A winery in Oregon and friends reunited 15 years after a traumatic event. What could go wrong? Obviously, in a thriller, a lot.

This book definitely kept my interest. I had a lot of fun reading it even though some bits were a little predictable. It's a fast-paced, quick read that gave me my thriller fix!

Out September 5, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

Interesting twists, fairly unlikable characters, beautiful setting and a story that will keep you guessing. Another knockout by Jilly Gagnon.

The premise of this book sounded promising - four college friends reuniting to figure out what happened to their friend 15 years ago. But it just didn't work for me at all. None of the women were likable and I couldn't understand why they were even friends in college or would agree to meet again when they hadn't spoken to each other in years or even liked each other. The chapters alternated between present day and a screenplay one of the women was writing about the events that took place. It was very confusing and as the book went on it was very hard to tell what really happened and what was created for the screenplay. I wouldn't waste my time with this book when there are much better thrillers and mysteries out there. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

A lot of reviews state that this was a predictable book and did not hold their attention enough. I did not find that as the case in this book with an exotic locale and a mystery of trying to find out what happened to one of their friends. I will say I agree with some of the reviews that it was hard to find a character to cheer for but that was probably the design of the book. I would recommend this book to other readers but I would not necessarily it is one to be put on the top of TBR piles. Looking forward to what Jilly comes up with next!

Fifteen years ago, Emily’s friend Vanessa disappeared at a remote winery. In present day, Emily spots someone who is a dead-ringer for Vanessa. This prompts Emily to tell Vanessa’s story, but to do that she has to return to the scene of the crime. Gathering the girls together in the same place, she tells them they are returning to reminisce on the old days and to reconnect. One of them has been hiding something all these years but who? And why?

Did someone say “locked room thriller but put it in a winery?!” Sign me up! I loved the atmosphere of this story (no surprise there, given my love of wine and locked room thrillers). Also I found the plot of “returning to the scene of the crime” unique and fun. Though a definitely a bit of a slow burn, I was able to read this one quickly. If you enjoy locked room thrillers this one is worth checking out!

Thank you to Bantam and Netgalley for the ARC! “Scenes of the Crime” releases September 5, 2023! This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.

After a chance encounter with an old friend's doppelganger, Emily Fischer, a dead ended screenwriter for a sitcom that she wants to give up if it wasn't her bread and butter, decides to call 4 of her former girlfriends to have a weekend reunion at a remote winery that is hopefully soon-to-be-owned by one of them. Said reunion was to find closure from the death of their friend 15 years ago. Emily was allegedly the last person to see their friend, Vanessa, alive, but no one found her body. The story is told in alternating prose and a script by Emily's hand who plans to make the story of Vanessa's disappearance into a movie. Some are flashbacks--and the flashbacks are either told as part of the story, or as part of the developing script. Emily hopes that, by the time the weekend comes to a close, they already know who actually killed Vanessa, for she suspects one of her own friends murdered her.

What I liked about the book was the totally unique style: the alternating story telling and script writing. That being said, it seemed like some parts of the script were inserted in the story telling areas where it sort of didn't fit at all and stuck out like a sore thumb. It was only as you get midway in the book does the story and script flow together seamlessly, and you begin to get a better picture of how the events were unfolding. Emily's character was well developed as a mediator of the peace who is jealous of Vanessa paying attention to their other friends more than to her, that I suspected she was in love with Vanessa for real. However, this wasn't made clear in the book, and so you're left wondering if she's gay or just someone who maniacally wants to hog Vanessa's attentions all to herself. The other girlfriends appear to feel the same way towards Vanessa: they like/love her so much, they were jealous of any attention Vanessa paid the others. Vanessa appears to have been aware of this and exploited their feelings by holding something over each of them that she could blackmail them with. So now the question is, did one of the 4 friends kill her because they can't take the blackmail any longer?

Now for the downers in this book: the inappropriate and often-used words "definitively" and "vulpine". Whoever edited the book apparently doesn't know exactly when to use "definitively" as opposed to "definitely" or even "definite". It made the book sound childish and very amateur, especially as "definitively" was used so often without regard to whether it was grammatically appropriate for all the instances it was used. Meanwhile, "vulpine" was used to describe the smiles of the various characters at one time or another. I mean, you can't have all 4 of them having a "vulpine smile"--why not spice it up with "a mean smile", "crafty smile", "wolfish grin", that sort of thing?

Another downer was the slow progression of the story until midway in the book, when it sort of picks up, but not by much. I mentioned the better interspersing of the story-telling prose with the script midway through the book, but this is also when I started to not like the book too much. Although the script was interspersed in between the story telling, there was not much change between the writing style of the script and the prose: in the beginning where the script alternated with the story, you could definitely sense a change in writing style, as if Emily was truly writing the script, and the author was writing the story. Midway through, that fell completely apart as now you definitely know it is the author also writing the script. It was as if Emily's writing style disappeared; I expected the difference in writing style to continue since the script is supposed to be written by the fictitious character.

Finally, as is often the case with a lot of mystery books written in the last 5 years or so, the final twist and tying up of all loose ends happens in the last 50 or so pages. I've read and seen this so many times, and each time I read it, the story feels rushed. As if the author was told, "Hey, you're reaching your max of 350 pages, you better end this right now beginning at page 300." And everything is suddenly just tied up so conveniently, it leaves your head spinning. In this book, everything was supposedly "neatly" solved and tied up in the Epilogue, it left me flabbergasted: "Say, what?! That didn't happen at all?! Oh, you mean that person really didn't do that?! It happened where?! You mean she just invented all that as part of the script?!" There should have been some sort of better explanation for all that. If you like the feeling of the rug being pulled under your feet after knowing that everything happened just as you suspected, then this book is for you. I don't like that feeling and, combined with the above downers, made me rate this book 3 stars.

I struggled to finish this one. The characters are not very believable, the relationships are all too toxic to get me to care about them, and the motivation for the villain seemed pretty contrived. Sorry, I can't recommend this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Books for an advanced reader copy.

The place is a beautiful winery built with stone and timber on the Oregon coast unlike no other. There are three caves on the property that are stunning but dangerous when the tide is in. Inside, one can see a view of huge cliffs and the ocean. And then the bonus: there is a cellar with a variety of rich wines to taste and enjoy. What’s there not to like?

How about four college friends – Emily, Brittany, Paige and Lydia – who have decided to regroup at the Cliff Edge Winery. Besides sipping really good wines, they have agreed to rehash what happened to their good friend Vanessa when she vanished 15 years ago. Emily figured that Vanessa had slipped over a dangerous cliff. An exhaustive search took place with no results. Then, Emily thought she saw Vanessa recently.

It had been some time since she chatted with the others in the group. She was hoping someone would remember something critical at the winery. After a few calls, they agreed to go there which I found to be amazing since they were no longer close.

Emily also had another agenda. She was a screenwriter and figured an interesting true story like this could boost her career. Every step of the way, she kept a secret sequence of events on her laptop which were recorded in the story. She needed some type of resolve.

The four women had their own agendas with lots of jealousy and drama. At least someone from the group should have been likeable. Even though I found it to be predictable, it kept my attention.

My thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of September 5, 2023.

Four women reunite fifteen years after their glamorous friend Vanessa disappeared and was declared dead. Emily, a TV sitcom writer, hopes a script based on the events, past and present, will catapult her career. Brittany, Vanessa’s cousin, acts as host at the secluded family winery she inherited. Lydia and Paige agree to come but are reluctant to fully engage with the group. Secrets, lies, and their dysfunctional friendship dynamics surface as what happened all those years ago is revealed.

Traditional prose is interspersed with sections of the script Emily is writing based on the mystery surrounding Vanessa’s disappearance. Both versions are heavily filtered through Emily’s perspective and reimagined in the case of the script. While the approach is innovative and fits perfectly with Emily’s goals and personality, the scripted sections adversely affect the novel’s pacing and kept me from bring fully invested in the storyline. While I appreciated the innovative storytelling, I feel the scripted sections would have worked better if they occurred less frequently.

I would have liked to have seen Lydia and Paige developed more and more scenes that included all four women. Some of the happenings felt a bit unrealistic, but the way the story is positioned through Emily’s fictionalized script helped make the events more palatable.

I enjoyed Emily’s goal driven character, her career woes, and her insight into the friendship dynamics. The conflict between the women was nicely shown and the setting exuded a cool modern gothic feel.

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

Thanks to Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

Five college friends have a spring break at a winery on the coast owned by Brit & Vanessa's grandparetns. One of them goes missing...each of the other three think they may have killed her. Fifteen years later Emily gathers the other three at the same winery to learn who killed Vanessa Emily is a screen writer and she is writing scenes of what she imagines occurred. As Emily learns about each of her 'friends', she writes the scene including stage directions.
Read to discover the true story of the events that happend fifteen years ago. Plan on being surprised.

The atmosphere and the premise are great, you really feel as if you're in at the vineyard. The cave scenes were chilling. The unconventional structure of the story then a movie script was a tad confusing at time. I did like the ending but how you get to the twist was a bumpy ride. I did read it in one sitting so it did keep me entertained.

I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5.


Thank you NetGalley, Jilly Gagnon, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The setting of this novel is lovely. It's definitely got a creepy vibe but I also (strangely) wanted to visit. The chapters set up like a script were fun. However, the writing style was a little too wordy and long-winded for my liking, and there were definitely some parts that felt a bit dull. Additionally, some of the characters just didn't make sense to me. All in all, I wouldn't say that I loved this book, but I certainly didn't hate it either.

On paper, this book has everything I love (hence why I requested the #arc), but it just goes to show you - you can’t judge a book by its premise.

The premise: a stagnant screenwriter pulls together an impromptu recreation of an ill-fated spring break trip where one of their college friends went missing in an attempt to work out the script she’s been trying to write about the event. Oh, and to figure out what actually happened to her friend. Mostly the script thought.

The reality: an overly complicated framing device that includes scenes of “real events” and portions of the script in progress, which deviates from the real events just enough to cause some major confusion.

I still mostly enjoyed the book and it was a quick read, it just didn’t live up to its potential.

Though the premise of this held much promise, I feel as though it was a bit of a letdown. While the structure for this was unique, I found the chapters written like a script frustrating. I also struggled to get behind our main character and just couldn't vibe with the constant pitting of friends against friends. I feel like is an easy trope to fall into and I'm not a fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really thought this was going to be a real fun read but I was thoroughly disappointed in this book. It did not hold my interest and it was too much of a YA read. I made it through just past the 50% mark and then I decided it was a DNF for me. Life is too short to spend reading something that you do not enjoy and cannot connect with.

While I appreciate that the author was trying an unconventional structure for this novel, it did not work for me.

I found the interspersed scenes from the script Emily was writing to be both confusing and frustrating. It was clear that these scenes were a dramatized version of the events of the story. Many of the scenes in the first half also had editing notes from both Emily and another character (who we never meet in the story), though those notes were not present in the last half of the novel. Some of the scenes are repeats of events we saw in the "real" story, but many contradicted what we had witnessed. Other scenes included large plot reveals that we did not witness in the "real" story. the problem was that I couldn't trust any of these scenes, as they were dramatizations, so I was never sure what was really happening in the story. I think the author was deliberately trying to introduce some uncertainty, but it didn't work for me.

I also found the overall plot to be thin. The suspense element was taken away with a reveal at the midpoint of the book, so everything after that was just a group of poorly developed characters being nasty to each other for no real purpose.

I really enjoyed this novel. Beautiful prose, locked room setting, and fascinating (though mostly unlikeable characters, but I still loved reading about their juicy secrets!) I would definitely read more from the author!

Years ago, five girlfriends went on a trip to an Oregon winery. One of them didn’t come back. Now in present day, Emily wants to reunite the friends at the winery as a fifteen year commemoration. However, Emily really wants them to reunite to find out what happened fifteen years before.

I wanted to like this one so much, especially since some blurbs described it as Knives Out and Agatha Christie, two things I love. But I found the writing hard to get through. I didn’t even mind the chapters that were like scenes from a script. It just felt tedious a lot and I think it could’ve been ramped up to keep readers engaged.

I really desperately wanted the to be my 3rd book for the month of August, alas that was not the case. This is written like a dual book, one chapter of normal text then a chapter that is a screen play. For me trying to read a screen play is painful, I wish I couldn’t made myself finish this due to the story being interesting but it made my brain hurt

A locked-room mystery that reads too YA than it should. Nothing new or original here.

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