I enjoy a novel that slowly builds the tension, and this debut novel by Ashley Tate executed it to perfection. Told from multiple viewpoints, we hear about a devastating car crash that happened ten years earlier. Slowly the details are filled in, and then we finally learn what everyone in the small town of West Wilmer wants to know: Why did it take Grant 27 minutes to call for help?

But, oh, the twist! The twist is simply divine!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

This one was just a total miss for me. Nothing really happens until the last few chapters of the book and every single character was a terrible person. I'm all for unlikeable characters but they were also boring and I didn't care for being in their heads.

This book took me a minute to get into, it felt like a ticking clock, slow when you notice it’s moving and yet it flies when you’re not paying attention. It was a weird way for a thriller to be paced, but I still enjoyed it.

The plot twist, I can see how one could see it coming, but I did not, and honestly that’s what makes a good thriller to me. I loved the way the author built the plot twist, and yet leaves me with more questions now that I’ve finished.

Overall, a good thriller that I would recommend.

This book had a lot great potential, and some great plot points, but I also found it a little confusing and hard to follow. It felt like there were one-too many characters to keep track of. I understand that the small-town rumor mill was its own character (based on the conversation with the author in the back) but feel like one or two of those characters could've been removed to keep things straight. The time jumps were fun, but ultimately felt like the 27 minute gap wouldn't actually be 27 minutes. The mystery took a long time to build, and felt like it crescendo'd and ended very quickly. I would've loved more dialogue between the characters and be able to hear the dialogue when the truth came out. Overall, a good book.

It's the 10th anniversary of a tragic accident that left one girl dead and her brother distraught. In fact the whole town is in an uproar about tearing down the bridge where the accident happened. Many lives have been affected.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Publishers, and Ashley Tate for an ARC of Twenty-Seven Minutes. This book is about one fateful night ten years ago and a tragic accident. Phoebe Dean was in a car accident with her brother, Grant, and another girl from school, Becca. The question is - why did it take Grant twenty seven minutes to call for an ambulance? Becca will do anything to help Grant keep that secret, but now she’s wondering what really did happen that night? June’s brother, Wyatt, also disappeared that night and hasn’t been seen since. No one has paid attention to his disappearance since Phoebe died that night also. This book goes between multiple characters view points. I did really enjoy the story, but at some points it was hard to keep up with who was who and who did what. I don’t think I would’ve been able to read the physical copy since had to look up on the kindle things that happened in the past to keep the story line straight. I did enjoy the ending - wish I got a little more closure, but overall it was good! The drama in this town though - insane lol!

Twenty-Seven Minutes was a book that was a miss for me. The dialogue was random and not intriguing. I also felt the storyline came in chunks. The story was not very smooth and just felt like it dragged. Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book for review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I give this a solid 3 stars. The beginning chapter was great and had me hooked. The rest of the book felt like a soap opera, but waiting for the twist and the truth to come out kept me hooked. I enjoyed the ending, but it felt slightly rushed. I would read more books by Ashley Tate!

Synopsis:
The book follows a dual timeline of the present and a decade past. Both plots circle the truth of what caused a fatal car accident that claimed the life of a teenage girl, Phoebe. Her brother, Grant, was the driver and absolved of any wrongdoing. However, as the tenth anniversary of that fatal night closes in, Grant is tormented with guilt. On the same night Phoebe passed away, June's brother Wyatt mysteriously disappeared. Coined the "bad boy" of their quiet town, Wyatt's missing presence is overshadowed by the tragic car accident. While everyone else prepares to memorialize Phoebe's death, June works to shed light on her family's tragedy with the hope of finding her brother.

Review:
Character Development - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The entire cast of this novel is selfish, delusional, and easy to hate. However, each point of view was carefully crafted to develop unique perspectives. So, while I didn't enjoy any of the characters, the author successfully developed realistic personalities.

Plot - ⭐️⭐️ The book was woefully predictable and slow. Furthermore, despite attempts to create a shocking twist, the ending fell flat and was riddled with plot holes.

Writing Style - ⭐️⭐️ The transitions between character points of view and various timelines were jarring and disjointed. The narrative lacked flow and cohesiveness.

Originality - ⭐️⭐️ There are a plethora of TV dramas and low-budget films with similar plots.

Overall, I was not a fan of Twenty-Seven Minutes. Marketing this book as a thriller is quite a stretch. It reads more like a small-town drama or a Lifetime movie. There were sprinkles of interesting ideas, like an unresolved toxic brother-sister dynamic and an obsessive teen stalker, but they floated at the surface of the plot. The author didn't dive into these more complex themes and instead focused on more traditional feelings of grief and guilt. As a debut novel, Twenty-Seven Minutes was underwhelming and unremarkable.

I received an advanced copy of Twenty-Seven Minutes courtesy of NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

“For the last ten years, the small, claustrophobic town of West Wilmer has been struggling to understand one thing: Why did it take young Grant Dean twenty-seven minutes to call for help on the fateful night of the car accident that took the life of his beloved sister, Phoebe? If he'd called sooner, she might still be alive.”

MY TAKE:
This story is told in multiple POVs and I did find it hard at times to keep up. It went back and forth with timelines as well. I found it just to be an ok read for me. I liked it but didn’t love it. I was hoping for more suspense and more twists. The characters are unreliable and I felt like it was a little long winded at times.

Overall, I think if you like a more slow paced, thriller this one is for you!

So many secrets!!!!

This small town ten years after a horrible tragedy is faced with a new death at the same accident scene. This begins the unraveling of many secrets that so many were keeping for the past tens years.

Loved this one and enjoyed the journey the author took the reader on. You feel for each character and loved each one’s POV and how the story unfolded going back and forth from between each person until you had the entire story from past to present day.

This is an easy recommendation for me once it releases.

Thank you for the chance to read this ARC.

I’ve got a soft spot for a debut and this one is no different. A thriller that was confusing to start (multiple POV and flashbacks), it is the story about the aftershocks of a high school death.

Phoboe, the younger brother of Grant, lay dying for 27 minutes before he called the police. What happened that night and who else knows the secret is what unravels throughout the story.

Unfortunately I guessed the ending pretty quick and I think that took my excitement out of the end twist (no spoilers here!). It kind of felt like “that’s it?!” When I finished the book. And I’m not sure if it was a me thing, just wrong book, wrong time or maybe I wanted more depth of characters or a bigger ending.

Regardless I am still grateful for the arc and will follow the authors next book to see if it was just a wrong timing thing.

Bottom line: liked it. Didn’t love it.

I found this to be quite slow for a thriller. I appreciated what the author was trying to do by making both main characters unreliable narrators. But I found the entire book quite slow and repetitive in parts. I also didn’t care much for the main characters. I enjoyed the writing style and found it easy to get into but I wish the stakes were higher.

Ten years ago, a girl was killed in a car accident. There were lots of questions about it, but nothing ever resolved. Around the same time, a young man also went missing but his disappearance was overshadowed by the accident. Now in present day, secrets will come out.

This one was just ok for me. I was lacking the suspense and thrill I wanted. I just didn’t care a bunch about the characters and didn’t really feel like there was a good twist at the end.

Okay - while this was overall an enjoyable read (I would give it 2.5 stars and rounded up), it was frustratingly repetitive and long-winded at times. It took me quite a while to get into it, and it took even longer to actually finish. There were some characters I could not have cared less about, and a couple who held my interest. I feel like there was a lot of build up with each chapter, like there was this demand to be shocking, but it often fell short. The end was well written. This was less of a thriller than I expected, but that's fine. I will be looking for more from this author as she hopefully develops her craft.

Many thanks to Netgalley and to Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read this!

Twenty-Seven Minutes is set in a small tight-knit town of West Wilmer. This small town is full of secrets and mystery about one night that ended in tragedy.
This story is told in two different timelines, and pretty fast paced. The beginning plot is fast paced and the main characters are well thought out. As the story unfolds, the pace starts to slow down quite a bit. There are quite a few characters that are “unlikeable”, which may make it hard to read for some.

This book started off great. The prologue was a perfect hook into the story. However, after that things kind of went downhill. It just circled around and around what happened that night. It was pretty obvious that some of the characters were mentally unstable and/or had substance abuse problems... so then every POV is unreliable. There were so many points when I almost DNF'd this book, but I kept on going until the end. It was unexpected, but also disappointing. Really?

It is a dark book, filled with grief about of death. The characters are so unlikeable. They are obsessed with the truth, but no one is okay in this book. The dialogue was clunky and hard to read (and enjoy). Overall, some may enjoy this, but the writing style and slow pace was not for me.

Wow. I really liked this thriller with all the plot twists. I thought I had it figured out with 10% read, but the next chapter had me guessing again. We are first introduced to Pheobe, dying in the middle of the road. The rest of the book is figuring out what really happened that night and why there was a delay of 27 life saving minutes. This was a multiple POV narration, which I love, but also creates a lot of suspense. When you get to the end, it was like...OH OKKKKKK. I do think that it wasn't as much a fast paced thriller as it was a slow burn. There were parts in the chapters that I was like, why are we here, but at the end, it brought it all together. Ashley Tate is a phenomenal writer and I feel that this one was well-written and developed the characters, as unlikable as they were, really well to the point that you were dying to get to the next chapter to see what else was going to be unraveling, Rated a solid 4 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Ashley Tate for the eARC of Twenty-Seven Minutes in exchange for an honest review. Publication date for Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate is 30 January 2024.

I was hooked right away and enjoyed reading this book! I felt like some parts were a bit repetitive. I was dying to get to the ending to find out what actually happened the night in question. Would recommend this one. Thank you for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC, I was sucked in immediately for the first few chapters but I soon became a bit distracted from the storyline after all characters were introduced. A great premise, a little predictable but a good debut novel!