This book gave me so many emotions. I was sitting at the edge of my seat because the book opens with the main character tied to a chair getting ready to be killed by a serial killer. The rest of the book explains how she got there.

The main character is very unlikeable but I think that’s the point. I wanted to stab her myself. But if she wasn’t crazy the book wouldn’t have worked. I felt so much tension through the book. Which made me unable to put the book down. It was a great book to hoepfully get me out of my reading slump.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing and Tasha Coryell for a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Tasha Cornell, and Berkley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a good twisted thriller! I started to figure out the ending but I still couldn’t put it down! Hannah is down on her luck with men, her job and home, and friendships. She starts obsessing over serial murders and eventually falls in love while trying to put the pieces together! Crazy book!

This was a quick read but I figured out the twist halfway through. Also Hannah was the most unlikeable main character ever..but I think that was the point.

Nothing is going right for Hannah. She feels underappreciated in her career (despite her lackluster work ethic), her friends are moving into new phases of their lives while she remains stuck and she longs for the attention and security a long-term relationship would bring. Envy and self-loathing color her world.

What begins as a not-so-thinly veiled attempt to find “justice” for women victimized by a serial killer ends in an obsession with writing letters in prison to the accused killer as he awaits trial. Talk about falling for the “bad boy”!

Debut author Tasha Coryell touches on our culture’s collective fascination with true crime and the ways perpetrators of these crimes can be made into larger-than-life psychological spectacles. This was a tense story that I couldn’t turn away from

READ THIS IF YOU:
-have ever made a questionable decision
-can tolerate a loathsome main character and an uncomfortable storyline
-appreciate dark humor with a touch of social commentary

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: June 25, 2024

Many thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this was a very interesting book. Let's start out by admitting that Hannah is what most of us would consider crazy! She clearly has an obsession with serial killers, although it seemed to have started out with an obsession with justice, but quickly flipped to something unhealthy. She went from hating William Thompson and trying to prove he's a serial killer to being comfortable writing him in jail, wanting to know more about him. There wasn't much build up between that though, which I wish there was.
Things really change when Hannah loses her job at the nonprofit. That's when she really said screw it and was ready to risk it all (well, whatever she had left) to pursue this serial killer. She heads down to his hearing in Georgia and things really start getting crazy.
This book was a good read, with some really twisted characters. It was entertaining to read how everything played out, especially the twist at the end. The pacing, however, did seem a little jumpy and unsteady, and I wasn't too keen on how often racial descriptions were used. A lot of it was unnecessary, like the mention of "muscled white bros and older black women alike" when stating that gym members came up to Jill's sister asking of her well-being. Or how the boys had black nannies, or of the "portraits of old white men" (members of the Thompson family).
It was a good read overall, 4 stars!
Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Tasha Coryell for this read!

I liked this book even though the main character was probably the stupidest female on the planet. The plot was well paced and interesting. I just found it odd that the main character WANTED to be murdered. Overall though I liked it.

I was super excited about this book, but I felt like it was really slow. Unfortunately, it didn't keep my attention and I chose to stop reading. Super bummed!

If one thing, this book was a very simple and quick read. I was able to follow the story line and it just all made sense. It was one of those books that you really didn’t wanna put down.

However, I’m not really sure how I felt about the overall story. Hannah the FMC, is clearly obsessed with serial killers, and not in the way of most. She loves the idea of loving a serial killer and the thought of them murdering her. This is where I wasn’t a fan, she “loved” William (the MMC) until he wasn’t who she thought he was.

Overall rating 3.5

I greatly appreciate Net Galley and Tasha Cornell for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.

At first I wasn’t sure this was a book I would like, however once I got into a couple of chapters, I was all in. I was hooked. It was such a unique plot and so clever, It was so well written and I felt the characters were well developed

If you are unsure, trust me- it’s worth reading and you won’t regret it! Many thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for the ARC of this book

This was a quick read and I laughed a lot throughout! Hannah is kind of a disaster, but not in a particularly depressing way because this story is so ridiculous. The writing was really repetitive, but I thought it worked and it added to the book's charm. The twist was predictable but I didn't go into this book thinking I would be that surprised. I was really excited to read this one and it did not disappoint me.

An admittingly "lost" young woman seeking validation through work and men sadly falling short of her expectations finds herself immersed in the fantasy of true crime and inexplicably drawn to a (handsome) imprisoned accused serial killer. Her obsession leads her to his trial where she incorporates herself into his family and falls deeper in love....
This was a very unique novel even though one hears stories of real life women falling for imprisoned men accused of various felonies all the time. Who are these women? How do they fall for the stories? Where do they come from? This book gives some insight into their thought process, while remaining entertaining and well-paced. The main character is a little like a car crash you can't pull your eyes from, or the movie heroine in a horror film that you yell at the screen not to go into the dark place alone!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.
I'm Sorry but I could not get into this book. I tried for several chapters but it held no interest for me.

Hannah is a thirty-something simply going through the motions of life with nothing in particular going for her. Her situation-ship has ghosted her, her best friend has been prioritizing her boyfriend, and she doesn’t feel valued or connected at work. That is until she starts to investigate the death of a woman and finds an online forum devoted to the case and the case of 3 other women that are found dead in the same place. This becomes her main priority in life and when the supposed killer is found, she writes to him as she feels she has lost her sense of community now that the case has been solved. When he writes back, she finds herself drawn to him and connected to him in a way she hasn’t felt before. After losing her job, there’s nothing keeping her from getting into the car and going to the trial of William. When another woman is found during the trial, the jury finds him not guilty and William seeks out Hannah.. who decides to continue her investigation of him in secret…

This book I felt had so much potential and I loved the concept, but I couldn’t get into it because I hated Hannah. She frustrated me so much and I feel like she sabotaged everything positive she had in her life. I would have loved to read this with a main character who wasn’t so completely helpless in their life, but maybe the author was trying to show that it’s these types of people that “fall” for accused serial killers. I saw the twist coming and wasn’t surprised by it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell is an intriguing and unconventional thriller that delves into the story of a woman named Hannah, who finds herself inexplicably drawn to a man accused of being a serial killer. While it took me some time to finish this book, I found the storyline to be captivating and thought-provoking.

One aspect that stood out to me was the character of Hannah. Although she is portrayed as an unlikeable and whiney individual, I believe the author intentionally crafted her this way to accurately depict the abnormal behavior of someone infatuated with a serial killer. Hannah's personality fits the bill for someone who would be attracted to such a dark and twisted individual. While she may not be a character one would want to befriend, her portrayal felt authentic and necessary for the story.

While getting to know Hannah may not have been the most enjoyable aspect of the book, it was crucial in understanding her motivations and the depth of her obsession. . Tasha Coryell's portrayal of Hannah, while unlikeable, is spot-on for someone infatuated with a serial killer. (LOL - I think - I've never known anyone obsessed with an accused serial killer ) The story truly comes alive during the trial, and I became really invested in the story from that point on.

I did kind of predict the outcome of a few things in the story but I still enjoyed reading it nonetheless. The cover is so catchy and I think if I just saw this book at the store - I would pick it up and buy it! This is the first book I've read by this author and I would look forward to reading something else by her!

This book was fascinating. Hannah was a character that I couldn’t look away from; couldn’t stop reading about. The crimes in this story were intriguing and reading so much about those who are so into true crime in the way of forums and inserting themselves into the cases was morbid but I enjoyed it all the same. The plot of this book feels almost impossible, and yet most of it is something that happens with nearly any case like the one on trial in this book. The thriller aspect of guilty v. innocent made it a read that I burned through in less than 24 hours!

Though I originally suspected this book was a tongue-in-cheek takedown of some true crime culture, it became difficult to tell whether we were supposed to take it seriously or sarcastically. I struggled to relate to the main character as the actions became more and more outlandish, flipping from "I can't put this down" to forcing myself to continue reading. That being said, if you're into a darker, more obsessive type of story, this might be just the story for you.

There is so much to say about this book.

It's like a really bad car crash - you want to hate it, but you can't look away. First, we have the most problematic, lost main character; Hannah seems like she is kind of floating through life, until she finally finds something she has a passion for: a trending serial killer case in Georgia. When she starts corresponding with the suspected killer, travels to go to his trial and starts stalking his family, she promises she's not "one of those women" and yet...she entirely is. She is in denial, largely delusional, and literally reaching for anything to give her purpose and importance in her life.

However, even with the most problematic and unlikeable main character...I still enjoyed the story and couldn't put it down. As long as you can roll your eyes and not take Hannah as a main character too seriously, it was a decent thriller about motives, family secrets, and who you can trust.

First, let me say that I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. I thought it was clever, and I thought it was an interesting twist on a thriller that I haven’t read before. That being said, I am the type of reader who really likes characters I can root for. I don’t need for the characters to be likable, but I found myself frustrated with the main character the entire novel. Obviously, she has issues—she’s in love with a serial killer. It’s right there in the title! I just felt a bit unsettled and unsatisfied with the ending. I can see a lot of people really loving this book; it just wasn’t my favorite.

This was such a unique premise! I read SO much of the suspense genre but the tone and overall vibe of this was totally different. While I did predict the most significant plot twist, it didn’t change my enjoyment from start to finish, and the last page had a fun little twist too! I liked the narrator’s voice and self deprecation and the letters in the beginning!

I really struggled with this book, it felt like a chore to read it. I pushed myself to read a chapter a day and that was hard. It took me a month to read this book, that doesn't happen. I only got it done as soon as I did because I was stuck on an airplane with nothing else to do. It wasn't bad enough to not finish it. The premise was so promising, but Hannah was such a train wreak that you can't possibly like her or feel sorry for her. She deserved everything that happened to her. The story was just lack luster, there wasn't much mystery to it and really quite unrealistic, it is fiction, but you still want some sort of normalcy. I'm sorry that this didn't play out a little better, because I was excited to get it.
Thanks Net Galley and Berkley Publishing for the opportunity to read this for my honest review.