This is one dark and twisted book. Sissy, our main character, is a triplet, and her two sisters are serial killers. Now they are insisting Sissy join them, find her own man to love her who she can kill. The only problem is Sissy finds herself falling in love.



This was such a tense book. The way the story is set up makes you feel like you’re racing along to a terrifying finish line. I was very impressed with how the author played with my expectations to keep me engaged, especially with the ending. I would recommend this book.

This was an unputdownable thriller read for me. It follows three triplets as they are now serial killers who make men fall in love with them and then kill them. I feel with most thriller reads the less you know going in, the better. But I will tell you to buckle up for this wild ride full, with manipulation at it finest.

Thank you to the publishers at Berkley and Netgalley for this e-ARC of How I’ll Kill You!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
👯‍♀️ are a triplet
🏜️ live in Arizona
🤫 have a lot of secrets
🩸 would do anything for family

• 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄

When Jade arrives in Arizona, she doesn’t realize the price she’ll pay for her first kill.

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

Jade is a triplet, one of three girls who was abandoned as an infant. Left to grow up in foster care without her sisters, the three women find one another again in adulthood and form a pact to kill their lovers and help one another clean up the messes. Now it’s Jade’s turn, and she’s set her sights on a man named Edison, but when things start feeling too real, her sister’s step in and get involved, changing the course of everything.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was such an amazing read. I loved Jade’s character so much and I was really rooting for her the entire book. I wanted to see one outcome only and I was thrilled to see it happen! Even though some of the chapters are quite long, the author does such a great job of pulling you into the story that they feel shorter. I almost felt that I was with Jade as she explored this small desert town. I would love to see this made into a movie or mini series!

How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano is an extremely interesting & one of its’ kind wild ride of a mystery book. This novel revolves around identical triplets that just so happen to have a habit of offing their boyfriends. But what happens when the one triplet infamous for being responsible for cleanup sets her eyes upon her own mark?!

Wow is the best word I can come up with to describe this book. This is unlike anything else I’ve read. My eyebrows rose from the very first page & I don’t think they or I relaxed until it was over. I want to keep this review vague because I think this is the type of book that is best enjoyed with as little information known possible.

I think the author did an incredible job of creating an intriguing & thrilling story that will captivate one from the beginning. Even though they were identical triplets, they were very much their own well-developed people with distinct personalities.

If anyone is looking for a captivating & intriguing reMARKable of a thriller, then I would recommend How I’ll Kill You!




Massive thanks to NetGalley & Berkley Publishing for the free book, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.


Trigger Warnings: Thos book mentions &/or contains murder, gore, violence & kidnapping of a child.

Wow! This book was a wild ride! Having triplet sisters fall in love with someone only to kill him six months later was a unique and genius way to tell a serial killer story. Sissy is the youngest of the triplets and it’s finally time for her to find a mark. She meets Edison in Arizona and decides he’ll be her first. The problem is that she actually starts to fall in love with him and begins having doubts about what her and her sisters have been doing.

It’s hard to say too much about this book without giving anything away. I found it super impressive that this was Ren DeStefano’s debut novel. She obviously did her research and came up with such an original way to write a story like this. My husband listened with me, and said, “how does the author know so many intricate details about cleaning up a murder?”. Honestly, I was wondering that too.

I listened all to the audiobook while reading my eARC. I thought narrator, Karissa Vacker was perfect for this book. She has a tendency to whisper a lot when she narrates, but it worked really well for this story.

It was so interesting getting into the mind of a serial killer having doubts. I’m really excited to see what DeStefano comes up with next.

Thank you Berkley Publishing, PRH Audio, and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

Identical triplets abandoned at a rest stop as infants, Sissy, Iris, and Moody were separated and shifted among foster houses and group homes the one constant was each other.

Now in their twenties, they have perfected a macabre bonding ritual: target a man, make him fall in love, then kill him. Sissy’s expertise in crime scene clean up has kept them undetected, but she hasn’t killed anyone herself, and now it’s her turn.

They roll into a small Arizona town and when Sissy spots Edison at a local diner, she immediately knows he’s the one. After they officially meet, she carefully orchestrates their relationship so that Edison falls in love with her. However, she encounters a problem: she falls for him, too. Her sisters prod her to close the deal while she tries to hide her feelings until she is forced to betray someone she loves.

I struggled with the first half of the book which was mostly Sissy’s thoughts—primarily murderous fantasies. While these do contribute to her characterization, I personally didn’t enjoy them. I may be getting more sensitive! The unapologetic and lethal control will in fact appeal to some readers.

About midway, the book shifts from a focus on Sissy’s thoughts to external action and the surprises and revelations hit one after another. I couldn’t read fast enough to find out what happened! The dynamics among the triplets was very fascinating and complex, as was Sissy’s arc. Readers who like books with villainous female protagonists should check this out!

I couldn’t put How I’ll Kill You by Ren DeStefano down, and I’m so grateful to @berkleypub for an advanced e-copy.

I’m not sure how much to say about this one. We’ve got serial killer triplets abandoned at birth who—in a twisted show of loyalty to each other—have decided to pick marks, fall in love, and then murder them. They take turns, and this will be sister Sissy’s first kill. She picks Edison, a man she scopes out in a diner who feels like the right man, then she constructs a version of herself she thinks he will fall in love with.

Have I said too much? I don’t know. But I’ll end the synopsis bit there and just say that this one read more like a character piece than a thriller, which is not to say I wasn’t thrilled. It was like watching Dexter without the code or, frankly, reason for the kills. I never quite understood the set up. I kept waiting for it to click, for me to get why anyone would want to do this, and I honestly never did. Maybe you have to be a larger percent psychopath than I am? But I was completely riveted throughout the book and had to know how it was going to end.

The book explores themes of family in a way that was fascinating and there was so much to dig into around the way family can betray you and control you and also be the only people who really get you. And then there was the concept of love. What makes it real? How easy is it to manipulate someone into believing you’re the person they want? And what does it mean when you get that wrong?

The audio narrator was fabulous and completely immersed me in the story, pulling me into the mounting dread and excitement around the upcoming kill. I listened to it in a day because I needed to know what was going to happen.

I would recommend this one to fans of My Lovely Wife by Samanatha Downing, and probably Dexter, although it had a really different feel for me, and anyone looking for a super unique serial killer story with a strange amount of romance.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Shelf Awareness, Berkley, and Ren DeStefano for an ARC of this book!**

Can murder REALLY run in the family?

Sissy is about to discover whether or not she has what it takes to TRULY run with her sisters. As the third in command (so to speak), up until now her role in the trio has been clean-up artist after her murderous sisters Moody and Iris take out their lovers, moving from town to town and leaving no evidence behind. The group arrives in Arizona, and now it's finally Sissy's turn to step up to the plate and claim her first kill. She finds her mark in Edison, a handsome church goer who is still grieving the loss of his wife...but has an opening in his heart perfect for Sissy...or as he knows her, Jade.

As her perfectly curated romance blossoms, Sissy is surprised when images of exactly HOW she'll murder Edison, and WHERE she'll bury his body are replaced with dreamy romantic fantasies about running away together and leaving her sisters to their own deadly devices. But with this 'blood debt' owed and so many secrets between the three of them, can Sissy abandon 'Jade' AND the sisters who have always had her back to show Edison her TRUE self? Or will the mere threat of betrayal cause Sissy's sisters to take 'Jade' out...for good?

This book has been marketed as an 'up all night thriller', so I'd put it aside hoping for the sort of deliciously devilish narrator found in some of my favorite serial killer thrillers (You, My Lovely Wife) and a page-a-minute read that would hook me from the beginning.and leave me exhilarated.

Well...this book is simply not that.

In fact, it's a classic case of an instance where the author tried to write three different books and cram them into one. This is part suspense (I wouldn't call it a thriller), part family drama, and a HEAVY dose of romance...so much so that at times I felt like I was entirely reading a romance novel. A little bizarre for a book that is supposedly a serial killer story.

The other half of this problem is that I had such a hard time buying the characters' motivations, especially Sissy herself. I couldn't understand WHY she wouldn't have just abandoned ship after falling for Edison. Being a witness to ALL of her sisters' murders, but not having taken part in them (and based on details in the book, it would be iffy to even consider her an accessory after the thorough cleanups involved) would have given her more than enough leverage to leave that life behind and put them in jail, if she really felt like it. And yet she feels she owes them somehow? The "backstory" provided was muddled at best, and I had a hard time buying the characters based on the little bit of description they received. This is an instance where having multiple narrators COULD have significantly bettered the narrative, but we are stuck with Sissy's perspective from page one till the bitter (and I MEAN bitter) end.

DeStefano also had the option to go down the humorous route and I was at least hoping if this book wouldn't be thrilling, that there would be traces of this in the overall tone, but no such luck. This book is not dark enough to be scary, and not light enough to be satirical, and I feel this is where it suffered the most. There is also just enough overly scientific description of just how you hack up a body and clean up the parts, etc. etc. to demonstrate that DeStefano did her research, but instead of this detail feeling eerie, I felt like I was reading a dry and dusty forensic pathology textbook.

In every tug of war, there is push and pull until one side wins. And in this book, rather than romance or suspense "winning" the day...I think the rope just snapped.

3 stars

How I'll Kill You by Ren Destefano @laurendestefanoauthor

Thank you to @berkleypub for my #gifted copy.

How I’ll Kill You is wild and down right addictive! Identical triplets Sissy, Moody, & Iris take you along as they find lovers and work a plan how they will kill them. It’s crazy to be in Sissy’s head as her sisters demand she go for her first and how things don’t always go to plan. I enjoyed the mix of romance and Psychological thriller with all the entanglements of emotions good and horrible. The triplets were so well developed each with such strong personalities and skills, you felt like you knew them. The last half of the book is none stop action as it all twists and turns together

This was such a perfect beach read! I loved this fast paced page turner from start to finish, and was so intrigued by the premise of sisters who make it their mission to kill off their boyfriends.

The pacing was great and I found myself a fan of these likeable sisters once I found out their backstory and motives.

*many thanks to Berkley for the gifted copy for review

Identical triplets live a very unconventional life. They find a mark, wait until their mark falls for them, and then kill them. There is no doubt that the story just might make you think twice because that was certainly the case with me.

They are Sissy, Moody and Iris. These are not their birth names, but they are what they go by when they meet the boyfriends that they work hard to make fall in love with them. The problem is, Sissy starts to deter from the plan. Her mark is Edison, a widower that she gets just a little bit too close to. They have a time limit with their mark and the closer Sissy gets to Edison, the more than lines get blurred for her.

The fact that they are identical plays into how the story develops. Although the story is unusual, including things such as violence and murder as well as the bonds of sisterhood and love, and painful pasts play into what happens in this surprisingly thrilling, although a bit disturbing story.

Ren DeStefano presents this remarkable debut novel with aplomb. This book definitely made me think and a sad as it was in some parts, it manage to end on a note of hope.

Many thanks to Berkley Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

How I'll Kill You is a brilliant and gripping thriller that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The story is both suspenseful and heart-wrenching, with a captivating portrayal of the complex relationship between three sisters.

Sissy is one of three triplets; they were abandoned as babies and brought up in various foster homes (mostly separated). As adults they are serial killers. Moody and Iris have each killed three men, and Sissy is the clean-up person, and it’s finally her turn. They pick out a man, get him to fall in love with them, then murder him. (One of them usually works “alone” while the others mostly hide away, just making sure one of the others is out and about somewhere noticeable as an alibi at the time the other is doing the killing.) And make a nice clean getaway. That’s how it works. But Sissy makes the mistake of really falling in love.

Wow! None of these women is particularly likeable, though I suppose Sissy is the most of the three (I guess, given what they do, that’s not a surprise). Not only did Sissy fall in love with Edison, she even made friends (really became friends; something the sisters also tend to avoid beyond how the “friend” can be of help to them getting away with what are doing) with the neighbour. I was really not sure how this book was going to end and it really surprised me, but I thought it was done really well.

Having an alibi for murder is much easier when no one knows you’re a set of disturbed triplets. The time has come for Sissy’s first murder and she wants her first time to be special, like it was for her sisters when they killed their boyfriends. Sissy finds the perfect mark but mistakenly falls in love, leaving her sisters to question her loyalty. This fast-paced thriller is suspenseful from the start, with tension building to a surprise twist. For fans of Dexter and "My Sister the Serial Killer."

How I’ll Kill You has an interesting premise: triplet sisters, abandoned at birth, raised in the foster care system. After a childhood full of disappointment, betrayal, and hurt, they learn that they can only rely on each other. When Iris, the oldest, snaps and kills her much older lover, Sissy, the youngest by just minutes, handles the cleanup and makes sure Iris won’t be found out. They decide then that they’ll never let men hurt them again; rather, they’ll take lovers, win them over, and then kill them.

As Iris and Moody leave a growing number of corpses across the country, Sissy ensures no trace is left of her sisters’ crimes. She’s the one who keeps them off of law enforcement’s radar. She’s always been the steady one. The sensible one.

Until now.

It’s time for Sissy’s first kill. She sees him in a diner in Rainwood, Arizona, and she just knows. He’s her mark. As her assumed identity of “Jade,” she’ll have six months to win him over and make him love her before she bids him the final farewell. None of them counted, though, on Sissy falling in love with him.

This story goes some dark places. It’s a pretty scathing indictment of the foster care system, where the girls were either cared for but couldn’t stay, treated with indifference, or actively harmed. However they were treated, they came out of the system damaged. The book is also stark in its descriptions of how Sissy handles a cleanup job, so if you’re squeamish, be prepared.

But the book has its beautiful parts, too. Love of family is central to the tale, even if that love has been twisted and misguided along the way. Sissy and her sisters love each other and have each other’s backs. The relationship between Edison and Sissy is genuine, and Sissy’s internal struggle when facing a choice between her sisters and a man she didn’t expect to love made me want to hug her. Sissy also finds an unexpected friend in their neighbor Dara, her first real friend outside of her family.

My prosecutor brain couldn’t help but think what a nightmare this would be for law enforcement. Three identical siblings – how could you ever prove which one actually committed the crime? Of course, they’d have to get caught first….

How I’ll Kill You is a solid four-star read for me.

It began as a fit of anger, the feeling of betrayal, when the first of the triplets killed her lover who made promises he would never keep. After that the sisters made an oath that they would kill their lovers and they have, except for Sissy/Jade who hasn’t found the one yet. But it’s her turn and her sisters are expectant. Sissy sees Edison in a bar and knows he’s the one. She finds the perfect burial plot. Now all she has to do is figure out how she’ll kill him in Ren DeStefano’s How I’ll Kill You.

Of the triplets, Sissy is the fixer. The one who cleans up the other’s messes. If you ever needed to get rid of a body and clean a crime scene so that the police would never find any evidence, she’s your woman.

How I’ll Kill You is told in first person, which does and doesn’t work. On the one obvious hand, we’re privy to Sissy/Jade’s thoughts but ultimately we never come to understand her sisters except for a hint of their true characters that emerges at the end. Also, the narration makes Sissy less sympathetic with her constant dwelling on the novel’s title: how she will kill Edison. Is she unreliable or just in need of really good therapy? Both, perhaps, but mostly the latter. By distancing the reader from the sisters, though, does this create more suspense? Especially if we’re not certain of what their actions/reactions would be and just what they’re capable of. Food for thought.

The novel is dark as are all of the characters with the exception of Edison’s step-daughter (but she does have dark things happen to her). Even Edison shows a dark side that draws Sissy even closer to him since she sees a reflection of herself.

While the reader might feel a touch (or a lot, depending on your perception) of sympathy for Sissy due to her circumstances, one never feels it fully because she never exhibits free will but allows herself to be manipulated from what she deems is loyalty and love. That’s one reason why I kept swiftly turning the pages. Logically, Sissy should spend her life behind bars, but will she? This quandary certainly makes for good discussion and debate.

Dark and twisty, a gripping page turner. That still has me firmly sitting on the fence.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Author Ren DeStefano has rendered a unique psychological thriller featuring twenty-five year old serial killer triplets in How I'll Kill You. The two older siblings have murdered their lovers with Sissy/Jade stepping in to clean up the scene, making sure no evidence remains. Iris and Moody think it's time for Jade to make her first kill, and she knows she needs to step up to the plate. The first order of business is to choose a mark, seduce him and over about six months time make him fall in love with her. Jade chooses Ellison, a young, vulnerable widow with a stepdaughter who still hangs around. Jade does all the right things to draw him in even as she fantasizes over ways to kill him. Their chemistry is insane and before you know it, Ellison is in love. Perfect! Problem is so is Jade. That's a big no/no - never ever fall for your mark. Jade knows her sisters won't let her back out of the kill. She'll have to finish the deadly deed even as it breaks her heart. There's no way she can choose Ellison over her sisters. The least she can do is find a way to kill him as painless as possible and bury him in a peaceful, beautiful place.

How I'll Kill You is an intense, improbable, insane story that I couldn't put down! DeStefano has created characters that jump off the page, grab you by the throat and draw you into the middle of their madness. While identical in appearance, each sister is an individual with totally different personalities although all are charlatans with the ability to assume different identities. Like sirens, they possess the competence to attract their marks and completely hypnotize them into being complacent before they strike. Through backstory, the triplets dark, sad past in the foster system is revealed and readers learn about a series of tragic events that molded two of them into killers with the other called in for cleanup. Once reunited, they swore to never part ways again and to always have each others' back. Now Jade is faced with an impossible decision - her sisters or only man she's ever loved. And she's carrying another secret - one she'll protect with her life.

DeStefano has brilliantly crafted a psychological masterpiece in How I'll Kill You. I read this story mostly in one sitting because I couldn't imagine how she'd tie the twisted plot lines together by the end. Any ending I imagined wasn't good - someone was going to lose, someone was going to die. Who would it be? Read this one if you love edge of your seat suspense, a challenge figuring things out, and/or a unique outside of the box, character driven thriller.

Triplet female serial killers who murder men they get into relationships with? Yes please. The only catch is- our main character is falling in love with the man she plots to kill.
I struggled with my rating a little for this one because I HATE romance in my thrillers and there obviously is some of that and the plot was dragging for me just a little between the 20-60% range. HOWEVER I was still so invested in this plot and what was going to happen I just needed to keep flipping pages and the more I think about this book the more I enjoyed it. I had to suspend my disbelief a little for this one but had a lot of fun with it when I did. If you don’t mind romance subplots mixed with your murder- this would be a good book for you.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A crazy WTF thriller. Like seriously WTF. I don't usually like crazy books, or rather books with crazy people so I'm not entirely sure why I picked this up, but I'm sure glad I did.

Three triplets find people to love and then kill them. Up until now, Sissy has been only part of the cleanup, but now it's her turn. She sets her sights on Edison. He's good, and kind, and a bit broken. When it seems Sissy might be wavering on the deal, her relationship with her sisters is tested.

There are many 🤯moments, and I was questioning so many things, speculating the ending, missing the mark most of the time. As crazy as it is, it was also sad, moving and depressing. Sometimes even a little hopeful. It was addictive and crazy and I loved it.

An incredible debut

This a story of serial killer triplet sisters who murder their boyfriends.

It is told through the perspective of Sissy, who always handles the cleanup of her sisters’ kills. The triplet sisters make up new identities, fall in love with a man, kill him and skip town.

But now it’s Sissy’s turn to make a kill, and she’s picked her mark — and ends up falling in love with him. The book is about how she will kill him; ad she’s plotting his murder, she (oops!) falls in love with him.

I’ve been subjected to a string of mediocre thrillers this year and this one was such a welcome relief. It’s enthralling and so unique. I’ve never read a book like this one. It was enthralling and horrifying and SO engaging, and I could not put it down.