This book was moody and atmospheric, and is set in London, a place I have not (yet) visited, and always enjoy as a setting. Journalist Anna Tate is obsessed with the case of the death of Eva Reid. Eva was an artist and psychotherapist who had received some notoriety because of her rare condition in which she feels no pain. She can “get a paper cut, break a limb and even give birth without feeling a single thing”. In the years leading up to her death, Eva enters into a relationship with. And then marries the doctor who treats her, Nate Reid- a man with some notoriety himself. He’s an acclaimed scientist and leading expert on pain. Also, very rich. As Anna secures the opportunity to be a ghost-writer for Dr. Reid, she uncovers secrets surrounding his and Eva’s and while becoming closer to him while writing his book, she wonders the extent that she can trust him. And (surprise, surprise!) it seems Anna has some secrets of her own…

Despite being a bit of a slow burn with the twists and drama taking place closer to the end of the book, I enjoyed reading it. A big theme of the book centres around the neuroscience of pain- what it is, is it necessary, what a life without pain might look like, how it affects EVERYTHING, and that was all so interesting. However, the character of Eva, the one that has the condition (congenital analgesia), is deceased, and this is the case right from when the book begins. I was interested in her, and feel the story would have been more interesting had she been a living character. I also had difficulty getting behind Anna’s motivations, and many of her decisions and actions left me scratching my head. Plus, a few things that happened seemed way too convenient.

Sometimes I think I’m just a tough sell when it comes to thrillers. And maybe this is one that doesn’t need to be over-analyzed… just read for fun and entertainment!

Eva Reid has a condition where she cannot feel pain. She is married to a scientist working for her case, and one day she ends up dead. A journalist, Anna, is obsessed with finding out what happened to Eva and works closely alongside the husband.

I liked this book alright, but it wasn’t a favorite. It didn’t grab my attention and I kept having to pick it back up to read. I did enjoy the journal entries. I wouldn’t discourage the read, but it wasn’t a favorite for me.

Thanks to the publisher for the gifted ARC

You Can't Hurt Me is following a story of Eva of Dr. Nate Reid, whose death has been investigated. Comes in Anna Tate, a journalist who wants to find out exactly what happened to Eva.

This book has information of CIPA, which is extremely rare, 1 in 125 million. Congenital insensitivity to pain, which Eva had.
Her death, however, was not due to her condition.
Writing about Eva’s life as well as Dr. Reid’s, Anna joins to ghostwrite with Nate.
There are problems with Anna’s brother, who seems to follow her everywhere. Not a good feeling for Anna.
All characters are connected one way or other, and eventually the story comes to an end that I did not expect.
Interesting development all around. I would recommend this book, especially science-minded readers.

A woman who doesn't feel pain is dead. Her husband, a scientist, hires a ghostwriter for his memoir. Is everything as it seems? Most of the book was fairly mundane but it got good at the end.

I found this to be an clever novel. It was different than most I've read of late. I would recommend to those who like a twisty thriller that you have a hard time putting down.

What happened to Eve? Anna, who has wormed her way into working as a ghostwriter for Eve's husband Nate, is determined to find out. Eve could not feel pain and she was a subject for her husband, a physician. So when she dies with drugs in her system, there are a lot of questions, especially given how sheltered her life had been. This is told by Anna, who is meant to be writing about Eve from Eve's perspective, and with some journal entries from Eve herself. It's not the fastest of thrillers but it's an intriguing tale. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

3.5 stars

Main Characters:
-- Anna Tate – 34-year-old journalist for a magazine, writes an article about neuroscientist Dr. Nate Reid, hired to ghost write his memoir, her mother died when she was 11 and her father when she was a teenager
-- Tony Thorpe – Anna’s 40-year-old half brother, adopted by his stepfather but he chose to use his father’s name as an adult, protective of Anna since they lost their mother and her father
-- Dr. Nate Reid – neuroscientist who studies the biology of pain, studied and then married Eva who could not feel physical pain, currently planning his memoir since Eva’s untimely death
-- Priya James – Nate’s publisher, rumored to be possessive about her clients

Anna Tate is obsessed with Eva Reid, a sculptor training to be a psychotherapist who can’t feel physical pain, marries a doctor who studies pain, and tragically dies while her husband is away. Anna writes an article about Dr. Nate Reid for a magazine and puts herself in the running to ghost write his memoir.

Of course Anna is selected for the memoir or there really wouldn’t be much of a book here. Anna spends time getting to know Nate, getting to know who Eva was, how they met. They work at Nate and Eva’s home, and when Anna finds herself alone on a couple of occasions, she snoops, trying to make her way into Eva’s bedroom where she has been strictly forbidden to go.

She is obsessed. One of the big problems I had with this book, though, is that I don’t know why she’s obsessed. She interviewed Eva once for a piece that sounds like it never ran, yet she acts like she knew her well. I assumed she had some connection to Eva.

The book is narrated from Anna’s point of view, so we only get the information Anna offers us. It makes for a slow-moving beginning of the book as she gets to know Nate. It took me a while to get into it. But I cannot fathom why Anna needed to be the ghost writer for Nate’s memoir. And the further into the story we get, the seemingly more obsessed Anna gets. She even starts to question whether Eva’s sister’s belief that Nate caused his wife’s death might actually be true.

I have to admit, it kept me reading because I really wanted to discover the driver behind Anna’s desire to ghost write this particular book. The story holds some unexpected revelations and twists that I appreciated, so the back half of the book picked up the pace a bit. At the end of it, though, I was still left wanting. It was just okay for me, with the extra half star for the twists

Anna is a journalist looking to ghostwrite for Dr. Nate Reid who is working on writing a memoir about the loss of his wife Eva and his grief. Eva started out as the subject of Nate’s research into pain. She had a rare disorder that caused her to not feel pain. Through his research they became close and eventually dated and got married. She then dies in their home from a heart attack. Anna gets the job and starts to pick up on some discrepancies in Nate’s story. She starts to realize they both have secrets they are keeping, but can’t seem to stay away from him.

For a quick read it still took a long time in my opinion to get to the “thriller” vibes. I think a lot more could have been done with this storyline. I think more character development was needed, for example, I didn’t really understand why Anna wanted the ghostwriter job so bad. The concept was there but the characters fell flat for me.

"You Can't Hurt Me" by Emma Cook was interesting to read about pain in that way. The book is about Anna, a journalist who is researching Eva's past after her death about 2 years prior and becomes Nate's, Eva's late husband, ghostwriter for a novel he is writing. The first 2/3 of the book I thought were going and just reading a cozy mystery novel. Why is all good and sometime I enjoy that. However it was listed as a Mystery thriller, but didn't become a thriller for me until about 80% into the book. Then I couldn't put the book down and it was a great page turner with suspense. Overall I would it a 3.8 star rating. I would defiantly give this author another chance and will look into other book by her. This story line may not have been my thing, but it could be for you if you like a cozy mystery read!

** Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Emma Cook for an eARC copy of 'You Can't Hurt Me'.

Oh how i liked the idea of this story and really wanted to see how this was going to play out.
But it really fell short.
The last 20% was more to my liking.

I was initially really intrigued by the premise of the book, but this fell flat for me.

Eva Reid has been diagnosed with congenital insensitivity to pain, meaning she can't feel pain from anything. Her case has intrigued Dr. Nate Reid, her husband and renowned researcher investigating the neuroscience of pain. Anna Tate, a journalist, is drawn in by the pair of them, even more so after Eva is found dead in their home of a drug induced heart attack. Questions arise around what really happened to Eva and whether Nate may have had something to do with it. When Anna becomes the ghostwriter for Nate's new memoir, she becomes more drawn into their world, and is determined to discover what really happened.

I unfortunately don't really have much to recommend this book. The pacing was extremely slow and the characters felt very flat and one-dimensional; we don't really learn much about Eva and Nate as people and it's not ever really clear why Anna is so drawn to them. As for Anna herself, she also doesn't have much character development. I wasn't really super invested in the story because of that. The writing is also very long-winded with lots of descriptions that bogged down the plot, and the author had an annoying habit of dropping in really big words (e.g., gilet, froideur, or fulsome) when a more common word would have sufficed--which was really jarring to read. I also felt like the twists were predictable by the time they were revealed.

This book may find its readers, but those looking for a fast-paced, suspenseful psychological thriller won't find it here.

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

I absolutely loved the concept of this book but unfortunately it fell flat for me.

You Can’t Hurt Me follows Anna as she is hired to be a ghostwriter for Dr. Nate Reid. She dives into his world as a scientist who studies pain and the mysterious death of his wife who was diagnosed with a rare disease that made her unable to feel any pain.

The story wasn’t bad but the characters felt so flat to me. I ended up feeling bored and uninvested in anything going on. The twist was nothing shocking, saw it coming from miles away. It was all just okay. I know many others will love it, it just happened to not click with me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I loved this suspenseful read! The reader is a spectator to all of Anna's shocking discoveries. The book builds to a very satisfying conclusion.

Perfect for those who enjoy:
- Clever, twisty storylines
- Books with a medical aspect
- Satisfying endings
- Psychological thrillers

With thanks to Orion | Harlequin Trade Publishing | Hanover Square Press and Netgalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Eva Reid has congenital analgesia, a condition where a person can’t feel pain. Funnily, this is the second book in as many months that I have read an ARC about this condition, but the two books are nothing alike. This book is focused on Eva and her husband Nate, a neuroscientist who ironically works at a pain laboratory, inflicting pain on people to test their responses. He met his wife this way, and fell in love with her brain that could feel very little, physically or emotionally.

Eve died of a cocaine-induced heart attack, and now a journalist named Anna wants to write an article about Nate and the work he does. This assignment turned into her ghostwriting an entire book about Eve, all from Nate’s point of view. It chronicles her life as a person who lived with no pain, and who went from being a sculptor to a therapist in the hopes of at least gaining empathy. We also get some chapters from Eve’s journal, describing her first patient as a therapist, someone she simply refers to as Patient X.

This book was fine. It was a very quick read, but I wouldn’t call it a page turner. I could see where the plot was trying to go, but it felt to me as though the author held back a bit when writing this (almost like the characters held back when writing!) and there wasn’t a sense of suspense. While I was interested in the story, nothing about it really spoke out to me, shocked me or gave me a thrill. These characters could really have been stretched, but again, something felt held back. I’ve seen some really good reviews for this one, but it just didn’t work for me. Three stars.

(Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Hanover Square Press, Emma Cook and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on November 5, 2024.)

I never knew that there are people out there that cannot feel pain until I started reading books. That concept is so fascinating to me and hence why I grabbed this book! And wowza, this was a shocking one! For me it kind of has The Silent Patient vibes (a little bit) which I LOVED! Anywho, we meet Eva who was born with the condition where she cannot feel pain. That fact along draws a lot of attention, especially to a researcher named Dr. Nate Reid. Having worked in that lab, he met Eva and eventually they married. Things take a twist when Eva is found dead leaving a reporter Anna on the hunt to find out what happened to Eva. Anna must get closer to Dr. Reid creatively in order to unearth details and the closer she gets the more clouded her judgment becomes. In the end, reality and deception are hard for Anna to decipher! So many secrets will be spilled! 😱

I really enjoyed this one and I am shocked I’ve never read anything else by her! I thought the writing was very well done and the overall mystery behind Eva’s death had me not trusting anyone! I loved how as the relationship between Anna and Nate progressed it became harder and harder to determine what was truth, who was trustworthy and just who was obsessed with what! This kept my attention the entire way through and I absolutely will be watching to see what Emma writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. Quite frankly, I found it too creepy and disturbing. I did not get that vibe from the synopsis of the book so I am a little dissappointed.

I may try another book by Emma Cook in the future.

Many thanks again to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

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This book is about the murder of a woman named Eva. Eva can’t feel pain, and because of that, she is somewhat famous. After she is murdered, Anna, a reporter, becomes obsessed with Eva. She slowly inserts herself into Eva’s life, and discovers a lot!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Emma Cook’s “You Can’t Hurt Me” is a riveting psychological thriller that delves into the complexities of pain, both physical and emotional. Set against the backdrop of a cutting-edge neuroscience lab, this novel intertwines the lives of two women in a narrative as gripping as it is thought-provoking.

The story centers on Eva Reid, a woman with a rare medical condition that renders her unable to feel pain. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she meets and marries Dr. Nate Reid, a renowned neuroscientist. The plot thickens with the introduction of Anna Tate, a journalist assigned to ghostwrite Nate’s book about Eva. As Anna delves deeper into Eva’s life, she uncovers shocking secrets that blur the lines between reality and deception. The setting of the Pain Laboratory, with its sterile yet ominous atmosphere, adds a layer of tension that permeates the entire novel.

Eva Reid is a fascinating character whose inability to feel pain makes her vulnerable yet enigmatic. Her relationship with Nate is complex, marked by love and manipulation. Anna Tate, damaged by her own past, becomes increasingly obsessed with Eva, leading her down a path of dangerous discoveries. Cook’s characters are richly developed, with their own motivations and flaws that drive the story forward.

“You Can’t Hurt Me” explores themes of pain, obsession, and the search for truth. It delves into the psychological impact of living without physical pain and the emotional scars that can be hidden beneath a seemingly perfect exterior. The novel examines the ethical boundaries of scientific research and the lengths to which people will go to uncover—or conceal—the truth.

Cook’s writing is sharp and evocative, capturing the tension and intrigue of the story. The pacing is expertly managed, with twists and turns that keep readers on the edge of their seats. The dialogue is realistic and engaging, reflecting the characters’ complex relationships and the high stakes of their interactions.

“You Can’t Hurt Me” is a standout psychological thriller that combines a compelling plot with deep character exploration. Emma Cook has crafted a novel that is both chilling and thought-provoking, with a narrative that will keep readers hooked.

This book is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers and anyone interested in the darker aspects of human nature.

What a fast-paced intriguing read that was a lot of fun. Because of the intriguing plot and fast paced this is one that I didn’t want to put down and read in one sitting over the course of a few hours. I picked this one up because the premise seems like a new take on a familiar plot, and that it was exactly what I got. I loved that Eva had a rare medical condition and married someone in a field that sought to explain things. There was plenty of tension in the book as well, the author did a great job portraying things so I stayed on the edge of my seat guessing what was going to happen. This book does have an unreliable narrator so if that isn’t your thing you might not enjoy, in the case of this book it worked for me and I had fun with it. My biggest drawback is the ending, it wasn’t exactly how I wanted to see things end and I would have preferred things be a bit tighter.