Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper for providing me with an eARC of The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby in exchange for my honest review!

Having previously clicked with Ellery Lloyd's other books, People Like Her and The Club, I'm glad that this latest book from the author duo becomes another winner. It ambitiously pursues a narrative with plenty of moving parts by hopping between different timelines and POVs, and it uses all of this material to flesh out what's happening in the present, what happened in the past, and how those two things are tightly interconnected. It's ultimately a story about the ways in which our society ignores women and the positive contributions they make, about the journeys that artwork goes on throughout their lifetime and around the globe, and about the nuances of dysfunctional families. There's one point in particular where this hits me with a crucial twist, and hooboy, what a satisfying moment that was.

Overall, I'm officially rating The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby four out of five stars. I'll continue to look forward to more of Ellery Lloyd's work.

Thank you Harper and NetGalley for the eARC of The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby. All opinions in this review are my own.

I can see why people like this book, but unfortunately, I just don't think this author is for me. I found the timelines to be very unbalanced. I feel like I needed more of Juliette in the past to better understand why these college students were so focused on her. I do like how everything came together in the end, but after reading two books that I didn't love, I think I have to admit that this is not the author for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it.

Fantastic! I absolutely loved this novel about an artist/painting from two different time periods this is the first novel I’ve read by Ellery Lloyd, but I hope it won’t be the last. Well, written and very well developed characters. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this book, I liked the mystery aspect as well as the historical fiction mixed with present day intrigue. I was confused at times and did find the book hard to follow once a certain storyline was introduced, but it all came together in the end - with a twist I was not expecting! I would recommend this book.

One of the most uniquely beautiful books I’ve read this year. I can’t recommend this enough it was perfection.

Oh my goodness I’m obsessed with how this book was written! I was absolutely gripped from the very first page through to the last! I couldn’t put it down and devoured it so fast! I loved the alternating pov between characters and how everything flushed out at the end! No loose ends and what a fantastic ending!!! My jaw is still on the floor!!!

In the 1930’s Juliette Willoughby was a well known artist who disappeared, here today gone the.next. Two art history students in the present aim to discover what happened to her famous painting which disappeared in the hope of finding the tale of the artist. What follows is a fascinating story about art history, auctions, and study. A fascinating story of women artists and those that revere and loathe them. It’s a mystery, a murder in the middle there, and a literary masterpiece. Loved it.

It took me a long time to read this book because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed learning about the art business, the surrealists, and the current inflation of art prices. It was also interesting on how the authors wrote in their own voices as different characters-something I learned at the book’s conclusion. It was very effective.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

I just couldn't get into this one. I think I gave up about 25% in. I found the pacing to be slow and the characters weren't interesting. Maybe I'll pick it back up one day.

TL;DR: as someone who absolutely devoured Ellery Lloyd’s last book, the deliciously fun THE CLUB, I had high expectations for their latest, and let me tell you: I was not disappointed. Part murder mystery, part family drama, the book is about two art students who decide to investigate the mysterious death of a female painter who died in a fire, along with her most important painting. As the students begin to fall for one another and pull the thread on what happened to the painter, scandals and schemes and cover-ups begin to come to light. This is a smart, sexy, and very clever read, and one more people should be talking about. If you finish GOD OF THE WOODS, and are looking for something similar, I highly recommend THE FINAL ACT OF JULIETTE WILLOUGHBY!

I was sort of expecting to be blown away by this book based on how much hype it’s getting, and it’s a good story to be sure, though I can’t say there was much here that we haven’t seen before.

This is well-paced and the mystery and it’s solve are both intriguing and satisfying, and the book gets a lot of points from me for putting together two central characters where the dynamic between them is as interesting as their role in the greater plot.

There are multiple faked deaths in this, which bugged me a little because it felt like getting hit with the same twist multiple times, though these did add up well with where the story needed to go.

The setting and sense of place here is pretty well rendered (Cambridge more so than Dubai), and the “lost painting” component of this doesn’t feel shopworn at all despite how trendy and common it is to books in this genre.

In all, a good quality mystery/thriller and an enjoyable read.

This is such a step up for Ellery Lloyd. It took me a moment to get into but I was hooked fairly quickly, and I deeply enjoyed how layered and intricately woven this story is. Personally, I don't think we need Alice's POV; the characters arrive at the truth without it and I think it would have packed a heavier punch if the secret had been picked apart rather than just unraveled for us. I still found it all very interesting-- the art world is truly fascinating and makes for such a great thriller premise.

#TheFinalActOfJulietteWilloughby #NetGalley
Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx. Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations. But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?
The characters were unlikeable and it was very slow. It took me longer to finish it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for giving me an advance copy.

I’ve loved Lloyd’s previous titles and this was really good but not my favorite. I really enjoyed the present timeline trying to figure out what happened to Juliette. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love Ellery Lloyd but I have to say I was a little hesitant going into The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby. I heard there were a lot of characters on top of time jumps, and I was very worried I would get confused especially since I was listening to the audio. It turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about and I loved this captivating tale full of dirty laundry and revenge. I love when art takes center stage in a novel even though I know nothing about it, and that is certainly what happened here. I wish it had been an even larger part of the storyline, but as it was, I still loved it.

Nneka Okoye, Joshua Akehurst & Eleanor Jackson narrate the audiobook and I have to say I enjoyed each one immensely. I loved that Juliette, Caroline, and Patrick all got a voice in this book, and I would say I actually enjoyed Juliette's POV the most. I also loved how they each tied together, and this is a complex plot with lots of moving parts. This author duo never disappoints, and I felt like The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby was different from their other work but just as well executed. I heard this was a follow-up to The Club but honestly, I have zero idea how. I would say you definitely don't need to read that first to get this one.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Harper for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

Part historical fiction part mystery thriller. This books was a bit of a slow build about a runaway heiress in 1938 and her artist boyfriend and the only painting she created, Self Portrait As Sphinx that was lost in a tragic fire that killed them both.
Fifty years later two Cambridge art history students stumble across proof that the fire was no accident. The more I delved into the story the more intriguing it became. Twists that I didn't see coming. It was a very enjoyable book for and talented author team. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this wonderful book.

In present day Dubai, at a presentation after the discovery of a work of art once thought lost, a man is arrested for murder. Back in 1991, two art history students, Caroline and Patrick, at Cambridge are trying to figure out what their theses will be. Caroline decides on writing about Juliette Willoughby an artist whose work was destroyed in a fire in 1938 that took the life of her and her romantic partner Oskar Erlich. Caroline's investigation brings her and Patrick into the history and struggles of the Willoughby family. Caroline's discoveries start a chain of events filled with hidden secrets and murder.

This book was a wonderful balancing act, with a historical fiction story about art, an academia investigation, and a murder mystery all mixed together. Ellery Lloyd switch between the stories of Caroline and Patrick in the 1990s and present day and then Juliette Willoughby's story back in the 1930s. There were so many threads and mysteries that the book neatly tied up and the central characters were very easy to root for as they face the difficulties of uncovering history, putting art up for auction, or facing the legal system of Dubai. This will be a great book for fans of historical fiction, for those who want to learn more about the art world, or those who just want a twisty mystery.

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for a copy of The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an advanced digital copy of this to me for my honest review.

Whew. This was a tough one to get through. The content was good but the pace just dragged and dragged on. I enjoyed putting the “puzzle together” along with the characters. It reminded me a little of “National Treasure” towards the end, which I admit was more sped up/faster paced. At that point all the secret clubs and Egyptian history in the book started to make sense, even though I don’t have any knowledge of those topics. But that kind of story plays better on screen vs in a book, in my opinion.
The back and forth between characters wasn’t bad but when you combined it with the back and forth in time it got confusing.
It was an entertaining book, not a literary masterpiece, but I’m only giving it three stars because it was a slow read and I wasn’t dying know “what happens next” until the very end.