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.

The beginning of this book was suspenseful and intriguing. I found myself drawn into this world and invested in what would happen next. The way the story is divided between Abby’s narration and Gia’s manuscript is interesting especially as we find later that Gia’s manuscript may have some fictional elements to it.

But then the end. I was really disappointed by it. The whole story felt like it fizzled out. I don’t necessarily need my ending tied up with a little bow, but I needed more than what we got.

Overall, I liked the writing and the atmosphere, but found the plot to be a bit lacking.

Note: I received this book free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was so glued to this. It was hard to put down.
I don’t know that it was necessarily the best thriller ever but it kept me guessing and invested the whole time.

Abby and Gia have been besties for a long time they have secrets from each other and secrets that tie them together. When Gia marries a man she just met Abby wasn’t supportive and they fell out until Gia sends her a ticket to Sweden to see the northern lights and so they can mend their friendship. But Gia never shows up and Abby gets worried and needs to find her. Throughout the story we get what is happening presently with Abby and chapters of Gias manuscript telling the details of her marriage and the events that led to her disappearance.

The characters were not all that like able but intriguing nonetheless. I enjoyed the writing and the plot and will probably think about this book for a while.

Thanks to netgalley and random house for an eARC

Very dull and slow paced. Found the switch in narration disconcerting and neither character was likable, but arguably Gia was worse

This book had a great premise and I was honestly so excited to read it, but I was left unsatisfied with the ending. I am the type of person that always has a million questions, so not really having the answer to anything in the end really frustrated me. Overall, I think this was a fun read, I just wish the ending wasn’t so open ended.

This is the perfect twisty-turny summer beach read that will have you questioning what is really true. The story centers on BFFs Abby and Gia. Gia is a trust fund baby who has always made sure that her best friend, and daughter of the help, has been afforded the life that would otherwise be unattainable. From private boarding schools to summers in Greece, wherever Gia went, Abby went too. A tragedy that occurred in Greece bonded the girls for life, but it also set them off on different paths. Gia and Abby haven’t spoken in a year because Gia got married to someone she barely knew, and Abby told her to think it though. When Abby receives an invitation to watch the Northern Lights in an Exclusive Swedish hotel with just Gia and her brother Benny it seems like the perfect way to reconnect. When Gia fails to show up in Sweden leaving only cryptic text messages, Benny and Abby decided to fly to Greece find out what’s going on. When they arrive the beach house is empty, and they only have a manuscript to offer them clues as to what may have happened to Gia. This book jumps between present day Abby chapters and chapters of Gia’s manuscript until the two stories align. The tension is built up slowly and it has you constantly questioning the truth. The setting is rich, and you feel like you can feel the seductive heat of coastal Greece. I think that Katherine Wood wrote a perfect beach read that will have readers on the edge of their seat and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

This was a WILD ride! I had a great time reading Ladykiller. It was so easy to get lost in the story and atmosphere. It did feel like two different books for a good while because of the dual POVs and timelines, but once they match up, WHOA. The buildup and rising tension though was fantastic. I had a very hard time putting this down. There’s a lot of focus on privilege and rich people problems, which I happen to love, but I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea so just be prepared. I also thought it was such an interesting character study while also being a bit salacious in parts which added to the intrigue. It gave me A Simple Favor vibes in the absolute best way. The ending is probably going to infuriate some readers. It definitely made me yell “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” at first, but after some thought, I kind of love how it ended (you’ll see). If you’re looking for a twisty, luxurious summer thriller, I’d recommend this one.
CW: toxic friendship, mentions of stalking, mentions of sexual assault, domestic violence, death of a parent, infidelity, gun violence

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review