As I type this, I'm literally making my way through One Tree Hill for the first time (I'm on season four if you're curious), so this story was not one I was familiar with. For others who are where I was (or people who need a refresher), while on the show, Bethany Joy Lenz (who played Haley James-Scott) was in a cult. This is her story about how it began, how it went, and how it ended. She shares all the details, and there is a rawness as she details all the ins and outs. She's also telling this story looking back, so she shares her emotional reactions and lessons learned now. It was an interesting read for me, and I can certainly see how much it took for her to share so much about this time in her life. Not a good or bad thing, but I do think this one will "hit different" for One Tree Hills fans versus someone like me who's new to this! Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this October 2024 release.

It mostly made me sad for Joy. Sad that she was so vulnerable and could be taken advantage of and couldn’t see the flashing red lights of warning in front of her. I’m not sure how else to feel.

I would give this book a solid 4 out of 5 stars. As a fan of OTH I am grateful for the opportunity to read and review this book from Simon & Schuster and Netgalley.

The book is a memoir from Bethany Joy Lenz or known more to me and others as Haley on One Tree Hill. She goes into detail about her life from the lens of her relationship with religion from her father’s early life, her childhood, her acting career, her dive into a cult using religion, and after everything.

I thought that the descriptions of the cult and her perspective of her bio-family was interesting to see how she was convinced and isolated into the cult “family” from originally just bible study. I think that Pam is an awful person from this book, teaming up with Les and isolating women who do not have a stronger mother figure in their lives and using that as a way to mislead and provide that figure only to have them manipulated and verbally abused in the name of spirituality and guidance. Les is also evil regarding all his grandiose and disgusting mannerisms.

As someone who is not deeply religious it was hard to read a lot of the verses that were included and I was considering not going forward but read it still with the consideration of those sections as manipulation verses. I was deeply saddened for her over the Belle loss and wished that was something that she would have stuck up for herself on. I was also disgusted by the treatment by both Les and QB in the form of having to come to them for every little decision and abeyance.

I am glad that she was able to leave the situation with her daughter. I just wish it had happened sooner and/or that she was not sharing custody with QB. I wish it included more about her life on OTH but I understand that it was a lack of life since she was so numb during a lot of that period.

Such a great memoir by Bethany Joy Lenz! Her writing had me totally sucked into her story and there was so much about her life I didn’t know. I had been the headline where she mentioned on her podcast she was part of a cult but like so many others I didn’t know the full story. She was so through with her telling of how the small manipulations from a religious organization you want so badly to believe can turn into something more sinister. I loved her telling of time in acting throughout the years and how it landed her on One Tree Hill. She clearly is such a resilient person to be able to go through everything she did and still find the good in the world and move on with her life.

Okay, 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 I just finished an arc of Bethany Joy Lenz’s memoir 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 and 𝑾𝑶𝑾 😱✨ It’s not at all what I expected but in the 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 possible way! 🍷💔 Who knew our 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛, 𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑬𝒀 𝑱𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺 𝑺𝑪𝑶𝑻𝑻, was living a 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 life in a cult all while filming 𝑶𝑻𝑯?! 😳

𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋. 𝐒𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆. 💔 From her time on set as one of our fave early 2000s TV stars to being trapped in this 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 web of control, Bethany shares everything—the manipulation, the isolation, and the journey to finally breaking free. 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔. 😭💕✨

What really hit me was how relatable her search for belonging was 💖 Like, we’ve all been there, right? Wanting to fit in, wanting to find 𝑜𝑢𝑟 people, but for her, it went wayyy too far. 😢 The vulnerability and strength she shares in her story of escaping and healing is seriously 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔🦋

I’m still not over how brave she was to finally take back her life! 😭😭💕 𝐔𝐆𝐇. 𝐒𝐎 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃. I 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 her even more now 🫶🏼

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 & 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧 & 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲!

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was so elated to be approved for this memoir by Bethany Joy Lenz, who is most known for playing Haley James Scott on One Tree Hill. I started watching OTH because it was on after or before another show I was watching, and there was nothing else in that time slot I was interested in anyway. But soon, I began to actually watch and enjoy the show, rooting for the characters. To adjust your expectations, most of the book is about the effects of being in a cult, much less about her acting career and time at OTH.

To think back and see what Joy was going through the whole time she did OTH, I had no idea, like many fans, what was going on with her personal life. I knew she was a devout Christian, playing a character who gets married young and then has a child with Nathan. The book starts off with what was the final straw for Joy. Then we learn about how she got into acting and how she was groomed into a religious Bible study cult. I'm not going to disparage her in any way because it was something that had built up over a few years. It didn't happen overnight. She saw and ignored red flags. When you've been isolated by your loved ones and told the only path forward to G-d is through a charismatic leader, it's psychological gaslighting and manipulation, and it leads to financial abuse.

As a reader and non Christian, I was definitely uncomfortable and could see clearly where this was all leading for Joy. She cut herself off from her parents, isolated herself from her cast mates, and allowed herself to be convinced to marry the cult leader's son. Others tried to get her to wake up, most notably costars like Paul Johannson and Tyler Hilton. Not a spoiler, but I gasped that after marrying "QB," she transferred her money to the man who would drain most of her hard earned savings. I truly hope she's able to recoup a nest egg for her daughter. There's also tones of inappropriate sexual contact that's been hinted at, with other members. At one early point in her first visit to Idaho, Joy has a cough and is given "medicine" by Kurt and wakes up 36 hours later with no memory of that time.

I truly wish only the best for Joy and hope she heals through writing this memoir and finds a happy "ending." Dinner for Vampires is out on Oct 22nd.

I didn’t have high expectations when I sat down to read “One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz’s memoir about her time in a religious cult, but oh boy did it exceed all my expectations and more.

I don’t want to say any more than I already have and minimize the emotional wallop you’ll feel as you read Bethany’s story in her own words, so just trust me when I say that the book is incredibly captivating. I read it in one sitting in just a few hours. You’ll be rooting for her the whole time to succeed and to escape.

A little Googling is all it’ll take for you to learn that the character Bethany calls “Harkin” in the story, a fellow cult member, is actually former actor and millennial heartthrob Jonathan Jackson (not to be confused with fellow millennial heartthrob and “Dawson’s Creek” star Joshua Jackson). That made the whole tale feel even more surreal and wild to me.

I highly recommend this book to fans of “One Tree Hill” as well as fans of Minka Kelly’s “Tell Me Everything” and Jennette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mom Died”. I’ll be thinking about this book for a longtime and wishing Bethany success and happiness as she continues to rebuild her life for her and her child.

I loved OTH when it first came out and I find cults to be fascinating, so when I heard Bethany Joy Lenz had a memoir coming out I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. If you’re expecting lots of tea about her hit show, you will be disappointed. This is 100% about her time spent in the cult and how she managed to get out. She is such a strong woman and a fighter, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. She wrote with poise and humor on such an intense topic. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

When I saw that this book was coming out, I was so excited to read it. And it did not disappoint. I think Joy was incredibly honest and introspective about her past, and as someone who is fascinated by cults and was also a huge fan of her show and her character, this was fascinating to read. Thanks to NetGalley and the lovely author for an ARC!

Thank you Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this eye opening book by Bethany Joy Lenz. Growing up a teenager in the early 2000’s I was not a stranger to One Tree Hill. In fact, I had weekly watch parties and even wore a shirt that said Naley 4 Ever. So once I saw that Bethany Joy Lenz was writing a book about her being in a cult I was excited and also shocked. I had no idea she was in a cult. In Dinner for Vampires Joy opens up about how her “bible study went sideways” and how she ended up unknowingly in a cult. I felt like she was talking right to me while reading the book. The way she is vulnerable with her feelings and how she felt naive and what led her to be in this cult was amazing. Even if you’ve never heard of One Tree Hill this is a great read because no matter how large or small there are manipulators out there who are cult leaders and the truth needs to be said by the survivors. I loved Bethany Joy before and I love her even more now.

This book was weird. Not the cult stuff, but because it’s misleading in its title. One Tree Hill is not really a character in this book, it’s just an occasionally recurring guest star. Not really a problem for me, but it might be one for you.

Ok, here’s the stuff about the cult. First thing, I read about a third of this before I realized I recognized “Mina’s” story. “Harker”, her husband, was really familiar as well. A quick Google search proved that I had been right. Anyone who was a huge General Hospital fan back then knows this story. Harker and Mina are Jonathan Jackson and his wife Lisa. They’re not still in the cult, but are still extremely religious.

That said, Bethany’s story is moving. She seems to be so much more talented and creative than I had thought. After reading this, I want to see her in Beauty & The Beast and in her adaptation of The Notebook. I feel like the cult stole so much of her spirit and confidence, that that was the bigger crime.

I’m glad I read this, it was well written and even though I was screaming at some of her choices, she made me understand how she got there.

Glad she’s free of them and I hope she gets her chance to shine again. I recommend this book highly

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

This book was very different than what I was expecting. While informative I do believe that the writing style was done in a way that came off condescending and took away from the overall focus and meaning of the book. While informative of all that Joy experience while in this cult, I didn’t get as much background information as I would have liked. A good start but I feel like it is missing certain information and components.

Dinner for Vampires was a heartbreaking story of coming up from a tragedy. Lenz bravely tells her story of how she became involved in a cult, and then how she climbed her way out. This book was engaging, and well written. It kept you engaged and wanting to know more of her story. I absolutely hate that this occurred for her. Thankful for a glimpse.

***there is some language used***

I am a One Tree Hill fan so once I knew that Bethany Joy Lenz wrote a book, I knew I wanted to read it. Dinner for Vampires is an eye opening book. It gives an insiders view of what traits cult leaders look for in a person to try to lure them into their cult.
There is not a lot mentioned about One Tree Hill so please don't hold that expectation about this book. She tells her story of how she became a part of a cult aka "The Family" and honestly as I was reading it I was so mad and sad for her. I didn't understand how people can fall prey to this but it's one of those things that once you realize what's going on, it is just too late and too difficult to get out of.
I really enjoyed this book and she did a great job of recounting her time during this difficult time in her life.
Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster. All opinions are my own.

Wow! This book wasn't behind-the-scenes One Tree Hill drama at all, it was so much more and so much better. This was a beautifully written and unsettling account of how a God-fearing woman joined a bible study that devolved into a cult, and how they subsequently took advantage of her. Each page had me more invested in Joy's story. She did an amazing job letting us into her thought processes during her experience.
I am so so glad that being a OTH fangirl led me to seek out this book, as someone who finds the psychology of cults fascinating.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy for review. And Joy if you are by chance reading this, I'm so proud of you. Thank you for sharing your story and bringing light to how these kinds of awful people work.

Bethany Joy Lenz is famous for playing Haley James Scott in the cult TV show One Tree Hill, but her experience of this time is even stranger than one would expect - she was in an actual cult at the time.

I never watched One Tree Hill, but with a premise like that, who cares? Besides, TV show fans should be warned that Lenz doesn't go into her on-set experience very much.

I've read a lot of books about cults, and even a few written by former members of cults about their experiences. Of all of them, I feel that this is the one in which I've gotten a better understanding of how it feels to be move deeper and deeper within the isolation of the group, until one reaches the point where logic breaks down and an alternate reality consumes all.

At that point one can only laugh or cry, and Lenz made me feel like doing both. But at the same time, she writes with such compassion for her younger self and for those who became caught up in the cult alongside her that it really impressed me. And, as was one of her stated purposes for writing the book, I found it easy to understand how one might slip down the slope to end up in such a situation.

However, I did wish I learned a bit more about Lenz's experiences on One Tree Hill and in Hollywood. While we do see how her experience in the cult affected her career, pulling her away from the cast and crew, these sections are fairly brief. Perhaps it was meant to preserve their privacy, but I wished we'd gotten a better sense of how being in the cult affected those in other parts of her life, and how she'd managed to rebuild the connections she nearly never had a chance to form.

First I want to say thank you so much for the ARC! I have been a HARDCORE lover of One Tree Hill since it came out many years ago and I am obsessed with Nathan and Haley. This was one of my most anticipated reads, so I’m beyond grateful to have gotten an early copy.

Secondly, I can’t explain how much my heart breaks when reading the words in this book. How manipulation and people’s evil can truly deter us from our true happiness. With that being said, I find Bethany Joy Lenz story so captivating. Things we may never have known without her being brave enough to write this story, may change someone’s life for the better by reading it. To me, that’s the biggest takeaway from this book.

The writing and emotions are thought out and put together in an easy to read manner, while still making you feel like you’re in the story with her. I’m sure it is a shock to read this and a shock for her costars on OTH when her story came out, since the true life experiences are deeply painful.

It’s an amazing reminder that you are never alone in your story and that there are people that love you in spite of your choices or decisions along the way, and because of your beautiful heart.

Truly inspirational! So much love for OTH and my Haley James Scott!!!

I started watching One Tree Hill in high school when it first aired & remember being enamored by the cast. So, naturally, when I saw that Joy had written a memoir, I knew I needed to read it.

It broke my heart to read everything Joy went through. For over 10 years (the entirety of the OTH filming), Joy was part of a religious cult, as well as an abusive marriage. She takes the reader through her darkest times, and everything she went through. She was horribly manipulated & controlled the whole time.

Joy is so brave for coming out and speaking her truth, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been to sit down and relive those 10 years while writing this book. The story was captivating and I couldn’t put the book down. Most definitely cried while reading it. Highly recommend!

Just FYI she does talk a bit about OTH, but it isn’t the focus of the memoir.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NETGALLEY and Simon & Schuster for eARC --- was invited to review via e-mail.

"I think we’re all little cathedrals of contradiction. Terrifying darkness and shocking beauty coexist in everyone." -- Joy

This Intriguing, heartbreaking, horrifying memoir is told in three parts through twenty-nine chapters, plus an epilogue. It's also very real, and in that, informative; on cults, on victims, on church, and also the industries (music, acting, etc). On the latter, it was a lot of fun to get some behind-the-scenes stuff. An annoying amount of typos and even duplicate paragraphs, though. That got to be distracting, though I still really enjoyed reading this (I mean, you know, as much as one can 'enjoy' something of this caliber). I like Lenz's writing style and humor. Excellent title, too.

She even thanks the person who did the Book text design. *applauds*

P.S. But Joy loses points for hating on Aurora, excuse you. (♥)

Summary:
Once bitten by the acting bug, Bethany Joy Lenz chased her dream from New York to California. What she didn't plan on was falling into a Christian cult. Not to mention being the last one to realize she had. Within these pages, she tells how it all unfolded. She peels back the layers she didn't always know existed to show you what her life looked like before, during and getting out of the controlling hands of people she once trusted.

From a young age, Bethany discovered her love for the arts. Whether it be acting or singing, these creative endeavors were her passion and escape. At 18, she formed a band while in New York. At 19, she moved to LA to pursue her love of acting. The two locations turned out to be more different than she anticipated. Life in New York seemed effortless and like home. Whereas, life in LA was isolating and made her feel as if she didn't belong. Friends were plentiful in one, but scarce in the other.

Cue a group of people meeting at a house for a Bible Study. What started out innocently morphed into something everyone around her questioned. This group that studied the Bible together became a close knit group who supported one another. As time moved on, this tight group became to feel more like a family. The leaders taking on a more hands-on and controlling nature. While real family members of the group noticed a dark intention, the group themselves felt loved. However, that love grew more and more controlling, manipulative and sinister. As years rolled by, Bethany's feelings exchanged comfort for distrust. By the time the light finally shown on her situation, Bethany had a daughter. How was she going to get them out of this group's control? How was she going to protect her daughter from people Bethany now wanted nothing to do with?

There were numerus parts of this book that were hard for me to read. Seeing how subtle the leaders of this group gained control of it's members was disturbing. Seeing how manipulative they became of their members in order to continue their control was infuriating. What began as gentle emotional support grew into mind control. The leaders were able to so seamlessly gain autonomy over every aspect of the members. The leaders control their thoughts, decisions and jobs. All while the members never even thinking twice. Reading all of this was scary enough. Seeing it play out in Bethany's life was gut wrenching.

In Dinner For Vampires, Bethany tells you how they talked her out of making her Broadway dreams come true. How this group was instrumental in her job on One Tree Hill. She'll tell you how they would manipulate themselves back into front and center of her life whenever she began to drift away. How they preyed on her every vulnerability- even in the romance department. She would eventually marry the son of a leader and quickly realize the mistake it was. Bethany will tell you how huge that very mistake would go on to be.

As you read her story, you will journey all over the emotional map. I felt anger at everyone for allowing this to happen. My heart broke when she would lose out on a dream they talked her out of. I was in shock when she discovered how much money they had taken from her. I was cheering her father on when he showed up locked and loaded with years of intel he had been doing into the main leader. By the time I read the last word, I was emotionally exhausted and I hadn't been the one to live it out.

I applaud Bethany Joy Lenz for being willing to share her story. For being willing to share how she allowed people into her life who would eventually take it over. I would like to thank her for being so raw with this nightmare- I know there are other people out there walking a similar path. It wasn't an easy read so I know it wasn't easy to write. I'm glad she was able to claw her way out. I'm glad there were people ready and waiting to help her in any way they could- some were former members.