The last 50% of this book was probably 4-5 stars for me but the first half just dragged for me. I know the author was trying to set the scene but I wasn’t getting enough nuggets of information to keep me wanting to flip the pages. I think if Abby’s POV had went just a little quicker with the manuscript POV the intrigue would have been higher. I did love all the twists and how they were all connected in the last half of the book. The author did a great job with the setting and character development. I don’t mind an ambiguous ending but I know a lot of people aren’t fans of those. It didn’t bother me here. I’m looking forward to more books from this author.

When a woman vanishes from her remote Greek island estate, her best friend from childhood races to find her thanks to clues in the manuscript she left behind. Katherine loads up the suspense with the sun-soaked backdrop of gorgeous Greece and the glamorously decadent world of the uber-rich. This is a story that will have you longing for a vacation under the hot Mediterranean sun…but maybe with a little less murder.

When do we stop believing the truth we're told versus the truth we see or intuitively feel? For Abby, she feels like something isn't right with Gia's life. As she and Benny dig deeper into the truth versus Gia's version of reality, they're left with too many questions and not enough answers. until suddenly the truth is there. But do they want to know it? And will their lives be changed if the truth comes out? This one will keep you guessing!

When her lifelong friend invites her to an island birthday party, Abby is happy to accept. But when her friend disappears before Abby arrives on island, Abby looks to an unfinished manuscript for clues. Katherine Wood reveals glimpses of Gia's fabulous....or is it.....through an unfinished manuscript. Abby must decide how much is truth and how much is fiction. The backstory and the setting is skillfully written but the story leaves readers to reach their own conclusions at the end.

Gia and Abby have been best friends since they were teens. Gia is a very rich heiress and Abby is the daughter of the chef for Gia’s family. A tragedy occurred when they were eighteen, right before Abby was heading off to college. This has kept them hiding a secret all these years. Now, Abby is a lawyer and Gia is currently in love with someone new, Garrett. Gia wants Abby to travel to Greece for her wedding, but Abby declines. Abby also tries to convince Gia not to marry so quickly.
Gia is finally able to convince Abby to take time off of work to reunite in Sweden to celebrate Gia’s birthday and see the Northern Lights. Benny will be joining them so it will just be those three. When Abby and Benny arrive, Gia is nowhere to be found. Text messages relate that she is too ill to travel and she hopes they have a good time. Suspicion grows for Abby and Benny and they decide to travel to Greece to locate her. What they find at the estate in Greece is a manuscript that Gia has been writing, with no ending. And Gia is missing.
This story is told from Abby’s perspective as well as the perspective of Gia in her unfinished manuscript. The time line is before and after Gia goes missing.
This story is filled with lies, deceptions, sex, alcohol, and killings. Who is telling the truth? Who is lying? The story has so many twists and turns, that the reader will not be able to tell who to believe. I was totally engrossed as I was reading. I also was wishing I was in Greece as the authors description of the islands and the surrounding waters was so inviting. I loved her style of writing!
If you love a good mystery with many twists and turns, filled with good wine, some sex, lies, maybe some truths, you will love this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Published on July 9, 2024.

I really liked this book! It was a mystery that was super addicting! The characters were intricate enough to draw you in and make want to know all their secrets! The setting was amazing, definitely gives you those vacation vibes with the Greece setting and the jet setting the characters did. It was also one of those stories that just keeps you guessing and wondering what was actually the truth with so many unreliable narrators and the back and forth with the facts of the story. Definitely a great Summer thriller that begs to be read poolside!

I gave this book 4 stars. I liked the story line and characters! I wish the ending gave more information.

I liked what this was trying to do, but I never got super invested in the mystery. Not as much of a page-turning thriller as the type of thrillers I usually prefer. This was closer to mystery than thriller on the mystery thriller scale, and even then, I spent most of the book unsure of the mystery I was supposed to be trying to solve.

So not for me, but I can see others liking it!

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for an early copy of Ladykiller. COVER IS GORGEOUS. This was a FANTASTIC READ!!!! So, so, so goooooooooood! The characters were great and the writing left you wanting more each chapter. I Loved Gia’s manuscript part the Best. If you can get past alllllllllllll the sex scenes, you will thoroughly Enjoy this book. I still don’t know what is the truth at the end, I have an inkling but it left me pondering. Great novel, cannot wait to read more by her.

Abby has been friends with Gia since she was 13, when her mom got a job as Gia's family's personal chef. She and Gia attended the same schools, but when they were 18 an ex boyfriend of Gia's attacks Abby.
Now, 13 years later, Gia's and Abby have fallen out over Gia's hasty marriage, so trying to patch things up, Gia invites her brother and Abby to celebrate her 30th birthday in Sweden...but Gia doesn't show up and is acting weird. Where is GIa? What happened to her?

This was one of my favorite niche genre books--rich people behaving badly. Gia's rich and has barely worked a day in her life, but is now experiencing money trouble since her father died and left all of his cash to charity. She has to sell her beloved Greek vacation home, otherwise she's going to be out of money in just a few years. But something strange is going on--her husband needs money to bail out his struggling business, and the house guests they invited to stay with them after meeting at a restaurant may not be who they've said they are, and then brother Ben brings his actress girlfriend to join them and things just go absolutely sideways.

The characters are just what you want them to be--rich, jet setting, but struggling to hide money issues and troubles they've gotten into while throwing away daddy's cash on business ventures and extravagant lifestyles. And then you have Abby, focused on not falling into the same place her mother, making sure she has money. Her job as a lawyer leaves little time for fun, especially the impulsive kind that Gia favors. She almost turns Gia down for the bithday trip, but manages to secure the time off...only to get stood up.

There is a lot to enjoy about this book, from the secrets and lies to the gorgeous settings, but then you have...the well. Gia is obsessed about filling it in, but will we ever find out exactly why she's so adamant it gets filled in? The book is kind of messy in both good (messy rich people are a guilty pleasure of mine) and bad, there are a few things that probably should have been either edited out or given a good explanation, but overall, this was a fun read, great for a beach read.

"Secrets are like bodies. They need to be buried."

I just finished reading "Ladykiller," and was utterly hooked on the first page! The book's stunning cover initially caught my eye, and I couldn't help but wonder if the story inside would live up to it. Well, let me tell you, it absolutely did! I was so engrossed in the thrilling plot that I devoured the book in one day!

The setting was so incredible that I found myself wishing I could join the characters for drinks by the pool. As the story unfolded, I couldn't believe how oblivious Gia was to the true intentions of the people she had welcomed into her home. The suspense and plot twists had me on the edge of my seat, and I was utterly engrossed in the story until the end.

However, when the book concluded, I was left with so many questions. While I don't mind a bit of vagueness, there were too many loose ends. I hope there will be a sequel because I need answers from this talented author!

Thanks to Random House Publishing for sending me an ARC of this book through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and left voluntarily.

#KatherineWood #Ladykiller #randomhousepublishing #PengiunRandomHouse #GreekIsland #manuscript

The first half or so of this book was decidedly not for me. I found Gia’s manuscript to be annoying at best and repugnant at worst. It reminded me of a late night Cinemax movie. The tone was creepy and gross. I enjoyed the scenes with Abby and Benny, but they were so limited that I felt like I didn’t get to know those two characters very well. Once we were through Gia’s manuscript, I started enjoying the book more. After seeing how the book ended, I realized there were layers to Gia’s manuscript and the role it played in the story, but I don’t know whether that cleverness outweighed the unpleasantness of reading it.

Thank you to the publisher - I received a complimentary eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't like the characters in this one, but that's what the author meant to do. Poor little rich kids. How could they be so daft?! But then you get toward the end and "ohhhhhh". Because of that, though, some of the book was kind of a drudgery. It made sense in the end for the most part. If you like books that are tied up in a neat little bow at the end, you'll be a bit disappointed. Still a decent read. This one took a lot of forethought and planning to write. Not entirely sure how the title fits the book as it is written as one word. Two words makes more sense.

Man I've been traveling the world in my books lately. Going from Italy with One Italian Summer (review coming soon) to now this tiny Island in Greece and a beautiful glass ceiling hotel in Sweden.

This book started off really slow to me. But at about 25% in, it really started to pick up and had me binge reading until 3am. I was sure this would end up being a five star read for me until the ending though. Let me break it down:

Things I liked:
•The setting of course.
•The dual POV with one of them being a manuscript.
•It was sexy without being over the top and I really enjoyed that.
•Gia's storytelling in her manuscript had me hooked to every word and I knew since it was clearly a manuscript that I couldn't fully trust what it said so I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what was real and what wasn't.

Things I didn't love:
•The ending - I'm not a fan of books that leave an ending open ended or up for interpretation. I'd much rather know what happened and see the aftermath or conclusion from there.

Overall, I enjoyed the emotional journey this book took me on and do recommend it! If you're ok with an ending that might be a little more open-ended then you especially might like this!

I wanted to like this one as it was recommended to me by someone who loved and binged it. Unfortunately for me I stopped reading about 40% in. This book is told in 2 POV’s: Abby’s and Gia’s. Abby’s story is told in present day as she heads to the Greek Isles for a vacation Gia never shows up for. I liked her pov and the pace. Gia’s story however starts in the past and works its way forward in a series of “manuscript” chapters. I honestly really disliked these chapters, the unlikeable and unreliable narrator and the themes of adultery among other things. I know I a lot of people are loving this book it was just not for me.

This was an entertaining read with plenty of twists and turns. The setting is gorgeous, and the author's pace is good. Not a book that I'll remember for long, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

My thanks to Bantam for permitting me access to a DRC via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

2.5 stars rounded up.

the story of this book kept me hooked, but i definitely expected more. there wasn’t much suspense and everything i expected to happen… happened.

that being said, it was an easy read and i love a book with manuscript/journal chapters that give insight to what’s going on in the present. it was a good break from all the dark novels i seem to be drawn to. 😂

I loved this for what it was. A rich person domestic thriller. Honestly, Katherine Wood is the QUEEN of those.

The way this was written with some chapters of Abby’s POV and some chapters of Gia’s manuscript was brilliant. They perfectly played the reader as they were meant to. I do feel like it was a little predictable in some sense. There was only one twist at the very end that was a little shocking to me. But overall the ending was a little lacking for me. The whole journey was taking us a certain way and then it felt like there were so many loose ends. I think I know what I think about it but I guess it’s left up to the readers.

This is a never-ending mystery that the author did not solve. The story was well written; until it wasn’t.

Katherine Wood (Kat St John) is back with a summery suspense. Ladykiller is told by Abby as events unfold and Gia through a manuscript she’s writing. Abby goes to Sweden to see her best friend, Gia, and Gia’s brother but Gia never arrives and the pair grow suspicious of what happened and head to Greece to track her down. In the manuscript, Gia tells the reader of her troubled marriage.

What I liked: this was a page-turner, I had to know who the unreliable narrator was. It’s also suspenseful! Wood did a great job at crafting characters and a story where I wasn’t sure what was true and what was false. Even at the end, I’m thinking about it and what really happened.

What didn’t work for me: Wood’s characters usually have me thinking augh these people are the worst and this is no exception. If you don’t like unreliable badly behaving characters this might not be for you.

The ending is also ambiguous - like I want to talk to someone about it - so if you want things neatly tied up, try something else.

Who should read it: You like thrillers about people behaving badly and don’t mind an ambiguous ending.

Now, if you’ve read this one or when you do, DM because I want to talk theories.