I was eagerly anticipating The Guilty Patient, but unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. I found it to be a slow burner and did not connect with the characters, making it difficult for me to care about the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

I liked this book but I couldnt say I loved it. There was too much going on and it got confusing. I liked it but I couldnt say I loved it.

Thank you to Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest and independent review.

"I take a deep breath before I utter the words I’m terrified to say out loud. My therapist waits patiently for me to speak, but nothing could prepare her for what I tell her next. ‘I think I killed my best friend…’"

This book started off very strong and I was looking forward to it, but it just fell flat. Dr. Tara Black was annoying and unprofessional. There was not much character development despite it being about Mia and her psych treatment. A lot was going on that went nowhere, was rushed through, or just awkwardly placed. Overall, I would say this is still an about-average thriller.

This was very addicting. I had a hard time putting it down. Tara is a psychologist who ends up working with Mia. When Mia starts having flash backs of her friend dying, she wonders if she had anything to do with it. I honestly didn’t know who killed her friend. I found it to be fast pace which is how I like thrillers. I was honestly guessing until the end! This is the first book I’ve read by Luana. I can’t wait to read more! Thank you NetGalley, Luana and Bookouture for the ARC!

The highly anticipated return of S.L. Lewis, a clinical psychologist and bestselling author (Luana Lewis, favorite author) follows The Perfect Patient (5 Stars) with her latest gripping and emotional psychological thriller, THE GUILTY PATIENT.

With her unique insight into the human mind, Lewis weaves a story about someone desperate to bury the past and willing to resort to dangerous measures to protect their deadliest secret. The plot is a masterful blend of suspense and mystery, ensuring you're always on the edge.

We catch up with the last book, The Perfect Patient, and this is part of my review of that book:

SEQUEL: I would like to see a sequel to catch up with the characters and dive deeper into Dr. Tara Black's (I loved her character) background, the murder of her family, and the missing brother, among other things.

Thank you. Wish granted!


About...

TARA: Picking up from the last book...

Dr. Tara Black (forties) is newly grieving with her partner, Daniel, who died in a tragic car accident a year earlier. She was in the car, however, unharmed. She had spent more than twenty years as a psychologist and in private practice. Tara was dating Daniel, who was married and had a family and was getting a divorce. His insurance money had saved the clinic. People close to her had a habit of dying too young. Unexpectedly and violently. She learned she was the executor.

Daniel was a best friend of her older brother, who is still missing after her parent's murder years ago. She was away when it happened, and the cops think the murderer was Matthew. She has since changed her name due to the publicity surrounding the case. Her parents had been murdered when she was sixteen, and their case, too, remained unsolved.

Tara has worked with many memory loss and trauma patients, and Mia is her patient. She is drawn to the darker cases that resonate with her ghosts. This was the first time anyone in her office had wanted to confess to murder. Mia was full of contradiction.

MIA: Three years earlier, Alice Kelly (her best friend), age 25, was found dead in a lake near the house where she was staying with friends for the weekend. Mia and her now husband, Tom (two years), were there but never spoke about what had happened. No one was ever charged with her death.

Alice’s silk scarf was given to her by a secret boyfriend, and then they argued when she refused to tell her about this secret guy. What was she hiding? Alice is in a relationship with Tom, who later becomes Mia's husband.

Mia is pregnant and now in therapy with Dr. Tara Black as she is having flashbacks. She has new memories and details about Alice's final hours. She wonders if she could have killed her best friend. Why has she suppressed this?

She confesses to her therapist, and things start falling apart. Everyone that was there had a different account. Did she kill her friend? Someone doesn't want the past to resurface and will go to dangerous lengths to keep their deadliest secret. Who did Alice come in contact with after she left Mia?

We also met Carolyn, a psychotherapist whom Mia saw for almost two months and who is connected to the storyline.

All the stories intertwine as we hear from Tara and her personal story. Did Daniel have a secret life, and who has he been sending money to from a Swiss bank account? Could it be her brother, Matthew (who was Daniel's friend)? Could he be alive, and what had happened to their parents? Matthew has not been seen since. She needed the truth.

Tara may be able to face the last of her family's demons. Will she be able to get answers to bring closure? And who killed Alice? Is the scarf the key? Was Mia responsible? And what was the motive?

My thoughts...

I loved this book! It was more than a whodunit—it was a why, how, and who, plus more.

THE GUILTY PATIENT is psychologically rich, absorbing, intriguing, compelling, twisty, and sinister. This multi-layered mystery with dual storylines is a well-written, intense domestic suspense mystery that will keep you glued to the pages. The characters are complex and flawed, with their dark secrets and motivations, making you feel deeply connected and invested in their stories.

The narrative alternates between Mia and Tara, focusing on Tara and her past and present. I was introduced to Tara in the last book, a personal favorite, and I was eager to uncover the answers to the mysteries surrounding her parents and brother.

Equally captivating is the storyline of Mia, Tom, and Alice and the intricate web of connections that bind all the characters. How their stories intersect adds a layer of complexity to the narrative, keeping you hooked until the very end.

As mentioned in my previous review, the author is a pro with vast expertise in this field as a clinical psychologist. Lewis tackles trauma, guilt, self-doubt, deception, and memory loss with sensitivity and compassion, ensuring the psychological aspects of the book are authentic and engaging.

Brilliantly crafted with a twisty plot, clever misdirection, unreliable narrators, red herrings, and a wide cast of characters— you are not sure whom to trust, leaving you guessing until the twisty, satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed THE GUILTY PATIENT so much that I turned on the audio on my Kindle app/iPad and iPhone to listen in the car while doing other things to avoid missing anything.

I highly recommend this author, who wowed me when I started my blog in 2014 with Don't Stand So Close, The Perfect Patient (2023), and THE GUILTY PATIENT.

Recs...

The novel is for fans of the author and readers who enjoy smartly written psychological thrillers and works by B.A. Paris, Freida McFadden, Fiona Barton, Christina McDonald, Sally Hepworth, Kimberly Belle, Michael Robotham, D.J. Palmer, and Mary Kubica.

Thanks...

Special thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing a gifted advance reading copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Oct 14, 2024
My Rating: 5 Stars
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Another of those books that once you start it you won't want to put it down. Husband and wife Tom and Mia Kelly both had a friend who was found dead in a lake near the house where they were staying with other friends. They have never spoken of it but Mia is now having flashbacks and is seeing someone to help find out if the flashbacks she is having are true.
The truth comes out in the end but is it what Mia wants to know.
A brilliant book from beginning to end.

The Guilty Patient by Luana Lewis
#theguiltypatient
#luanalewis


Rating 4 stars 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
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Definitely kept me on the edge of my seat

My review
Alice died 3 yrs. ago. Mia, her best friend, is just now realizing she may have been the one to kill her.
She goes to see Tara a phycologist to help
Tara has her own issues. She was dating a married man who had passed away a yr. ago and left her a hefty estate. Of top of that, when she was younger, her parents were killed, and it has always been assumed that Matthew, her older brother, is the one who killed their parents. But Matthew has been missing ever since their parents were killed
Carolyn is a psychotherapist, and Mia was her patient first
Tara goes to Carolyn to get the case notes on Mia, but it seems there is something, or should we say nothing in the notes as if Carolyn left things out on purpose
There is a collection of in laws that may know more than what they are telling
But someone certainly killed Alice 3yrs ago
Was it you?

Big thanks to Bookouture for a copy on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Guilty Patient is more a murder mystery than a psychological thriller.
A slow burn melodrama, a cast of intense characters and a storyline of how the past can affect the present.
Dr Tara Black is a psychologist who is dealing with some personal trauma and issues.
She is introduced to a new patient, Mia who is getting flashbacks from her past.
Mia is seeing her best friend die and thinks she could be responsible.
What happened that day….
Can Tara get Mia to remember the truth…..
A good read with a good ending.
It was solidly written enough for me to want to read to the end and discover what happened.
I did identify that this is the second book to feature the main character but it didn’t alter my reading experience.

The Guilty Patient has some good elements! While the story itself is interesting and I did want to find out what is going on, there was a lot going on in the story which made it a bit confusing. There is a story in itself with the patient that is having memories of killing her best friend after therapy sessions and there is a story about the therapist herself which is a whole other plot line. I couldn't really find myself liking any of the characters in this story, the therapist especially, I would have liked to have seen a bit more character development.. We don't get much of a glimpse into many home life interactions, mainly her job as a therapist and the unethical things she does. I say this as a therapist myself, whenever I read a psychological thriller that has a therapist I can be quite critical, "That is not HIPPA compliant!". There were a lot of these moments in this book, from being having wine alone with a patient's dad who has a shady background to interviewing the main patient's friends and family and setting zero boundaries. Overall there were some elements I did enjoy in this book, I did find myself wanting to know the answers and the overall twist. Not a bad read!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Really enjoyed this one. Mia who is heavily pregnant is worried she harmed her friend. She is attending a therapist to determine what happened that faithful day. A book that will keep you guessing who is guilty. I was engrossed in this one

Captivating thriller! This book was a fast paced book with lots of nail biting secrets that keep you hanging on and waiting for the next clue and the next "secret". I finished this book in one weekend and I will most def be purchasing this read for my bookshelf.

In this thriller novel, we follow the FMC as she tries to remember what happened to her best friend, and if she is the one responsible for her death. As the book goes on, more and more memories are put to light. Did she kill her best friend?

She goes back to where it all began to attempt to find the truth out once and for all, but will she regret it?

This book was fast paced and had me hooked from page one. I caught myself holding my breath and wondering “maybe she did kill her” and a few chapters later “there’s no way it was her, was it?”

I’d like to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this eARC. Also a big thank you to the author, Luana Lewis for writing this masterpiece. And Bookouture for publishing this and granting me the opportunity to read it before others. This is my honest review.

I will say, it took me a bit to get really into this story as I felt some of the build up was dragging on. However, that didn't affect how I felt overall about the story. I think she did a great job setting up each twist that came and I truly had no idea what was going to happen next. There were multiple different stories going on within this book and I think the author did a good job of not making that confusing. It was a lot to keep track of. Overall I think this is definitely one to add to you TBR!

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from Netgalley. This was a slow read, and while the storyline was great, the characters didn't really gel for me.

The Guilty Patient by Luana Lewis was a excellent and so a addictive and gripping psychological thriller that was full of brilliant twists and turns throughout that will have you turning the pages of your kindle to find out what happened next. WoW an excellent read from start to finish I loved it, especially as I ended up reading it in one seating!

Big Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

I feel like this started off so slow and I worried I wouldn’t want to complete it, though then it really picked up and turned out to be a really good story. I think the twist was perfect and also had you hanging on every word when it all came out just like what I would want in this genre.

The Guilty Patient by Luana Lewis.
I did like the cover and blurb of this book. This was a good read. It did take me a while to get into this book. Once I did I really enjoyed this book. I did like the writing style. I really wanted to know who did it. There was a few suspects. Freddie, Julia, or David. It certainly wasn't who I thought it was. I was surprised with the ending

3.75 stars: Fragile memories, guilt, and the distortion of self

The Guilty Patient by Luana Lewis is not just a whodunit murder mystery; it is a study of the human psyche, the fragility of memory, and how trauma can distort both our recollections and sense of self.

The story follows Mia. Heavily pregnant, she is battling with the terrifying possibility she killed her best friend, Alice, three years earlier. The problem? Mia can’t remember what happened. All she has is snippets to form her version of events. “I think I killed my best friend,” Mia boldly states to her therapist, Dr. Tara Black, during their first meeting. Traumatised, Tara is intent on unearthing the truth. Together, they try to de-mist Mia’s memory and recover the events of that fateful night.

These sessions aren’t easy on Mia. Her mental health starts to crumble and her behaviour becomes increasingly heightened - borderline erratic. She becomes confused, aloof, conflicted, and dissociative. Tara is understandably concerned, and before long, she is embedded into every facet of Mia’s life (inappropriately so, I would argue). The duo slowly begin to discover more than what they bargained for.

At its core, The Guilty Patient is a psychological thriller that explores issues concerning fractured memories, guilt, deception, and self-doubt. Rooted in her experience as a clinical psychologist, Lewis does a commendable job of pulling the reader through a maze of unreliable narrators, red herrings, and untrustworthy characters.

The short and snappy chapters made the reading experience feel brisk and engaging. When I thought I had a handle on what had happened, fresh insights would emerge, causing me to reassess my theories - a hallmark of a solid popcorn thriller.

The Guilty Patient has multiple tentacles - there is a lot going on. It is made up of many differing versions of events and secondary storylines. There are a lot of red threads to follow. I don’t mind this; however, for those who prefer a more linear narrative, the story may sometimes feel a little convoluted and difficult to keep up with. Coupled with various time hops, it’s understandable that some readers may find the plot jarring and overly complicated, even when the thread ends loosely come together at the end.

And the ending? The novel's final act delivers a satisfying conclusion. That’s all I shall say about that.

Overall, The Guilty Patient is a solid domestic thriller and suspense that explores the human mind's dark corners and how guilt and trauma can distort reality. Yes, it’s jam-packed, which may be its downfall for some, but fans of thrillers such as The Girl on the Train will appreciate its links to unreliable memories and the haunting power of the unknown within one’s own mind.

Recommended for fans of:
- Authors such as Freida McFadden, Fiona Barton, and B.A. Paris
- Books such as The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- Popcorn thrillers with flawed, unreliable narrators at its core

Thank you to Bookouture for inviting me on this book tour and for allowing me access to the book via NetGallery in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️




✨ psychological drama
✨ varies of timelines
✨ feeling of whodunit




✨ Mia is the main character in this story .
The feeling of guilt she have thinking did she really killed her bestfriend?
This story has a varities of past and present timelines.
It may get confusing but every chapter is short and fast paced to read.


✨ a story of feeling whodunit - it was consist of drama and thriller on the ending as it involved Mia’s therapist. Why and why she she involved?


✨ great fast paced book! Definitely recommended.



✨ Thankyou @bookouture for the opportunity to read this arc for a honest review.




🫶🏼 shaye.reads

Loved this fast-paced, suspenseful story. I was completely absorbed and read it in one sitting. Just wow!