Wow! This book was such a pleasant surprise! I was unsure how I would feel about this book but I had such a great time. I enjoyed the dual POVs and the setting was so fantastic. This will be a great thriller for the summer months. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Elin Hilderbrand.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Bantam for the ARC! Got to love a book set in Greece. This twisty, turny tale had me guessing the entire time. It’s hard to say anything specific without giving a spoiler, but I recommend this book.

Review:
I was really excited for this read - especially the title, cover, and synopsis, with a setting on a Greek island! Ah! It was a unique premise, something we don’t see often in the thriller community. I liked parts of this book but struggled with others. Let’s break it down. The mystery was interesting, but I felt like it lacked a lot here. The plot had an opportunity to take a twist or a turn, and trust the readers would’ve stayed with it! I think the characters were really not relatable - we have clueless Gia and realistic Abby - both of which were interesting characters. However, this was an ambiguous read - and I was really hoping we’d get more things tied up.

Special thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and Netgalley for sharing this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

A quick and fun read. Loved the descriptions of the places and definitely felt the sunshine and heat descriptions while it's negative degrees outside in the midwest right now. It was a bit predictable and I felt there was no real end resolution, but I did enjoy the read. Definitely left me with some questions that make me think!

We all have that friend. The one who worries that the guy you are dating , in this case set to marry, will not be good enough. Abby is that friend, she and Gia grew up together. Abby’s mom was the chef in house, Gia’s family embraced Abby, paid for schooling and gave her a chance at a future. Now a lawyer, Gia is set to marry a man perfect on paper, but is that enough, Abby thinks not. Gia begs her friend to come to share her joy in Sweden at a first class resort. Abby tries to use work to decline, but circumstances change her plans. The twists and turns in this book is well worth every word. Every major character has a subplot or thread that leads to a climax on an island paradise they shared as teenagers one life altering summer. Happy reading

This was a dnf for me. I did get about 30% in, but the main character was so toxic and the discussions about sex really started to get to me. If you're a thriller fan and you don't mind those things, it will probably be a good fit--the writing kept me turning pages.

Ok, very interesting book.

The first half of this book went a bit slow for me. It was Gia's telling of her summer in Greece with her new husband, with some Abby POV chapters that were basically filler. The second half is fast paced and is where things ramp up and we find out Gia has gone missing and Abby goes to Greece to find her. It's a very twisty book and you don't know who to trust, ever. The big twist absolutely shocked me and I still don't know what side I am on.

If you like rich people doing bad things vibes and a mystery so shocking you question everything, you'll love this.

When Abby's wealthy best friend Gia calls to invite her to her wedding to a man she met only a month ago, Abby immediately tells her impulsive friend to slow down and wait but that's not Gia's style and the wedding takes place. But after a few months, Gia notices that Garrett has been helping himself to money from their joint bank account in addition to the "loans" she's given him to help get his shipping business back on track. Quickly approaching a half-million Euros, these loans and his roving eye have her funds manager, Leon, suspicious of her new husband. A back ground check reveals that Garrett is not who he says he is and neither are the couple he invited to stay with them at Gia's family villa. When Gia does not show up at a fancy Swiss resort where Abby and her brother, Benny are waiting for her, the two become suspicious and start an investigation of their own into Gia's disappearance.
With so many plot twists and red herrings to sort out as well as characters who may or may not be telling the truth, "Ladykiller" will make you drop everything in order to race to the end where we are led to believe we will find out the truth. Maybe we do, but maybe we don't! Highly entertaining.

This is a twisty, turning, not sure what is around the corner kind of story. Two friends, Abby and Gia grew up together. Abby’s mother was the cook for Gia’s family and the two grew up together. Gia’s family even paid for schooling for Abby. Abby took vacations with Gia, living an upscale life. Until, one tragic night a horrible tragedy simmered the friendship.

Now adults, Gia and Abby are living very different lives. When Gia asks Abby to come celebrate her birthday with her and Gia’s brother Benny, things don’t go as planned. Gia never shows up and when Benny and Abby fly to Greece to find Gia, the mystery only deepens. Where is Gia, what happened to her husband, and what does a manuscript Gia is writing have to do with her disappearance.

The book starts off a bit slow, some of the characters are very narcissistic, but the story does capture your attention. When things start to unravel, the reader is not sure what is true, what isn’t true, and where the story is going to go from there. I liked this style of writing, found it to be engaging, liked the slow way a romance was revealed, overall just liked it. This is my first time reading Katherine Wood and I look forward to her next read.

Such a good novel! This is one of those stories that is better the less you know going into it, so no spoilers here. But, there are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout the entire book. Even the ending is ambiguous enough to leave you wanting more...

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

This thriller/mystery had it all - rich people, fabulous Greek island setting, lies, cheating, con artists, secrets, murders, and everything in between.
Abby and Gia have been friends ever since they were kids. Gia is newly married much to Abby’s dismay. Gia is renovating her Greek home left to her by her father. She is getting ready to sell it so that she will have some money after being left nothing when her father passed. Gia invites Abby and her brother to a mountain retreat and doesn’t show. Abby and Gias brother leave to look for Gia and find her house abandoned and they suspect foul play. There is so much history between these two.
You get answers at the end but is also left a bit ambiguous which I surprisingly loved.

Gia and Abby went through something tragic in the past. Now in their thirties, Gia invites Abby to Sweden for her birthday. On the way to her Sweden, Abby receives a cryptic email about her and Gia's past, and then later when she arrives to her destination- Gia isn't there. Abby is on the hunt for answers as she tries to find out what happened to Gia.

Ladykiller was so suspenseful, I loved all the twists and turns and appreciated the unique storyline. I think the author did an excellent job writing this book and keeping it interesting from start to finish. 4/5 stars for me!

Amazing!
I could just say I loved it, but this story gets addictive after each chapter. The author inserts situations that could be thrilling, intriguing and nail biting that will drive you to continue reading to get to the truth.
Money, power, friendship, family, trust… this is all at stake in this thrilling read.

This book is full of twists an turns making a worthwhile read. Yet, the highlight for me was the author’s descriptions of the locals. She made me feel as if I was there, whether in NYC, Greece, or Sweden. By naming the chapters after the two primary female characters, she successfully changes the POV and gives us a view of the ongoing story from two sets of eyes. This technique also allows for intense character development. The effective use of these three techniques merits giving this book five stars.

3.25 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Bantam books for this ARC.

The book started very slow and I found myself getting bored. If it wasn't an ARC, I might have DNF'd because I struggle with slow pacing. However, around the 35% mark, the book had my attention and kept it. I stayed up late to read more because I was intrigued where the story was going, and enough little hints were dropped for me to think something juicy was coming.

In the end, I didn't quite get what I was hoping for.

It's an open ended book, for the reader to decide themselves what the truth is. While I can love that, this one was too vague and the intrigue wasn't strong enough for me to be left with a definitive answer. I also found I didn't care much about what the truth was. The intrigue throughout the story held my attention but with what was going on, I wanted a bigger twist and I expected more.

Not bad but sadly, might be forgettable by the end of the year.

Sometimes it feels like we forget the amount of work it takes to make something look easy. The arts in general--and writing, it seems, in particular, are often not taken seriously as viable career paths because of the somehow widespread false idea that it does not take much serious work and study to do it well. In truth, it looks easy <i>because</i> of all the work that goes on behind the scenes, and because of an intimate knowledge of the tropes and tools at work in a particular genre's playground. Every genre has its unique toolbox, but perhaps none is more impressive when done right than the thriller.

It can sneak up on us even as it pulls us along for the ride thinking we know exactly where it's headed, before veering headlong off a cliff into unexpected territory that keeps readers coming back again and again for the thrill of the chase. By the same token, however, there is the risk that we actually <i>do</i> know where it's going. Consume enough of anything and you'll be ready and able to spot its patterns from a mile off. Sometimes this can add to the experience. Sometimes, we want the comfort of predictability. But sometimes, the cookie cutter character templates and usual twists and turns could feel like they lack innovative development, which means while the author might feel like they're cleverly pulling one over on unsuspecting readers, we're already pinning the culprit, or else getting lost in convoluted attempts at surprise.

Katherine Wood's <i>Ladykiller</i> is not a bad book. It is filled to bursting with bad people, but that does not make it bad in and of itself. It is, in fact, just fine. Most of the plot, in which Abby, a young woman who has spent most of her life indebted to and in the shadow of her wealthy best friend Gia, agrees to travel to Greece in celebration of Gia's birthday, only to arrive and realize that her friend is nowhere to be found, is engaging enough as to be readily accessible for thriller fans of all kinds. Told from alternating perspectives of Abby, in the present, and Gia's memoir, we are shown the dark underbelly of impulse and deceit both women are capable of. Gia has married a man she barely knows, and is quickly realizing she has gotten far more trouble than she bargained for out of the deal. Abby, meanwhile, is hiding one hell of a reprehensible, life ruining secret about the women's shared past.

While it starts out engaging enough, the middle of the story--in which we are introduced to a handful of new characters whose motivations and connections become far more twisted than is trackable--feels as though it both slows down and loses the thread of its own plot. Or, rather, in an effort to pull off a twist later in the book, the middle becomes so wrapped around itself that it starts to feel like we're losing our footing in keeping up with who and how these people are related. What we think is their connection for chapters on end turns out not to be the case at all, for no other reason I am able to determine than to be a gotcha on the audience. That would be fine on its own, if the pace of the story had kept up without circling back so much to repeat to us how every story has multiple sides and Abby wants us to believe that Gia is a monumental liar and twister of tales, all while she herself is hiding objectively one of the worst secrets anyone could hold.

But Gia is, in fact, a twister of tales as well. And while her methods are intense, her motive is not nearly as awful as Abby's.

The thing is, even if all else about <i>Ladykiller</i> was strong enough to stand on its own and keep you hooked in, the main character hiding the fact that she lied about a rape--a lie which ultimately led to the supposed perpetrator's death--is just reprehensible enough to turn me off of recommending it too far and wide. That she is forgiven for doing so and faces little to no consequences is equally as squicky. And even though it's not the <i>whole</i> plot, it is a <i>major</i> part of it, and one that, yes even though this is fiction and we should be able to read and consume whatever we can handle, feels just this side of too uncomfortable to make it recommendable outside of a particular audience.

I am a firm believer that every book is for someone. Sometimes that someone is a large number. Sometimes it's small. Sometimes that someone is just the author themselves. I am not sure if I have simply not read enough thrillers (perhaps this kind of plot crux is more common than I realize, and I have simply never come across it! Entirely possible! And fine!), or if Wood's attempt at bringing a new twist is to bring out one of the worst kinds of secrets it is possible to keep. Either way, while it wasn't entirely for me, and I found myself lost in some of its folds just as often as I was taken aback by its characters, I hope <i>Ladykiller</i> finds its audience. Perhaps one with a stronger stomach than me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. <i>Ladykiller</i> comes to bookstores near you from Random House Publishing and Bantam on July 9, 2o24.

Best friends Gia and Abby are bonded for life. After witnessing tragedy at 18, the two's bond grew even stronger. As the girls grew older and separated by distance, Gia ends up back in Greece married and feeling somewhat alone, and missing Abby.

She invites Abby and her brother on an all-expenses paid trip to see the Northern Lights and anxiously Abby accepts. When the threatening emails begin and threaten to unravel all the success Abby has created, the girls story from so many years ago starts to unravel. Told in part reality, and book written by Gia, you wonder what parts are real, and which are fiction. A thrilling game of cat and mouse, Katherine Wood is an author to watch!

When I saw that I was accepted for a digital ARC, I was so excited! This thriller was a rollercoaster of a story. The setting of this story takes the reader to the beautiful Greek Islands and all the secrets these girls are hiding. It was nice to read this while in reality the weather hasn’t been great. This was fast paced and I couldn’t put this one down. The ending was little meh for me, wish there was more, but I’m happy with the overall story. Thank you Katherine Wood, NetGalley and Random House for this digital copy.

I absolutely loved this book. I felt the story was original and believable, so much so it made my heart race at times. I really thought the ending would be different but it was a great surprise! I will be looking for more of her work.

I received this copy as an E- ARC, while contained multiple twists, leaving me wondering about the truth about each character right through the end something about the ending was missing for me. It will make a super easy beach/vacation read though. #netgalley