What a crazy plot line! I loved the narration and the twist at the end! A surprising 5 star read for me!

4.5 stars.

Saffy Huntley-Oliver was an intelligent glamorous socialite, and a proficient serial killer. She had been hunting down and dispatched bad men for fifteen years. Dating life was a bit difficult, unfortunately, until she found Jonathan Desrosiers, a true-crime podcaster with legions of die-hard fans whom she believed to be a truly good man and her equal. Orchestrating a meet cute was an obvious next step!

With the rising trend of feminist serial killer books everywhere, this one stood out as a winner! The plot was solid, Saffy as the main character was riveting, and it was so much fun overall.

It was an interesting choice to have some chapters written from Jon’s PoV as well and not just all Savvy’s, because we got to see his innocent perspective (aw Jon, how naive!). The audiobook narrations were also spot on, and I chuckled out loud listening to the dialogues. This was perfect to enjoy as an audiobook.

I was definitely supportive of Saffy getting her (serial killer) happy ending, and I can’t wait to read the next book. I’m truly not done yet with Saffy’s story!

I enjoyed this woman serial killer thriller! I've always been a sucker for women getting back at bad men as a trope in any sort of story and this fit the bill perfectly. While this wasn't the most shocking thriller I have ever read and I was able to spot plot twists pretty early on, the overall story and writing was a fun time and had moments of humor that I liked.

What a book !!! And what a narration !!!

This is going to be one of my favourite audiobooks of all time coz well what a narration. I enjoyed this book too much because as soon as I finished it I wanted to start it again. Sadly I have too many galleys to listen to any book again.

Saffy is feminist serial killer who kills bad men. Rapists, murderers, abusers and the likes. You get the gist. Her obsession with killing is one thing and then there's her obsession with the true crime podcaster and reporter Jonathan - Jon. She will go any lengths to be with him.

When a part of an unknown body, without the rest of the body in sight ends up at Jon's doorstep he is dragged into unwanted drama and speculation.

There were some twists in the book especially the end reveal and even though I had figured out the mystery, reading it was so much fun that I didn't really mind it. So overall it wasn't great on the mystery front but that didn't matter in the slightest because did I say the narration was too good? Yes oh God, yes it was. Saffy isn't likeable character at all but I loved her. Her sass was spot on and there were many laugh and loud moments for me in the book.

Audiobook narration : 5 whole stars
Book rating : 4 stars

Thank you Netgalley and RB media for this wonderful audiobook ARC in exchange of an honest review.

This was a wild ride and I was totally here for it. This was my 1st book by Julie Mae Cohen but will not be my last, I am adding all of her books to my TBR!

#BadMen
#NetGalley

What a ride! It's been a while since I've listened to an audiobook that's kept my attention. Apologies it took me so long, speaking of Bad Men, some jerk stole my phone so I could not jump right back into my daily listening walks when I returned from vacation. I enjoyed the dual voices between Saffy and Jon. I'm not a fan of dog cruelty (trigger warning), but I guess these things are expected in a dark humor thriller. The writing kept me engaged and wondering where the story was going next. It is interesting POV from a woman vs. a typical man in these types of stories and made it all the more enjoyable as a female reader. I would watch this series and I would pick up a sequel! I'd imagine it could go something like Saffy continues killing men and Jon picks up his podcast again, lovers and secrets... Excited to see more reviews and recommend this to others.

This book sounded so appealing based on the premise, but ultimately, it fell a little flat for me. I listened to the audiobook, but would consider maybe trying the physical book to see if I prefer that. Based on all of the other glowing reviews, this might have just been a case of right book, wrong reader.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Savy/Sarafina kills bad men
Men who abuse women. Men who hurt women. Bad men shouldn't exist!!
Savy meets Jonathan, a true killer pod castor. She loves him and will do anything for his attention.
Jonathan finds himself being blamed by the cops for a body that was dumped on his doorstep. He didn't kill the person, but someone did
How far will Savy go. Will she ever stop killing
Will Jonathan be able to prove that he's not a killer, or will he end up on her list

Bad Men is a jaw-dropping, dark comedy thriller from moment one and will instantly draw you in. The main character, Saffy, is a female serial killer who supposedly only kills "bad" men, but when you have a serial killer as the main character, can you really trust anyone? If you love true crime, dramas, and have a twisted sense of humor, this book will be a hit for you!

Bad Men centers around a glamorous woman serial killer who you hate to love. At times, the clever, sarcastic language reminded me of a book I loved called "You." Jonathon is a true crime podcaster, and Saffiy is a serial killer with a conscience. She only kills bad men. The audio presentation was A+. Bad Men makes a perfect beach read.

Bad Men had a different premise (reminded me some of They Never Learn) with a female serial killer. I thought the narrator was fantastic and was easy to understand even at 2-2.5x speed. I listened to the story pretty quickly! I expected it to be more gruesome after listening to the first chapter, but it wasn’t too bad. Couple gruesome detailed parts in the story.
What I enjoyed: the female MC was entertaining. Her persistence and POV was comical at times. Her reasons what makes a man bad. The mystery aspect. Dysfunctional romance. Jon’s story and podcast.
I wish we learned more about Saffy. I feel like we learned she was a serial killer, but not much more to her background.
Overall, I thought it was a great audiobook!

There are a lot of books out there like this one at the moment and unfortunately they all do it better - there is no redeeming aspect to this story between the predictable plot, the detestable protagonist and the lack of any feminism in a supposedly feminist book.

This book had an intriguing premise. Unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It lacked the intrigue, pacing and the strong characterizations I was hoping for.

The audiobook, narrated by Nathalie Buscombe, was excellent and added a lot to the experience.

This book was funny and slightly morbid. I enjoyed this book. It was out of my normal that I read and it didn’t disappoint.

Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for providing me with an eARC of Bad Men in exchange for my honest review!

I wish this darkly comedic serial killer thriller could have been polished up some more, but I still had an enjoyable time with it. Saffy makes for a rootable antihero who provides grim laughs as she disposes of the eponymous bad men and starts to fall for true-crime podcaster Jon. Nathalie Buscombe adds to the audiobook experience with her narration, bringing life to the characters and their voices. The romance that builds up between Saffy and Jon is cute enough to follow, although there are parts where I'm left wondering if this is really a necessary element, or if it would have been more effective to focus fully on Saffy's murderous mission to rid the world of awful men. The whodunnit aspect of this book certainly could have been handled better, considering how formulaic it is. Maybe transforming that into more of a cat-and-mouse game could have been a smarter choice.

Overall, I'm officially rating Bad Men 3.25 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding down to 3 stars on Goodreads. The ending of this book definitely sets up a sequel, so if one does release, I'd be intrigued in it.

I really liked the synopsis of this, but struggled to stay engaged in the story. It's more a domestic suspense with thriller elements. I wanted to like this, but it just didn't keep my interest.

1.5 ⭐️ out of 5

The description gave everything but the book was disappointing in my eyes. A feminist thriller kinda and the lead is of course a female serial killer.

Saffy.. oh well. She quickly turned annoying and also obsessed with Jon. This is marked as a Thriller but unfortunately i wouldn’t say it is. More a bit of cute Romance with some twists and suspense.

Thanks Netgally and Julie Mae Cohen

Saffy Huntley-Oliver is a socialite with quite the dangerous hobby...at least dangerous for the bad men she kills. But how's a girl like Saffy meant to find love? Dud after dud, every man who's come into her life just wouldn't do. That is until she meets Jonathan Desrosiers—a crime podcaster with a shaky love life of his own.

I knew this would be a messy read before going into it, so I knew not to take this book too seriously. I enjoyed it so much more because of it. Saffy is such an over-the-top character that I found myself rooting for her and rolling my eyes at some of the things she said and did at the same time. She was oddly self-aware, but at times, I felt that she was all talk. Lots of self-hype and woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Her backstory, while I won't go into any details, was terrible. Growing up with an abusive stepfather, it's easy to see how she came to not trust men so easily, or at least have the ability to pick out when a man can't be trusted. Trigger warning for a predatory parental figure. He was awful.

As for the romance in this novel? Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy but also a lot of fun since Jon had a bit of a mess going on too. One seemed to get away with murder while the other ended up with severed heads on his doorstep and was suspected immediately. Jon had far less agency than Saffy and was often just kinda sad. I appreciated his perspective to understand exactly how his life got so mixed up, but he rarely drove his own narrative.

Gripes aside, this was a fun mood read.

Thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Serafina "Saffy" Huntley-Oliver - rich, posh, speaking in a weird hybrid of Brit/American for no discernible reason (boarding school?), has murdered plenty of people (well, "Bad Men," to be precise). But now she's taken a shine to Jonathan Desrosiers (Jesus, these names), a somewhat famous murder podcaster. Why? Because he's cute, and because he's really into murder, just like Saffy. So Saffy contrives, through animal abuse, to arrange an organic meetup with Jonathan, who has now taken a mental health tumble after being left by his long-suffering wife and discovering a bin-bag dismembered corpse on his front step all in the same 12-24 hour period of time. Against the odds, her ploy works and she inserts herself into Jon's life, all while continuing to kill "Bad Men" and trying to protect her baby sister from the same.

I feel like this trope is reaching ascendance lately. There are SO MANY righteous female serial killers in books right now. Female Dexters. The nice thing about Saffy is that we maintain the knowledge that she is very much a sociopath throughout her adventures. The not nice thing about Saffy is that she's not very likeable (even for a serial killer, I know), and her personality seems to be pretty much just murder, the finer things, and Jon-adoration. There's not a lot of there, there; it definitely makes it hard to care what happens (unless you're really worried about where Jon ends up).

A character is introduced early on and unless you're new to suspense novels, or Earth, you will know that he will make his appearance again at a later date. It's clunky for sure, but there is a TWIST involved there that I didn't see coming (in my defense I try not to work out potential twists in advance unless they are glaringly obvious) and was somewhat enjoyable. My beef is that it was explained NOT AT ALL and throws the whole timeline into disarray, and annoyed me. So there's that. That was enough for me to delete a star from an otherwise capable story, leaving us with a 3 star review. C'est la vie.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.75⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: thriller/mystery📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
A fun read but I felt like it was missing something

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Female serial killer
Dark humor
Quick and interesting reads
True crime podcasts
Side of romance

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Female serial killer rep

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Predicable