This is a 3.5 for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy. Ladykiller is told by two best friends, Abby, in the first person, and Gia via her manuscript. This approach makes for interesting storytelling though, at times, was a little confusing, especially in the beginning. It took me a while to totally get into the rhythm of the book and it didn’t really take off for me until about half way through. The mood is established when it uses a quote from The Talented Mr. Ripley as an Epigraph, and uses a setting on a beautiful Greek island. The plotting is very complex and twisty. Gia is not a sympathetic character so when doubts arise as to her actions and veracity, it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not. As Abby questions, “Was she f—-ing with me, or was she just being Gia, impulsive and insensitive to everyone else’s needs?”. Who’s good and who’s not? “Protagoras believed that the truth was relative, because what one person might consider to be true, another might consider to be false.” The book certainly keeps you off-balance and proved a good read.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars for rating purposes

This book follows Abby and Gia, unlikely friends that formed a close bond throughout their childhood until a tragic event happens while they are in Greece. Gia used the tragedy to write book entail what happened and Abby went on to become an attorney through the kindness of Gia's father funding her schooling.

This story flashes to the present, which is 12 years after the event, and Gia has invited Abby and her brother, Benny, to celebrate her birthday watching the Northern Lights. Abby accepts the invitation after feeling guilty telling Gia she couldn't marry someone only a month after meeting. The multiple POV is told from Abby's view and Gia's manuscript, a mix of reality and fiction. When Gia doesn't end up meeting her brother and best friend in Sweden, they find out things had started to go wrong for Gia and her new husband.

The twists of the story made it interesting and a quick read. I wanted to know what was happening and who really was the bad guy. I enjoyed the mix of what I consider a reliable and unreliable narrator throughout the story, but a majority of the time you have no idea where the craziness is going to come through. I enjoyed the characters throughout, but Benny was my favorite which was sad considering he was not a main character. Abby and Gia are likable but do a lot of questionable things throughout the book.

I recommend this book for those that like a twisty story told from 2 POVs and potentially with unreliable information being provided. The ending is also open-ended so if you like a nice and complete ending this may not be the read for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the e-ARC in return for an honest review!

I enjoyed this fun mystery that kept me entertained the entire time. It was fun and suspenseful but also kept me guessing with the unique premise. 4 out of 5 stars.

This is quite unique mystery that twists with long buried secrets, lies, and deceit. Set on a beautiful, remote island in Greece the story centers on Gia, daughter of privilege, and Abby, daughter of the family's chef. They have been best friends since childhood but have become estranged by Gia's hasty marriage to someone she barely knows. Both are still haunted by a secret from their past. The plot takes quite unexpected twists and turns and kept my attention from beginning to end! Katherine Wood has skillfully combined Abby’s narration of events with Gia’s “manuscript” of her life, past and present, including both a new husband and new friends who are not what they seem. Does Gia’s manuscript of her life reflect the truth, or just the image she wishes to portray of herself as a tragic heroic victim. It is an exciting read from beginning to an end that still leaves you guessing just a bit! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy. The opinions of my review are my own.

Ladykiller by Katherine Wood is such a great who did it read!! This book reminded me of Verity. If you like books with a suspenseful thrill ride, an escapist journey, murder, con artists, that has many twists and turns then you will love this book. Told thru dual POV Abby and Gia’s manuscript.

Gia, Benny, and Abby have been friends since they were kids. They met as kids when Abby’s father became the chef to Gia’s well off family.

Years later, Abby and Benny are meeting Gia to celebrate her birthday that was supposed to take place on a remote Greek island, that belonged to Gia and Benny’s family. When they get there, there is no sign of Gia anywhere. While searching for Gia they find a manuscript written by Gia telling the events that had unfolded in the last couple of days. They are in a race against time to find out what happened to Gia and her new husband Garrett who may not be who he said he was.

I could not put down this who did it story that was full of mystery, con artists, intrigue, suspense, who is lying, who is telling the truth murder mystery. The end left me with questions and wanting to know who was telling the truth and what really happened…I have to know!! Thank you to Bantam Books and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

Abby and Gia are lifetime besties...or are they?

From the moment I saw this cover/title I knew I had to read this book!
I am happy to say it did not disappoint!

Reading this book from Gia's point of view, I felt like I was laying poolside in Greece with the sun beating down on me without a care in the world. From Abby's point of view, I could feel the nerves and excitement! This book had me hooked from Page 1 and it never stopped. I loved how descriptive the book was, to actually make you feel like you were there and feeling their feelings. I loved that there was such a range of emotions in the book to keep you guessing the entire time. Jealousy, love, lust, longing, anger, suspense, happy, thrill. It was such a fun summer read.
The only con to this book is how it ended. Let me clarify by saying that it didn't end bad, just left me wondering for the rest of my life! WHYYYYYYY!!!
With that being said, may we have another? Sequel perhaps?
I would recommend this to anyone I can get to listen to me :)

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine, and the author for allowing me to read this eBook in exchange for my honest review!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Mystery Thriller

Gia, an heiress, and Abby, the daughter of Gia's family chef, are the protagonists of this novel. They have known each other since childhood, and the plot centers on their friendship and the ways in which it will impact their lives.

The celebration of Gia's birthday was supposed to take place on a remote Greek island, but unexpected events occurred! There is no sign of Gia. In an effort to unravel this mystery, Abby and Gia's brother will read Gia's manuscript, which contains a comprehensive account of the occurrences that occurred prior to Gia's disappearance.

The narrative is told in the first person, from the point of view of both of the women, with Gia's narration taking place through the words that she has written in her manuscript. Despite the fact that the story appears to be interesting and the writing is also of high quality, I did not feel completely invested in this tale or the characters.

Recently, I finished reading an advanced reader copy of a book with a broad concept comparable to this one. One of the characters went missing, and the narration style was comparable to this one! The difference lies in the fact that the two women in this story are childhood friends, whereas, in the previous book, they were mother and daughter. Of course, the stories and circumstances are totally different, but the concepts are very similar.

The twists in the story were undoubtedly intriguing and had the potential to elevate the narrative. I think there will be many readers who will enjoy them. However, the execution left much to be desired. The buildup to these twists was insufficient, resulting in a lack of context and emotional investment, at least from me. The twists seemed to come out of nowhere, which I felt disturbed the flow of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

LADYKILLER
Katherine Wood

First half:
Sexy
Sharp writing
Playful
Exotic
Luxurious

Second half:
Stereotypical storyline

For Gia, it’s champagne toasting on an ordinary Tuesday, island hopping, sex on the beach, and staying in daddy’s summer house for the week rent-free and writing to tell all about it.

For Abby, it’s textbooks, torts, and memories that haunt her. Although best friends their lives have never been the same. Gia had everything handed to her that Abby had to work hard for.

Off the cusp of a quick marriage, her father’s death, and the publishing of her first successful book Gia invites Abby to stay with for a time. Abby is at first hesitant but reluctantly agrees. Gia’s first book was a memoir and Gia told it all. Including what happened to both in Greece 12 years ago.

We follow along as old wounds resurface, secrets that were buried deep are unearthed, and rough times from the past look like a walk in the park in Katherine Wood’s LADYKILLER.


Told in part through excerpts from Gia’s sexed-up manuscript. The story starts out hot, but the fire gets extinguished by introducing a stereotypical storyline. It was a little too easy to pick out the bad guy and unfortunately, once I identified them as such the material never deviated from its original course.

LADYKILLER unraveled as it went on. Tying up all the loose ends was an effort and it felt like reading it. It was such a bummer because I enjoyed the first half. I will check out the next book Wood writes if the timing is right.

Thanks to Netgalley, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam for the advanced copy and the opportunity to provide feedback!

LADYKILLER…⭐⭐⭐

In this gripping mystery, when heiress Gia vanishes, her best friend Abby must decode the enigmatic clues hidden within Gia's explosive manuscript to uncover the truth. The story weaves together their shared history of a tragic event in Greece, where their bond was sealed twelve years ago. This started strong, but the ending fell a little flat for me.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel.

The descriptives of of this Greek island where the story evolves has the reader feeling the hot sun, seeing white houses and blue ocean.........you're there.
     Gia, newly married, needs to see her best friend and brother because there are issues at home. They are to meet in Sweden.....she needs to talk.......they go but Gia never arrives.
     Gia has inherited a small sum of money and a greek house, all of which she gladly shares with her new husband. She has been questioned on this quick romance and wedding and the man who she knows so little about by her brother and friend. Her accountant has given her a warning about his spending and his "business" ventures which she rationalizes. Gia is defending her actions until she no longer can, thus the trip to meet in Sweden.
    Problems first materialize in Greece after a couple who have  unexpected car issues and unavailable hotel accommodations are befriended by Gia and her husband at a bar and they invite them to their home for the night. Now the reader knows where this is all leading.
    It's both mystery and thriller with characters that will leave the readers with many unanswered questions.........but it's worth it.

This is a good solid thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole entire time.

Abby hasn’t seen her best friend Gia since she married her husband. Now their all suppose to be meeting for vacation and Gia is no where to be found.

This thriller kept me entertained the whole entire time. We get Abby’s POV and then Gia’s POV through her manuscript. By the end of the book you don’t know who to believe and your left thinking about this book.

I did not feel like there was a slow part in this book. It feels like you find out something new every chapter.

If you like thrillers where everything is wrapped up neatly at the end. This is not for you. We are left with questions towards the end and you are left to wonder what really happened.

You never know what is going on in the secret lives of the rich.

Genre: Thriller
APK: Ebook
Pages: 368
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

Thank you Netgalley for the arc of this book! This is my first book by this author. From the description I thought I would enjoy it a lot more than I did. I feel baffled, and like none of my questions were ever answered. I feel very let down with this book, and would rate it like 2.5?

Ihad high hopes for this book and it started off strong but seemed to fizzle somewhere in the middle. I can’t really put my finger on the why. I think it’s because I wanted less assumptions and more concrete happenings.

Abby and Gia are best friends, although it's an uneven one with a twisted power dynamic. Gia is newly married and invites her hardworking attorney friend to Scandinavia to celebrate. When Abby and Gia's brother arrive in Norway, Gia is nowhere to be found and isn't answering her phone. The two are concerned enough about her wellbeing that they travel to Greece, where Gia is staying with her new husband. There, they find a manuscript written by Gia that helps them piece together a puzzle.

I found the beginning of this book to be slow, but it picked up in the second half. I enjoyed the unbalanced friendship and thought of owing one another to create a specific kind of trust (or lack of trust) and tension throughout the novel. Overall, it was a quick ready from the second half, although it took some time to get in to.

This intriguing story grabs the reader from the beginning chapter and keeps the momentum going throughout the novel. The narrative uses alternating POV between two friends and timelines: Abby in the present day and the manuscript written by Gia, which runs from five months earlier to the present. Almost every character in the novel has secrets, and the reader is left to wonder how much of the truth any character is revealing at any given time. This device ratchets up the suspense—who doesn’t love an unreliable narrator (or two)? A traumatic event that took place years earlier during their college days informs the present actions and relationships of both Gia and Abby, and the gradual revelation of the truth of that event propels the novel towards its climax as present-day events unfold—including spousal abuse, fraud, a billionaire’s will, secret identities, abduction, and murder. The characters are great, the action is tense, and the conclusion is satisfying.

3.5 stars!
Ladykiller is somewhat of a romance mystery set on an idyllic island of Greece. The author, Katherine Wood, takes us between the viewpoints of bestfriends Gia and Abby through two fateful summers that change their life forever. But who's story are you going to believe?
Gia and Abby are about to reunite in Switzerland, Abby takes time off work from her demanding job as a lawyer and Gia... disappears. In the search for Gia her manuscript shows up detailing the last few months on the island, which has been anything but a vacation. Will Gia show up, and what is she really trying to tell Abby in her manuscript? Only Gia can tell.
This book had me the perfect amount of engaged. As soon as I was ready to switch over to a different point of view, Katherine Wood was already ahead of me. This is not one that you could figure out what was going to happen next. She left the ending open to interpretation, which I almost wish she would have told me what exactly happened as she envisioned it. But I can also appreciate the creativity! She did a great job of building up the anticipation to the end, more than enough to keep you engaged and wanting to read in one sitting! Her description of the Greek island really had you transporting there in your mind, her illustrations felt real and was a summer trip to remember!
I will recommend this book to friends because I want their take on the ending and what they think is the truth!
Thank you to Random House publishing group/Ballantine, netgalley, and Katherine Wood for the advanced reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

LADYKiller
by Katherine Wood
Pub Date: July 9, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Everyone has a story. But not everyone’s story is true.
When a young woman vanishes from her remote Greek island estate, her best friend races to find her, using clues found in the explosive manuscript she left behind.
How could I turn down a widget for a title and cover this beautiful ??
I started off intrigued... but my midpoint it was just meh to me.
While this story started off super strong, it unfortunately lost its way somewhere past the halfway mark. We are left to assume to know what happened towards the end, but for me I would have liked this story to be wrapped up in a nice pretty red bow. I am left with way more questions than answers, and rather unsatisfied with the ending. I also started off liking Gia and Abby pretty strongly, but by the end I didn’t care much for either one of them (although I definitely liked one more than the other).

This book might be a better read for those who don’t mind stories that take sudden twists and turns of action and have an open ending.

The beginning of Ladykiller captured my attention. However, I tired of it aboit halfway through. It just didn't keep my attention.

Years after a tragedy at Gia’s family’s summer estate in Greece, the Gia, her best friend Abby, and Gia’s brother Benny are to reunite to see the northern lights. Suspicions grow as Gia does not show up, and instead, sends crypitc messages, causing Abby and Benny to race to Greece for answers. Gia is not at the house, but her manuscript is, where Gia unveils the ominous summer events leading up to her disappearance, involving her husband and two guests. But where is Gia now?

Ladykiller is a fun thriller with beautifully written characters and an even more beautiful location. This was a fun read and I enjoyed the character depths and the dual point of views.

Thank you Katherine Wood and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and Netgalley for my ARC.

Overall held my interest - quick read but nothing earth-shattering. Would recommend as a beach read for thriller lovers.