Man, this is a hard review for me to write! I was pulled into this story immediately, and couldn't put it down! Between the different perspectives and 2 timelines I was stumped trying to figure out where the story was going. Unfortunately the middle really slowed down for me, and I had a really hard time sticking with it. Each chapter felt repetitive and I wanted to be pulled in again but it was just too slow. The ending was amazing, and had a twist I somehow didn't see coming! Overall the plot was great, and the character development was good, it just went a bit slow for me. It's still a book I would recommend to my friends I think! Thank you NetGalley and Ashley Tate for the arc in exchange for my honest review of this book!

Ugh this was so overly dramatic and not in a good way. I started skimming the chapters about 20% of the way in and then completely skipped from 50% to 85% of the book and missed absolutely nothing. I kept reading in hopes of some great reveal, but nope just an anticlimactic ending. Also, side note: how weird were Phoebe and Grant as brother and sister? I kept thinking they were in a romantic relationship. Anyway, you can skip this one (or if you're still curious, just read the first few chapters and last few).

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3/5

Overall what kept me going was finding out exactly what happened during those 27 minutes and while I had pretty much guessed what had happened it was still satisfying to find out.

I did feel certain parts of the plot were very underdeveloped, mainly the relationships between characters and even parts of the end that didn’t quite line up.

Overall if you enjoy low burn mysteries and are willing to suspend your questions I think you’ll quite enjoy this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ashley Tate for the advanced read of Twenty-Seven Minutes in exchange for an honest review.

Spilt second decision can change your life. We can wish for different circumstances, try to forget the past, and lie, but the thrush always comes out. Twenty Seven Minutes a story of a desperate decision take change the trajectory of many young lives.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
Pub date: Jan 24

This was a very interesting take on a thriller and I mean that in a good way. I liked how it read more upmarket in that it deals with very heavy themes of family and abandonment and self-respect while also keeping the tense atmosphere of a mystery. I enjoyed the unlikeability of all the major protagonists just because I thought it was a very honest look at the negative side of rural life and the effects it can have on emotional development. A really unique read!

Thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for letting me read and review. Opinions are my own.

It's been about 18 hours since I finished Twenty-Seven Minutes and I'm still not sure if I liked it or, well, didn't. I was captivated with the opening scene—the gruesome depiction of Phoebe's death. But as the pages turned, my interest diminished. There were several twists throughout the story that were intriguing, but I felt like the plot jumped around a little *too* much. And there are A LOT of characters.

What I liked: It's a fast read with a captivating plot. The twist at the end was interesting and I honestly didn't see it coming. I also like the bit of spook that Ashley brought to the plot with Phoebe's "haunting" of her brother.

What was left to be desired: More character development. I felt like with so many characters, it was tough to really get to know the main group. Phoebe is also extremely unlikable, so I really didn't *need* to know who killed or how she died. And frankly, her death in the end was the most...lackluster. I also didn't love the timeline jumps and it made it quite confusing when trying to keep track of everyone's movements.

I feel like this premise had promise, but it just didn't all come together as much as I would've liked. A solid 3 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press & Ashley Tate for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Twenty-Seven Minutes" is a gripping mystery told from multiple POVs and including some unreliable narrators, keeping you guessing until the very end. Some of my enjoyment was brought down slightly by characters who were difficult to root for and a tendency to tell rather than show. I would have liked a little more perspective from Phoebe, even in flashbacks, to underscore the tragedy of her death. Ultimately, she was simply the backdrop of the story and the focus was on those around her (the good and the bad). The novel was elevated for me by a surprising and satisfying twist and finale, that I *almost* guessed along the way, but was in no way predictable. An overall solid debut.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

the only reason i finished this book was because i was on a brutal six hour train ride from edinburgh to london & had nothing else to read. the dialogue was atrocious. the characters were half-baked. the stakes were overblown. it felt like a book i could’ve & would’ve written when I was twelve years old. how this woman got a byline from ashley audrain is beyond me.

Twenty-Seven Minutes vividly portrays the enduring effects of grief and loss, interwoven with an intriguing mystery. This well-paced novel captivated me with its satisfying conclusion and unexpected twist, making it utterly unputdownable.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

The summary of this sounded good but I just could not get into it at all. I struggled to get through this one. Too many characters, repetitive dialogue, and the story was just too slow for me.

This book just didn’t grasp my interest like I hoped. I got 25% in and realized the story felt too forced and I wasn’t really aware how all the changes connected nor did I care. So I skipped the rest!

I read an advanced reader copy of Twenty-Seven Minutes, by Ashley Tate. I had heard a lot of buzz about this novel, and was excited to read it. The novel is a suspense story of an upcoming ten year memorial of the death of a teenager, killed in a car accident on a bridge. But there is a catch. The brother of the deceased girl took 27 minutes to call the police, leaving questions if Phoebe would live if he acted sooner. But why did he wait? What happened?

The premise is interesting - and theoretically a good hook for a story. The reality, for me anyways, is that the way the story is told, through rotating chapters from the perspectives of four characters, plus interweaving chapters titled "ten years ago." just did not work. Yes, this is a very common plot technique. But somehow, the five perspectives just did not work for me. I wanted the story to advance, but you would get a nugget of information, and then take a step back, as 3 or 4 other voices were told. It did not make the book easy to read, but instead, seemed to drag the story out. And while the twist at the end was interesting and yes, shocking, by the time it occurred, I was just reading to get to the end. Add to that, I felt like the shock raised more questions than they answered, given the rotating chapters.

I hate being negative in reviews. But this one just didn't work for me.

The question at the heart of this book is why did it take teenager Grant Dean 27 minutes to call for help following a car accident that resulted in the death of his little sister, Phoebe. The book goes back and forth in time from the date of the accident to the present (10 years later) and gives us the perspective of several of the townspeople affected by the event.

While I really liked the premise of Twenty-Seven Minutes, I couldn't connect with the characters, which detracted from my enjoyment of the book. And while the author did a great job with building tension and teasing the existence of secrets surrounding the crash, it took too long to reveal what was really going on, and I lost interest about halfway through. If you do stick it out though, the ending is worth it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fantastic premise for a book. A rainy night. 3 teenagers in an accident on a bridge. But it takes 27 minutes for them to call for help. What happened in that missing time? What are they hiding?

Unfortunately the story was slower paced and the characters were not very likeable. Lots of recapping the same story again and again but the twist at the end was solid. I just wish there was a bit more meat to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts

Paraphrased and added to book quote: “Phoebe Dean was so special she glowed. This is what they’ll think when they think of her, when they think of young Phoebe Dean. Because over time all of her flaws will become slightly blurred, slightly vague. Over time the Phoebe Dean legend will live on without her”.

Selective Memorywill occur often in the case of someone dying because people choose to focus on positive traits instead of negative ones because they wish to Honor rather than be totally honest.

Privately what is shared is not always what is said publicly as there’s good and bad in everyone.

In Phoebe Deans case there are character traits that come to light that are very negative indeed!

Paraphrased book quote:“without Phoebe Dean around to age or mature or correct them, the actual complicated girl will fade away until all that is left is the one that they just remember as the special one, as the perfect one, as the one who died in a tragic accident as it rained, on a bridge”…

Viewed through the eyes of classmates Rebecca Jane Hoyt, June Alice Delroy, her brother Wyatt’s and Phoebe’s own brother Grant Dean readers learn a very different story about her.

By the time all of this is firmly established however and despite all of it being important to the development process in the story itself there’s still plenty left for you to find out about exactly what happened during those 27 minutes.

End result of which will probably be as big of a surprise to you as it was for me.

Be warned none of these characters are ones to exactly endear themselves to you.

[EArc from Netgalley]


On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.

Now I understand why this book was "Read Now" ...
Honestly surprised Ashley Audrain provided such a positive blurb.
It was a struggle to finish.

With thanks to NetGalley for this e-ARC.

I really, truly wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I’m too confused by it to like or not like it. The premise was good – there’s a car accident involving three teenagers, one of whom dies. There is a 27 minute gap between the time of the wreck and the call to 911. The mystery is what happened in those 27 minutes, especially since the girl who died would have lived if help had been called sooner.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

When it’s first mentioned that Wyatt disappeared the night of the accident, I figured that Grant had killed him. But then Wyatt popped up so I abandoned that theory. But then it turns out that Wyatt is a ghost. Or does June have a split personality? How did Wyatt drive a car when he’s a ghost? And why did he wait 10 years to appear?

I really wanted an epilogue to tell me how Grant was punished. He was revealed to be a horrible person. He killed Wyatt and Phoebe and manipulated a person with mental illness for a decade. I needed to know he got his comeuppance.

For a debut novel it shows promise and I’m looking forward to reading Tate’s future endeavors which I think will be better as she hones her craft.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Twenty-seven minutes is the story of a deadly accident that happened 10 years prior and the fallout since. I struggled reading this book. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. I felt like the story kept repeating itself until it got to the end. I did like the twist at the end though.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC for my honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, and Netgalley for a chance to review this.

This was a pretty decent read. A little slow paced, but it was good. To me none of the characters are really likable, but I think they're written that way for a reason. With most thrillers I am still shocked by the ending, but I kind of guessed it with this one. Not 100%, but I knew something definitely wasn't right with the accident scene. If you're new to the thriller genre, and don't want anything too heavy I'd start with this one. I will say I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

While the premise of this novel is interesting, there were a lot of things that I found difficult to buy into. While Grant clearly had problems with Wyatt (trying to not add any spoilers....), there wasn't really enough explanation about what transpired between them. And June - why isn't anyone helping her? We know Becca has been crazy about Grant for 10 years, but we don't hear enough from Grant's point of view How about a little more history regarding Becca and Grant, Phoebe and AJ? To me, this book had too many loose threads that need to be woven into the story. June figures prominently in this story, but it took me a while to figure out how she fit into this story (I initially thought she was the mother, not the daughter). The book dragged until the end, and then it all wrapped up very quickly. I would have liked the plot to unfold a little more evenly. And why does Phoebe and Grant's mother choose to do a 10 year memorial? Why can't she be morea little bit of a comfort to Grant? So many questions, so few answers.....

This ARC was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher, the views expressed are strictly my own.