The Note had so much promise. When I started I was fully drawn in to the story of three friends on vacation and enjoyed learning about their history and what’s been going on for each of them.

Unfortunately about halfway through the book, this really took a turn for me and I ended up so annoyed by the entire ending. May and her fiancé Josh both kept acting in ways that didn’t make sense to me. There were things that were so weird they seemed like it must just be a setup for something that would come later - and then it never did. There are legal aspects that pushed suspension of disbelief beyond where I can suspend. And the ending was clear early enough that there was very little suspense left other than why I was still reading. This was a disappointment for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

Huge thank you to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the gifted ARC.

I'll start with the good: the cover is beautiful and the writing was also very well done! It was easy to fly through!

The negatives really come down to the plot or lack thereof for me. I wanted to love this book and was so excited for it, but ultimately ended up struggling to get through it. The characters made me crazy and the plot was unbelievable to the point of being maddening.

I think the overall concept was a good idea, but maybe not enough for a full-length novel.

Really wish I had more positive things to say! Read other reviews before taking my word for it!

The Note by Alafair Burke follows three best friends on a weekend getaway.
It's a very fast paced thriller with a lot of twists and turns. I really enjoyed the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very interesting premise. Three friends on vacation, drinking and having fun. They decide to play a prank on a random stranger that stole a parking spot they were waiting on. The fallout is a lot more than they would have ever expected and throws them into the middle of a police investigation.

Here's my thing. They have been friends since they were children, yet May's loyalty flip flops all over the place really quickly. She is ready to believe the worse regarding her friends as fast as the wind blows. People who have been friends that long normally tend to have each others back and will support each other to the end.

There were a few times that Lauren and Kelsey almost blend into each other. Simply put, you may have to read back over chapters to figure out who is who on occasion. It would have been nice to have a little more insight into some things about them in order to figure out why they did what they did with the relationships in their personal lives.

All in all, its a very fast read. Rather than give away any spoilers since the book is not out yet, I will just say this. I did figure out some aspect of who the guilty party was, but not to the extent it ended up being.

**Disclaimer - I obtained an advance readers copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book kept me up until 1am on a work night. It has been forever since a book kept me up this late. I kept trying to put it down, and then I'd come back for more and then I figured I'd just finish it off.

We start with May, who is fresh off a trip from the Hamptons with her old friends, Kelsey and Lauren. She's home, ready to spend quiet time with her fiancé, Josh, and her dog, Gomez. But a knock at the door startles them, and two police officers are at the door, asking about where she was during her time in the Hamptons.

Kelsey, Lauren, and May have been friends since their college days, when they all attended and worked at a music camp, Wildwoods. As the years have passed, the women have kept in touch off and on. But besides childhood camp, they have something else in common: all have been involved in some form of public scandal and been canceled. May had a panic attack and made a wrongful accusation on the subway. Lauren's affair with a married man is revealed to the press. And Kelsey is suspected of being involved in her husband's murder. A missing man in the Hamptons threatens to bring their names back into the shameful spotlight of public scrutiny.

This story does have a bit of a dual timeline, but only for a short period of time. We see the present day, and then the six days prior, which then leads back to the present day. We do also see some snippets of the past, but it's very brief and is told more so as a memory and not another timeline.

This story is artfully woven together. There is tension but it varies: tension between the women, tension with the past, family dysfunction, and other traumas. First, I appreciated the author brought attention to the many ways that someone can be affected by what happened to them but also managed to not make it the entire story. A great example of this is May's subway incident. May realizes that during the pandemic, her personality has changed a lot, and as such, made her panic in the subway and react in a way that she normally wouldn't. But she's still humiliated by it and part of her story is dealing with her re-emergence into the social world, but also different aspects of her professional life.

Because of this tension showing up in various ways, the twist at the end of the story came out unexpectedly. I think I was so absorbed in the characters and their flaws that it was like a very sneaky, surprise twist. I thought it was great.

If you enjoy childhood friendships, secrets old and new, and twists you don't see coming, you'll want to check this one out.

The note. Can we ever go past our past. Sometimes time makes our past mistakes seem like they weren’t so bad. Then other mistakes we can’t get over and they live in our minds

The plot sounded right up my alley but unfortunately it ended up being too predictable. By the end of the book the friend group was SO toxic I truly didn’t care who survived.

I have to say I did not care for this one very much. It seemed to drag and was hard to get into. A bit predictable at times. Overall, it was just ok. I have never read anything from this author before, and now I'm a little hesitant to

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I've read a handful of Alafair Burke's books before, and this one was pretty good, I enjoyed it for the most part. Three friends from an arts summer camp reunite for a girls' weekend in the Hamptons. Lauren is older than May and Kelsey as she was the camp's music director when they were campers and then counselors.

While I didn't find May or Kelsey likable all the time, the three friend group had interesting dynamics. They call themselves the Canceled Crew. May is a former prosecutor turned law professor who unintentionally became the subject of a viral video on the subway during the pandemic. Lauren was the subject of rumors about an inappropriate relationship with an older married man. Kelsey's husband Luke was found murdered, and while she had a solid alibi, her dad's connections to the mobile made her look suspicious to true crime junkies.


So the weekend gets off to a good start until they lose a parking spot at a restaurant to a wealthy looking white man and his gloating female companion. They joke about leaving a note on their windshield, suggesting the man is cheating. Some of the events of the weekend are glossed over, and then we find out the man in the missing posters around town is the same man that stole their parking spot. Then May finds out the note Lauren wrote as a joke, was left by Kelsey on the car.

A lot of bombshells include a connection to the missing man, David. The beginning took some time to set up the story, but the pace improved. I wish the ending was a less anti climatic. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars. Release 1/7/25

The Note
Alafair Burke
Pub Date: Jan.7, 2025
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.
I was excited to get this ARC because I know many people are fans of this author.
This is my first read by Alafair Burke, and I hate to say that I wasn’t that impressed with this book. I’m sure there are other books of hers that I would like more, but this one just didn’t work for me. It was a short read, and it took me nearly a week to read this (not a good sign). I did not like one character (which usually isn’t a dealbreaker for me), but unlikable characters and a slow moving storyline just made it worse.
I cannot recommend this one but I will try another book by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Unfortunately, I DNF at 49%. I tried to push through but couldn't bring myself to continue reading.

Boring plot with very blah characters that had zero connection for having supposed to have been best friends. The story didn't keep my interest enough to even find out what happens.

Thank you @aaknopf for the gifted copy of this eARC.

All is fun in love and war until a prank goes horribly wrong. This one is set on a weekend getaway with girls who have a long history together however they’ve not seen each other in many years. This opens the door for questions about who they really are and just who have they become since they last saw each other. When they are out in the Hamptons one of the women decides to leave a note on a car and this is where things go sideways. 👀 Next thing we know, these friends are being questioned by the police about the events that took place after the note was left. Dun dun duuunnnnnn.

This is my second Alfair book and this one fell a little short for me. The idea of a drunken silly prank gone wrong was a fun one however I think I struggled a bit with the characters overall. They did lack depth which made it harder for me to keep track of who was who. As the book progressed it became easier however, in the end I just didn’t understand why these women were friends. They weren’t overly friendly towards each other and just were not nice humans. If you enjoy unlikable characters, want a fast beach read and are a prankster this book is for you!

Unfortunately, for me, this was a DNF. I GAVE UP AT 10 percent. I felt no connection to the characters and felt that the author was trying a bit too hard to be all inclusive. I wasn’t interested enough in the backstory to continue on yo find out why May and Lauren had issues they were dealing with. Based on the other good reviews, I feel like I’m in the minority, so I’m sure many others will enjoy the story.

The Note
By: Alafair Burke

4 Stars

A trip to the Hamptons with her two oldest friends sounds like a great getaway to May. Her, Kelsey, and Lauren are soon drug into trouble that they never saw coming. All over a small note, just a prank. Really. Fighting for each other, they find that not everyone can be trusted. Secrets and danger abound in this story of 3 best friends and a weekend that will change their lives forever.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were relatable yet dynamically interesting. They each brought their own "feel" to the book. Overall, it had danger and secrets galore. It was a thriller that kept me engaged, and I always wanted more. It was a good mix of mystery, thriller, and psychological. By the end, after the many twists and turns, I was shocked. I never saw that ending coming.


*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

This book is about three longtime friends who go away for a weekend in the Hamptons and end up involved in the case of a missing man. It took me a long time to get engrossed in the book and I found it rather predictable.

Denise Satin
316 reviews
4 followers

November 19, 2024
This is not my first book by Alafair Burke so I was pleasantly surprised when I received this ARC from net galley and the publisher for an honest review. I truly love this author but I found this book tedious to read. It is about three friends who meet up in the Hamptons and then something like a prank goes wrong. It picked up towards the end. I gave it three stars because of the author who is a well written author and it does get better but not one of her best for me. This book took me over a week to complete. When I love a book I can’t stop reading it and it does not take me over a week to finish. I hate not giving great reviews but I have to be honest. That does not mean you should not read it.

3.5⭐️
Three “cancelled” friends who were all involved in different public scandals get back together for a girls trip.
When one harmless prank involving a note goes very wrong. Secrets, lies and murder.
The characters are unlikeable and they have a toxic friendship. It made me wonder why they still talk to each other.
I did predict the twist but it was still a fast read that I enjoyed.

Shocking. Stunning. I absolutely could not put this book down!! The blurb on the front by Elston got me, and I'm so glad I took a chance on this one.

4.75/5.0

This is a well written mystery that does not reveal the killer until the end. There are several suspects in the disappearance and then murder of David Smith. I rate it 4 stars . The blurb:
"Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing.

But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she's had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry. "
May is a lawyer and former DA. She is the one who suspects several different people before she finally puts it all together. The reader follows along with her as secrets are revealed, and how past actions have affected their friendships. May is the narrator. All of the deaths are described after they have taken place, so no graphic violence. There is only a limited amount of sex, and not graphic.
While it has been described as a page turner, it took me 5 days to read it. I became involved in figuring out how the secrets that were revealed affected their relationships, and who had motive for murder.
Thank you Knopf Publishing for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#TheNote #NetGalley

Pub Date Jan 07 2025

ARC Review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️The Note by Alafair Burke
Three long time friends, who have all faced the wrath of the internet, take a trip to reconnect in the Hamptons. What starts as a prank, turns into a full blown investigation. Wow, this was a fun and twisty mystery/thriller! My first Alafair Burke book, and it will definitely not be my last. I found that Burke’s writing kept me hooked from the start. The characters were wonderfully flawed and it has you guessing who did it until the end. I can see this becoming a movie/show, I loved the drama of it all. Not a thriller to miss.
Thank you #netgalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read this arc.
The Note by Alafair Burke releases January 7th, 2025