3.75 stars, rounded up.

Hooooo boy! This bloody mash up of Promising Young Woman and My Sister, the Serial Killer should come with trigger warnings galore.

Despite some VERY heavy moments/subject matter, it was still a fun, deranged, and ultimately satisfying revenge romp.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fun but definitely check trigger warnings for some heavy content! Overall it was just kinda meh for me. Fun in parts but forgettable in others. I was more focused on the page I was on than what was on the page, sadly

Title: How to Kill a Guy in Ten Ways
Author: Eve Kellman
Genre: Thriller
Media: ebook
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

—————————

Favorite quote: N/A
Sum of this book in 5 words or less: So many hard topics.

—————————

Themes: child abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, parental abuse, rape, murder, on page murder, hit and run, falling (heights), on page snorting of drugs, rohyponol

—————————

Thoughts:

I received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Short summary - After her sister is raped, Millie sets up a new number for women to message on when they feel unsafe. One night everything changes from just helping women get away to murder.

Honestly, I liked this book. There was a little bit of dark humor in it and that always makes books a little better. I wish that Millie and James would have had more dates and that we would have gotten to see more of their relationship. I liked the fact that there was a serial killer and detective vibe but I am sad that it kinda fell flat for me due to them only going on a handful of dates.

There are some absolutely brutal topics in this book and I believe that it needs a trigger warning list. I figured there should probably be some on the page murder, but Millie’s own rape as a child was very on page also. That topic can be difficult to discuss especially if you come from an abusive background yourself, and especially coming from a parental figure.

Millie committed so many murders during this book and I applaud her for getting some of those men off the streets - especially when the justice system won’t take them down. I was rooting for her and I really wanted James & her to work out even after she ran him over with her car.

I loved the premise of this book. It reminded me a lot of the show Dexter - and that was a fabulous show while it was on TV.
While I liked the plot, it moved WAY too slowly. That's because the author spent too much time describing useless things. She'd spent paragraph after paragraph and sometimes pages on Millie's inner dialogue and often it went off on a tangent. This happened pretty early on & throughout the entire middle of the book- this did nothing to help the story progress and at one point I wanted to DNF. If some of that could be cleaned up in editing, this book would be much better.

The last 30% was truly entertaining, and arguably the best part of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced digital copy of this book.

How To Kill a Guy in Ten Ways is a book that I cannot wait to recommend to my book club when it is published.

Why? Well, murder? Check. Tongue-in-cheek humor? Check. Characters you hate to like? Check. Revenge? Check and check.

Millie is out for revenge on the person who assaulted her sister, so she sets up a hotline to help get other women home safely when they feel threatened and in the process realizes she can just kill the men who do this. Or can she?

Dark humor and lots of plot twists and turns kept me turning the pages until I had to stop reading it for the day and was mad that I couldn't finish it a sitting.

I love revenge books, even over-the-top ones. This is a winner.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper360 for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

If you're a fan of the Finlay Donovan series, you'll like this book. A vigilante older sister realizes that although she does her best to help women of her community escape creepy guys at bars through Message M, there's always more to be done. Instead of waiting for the guys to slip and get caught by the authorities, she takes matters into her own hand, and clumsily becomes the antihero she wishes her sister had.

This book was hilariously tongue in cheek with a dark, thriller twist.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed reading it and didn’t want to put it down. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Okay, I really enjoyed this one. I was looking for a fun murder/comedy and when this popped up on my NetGalley, I knew I needed it. This book was free for me, but my review is 100% voluntary.

Guys can be total creeps, and Millie Masters knows this all too well. After her younger sister is raped, she vows to protect other women in the way she couldn’t protect her and opens up the Message M phone line.

Creepy guy following you at the bar?
Date gone bad and he won’t take no for an answer?
Message M for a quick rescue mission.

The problem? Rescuing women from potentially traumatic situations isn’t enough when these men just repeat their actions the next night with someone new. The first one was an accident while Millie fought to help the young girl escape a basement, but the others? Well. They deserved it, after all…

Welcome to Millie’s confession.

This one was simply fun. Some of the scenes between girlfriends felt drawn out, but that’s probably because I was ready for the next part of her confession. The relationships, connections, methods, and detective boyfriend all played into the story very well. While this was an ARC, it’s already been released so you can go ahead and grab it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

I didn't think I was a fan of dark humor until I read this. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Millie was so sarcastic and funny and I loved how she helped women through her help line. Is it weird to kind of root for a serial killer? Well, it's fiction, let's go with that. Still not sure what to think of that ending but it won't lower my rating. Love finding debut authors and can't wait to see what Ms. Kellman comes up with next. I think fans of Samantha Downing will like this.

The premise of this book was interesting, but overall it was a bit of a struggle read for me. Millie wasn't a likeable character and I really struggled connecting with the story largely because of her. She was extremely judgemental and cold, all the while she's out being a vigilante, murdering people. I fully understand that the trauma of her childhood played a large part in her character, but she wasn't even very compassionate towards her sister who she loved so much and her best friend. She seemed more annoyed that her sister was broken following what happened to her and didn't get out of bed, instead of actually trying to be there for her.

The introduction of a romantic connection for her was just a device to set up the end of the story. Overall, it's only getting 2 stars from me because the break neck pace of the events at the end of the book. With so much happening all at once, it kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

It just wasn't my cup of tea overall.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Millie Masters has a job, but her real "job" her calling, if you will is the M hotline - a message service that allows women who are afraid or need a ride to contact her for help. It's her calling following the breakdown of her younger sisters who left college after she was assaulted by a man.

It's only natural that this would lead to Millie becoming involved in a situation where the man must die. Right? Darky funny, sardonic and comic (if the truth about life is that women are under siege whenever they leave the house) this is a novel that you will absolutely love. Kellman has left a few unanswered questions early on that will have you racing through the pages to learn more.

If you never need to dial M, never thought that a man at a bar just needed a little shock, or never wished that you could just go about your business without feeling scared at night, this might not be the book for you. But if identify as a women, let's face it, you have. This is a fun book I guarantee you will enjoy it! I do wish Millie lived in my town!
#harper360 #howtokillaguyintenways #evekellman #awesomebooks #dialm

When I read the summary for this book, I was all about it. Not only did it scream feminism, it gave off female Dexter vibes - ridding the world of evil, one man at a time. The delivery though was lacking. I found it really hard to root for Millie. Her constant negative attitude about literally everything in her life was draining.

As the book progressed, it became an over-the-top revenge story about finding the man responsible for her sister’s assault. I did enjoy some of the witty internal dialogue but more often her judgmental sarcasm and downright mean thoughts made me internally cringe.

This one’s full of triggers so please note the TW before reading: depression, sexual assault, physical abuse, suicidal thoughts/attempts, self harm, stalking, incest

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the opportunity to read this digital ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Unfortunately this book is not what I wanted it to be. I think the author has a great writing style and really knows how to build up the characters and world of this story. With that being said it fell a little flat for me. The story overall was a little bit boring in my opinion and took way too long to start to interest me. I did not finish this book. I got about half way and decided to not finish. Absolutely no hate to the writer bc I think they have great potential! I just like more of a fast paced, page turner and this was not it for me.

4.5/5.0 ⭐

If you were a fan of Netflix's 'In the Dark,' this book is for you.

Our deeply unhinged female protagonist Millie is bitter, judgmental, self-deprecating, and drifting through life with a handful of imbalanced relationships with her best friend, boss, and family. Then, after her younger sister is attacked, Millie seeks vengeance in the form of a vigilante service line for local women.

"Are you on a date that doesn't feel right? Can't shake the creepy guy at the bar? Worried you're being followed home? Message M."

After a series of over-the-top, ridiculous, and frustrating-to-the-reader decisions, it all comes to a head. It's quick-paced. It's dark-humored. It's sharp. It's heavy in places, so do check the trigger warnings.

Trigger Warnings:
<spoiler> rape, sexual assault, violence, self-harm, suicide </spoiler>

ARC | Kindle Version

Thank you to Harper60 and NetGalley for the advanced copy.