The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia
3 Stars

This book presents an intriguing concept but ultimately falls short of its potential due to an overcomplicated narrative structure and a lack of sustained tension. One of the major issues is the sheer number of POVs the story uses. With multiple characters offering their perspectives, it becomes difficult to fully engage with any single one, leaving the narrative feeling disjointed. Each character's internal thoughts and motivations sometimes feel underdeveloped, and the frequent shifts in viewpoint make it hard to connect emotionally to the story.

In terms of plot, the book struggles to maintain a consistent level of suspense. The story lacks the gripping energy needed to keep readers on the edge of their seats. The tension is sporadic, with some moments dragging while others rush through key developments. This uneven pacing diminishes the overall impact of the thriller elements.

While this wasn't my cup of tea, I have heard from other reads that the audiobook is fantastic, so I would recommend taking that route if this book peaks your interest.

I took a chance on this book. I enjoyed over half of it, but then the rest of it became unbelievable and far-fetched for me. I was ready for it to be done. I didn't dislike it enough to give it below 3 stars, but I didn't love it enough to give it any more. I guess it just was predictable for me for some reason. I would read more by this author. This one just wasn't my favorite.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Two women, Stephanie and Jasmine, come from two very different backgrounds. They sit next to each other on a plane. A few days later they are both missing and strange texts are being sent. Plenty of twists and turns. Trent was so awful.

This book was sooooo good!!! I couldn’t stop reading!!! Had me in it right from the start!!!!! Could not put down!!! Solid 5 stars!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a phenomenal fast paced thriller.
It was a page turner from the get go. I couldn’t put it down and it had me guessing up until the end!

I loved this book it kept me on the edge of my seat ! I loved the twists and turns ! Highly recommend !

Jasmine has had enough. When she first met Glenn, he seemed nice. He took her on dates and made her feel special. But that was long ago. That was before he hit her and demanded she turn over her paychecks and kept her away from friends and family. And then he started hitting her. Jasmine saved up a little bit of money week after week for over a year in order to make her getaway. But it’s finally time. She is boarding a plane for Colorado and not looking back.

Stephanie is a news director in Madison, Wisconsin, heading for a work conference in San Diego, with a stop in Denver. She didn’t know anyone at the conference, and she was getting tired of being the person from the station who had to travel to all the work things. But as a divorced woman with a cat, Stephanie is the easy person to choose, and she always agrees. Her neighbor and friend Robert will be handling the cat sitting duties, and she will bring him back a kitschy gift. It’s what they do when she has to go on these trips.

These women had nothing in common but a flight, a row of seats where one sat by the window and the other by the aisle. They chatted briefly and went on their separate ways. But aside from a few texts where each woman talked about a new man they were seeing, no one heard from either woman until the police were called to the home of a man named Trent McCarthy and find DNA from both women in his possession.

Trent is a news director also, and he attended the same news conference Stephanie was heading to. They had been assigned the same table for the first day, sharing ideas on running their respective newsrooms. After the conference, he had gone back to Atlanta to return to his life, and everything seemed normal until the day the police came knocking on his door, after a 911 call directed them to his place, a woman begging for help on the line.

As the police and Stephanie’s fellow news reporters started to dig into her disappearance, they found a number of things that didn’t add up. Her texts had been sparse and terse. Stephanie hadn’t answered her phone for anyone, just sent texts and voice memos and posted on social media. What exactly happened to these women between their flight to Denver and Trent McCarthy’s arrest?

The Business Trip is the debut thriller from Jessie Garcia, and it’s filled with questions and twists that suck you into the story and keep the pages turning until the end. Told in multiple perspectives, this story offers up breadcrumbs of truth, letting readers make their own guesses about what is really happening and finally resolving it (for the record, I guessed wrong). But seeing all the puzzle pieces fall into place is such a fun journey that I genuinely enjoyed this trip.

I listened to The Business Trip on audio, which has ten different narrators. It was easy to know whose perspective we were getting, as each character truly had a distinctive voice. The voice actors are Andrew Eiden; Dylan Fitzpatrick; Fred Berman; Gail Shalan; Hillary Huber; Jennifer Pickens; John Pirhalla; Kimberly M. Wetherell; Kirby Heyborne; and Tim Campbell, and they definitely bring all these characters to life through this narration. I thought the audio book was masterfully done, and I think it’s a great way to experience this thriller.

Egalleys for The Business Trip were provided by St. Martin’s Press and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I don’t want to give anything away for future readers but this book was extremely good! Well written, keeps your attention throughout the entire book.

The pacing was okay. This thriller was a little underwhelming leading to moments where the story seems to drag or hurry through important events.

3.5 stars rounded down;

Stephanie and Jasmine are sitting next to each other on a flight. Both women are going to the same location but they are strangers and have absolutely nothing in common. Jasmine is fleeing an abusive boyfriend while Stephanie, a TV exec, is on a business trip. A few days into the trip, both women text their friends/family about the same guy - Trent. When the two women suddenly vanish, questions are raised. Who is Trent? What is his connection to these two strangers?

A fun and interesting read, but it's definitely OTT and you will need to suspend your beliefs. There are lots of twists and it is honestly quite unpredictable. Didn't really guess where this one was going. The author is very creative for coming up with this plot and all the twists! It is hard to put this one down (I read it in one day!) as so much is happening - it maybe lends itself a bit to a "popcorn thriller". I did really enjoy this author's writing style.

Well done to Jessie Garcia on this debut thriller - looking forward to reading more novels by you!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun thriller, full of humor and twists and turns! As soon as I thought I knew…I didn’t! You get glimpses of the story from multiple POVs which just gave this story great layers. I listed to the audiobook with this one and the cast did a great job!!! Honestly a really spot on narration.

If you love:
🔪Thrillers
✖️Multiple POVs
🌪️Twists
🐈Cats
🤯Who did it
😥Troubled background
👥Dynamic side characters

Give this one a read!

#thriller #thrillerbooks #netgalley #thebusinesstrip #whodidit

The Business Trip was a rollercoaster thriller that I was not prepared for. The short chapters and ever-shifting points-of-view kept me as the reader on the edge of my seat and completely off-guard. The itty-bitty breadcrumbs and clues that were gradually dropped along the way kept me guessing. And the final resolution that finally tied all the characters and clues together so the whole plot was finally revealed was a bit of a unique experience when so many thrillers can be guessed anymore.

Jessie Garcia’s debut novel “The Business Trip” is a rollercoaster of suspense that hooks you from the very first page. Told through multiple viewpoints, the book introduces us to two women Jasmine and Stephanie, whose paths unexpectedly cross on a flight that will change both of their lives.

Jasmine is a financially struggling bartender who’s managed to scrape together enough money for a flight to escape an abusive relationship. Stephanie, on the other hand, is a divorced, successful yet overworked news director heading to San Diego for a news coverage summit. Despite their stark differences, their fates become intertwined in the most unexpected way: sitting next to each other on a flight, where they even share a striking resemblance.

After parting ways, things take a bizarre turn. Both women’s friends begin receiving strange, out of character text messages from them. And somehow, both are mysteriously connected to a man named Trent McCarthy, who lives in Atlanta. What’s going on? Is it some kind of elaborate scam? I found myself flipping pages anxiously, desperately trying to uncover the truth (because, let’s face it, I’m pretty nosey, haha).

The Business Trip is filled with jaw-dropping twists and turns that keep you on edge. Garcia masterfully builds suspense, drawing readers into a web of deception, confusion, and danger. That said, while I loved the book overall, the doppelgänger twist at the end didn’t quite do it for me. It felt a bit far fetched, and in my opinion, could’ve been left out.

All in all, The Business Trip is a brilliant debut with an addictive plot that kept me on my toes. Though the ending didn’t quite live up to the build-up, it’s still a solid 4.5/5 for me. A must read for fans of psychological thrillers!

✈️ The Business Trip✈️
By Jessie Garcia

Pages: 352
Rating: 4️⃣.0️⃣0️⃣
Book Goal 2025: 11/130

✨Have you ever found a lookalike? Was it strange?✨

Wow! The twists. The turns! The ENDING! I didn’t see that one coming…. I was shocked.

I really enjoyed this plot, the twists and the build up. The only thing that was a bit of a miss for me was that not only was it multi pov, it had MANY characters. But then it also was dual timeline which sort of made it hard to stay on track.

Overall I enjoyed this quick read and would read another by this author!

I flew through this thriller super quickly because of how intriguing it was. The first half had me completely invested, and there was a pretty neat twist at the end that I’m glad the author threw in there. I do think that the second half of the book wasn’t as strong as the first half, but I still enjoyed the reading experience overall.

There were a lot of POVs, but I actually didn’t mind that at all. I usually hate when authors do that because it can get very complicated, but I felt that the characters were all distinctive enough that I didn’t get confused or forget who some of the people were.

I think the book would’ve been a lot stronger if the second half was handled differently. It was basically a looooong explanation of what the killer did and how they accomplished it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a big reveal. But I felt the length of this one was unnecessary, and things got way too repetitive and a bit dull. That’s what kept this read from being five stars for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted copy!

✈️ The Business Trip - Jessie Garcia

3.75 ⭐️- This was addictively good! What a fun, twisty psychological thriller debut. I was hooked from the very beginning!

I was addicted to this audio! It’s a full cast so I definitely recommend it. The thrill and mystery started from the very beginning with unlikeable characters, that I enjoyed not liking, twists and turns and multiple skeptical POVs. This was fast paced and easy to binge. There were a couple of storylines I felt were unfinished and I wanted more, but I did enjoy the ending.

Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin Press for the early ARC and audio. This one’s out now!

Loved this thriller!!! Twists and turns and most I never saw coming! Even the villains were likeable. A great, quick read!!

This book is a multi-pov twisty thriller and I did not predict what was happening in this book. Even when I had little ideas of what could be going on, it was wrong and I didn't predict the ending at all. I enjoyed the twists, but the simple and somewhat choppy writing style (maybe too many pov?) wasn't my favourite which is why it was only a 3 star for me. I do recommend this though if you like twisty thrillers and it was a good read that kept me guessing.

Unfortunately not a fan! Way to many POV to keep track of and not a single likable character. My biggest issue was the unrealistic plot twist.

The Business Trip 💼 🩸
By: Jesse Garcia
Story: ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ 3.7/5
Narration: N/A

I’d like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early e-arc of The Business Trip by Jesse Garcia. Jasmine has had enough. Her abusive boyfriend Glenn has hit her one too many times and it’s time she finds a way out. Stephanie is a Television News Director whose life seems to be perfect. Yet, she believes that something is still missing. What do these two have in common? A flight that ends in identity theft, murder and romance? Well, maybe not romance. Find out what happens when two complete strangers on a plane end up with more in common than planned. Or was it planned?

I really enjoyed this one! As someone who rarely has a chance to sit down and read, I’m glad this was one of the ones I was able to experience. Every night felt like an escape into a world of suspense, questions and utter shock. While there were so many characters that one could find hard to remember, it actually made for a more interesting read. I have already recommended this one to others.