I loved the cover and title and also with the synopsis this sounded like a great read. Boy, was I mistaken! The first third of the novel was intriguing even though there were a lot of characters to keep straight. Then things started to collapse. The main character, Jasmine, was just so unlikable in her envy of people better off than herself and the constant mentioning of her bad childhood. As the book picks up steam so does the convoluted far-fetched happenings increase. Deus ex machina over and over gain. By the time the ending rolled around the author felt the need to insert such an improbable twist that she even exceeded my low expectations. I even began to feel sorry for Jasmine trapped forever in the workings of this novel.

Summary: Stephanie is the manager of a newsroom with a large group of staff reporting to her. She is accomplished, beautiful and successful. Jasmine’s life has always been a struggle. She was an unwanted third child raised in poverty and hardship with no formal secondary education. She works low wage jobs to get by and is now fleeing an abusive and controlling man who will kill her if he catches up with her. The two women sit next to each other on a flight and Jasmine sees a golden opportunity. Trent McCarthy is a middle-aged divorced newsroom manager on his way to the same conference Stephanie is attending. Trent is a blowhard, full of self-importance and braggadocio, and perpetually looking for a willing woman to sleep with him. Their lives are going to intersect in a newsworthy way.

Thoughts: The Business Trip is a tense psychological thriller with multiple perspectives and quick chapters. There are a number of characters introduced which requires attentiveness from the reader to keep them all straight. The frequent change of perspective creates a sense of events moving quickly and a swirl of intrigue around Stephanie which grips the reader. The tension builds to a showdown in Mexico which I read with bated breath.

I am unable to reveal much as I don’t wish to give spoilers. I will only say that the conclusion to all the tension was not believable for me. I was quite disappointed in the concluding chapters which were not as well-written as the rest of the novel, and felt rather disjointed. I actually wondered if several different endings had been written and then one selected or substituted. It is too bad because I had been quite immersed in the book to that point.

Thriller fans will enjoy this one and I would be interested in reading other reactions to it. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the copy to read.

The Business Trip is a psychological thriller that is an absolute roller coaster. The story follows multiple points of view for a ton of characters not central to the story, but everything ties together in the end. The main storyline follows Jasmine, a hard-working waitress from Madison, Wisconsin who was given the short end of the stick in life and that of Stephanie, a middle-aged news director for a major news station, also in Madison. The two of them cross paths on Jasmine’s journey to find herself and Stephanie’s journey to yet another conference that the news station is requiring she attend.
What follows is a true roller coaster of emotions, and I can guarantee that readers aren’t going to want to put the book down once they pick up this novel. With twists and turns that you won’t see coming, the reader will easily follow the multiple viewpoints to get to the explosive conclusion.
Five stars from me. Thank you to Jessie Garcia, NetGalley and St. Martin’s for this advanced copy of The Business Trip. The opinions above are my own.

This was very good! I really enjoyed the multiple povs it made so readable and made the book fly by. The book had a great plot and great twists. I look forward to what this author writes next!

This book made me very glad I don’t take business trips!
The way this book unfolds is so interesting to me, starting with two different women’s point of views then when they both “disappear” you are left with piecing things together from the point of view of friends and colleagues as your trying to guess who did what. The final conclusion was such an amazing twist that I honestly didn’t see coming…. Followed by a jaw dropping ending that honestly had me scratching my head on not seeing it coming.
Blown away by the fact of how many times I was deceived by this author

Unique story about a murder and the lengths people go to to justify their actions. This story is told through. the POV of many characters: the killer, the friends, the co workers, and the patsy: The author does an incredible job spinning the plates of this story in such a way that the reader doesn't know where to look. She masterfully plays with the reader's sympathies and expectations. The only thing I didn't like was the title. It's too boring for this fantastic book. This is so much more than a business trip gone awry. It's a corkscrew of plot with clues sprinkled throughout the novel. The ending is extremely satisfying. I would recommend this book to true crime lovers and mystery lovers.
Thank you NetGalley, Jessie Garcia and St. Martin's Press for the arc.

Jessie Garcia’s novel The Business Trip is a wild ride for any reader who likes thrillers. This is the ARC (best advanced reading copy) I’ve ever had the privilege to review for NetGalley. Another author I follow, Freida McFadden, recommended this book so I knew it would be good. Wow! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for future books by Jessie Garcia.

The Business Trip by Jesse Garcia is a fast paced murder mystery with plot twists all the way to the epilogue. I enjoyed the chapters being set up from different character points of view and the premise of the story wherein two women are leaving on trips to the same destination and something clearly goes wrong, leaving us guessing the further the book goes. That said, I found so many of the characters unlikeable that at a certain point I was just hastily reading to get to the end and see what happened. I guess I stopped enjoying the reading. Part of this is related to the style which is mainly quick judgment type phrases and thoughts about others, told from each person’s point of view. The descriptions are short and stereotyped which allows the reader to get the gist quickly, but also left me wanting more depth. The strength in the book lies in forcing the reader to think about how easily some of these events could occur to the unsuspecting, and how AI and modern technology can be leveraged in such nefarious ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for allowing me to read this ARC.

The novel starts with the introduction of two characters who are leaving town and end up on the same airplane. We are introduced to each briefly and then they just disappear from the narrative. We then meet a succession of secondary characters and it is slowly revealed that the women are missing and/or being impersonated via out-of-character text messages.

I found the story structuring puzzling. Are we expected to be as frustrated (like all their friends, etc.) by not knowing what happened to these women? I found it annoying. Toward the end of the story we do get insight to what was happening "off camera" but the reveal that one of the women was actually a full-blown unlikeable sociopath did not makeme to appreciate the story more.

This book was offered to me via an email by the publisher via NetGalley so thanks to both for the opportunity to read and review.

3.5 stars out of 5.

This book was full of twists and turns. I was immediately drawn into the book and I really enjoyed the multiple POVs from the different characters. The chapters were pretty short and left you hanging so I felt I needed to keep on reading on to find out what happens next. I did enjoy reading most of the book but towards the middle I could not stand Jasmine or any of the characters really. They needed to be developed more plus the ending was rushed and there were a lot of plot holes. Overall though, it was an entertaining fast paced thriller.

In The Business Trip we meet Jasmine and Stephanie. Jasmine just left an abusive relationship and had plans to head from Madison to Denver. Stephanie works for a news station and is heading to a business conference in San Diego. Both the women are on the same flight to Denver where Stephanie needs to switch planes for California. Without giving too much away, both women appear to be missing and Trent McCarthy seems to be in the middle of it. But is he really?

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thriller debut that I happily grabbed, and glad that I did! A thrilling twisty book with multiple perspectives, definitely had you on your toes the entire time! I did like how the author switched between so many different characters, so I could see how everyone was thinking as opposed to one or two main characters. A few of the plot twists were slightly unbelievable, but if you put that out of your mind and go along with the storyline, you will absolutely be entertained!

I would happily read another one by this author.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own

I really wanted to love this book. It had such a promising premise, but just fell flat. The plot holes were HUGE, the characters were not particularly well developed or likable, and the dialogue felt cheesy and forced.

Slow to start but what a ride! I did not see any of that coming and you honestly won’t know who to root for until the very last page. Highly recommend.

Finished up @jessiegarcia_author ‘s debut thriller THE BUSINESS TRIP and absolutely LOVING it. This is one you’ll definitely want to check out early next year! Pub date set for 01.14.25 be sure to add to your tbr asap!

A solid 5⭐️ read with such a cool plot. Two women with totally different backgrounds are boarding the same flight. One is escaping an abusive relationship and the other is just headed to a business trip. But then each appear to go missing after the flight and their friends are desperately searching for answers.

There are a lot of characters introduced but it’s so easy to fall along with! Sometimes an abundance of characters makes it difficult to keep up with but it was written so well that it’s not a problem with this one 🤍

thanks to @netgalley, @stmartinspress + the author for my advanced copy of this great book!!

This convoluted tale of murderous mistaken identity, fraud, and the schemings of a person who cannot be sane left me as cold as an iceberg.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley.

This was a fun and twisty read. The switching perspectives didn’t really do much for me, and a lot of the voices blended together with not a lot of individuality. There was also a lot of telling vs showing—recounting action rather than being in the action. Some of the coincidences and decisions felt a bit over the top. Overall though a fun debut.

This was a solid read. I was hooked from the first chapter. I did find it a little confusing at first to keep up with the multiple point of views but they were each written with such description that it became easier at the 1/2 way point.

I thought I had it figured out but I was mistaken. I did not see the plot twist and the ending had me even more shocked.

The only thing I didn’t like was the ending. It definitely left me hanging and I wanted so much more closure. A final chapter of Jasmine would have been nice.

Thank you St Martins Press and NetGalley for this Advance Readers Copy ebook in exchange for my honest review.

This book certainly was a surprise. At times it felt like watching a train wreck, but yet you couldn't look away, or in my case stop reading. The characters did not have a lot of depth, and at times were cliched, but the twists and turns made it all worthwhile. I would recommend giving it a read, I think you will find yourself surprised.

“The Business Trip” is an excellent thriller debut with a unique writing format that keeps you turning pages through the night.

The plot follows Stephanie and Jasmine whose paths cross when they board the same flight to Denver. Stephanie is travelling for a business conference and Jasmine is on the run from her abusive boyfriend. The way their lives cross over is unexpected to say the least.

When reading the synopsis I expected to immediately be on board the flight with the two women seeing how they interact. I was pleasantly surprised to see that after a small intro for each woman, the author completely diverted us through multiple character points of outside characters whom have connections to the main characters.

Through their thoughts we begin to see that something unusual is happening in the days following the flight and we begin to wonder what the heck is going on. It isn’t until the second half of the book that we are pulled back in time to see just how exactly we ended up there.

I loved how unique the plot was. I enjoyed all the different POV, even though there was so many of them I always knew exactly who was talking because of the way they flowed so nicely together patching you through the timeline consecutively.

I loved this book overall. My only qualms was the ending which i personally felt got a little too far fetched in the last three chapters and Jasmines character seemed to do a 180 to me. However there was one component to the ending i was glad for. This book makes for a great debate / conversational topic and would suit book clubs well.

Thank you to Jessie Garcia, St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: January 14th 2024

Wow! This is a riveting debut that will have you turning pages late into the night. It is a labyrinth of twists and turns with a breathtaking finale.

Stephanie is headed to a conference and ends up on the same flight as Jasmine, who is fleeing an abusive relationship. As seatmates, they strike up a short conversation, nothing more than triviality, and say goodbye on landing. So when they both disappear, it’s difficult to put the puzzle pieces together. They both have ties to the same man who was at Stephanie’s conference, but the leads end there. Oh, what a tangled web they weave.

Fantastic premise, told from multiple POV’s, edge-of-your-seat drama, and a sinister plot. What more does a reader need? I will definitely be looking for more from this author. Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy.