This is marketed as a thriller, and you'll be disappointed if that's what you're expecting. This book the story of a dysfunctional family. It's also the story of an acrimonious divorce and how far that anger can push people. There's also a murder. The tension runs throughout, but at times it seemed a little too long.

This is a genre-blending story full of deception, family drama, and murder. Once I learned it is based on a true story, I was even more intrigued! The narrator does a great job amplifying the cornucopia of emotions throughout the story which made this one so easy to binge!

Hailey’s ex-husband is murdered and she’s immediately under suspicion. Most of the story takes a deep dive into each member of Hailey’s family and their relationships with each other and her ex-husband. Everyone is sus and I was surprised with the ending. I’m never great at figuring out whodunnit but I was definitely surprised with this one!

In writing “We Would Never”, Tova Mirvis has manufactured a basic whodunit to a rabid husband bent on a vengeful divorce.
Hailey and Jonah Gelman live in upstate New York with their daughter, Maya, where Jonah is a professor at SUNY Binghamton. As the divorce proceedings get messier and Jonah becomes more manipulative and demanding, Hailey’s mother, Sherry Marcus, pleads with her to move to West Palm in Florida to be with her and her husband, Sol.
Hailey has two brothers, Nate, who is in a medical practice with her dad and the other, Adam, who lives in Maine. She goes from one to the other seeking advice and Jonah winds up dead.
Everyone suspects the family and the medical office admin, Tara, since she’s dating Nate while trying to reconnect with the father of her young son. She seems to be a character drawn as a Hailey clone.
While it must be acknowledged that Sherry is cast as an overbearing mom, I thought she deserved some sympathy for living the tongue-in-cheek adage of “not losing a daughter but gaining a son” when her daughter married. Not enough recognition is given to the dilemma a primary family can find itself in when children marry, leaving the nest with some finality, and move far away.
As for Solomon, being silent regarding Hailey’s decision to marry Jonah is a choice he grows to regret.
An interesting dilemma.
Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for publishing another excellent Tova Mirvis book.

A great page-turner - Hailey Gelman's soon-to-be ex-husband is murdered, and she becomes the most likely suspect as it's widely known that the divorce process has been messy and contentious. Would be a great summer beach read!

If you love a gripping family drama with a touch of true crime, We Would Never is a must-read.

Hailey is blindsided when her husband, Jonah, announces he wants a divorce. Their marriage has been strained, but she never realized he was this unhappy. Now, with their four-year-old daughter, Maya, caught in the middle, Hailey is forced to navigate an increasingly contentious separation. Having reluctantly moved to upstate New York three years ago, she feels even more isolated from her close-knit family in Florida. As the divorce drags on, tensions rise, and what begins as a domestic dispute escalates into something far more sinister—showing how even ordinary people can become entangled in dark and unexpected circumstances.

Mirvis masterfully explores the complexities of family dynamics, not just through Hailey’s perspective but also through the eyes of her parents and brother. The character development is exceptional, making the novel deeply immersive. I found myself thinking about these characters even when I wasn’t reading, fully invested in their struggles and emotions. We Would Never doesn’t just tell a story—it makes you question just how far you’d go for the people you love.

A huge thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I absolutely loved it!

Thank you Avid Reader Press for the advanced readers copies. This released just last week and was inspired by a true story.

For all you true crime fanatics, though this is a fictionalized interpretation, you might like this. It is a slower pace, family drama and the beginning takes a bit to get going. Sherry annoyed me (definitely an over-involved helicopter mom, even if meant with the best intentions, yet wow, she could be so obsessive and intrusive), but ultimately every character has their anxiety, their insecurity, about something. For Sherry it’s losing control and those she loves; for Nate it’s the need of approval from his father and his loyalty to his family; for Sol it’s losing purpose and the ability to take care of his family; etc. You can understand where the characters come from yet some of it feels overdone, over the top, exaggerated. And from my standpoint, Sherry’s desire for a close-knit family goes beyond healthy boundaries, and that makes things messy, as this story warns.

What I found confusing, and maybe the official release isn’t like this, but in the ARC there isn’t a clear timeline. Here and there it’ll say “Maine, 2019” from Hailey’s POV but the majority of the rest of the POVs, even a few from her too, are set at some undisclosed time in the past. We are told roughly how long after Jonah has died when these 2019 moments occur but the past timelines aren’t clear. That to me made the flow a little harder to follow because you’re jumping around without knowing when exactly you are. Also, only Hailey in 2019 is told in first person, so that shift in narrative with the other POVs would occasionally throw me off too. In looking at the physical ARC I received the font is different with Hailey’s current POV than everyone else’s so if you opt not to do a digital or audio copy it may be easier to distinguish this. As the story starts to wrap up it suddenly ends and that annoyed me. The story felt long already and I was annoyed with every character throughout but it would've been nice if the ending wasn't so chopped off.

Content includes a messy divorce, a murder (off-page), and minor profanity. Maybe because I have my own legal matters going on (completely different scenarios but stressful and overwhelming all the same), but any time these elements were brought up, I got anxious. I felt the weight and scrutiny that Hailey was put under; how the other party will try everything to manipulate and distort who you are: character, motives, etc. Reading these made it hard for me to get through because it can be a form of trauma for the person/s involved. Because this is written in-depth, for anyone who has experienced something of this nature, it may bring up some unpleasant feelings.

I was extremely intrigued by this obviously ripped-from-the-headlines story.

Maybe it was my familiarity with the actual true crime case that obviously inspired it, but I felt this fictionalized version of the story left SO much left unexplored.

It should have been a story of obsessive love, betrayal, and family dysfunction, and how all this ended up in such a shocking manner.

But it ended up seeming like a bland family feud that inexplicably ended tragically. Maybe the literary style worked against it, but I feel like a book like The Paper Palace managed to balance literary writing with deeply disturbing things and family dysfunction.

This is the first book I have read by this is author and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a suspenseful read about a dysfunctional family taking extremes measures to supposedly help a family member. I appreciated the way the author touched on each of the family members and their perspective on the situation at hand. The author threw in a twist at the end which surprised me. A good read with family drama, suspense and a surprise ending.

I was excited to read the book, We Would Never, by Tova Mirvis, but while reading it turned out to be a completely different story.

The book is labeled as being in the thriller genre, but it seemed to almost be more of a contemporary drama with lots of chaotic family dynamics. At first I was really intrigued with the premise of the story with the main character finding herself in a bitter divorce and attempting to decipher what happened for her to get to this part, how she was going to handle her daughter’s anguish, and then a crime is committed relinquishing these issues but creating a whole new set of issues.

Overall, the story was incredibly interesting and has me hooked attempting to discover the intricacies of what really happened, however it focused on the family members of the main character more than I would have liked. I teetered between finding a few of them relatable, but ended up finding that I really disliked them and did not find a lot of their actions redeemable, which might be the exact point the author was attempting to make. I also hoped the ending would wrap things up a bit more and provide more detail, but found it to be lacking. I’m still glad I read it as it was an overall enjoyable read.

This is not the book I was expecting, but it sure was a great read.

Hailey Gelman has a family who loves her and would do anything for her. So when her ex-husband, who she is in a contentious divorce and custody battle with, is murdered, both Hailey and her family members come under scrutiny. Just how far would they go for Hailey and her daughter Maya?

Positives:
Well paced and told from multiple povs
Family crime drama
Excellent character development
Some surprised and twists that added to the overall plot

Negatives:
Not really a negative but I wasn;t expecting the emotional aspect of the novel and characters. I am still thinking about them and some of their choices, and you feel for them. I was expecting more of a thriller. I think, overall, that development added to the book and made it even better.

We Would Never by Tova Mirvis is a murder mystery in theory, but it's more of a family saga about the lengths a family will go to to protect their own. Hailey is a young mother who is in the process of a divorce when her husband in suddenly murdered. She is the primary suspect, but could it have been her? As we learn of her family and her upbringing, the questions begin to pile up. What would her family do to get what they want? Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is eerily similar to a Florida murder during a contentious divorce.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC! Probably 3.5 stars in this one as I can see some real appeal, especially for people looking for a beach read. The family dynamic in here is really weird. I couldn’t decide if I hated them or it was like a car wreck where I couldn’t look away or if I felt bad for them. Hailey’s story goes from present to past and builds the story of her family and how her soon-to-be-ex husband came to be murdered. I have to admit I figured out the twist about halfway through, but I appreciated the book keeping my interest to get my to keep reading. I don’t normally pick up books like this but try to broaden my horizons sometimes and did enjoy this one for the most part. I can’t say it was all very realistic (especially where Hailey is currently as you see with the switch in timelines), and I found the ending a bit unsatisfying. But overall, it was a quick and interesting read with a story I can see people getting into and enjoying on airplanes and beaches this summer. Some profanity and talk of violence/murder

Tova Mirvis's latest novel hooked me with its first chapter; I was intrigued and thought it was a great lead-up to what would become a gripping psychological thriller. However, as the book went on, it became clear that We Would Never was more of an dysfunctional-family-values examination than it was a mystery or thriller and it started to lose my attention. Don't get me wrong, the book was still good, but its content differed greatly from how it was marketed and I think that impacted my overall immersion and enjoyment of the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the second the door opens and a man is shot to the unexpected finish of this book, I was completely engrossed. This family, while seeming so loving and devoted, were a little bit dysfunctional at the same time and I loved it!
For fans of Ann Rule books, this is one for you. Told with several POVs of family members and even one employee of the Marcus family dermatology practice, the reader watches the marriage between Hailey and Jonah collapse and the ensuing tug-of-war over custody of their loved daughter Maya as the divorce agreement is as contentious as can be. Jonah is portrayed as a manipulative narcissist while Hailey is compliant but frustrated always trying to give in. She comes by this behavior naturally as it seemed like her mother, though coming from a genuinely loving place, did the same thing to her children which caused friction between the siblings even into their adult years. Nate and Adam as children fought like cats and dogs and eventually, when he could Adam left the family entirely starting a life in Maine while Nate followed in his father's footsteps becoming a dermatologist. Hailey met and married Jonah, an up and coming novelist but when he hits a snag putting out his second book, becomes a professor in Binghamton NY at a college there. Hailey struggles with this relocation so far from her close knit family in Florida but makes due with Jonah's promise to her that if after 3 years she isn't happy, they would move so she toughs it out. Meanwhile, they are blessed with a little daughter and she is the love of all their lives, especially her grandmother Sherry who dotes and spoils her to no end. This and other of perceived insinuating behaviors annoys Jonah and he does everything he can to keep his wife's family out of their lives but Sherry pushes and pushes and pushes until finally, he can't take another minute and wants a divorce blindsiding Hailey. What then ensues is all the legal twists and turns where Jonah refuses to budge on leaving Binghamton and won't let Hailey leave either because he wants regular access to Maya. The intensity of the legal games becomes overwhelming, and takes over the Marcus' lives, both the parents and also Nate who is Hailey's sounding board and protector. Then on top of everything else, the father and leader of the practice, Sol, is diagnosed with Parkinson's which is now going to change the landscape of so much, the least of which is the medical office. With so much at stake and no conclusion in sight, Nate and Sherry hatch a plan with the help of a member of the office staff to maybe take care of the issue altogether but then its decided it won't happen. The news of Jonah's death by gunshot rocks the Marcus family to its core. Picture the news coverage, the social media, the questioning looks by friends and Maya's school mates. It's more than Hailey and her daughter can bear so they retreat to Maine to stay with Adam and disappear from the scrutiny. Adam and his dog retreat is just the medicine Hailey and Maya need. But the question remains, why was Jonah shot dead?
A real life event was the inspiration for this book as well as the author's own personal experience with divorce so the story feels very authentic. The psychological trauma of everything is so well done and there didn't seem anything that was unnecessary in the telling. All the characters personalities are perfectly executed. This book will keep a reader's attention the whole way through!

You’ve never read a family drama so twisted as this story. Set between Maine and Florida this family has the mother, Sherry, daughter Hailey and brothers, Adam and Nate. The father is referenced but he is almost insignificant. Dysfunctional doesn’t come close as a descriptor but it’s the best I’ve got. Hailey’s husband has been murdered and she’s fled to her brother’s remote area for time to regroup with her young daughter. As the plot unfolds your suspects will change, they all seem capable. I didn’t particularly like many of the family but it didn’t matter. I still had to know how it would play out. The family relationships were foreign to me and I sure hope there aren’t any such controlling people like in this family. I had not read this author before and would try more of her work.
An Advance Reader Copy of “We Would Never” by Tova Mirvis, was provided by Avid Reader Press (via NetGalley). These are my honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

3.75/5
I was sucked in from the very first chapter of Tova Mirvis' latest novel. A contentious divorce, a man murdered in front of his own home, an estranged son, and lots of family drama! We Would Never poses the question "How far is too far when it comes to protecting one of your own?"

I always love dual timelines in mysteries, and I appreciated the way Mirvis drew out the family drama until the very end. Watching certain characters unravel as the story went on felt very Lady Macbeth to me, and I loved it! It's so creepy every time you remember We Would Never is based on a true story, and it's another reminder of how you never know what people are capable of doing!

Read this if you like:
- books based on a true story
- family drama
- dark secrets
- whodunits

Hailey Gelman’s almost-ex-husband, Jonah, is found murdered, and suspicion quickly falls on her—after all, the estranged spouse is always the first suspect.

The story unfolds in the months leading up to the crime, told through multiple perspectives: Hailey herself, her controlling mother Sherry, her fiercely protective brother Nate, and her reserved father Solomon. As Hailey and Jonah battle over their divorce and custody of their five-year-old daughter, Maya, tensions rise. Jonah refuses to compromise, fueling bitterness between the two.

Sherry is desperate to move Hailey and Maya to Florida, away from Jonah’s influence. Nate, ruled by emotion, resents Jonah’s rigid demands and wants to shield his sister from further suffering. Meanwhile, Solomon harbors secrets of his own—ones that could unravel everything.

Rather than a traditional whodunnit, this story focuses on a family’s unraveling, their blurred moral lines, and the desperate choices made in the name of loyalty and protection. It’s an intimate, almost theatrical descent into anxiety, betrayal, and misplaced devotion.

Knowing the novel is loosely based on a true story only makes it more gripping. As the tension builds, you’ll find yourself wanting to shake the characters—people capable of making the right choices—before they spiral further into desperation. Ultimately, it forces you to ask: How far would you go to protect the ones you love? And what happens when you’ve gone too far?

We would never is an under the radar winter read. This novel is marketed as a mystery/thriller, but is more of family drama than anything. Hailey is in the middle of a nasty divorce with her husband, Jonah. Hailey returns to her family with her daughter during the tumultuous battle to find peace. Instead, her family is full of their own drama and secrets. When Jonah is murdered the family fall under suspicion and must confront their own secrets and dynamics. The murder falls into the background as the family dynamics and drama unfold. While I was intrigued by the promise and the set up drew me in, I lost interest half way through the book, as the pacing was uneven. A lot of promise here though and I do feel that many readers will ultimately like this book—especially if they are looking for family drama!

Thank you the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tova Mirvis, and Avid Reader Press for providing the ebook. This poignant story explores love, loss, and the complex bonds of family that can hold you together, even when you least expect it. A truly compelling read.