kudos to a wonderful writer.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Crooked Lane Books and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Loved this one, I hope it turns into a series. A wonderful premise for a story, a complex MC, well written and developed story. Characters I wanted to read and know more about.