Member Reviews

The third installment of “YOU” just wasn’t it for me. A lot of the chapters dragged on way too long with repeated dialogue from Joe, none of the other characters had any interesting aspects and I did not care about any of them. I feel maybe that is why this one felt flat to me and repetitive. Joe needs a different tactic or situational problems to come up, or even get his own karma coming on him.

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Another great addition to the YOU saga.. not my favorite Installment of this series. However how can you not continue to read when you are already invested...you just have to know.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

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Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Caroline Kepnes for the advanced copy of For You and Only You in exchange for my honest review.

I'm unfortunately deciding to DNF this one about 29% in. I think the "You" series has just lost its luster for me at this point. NetGalley is the only platform I will leave a review on as I don't think it's fair to rate books I don't finish on consumer sites.

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Ugh, I think I am tired and bored of the "You" formula. I loved the previous novels in the series, but book #4 (For You and Only You) just didn't do it for me. It was long and drawn out and it seemed like the same thing as the others (Joe meets someone, Joe stalks someone, Joe kills people...). Sadly this one wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgallery and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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I did like this third entry into the YOU series. I just did not LOVE it as I had the previous two. First off, all the mask drama and political commentary. I read to forget daily life and that is a time that I do not care to revisit. But I digress. I just picked up the other two books and flew through the pages without looking back. This one was a little harder to get into. Joe is a student at Harvard now and that was interesting enough. He meets Wonder. He is still my loveable psycho. Something just felt a little off throughout. Hopefully it was just all the Covid talk. The author still does a fantastic job of making us love and root for a morally reprehensible psycho. I still loved his hilarious, witty inner voice and definitely still look forward to more.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Caroline Kepnes and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Twitter and other retail and social media sites upon publication.

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I really wanted to love this novel. The book series and the tv series have been so great this far, but I just had such a hard time getting into this one. I felt like it was missing something in comparison to the others, and as much as I love the character Joe, in this one I found him a bit tiring.
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

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Another fun installment of the YOU series. I really enjoyed spending more time with Joe, he a fun character to follow. I also enjoyed that the book is different than the 4th season of the show, I wasn't sure if it would be or not.

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I received an ARC through Netgalley. Oddly enough I read the third You book not long ago. This ended up being a bit unfortunate, because I kept comparing the two. I actually liked the story and characters better in You Love Me. Though I really detest the Ivy League pretension trope, so that might be why I was annoyed by this one. However, the writing style is the third You novel threw me for a loop. I felt like there was a ghostwriter or something and it drove me nuts. It was nice to hear what I consider to be Joe's voice back in For You and Only You. It was also interesting to me that our dear Joe seems to be getting more impulsive with his actions. This could lead to very crazy (crazier?) things in his life. In the end, I STILL root for him, I STILL want him to get away with everything. Shame on you for making me concerned for my own psyche, Caroline Kepnes! Also, it's strange to be writing the review on Goodreads. What can I say, I'm a wonderful Goodreads girl.

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Joe Goldberg is back and he is now at Harvard University after a stint in Washington state and Florida.
He has been a lover of books, but now he becomes a writer and part of an elite group all out to get their books published under an award winning writer, Glenn Shoddy who Joe befriends right away. This is the perfect place for Joe, no?

Joe is one of my all time favorite anti-heroes and I will read any book that he is in.
He isn't a character where you fall in love with his charm, but more of his wit and dark mind. There is just something about his stalkerish ways and the way he loves. So deeply that he ends up killing.
Now he is at Harvard and he seems like an outsider to his peers. He isn't rich and elite. But he can play the game. He's so good at it. But when he finds YOU, Wonder, he sees someone like him. Someone he can love and manipulate to love him back.

I've loved following Joe and all his crimson shenanigans across the US, but this book just didn't hit the same for me. I think it was the crew of characters that supported him. Wonder wasn't my favorite love interest thus far. And the first 1/4 of the book didn't capture my attention like I expected. Plus the ending? Hmmmm...not my favorite. Was it bad? No. My expectations are just always high when it comes to Joe Goldberg.
Joe will always have my heart and I will always love this character, but this book fell a little flat overall. I will still read any book about Joe and YOU. This one just won't be my favorite.

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I’ve enjoyed the first 3 books in this series and was excited to see what ol’ Joe Goldberg had gotten himself into this time. Unfortunately, I could not get into this book. I don’t think I’m alone in being sick of all the Covid/mask/political drama so be warned, there’s a ton in this book. Joe even drives a Tesla now. I read to escape, but with all the social commentary in this book I struggled to get through it. I don’t see myself continuing with this series.

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The boo mk far surpassed the season. I could barely watch so I’m so glad I had this companion piece!

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DNF @ 16% 3/20/23 - not at all like the series season 4, which was suspenseful and twisty. This was boring and repetitive from the last books. I just couldn’t force myself to finish. Unfortunately I won’t be continuing with the book series.

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Thank you to #NetGalley, Random House Publishers and Caroline Kepnes for the opportunity to read an advance copy of FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU, to be published 25 April 2023. This stream of consciousness novel was not one that interested me. It was difficult to get through and seemed somewhat boorish but I guess that describes Joe. #NetGalley. #RandomHousePublishers. #CarolineKepnes. #ForYouandOnlyYou

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I really wanted to like this but any growth Joe had in the previous book was demolished. Now I love me some Joe Goldberg but this one was difficult to get into.

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I love me some Joe Goldberg, but this wasn't my favourite of the You series. I loved the previous book and felt like Joe was growing as a person. Now it seems like he lost that growth. I found him a bit whiny. I liked that we saw some new parts of Joe that made him more human. He doubted himself and got things wrong. But him and Wonder together seemed insufferable. I think Joe is at his best when he thinks he's superior and this setting made him vulnerable. The end felt like it is open for another You book.

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I savored this book. Author Caroline Kepnes brings us back Joe Goldberg who is a villain you should hate but fall for hard.
I love the insight on how Joe's mind works and the chaotic mess of his actions.

This book kept me intrigued on where Joe's life would go next and the author gave another amazing story to keep us on our toes.

I enjoyed the humor of Joe's internal voice and how much he just gets us into his head.

Another great read in this series and this book leaves it open to more Joe adventures.

4.5 🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒popped!

Thank you to Random House, NetGalley, and the author Caroline Kepnes for this ARC!

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Uggh. I feel bad writing a more negative review, but this became pretty difficult to read. Joe was really pissing me off. Listen…. I know he’s not supposed to be loved and adored. He’s done bad shit. But he annoyed the fuck out of me in this. He has become so whiny. And while I love Kepnes ability to show us Joe’s inner monologue, but Joe do you ever just stop and STFU? I just couldn’t get with this story as much as I had hoped. I really feel like Kepnes does well building up the world that Joe is immersed in, but he has become so unlikeable, and honestly half the time I was trying to figure out wth was actually happening. I really wanted to like this, but sadly I did not enjoy it as much. I’m sure others might, but I think I liked the show adaptation more than I liked this as a book.

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I wanted to like this one I was excited to read it but it just fell short for me. Joe has become insufferable to read, it made it really hard to finish this book. joe just seemed to be missing his edge in this one.

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Sadly, this missed the mark for me. I have found that, strangely, I prefer the show far more than the books.

This is the fourth installment of the series. Joe seems to get more annoying as it goes on. I do like some of the new characters in this one, such as Sara Beth. However, the pacing was uneven, and most of it was way too slow. The book seems similar to prior ones, just in a different setting. Unfortunately, I think Joe has overstayed his welcome with this series.

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In this fourth installment of the You series, Joe Goldberg finds him in a Harvard writing fellowship, where he inevitably fixates on a new love interest- local Boston girl Wonder. And in true Goldberg fashion, people start showing up dead as he fights to keep them together. Okay so, full disclosure I didn’t like this book. I think I’m just over the character of Joe. He’s exhausting to be locked in his POV, and putting him in a bougie writing program just makes him way more insufferable. I liked a lot of the new characters they introduced - Sarah Beth Swallows was really fun- but the pacing just felt like a real slog. It hit me about twenty pages in that I remembered nothing about Book 3, and I remembered generally liking that one, but I retained nothing of the plot. I remember when I read Hidden Bodies, book 2, the main criticism I was seeing (and agreeing with) was that Joe wants to be a screenwriter so bad that he spends the whole book whining about his screenwriting career that it becomes more of his character trait than him killing people. This is exactly the same vibe but instead of the annoying world of Hollywood it’s the way more annoying world of Harvard writing fellowships. Ugh, I really really don’t want to dunk on this book, I wish I liked it more. I really like the way the show took Joe’s character post-book 2 than I think the books did. I still stand by the fact that You (book 1), is one of the best thrillers I’ve read. I just think I’m out at this point.

review will post on my instagram @boozehoundbookclub closer to the pub date.

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