Member Reviews
Saffy Huntley-Oliver is not your everyday socialite. From a young age she has been murdering the worst of the worst men. Giving her secret life dating has been a problem. A true crime podcaster Jon Desrosiers captures her attention and she sets out to meet and date him. When a murder occurs on his doorstep Saffy must step in to clear his name when he becomes the prime suspect.
I had a very good time with this book. The story starts quick and keeps flowing. Saffy was extremely enjoyable as our serial killer FMC. She is smart and tough. Jon was slightly annoying at times but mostly enjoyable. I think this will be a perfect summer read for a lot of people.
I would definitely suggest checking trigger warnings before starting this book as there are some hard topics.
Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.
A fun read for sure!
Saffy is, essentially, a young women vigilante! She's a serial killer, but only kills "bad men" who she believes did something deserving of the murder!
We also get to know her "love interest" Jon, a Podcaster who she becomes quite obsessed with! He MUST be her boyfriend and she'll do whatever she can to make that happen!
A fun, fast paced read...I truly enjoyed!
I feel a bit bamboozled by Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen. This is described as a “wild romp of a feminist thriller” - I found it to be kind of light and airy, to be honest. I don’t know where the feminist parts were hiding. After Saffy, the FMC, orchestrates a “meet-cute” with Jon, she turns into an insecure, jealous pick-me who sees every red-flag Jon is waving as a challenge to overcome. Bad Men reads like more of an unhinged romance, than a thriller. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I really wanted to love it - maybe if the description was more accurate, I would have not been so disappointed.
Saffey is female seriel killer who targets bad men and a male podcaster finds a body on his doorstep. He unknowingly teams up with the seriel killer to find the killer. A book full of romance and investigating, it is a light, quick read that wrapped up nicely at the end.
Thank you to Netgalley for the audio ARC.
🍸🫒🔪Bad men 🔪🫒🍸
By Julie Mae Cohen
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 🌶️😇😇
Bad men who do bad things should be punished. But often times these men slip through the cracks. Men who are handsome, rich, and pillars in society tend to get away with murder. What is one to do when these men walk free and continue to wreck have on society?
Meet Saffy Huntley Oliver. She is a beautiful model, high society socialite, and a prim and proper lady who won’t tolerate misbehaved men. She takes out the trash so to speak in her spare time when she’s not modeling and tending to her charities. But being an expert serial killer of bad men tends to have an effect on your dating life. Saffy thinks she has finally found the one. He is smart, kind, and thoughtful. He also seeks justice for victims who have been wronged. Sounds like a matched made in heaven right? One problem. Jonathan Desrosier is a true crime podcaster and author who is known for cracking cold cases and bringing justice to murder victims and their families. Jon is down on his luck. His wife just left him and a rogue dead body just showed up to his doorstep. This is the perfect opportunity for Saffy to plan a meet-cute situation. Will she be able to help solve the murder and land her crush or will things go terribly astray? With a a blood hound nose for murders will he be able to sniff out Saffy’s secret or will she have him fooled? Find out in this entertainingly dark rom-com!
What I loved: I’m a sucker for a vigilante story. I adored Saffys personality. She puts on the prim and proper persona but is anything but when it comes down to business. She WANTS Jon but he is not over his ex wife. Saffy is not used to being turned down by men so it is so entertaining to witness her chasing after him. I also adored the “playing naive” part Saffy played when it came to catching a murder. The ending was perfect and I would love to see this as a continued series.
What I disliked: it dragged for me about 2/5 of the way in and had to reread that part a couple times. I wish there was more time spent with Saffy. I almost felt like she was a side character. I would have liked to see more character development and would have liked to get to know her better. The discovered killer at the end I didn’t care for and didn’t feel like it was developed well enough. It somewhat felt like an afterthought.
Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen is a fast paced book that follows Saffy Huntley-Oliver, a rich socialite that is also a serial killer. She only kills men that really deserves it. Saffy is also a huge fan of Jonathan Desrosiers, a true crime podcaster. When their paths cross it is not fate. Saffy has planned this meeting for a while now. As they get to know each other better Jonathan has been accused of a murder and also poisoning his ex-wife. Johnathon has no idea of what Saffy is really capible of. This was a fun read and I really loved Saffy. This book is for fans of dark humor and strong female leads. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Recorded Books for giving me an advanced copy of this book.
Most of this was extremely predictable and a little eye roll inducing, but I actually really liked it?
I didn't like Saffy, but I did like Saffy. It was a perfect balance of hating her but still liking her, which I think takes a really talented author.
3.8 stars
The first chapter or so was very difficult to read and I debated quitting a few times (it involved pedophilia) I hung on and am glad I did because I found the rest of the book gripping, easy to listen to, and I couldn’t put it down.
Towards the very end I had a couple of small complaints like a bad guy confessional but it wasn’t a long winded one and a wrap that felt too rushed compared to the pacing of the book.
This book is a bit of everything: romance (with nothing graphic), crime/case investigation, and vigilante taking out the London trash.
I really enjoyed the female MC and am a little sad there isn’t a #2
Thank you to both RB Media and NetGalley for my audiobook copy of Bad Men!
Overall it was an entertaining book, I liked Saffy, I thought she was funny and I enjoyed the interactions with her sister Susan, I thought their relationship was sweet and snarky and you could tell they cared for each other.
I thought Jon was a good secondary MC but I feel like the book was mostly in his POV. And man oh man is that guy having a bad week/month/year lol. I feel bad for all he went through, but do feel like it was a waste that he didn't use any of the events that occurred for a book or podcast series, I feel like we got such a big hype on his career in the summary but only got a small peek at it in the beginning.
I'm also confused as to why he was so sought after both by Saffy and the endgame killer, he seems like a cool dude and all but not enough to murder people for or go to the trouble of having a double life for lol.
The plot was interesting, I always love a good book that has a female serial killer, but I feel like she didn't really do a lot of female serial killing? There were a few mentions of it and one or two scenes throughout but I feel like it was mostly just talked about and not shown. And I know they were both MC's but I feel like we got way more POV chapters of Jon and not so much Saffy. I also don't get why she wanted Jon so much, and we didn't really get much detail on how she first became aware of him, and what he did to garner such devotion.
The endgame Serial Killer wasssss a surprise for sure, I had kind of forgotten that character even existed, they were not on my radar AT ALL. Which I mean good job, I don't think anyone will even think to suspect them until literally when they show up at the end again, but that's really only because they're mentioned like once at the beginning of the book and even after knowing they killed people they still were not very memorable.
Overall it was a good book, I enjoyed the audiobook narrator although I could tell she had trouble keeping up with the accents at certain points, and I can't even begin to guess what kind of accent Saffy had but it was entertaining!
All in all, I started and finished this book within 24 hours so you can say that I enjoyed it lol 4/5
It's a good fast paced read with a killer you won't see coming!
Thank you again to RB Media and NetGalley for my Audiobook copy of "Bad Men"!
Loved loved loved!
Fun and gripping, I enjoyed this so much I listened to it in a day. Definitely one of my tops reads of the year, I now need to go back and find out everything else this author has written.
Oh and 10/10 for the narrator!
I love female serial killer books and I liked this one as well despite not giving it 5 stars I did like the main characters Saffi and Jon. I liked that Saffi gave absolutely no effs except for Jon and her sister. I did find the ending a bit too predictable but still enjoyed the story.
I do NOT like what Saffi did to Girl but happy they came to an "agreement". I honestly thought this book was going to be a bit darker than it was. Don't get me wrong, there were elements that were dark but the overall vibe wasn't all that dark in my opinion. This book was fun to read and had several funny quips that I enjoyed.
I think the audiobook narrator, Nathalie Buscombe did a wonderful job.
Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media | Recorded Books and Julie Mae Cohen for access to the ALC in exchange for an honest review.
Oh I finished this one yesterday and forgot to leave my review! Okay first off I LOVE the narration. The accents were spot on! The thing with the dog made me sad for a minute but I mean it worked and it was a great way to get that dog adopted into the perfect home, so really I can't fault her logic.
The entire story was fun and wonderful. I had a few good laughs too.
5/5
What a darkly fabulous tale this was! I confess, when I was listening to the prologue I thought about giving up. It's a bit icky, frankly, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to listen to the whole thing if that was the tone it took throughout. Fortunately I stuck with it, and I'm so glad I did because I LOVED this twisty revenge story... It's snarky and dark and funny and sad and brought wicked grins to my face so many times! It is not going to be for everyone - Cohen's particular brand of humor and vengeance is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.. But it's a delicious over-the-top tale of what happens when one woman says enough is enough. The narration was spot-on perfect for the storyline. The pacing and characterizations were marvelous, pulling me into the world of bad men and offering a fabulous glimpse into the "if only" world of justice by any means necessary!
5 ⭐️
Absolutely loved this!
As someone rightly said - "We support women's rights, but most importantly, we support women's wrongs."
This had me hooked from start to finish. I love the character of Saffy and thought she was written brilliantly. Never thought that I would praise the character of a fictional serial killer but here I am.
The plot - top notch. I had no idea what to expect going into this book but, it absolutely floored me. The scenes that involved interactions between Jon and Saffy were so nerve-wracking to me, I was expecting things to go awry at any given point of time.
The writing has a lot of humor, emotions and some gore. But the humor balances it out. Saffy's backstory though, turned the whole comedic vibe of the book. It was dark, brutal and disturbing.
This sub-genre of feminist thrillers have my whole heart and are now cultivating the interest of readers as a potent and exciting niche of thrillers.
The audiobook was narrated by Nathalie Buscombe and I have heard audiobooks by the Narrator before. It was a fun ride and the narration was top not as per usual.
Overall, I enjoyed every second of this and I want to say that this book will definitely take the genre by storm.
I received an ARC of the Audiobook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for providing an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
A woman who only kills bad men? Sign me up. How very Dexter of her. Except...not really. We don't really get to hear many of Saffy's exploits as a female vigilante. It's more of a love/obsession story. Saffy has decided that she's infatuated with a true crime author and podcaster and will apparently go to all kinds of lengths to get him to love her. Which is what the book is really about. Crazy Saffy and sad John. It was actually kind of boring if I'm being honest.
The narrator for the audiobook was quite talented, though, which is probably what kept me engaged in the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The book jumped right into the action and I didn't feel connected to the main character. The mystery in the second half of the book was engaging and kept me guessing.
This book was an OK read for me. I wanted to LOVE Saffy so bad. What's better then a bass ass female character that takes revenge on bad men. It's the dream lol
However, Saffy just kind of annoyed me. I was hoping it delved into more of her crimes and the men that she killed but it was kind of just glanced over.
The book in itself was entertaining enough. A little predictable. Not very twisty either, but it had its moments of fun.
I listened to the audio book and in my opinion the narrator talked super slow. I had to turn it up to 1.25 for her to be speaking at a normal pace. This is no fault of the author though and could just be a "me" thing.
TW: I read another review stating there was talk of some animal abuse. Once I heard mention of an animal shelter, I skipped the chapter, continued on and there was very little talk of it again. Just some reminders that the dog didn't like her.
All in all, this is a one and done for me. I don't know that I would read it again
I want to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this before it came out! This was a super fun experience!
This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Julie Mae Cohen, RB Media, and NetGalley.
The narrator of this domestic thriller is Nathalie Buncombe. Her voice was very nice, I appreciate her use of different voices for different characters. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be edited out before production or what but I could hear her swallowing and I found it grating. If I had purchased this audiobook I'd have returned it and probably dnf'd this novel. Which would've been a shame because I adored everything about this book.
Although this is marketed as a domestic thriller, it almost read like the beginning of a cozy mystery series🤔 Honestly, I'd love to join Saffy & Jon on further adventures. This was told with dual perspectives and I wish the audiobook had featured different voice actors for Jon & Saffy, a missed opportunity for sure. This is funny with shades of both You & Killing Eve TV shows. This was quirky, fun, engaging and I didn't guess most of the reveals. This lightly touches on heavy subjects like domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, child molestation, and mental illness but mostly with an extremely light touch. This is not trauma reading but reading that does include trauma. I found both Saffy & Jon charming and likeable.
I truly enjoyed this author's writing style and sense of humor. I'll definitely be following her to read what she publishes next.
Thank you to Julie Mae Cohen, RB Media,, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.
When Joe from You and Dexter are females you get this book and it was amazing. I laughed so much listening to the Audio book with the sarcasm and how the main characters brain works. I hope this is a series because I wasn’t ready to stop listening.
3.5/5 ⭐️
When rom-com meets suspenseful female revenge thriller!
Saffy- drop dead gorgeous, and leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.
Jonathan- true crime podcaster who believe in justice, but finds himself mixed in with the wrong crowd.
This was a super enjoyable listen, easy to follow and stay tuned in. Witty and clever, this book will get you out of a reading slump!
What worked for me:
• themes & social issues (sexual assault, pedophilia, domestic abuse)
• clever clues/foreshadowing sprinkled throughout
• dual POV, with character backstories that build a foundation for their personalities.
I do wish that Saffy was able to show off her ‘real’ side more, but maybe in future books ?!?
Thank you #NetGalley for this audio ARC of #BadMen