In this novel we meet, Abby who grew up with and is in gratitude of her friend Gia's family who her mom worked for as a chef. Due to this upbringing, Abby, Gia, and Gia's younger brother Benny grew up together including vacationing in Greece. Years ago when Abby and Gia were young adults, they suffered a tragedy that resulted in the death of a young man. Years later, the three are getting back together. What unfolds is a story from two viewpoints. Abby's as she prepares to see Gia again and has guilt over what transpired years ago and Gia's as she currently experiences issues with her husband told through her new book's manuscript.

What sucked me in the most about this novel was the setting-- the majority of this novel is told in flashbacks as we read Gia’s manuscript describing her marriage at her house in Greece and the new couple they are hanging out with. Gia leads a salacious life that is intriguing to read. But is she telling the truth or a version of it? There are many gasp-worthy moments and there are so many shady characters that it made this read a fun mystery because I was suspicious of everyone. This book has a lot: an unreliable narrator, murder, kidnapping, best friend’s brother romance, and surprising commentary on privilege.

Ladykiller started off strong and it was great until the ending. The ending was a total letdown. It didn’t leave me with any closure at all and bring the book together. It left me with so many questions. It was really a bummer. I really loved the setting and the author did a wonderful job making you feel like you were there. The pacing and the storyline really were great and I was fully invested until the ending. This wouldn’t have been 4 stars if the ending would have been full circle.

Thank you, Net Galley and Random House- Ballantine, for a copy in return for my honest review.

Ladykiller by Katherine Wood didn’t quite hit me in the way I wanted it to.

Gia and Abby have been friends since they were girls. They’re bonded by an event that caused both of them trauma just as they came of age in Greece. While Abby threw herself into her studies, heiress Gia chronicled her account of the events in a salacious memoir. Twelve years later, Gia is back in Greece with a new husband and on the precipice of selling her family’s estate. She invites Abby to Sweden for her birthday, along with her brother Benny, but when they get there, Gia doesn’t show up. What follows is a dual POV story as Abby and Benny try to find out where Gia is, and Gia’s story via the manuscript she’s writing.

There were some things about this book that just didn’t work for me. I hated the aspect of Gia’s manuscript. It mostly feels like just Gia’s story a few weeks in the past and any revelations that came from it were nominal when it comes to telling this story. I did prefer Abby’s story and thought it felt a bit more realistic.

I also wasn’t a fan of the open ending. It doesn’t feel like anything got resolved and you’re supposed to interpret it…but it feels like seeds of doubt are implanted in the epilogue that I didn’t jive with.

I don’t think this story is reinventing the thriller storytelling wheel. Didn’t feel fresh or new to me.

Thank you to Bantam Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is full of suspense and mystery. The story is told with dual points of view. One of a friend who is working on fixing a broken friendship and the second in the form of a manuscript that outlines a series of event leading up to a disappearance. The story is woven through recent and past occurrences. It keeps you on your toes through the whole book.

OOH that cover…the location, a remote Greek island locate in the Cyclades .. a rich heiress and two best friends with secrets. Intrigued?

Gia and Abby have been friend since childhood. One is rich, the other is not, best of friends until a misfortune you might say sends them in separate directions. But now that Gia recently married, she wants to reconnect with her best friend and plans to reunite in Sweden for her birthday along with the new husband and her brother Benny. When Abby and Benny show up in Sweden and no Gia, it is off the Greece to find and rescue Gia. What they find is an empty eerie spotless house, a missing antique gun, expensive books and the most unexpected find .. an unfinished manuscript the Gia has been writing documenting everything leading up to her disappearance.

Where is Gia, has she been kidnapped? Is she alive? And where is her new husband, Garret? What about the two guests seem to have moved in? Poor Abby keeps getting threatening emails. Does someone else know Abby’s secret? Is the story Gia tells in the unfinished manuscript the truth or is Gia spinning tales?

Overall, I enjoyed this mystery-thriller. The story sauntered back and for between Gia manuscript and current day happenings as seen through Abby’s eyes. My biggest issue was the ending. For me it was vague and unclear, so many unanswered questions – I guess I expected more of a definitive ending. 3 1/2 stars.

Thank you, Katherine Wood, Bantam Dell and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ladykiller is a mystery thriller. The book told in two point of views..Abby’s in the present and Gia’s in the past through a manuscript she left behind. Abby and Gia’s brother Ben search for Gia. The story was good but the ending was very disappointing…no closure. The descriptions of Greece were beautiful. Definitely want to take a trip there.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

The writing style did not work for me. I really liked the first chapter and I was excited to dive into the story. But when it switched to Abby’s POV and she launched into all that exposition, it lost me. I ended up DNFing for now, though I may give it a second shot in the future.

4.5 stars! I loved this juicy, drama filled spicy suspense book! I was hooked in from the start and had such a hard time putting it down. I flew through it in 2 days and found myself glued to the pages and needing to know what happened next! It was full of twists, unreliable narrators, secrets and untrustworthy characters. It was full of tension and such a wild ride for sure! The only negative part for me was the somewhat open ending with loose ends as I usually like stories to end cleanly and with all loose ends tied up but other than that I absolutely loved this one! I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Bantam publishing for the early digital copy for my honest thoughts and review!

This was insanely good! Addictive and thrilling. A total must read. Katherine Wood is a master of the twists and turns.

A perfect quick, engaging summer thriller! I love any type of rich people drama and her books never disappoint on that front. I could really visualize all the scenes and felt like I was overlooking the beautiful water in Greece myself. I was not used to the spicy / romantic scenes that were intertwined so that was a different twist for me. I thought the plot was realistic enough to figure out but also keep you engaged. I liked the somewhat open ended reveal and ending and the twists of Emilia’s reveal. I would recommend!

Gia and Abby were best friends growing up, despite the fact that Gia is a rich heiress and Abby is the daughter of the cook. But when they were eighteen, tragedy in Greece both bonded and changed their friendship forever. Now, twelve years later, Gia wants Abby to join her on vacation, only she never shows up. Abby and Gia's brother Benny set off to find out what's going on, and their journey takes them right back to Greece.

This was a decent read, with plenty of twists and lies to keep everyone suspect and borderline unlikeable. I felt the relationship between Abby and Benny was unnecessary and just took up space in the story that could have been used to delve more into Gia and her crowd.

3-1/2 stars rounded up to 4 because it was entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available July 9, 2024.

I found the story to be interesting enough that I wanted to know the end. But I didn't feel attached to the characters. I got confused by the story being told by Gia and the paragraphs of her manuscript. Since the characters in the manuscript had the same names, I couldn't distinguish between them. The revelations made were slow coming and then felt rushed into the end of the book. I do better when I relate to one of the characters and in this one I didn't. The writing was done well. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I was super intrigued by this story and wanted to know what happened. I was pulled in by the description of the story and the cover. I enjoyed the dual pov's of Abby from the present and Gia as a manuscript she had written out.

The twists were a little messy however and they felt a bit out of context so I didn't fully connect with them. Thus the three stars.

2.5 stars

Ugh this kills me to say because I have LOVED every other book that this author has written but... this one didn't do it for me. Nooo.

The premise sounded so promising. A greek setting? Yes please. A mysterious violent event plaguing a friendship? Yes please. Forbidden love between best friend and best friend's brother. Yes please.

So how did this let me down so hard????

Okay, first of all, this book is definitely sexy. Like super sexy. Way more sexy than I had ever anticipated in a thriller. This gave me the vibes of one of those erotic thriller films from the 80s and 90s like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. This also fell into the "con" tropes and I may be learning that those aren't my favorite stories to read unless they have something super unique to them and this did not. The ending was incredibly drawn out and started to lose my interest pretty swiftly.

I think my biggest issue with the book though was a plot choice that the author made that I absolutely abhor. I cannot stand when an author writes in a plot line of sexual assault and then as the book progresses we find out that the assault was a lie/never happened. In this case, which I don't think is a spoiler because this should never be used as a twist/reveal in a book, we find out that a character we believe was sexually assaulted from the very start of the book was actually just caught having consensual sex and went along with the lie of it being sexual assault to avoid getting in trouble. That's fucking nasty. It is 2024. Stop writing false sexual assault claims like they happen all the time. False reporting rarely ever happens and when authors keep writing it as plot points and twist reveals it just continues to contribute to the idea that false reporting is the rampant problem and we should question victims when they report their attacks. Stop it.

Ultimately, I think that this book just tried to do too much but ended up doing too little instead. I will still pick up the next thing this author writes and hope that it does much better for me than this did.

This book was impulsively readable. It hooked me right from the beginning and kept me flipping pages. The characters were flawed and interesting, the mystery kept me engaged, and I was genuinely invested in the plot. Where this fell short for me was at the end. Although I enjoy when books don’t give you all the answers, I felt like this book gave us no answered at all. Nothing was tied up and we’re left with most of the plot threads unanswered. It was a little frustrating because I felt like there was a shift towards the end and I lost all engagement with the book. I’m so sad because I honestly was lovingly this story up until the end.

I received an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this complex thriller. Great story with lots of twists. It kept me reading until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for early access to Ladykiller!

I enjoyed this book overall but the ending left me wanting more. If you're looking for an engaging thriller with some twists and turns that don't give you whiplash but also an unresolved ending this could be the one for you. The settings of this book in Greece and Sweden left me wanting to travel, but in the end, this book was a like not a love for me.

“Ladykiller,” by Katherine Wood, Bantam, 368 pages, July 9, 2024.

Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood. Gia is a wealthy heiress. Abby’s mother was the family’s cook. Gia’s brother, Benny, writes screenplays.

When they were 18, Abby was attacked by Gia’s stalker. Gia killed the man and later wrote a memoir about the attack. Abby said that her memory is substantially different than Gia's book, but Abby kept quiet.

Gia and Abby are now 30. Abby is an attorney. Gia is newly married to Garrett. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby accepts.

But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email. When Abby and Benny arrive in Sweden, Gia isn’t there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia’s beachfront estate deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts a manuscript she wrote. Pages from Gia’s journal details the trouble in her marriage and her finances.

The novel starts out strong, but fizzles out. The characters are unlikeable, especially Gia who is an egotistical clueless rich person. The plot is convoluted and the ending is vague.

I rate it three out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

An heiress goes missing and her best friend and brother stop at nothing to find her.

This will be a short and sweet review. It kept my attention, was full of unreliable narrators and con artists. No one could be trusted. There were twists and turns and I loved the part of the book told from Gia (the heiress)’s manuscript. The first half is slower than the second, the ending a bit ambiguous. You may have some questions you wish were answered.

And this cover!! How gorgeous?! It really drew me in and made me want to request this book on netgalley.

Also- fun fact: Katherine St. John wrote this under a new pen name!

This story hooked me from the very beginning! It is fast paced and has many twists.. Great, thrilling beach read!