Gia and Abby are best friends. Gia was the rich one, and Abby's mother worked for her family, and through that relationship, Abby benefited by attending boarding school and receiving a college education. But a tragedy happened when they were eighteen and they haven't been as close as they once were. Gia reached out to invite Abby to join her and her brother, Benny, in Sweden to see the Northern Lights, and Abby takes time off to join her old friend. Gia never shows, and Abby and Benny grow concerned that something horrible happened to her. They head to Greece and find a copy of a manuscript that Gia's written that describes the last month and just might lead them to figure out where she is.

The story alternates between Abby's story and Gia's written manuscript. The chapters with Gia's written manuscript were fantastical and kept me turning the pages. She's newly married to Garrett and working on renovating her Greece house before selling it when they meet up with Timeo and Emelia. Gia's very free spirited and carefree and embraces her new friends and welcomes them into her home. And that's when the story picks up. While the reader can guess where the story will go, I still enjoyed the ride that took me there. I enjoyed the setting of the book and the set up of the story even though it was a little too predictable for me.

Thank you to Random House for the opportunity to read and review.

Childhood friend Gia and Abby have a falling out when Gia decides to marry a man she has known for only a month. Gia is a wealthy young woman whose father recently passed away leaving her only their vacation home on a Greek island. She wants to reconnect with Abby so she invites her and Gia's brother to Sweden for a weekend to celebrate her birthday, only she doesn't show up. Abby and Benny are worried and fly to Greece to try to find out where Gia is.

There are a lot of secrets and who is telling the truth, first person Abby or Gia who we hear from through the manuscript she is writing. There is a whole lot going on including Abby's affection for Benny and her very poor life she led before Gia's father started paying for her schooling. She knows that she owes her career and better life to Gia's family.

I read this so quickly, admittedly we were on a road trip, but I was very absorbed into the story and really wanted to know how it would come together and yes, who was telling the truth. There was some ambiguity in the ending and I know some people have a real problem with that, but I have my theory and I'm sticking to it.

The locations in this novel are incredible and worth the read by themselves; Greece and Sweden both are beautifully described.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I was excited for this summer thriller especially because of the European setting, but quickly found myself bored and decided to DNF at 7%. The main characters were annoying and I didn't care one bit about the woes of rich people. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

This was a first for me by this author and she did not disappoint. It started a little slow as the background and plot were built up, but once it got going, I couldn't read fast enough. The twists and intrigues of the various players in the book kept me guessing to the end and I was left a bit shook!
This book is the ultimate in unreliable narrators, as you never know who or what to believe as Abby and Benny search for Gia after she disappears from her house on a Greek island where she has been staying with her new husband and a couple they met while at dinner one night.
Add to this the buildup of a relationship between Abby, the longtime best friend of Gia and a lawyer, and Gia's younger brother Benny as they search for the Gia and the truth behind her disappearance.
Just when you think you have it figured out there is another twist. Put this at the top of your summer thriller reading list!

This was such a great read! Gia and Abby grew up together, spending their summers in beautiful Greece at Gia’s family vacation home. They are so close that Gia’s father pays for Abby’s expensive college tuition to help her change her life circumstances. Fast forward to modern day and Gia has impulsively married and is preparing the vacation home for selling after her father’s death. She reaches out to Abby and her brother, Benny, to meet her in Sweden to see the Northern Lights and celebrate her birthday. But when she fails to show up and Abby and Benny receive only suspicious text messages from Gia, they set off for Greece to find her. Little do they know the mysteries that will need to be solved and the ghosts from the past will resurface putting their friendship in question.

I loved this one and I love this trope. Much like ‘Before We Were Innocent’, ‘You Can Trust Me’, and very much carrying the vibe of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’, this is a destination thriller surrounding young rich women doing questionable things that can only lead to murder and mayhem! Pick this one up for an amazing beach read this summer!

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Ballantine, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on July 9, 2024

I will read anything that has an heiress attached. They are generally great for entertainment and Ladykiller is no different. The setting itself was alluring, as were the twists and turns. This was suspenseful and a great read.

I've read all of Katherine's novels (known by another name before this book??). This one wasn't my favorite. It was an okay thriller, but nothing super memorable. Great setting though as with all of her other books.

First I’d like to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for the ARC of this novel.

I was very intrigued by the cover and title of this book. It sounded like the perfect summer read. Plus it’s set it Greece…sign me up.

It was a decent 4 star read for me. I enjoyed the multiple POV’s but definitely preferred Abby’s over Gia’s.

It was a fun summer read but I would have liked a more concrete ending.

I would definitely recommend it to friends who are looking for a summer thriller/mystery novel.

4/5 stars

#ladykiller #netgalley

Katherine Wood has written a vivid, sumptuous thriller set on a tiny island in Greece, where a newlywed heiress, without enough money left, is selling the house in order to….? Hmm, not sure.

The main protagonists are rich girl Gia, who we mostly know through her manuscript/maybe diary; her very new but mostly unknowable husband Garrett; Abby, lifelong poor friend who is forever bonded to Gia after an incident years ago that ended up with a dead man; and Benny, Gia’s brother (and sometimes crush of Abby’s). After an estrangement, Gia invited Benny and Abby to celebrate her birthday and experience a bucket list item, seeing the northern lights, in Sweden. Except Gia is a no-show and Abby and Benny redirect themselves to the Grecian Islands to try to locate Gia. The beach house is strangely deserted, but they do find Gia’s manuscript, chronicling events (and mysterious house guests) up until her disappearance.

The POVs are primarily from Abby (present and past) and Gia’s written story. Author Wood writes compelling characters, but Abby is the more relatable and you worry about the reliability of Gia’s manuscript (well, this was also supposed to be the basis for a book, but is it fiction or true story?) The book has a lot of salacious moments and the Grecian paradise gives new meanings to Bacchanalia. Plus, add a cursed well, dead goats and anonymous email threats to Abby to the story. The ending is a little ambiguous, but not frustratingly so. In fact, Gia and Abby and all their secrets could very well pop up in a sequel. 4 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Abby has green eyes, as does Camila Delgado, Oscar nominated actress.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO We do experience the landscape of Greece — olive trees, bougainvillea, purple and yellow wildflowers.

Thank you to Random House, Ballantine/Bantam and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Abby is supposed to meet her old high school friend Gia and Gia's brother, Benny, in Sweden for the northern lights. Gia has been living in Greece with her new husband Garrett, getting the family villa ready to sell. Abby is reluctant to leave her busy job in Atlanta, but ultimately agrees. When she and Benny arrive, Gia is nowhere to be found and they get suspicious enough that something is wrong that they go to Greece looking for answers.

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. We had chapters from Abby's perspective in the present day, and we had lots of chapters of Gia's manuscript, where she detailed her life in the months leading up to the Sweden trip. I love the Greek isle setting off a Mykonos, and I was interested in this story right out of the gate. I never got bored and I really wanted to know what would happen to Gia as things in her marriage took a turn. My only issue is that the end was a bit ambiguous and open to interpretation and I like a more concrete conclusion.

The cover of this book made me want to get there immediately. Once I got into the book, it was just so so. I was not a fan of the back and forth POV. I found that Gia's POV was a bit harder to get through versus Abby's because Gia was set up to be the unlikeable one a little too well. I like a good negative person with some redeeming qualities and never could find that here. The ending was especially frustrating but some people will like not having everything tied up into a neat bow.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the copy of Ladykiller by Katherine Wood. It was worth waiting for the mystery to be revealed in order to learn more about each character. While I didn’t really like the characters, they were interesting with good stories. Maybe I have read too many thrillers or I’m just naturally suspicious, but I had the liars pegged early on so the reveals weren’t much of a shock. The book was engaging and I loved reading Gia’s manuscript. This would be the perfect summertime book to get lost in, and the writing will keep you reading until the end! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Personally, I think it could have been shorter. I loved the writing and felt like I could really envision the setting and felt attached to some of the characters. However, I didn't like the ending. I was super into this book until about the last 30%

I know they always say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but this is honestly what brought me to this book. The blue water just looks absolutely refreshing and the woman looks relaxed and seems to be enjoying herself. I found myself envying her. Then, I read the title, and was even more ready to read this book.

The book alternates between two different point of views. One is the manuscript of Gia, an heiress who lives in what sounds like a palace in Greece. The other POV is her best friend Abby, who is the daughter of the chef for Gia's family when the girls were teenagers. We find out Gia got married, but Abby told her not to rush things causing a little bit of a riff between the two. They have plans to meet for Gia's birthday, along with Gia's brother Benny. Abby and Benny get there and Gia is no where to be seen and neither can get ahold of her. This leads to lots of twists, turns, and tales of the past that are full of scandal.

Overall, there were things that I did and did not like about this book. I wasn't sure how it would be reading from Abby's point of view (which is in the present mostly, but does go back to the past) and that of Gia's manuscript. For me, it didn't end up being confusing. I loved hearing about the life of luxury that the main character lived. What I didn't like was the way that it ended. I could not stop reading because I needed answers and in the end, the author leaves it for the reader to decide. I really just wanted everything to be crossed and dotted. That's personally what I prefer, but some people like endings like that and I respect that.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine, and Katherine Wood for allowing me access to this ARC!

This was my first time reading this author so I don’t know if her style just doesn’t work for me or if it’s just this book but I had a hard time with this one. It was kind of convoluted and the characters blended together. I think the idea was really interesting, it was just wasn’t executed the best for me.

I have never read anything by this author.

There was a lot going on and was confusing at times and hard to follow. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the storyline was because there were so many different POV. The mystery was there but holy cow this just fell flat due to the array of stuff going on.

There should have been more to the story line and less confusing.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

A twisty mystery set on a Greek island, where a woman has gone missing and only her brother and best friend seem to care. Ladykiller was a bit hard to follow in areas, but overall engaging and kept me guessing.

I have never read a book by this author. There was a LOT going on in this story. It was hard to tell what the "main" story line was as there was so many side story lines. It was a good mystery - yet, I needed less details and more focus on the main story line.

I was drawn in by the lovely cover and intriguing title. It was an interesting story about two friends who took very different paths after a tragedy when they were younger. One friend's path included a juicy memoir so when she goes missing, a manuscript tells them where to start.. until it doesn't. It ends abruptly, ad quickly as it started and it's left the friends wondering if they're out of time.

Have you ever listened to a podcast, read a memoir, or watched a documentary and wondered how much of it was true? What would the other side say?

When Gia disappears instead of meeting her brother and best friend, they must use her book to find out what happened to her. The problem is that Gia is a story teller, an embellisher, and while some of it is verifiable, how do you weed through the rest? Could her last few months really have been as grandiose as she describes? Knowing her, it’s possible. But also knowing her, it might not be. How do you find someone when you aren’t sure you can trust the only clues left behind?

I did find the story captivating and it held my attention enough to read through it quickly. I was trying to understand all of the pieces and how they fit together throughout the novel. Even though I was able to guess the ending, the story was told so well that I didn’t mind that fact.

However, I did take off one star due to personal preference on the graphic nature of some of the content. I understand why it was added, but I personally don’t want to read it in as much detail as was provided. I found myself skipping tidbits because of it, but it was also written in a way that it was impossible to really do that. The graphic bits were sprinkled throughout rather than poured into a couple of pages. So readers that don’t want to read about a salacious sex life, beware. It’s in there, it’s unavoidable, and it’s surprisingly graphic for as short as those pieces are.