I enjoyed this unique and intriguging book. It held my attention throughout and left me wanting more on each sitting.

Frannie was a great character - endearing and engaging. I thought the plot was really well written and the pacing was great. The story was heartwarming and interesting. The ending made me really emotional.

You Should Have Known grabbed me from the first sentence and didn't let go. I became so enmeshed in the story it felt as though I got into the main character's head and encountered a juxtaposed mash of intelligence, despair, introspection, compassion, revenge and shame. Author Rebecca A. Keller has a special way with words and their arrangement on the page which is sharp, intelligent and clever.

A widow in her early seventies, former nurse and medical student Frannie Greene had a fall which led her family to decide a senior living home was her best option. She met fellow resident Katherine with whom she shared several interests including pie, chatting, "The Young and the Restless" and reading. But after meeting Katherine's overbearing judge husband, she put two and two together and made a horrifying conclusion...she believed it was he who had contributed to the drunk driving death of her precious granddaughter. Frannie and her family had gone through unspeakable grief. Her mind went to that time and In a rash moment she made a morally wrong decision which later wracked her with guilt. She switched medications on the medication cart and instantly realized the gravity of her actions. The next day she found out a person had died and it may have been her fault. Little did she know another resident had been a keen observer. The police became involved and an innocent person's future was at stake. Frannie was beside herself with remorse. She had done something wrong...can she or should she make it right?

The perspectives and ramifications of Frannie's choices are incredibly thought provoking. I also like the setting of the senior's apartment, the choice of an older protagonist and how the past affects the present. A times family is simultaneously torn apart and stuck together. For me it is a powerful read with all sorts of subtleties and nuances. Difficult to put into words but oh, how I loved this book!

Interested in a unique slow-paced novel about family, friendship, moral choices and remorse? Do prioritize You Should Have Known.

My sincere thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this extraordinary novel which I will remember for a long, long time. I absolutely loved it!

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley fir this alc. It was a different and surprisingly good debut. I loved the dynamic an unique settings that made a mystery thriller really complex .

What a great mystery/thriller. I loved the setting of a retirement home, it was definitely creative. Not many books are written from this perspective. I liked that the MC was generally a good character who happened to do a bad thing. It becomes morally complex. Overall great read. Thank you to the author and publishers for the egalley.

Keller presents an interesting scenario of seniors who have emotional history together coming across each other in an assisted living home, but the novel doesn’t quite ring true to me. The protagonist waffles back and forth between being able bodied (and minded) and being feeble and incapable of simple things. I can understand what Keller is trying to say overall, but don’t find the protagonist sympathetic. Even though she sees her own flaws and shows very human conflicting emotions, she isn’t a particularly nice person, although we are supposed to view her as such.
The other characters, Iris, Evan, etc., are not well developed in spite of the great deal of time they appear in the novel, and seem inessential other than to move things forward. There is repetition of phrasing and event that is wearing, and the idea of this as a suspense novel just doesn’t work. Keller has lots of good themes to deal with here, however, and with a slightly different focus, this could have gelled into a good read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After a tumble, retired nurse Frannie's children move her into a senior living community. Once there, she makes friends with Katherine. They quickly bond over books, "The Young and The Restless," and having pie after lunch. One day, Frannie meets Katherine's husband, who she is surprised to recognize as a judge who once presided over a drunk driving case that killed her granddaughter.

This judge felt that the driver, who was injured in the accident and lost the use of both legs, was punished enough. Frannie and her family disagreed. He never felt any guilt or cared at all about the victim or their family.

One evening, just outside of her apartment, Frannie sees the medication cart, and the temptation is far too great. The time for revenge and justice has finally come.

The next morning, someone is dead, and unfortunately for our dear Frannie, someone saw her near the medication cart.

This is a story that will have you question the right and wrong side of morality is. Who was in the wrong? Who was in the right? This is a real thinker.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

You Should Have Know will draw you in slowly and keep you reading to the last page.

Grace is living the dream life living in the apartment she grew up in with her husband and son Henry.

It is a story about relationships and the telltale signs that we often ignore.

When Grace's husband goes missing her world as she knows it falls apart.

I found myself empathetic toward Grace and was eager to find out what happens.

You Should Have Known is well worth the read and its a book I wont soon forget.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an intriguing read.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

4 assisted living stars

This was a unique and compelling premise for a book, although I would not describe it as a taut mystery. We meet retired nurse Frannie Greene as she’s moving into assisted living after one too many falls at home. I loved her insight as the main character, looking back on her life, analyzing the things that she’s done, and what it is like to leave independent living. We also see her adult children as they try to navigate what is best for their mother while she has frustrations with growing older. These are very realistic, flawed characters.

Frannie quickly makes a new friend in Katherine. They share a love of pie, Young and the Restless, and reading.

A few years ago, Frannie lost her granddaughter to a drunk driver and a judge who was too lenient in the past. Imagine Frannie’s surprise when she discovers this judge is at her same new facility and that he’s married to her new friend Katherine. As you say, the plot thickens as Frannie devises her revenge! Is it a crime to think about revenge? What about if you act on it? How do you handle the remorse and guilt? Or can you just chalk it up to justice?

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Frannie and the other residents at Ridgewood Apartments and the people that worked there to care for the residents. This well-written and compelling story was one that I am happy to have discovered.

This was an interesting novel about a basically good woman who has a momentary lapse and commits an act that may have killed someone. An elderly woman moves into an assisted living facility. She befriends a woman and then realizes the woman's husband is the judge who imposed an extremely light sentence on the drunk driver who killed her granddaughter. She has been consumed with anger and outrage at the judge and seizes upon a chance to mess with his medication. I appreciated the morally ambiguity of her action, and the fact that the story is told from the point of view of an elderly character who is realistic, not a stereotype of the "lovable grump" elderly person sometimes portrayed in novels.

According to the author, Rebecca Keller, she wanted to write a MORALLY COMPLICATED story, about a GOOD person, who has succumbed to their worst impulse, and done a BAD thing.

And, she succeeded!

But, it doesn’t really READ like the twisty mystery/thriller that the TITLE and overly revealing SYNOPSIS suggests, even though there is a mystery thrown in.

Let me try to unpack this one in my 400th NetGalley review, so you will know what to expect when YOU pick it up!

First- this is an immediately engaging, thought provoking story that explores so many themes…aging with dignity, the loss of a child, survivor’s guilt, and anger and disillusionment with a legal system that doesn’t always seem just.

The characters feel like people you could meet, and the relationships between family members and friends are both relatable and believable.

Widow Francine Greene, a former Nurse has taken a tumble, and her grown children, Charlie and Iris, persuade her to move to the Ridgewood Apartments, a senior living community.

She immediately hits it off with Katherine, a woman she discovers shares her interest in books, eating pie after lunch, and watching their shared, secret guilty pleasure-“The Young and the Restless”. Katherine is the first new friend that Fran has made in years, and it has made the the transition to Ridgewood, so much easier.

What Fran doesn’t realize, until she joins Katherine and her husband, Nathanial for dinner one night, is that that he was the judge who presided over the case against the drunk driver, who took her granddaughter’s life.

The judge who let the driver off with only “house arrest” because he had lost mobility in both legs in the accident, so he felt this punishment was “ADEQUATE”.

He either has no idea or doesn’t care, about the ripple effects of his verdict on the Victims family, who didn’t find his ruling ADEQUATE at all.

So when Fran has access to the unobserved “medication cart” outside her apartment door, her desire for revenge combined with her medical expertise, is more of a temptation than she can resist. She tampers with the pills that will be delivered to the good Judge. 💊

The next morning, someone is dead, and another resident who had observed her by the cart, wants answers.

Was she responsible?

Or was it all just an unfortunate coincidence?

It was so refreshing to read a story that was so FRESH and ORIGINAL. This may be a mystery that must be solved in a retirement community but it’s nothing like the others which have been recently published, although it should satisfy readers who enjoyed those as well.

I enjoyed Fran’s sense of humor (which I share) and I rooted for her to find the answers she would need to absolve her of the GUILT she was now feeling.

I hope that this book finds its way to the RIGHT AUDIENCE, as it’s a book that is definitely entertaining if you pick it up with the correct expectations of what you will be reading!

If that sounds like that could be you, pick it up on AVAILABLE APRIL 4, 2023!

Thank You to Crooked Lane books for the gifted copy provided through NetGalley! It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

What a great story about a retired nurse called Frannie who moves into a retirement village and is dismayed to see one of the residents is a judge who was lenient with the person responsible for her granddaughters death.
Frannie decides to get revenge but things don't go to plan and you really feel for Frannie trying to get justice for her daughter.
Would highly recommend and thanks to NetGalley & Crooked Lane Books for a advanced copy.
Look forward to reading more books from Rebecca A Keller.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This book wasn't bad by any stretch, it just wasn't memorable. I read it, then forgot I read it and went to read it again. It just didn't stick in my brain. From what I remember, it was a decent read, but I probably wouldn't read it again.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book was different, and unlike anything I had read before. I did feel like it wasn’t really a thriller/ mystery style book. In saying that I’m not sure where it would fit. It was interesting and I did feel the need to see how it played out!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Crooked Lane Books and #NetGalley. Thank you to the publishers, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Quick read, I enjoyed the characters immensely.

4.5/5 Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting tale about a 70-something woman (Frannie) who grudgingly moves into a retirement residence at the request of her children. Frannie had a fall and has a few minor memory issues.

It seems to me that the author should have placed Frannie’s age a little higher, perhaps in her mid-80s, for the issues shown, but that is my opinion. Perhaps she wanted to keep this character open for subsequent stories in a series. I’d also like to state that it wouldn’t be easy to interfere with other resident’s medications in a retirement home, but that is license taken in order for the story to move along.

The story starts with Frannie moving into the home and slowly making a good friend only to realize that this new friend is married to the judge that indirectly caused her granddaughter’s death. He is her one hate in the world. Her thoughts about him and her attraction to being with her new friend are delved into. Frannie is very conflicted and being an ex-nurse, she sees an opportunity for a type of revenge when the medication cart is left unattended. Then there’s a death and Frannie suffers through feelings of guilt. What’s worse, Frannie understands that an innocent person is being blamed. Frannie agonizes over her morals, values, and sense of justice and finally decides that she has to make everything right. She tries to speak out, but her confession isn’t accepted and Frannie comes to realize that her misdeed actually amounted to nothing; making the mystery of the death even more intriguing.

A unique and creative plot, with a wonderfully, likeable main character. It is refreshing to read a book from a senior’s perspective; people who are often dismissed as unimportant. I would definitely recommend this book.

Frannie is a retired nurse in her 70's and now a widow. Her children, Iris and Charlie, feel it's best that she lives in an assisted living apartment now that she had a falling accident. Frannie is not happy about it, but does go. She meets a nice lady at the library named Katherine and they form a friendship. But then she realizes Katherine's husband was the judge in her grandaughter's case that let a man get off easy. This left her daughter, Iris, without a daughter and her entire family in a lot of pain. When someone dies at the apartments, Frannie knows she tampered with the medications and someone she likes gets blamed for it. Does Frannie confess to what she did? Or was someone else really responsible?

I was surprised to find out that this was a debut novel for Rebecca A. Keller. I was blown away by this book and the author's brilliant writing. She had me glued to the pages. My sweet neighbor recently went to live in an assisted living facility, so for me this book really hit home. It was a story filled with sadness and hope. I highly recommend YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN to those who enjoy a good mystery!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be shared on my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

Retired nurse Frannie has a bad fall and ends up in the hospital. When is released from the hospital her grown kids convinced her to sell her condo and move into an assisted-living facility. While in the assisted living residence Frannie see someone from her past. This person reminds her of a personal tragedy that her and her family have been through.

Going into this book I thought it was a mystery/thriller. It was not it was more fiction with some suspense. Overall I really enjoyed the book and it was a light read for me. I would recommend this book to friends.

Thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks

Frannie, a retired nurse moved into a retirement home as she advances in age. She begins to make friends with the other residents. She eventually discovers that one resident that she has become quite friendly with, Katherine, is married to Nathaniel, a judge that was involved with her granddaughter’s death. When presiding over the case involving her granddaughter, Nathaniel gave the drunk driver that hit and killed her granddaughter, a light sentence of probation. Frannie makes a split second decision to tamper with the medicine cart and a resident ends up dead. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.