Thank you to NetGalley, Ashley Tate, and the publisher for an ARC of Twenty Seven Minutes! Wow, what a debut for Ashley Tate. A slow-burn literary thriller that had me guessing until the very last page. 10 years after the death of Phoebe Dean, the town of West Wilmer, and its continued cast of characters, are still reeling from the loss. Follow multiple POVs as we find out what really happened that rainy, tragic night.

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press & Ashley Tate for the ARC of Twenty Seven Minutes.

Phoebe Dean dies in a tragic accident and her brother, Grant, waited twenty seven minutes to call for help. The question you ask yourself throughout the book is why and what really happened?

Twenty Seven Minutes follows Becca, Grant, June & Wyatt to tell the story of what really happened that rainy night of the crash that killed Phoebe Dean ten years prior. It wasn’t until closer to the end of the book that I started to put pieces together to figure out what truly happened. The book is a slow burn and is very repetitive.

Becca is what you’d call a stage ten clinger. Grant drinks his life away & makes poor decisions which he’s done even before Phoebe died. June is out of touch with reality & where has Wyatt been for the past ten years?

Thank you to @netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the #gifted copy.

Phoebe Dean, the sister of Grant Dean, died one night 10 years ago and the question that has haunted West Wilmer all those years is why did it take him twenty seven minutes to call for help.

As the story unfolds through multiple POVs, we learn the secrets of the small town. It’s the 10 year anniversary and everyone close to Phoebe is an emotional wreck because the town wants to remove the bridge. The truth will come out.

I enjoyed this debut and was shocked by the twist at the end!

Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This is an author to note. I liked the multiple POVs because of the different points of view. However it did drag for me, if not for the ending, I'd probably give it a 2, so it's 3 stars from me.

I'm giving this 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

The plot of this book seemed intriguing. However, it didn't really work for me. The beginning of the book pulled me in right away, but as the story went on, I lost interest. One problem was that there were just too many character POV's. They didn't all seem necessary. I did end up enjoying the ending. It didn't surprise me but was still entertaining.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was a twisty mystery novel about the secrets behind a young girl's death and why she was found twenty seven minutes too late.

I really enjoyed this novel. There were times when I found myself totally engrossed in the story. I just had to know what was going to happen.

This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat!

I picked this one up for my most recent flight and was hoping to get sucked into a thriller, but sadly that’s not what happened.

Even at 77% into the story, nothing remotely mysterious or thriller has happened. The story switches between past and present POVs of Becca, Wyatt, and Grant surrounding the death of Grant’s sister, but doesn’t give us much. Each character comes off as one note and each does stupid things. Additionally, each character is even more annoying than the last.

Thank you @poisonedpenpress and @netgalley for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own.

Shortly after seventeen-year-old PHOEBE DEAN left an unsupervised party she was killed in a car crash. Her brother, GRANT, was the driver. BECCA was a passenger in the back seat and though she was severely injured, she survived the accident. Ten years later, as Phoebe’s mother plans a memorial service, Becca still has no memory of the accident.

The story unfolds with flashbacks to ten years earlier and through the multiple perspectives of Grant, Becca, and their former classmates, JUNE and WYATT. As the date of the memorial approaches, old resentments and feelings surface, still raising the question: why did Grant wait 27 minutes to call for help?

This character-driven story is a slow burn, with unrelatable and bitter characters. I had difficulty at times keeping the multiple characters straight and I was not a fan of the ending, which delivered a twist more akin to a horror novel. Readers who enjoy drawn-out suspense and dark characters may enjoy this novel.

Well this story was quite the rollercoaster!

It’s been ten years since Phoebe died in an accident while her brother, Grant, was driving. Oh and Becca was in the backseat too, but no one acknowledges that she was there too. Why did it take Grant twenty-seven minutes to call for help?

I absolutely loved that the chapters were from multiple POVs. Getting insight into what various characters are thinking really intrigues me with thrillers especially! I thought the author was clever with which POVs she used to tell the story or move it forward. At one point I didn’t understand why a couple of characters POVs were included, but their relevance became more clear as the story went on. This was a story told about grief, regrets, processing trauma, and moving forward. And that plot twist at the end? Beautiful! I never saw it coming! A knockout debut and an author I will be following a long with to see what’s next!

Thank you to the author, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGally for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t think this was the book for me. There were so many characters and their views that I couldn’t keep track. I’m also 50% in and I feel like nothing has happened. If you like a lot of characters POV and a slow burn I think you would like this one. Unfortunately it’s just not for me and I ended up DNF’ing

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley for my honest review.

The idea of this book was interesting but I ended up skipping almost 80 pages just to get to the end. I contemplated just DNF’ing it but I was curious about how it all ended.

The ending was really the best part of this whole book. The rest of it was just dragged out. A bunch of different POV’s and most chapters nothing happened. It just showed us the flaws and how messed up some of these characters were.

I believe this was a debut so I might give the author another shot if they come out with something else.

Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate is a dark thriller set in a small town over a time span of just a couple of days leading up to the 10year memorial for high schooler Phoebe Dean's death.
So many people have remained stuck as a result of that fateful night, but what actually happened? There's her big brother Grant who was the driver that night when his sister died and his football career ended before it ever started and their mother who lost the daughter she loved so much and is stuck with the son she likes a lot less. There's Becca who was on the backseat that night but only has hazy recollections of what actually happened and has a hard time separating reality and fiction. She feels underappreciated in her grief and the impact the accident had on her but how delusional is she really ? Then there are June and her brother Wyatt who disappeared that fateful night. What really happened in the twenty-seven Minutes it took Grant from the moment of the crash to calling help, the twenty-seven minutes that were too long for Phoebe.
There are people who now want the bridge that is the crash site torn down- but why is that so important to them? What would Phoebe have wanted ?
This is dark, twisty and very fast moving.

This was a fantastically told sad story of how a single event can change the path for so many people. I loved the characters and each of their flaws made them more likeable. Well told, and a very smart yet sad story.

A slow burn thriller with a twist I didn't see coming. Told from four different povs and time jumps, this gets you hooked from the first page. Being a debut book, I'm excited to read more from Ashley Tate in the future.

While this book had some great suspense there were a lot of loose threads. I also feel that it should have been billed as a YA novel, it was definitely more juvenile than an adult book.

I was frustrated at the length, I think it could have moved much faster and been less pages. Why did we have Wyatt's point of view? He was dead? And that was the mystery - what did that have to do with the 27 minutes? Are we to assume that it took 27 minutes to throw Wyatt off the bridge?

And I'm not clear on what Grant's issue was - was he taking steroids? Was that the drug problem?
And Becca and Grant, was there ever a relationship? Or she made it all up?
And Grant and Harley were involved, but later in the book there's mention that he throws a football with her kids? WHEN? He's so messed up and angry with a bad leg...I can't really see him throwing a football in good mind frame with anyone .

Disappointed at the ending and what the big reveal was. So much talk about June's mom and her illness, who cares? And what was with the journal moving all over the house? And why so much talk about urine smell on the journal? Or urine smell on the bed?

Could have been 100 pages shorter......definitely wouldn't recommend.

This book was a slow one for sure. It took too long for me to get into it but overall it was a good story. I couldn't find myself getting "close" to the characters and couldn't keep up with the amount of characters as well. It felt a little like if I had to solve a mystery of who was who while keeping up with the story so I felt like that took away from the story too.

If you like multi - POV and timelines that go back and forth then this would be a good book for you. I recommend it to someone who is on the bridge from simple to complex stories as I feel this would be a good story for someone like that.

Thank you to the NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

this one had so much potential, but it unfortunately dragged on for most of the almost 400 pages. i was hooked in the beginning but sadly lost interest shortly after the start. there were too many characters to keep up with and an emphasis on the drama rather than the suspense. i’m glad i stuck around for this ending because it was wild, but not much happened until the last 5-10%. this was a debut, so i’m willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt and try out their next novel.

2.5 stars. This book was super slow to me. I appreciate a slow burn, but this was too slow. I also felt it was repetitive. These characters weren't likeable and still seemed extremely immature, even in adulthood. There were also a lot of characters to keep up with and there were points where I was confused.

There is a lot of suspense building, but the ending came in fast as a train, and then it was over. I couldn't guess the big twist at the end, but it felt slightly rushed. This was just ok to me.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Good book but I found a little slow to get started! I ended up enjoying it so I will give it three stars. If a friend asked if I recommended it I would say yes

Twenty-Seven Minutes was an amazing read - I love endings that I don't see coming, but that don't materialize out of nowhere. While a slow-build suspense, this was a page-turner. I really enjoyed the characters, the plot was solid, and the ending was spectacular. I look forward to rereading it again!