You Will Never be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto is standalone mystery thriller. We meet Meredith Lee, who is a successful Momfluencer, on both Instagram and Tik Tok. Meredith runs into an up-and-coming influencer, Aspen Palmer, and takes her under her wing, with both becoming BFF. Meredith taught Aspen to be an influencer, and how to increase her followers. Eight years later, Aspen has surpassed Meredith’s online popularity with millions of followers and Meridith is losing more each day. The ladies have a nasty fight, especially after Aspen cuts her off, ignores her and blocked her calls; and now they are enemies.

Meredith’s bitterness rises and as she begins stalking Aspen, secretly sabotaging her life; she changes appointments of Aspen, finding information about what is upcoming and slowly Aspen sees things are falling apart. Her sponsors have dropped her, influencers are ignoring her, and she sees both Meredith and later Liv, kissing her husband. Who is doing this to her?

About half way through the book, there is a twist, as Meredith goes missing, and Aspen’s world is upended and she puts herself live to show her worry about Meredith, as well as getting everyone to help find her; pleading to those who kidnapped Meredith and return her best friend. Followers go out of their way to help look for Meredith, and Aspen has reached out to millions.

Personally, I thought both Meredith and Aspen were not really likeable & mean, as they only cared about themselves. I knew this was a mystery, so I expected a whodunnit and even murder. Meredith’s sister was stuck taking care of Luca, and was desperate to find her. Aspen’s family, especially her husband Ben, were not happy with all that was going on. To say too much more, would be spoilers, and I do not want to ruin it for you.

You Will Never Be Me is a wild, crazy adventure that as we reach closer to the end, there were a number of twists and surprises. You Will Never Be Me was very well written by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Sutanto always writes different kinds of stories, with this book centering on friendships and obsession.

I loved this so much! I loved the characters, the storyline and the influencer angle. I kept me guessing and I came up with so many theories that were just wrong. She really got me!

I will definitely be reading more from this author. This is one of my favorite recent reads!

I'll read anything by Jesse Q. Sutanto, so was thrilled to see a new title out. You Will Never Be Me feels quite a bit darker than Sutano's other books, as we delve into the dark side of influencer competitiveness, but has her trademark thrills and strong female leads. Gripping and tense, I couldn't put it down!

This was unhinged! I love this author's ability to write the most over the top, ridiculous, devious, self-important characters. They are all on the path for destruction (their own or others) and it was like watching a wonderfully written car wreck. These characters are so unlikeable and yet you still somehow pick a side a root for one of them?! I don't know how the author does it, but she is a mastermind. I am fascinated by mom-fluencers so this just struck the perfect note for me of what I image the real stories are.

YOU WILL NEVER BE ME is addicting from start to finish. I found the story to be some what relatable in the world of TikTok influencers today. It's not something I would want to dabble into no matter how much money I could make. But I know plenty of people that enjoy it. I was not expecting the final twist at the end, it was a nice surprise. Jesse Q. Sutanto, has become one of my favorite authors. Her writing is impeccable as well as entertaining!

Many thanks to Berkley Publishing for my gifted copy.

This review will shared to (@coffee.break.book.reviews) closer to publication date.

One-word review: Shocking
Emojis:💡🧐🤯
Rating: 5🌟s

Favorite Quote: “Angelenos would totally tell you you’re a f-ing idiot, but we’d also hand you a kale smoothie while we did it, and tell you it’s okay that you’re dumb; at least you’re skinny.”

My Top-Five-style Review:

5. This story was utterly compelling - holding my attention without fail from beginning to end.
4. While the main characters may not be the most likable, they are undeniably relatable. This relatability is all you need to become fully invested in the story.
3. The dual perspectives of Meredith and Aspen were a delightful addition to the story. They not only added depth but also facilitated the truly shocking twists and turns, keeping you on the edge of your seat and fully engaged in the story.
2. The social media angle is just so relatable. Is it wrong that I was getting Instagram ideas from this story?
1. That ending!!! It's so thought-provoking, I don’t even know what to think, and I love that I don’t know what to think.

Jesse Q. Sutanto is turning into one of my favorite authors. I read Vera Wong earlier this month and absolutely loved it! I was scrolling through NetGalley and stumbled upon this and had to read it. Omg I'm so glad I did. You Will Never Be Me, is about Meredith Lee and Aspen Palmer who became best friends after Meredith took Aspen under her wing to teach her about influencing. Cut to now, Meredith and Aspen are no longer on speaking terms because Meredith is upset that Aspen ditched her after growing her following. Meredith decides she's going to stalk Aspen. Hopefully get some insight to how she's grown her following. While stalking Aspen, she comes across one of Aspen's children's Ipad. There just so happens to be a family calendar in there. Meredith starts changing things around and showing up for appointments Aspen was supposed to go to. Aspen begins to worry. How can it be she's missing appointments for potential sponsors. She needs to keep calm and get this sorted out before this perfect image she created starts to crumble. However, one day Meredith goes missing, making Aspen's life even more difficult than before. She'll do whatever she can to keep up the charade of the perfect life.

Who knew the momfluencer community was so wild. Jesse uses this book to give her commentary not only influencers but being a mom on top of that. Nothing is perfect but they will do whatever they can do make it look like they have the perfect life. I know this book takes it to the extreme which makes it very entertaining. Plus she also comments on how hard it is to be a mom and taking the time to do content but also making sure it comes out good. It really has you judging both of these characters. I'd say both are unlikeable, one more than the other but I still found myself rooting for them. I almost felt guilty and surprised. I'm not usually a fan of unlikeable characters but this book was different for me.

If your into thrillers with a lot of drama and are interested in reading about characters that do social media, than this will be the book for you. Jesse takes you on a wild ride that you never want to end. It definitely becomes over the top at times but it's fun. You see the extremes people will take just to grow their followings. Some people really only care about the numbers and making money. At the end of the day you never really know what's real and what's fake.

When it comes to thrillers, I try not to give away too much of the plot. However as previously mentioned, this book follows two influencers: Meredith and Aspen. When the story begins, Aspen is living her dream life with her kids and husband despite having a huge fight with Meredith. It’s clear things are rocky between the two and Meredith is dealing with a lot of resentment and jealousy.

Meredith decides to take matters into her own hands and while stalking Aspen, steals her iPad and begins using her content ideas. She also muddles in a few other things which results in some unfortunate situations for Aspen. Meanwhile, we’re also getting flashbacks of when Meredith and Aspen first met and different moments in their friendship. Things take a turn when Meredith goes missing and Aspen quickly becomes the center of the story as she is Meredith’s best friend.

You Will Never Be Me hits all the beats of a good thriller as there’s drama, suspense, and plenty of different storylines to get caught up in. Sutanto also gives her own commentary on influencers and just how fake everything can be. She also executed multiple plotlines throughout the story that I couldn’t believe. Once I was locked in, I was locked in and I couldn’t put this book down.

If you’re a fan of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s other works, the writing you know and love from her is present. Additionally, each of the characters is complex and you truly cannot decide who you want to root for. That’s the marker of a good thriller and great writing so there’s nothing more to say than you need to pick this one up.

This is a well done book about the poisonous world of social media “influencers.” There are a number of twists and turns that took me by surprise. None of the characters in the story are particularly likeable, but it was engrossing and kept me reading to find out how it would all end. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meredith and Aspen met each other in LA at Influencer parties and became best friends as Meredith took Aspen under her wing to help her build her influencer brand. Aspen quickly figures out how to use TikTok and her marriage and subsequent twins to brand herself as a Momfluencer and she exceeds Meredith's social accounts pretty fast. Meredith suddenly finds that Aspen doesn't have time for her and they get into a dramatic fight and neither will apologize. Meredith stalks Aspen and eventually steals one of the kids Ipads which contains all her ideas, unedited videos and calendar and begins changing appointments and stealing some of the collab partners. She shouldn't be but she is shocked that Aspen is a fraud and is staging all her videos and her life is a far cry from how she portrays it. Suddenly Meredith disappears and the social media world goes crazy trying to find her as the spotlight starts to shine towards Aspen as her best friend. Will they stop at nothing to promote themselves in the influencer world for likes and follows? Crazy murder mystery!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Sutanto explores the effects living in a social media-drenched world has on a pair of best friends and their families. Both Meredith and Aspen earn their livings as momfluencers on social media. Meredith taught Aspen everything she knows and then Aspen left her behind once she exploded in popularity. Both ladies go to extremes to win followers and harm each other in their race to be the top influencer in their field. This one will have you thinking twice about how much you share online and how often you pick your phone up. Read and enjoy!

Who knew the momfluencer world was so killer- literally 😧

I love an obsessive and manipulative FMC. Add in the best of frenemies and a super toxic marriage and I’m in.

About halfway through the twists and reveals start barreling in and it’s non-stop from there. This was such a fun quick and compulsive read!

Dang, that one was a WILD ride. As soon as I started reading, I could barely put this novel down... I love the mean/wealthy/insta girl trope when it's done well, and let me tell you, Sutanto did this SO well. Execution was fabulous for the most part, and I would recommend this read, other then the ending, which I HATED. But, before we go there, let me talk about some other aspects of this novel.
I like that Sutanto tried to lend and ear to the realities and stress of motherhood, but if she described a baby as "shrieking in my ear" one more time, I'm going to throw my kindle across the room. There's got to be another way to express the stress, different turn of phrase or something. It wasn't a huge issue, but I would've appreciated a little more variety in the vocabulary.
My other main complaint is the detectives... still trying to connect to them and figure out their first names! It was weird that she just used "detective" to refer to them the whole novel. If she'd given them first names, she would have had better opportunity to have more variety in her writing.
My main complaint (without any spoilers) is how insufferable Aspen is. Toxic, liar, evil... just a few words I could use to describe her. And I wouldn't have minded her as a character so much had the ending been written differently. But, she's definitely a well-written character and the writing serves to make the reader hate her (which I think is the intention).
Overall, a great read if you can tolerate a less-then-satisfying ending (again, only my opinion, but I was disappointed). Not quite throw-your-kindle-across-the-room disappointed, but I was pretty close.

Please note,
Thank you for letting me read!
This review will be posted on GoodReads and I will discuss this book with my book club and recommend reading!

Meredith taught Aspen everything she knows about social media. Now that Aspen is succeeding, far more than Aspen, jealously rears it’s head.

This was the best influencer thriller I’ve read and I’ve read many. It alternates between two influencers and your opinion on who is likeable and who isn’t may change. There were a lot of twists I was not expecting and no one is quite as they seem.. but I guess that’s the world of social media!

“In the age of conspiracy theories and fake news no one is considered innocent. The wilder the story, the better.”

You Will Never Be Me comes out 8/20.

Not the book I was expecting. Holy crap. Drama/thriller between two best friends who are both influencers. First it was Mer, as the seasoned pro, taking 'Aspen' under her wing, and giving her advice as to how to cultivate and grow her brand. Soon Aspen is married and a mom, and she becomes a mom-fluencer and blows right by Mer. They have a huge fight as Aspen is unwilling to help Mer the way Mer helped Aspen. Two women you are going to love to hate. You hear from both of their POVs and neither one is a saint, I would have called them morally grey until I got to the midpoint of the book. No, they are worse. I could not put it down at the point. What a good read. 4.25 stars. Thank you to Net Galley #netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for my advance reader copy.

Fans of friendship-gone-wrong thrillers, this book was made for you!

Meredith taught popular mom-fluencer Aspen everything about influencing, and now Aspen has 6 million followers to Meredith's sub-1 Million following. After a huge fight, they stop talking to each other, but when Meredith stumbles upon one of Aspen's kids' iPad, she gets access to Aspen's entire world. She starts messing with important meetings in her calendar, desperate to sabotage her ex-friend for dumping her when she got big. Everything that unfolds after is worth going into pretty blind, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Sutanto creates two vivid, selfish characters with Meredith and Aspen and faces them off in a dangerous climb to the top of social media influencing. After the halfway mark, there is one twist after another as dark secrets come to the surface, exploring just how toxic female friendships can be.

Fans of Bye, Baby and thrillers centered around traumatic friendships will absolutely devour this one!

Just when I think Jesse Q. Sutanto can't top her last book (here's looking at you, Vera Wang), here she comes with an explosive look at the drama behind influencer fame. One I started, I couldn't stop flipping pages, because there's kind of a bombshell moment about halfway through the book (no spoilers, but GET A COPY ASAP), and there was no stopping. I just had to know, Only the kids are likable characters in this book, but the others are just so much fun to read about. I will never look at morning routines the same way again.

Wowowowow talk about vapid women. Very unlikeabke characters but I flew through this, it was a very easy read. Not especially memorable and just overall a super shallow book.

What??! I just finished this book, and I am still in shock. The twists were so unexpected. I could not predict the majority of them! This book had me on the edge of my seat the majority of the time. I ended up staying up until 2am to read this in one sitting. I am shocked. Literally, gasping at many parts. I truly loved how the author writes, makes you feel like you're one of the characters, and it's playing out with you right there the entire time. Truly gripping and suspenseful! Absolutely 5 stars!!

I received this ARC from NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group to read/review. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.

Meredith has the perfect life as an influencer and then she meets innocent Aspen and transforms her into one as well. But before we know it, Aspen has become more popular than Meredith and they are no longer friends. Meredith suddenly disappears leaving her son with her sister and Aspen is suspected. Where is Meredith?