Ladykiller alternates between Gia’s manuscript and Abby in the present. Gia has grown up with everything money can buy and Abby has been her sidekick, given access to Gia’s privileged world thanks to the generosity of Gia’s father. When Gia doesn’t show up to her own trip, Abby must find out if their past is connected to her disappearance.

There were parts I loved and parts that frustrated me. The atmosphere and scenery were very well written and brought the island to life. Both timelines and characters were interesting and had me wanting to find out what secrets they were keeping. I enjoyed Gia’s POV best and found her to be the character I was most intrigued by. Her wild and spontaneous nature made her more exciting to read.

This book started off slow, with just a sprinkle of mystery to keep me invested. About halfway through the pieces came together and it was predictable from there on out. The ending was what really left me wanting more but I also understand some people will enjoy it.

Overall, this is a great debut and perfect summer read if you’re looking for a thriller that isn’t too intense. Thank you NetGalley and Bantam/Random House for an advanced reader copy.

Using Gia's manuscript and Abby in the present, this tells the story of what happened to Gia, a wealthy young woman newly married to Garrett who has gone missing. Abby and Gia have been BFFs since forever and Abby wasn't happy about Garrett. But she's even more concerned when Gia doesn't come to her own party and so takes off to Greece with Gia's brother Benny to get answers. This isn't as much of a mystery as I'd thought it might be but rather a slow reveal of, well, the state of Gia's life. Both women are well written, the atmospherics are good, and it makes for a page turner. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

I dnfd at 33% - I did not like the characters and the storyline just wasn't for me. It had sone good moments of mystery but the sexual aspects of Gia's storyline went in circles and the plot didn't progress fast enough.

This is a fantastic debut! I was completely enthralled the entire time!!!

This is the story of an heiress (Gia) who likes to live on the wild side, but who has finally settled into the married life. But of course, nothing is as it seems! It gets violent, dramatic, and crazy.

It’s also the story of a not so affluent woman (Abby) who grew up with Gia and her brother. She is invited to vacation with the siblings in Sweden to see the aurora borealis, and reluctantly goes.

When Gia doesn’t show up, things start to unfold!

This is one salacious, devious, and insane story! I loved how it slowly unfurled.

I loved the descriptions of the Greek food and the island. It made me feel like I was there with them!

The story was a little long for me. I thought it didn’t really need the epilogue, but I really did enjoy this read!!

There are pieces of this book I didn’t enjoy but plenty of pieces I did. The book is told in two related storylines – one being chapters of Gia’s memoir taking place a few months prior and the other being Abby’s present storyline. Eventually the two timelines meet. I much preferred Abby’s chapters but looking back now, I think it might have been planned that the reader wouldn’t enjoy Gia’s memoir as much. Afterall, she was the less likable and relatable character. And her personality definitely came through in her writings.

Overall, considering this is the author’s debut novel, I think she did very well and I can see promise in her future books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam/Random House for the complimentary copy of this book. As always, the opinions expressed within this review are completely my own.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I was kind of all over the place with this book, one minute it was kind of slow, then the next I couldn’t read it fast enough. The ending really picked up, I couldn’t put it down.

At first it was hard to guess where the timeline was at in each POV, but after a while when I got it, I loved how it had Gia in the past and Abby in the present, working up to what happened.

I liked Gia’s POV the best in the beginning with her manuscript. Gia was way more interesting, but as the book went on you could see where she is more unlikeable. Even still, her portion of the book was much easier to get through. Every time it popped up to Abby’s POV I got so sad because I knew it was going to be boring for a while. But by the end, I was enjoying reading Abby’s POV! Maybe because we were getting back to figuring out what was going on. I was so desperate to know.

I love unreliable narrators and Gia and Abby both were!

I was having a lot of fun following and trying to figure out the mystery and where the lies were showing. I was suspect of everyone at some point. I loved how everything came together at the end. There were so many little references and things that were mentioned multiple times in the story and you didn’t know how it connected until the end. If you go back and reread the book, you can pick up on all the foreshadowing that you missed, which I love in books. That’s always a good sign someone wrote a good twist.

I could have done without the romance between Abby and Benny because it wasn’t very important to me, I couldn’t connect to their relationship at all so I didn’t care. I felt like it had no importance to the story, it was just there just to have a romance, but not all books need that. I would have been just as happy to find out what happened to Gia. Abby could have done that on her own, or if they wanted Benny in the story, there didn’t need to be a romance.

I didn’t mind the open ending because it pretty heavily implied what happened even if it wasn’t said point blank. In my opinion at least. It gave enough information that you can determine what you believe and I don’t mind that at all. As much as I said I wanted answers, I thought I got enough that I was satisfied.

I do recommend reading this! The setting was gorgeous. There were lots of twists and turns, and it kept me interested enough that I couldn’t wait to find out where the story was taking us.

BFF’s Gia and Abby plan on reuniting to celebrate heiress Gia’s 30th birthday since growing apart after a tragic trip to Greece as teenagers. Told from multiple perspectives this thriller will keep you guessing to the true intentions of the characters and guests. Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was a good paced thriller. A lot of the plot keeps you drawn in. I am not sure how I feel about the ending, it leaves you wanting more.

Thank you to Novel Suspects Insider Club and Netgalley for me to read this ARC.

Childhood friends Gia and Abby have had a rocky relationship following the traumatic event that happened when they were in their late teens. However, almost a decade later, Gia has invited Abby to Sweden to spend a birthday with her, her new husband, and her brother Benny. But before Abby and Benny can arrive in Sweden, they find they cannot contact Gia and messages to her are unreturned. Upon arriving in Gia’s home in Greece to look for her, they find her home abandoned, with Gia no where to be found.

Gia is described as being a writer, but really she is more of rich socialite surviving off the remnants of her father’s empire. When we meet her in this book, she has written a memoir and is working on a second. The book alternates between Gia’s POV as told from her work-in-progress memoir and Abby’s present day POV. Gia’s POV builds up to her disappearance and because it’s in her “writers voice” it makes you doubt how much of what she is telling, really happened, or happened as she describes, especially when compared to Abby's view of Gia.

Overall, the book is a fun, summer mystery, especially with the backdrop of Greece in summertime. The characters are perfectly untrustworthy which helps makes the story salacious and twisty. The ending was annoyingly open ended, but also kind of worked for this story.

I was impressed with this debut. Set primarily in Greece, it’s a slow burn mystery/thriller. It kept me guessing until the end and had hints of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Gone Girl. I will definitely read any books that follow this.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for my honest review. 3.75⭐️

On the surface this was really intriguing and interesting, and I did not have a bad time with this. It just felt very dense for the type of book this is. Maybe I’m just being picky but the sentences were very long and overly descriptive of inconsequential things.

I do think the plot and characterization were clever and I was interested throughout, but I felt like the story was bogged down by unnecessarily long sentences and paragraphs.

I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 6/28/24. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

When Abby and her best friend Gia’s younger brother, Benny, go to celebrate Gia’s birthday they’re shocked to discover that she’s not there. As time passes they begin to get increasingly worried that something has happened to Gia at the hands of her new husband in their home on a Greek island. Told partly through a manuscript written by Gia about the ongoing a at the house and from Abby’s perspective reflecting on their friendship during their travels the reader is left questioning who to believe.

This was a wild ride. Rich people behaving poorly. Scammers scamming people. Dark secrets and truths that if the come to life could damage everything. There’s not a lot more you could ask for in a thriller.

This is a story full of twists & turns about an heiress who goes missing in Greece, and the journey her best friend takes to uncover clues and reveal secrets into the truth. The story will leave you questioning the true motives of the character, as well as how much wealth is fueling people's actions. The ending does leave the reader with a more vague ending than I would prefer.

What an exciting, twisty read! I flew through this book because I was gripped from the beginning and didn’t want to put it down. If you love books with an unreliable narrator; this one is definitely for you. Throughout the whole book it’s hard to figure out who is telling the truth and who is deceiving you.

I absolutely loved that the main setting was in Greece. Katherine’s descriptions of the settings painted a perfect picture in my head. The beauty of the island fit so well with the drama, murder, and a little bit of spice of the story.

It’s a slow burn but worth it in the end. And the ending will leave you reeling and shocked (but in a good way). I can’t say too much without ruining the twists so…. Get this book on your radar!!

A great summer thriller! This one had me guessing until the end. I didn’t love the ending but that’s a personal issue and it didn’t ruin the book at all, just not my favorite way of ending when it comes to thrillers. Highly recommend for reading by the pool or beach this summer!

This book immediately grabbed me with the young, rich jetsetting friends, the beautiful location (Greece) and the premise of friends who have fallen out but are holding on to what was. The end of the book felt a bit rushed to me and I wish it was fleshed out a bit more. 3.5 stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited about Ladykiller and the premise of this psychological thriller. The first part of the book was good. I was disappointed with the ending because everything was resolved quickly. I was not in love with these characters. Thank you for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ladykiller is a smart psychological thriller — a book based on a book based on a book. Specifically, Patricia Highsmith and “The Talented Mr. Ripley “ run through the novel like a plumb line.

The book is written by Katherine Wood, a/k/a Katherine St. John (author of “The Lion’s Den,” “The Siren,” and “The Vicious Circle). The plotting and pacing are superb, as is the character development. The book moves between Abby and Gia, the past and the present, in search of the truth. But as the novel’s epigraph warns (with a quote from “The Talented Mr. Ripley”) this is no easy task: “His stories were good because he imagined them intensely, so intensely that he came to believe them.”

In terms of a brief overview, the novel opens on the death of Hugo Torres, a patriarch who left all of his money to his foundation, while leaving his properties throughout the world to each of his children. The book focuses on the children of his second marriage, Gia Highsmith Torres (yes, I know), and her brother Benny. Gia’s best fried Abby also attends the funeral. She is a lawyer who is Gia’s best friend and Benny’s secret crush. She is also the daughter of the family’s chef and a beneficiary of Hugo’s largesse during her childhood.

Gia inherits property in Greece, and Wood does justice to the beautiful location. There is a rift between Gia and Abby as Abby did not believe Gia should marry Garrett, a slick guy with no internet presence who she had only known for one month. Nevertheless, Abby agrees to meet Gia and Benny at an upscale resort in Sweden to see the northern lights for Gia’s 30th birthday. But Gia never shows up, claiming illness.

Benny and Abby go to Greece in order to find her, but she’s not there. Instead, she has left a manuscript for a book later to become “Ladykiller” as a clue. However, what actually happened to Gia, and is her manuscript true? 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5.0 stars). Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary advance copy of this book.

I devoured this book! It was everything you want in a perfect summer read – secrets, exotic location (Greek islands) and the spoiled rich young people. It started kind of slow, but it was interesting enough that I kept reading to find out where this was all going. I can’t tell that I liked any of the characters but that didn’t bother me, it was the reason this story was so good. The ending was a little disappointing, but I hope it means there’s a second book in the works already…

This is a great beach/pool summer read. I highly recommend it!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine – Bantam for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This started out slow and it was half way through the book that it started to get more interesting. Too many characters, and confusing plot. I had a hard time keeping track of who said what, and did what. There were lots of twists and turns, and it got harder and harder to stop reading it, but ended up enjoyable.