A very slow burn a good twist at the end but not really enough to save it. Thank you netgalley for the advanced copy

Quite slow and I struggled to understand why the main character was so unpopular, surely a little back story to explain this would have been helpful? the middle of the book was quite good but the ending was totally rushed and didnt really make much sense when you stopped to think about it - the main character blamed everything on another character who she hadnt been aware of at the beginning so not sure how this worked out! but it was an okay read x

This book required some motivation to continue reading it as it was a slow burn. However it was definately worth it and had many twists, which i loved, however i felt that the ending could use more work as it seemed quite rushed.

This was...interesting. It had a premise that spoke to me, more than the promise did in some cases. I liked it, but it still fell a little flat to me overall.
It was a slow burn, so it took a while to build, and so it was easy for me to turn to my giant TBR pile instead of diving in and needing to turn all of the pages.
That being said, the payoff was there. You just have to work for it, which can be a turnoff for some people.
Solid 3.8.

I found this a really slow burner and hard to get into. I’m glad I continued though as it did improve and I was desperate to follow all the twists to the end. A page turner, if you perservere!

Someone Like You by Becky Alexander and narrated by Josie Charles was one of the best audiobooks I have listened to for a long time. It was an absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller that just had me gripped from the beginning till the very end. It was full of twists and turns throughout with dark secrets and all secrets have away of coming out, when you at least expect them. I love both of the main characters Jemima and Rebecca and they both played brilliant parts within this book which made it a book/audiobook hard to put down.

The Narrator Josie Charles was excellent and made this book come alive especially with the two main characters.

I highly recommended this audiobook/book. 5 stars from start to finish.

Big Thank you to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Dreamscape Select for my copy......I loved this audiobook/book.

I have a lot of thoughts on this one, but I will keep it concise.

This one had me mildly confused because I knew the book was a thriller, but it didn't give me the thriller vibes until much later when the books twists started unravelling and not in a great way.

Now, it is an extremely slow read, so you will need a lot of patience to read it. I think the only reason this book wasn't a complete winner for me, was because the ending is very rushed. If there were small twists thrown in as the book went on maybe I could rate the book higher.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Someone Like You by Becky Alexander

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Blurb

"It’s nice to finally meet you, Jemima," Rebecca Sheridan says, her voice soft. I force a smile, and tug at the hem of my faded black dress. I need this job so badly, but I can’t let her see that. Just like she can’t know I have no money, that this isn’t my real accent. That most of my friends are gone… or dead.

I say yes when she offers me the role. I'll soon learn Rebecca's polished smile masks secrets far darker than my own.

Every day I rehearse. I spend hours running lines with the other lead, whose vacant expression and tearful outbursts make me uneasy. I try to ignore how Rebecca cuts me down then builds me up. How the others stop talking when I enter the room.

Why am I really here? Am I just a pawn in some twisted game?

No. There’s no way she can know who I really am.

What I did. What I'm capable of…

Right?

My Opinion

This was such a page-turner, I picked up the book with the intention of just reading a few pages in my lunch break and before I knew it I had read 25%. I went into this book without actually looking to see what it was about, the cover just appealed to me, so I jumped right in. An enjoyable and well-written thriller. This was my first book by Becky Alexander but I am sure I will be reading more in the future.

Rating 4/5

I really enjoyed this story, and it was one that had me really intrigued and hooked by the storyline.

I loved the mix of characters in the book, strong personalities, leaders, followers, those who wanted a role in the spotlight and those who stay in the shadows.

I really enjoyed following Jemima through the book. She had some great interaction with the other characters, I liked the location changes as well to give the story slight changes and to build up more of the mystery – who was acting and who wasn’t was a question I asked myself quite a few times as there were a few twists and turns as the story progressed.

I liked the ending but I had hoped for a little more, it seemed a little abrupt to me after such a build up and I felt like I wanted, and needed more, but that was my only very minor issue with the book

It is 4.5 stars from me for this one, rounded up to 5 stars for Goodreads and Amazon – very highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book it started off slow but increased in tension fairly quickly. I was hooked and couldn't put it down

As a fan of thrillers, I was excited to read this. However, I was left feeling a little dissatisfied. This book wasn't a typical thriller, and it read like a mix of genres, which was a bit confusing for me.

The story took a while to build up, and it was a little too slow-paced for my taste. Nonetheless, the setting of the story in the acting industry was enjoyable. The book's middle part dragged on, but the conclusion was worth sticking around for. The characters were average; unfortunately, I could not connect with them completely.

This was a mediocre read and was a little lukewarm for my thriller preferences.

A story about mystery, betrayal and deceit.

Jemima had gone to the best acting school and yet endured many years of not being able to land a part that would propel her career forward.

Through a chance encounter, Jemima meets an influential producer, Rebecca Sheridan, who changes the trajectory of her career.

However, death, mystery, and allure seem to follow Rebecca. Jemima is willing to do whatever it takes to land her big gig. Just how far is Jemima willing to go?

The plot seems to be centered on deceit and mystery and I honestly didn’t find that to be the case. We are on a journey with Jemima as death seems to follow her and her ambition to make it big as an actress. But that’s all we seem to get in this story.

To be completely honest, I’m not sure what the message of this book was supposed to be. It doesn’t seem to be a mystery, although at the end we do get some answers but the answers we get aren’t really focal to the story.

I wasn’t very impressed but would read another book from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Someone Like You
by Becky Alexander
Pub Date: 10 Jan 2024

"Someone Like You" is full of twists and truths, sometimes mysterious and dark humored. Based around an out of work trained actor as she tries to succeed at auditions and then when she does it is the start of a very tangled web of lies, deception and secrets.

It started out slow, it's an easy read that is enjoyable.

Many thanks to #StormPublishing #NetGalley #TheActress for the opportunity to read this E-ARC.

A thriller with a theatrical setting. This one made me wonder about the artistic scene - could things really be so cutthroat? We follow Jemima in this book and her quest to secure that role that will make her career and the lengths she will go to, to get what she wants. This one was a bit of a slow burn but still entertaining.

Jemima Evans, a graduate student from a prestigious acting program, is still struggling to find work years after graduation. While her other former classmates have plays, netflix series, and movies on their resume, she still hasn't been cast at all. After two slightly unsettling auditions, she is surprised when her agent calls her to tell her she's got the part! Not only did she get the part, but she was also specifically asked for by the prestigious producer, Rebecca Sheriden. Being cast in a Sheriden play could change her whole life and make her career. But after weeks of rehearsals with her established nepo baby costar, Jemima is worried. The jump from screen to stage is a big one, and her costar Olivia is struggling. After a disastrous opening night and an even more disastrous second night, the unexpected happens. Olivia is found dead in her dressing room. With her death, she takes Jemima's starring role in the play with her. With nowhere else to go, she allows herself to be whisked off to the countryside with the mysterious director she met weeks earlier. Soon she finds herself immersed in the other side of her business. The side reserved for the elite, where the real decisions are made, the side where talent is not the only thing that gets you the part. As she struggles to fit in to this new world, she starts to ask herself, what is she willing to do, for fame.

This book truly had me in a chokehold. I could not put it down. I was expecting some twist but I couldn't quite pin down what it would be. Thanks so much to Netgalley, Storm Publshing,and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A mysterious audition for Jemima which leads into so much more. A well- written, interesting read with an unexpected twist in the end. Well recommended.

A slightly slow start and you may question if it is a psychologial thriller as advertised or more of a fiction book around life in the world of theatre but the pace does pick up and it changes towards the end of the book. There weren't many particularly likeable characters although this may have been intentional. The ending felt a bit abrupt. Overall, interesting at times but not particularly edge of seat read.

Jemima Evans is a graduate of RADA, but in the couple of years since she graduated she has not been able to secure any acting work. Until now. Following a strange audition she has a part in a play with only one other actor. The problem is that actor is Olivia Goldsmith, a TV star who wants to dip her toe in the theatre world. There are various hiccups in the rehearsals with Olivia's erratic behaviour, but they get through the opening night. After the second night, Jem bumps into Greg, someone who she had previous hooked up with and goes back to his place. In the morning he tells her that Olivia was found dead in her dressing room. Sensing she needs to get away for a few days, he whisks her off to Cornwall and whilst there, the producer, Rebecca, comes down for a night. Things happen whilst there and they leave shortly afterwards to go back to London. All the time Jem is messaging and facetiming her friend Sancha in the US about who she is with and where she is. Rebecca's company is h aving a party in New York to celebrate all of her productions and Greg decides that they should go. Whilst there Jonas, Rebecca's minion, invites her for a casting. Things don't go as planned.
I couldn't warm to Jemima's character, which is how I feel she was written. The end of the book wasn't a surprise in part as I had thought that it might be the case. Jemima is in part needy and entitled and it was hard to like the character. However I really enjoyed reading the book.

I love the theatre and all it encompasses so this book was most enjoyable with all its theatrical references and showing how a powerful director can rule the roost. The final scenes sowed up the story beautifully and left this reader full of admiration for a story well told. Thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I love a good slow burn and this one did not disappoint! Couldn't put it down and those plot twists just kept coming!