Member Reviews
Reading any of Katherine’s books feels like catching up with an old friend, who is the best story teller and always has the best tea! This book had me on edge and staying up late. It’s a perfect mix of seduction and thriller! A must read! Thanks NetGallery!
The Lady killer is a intense mystery, with lots of twists and turns that make you want to keep reading until the end. The characters were interesting, the scenery descriptions on point and the story kept you on your toes. There were a few things left hanging at the end that I would have loved explained, but overall, I enjoyed the story and would recommend. Can't wait to read other books by this author!
Fans of Katherine St. John, hold on to your hats, she’s dropped her pen name! Ladykiller kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. While a little unnecessarily raunchy at times, I ate this UP. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced reader copy. This will definitely be a top read for me of 2024. Publication date July 9, 2024.
This book started out really slow. I read the first few chapters, put the book down, then didn’t remember what it was about when I picked it back up. The story just wasn’t sticking with me. Once it picked up, about 60% through, it got semi interesting, then flopped at the end. Gia was manipulative and they played her off as being naive. It was a good coverup until the truth started coming out and you saw her real character. Then the ending left too many questions unanswered. It ended without finishing the story. I wanted to know the truth of Gia, was she crazy? Where did she end up? Was Abby right in accusing Gia of everything? What happened to Garrett? Where is Emilia? I wanted more out of the ending.
great beach read..who is the poor little rich girl getting away with possible murder. and who is the husband? Is he a con artist working with a couple of other con artists to relieve the rich girl of all her money? is there anything in the poisoned well on the greek property? book good enough to keep interest to the final chapter. Was Gia really in Paris spying on her brother and Abby?
I really enjoyed this book, and found the plot compelling. I typically don’t like books that are written from more than one POV as much but this author did a remarkable job with switching POVs. My biggest complaint with this book is I felt like many of the questions I had at the end of the book weren’t answered.
Loved Ladykiller! Tense psychological thriller that starts slowly but builds suspense as the book evolves. Gia and Abby are best friends who have lost the closeness they had growing up.
Gia invites Abby to spend time with her and her husband and brother Benny at their father’s home in Greece. Gia reluctantly agrees and the story unfolds from there.
Don’t miss this one!
Was drawn to this book by the cover initially, then saw the word 'heiress' in the synopsis and was all the way in. This book had me hooked from the first page and I sped through it. I found it so difficult to put down. 4.5 stars.
I liked this one! I read it on a whim and it was pretty good! I did recommend to a few friends. I liked the plot of it.
Interesting read with lots of twists and turns. I always like a “Talented Mr. Ripley” theme one was pretty decent. Definitely great to read on vacation and a fast read. I would recommend and read another book by this author.
LADYKILLER by Katherine Wood is a twisty suspense set in the Greek Isles. The author does an admirable job in bringing the setting to life through vivid imagery. It’s difficult not to want to hop on the next plane and visit Greece with its golden sand beaches and crystalline turquoise waters. However, it was hard to connect to the characters. Told from two different points of view: rich and overly entitled Gia and her underprivileged best friend, Abby. Gia’s story is told mainly through a manuscript she writes at her vacation home on a remote Greek island. Abby’s story is her quest to find out what happened to Gia, with the help of Gia’s brother. While the setup of the plot is good, and there are several twists along the way, it’s the ending with all the unresolved questions that ruined it for me. However, if you like unreliable narrators with a dose of provocative sex scenes and suspense, and having to use your imagination to fill in the ending, then Ladykiller is worth the read.
I was provided with an advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
a girl goes missing and her friend tries to find her. This is a quick mystery read, it will keep you guessing until the end.
Fun, twisty addition to the horrible rich people in exotic, deadly locales genre of thriller- I will definitely keep Katherine Wood on my radar as an author to look out for.
Gia has been fabulously wealthy all her life, and when, as a teenager, Abby’s mom becomes a chef for Gia’s family, Abby reaps some of the rewards of being wealthy in the form of having her prep school and then law school paid for. She also gets to travel with Gia and her brother Benny to places like their beautiful island home in Greece. When they were 18, tragedy struck. Gia ended up writing a memoir about it; Abby did her best to forget it by throwing herself into her studies and then into her work. They remain friends, but Gia’s impulsive lifestyle doesn’t mix well with a junior lawyer working six days a week to make partner.
The story is told from Abby’s point of view and from Gia’s manuscript that Abby will find when Gia goes missing. The manuscript is a racy account of Gia’s hasty marriage to a man whose motives for marrying an heiress quickly come into question. But a manuscript may be based on true events while fabricating many others. What is the truth? Where is Gia now?
Parts of this were hard for me to read. Maybe because I didn’t grow up with massive wealth, I had trouble identifying with Gia’s wild behavior. Lies long concealed are revealed while other questions remain unanswered.
NetGalley provided an advance copy of the novel, which RELEASES JULY 9, 2024.
The Prologue of Ladykiller, by Kathleen Wood, opens at a very showy funeral. Readers are teased with hints of prior “scandals” involving family members of the very wealthy, newly deceased patriarch. In his sermon, the minister praises the deceased for his generosity in primarily leaving his vast fortune to his charitable foundation, and it is unclear whether his previous three wives and their children were aware of this philanthropy.
As the story begins, the narration switches to alternate perspectives of two young women intimately involved in the family dramas, especially their connection to one unexplained but apparently very traumatic past incident. The pace moves unhurriedly in the novel’s first half, as the characters party their way through leisurely and pampered lifestyles along with friends and acquaintances who share the same privilege and hedonistic behaviors. However, humming subtly along in the background is a mounting sense of uncertainty about who truly has a lot of money, and who might be just pretending to wealth and actually plotting to con someone else. And then, in the book’s second half, the fun stops, someone disappears, and mystery and dread take over. The earlier languid pace is gone as disappearances, threatening emails, questionable narrators, a missing revolver and faked identities propel the story forward through multiple twists and turns.
Ladykiller is a fun and fascinating mystery in the hands of a talented author who knows exactly how to set the scene, pace the action, and speed the momentum up to maximum effect !
Thank you to Bantam Books and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Abby & Gia, lifelong best friends who couldn’t be more different. Gia comes from a wealthy family & lives a lavish carefree lifestyle while Abby was raised by her single mother, who worked as the family chef for Gia’s family growing up. The two girls drifted apart after a horrific tragedy took place during a summer spent in Gia’s family home in Greece years before. Abby became a lawyer & Gia wrote a bestselling book about the girls’ tragedy. Gia is newly married, to a man she hardly knows, Garrett. Abby didn’t make the trip for Gia’s last minute wedding but when she invited Abby & Benny, Gia’s younger brother, to check an item off of their bucket lists, to visit the Northern Lights, she doesn’t refuse. The problem? Gia never shows leaving Abby & Benny, whom have always harbored feelings for each other, alone together for the first time since that summer ended in tragedy. Unable to get Gia on the phone & after a visit from a man who doesn’t appear to be whom he says he is, the two head to Greece to find Gia. Gia’s latest manuscript is found in the abandoned home. Are the things she’s written about Garrett & the couple they met & invited to stay with them in it true? When Gia is found kidnapped her story doesn’t seem to add up leaving Abby desperate for the truth about her best friend as well as what happened that night all those years ago.
From the very beginning of Ladykiller, by Katherine Wood, I was completely hooked. I love a past & present timeline & this was no exception. I found myself second guessing everyone at some point as no one appeared to be trustworthy.
The description of the villa in Greece as well as the shops, restaurants & town made me wish I could transport myself. If Greece wasn’t already on your bucket list, it will be.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Bantam Books & Katherine Wood for the opportunity to read this book ahead of its July 9th release.
A deliciously slippery tale that keeps you second-guessing who can be trusted! I couldn’t put it down and ended up finishing it in a day and a half. Great story-telling and suspense building!
This was a very good book! It had me on the edge of my seat and the twists and turns were awesome. It took me a little while to get into but when I did, I was very invested! Thank you so much for allowing me to read it!
First of all let me just this cover is AMAZING!
This was my first novel by Katherine Wood, and man does she have a fan in me! This book keep me guessing until the very end. I loved how confused I was throughout the storyline. The characters were very complex and Ms. Woods did a great job describing each and their purpose. Everyone was introduced at the right time and it made the storyline flow.
Gia was a character that I loved and hated. I wanted her and Garrett to beat all the odds that were stacked against there spontaneous wedding. There romance will definitely take readers on a roller coaster ride. Leaving many readers to say in the end, what was really true and what was part of Gia's imagination. I also love the way the author told her story through Gia's manuscript. It was very well written. I can not say enough about how great this novel is!
So far my best read of 2024.
Overall this was a solid read. I enjoyed the parallel storylines, especially the “Gia’s Manuscript” chapters, they were really engaging, even more so with the beautiful descriptions of Greece! I feel like I wasn’t fully satisfied with the ending because I like more closure, but still enjoyed it