Read this book!!! You will fall in love with Lenny and her attempt to make a happy life for herself!!
Lenny Marks is a quirky 5th grade teacher who lives a very self-controlled life. She bikes everywhere, shops at the same stores and can’t seem to make or keep friends. Even making friends at work seems impossible…but she doesn’t care…her life is very routine and always planned out. Lenny has issues…her mother left her twenty years earlier when she was just 11 years old, and she can’t recall all the details of what happened that horrific night…other than her step-father saying “you did this!”. Lenny was then raised by her grandmother and wonderful foster parents who only want Lenny to be happy. Lenny thinks she is …but she receives unwelcome news that disrupts her structured life! This book is wonderful….trying to understand why people think and act as they do when we don’t know anything about their past. The story delves deep into Lenny’s life and takes you on a wild ride! It is both heartwarming (a little romance) and heartbreaking (psychological thriller) as you’re taken through this totally unexpected journey! I was hooked from the very first page! Kudos to the author, Kerryn Mayne!! So happy I was able to experience Lenny Marks!!!!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the advanced copy!

I picked this one because I kept hearing that fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine would love this one.
I completely agree with that statement. I thought the author did a good job specifically with dialogue. Sometimes I cringe reading dialogues but I felt the conversation could actually be real convos.

When I read the synopsis for this book my heart skipped a beat…. Over the past three years with the introduction of Elenor Olifant I have fallen in love with a Neurodiverse Character. My youngest was diagnosed Autistic and reading characters like this, how they feel and using problem solving skills in real life help a parent to understand their child in a better way.
Lenny, isn’t very different then all of us in the beginning but as this book unfolded and the details of her youth unfold, I look into my own past and wonder what experiences I have changed to fit my own narrative? Do we all wish for a better outcome or feel by changing the story we then don’t have to deal with the part we played in the story?

Lenny Marks is so quirky and adorable, I want her to exist in real life (1) so I can be a friend to help her through her heartbreak and (2) so I can take her to trivia with me. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will love this novel!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, @StMartinsPress and Netgalley @Netgalley for this ADC in exchange for an honest review.

She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.

I instantly feel in love with Lenny! I loved the author's description of her and her quirkiness. In recent years, there have been a quite a few books that explore neuro diverse characters and I think Kerryn does an exceptional job with Lenny! I was shocked to learn that Kerryn Mayne was a debut author while looking for other books by her. The entire story was engaging, funny, emotional, and mysterious. My only critique was the length in getting there. There were parts that were repetitious and while they may have been intentioned to demonstrate Lenny's neuro diversity, I didn't feel it was necessary.

This was such a good book! I loved the characters, and their story. The dialogue was realistic and enjoyable. I was very surprised by the ending!

This is such a great debut novel by Kerryn Mayne. I actually thought it was going to be a much lighter read than it actually was, but in the end I adored Lenny Marks. At the end of the book I still wasn't sure whether Lenny's quirks were just her, or if they were a result of the extreme childhood trauma she experienced, but they all made Lenny who she was. The beginning was a slow start, and with not understanding the history of Lenny and her family, it did drag a little. However it definitely picked up and I flew through the last half of the book.

I really enjoyed all of the characters we were introduced with the exception of Amy and Ashley. They felt more like caricatures than real people, however that also could be attributed to the fact that we are reading this story from Lenny's POV and this is how she sees them. I loved how Lenny had a great support system, even if she didn't realize it until the end. When each layer is peeled away and you see everything she had endured as a child, it was really amazing that she was any type of functioning as an adult. She had been through so much in her life, it was amazing to see her growth and where she ended up. I also really enjoyed the anagrams throughout the story and how they would appear any time Lenny was feeling anxious or uncertain to help ground her.

I do think the ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but I loved that Lenny ended up with her little version of a HEA. It was a little sunshine after A LOT of hearbreak. Overall it was such a lovely story that I'm so glad I read.

Thanks to NetGalley and SMP for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Lenny Marks is a loveable quirky schoolteacher with a traumatic past. By sticking to her strict routines, she has managed to suppress the memories of her youth. When her past starts to catch up to her, her whole life starts to change for better and for worse.

Lenny is such an endearing main character and the main supporting characters are all equally loveable. While this book deals with heavy themes, there is also redemption and hopefulness. This book made me smile at times but also made me want to cry.

This book reminded me a bit of Strange Sally Diamond and Eleanor Oliphant but was not as dark and with a more loveable main character.

I highly recommend this debut and look forward to her future books. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced reader copy.

Highly enjoyable and captivating. I had actually picked it up because the title made me think it was a comedy but it definitely wasn’t. And for a character driven book with just a touch of mystery, this one still did so well at keeping my attention and I had a hard time putting it down, rooting for Lenny the whole way.

Lenny is well portrayed as someone with both a lot of trauma because of an abusive stepfather and also is somewhere on the spectrum, so it adds to the character development and interactions she has with others, trying to sort thru daily interactions and idiosyncrasies, filtered thru her devastating childhood.

I loved the themes of friendship vs self-protection, and how some things get translated in our heads negatively then how easy it is to snowball it when we isolate ourselves or stay silent. I thought the writing style was also really good and enjoyed it quite a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.

What a great read! Lenny Marks is a quirky, and often awkward, woman who lives a life dictated by routine and thrives on the comforts of the known. She has trouble reading social cues and prefers the company of the tv show Friends over raucous social outings. Lenny is also hiding in plain sight of her complicated past.
Don't let the fun cover art mislead you. This book has some serious depth and covers some hard topics but somehow still manages to be heartwarming. This is a fantastic debut by Kerryn Mayne!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received a free copy of, Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, by Kerryn Mayne, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Lenny Marks keeps to herself and stays under the radar, until she gets a letter in the mail, which can change her whole life. I found this book to be a little oft putting. Lenny Marks is something else, very odd. I still do not not know if I liked the book though.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. The title alone made me want to read it. Lenny is 37, lives alone, works as a teacher and has a very controlled life. That's all about to change as her past starts to catch up to her. Parts of this book are very funny and parts (child and partner abuse) are very sad and were somewhat triggering for me. Overall a good book, but be aware of your possible trigger points.

3.5. If you loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine you will love this book as well. A somewhat socially awkward woman is a teacher who spends much of her time alone watching reruns of Friends and sticks to a routine. She was put in the foster system as a young child after her step dad kills her mother. The first part of this book was a bit slow for me and redundant at times but it really did pick up toward that latter part and became a very enjoyable book so rounded up. Some of the quirks this gal had drove me crazy though I have to say and I'm not a fan of the title.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kerryn Mayne and St Martin’s Press for the ARC.

I love this character so much. I enjoyed her voice and mannerisms and her view on the world. The pacing of the story was good as it revealed layers of the story a bit at a time, not unlike Lenny herself.

I enjoyed this so much I plan to read the other book by Kerryn Mayne.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.
It was a quick read for me; engaging and interesting. I really did t find it to be much of a mystery, but it definitely held my attention.

98% of this book i couldn't get into UNTIL THE BITTER END! So i leave with mixed emotions because i had wish there was a little extra spark in the middle of the book.

What can I say about Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder? I loved it. Once I had a chance to really sit down and read, I couldn’t get enough.

We follow Lenny as she hides from her past and is stuck in the monotony of her predictable life.

Lenny had the best character growth I’ve read in recent history. I really enjoyed her point of view and kept wanting to give her an air hug.

I’ll be honest, the resolution for Fergus rubbed me the wrong way because it didn’t make sense to me. But it’s a great book anyway.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.

As a fan of Eleanor Oliphant, this had a similar vibe that was sweet and not patronizing. Lenny Marks was endearing and a dynamic character. The book definitely kept me interested, and I really was rooting for her by the end. The loose strings and questions that were introduced throughout the story was tied together really well, but I didn't love love the ending. It was definitely enjoyable, quirky, and interesting throughout. I would recommend it!

Thank you Penguin Books Australia and NetGally for providing me with a free copy of this book to review!

This was written in a stilted way that I think was supposed to be evocative but really read as condescending. I found it tedious to read despite the story being fairly interesting. It felt like it was written to cash in on the popularity of books with neurodivergent main characters to me, it felt flat and kind of glib.

I loved every minute of reading this book! I highlighted many passages with words of wisdom to live by. The book was similar to Elinor Oliphant, but fresh enough to distinguish itself. Lenny's story of resilience was powerful and heartwarming.