Rating: 3.5 stars

This book took me quite a bit to get into, but it definitely peaked my interest. I love a book with an unreliable narrator and this was definitely well done!

This book gave me a bad vibe with every single character. There were moments where I second guessed their character, and I ended up being right a few times.

This author really went heavy with the plot twists, so much so that I have whiplash. Just when I decided on what was happening, something else was revealed. It was chaos but well written chaos.

I loved that the story was written about an all female pop group, loved that there was a bit of a podcast vibe, and a duel timeline.

If you like a book that’ll keep you on your toes and rip the rug out from under you, this one should be a good summer read for you!

Well, damn.

Mix together Daisy Jones & the Six, Natural Born Killers and Yellowjackets and you’ll get the sharp, arch Only One Survives, the story of the drummer of a pop/rock band who’s the sole survivor of a disaster that claims the lives of her friends… or so it seems.

Vienna Taylor wants it all, and she thinks her band – the Bittersweet – is the key to getting there. They started out as a duo in high school – EmVee, a ‘portmanteau’ of Vienna and her best friend, Madison – with a viral performance under their belts. Madison and Vienna could not be more different; Madison is a rich and spoiled party girl, with highfalutin parents. Vienna is poor and illegitimate, the victim of her mother’s horrendous choices, and is slowly losing her beloved grandmother to dementia. Through Vienna’s determination, they become a band.

The band has a rising single and are heading toward the possibility of making real connections in the biz when everything suddenly goes horrifyingly wrong. Their van crashes on a snowy mountain road, resulting in the instant death of one band member, Isabel, and the horrible injury of another. Vienna and Madison enter into a tug-of-war for control of the lives of the rest of the passengers – videographer Libby, and their other bandmates, Evelina and Gabi. The fivesome head to a nearby cabin to shelter from the elements, and one by one the rest of the Bittersweet die – except for Vienna. Libby also survives, but seems to have no memory of the accident. Madison, meanwhile, is missing. Only Vienna holds the key to the deaths which surround her.

Returning to civilization, fame and infamy tangle within Vienna as paranoia overcomes her. The world draws a line in the sand, some of them taking her side but many others falling on Madison’s, who blames Vienna for everything. Disasters pile up, more bodies tumble out of the closet, temptation looms, and soon Vienna is left wondering if she’s being stalked by an outside force – and how far she’ll go both to protect her newfound fame and her freedom.

Only One Survives is slightly marred by a predictable ending, which goes full-on Psycho explain-the-crimes and spoonfeeds the audience most of the missing details. I’d already guessed the nature of Vienna’s problems due to Ebert’s law of character economy pages ago and so may the astute reader.

I have to give McKinnon credit for ping-ponging between so many genres here. We start with survival horror with a touch of high school drama, then veer into To Die For territory. The book reaches more of a Gone Girl tone by its conclusion. Almost all of these tones are pretty effective and work to tell the story.

Don’t come into Only One Survives expecting cut-and-dried black-and white-morality; McKinnon isn’t afraid to make all of her characters sympathetic, but also self-deluded, fame-hungry and terrible. There’s some drug content, some sexual content, and some on-page blood and guts. None of it’s romantic, and that’s just fine; it makes up for that with a chilling sense of self-driven ambition. Just like Vienna, it knows how to get what it wants.

This book was like a mix of Daisy Jones and the Six and Survive the Night- music and thriller combined! I love how this story was told with not only the first-person narrator, but also with newspaper and radio excerpts as well. I think that adds so much substance to the book and gives you an outside perspective. This was the perfect kind of thriller for me, with big twists to keep you guessing. There's nothing I love more than a narrator who could be lying to you the whole time. It's hard to write more without spoiling, but I would definitely recommend reading this book~ Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC!

Really enjoyed this novel. If you are looking for a great thriller to read this summer, this one is for you

𝒪𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝒮𝓊𝓇𝓋𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈
𝒷𝓎 𝐻𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶𝒽 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝑀𝒸𝒦𝒾𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓃
𝑅𝑒𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝒟𝒶𝓉𝑒 07/16/2024

The Bittersweet, aka Vienna Taylor, Madison Pierce, Isabel Riotto, and sisters Gabi and Evelina Sevillano, are an all-girls group - rising up the music charts and gaining popularity.
They are all on the way to a holiday party in the Catskills given by their record company - in the car with them is Libby - who is making a documentary on the group's success when the vehicle they're riding in goes off of a cliff in the Catskills.
Isabella is killed instantly, Madison is never found, and Evelina might not make it. The girls are left in the cold until help arrives.

This book bounces back and forth from past to present - showing Madison and Vienna's friendship from childhood up to forming the band The Bittersweet.
Bitter and sweet are the operative words here; they best describe this friendship.
If a damsel in distress is your pet peeve in a book, I can assure you Vienna is not one. She’s calculating and believes she’s smarter than everyone she meets - however, her arrogance blinds her, and soon you realize there’s someone way more intelligent than her.

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ S҈T҈A҈R҈S҈

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#onlyonesurvives

The concept of this book - what & how far would you go to become famous and the outcome is surprising! However, I agree with one reviewer who stated this book was great in Part I but when Part II came...everything was being rehashed over and over again - that's why I gave this book 3 stars. Thanks Netgalley, as always, for the advanced read!

After a car wreck, the up and coming all female rock band, The Bittersweet, are forced to spend a night in an abandoned cabin and all but one survives. Another band member is missing. The story alternates between the events of that night and flashbacks of how the band started. The story revolves mostly around Vienna and Madison, who started the band and were eager to experience fame and fortune.

I enjoyed the suspense of Part I and watching The Bittersweet get their big breaks. Then, Part II threw a major “reveal” and unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. It seemed far fetched and mostly just thrown in for shock value. The rest of the story rehashed and overly explained previous plot points. In the end I lost interest and I felt like it was missing the same level of suspense and intrigue as Part I.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Vienna and Madison’s friendship started as seniors in high school when they bonded over their love of music, forming a band that got rave reviews. After graduation, Madison moves to Brooklyn to go to college, and after a falling out with her family, Vienna soon joins her, quickly starting an all-girls band that’s an immediate success. But when the band suffers a tragic car accident in upstate NY, during a blizzard, the band takes refuge in an abandoned cabin, and more tragedy strikes. Only One Survives is a spellbinding thriller masterfully told in flashbacks, detailing the relationship between Vienna and Madison, and that sets the stage for the tumultuous events that occur present day, with at least one defining moment told so nonchalantly, eliciting a “what just happened” reaction, necessitating a reread of a paragraph or two! My only complaint was the social media posts interspersed throughout the story that seemed like an unnecessary distraction. But that didn’t take away from the suspense and surprise of the plot, resulting in a highly enjoyable and entertaining book. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Only One Survives
By Hannah Mary McKinnon

Amazon Book Description
Becoming the star is easier when the rest of your band is dead…

All drummer Vienna Taylor ever wanted was to make music. If that came with fame, she’d take it—as long as her best friend, guitarist Madison Pierce, was sharing the spotlight and singing lead. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs…

Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard—leaving one member dead and another severely injured.

In order to survive the frigid night, the rest took shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night.

What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms?

She doesn’t want to believe it.

But guilty people run.

This book took me a long time to get through. I just could not connect with the characters or the story. I think it wasn’t bad but I also had just read a book about car cash and it seemed to be typical.

I appreciate being given the opportunity to read and review this book!
Thank you to Netgally, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this opportunity.

Five members of a “girl band “ suffer a terrible car accident in the snowy woods. Three die, one disappears and "only one survives.” It sounds like a great premise and it should have been. Sadly, I’m in the minority, but the structure of the novel didn’t work for me. The “big reveal” happens too early in the novel, leaving few possibilities for the final resolution. I like the premise, however, so I’m hopeful the author’s future books will be more thrilling.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher HTP/TheHive for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own. #HTP #HTPTheHive #Partner #HTPInfluencer #TheHiveInfluencer #HTPHive


This book was super fun and fast-paced. I finished it in just about a day. As a type 1 diabetic, It was interesting to see a character with type 1 diabetes in the book and I think Hannah Mary McKinnon did a pretty accurate depiction of a diabetic character. Disability representation is very important to me! I also enjoyed the rest of the story. For whatever reason, I found the flashback scenes more interesting than the present day scenes, but it was still overall a wonderful nail biting thriller and I can't wait to see what Hannah Mary McKinnon writes next!

This book will also be available in audio format.


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Many Thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest review.

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I enjoyed Only One Survives. There's lots to love about this book but here's what stood out to me:

* It's Unique: I love thrillers but the tropes can get repetitive. The band concept was interesting. The author put lots of thought into what the band would look and sound like. It felt like an immersive experience.
*The characters have lots of layers. It's not as simple as a good person vs. a bad one. Vienna's backstory made me want to cheer for her and got me emotionally invested in the outcome.
*The way the story unfolded was unexpected.

Thanks for the advance review copy. This was a good book!

Only One Survives starts quickly with a journalist recapping what happened to her favorite new girl band. A month earlier, The Bittersweet had a fatal caraccident in the mountains and had to wait out a snowstorm in an abandoned cabin.
The timeline goes back and forth from the present to 4 years earlier. It is well written and I really wanted to know what happened - very suspenseful with unexpected twists.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review it.

🎸 T W I S T E D T U E S D A Y 🎸 featuring “Only One Survives” by Hannah Mary McKinnon!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Vienna Taylor was handed a bad card in life until she finally escapes her small town and shitty family situation to New York City with her bestfriend Madison.

Both girls are musically inclined and share a dream of making it big with their music. Together they form a female rock band called The Bittersweet and instantly their first song release is OFF THE CHARTS! The fame they have been dreaming of is at their fingertips … until the band’s van goes off road during a blizzard on their way to a party in the Catskills to celebrate their record deal!

Vienna wakes up in the van only to find that one of the band members is dead and another is critically injured. The girls seek refuge in an abandoned cabin as they wait out the blizzard and hopes of being rescued. One by one the band members perish until it’s only the two founders of the band left: Team Vienna and Team Madison. When rescue finally arrives, Madison is no where to be found and Vienna is the only one survivor. WHAT went down in that cabin?? And will the true story ever surface??

THIS BOOK 🤯!!!! Just picture Daisy Jones with a ton of murder, an icy cold setting and the toxicity of fame!! The twists and turns of this novel literally sent me on a downward spiral of emotions! The darkness that surrounds the claim to fame and the toxicity of female and working relationships made this story so gritty, downright chilling and a force to be reckoned with. I never knew who to trust and this kept my mind running wild!!!

Thank you so much to Hannah Mary McKinnon, Mira, Harper Collins and Netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This 5 star stunner releases on July 16, 2024!

This is a well paced, psychological thriller with some outstanding unexpected twists. I loved it. The characters are vividly drawn and I got sucked in from the very first chapter. I read the whole book in. a little over a day, unable to put it down. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for an advanced reader copy

I didn't finish this honestly. It was written so poorly. The scenes with the accident unfolding were fascinating and for that I wanted to finish it, but the dialogue was so hard to read that I put it down after less than 100 pages. Sorry!!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of Only One Survives. This is the perfect book to read on a cold, stormy day. It's tense and atmospheric.

This was my very first book by this author and I must say it won't be last! I love how it tells the story in the past and present and you never know where the story will go! This one kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what's going to happen next!

Hannah Mary McKinnon delivers a thriller filled with twists and turns in Only One Survives. This book kept me guessing until the very end. I didn't want it to end but I also couldn't wait for the exciting ending. Two girls from completely different backgrounds meet fatefully on the first day of their Senior year. Madison comes from a two parent, weathly lawyer family while Vienna's mom is looking for her next husband in all the wrong places. She has little time or love for her daughter. Luckily, Vienna is blessed with a wonderful grandmother who has just been diagnosed with dementia. Madison and Vienna are passionate about music and begin a rock band, EmVee. Madison's parents disapprove and encourage her to attend college in New York far away from Portand and Vienna. The girls end up together through many twists and turns and continue their dream of becoming a famous band. Time brings new band members, exciting opportunities, and an unexpected tragedy. And, this is where the mystery and intrigue begins! I wish I could reread it again without knowing the ending! Definitely recommend!

4.5 stars

Another thrilling hit from Hannah, man does she know how to write entertaining stories.

This dual timeline thriller follows the girl band The Bittersweet as they work through the aftermath of a traumatic car crash. Dual timeline thrillers are some of my favorites especially when done right, and this was certainly done right. You get just enough of a glimpse into the past to try and puzzle together what happened but not so much that things feel repetitive or obvious.

Not going to say too much else about plot because while I had an inkling of one twist the other twist packed a punch and want to make sure everyone experiences that.

As an extra cherry on top there is special content such as playlist and lyrics on HMM website. It was such a cool bonus and fun to look through!

Thank you Mira, Netgalley, and Hannah Mary McKinnon for my review copy in exchange for an honest review!