My first book from this author and did not disappoint. The message and the character from the book, Maya, was SOO relatable even though I’m not a mother. The guilt real, trying to juggle it all and still be there for yourself and others especially in a community where women’s success is not always prioritized or taken seriously. Highly recommend this book. I have already had my friends and family put it in their TBR list and if you’re reading this, you should add it to yours!

Thank you NetGalley and Saumya Dave for allowing me to read an early copy!

With sharp insights on the demands of mothers and suspenseful pacing, The Guilt Pill does one of my favorite things satirical thrillers can do: take you on an entertaining journey while forcing you to face a few uncomfortable facts about our current reality.

Maya Patel "has it all:" a successful business, influencer status, a trust fund husband and a newborn. But actually managing post-partum life is turning out to be more difficult than Maya expected, and she feels guilty about everything she's missing out on. When fellow female CEO and influencer Liz Anderson introduces Maya to a new supplement that she says will take away all of her guilt, Maya jumps at the opportunity. At first, it makes everything in her life so much easier, but the longer she uses it, the more her actions change so drastically that she starts to not even recognize herself anymore. Can Maya (and other mother's everywhere) actually live a guilt free existence, or does removing guilt entirely hurt her more than it helps?

This book dives into the complicated world of motherhood with an empathetic, well-researched lens. You can feel Dave's experience as a psychiatrist and mother in the sharp commentary about how women navigate the world as mothers who want to also stay connected to their individuality outside of motherhood. Dave deftly explores the social constructs that place women in guilt traps whether they're "too focused on their career" or "too obsessed with being home with their kids."

If you love witty satire and sharp social commentary blended up in thrillers, you HAVE to ad this one to your TBR right now. Fans of Madwoman and The Push will devour The Guilt Pill!

A gripping view of motherhood, the pressures of success and how it impacts women (and women of color) specifically.
Highly recommend!

THE GUILT PILL by Saumya Dave asks the age-old question: Can a woman truly have it all? You know, a solid marriage, a successful career, 2.5 children, hobbies, a social life, and everything else that their heart desires? Maya Patel is a CEO on maternity leave trying to balance her career and caring for her newborn son. Dave captures first-time/early motherhood SO well in this story—the anxiety, exhaustion, loneliness, confusion, and you guessed it—the GUILT!

QUICK SYNOPSIS:
“𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤, 𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘥, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵.”

I love how Dave blends multiple genres together in THE GUILT PILL. For the most part, I’d call it contemporary/women’s fiction, yet there’s also a teeny tiny touch of speculative fiction with a slight thriller/mystery vibe as well. There’s truly something for everyone.

READ THIS IF YOU ENJOY:

- Complex female friendships
- Marriage and motherhood
- Family drama and dynamics
- #girlboss/female CEO storyline
- Strong female characters
- Social media/influencer lifestyle
- Feminist undertones
- Themes of race, class, and privilege
- Slow-burning mysteries
- Character-driven novels
- Genre mash-ups

This was my first time reading one of Saumya Dave’s novels, and it most certainly will NOT be my last. The way she weaves all of my very favorite themes together—motherhood, marriage, and female friendship—was pure perfection.👌

THE GUILT PILL releases on April 15th! 4/5 stars!

Definitely was not expecting the mystery/thriller aspect based on the description, though I did enjoy it.

The commentary around women trying to “have it all” is definitely needed these days. The struggles and judgement that Maya faces while on maternity leave are so real and isn’t talked about enough.

Amazing novel concerning woman with maternity leave, the guilt of leaving our little ones behind, very raw and emotional.

Doesn't disappoint.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC. This is my honest feedback.

Maya is a CEO who looks to be doing it all, but behind all those perfect photos is someone who is struggling. She decides to take a pill to erase guilt and then she vanishes. Guilt is a topic that a lot of books fail to capture accurately especially for women, and I thought this book did a great job with it. This was a good mix of women's fiction and mystery. I thought it was very fast-paced and enjoyable to read.

Beta, you’re driving me nuts.

Our main character is struggling. Her new friend has the perfect easy fix solution! What could possibly go wrong?

The story is told from Maya’s perspective with bits of media sprinkled in at the end of each chapter. That helped keep the mystery high and the pace from flatlining.

I deeply resonated with the internal thoughts and outside struggles Maya was having. I have felt it all before. Even still, near the 75% mark it got to the point where even I was frustrated with her. She started to feel whiny and my sympathy was fading. I was extremely pleased with the final quarter of the book and all that happened there. Everything was addressed without the cliche of wrapping everything up in a tidy bow.

The themes explored in this book are important and will resonate with many working mothers, women of color, people pleasers, overachievers, etc.

In a lot of ways, I feel like this book was tailor made for a woman like me: a story centered around a woman of color with a young baby working in a high-level and competitive professional field trying to balance it all. That's literally me. So I expected it would hit hard. While "The Guilt Pill" is super readable, engaging, and impossible to put down, it didn't quite land the way I hoped.

The novel explores the impossible expectations placed on working mothers, the gendered and racialized dynamics of the workplace, and the simmering resentment toward men who just don't get it. These themes are totally real and I found myself nodding along as Dave unpacked them. But they're also *everywhere* in contemporary fiction right now. This whole book felt like a remix on a conversation that professional women have been having for awhile now. The sci-fi twist of an experimental pill that makes the guilt go away adds an interesting dimension, but it still wasn't enough to make the story feel fresh for me. The themes are important, but I don't feel that this book brought new depth to the conversation that's dominating books, media, and my mom friend group chat.

Something else I think about this book that I'm not sure will make sense to others is that I think it's ironic that "The Guilt Pill" is basically a critique of momfluencer #girlboss culture, yet its own commentary on guilt, ambition, and motherhood has the same energy as an Instagram infographic. How many times have I seen some woman branding herself a mommy anti-influencer posting her messy house or whatever with some self-deprecating caption about how "it's okay not to be okay" and a reminder that we're all doing our best. It's relatable, sure, but it's also something we've seen before.

All of that said, "The Guilt Pill" was super engaging and a good read. I just wish it had pushed the premise a little further or had something new to say instead of landing where so many others already have.

This is the book all moms need for its relatability, raw truths, and suspenseful story that accompanies a nursing mom late into the night!

What if women could take a pill to eradicate guilt from their lives? What would their lives be like without any sense of lingering guilt?

Maya Patel is the CEO and founder of Medini, an eco-friendly toiletry company and a recent mom to her son, Shaan, She and her husband, Dev share an enviable life in the Tribeca neighborhood of NYC and seem to "have it all."

However, Maya is flailing. She's overwhelmed with caring for her baby and trying to simultaneously run her company, despite the fact that she is supposed to be on maternity leave.

When Maya connects with controversial #girlboss Liz Anderson, Liz supplies her with an experimental supplement that her company is testing that is suppose to eliminate female guilt. Highly skeptical but desperate for a fix, Maya decides to try them.

Unbelievably they work! Suddenly Maya feels like she is invincible. As time goes on, however, she needs more and more supplements to maintain her guilt-free state. When her decisions become unnecessarily ruthless and her husband and close friends start to notice her personality changing for the worse, Maya has to reckon with the unforeseen consequences of this drug and how to manage the ramifications in her life.

Saumya Dave has created a compelling and insightful novel that examines key questions that women universally acknowledge and struggle with in their personal and professional lives. She has blended genres to be both a women's fiction read as well as some thriller elements. Dave also utilized a dual timeframe that shifts back and forth in time so we see the evolution of Maya's journey. Newspaper articles, interviews, and police transcripts also add to the development of the story and help to cement a mysterious/thriller/true crime mood.

Dave has created something wholly original, unique, thoughtful, and a (sadly) necessary commentary even in 2025,

Definitely get this unique novel on your radar ASAP!

I really enjoyed and identified with this novel. This is likely because I am also raising a baby in NYC. But all women, not just moms, can identify with many of the themes. It was a really unique plot with an ending that I never saw coming. I read the author's debut novel and the two books share many of the same themes and I really enjoyed this new genre from this author.

Rounded up from 2.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin for this e-ARC of The Guilt Pill in exchange for an honest review.

Maya is the CEO to a successful eco-toiletry brand and a new mom. As she navigates the difficulty of fighting to maintain control of her company in a male-dominated space she is also juggling the guilt she experiences every time she feels like she fails, either as a business owner or a mom. When another female founder offers her a pill that can eradicate guilt designed specifically for women, she takes it, desperate to relieve herself of the guilt that is weighing her down no matter what decisions she makes. What would she be like free of the guilt that seems to be part of the package of being a woman and a working mother?

I wanted to like this book so much. The concept was and is so interesting to me, and particularly as a new mom myself, Maya's experience and struggle with early the postpartum period really resonated. But unfortunately The Guilt Pill really lost me in the execution.

WHAT READERS YOU CAN EXPECT:
-Themes of new motherhood
-Addiction
-Family drama
-Big time girlbossing
-Thriller elements
-Speculative fiction

Throughout The Guilt Pill there are these salient moments and lines that really struck a chord for me. Themes around generational trauma, around working mothers navigating impossible expectations, about the loneliness and isolation of those early postpartum days and how articulating that struggle is often met with a wave of toxic positivity. But I'm not sure what this novel's thesis is. When I finished the novel I couldn't figure out what the takeaway was supposed to be.

I really like the structure of the novel - each chapter is punctuated with news clippings, transcripts, and interviews that build suspense and move the storyline along. That worked effectively and kept me moving through the novel to find out what happened.

The early chapters really captured the early motherhood experience and how truly difficult it is, and I found that to be nuanced and well-executed.

Despite the relatability, though, I found that I disliked basically every character in this novel. Maya drove me absolutely nuts. She frequently ruminated on how she watched her mom sacrifice everything to be a wife and mother, but when her parents do anything to alleviate themselves of that she loses her mind. She tells her mom that everyone in her generation should be in therapy when she scoffs at the idea of therapy herself. Her husband is terrible. Her best friend is correctly concerned about her, but also terrible!

The pacing of this novel left me baffled. The front half goes into excruciating detail about baby supplies (shout out to the Snoo and DocATot which are both name dropped), but other major plot points are yada-yada-yada'd away. The takes a wild turn that comes a little out of left field, and there is a traumatic event that is alluded to throughout the book that really doesn't pay off.

This novel felt like it should be more of a character study, and some of the most interesting elements of the book were exploring the relationship between Maya and her brother and parents, but most of the book was spent telling instead of showing and I ultimately don't feel like I have an understanding of who Maya really is beyond the trope of "new mom who also works". I loved the idea of the novel, but unfortunately this was a miss for me.

What if you could take a pill that erases all guilt—parenting guilt, marriage guilt, workplace guilt? The premise of this book immediately hooked me! Just imagine living in a world free from the weight of our mistakes and anxieties. I really enjoyed how the story moves throughout Maya’s life showing guilt she feels at different ages. It seems to always be with her. Maybe a little guilt is a good thing, it’s a signal that something in our choices may need some reconsidering. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really wanted to like this as a sci-fi fan, but this is more contemporary fiction with a sprinkling of sci-fi thriller. So, just a heads up for those (like me) who wanted something more immersed in the sci-fi realm.

As contemporary fiction, I liked this book for how it portrayed the challenges of motherhood while running a growing startup. Combine that with Asian American immigrant stubbornness and you have a realistic character with Maya.

I loved how race was interwoven into the narrative, with Maya being an Indian American woman who grew up working class, who then married an upper middle-class man. The themes of race and class within the Indian immigrant society were very well done imo. Maya's frustrations with having to struggle in childhood while her husband underwent a privileged background felt very authentic.

I also liked how the author used Liz Anderson as Maya's foil, particularly when it came to Liz's status as a white woman business owner who's been in Maya's shoes when it comes to running startups. It was very easy to see how Maya was desperate enough to trust Liz's solution: a questionable medication that could solve all of her problems by minimalizing her guilt and anxiety with not being good enough as a new mother, a wife, a businesswoman, and an influencer.

I think I would've liked this a lot better if Maya's friendship with Liz went even deeper, with Liz introducing Maya to her family and her inner circle. Throughout the novel, Liz's character felt very distant, and it was easy to see that she had something up her sleeve. Even though Maya became addicted to Liz's pills pretty quickly, it felt sort of unrealistic that Maya would trust a relative stranger with her health, especially since her best friend is a doctor.

I did like the book for its themes, so I'd recommend this for someone who likes contemporary thrillers with a bit of sci-fi.

Thank you to Park Row and NetGalley for this arc.

One of my biggest talents as a mom is feeling guilty about every single thing I’ve ever done or not done. I’ve felt guilty about being too involved with my kids, not involved enough, letting them eat junk food, being too obsessed with what they eat and not letting them eat junk food, spending more time with one over the other, not playing enough imaginary games, not having enough patience, having too much patience and letting them get away with everything, having a messy house, cleaning the house instead of playing with them… I could literally go on for days. I have a phd in mom guilt.

Ok so now imagine this. You can take a supplement that takes away your mom guilt, allows you to speak up for what you want, find time to focus on yourself, silence all the negative self talk, help you realize you’re doing a way better job than you think… would you do it?

This book had such an amazing premise, it touched on such important topics - obviously mom guilt, the massive challenges of being a working mom and balancing it all, the maddening differences in responsibilities (and power and influence) between men and women. It had so much potential, but I really wish it went deeper, because there’s just so much to unpack here.

Really grateful to have received an ARC for this one; as soon as I heard the synopsis I knew I had to read it. Thank you @netgalley and @htpbooks this one comes out April 15!

Maya Patel is the successful CEO of an eco conscious toiletry company and a reluctant social media influencer. She and her husband Dev are new parents and Maya finds juggling her career (not to mention facing the challenges that come with being a female founder) and her new son more challenging than she ever could have dreamed of. An interview with Today and a surprising DM link her up with successful female entrepreneur Liz who proposes a solution that she formulated: a pill that gets rid of female guilt. Though initially skeptical, Maya embraces the use of the medication and uses to get through the day.

Now Maya is missing, and the story jumps deftly between interviews with her family, news coverage, online speculation and the backstory that led up to her disappearance.

The Guilt Pill is an in depth exploration of the guilt that women face in all facets of life, especially when trying to maintain control at work and juggle life as a new mother. Though I don’t have children, I found the character of Maya supremely relatable as she deals with imposter syndrome and questions whether her life choices are the correct ones. With an intriguing plot, interesting characters and a dose of humor, The Guilt Pill is a great read. 4.25 stars.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

Loved it!!! Couldn’t put it down - really nails the challenges women face as mothers and leaders in the workforce and puts quite the spin and twist on it. Highly recommend!

Thrillers have been going downhill lately but this one turned my stance right around! What an extremely important novel to read right now, especially when it comes to women and the things we all go through to do what we must.

Loved loved loved! The beginning really hooked me and I could see the main character, an immigrant founder and new mother, in so many current stories! Would highly recommend