Ladykiller by Katherine Wood weaves a gripping tale of friendship, secrets, and suspense. The story follows two best friends, Gia and Abby, whose lives diverge dramatically after a traumatic event in Greece during their youth. When Abby receives an ominous email on the day of a planned trip to celebrate Gia’s birthday, she discovers Gia has mysteriously disappeared, leaving only her provocative manuscript behind. The narrative shifts between the opulent present and Gia's scandalous past, creating a captivating blend of intrigue and tension that keeps readers on the edge of their seats, though some may find the conclusion leaves lingering questions about the resolution.

Oh man, this was a WILD ride. Once I saw the cover, I knew I had to read this one. And once I got going...I was absolutely sucked in. This is the story of Gia and Abby, with alternating chapters going back and forth between their point of view. What's real and what we believe to be real are huge themes in this book. and the reader is kept on their toes the entire time.

My one complaint was the ending and how much was left open. But otherwise, A+ FANTASTIC book!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I was engaged right away in Ladykiller. Setting the scene with two friends, Gia and Abby, already on opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum adds the base of suspense when they are forever bonded by a tragic accident.

When Gia goes missing, the search is on, and pages are turning fast! The description of Greece is worthy of an armchair vacation. I was swallowed up in distant locales and the mystery of Gia's whereabouts.

The ending is interpretated by the reader, which is why I recommend this as a book group read!

Thank you NetGalley and Bantam for early access.

A good thriller/mystery. I had no clue who to believe or trust. I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Was hard to put down towards the end when the story was unraveling.

An absolutely STUNNING beach read from Katherine Wood! Stayed up late into the night finishing this gem - the pages to the finish are something straight out of a Hollywood movie!

What would you do if your best friend went missing halfway around the world? What if it happened after you had a falling-out & she was last seen in Greece?

They questions & more will be answered for you in “Ladykiller.” Run, don’t walk, to get your copy!

I am so angry with this book. It really should have been a DNF on my end, but I kept holding out because I loved her other books. To the best of my knowledge, she writes under a different name and has amazing novels. The plot was THERE, the characters were a bit under-developed, and the pacing was off. It became really muddy and the end and many loose ends. Did not love.

Ladykiller by Katherine Wood
There’s enough content to keep you intrigued and wanting to read more. Lots of twists and turns where it’s hard to tell who’s telling the truth. Which always makes things interesting. To me Gia was a unlikeable character. I looked forward to reading Abby’s chapters a lot more. The setting and story was good but the ending was a disappointment for me. There were a lot of loose ends.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the arc provided in exchange for my honest review.

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

The premise and initial plot was great! Pacing was perfect and kept me intrigued. I loved the setting and the two friends, Gia and Abby. I also am a sucker for a "book within a book" concept.

Somewhere along the 80% mark, I started getting antsy. The open-ended ending was so frustrating after all of that build-up in the manuscript's past POV...

Is there supposed to be a book 2?? I left this with a let-down feeling because the potential was so high.

4.5/5

From what I can tell, Ladykiller is Katherine Wood's debut, and it is just the kind of salacious and drama-filled book I love to read. The viewpoints rotate between Abby and Gia’s manuscript, and if you don’t like the unreliable narrator trope this will not be for you. I loved the way the manuscript and Abby’s viewpoint ended up tying together, and I definitely spent the entire book wondering how true Gia’s story was. The pacing is on the slower side but still steady, and I just completely fell into this world of sex, money, and bad behavior with a dash of mystery.

I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Marcella Black & Hallie Ricardo and thought they both did a bang-up job. I did like whoever narrated Gia’s manuscript slightly better, but honestly, they were both rockstars and I LOVED the audio even on a (slow for me) 2x speed. Ladykiller was super close to being a 5-star ⭐ read for me had it not been for the rather ambiguous ending. I typically prefer more closure than what I got here, and I literally shook my fist at the end. 🤣 A couple of parts of the novel made my jaw drop, and others made me insanely angry, but all the while I was invested despite the not-so-likeable characters. I can’t wait to see what Wood writes next!

Ladykiller by Katherine Wood was a fun suspense thriller. It had a few twists I predicted and a few I didn’t see coming. I definitely didn’t expect the book to end like it did!

This is one of those books where I didn’t like ANY of the characters. Some were outright awful, but some were quietly, slyly circumventing the truth and giving me lots of reasons to trust nobody.

Usually I can’t get into a book like that but it worked for this one. All the drama, secrets, and unreliable narratives made for a fast-paced, juicy book.

The luxurious, mysterious, and beautiful Greek setting was almost a character by itself. Definitely had me bumping Greece up my travel bucket list!

Gorgeous cover, rich heiress, taking place in Greece? I was sold! Ladykiller is the story of two friends, Gia, a rich heiress and Abby. the daughter of the family's chef. Flash forward 12 years later, and the girls and Gia's brother are supposed to meet in Sweden to celebrate Gia's birthday...but she never shows. They race back to Greece to look for Gia and find an alarming manuscript and Gia is nowhere to be found. On top of this, Abby starts receiving threatening emails. Does someone know their secret?

I loved how the story took place both in present day and flashbacks and I always enjoy a multiple POV book. The pacing on this was ROUGH for the first half, but when things pick up, they really pick up! The book takes you down a few twists and turns, and then ends on a pretty vague/ambiguous ending, which isn't what I typically prefer. I would recommend for someone in search of a more slower burn mystery.

Well, it had potential but fell short for me. Couldn't connect with the characters and the story got muddled and inplausible.

Let me start by saying, that this book did not turn out to be what I was expecting. It was a suspenseful mystery, but it had a very slow start. There are alot of sex scenes or sexual references, that I just really don't think added to the story. At about the 30% mark, I almost DNF'd, but at about the 40% mark, there was a bit of a plot twist. That was when the book piqued my interest enough to continue, secrets from the past that could be causing suspicious current events. I have discovered that whether I like the story’s characters do effect my opinion of a book, and I truly did not like any of these characters. If I have no one to root for, it's hard for me to feel invested in the book. Rich people behaving badly pretty, with a mystery thrown in, and some open-door spicy sex scenes pretty much sums up this book. The later part of the book moved faster and the plot twists kept me guessing, I just wish that it was a bit more consistent throughout the book.

I tried to like this one a lot but unfortunately he just wasn't for me. I think it was just the writing style that kind of threw me off. I really want to enjoy it because the plot sounded really good but I just couldn't get into it

Pacing and storyline to this book was great but I felt like I was left at the end needing more. Also had more questions than answered. I felt like I was grabbed so much in the beginning but left not so invested at the end.

Ladykiller is a thrilling, suspense-filled novel that weaves friendship, secrets, and deception against the backdrop of glittering Mediterranean wealth and intrigue. At the center of the story are two childhood friends, Gia and Abby, whose bond was cemented by a tragic event in Greece when they were eighteen. Now in their thirties, their lives have taken different paths- Gia is a wealthy heiress with a glamorous life, while Abby has buried herself law.

The book starts with Gia inviting Abby on a luxurious birthday trip to Sweden, offering a chance to reconnect. Before Abby departs, an ominous email arrives, hitting at dark secrets from their dark past. When Abby arrives in Sweden with Gia's brother, Benny, they find Gia missing. Abby and Benny fly back to Greece in search of Gia. What they discover is Gia's empty estate and an unfinished manuscript which is a tell-all that exposes the lives of Gia, her new husband, and their wealthy, seductive guests.

The book is a fast paced mystery that keeps the readers guessing at every turn. As Abby and Benny work to decipher the truth, they confront questions that prove the very nature of trust: How reliable is Gia's version of the events? Could her writing be a red herring? And, most importantly, what really happened to her?

The book is well written and Katherine Wood makes you feel that you are on the warm beaches in Greece and the chilly mountain trip to Sweden. She builds suspense through the story lines. This book is for fans of psychological thrillers and stories of dark friendships. It ends with unexpected twists that keeps the readers hooked until the very last page.

I would like to thank NetGalley for an advanced copy of Ladykiller. #NetGalley #Ladykiller #KatherineWood

This was my first time reading Katherine Wood. She kept me intrigued and hooked with this real page turner. I loved the way the stories intertwined making us question and second guess everything we thought we knew.

Set in Greece, the home of the Olympics, Ladykiller had a great running head start, a promising dismount with lots of expected and unexpected twists and turns, but ultimately could not stick the landing for me.

Told from dual points of view, Ladykiller follows Abby, best friend to heiress and author Gia, and Gia's reality based "manuscript" that she is writing as a second novel. While Abby wrestles with Gia's impulsivity and decides to accept an invitation for a vacation to make amends, Gia is navigating a quickie marriage to a man she barely knows and two mysterious houseguests that show up on her family's home island in Greece.

Both characters are unreliable, which in and of itself isn't a big deal. However, Gia for the first 75% of the book is such an inane idiot that I could not possibly believe anyone could be so stupid. Whilst Abby has her own secrets, as a reader, we really do not get too much insight into her thought process as the majority of the book is through Gia's manuscript. The ending was inconclusive and very open-ended, which for a mystery novel comes across as a cop out and for me personally, a complete let down.

The writing itself is well done and the dialogue flows smoothly. The book does move as a fast paced erotic thriller/mystery and there is plenty of spice, but little to no romance. The Grecian setting is not very descriptive, so do not expect to be transported - as the setting could have been on any island and I would not have noticed a difference.

Overall, an interesting thriller that fans of heiress in trouble type stories will love, but not one that was ultimately for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine, and Katherine Wood for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I felt that this book was certainly very ambitious, however really just did not work well. There was a lot of gratuitous explicit friskiness which I think overrode the content of this book in many ways. The backstory is what really kept me reading in this book. I wanted to know what had happened in the past between the friends. The mystery elements were fairly good, however there were so many loose ends that were left hanging. This was disappointing and worked against the specificity of the plot that had been created. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than anticipated but I feel like the ending was a cop out, I wish there had been more of a concrete solution instead of leaving so ambiguous.