The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia was a bingeable popcorn thriller, easy to consume and kept the pages moving along. The twists in this one weren't ones I saw coming, but I also wasn't side-swiped by them either. It was like a hazy picture that got clearer the more I read. I really liked the plot concept and had fun trying to solve the puzzle. The only thing that I had a hard time with was the characters. Each person felt like a thin layer representation of a type of person and not a fully formed person. If you are looking for a quick read, beach thriller with a solid mystery to solve then I would recommend this one.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing the digital book in exchange for my review. I appreciate you!

Thrilling and fast-paced! This was great for a debut. I thought the storyline was interesting and I wanted to know the outcome immediately. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I did not move from my spot until I read the last page, and by then I was completely shocked from the turn of events. I did not see it coming at all!

This was a pretty good twisty story! I can say that I enjoyed Jasmine until the very end, it had me rooting for anyone but her. I didn’t like Stephanie at first and disliked her more at the end. Trent was just disgusting, as he was meant to be. I loved all the twists, great story!

Thanks to net galley for an advance copy. Finished in one day - lots of twists and turns and thoroughly enjoyable. I don't usually read thriller/mysteries but that just may change!

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Jasmine Littleton has a problem: her live-in boyfriend, Glenn, is abusive. But Jasmine has a plan, one that she’s executing in the wee hours of the morning. She’s planning to head for Denver . . . a place she hopes no one will find her.

On the plane, she meets Stephanie Monroe, a WISC newsroom director headed for a conference in San Diego. The two women pass the time in conversation and Jasmine is able to relax a bit, believing she’s escaped Glenn’s abuse.

But after the conference, strange texts are sent, calls are not returned . . . and soon the two women have vanished.

=========

Strong, believable characters populate this spellbinding tale of a woman desperate to escape her abusive life. With suspense building on every page, the telling of this tense and unpredictable tale transmits an undercurrent of anxiety that keep readers guessing.

Told from several points of view [mainly Jasmine and Stephanie], the unfolding story is both gripping and unpredictable. As the plot twists and turns, what seems, at first, to be a simple airplane flight changes everything for both women and keeps readers turning the pages as fast as possible.

Readers who enjoy psychological mysteries will find much to appreciate here as the narrative races toward a satisfying denouement they aren’t likely to expect. The narrative’s compelling sense of place, its formidable mystery, and its captivating premise work together to weave a tapestry that is an extraordinary, unputdownable tale . . . don’t miss this one.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#TheBusinessTrip #NetGalley

Kindle Copy for Review from NetGalley and St. Martin Press..

I received a free, advance copy of this book and this is my unbiased and voluntary review

Two women meet on a plane and end up missing. They are a business woman and a woman running from an abusive relationship. Their friends start receiving strange texts from them before their disappearance. It is a tale of mystery that will have you wondering what really happened to them. An edge of your set thriller that will have you glued to your read.

What a twisty debut! I couldn’t put this book down, and read long into the night until the end. Stephanie and Jasmine meet while on the same plane. One is headed to a conference and one is running from an abusive relationship.. This plane trip changes both of their lives and we are all along for the ride. There are lots of twists and turns but the final twist was a surprise. Each chapter is told by the point of view of a different person so we learn a lot about our ladies’ pasts and their relationships with others. It helps to explain why they are how they are and helps to explain their motivations for their actions. I can’t wait to read future books by this author.

As the story progressed and the truth about Stephanie and Jasmine's disappearance unfolded, it looked like the villain's plan was succeeding. Up until almost the end of the book, I thought I might get the ending I hoped an author would have the courage to write -- where the villain wins and there is no prospect of a sequel were good triumphs over evil. Alas, it was not to be. However, the story is quite good, with plenty of suspense and surprises. There were aspects of the ending that were predictable but also aspects that I would never have guessed.

Publication Date: January 14, 2025

Traditional format (digital). The Business Trip is a thriller debut from Jessie Garcia that had me turning pages late into the night! This story was told from multiple POVs with changing timelines and had all kinds of twists and turns from beginning to end.

What I liked:
-I liked the changing POVs and timelines throughout the book - it added interested and dimension to the plot by mixing around the timeline shifts and POVs
-Fast paced with lots of plots twists and non stop action
-The book was just the right length for me. I don't like when author's add unnecessary filler to drag the novel out and while this one has 352 pages I didn't feel anything needed to be cut out to shorten it.

Areas for improvement:
-I didn't love the ending especially the epilogue. It just fell a little flat for me and was a letdown after all the action.
-I know this is an ARC but there we a few word errors that stood out for me. I generally don't notice this when reading ARCs but at least twice in the book they made me go "huh?"

I am really picky about thrillers and can usually guess the plot twists a mile away but this book definitely kept me guessing and engaged until the end Overall, this was a solid thriller. I give this a 4/5.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun read! Jesse Garcia does a great job of jumping right in and getting into the thick of it. The story moved fast with several “wait what?,” moments. I kept asking myself if I actually knew the main characters or if I was being bamboozled. I liked the nice clean ending. It was satisfying not being left on a cliffhanger. I didn’t want to put it down and finished it in like two days. I cannot wait to read more of Jessie Garcia!

3.5⭐️

I was hooked from the beginning. Short chapters, interesting plot & mystery. After the POV switched from (won’t name the character) it got a bit repetitive and felt a little dragged out. I even suspected one character to show up and I was kind of right (won’t go into details).

I read this book super fast because I wanted to know how everything played out, I just felt like the twist wasn’t anything jaw dropping and some of the story ends weren’t tied up. The epilogue was a bit unnecessary, I would have liked to see how things wrapped up for some of the main characters throughout the book instead.

Read if you like:
—plot twists
—short chapters
—mystery
—murder stories
— news anchors
— airport scenes
— multiple POV
— hidden secrets

Thank you netgalley for this ARC. Pub date is 1/14/25

𝐀𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐱 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫: 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫, 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐭, 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐣𝐨𝐲.

An incredible debut that had me hooked right from the opening pages! Alternating POVs are one of my favorite things, and this book had quite a few. Initially, I worried about keeping them straight, but I soon found that each one had a distinct voice, so I settled in.

In the opening chapters, Jasmine is quietly planning her escape from her abusive partner. The fear and terror were palpable; her situation was dire. After quietly funneling tip money from her job at a bar and borrowing some from a friend, she has enough for a plane ticket to start over.

Stephanie is single with no kids and works for a news agency. She is often sent on business trips because of her lack of entanglements. She thinks it's unfair, but she also feels there is little that she can do about it. When she boards the plane for her latest trip, she meets Jasmine. They engage in some small talk and go their separate ways. After a few days, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man, Trent McCarthy, a self-proclaimed leader in the news industry and an attendee at the same conference Stephanie attended—and the messages becoming stranger and more erratic.

I was completely invested in the complicated, rather clever plot that was unraveling before me that was brilliantly executed. My only complaint was I found the ending to be rather abrupt and wanted a little more. Other than that small flaw, this was a wild, bingeable book from a debut author that I'll be keeping my eye on! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for making this title available early for their influencers. At the time this review was written, this title is expected to release January 14, 2025.

So many emotions reading this book! This was a quick read for me, starting and finishing in one afternoon. It’s fast paced - there’s something going on from the first page to the last. The story is told in multiple viewpoints, but flows well and is easy to keep up with. As I got further along, I had mixed feelings about a couple characters and waited for their comeuppance, getting quit annoyed as I read more about them. The feelings didn’t last long, as the story ties up all loose ends by the last page,

Stephanie is a busy, divorced, working woman who travels frequently for work. Jasmine is an abused woman leaving town ready to start her new life. Seating together on the same flight, their lives are about to cross paths in a way no one saw coming. When both women vanish, can their friends and coworkers put together clues to find their whereabouts? And who is this mystery man, Trent, that they have both been messaging about?

The Business Trip is a debut by Jessie Garcia. Stephanie is going on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship. They don’t know each other, but they end up on the same plane and their lives intertwine, changing them forever. Soon after, they both go missing. This book had a lot of characters at one point which became confusing, but by the third act everything was laid out and easier to digest. This part may be a little bit on the spoiler side so stop reading if you don’t want to hear it: I thought it was a little strange how some characters started out likable and you were rooting for them, and then the author kind of flipped the script! I’m not sure if that’s how it was supposed to be or a decision was made halfway through, but I didn’t really care for that. But for her first book, I thought she did a pretty fantastic job overall, and I liked the story, so I will definitely read her again!

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review and opinions are my own.

All in all, The Business Trip was a quick read (caveat: I skimmed most of Trent's chapters because he was atrocious) with an intriguing premise, but I'm not sure if I would read more from this author.

I did really enjoy what this book set out to do--the premise of the disappearance of two women mostly through the eyes of those left behind was different from similarly themed books, and the short chapters made for a quick, easy read. The twist at the end was also pretty satisfying.

Unfortunately, there were also some things that subjectively didn't work for me. Having Stephanie and Jasmine largely absent for most of the first half made it hard for me to care about their disappearance in the first place. And with that, no one's voice really stood out. All secondary characters sounded the same (ex: the trailer park guy is indistinguishable from the head of the news station) and their chapters felt repetitive. You've also really got to lean hard into the willing suspension of disbelief (mostly with the convenient way Jasmine goes about everything. Felt very deus ex machina. And just how big is Stephanie's suitcase??). And I hate to say it, but the epilogue felt really unnecessary.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for giving me access to this ARC on NetGalley through its influencer program.

One sitting, yep - get your snacks and free up your calendar, this one revs up slowly but then hits break neck speed to the end. You won't figure it all out, even if you think you have. Twists and turns, and multi-person views really keep thing going, and quite believable.

Phenomenal!!!! I read this book in less than 24 hours, now I wish I would’ve taken a little longer because I didn’t want it to end. WOW- the twists included were sometimes subtle but all came together in the end.

I enjoyed the perspectives of several different characters. Each character was built up through lots of details to be able to imagine the scene.

This book included some twists of things I’ve never read about, which obviously made it more intriguing, As I’ve read so many psychological thrillers, it’s hard to find new ways to keep me guessing,

Bravo to this new author!,

Jessie Garcia's debut, ‘The Business Trip’, is a masterclass in suspense and psychological intrigue. From the moment Stephanie and Jasmine's paths cross on a plane, the story unfolds with relentless tension. The writing is sharp and evocative, pulling you into the lives of these two women as their seemingly unrelated journeys converge in the most chilling way. I love the way author masterfully layers twist upon twist, keeping you guessing at every turn. The writing is sharp, and the pacing is relentless, ensuring you won’t put this book down until the shocking conclusion. With characters that feel real and a plot that keeps you on edge, this is a five-star thriller you can’t miss.

A page-turning page flipping, unputdownable thriller! I read this one in one night. If you like Julie Clark's The Last Flight, you'll LOVE this one. Perfectly twisty with unreliable characters. I loved it.