This book took me on a total thrill ride! There were twists and turns throughout and I couldn’t put it down!

I love beach reads and this one is a fast, fun read. This book had me turning the pages so fast to see what would happen. You will definitely enjoy this summer story. Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

If you are in the mood for a crazy, intense ride. That dives into the thick of family dynamics and drama. Along with some murder, lying, and a husband that is in a coma. This is the book for you. There is so much going on that your head will be spinning. It is told in multiple points of view, that makes the story that much richer and intriguing. The mystery is tantalizing and juicy, keeping you on your toes. You will be racing through, the pages becoming confetti around you. As you charge through, trying to discover why Gavin ended up murder and why!

Julie, Sienna, and Jason are the three amigos. Jason and Sienna are siblings. Julie and Jason are married. Julie and Sienna are best friends and business partners. Sienna has a blinding adoration for Jason. He can do no wrong in her eyes. Julie and Jason have fallen on hard times in their marriage. Julie is starting to see Jason as he truly is. She cannot discuss it with Sienna, fearing this would affect their friendship. When Jason's boss is brutally murdered and Jason ends up in the hospital with a coma. All hell breaks loose.

Megan Collins has done it again, with an exceptional family drama thriller that will make you take a second look at how you see people. How people see you and to come to terms with who you are. Sienna did drive me insane with her hypocritical way in which she viewed each and every person in her life. This family has its drama and I was there for it all. Thank you to Megan Collins and Atria Books for my gifted copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this arc innexchange for a honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. It's been a longtime since I've read a book this fast. I basically read it in one day. I read 70% in one sitting. The suspense kept my attention from chapter one. Domestic thrillers are a favorite of mine and this one was right there. Sister in laws who are best friends trying to uncover the truth. Along the way discover lies. Ugh this book was so good!!!!

I am going to check out the rest of Megan Collins books after this!!!

I struggled a bit with the pacing of this one and all of the characters were pretty intolerable besides Wyatt. However, I did enjoy the way the ending came together.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a chance to read this advanced copy. This book was a little slow at first, but it became very twisty as it went on. Very suspenseful, a whodunit.

You know the book is good when you bring it to your local brewery and refuse to put it down!! Yes that was me the girl reading her book at the table! I loved the authors previous book and was so excited to get my hands on her latest that comes out in a couple weeks!
Julia Larkin is married to Jason and they share a son Aiden. Jason has been putting in long hours at work hoping he will get a promotion. Julia shares a close relationship with her sister in law Sienna , they hold hands and help each-other and share inside jokes. Julia wonders sometimes if she has a better relationship with Sienna than Jason especially with a recent betrayal that has Julia questioning everything about her marriage. When Jasons boss Gavin is found murdered with his lips sewn shut everyone is shocked who would do this? Things get worse when Jason is then in a car accident and put in a coma, the police proceed to tell Julia and Sienna that Jasons the main suspect in Gavin's murder. They found the murder weapon and Gavin’s phone in his car. Determined to clear Jason’s name Julia and Sienna begin to work together and soon their friendship is tested. Sienna believes her brother can do no wrong and Julia begins to wonder if she really knew the man she married at all. This book had me thinking that everyone was a suspect! Told in Julia’s and Siennas POV and this really added to the story! I loved it!

Meh. Wasn’t a fan of this one 😅 This book follows the POVs of two women: Julia, the wife of a man named Jason, who is the brother of Sienna. Julia and Sienna are not only sisters-in-law, but also best friends. Jason’s boss is found dead, and Jason is in a coma. This premise drew me in and made me want to read this book. I was interested how the title would relate to the situation in this book (taken from the phrase “blood is thicker than water”). This book definitely discusses how it can be difficult to trust someone in your family when they may have done something bad, and how that could affect the family dynamics. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much where my praise of this book stops.

Now onto what I didn’t like: The writing was a bit cliché and repetitive. I don’t know how many times I had to hear about Julia keeping things to herself or hearing her mom’s mantra in her head (“never trust a man”) or Sienna’s “fire,” but it was a bit much. Sienna’s character irked me a bit, too. She would do dumb things and justify it. All of the characters kind of felt two-dimensional: Julia is the one who needs to find her voice, Sienna is the fiery feminist, Jason isn’t who he seems, and Aiden (the son) is an angsty teenager. Some of the dialogue felt choppy and juvenile—like when Sienna would joke around with Julia, her sense of humor seemed kid-like and not actually funny in my opinion.

This book started off pretty strong, then started lagging in the middle. I wasn’t super interested but I still wanted to know what happened. It did pick up a bit at the end, but it didn’t have my heart pumping or anything. Once I got to a certain scene in the book, it was fairly easy to figure out who killed Jason’s boss, and I was waiting for the characters to catch up. It wasn’t shocking or surprising, either.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book, sadly. But read it if you like:
* Family drama
* Characters keeping secrets
* Female rage/discussions of feminism
* Dual POVs

This book is out now and was released on July 11, 2023.
*Thank you to Atria Books, Megan Collins, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Thicker than Water was a win for me in terms of being a slightly different change of pace from a standard domestic thriller (I love thrillers but tend to avoid domestic thrillers). Collins has a talent for writing complex characters who should be unlikable but are for me somehow sympathetic in their own way. Thicker Than Water does offer a fascinating theme of best friends who are also sisters-in-law and the struggle of secrets upon secrets uncovered when Sienna's brother, aka Julia's husband, is accused of murder but then becomes unable to be a part of his own investigation. How the story unfolds with an examination of family and marital loyalty, challenges to how far loyalty goes to family and marriage but also to friendship is well done. These themes usually work for me so I enjoyed this thriller.

The pacing is great, the plot held my attention, and I like a thriller that is a little bit different, that is why I liked The Family Plot as well. This is a good read for fans of the author and I am reminded of Samantha Downing's work in a way in terms of authors who can make a thriller feel a little new when most thrillers, even the good ones, feel formulaic.

Thank you Atria for the review copy of Thicker Than Water (I read this two weeks ago, I am behind on posting reviews due to a laptop issue!). I loved The Family Plot by Megan Collins last year and was so glad to read a new book from this author! Thank you again for the review copy.

Megan Collins' "Thicker Than Water" delves deep into the complexities of family dynamics (a favorite theme of mine) and the weight of buried secrets. The setting is super atmospheric, characters are well-formed, and the suspense is ON POINT.

The exploration of family dynamics and the notion of trust forms a central theme in the book. I particularly enjoyed the way Collins explored the lengths people will go to protect loved ones.

Overall, I found this fast-paced and propulsive. Kept me up reading, distracting me from all responsibilities (the mark of a good book IMO). Loved it.

I loved this book! I’m a mostly romance reader but like to read a thriller every now and then as a palate cleanser and this one delivered! There were so many twists, turns, and surprises that every conclusion I came up with for what actually happened fell short. It kept me guessing the whole time I was reading. It was a good thriller but also emotional while reading about Sienna’s past and the things Julia and Aiden were having to deal with. I loved that Julia and Sienna’s friendship ended up growing stronger as they went through this. And I also loved that they were able to identify unhealthy coping skills they were using, and promised to do better. Overall, I really enjoyed this read. Thank you!

Julia hadn’t been dating Jason long when she got pregnant. She wasn’t planning on settling down at 22, but when she met Jason’s sister Sienna, Julia knew she wanted to be a part of their family. Their parents had been killed in a car accident, so it was Jason and Sienna, but they looked out for each other. So Julia married him, and got a gift of a sister-in-law as well.

Now it’s many years later. Julia and Jason’s son is 15, a sweet kid turned surly teenager, and Julia and Sienna are business partners as well as best friends. But when Jason’s boss is killed, stabbed, suffocated, and his lips sewn shut, their community is stunned by the brutality of the murder. And then Jason ends up in the hospital, his car driven into a tree. He’s put into a medically induced coma until he can breathe on his own, and by then, the police are telling Julia and Sienna that Jason is a suspect in his boss’s death.

Neither Julia nor Sienna can believe that Jason would kill his boss, but Julia does know that he had been keeping secrets from her. She hadn’t been able to tell Sienna yet, but Jason had withdrawn a lot of money from their shared savings account, the one where they were saving for the second honeymoon in Europe, and when she had found out the money was missing, Jason said he’d lost it in a bad investment. Then she found out he’d lost out on a promotion he’d been hoping for. But murder? That was a completely different animal.

Sienna is certain her brother could never kill someone, so she does what she can to fight for her brother. Despite being told by their lawyer and by her ex-boyfriend, a police officer, not to insert herself into the investigation, she can’t stop herself from trying. But what she finds is an email from Jason’s coworker that might be about is infidelity and evidence of his boss’s possible financial crimes that is contaminated by her amateur detective work.

As Julia learns more of Jason’s secrets and starts to question if her husband is truly innocent, Sienna digs in deeper, a true believer in her brother’s goodness. But as the secrets come to light and the lies begin to unravel, will they free Jason or will the handcuffs come for him sooner because of what they find? And when everything is out in the open, will Julia and Sienna still consider themselves sisters, or will the weight of Jason’s crimes break them both?

Thicker Than Water is a taut thriller about a marriage and a friendship that were at one point unbreakable, but have been shaken and splintered by silence and lies. The dynamics between these two women as they dig for the truth is the heart of this story, their loyalty tested as everything they thought they knew turned upside down and inside out. Author Megan Collins does a deep dive into female soulmates with this story, and the results are stunning.

I really enjoyed Thicker Than Water. The relationships between Julia and Jason and Julia and her son are fraught, but it is her relationship with Sienna that takes center stage. Sienna’s relentlessness is powerful through Julia’s doubts, and Julia’s quiet strength is the perfect balance to Sienna’s heat. I loved how they could bring out the best in each other and learn from their mistakes to become better individuals. I was able to figure out fairly early on who the killer was, so the mystery is not the strongest part of the plot, but the story of the sisters-in-law make this a solid domestic thriller with lots of emotion and twists.

Egalleys for Thicker Than Water were provided by Atria Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Sisters-in-law Julia and Sienna are best friends and business partners who find their lives upended. Julia’s husband/Sienna’s brother Jason is in a coma and the prime suspect in his boss’s murder. I was fascinated by their relationship and how they viewed things differently. I kept thinking that I’m a Julia, LOL. Twisty and a fast read, but Sienna was a LOT.

This was an enjoyable domestic thriller! I really hated one of the main characters but it didn’t entirely take away from the story. I guessed half of the end but the other half caught me off guard. Overall this was a good one!

I really enjoyed this one. Such a quick read that kept me wanting to find out what happened next after each chapter. A slow burn mystery/domestic drama filled with murder, secrets and lies. Julia and Sienna are sister in law, but more than that they are best friends. Julia has been married to Sienna’s brother, Jason, for 15 years. A few days after Jason’s boss is murdered, Jason is in a car accident and put into an induced coma. Sienna and Julia are both shocked when Jason is named as a suspect in his boss’s murder. While to try to clear Jason’s name Sienna and Julia’s relationship is put to the test while secret after secret is uncovered.
Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for this ARC

This author's books always have twists and give you a little something different. You get drawn into the lives of the characters and cannot stop reading.

Julia and Jason are married with a teenage son. Sienna is Jason's sister, as well as being Julia's best friend and business partner.

When Jason's boss, is murdered, Jason is the prime suspect. However, Jason has been in a horrible car accident and is in a coma. His wife and sister cannot believe he would murder someone, and take it upon themselves to do some investigating.

Sienna is the feisty friend, and Julia is her voice of reason. As they investigate more, their friendship is really put to the test.

There were a lot of twists that kept me guessing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Strong writing featuring two very different characters readers will root for. My only quibble--I didn't care about the husband or whether or not he'd done it. That made it difficult to get into the book as much as I wanted to.

Thicker Than Water had an interesting premise. Julia and Sienna are sister in laws with a great relationship. Julia is married to Sienna's brother Jason. Jason is accused of killing his boss, but Jason is in a coma so they can't figure out what happened. Sounds good right...
I think the characters made me not lock this book. Sienna was insufferable and bossy. I actually didn't like the way she treated Julia. Julia was too weak. She didn't speak her mind about anything, even when she found out about her husband's betrayal. Julia also had to much childhood trauma that she never dealt with.
The story had a lot of good going for it but I couldn't get past the main characters.

With alternating viewpoints and a tense situation, it was easy to keep turning pages in this fast paced book with a story testing the bonds of love and loyalty. When Julia's husband, Sienna's brother, becomes the prime suspect in a horrific murder while he's in a coma, it will test what they think they know about him and each other. I really loved the way they explored their relationships and let them be altered throughout this story and found the ending satisfying.

This is a slow burn! We are told who is the suspect if Gavin’s murder but navigate Jason’s sister and wife coming to terms with what the evidence is pointing to. With Jason in a coma he can’t speak to what has happened.

We learn about Jason’s life and how different things happen that make his wife question his innocence. His sister only see him as someone who can do no wrong.

This one has thriller elements but this is more of a family drama with everyone overcoming personal issues.

There are surprising twists and shocking secrets that will keep you reading until the end.