I really did enjoy listening to this book. It was good and had a good story line. I like that it brings awareness to mental health. I did find it a little boring at points which is why I only give it 4 stars.

This book has potential trigger warnings if you're not aware! The beginning of the book started off well and then slumped a bit in the middle. Toward the end, it picked up a bit again. The ending did seem a bit anti-climatic, until the very very end when the note in the book indicated Kat didn't like the cold weather. Some pieces didn't seem to be in line, such as how long it took for Eden to get her toxicology labs back, or how she figured out what kind of meds Kat was prescribed so she knew it was Kat who was drugging her. But overall, the book was good and kept my interest.

{2.5 Stars} If you are a fan of "You" on Netflix or the 2017 film "Ingrid Goes West," this book is for you. There are three parts of this book that focus on three different characters: Kat, Carol, and Eden. As the story unfolds, so does Kat's mental health. This book is an excellent reminder of why you should always take your meds, and has many funny little quips. (I shared my two favorites down below.)

But overall, this book fell short for me. I was lost in the beginning and kind of found my way in middle, but I didn't quite understand the point of the plot until the end. Once I reached that point, things were great, and I really enjoyed how the rest of the book played out. Prior to that, there was so much setup that I felt bored (and kind of lost like I just mentioned) and didn't really want to turn the book back on. The setup is super helpful to understand Kat's character, but I feel like it would've been more compelling if it was written in a dual timeline instead of just a linear one.

When it comes to the audiobook features alone, I feel like the narrator did an okay job. There were a lot of different voices that were all very distinct. However, Lucia's accent specifically lead me to believe that she was maybe Asian or maybe from a different area of the States. It wasn't until she said "Dios mio," that I realized she was Hispanic. But other accents, particularly with other Hispanic characters, felt very over the top. Finally, the thing that bothered me the most was during the epilogue when instead of saying Antigone, like the Sophocles play, that she said it like "anti-gone." Overall, the audiobook was good, I'm just nit-picky.

Although this book wasn't for me, thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for this ALC.

"Tucson knows it's the desert and doesn't pretend to be a suburb of LA." Ch 12
"Kat was JoJo Siwa, and Eden was Taylor Swift." Ch 24

Book Title: The Trouble with Drowning

Author: Heather Hach

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Rating: 5 Stars

Quick opinion of this book: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ

Why I chose this book: As someone with mental health issues, I’m grateful for the relatability of characters going through similar experiences.

Summary: The narrator follows multiple characters, Kat being the main. She’s a new author with a dark past, and on top of a recent breakup, she received a mental health diagnosis. Despite all of her troubles, as the reader you’ll still likely be rooting for her. The story is set in Tucson, AZ, and the author makes you want to live there. Laura Bell Bundy did a fantastic job narrating!

Highlights: Mental Health, Suicide, Social Media, Tucson AZ

Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audio for a copy of this book for review purposes. I really liked this book. The narrator was great. The author tells you right at the beginning that this book deals with suicide. I really appreciated that. Cat Lamb works at Antigone Books in Tucson. She likes her job but wants to be an author. Turns out that Cat has bounced from foster home to foster home. Her life has been hard. She meets Jacob Walsh, who is the brother of her roommate Jess. Of course they hit it off. Jacob is patient and kind. But something about Cat is just too much. Soon, too soon, they have broken up. Cat tries to take her own life in Jacob’s mom’s pool. Drowning like Virginia Wolfe. Jacob’s mom, Carol, a professor and author herself, saves Cat. Cat is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As long as she stays on her meds, everything is fine. It’s when she’s off them that life becomes a problem. This book was well written, the author is a screenwriter. The pace is fast and nothing feels trite or glossing over mental health. For a bit of the book, I was trying to figure out who would attempt dying by their own hand. It’s quite interesting to see how the author handles the subject. She also writes about the possibly inevitable idea that strikes when a person has been on their meds for a while—that they don’t need them anymore. I am sure this will be a movie. So read this first and thank me later!

2.5 ☆
So I won this e-book in a goodreads giveaway and was excited to see the audiobook on netgellay and was even more excited when I was approved for it. But since listening to this story. I don't think this book is for me.

Thank you, Netgellay, and Greenleaf Audiobook for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This was definitely an interesting story. I liked the characters and I genuinely enjoyed following in their lives. It was a little long in the middle for me, and it dragged a bit at the halfway mark, but overall I really liked this. I liked the ending.

This book immediately drew me in. It was quick and you easily got into the characters and got a feel for the story line. It did get kind of slow for me in the middle but then surprised me in the end. I liked the twists and overall enjoyed the book. Listening to the audiobook I think was helpful with all the different characters and I would recommend listening vs reading. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was the perfect mix between Fatal Attraction and Yellowface. It is a book about mental illness set in the backdrop of the literary world.
We follow Kat an aspiring author who struggles daily with life until it all starts falling into place, she meets one of her literary heroes, finishes her memoir and subsequently lands a book deal and meets the love of her life. Her life is perfect...until it's not. In a character outburst Kat's life come crashing down hard and sends her into a downward spiral she can't get out of. Struggling with her mental illness diagnosis she becomes obsessed with the love of her life that becomes deadly to everyone including herself.

The book has brilliant pacing, not too fast not too slow. It sets up the characters and backgrounds and moves the chess pieces brilliantly. The scheming is brilliant and made me root for Kat even though it was wrong! A great insight into this world from both perspectives, the ending leaves you with a rather sly grin!
Thanks to Greenleaf Audio who provided me with an audio copy via NetGalley for review. I devoured it in 3 days.

Kat is a young writer with a lot of baggage and a rocky past and she falls hard for Jacob. They have a good thing going but Jacob eventually decides to end things because of her untreated issues. As he moves on with someone who Kat feels is the better version of her, she comes undone. It’s a quite a web of characters but it comes together and has some lovely writing and development on the way there. The story does not shy away from the messiness of dealing with mental illness and how it affects the people around you.

I was hooked from Part 1 and discovering Kat’s story, but I felt like I lost my way a bit in Part 2. It took far too long to get to where Kat meets her “rival” and that made it hard to summarise without spoilers. I also found some of the chapters incredibly long, especially at the beginning. I thought there would be more thrill and mystery, but it was a character drama! The narration was great, the different characters were distinct and you could feel the emotions and dramatic tension in the text. You really got inside Kat’s head and got to see her motives. This was certainly quite the ride!

Thank you to Greenleaf Audiobooks and NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very good book! This story kept my attention with the well written character development, the writing had really good pacing as well. I don't know if the representation is accurate (I don't have personal experiences to the rep) but the rep was believable and I reacted to the rep. This is my first book from Hach and I would read more from Hach.

Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for the ARC of this audiobook for my honest review

I can see how this can trigger a lot of people but other than that it’s a really good book. At times it was hard to listen to and be in the mind of Kat but that’s the point it was really good. I was so curious how it was going to turn out and did not expect the twist! The other characters were lovely. I really enjoyed every part of the plots and I’m definitely re reading this!

I'll be publishing my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph 16th December and on Tik tok most likely will add to a monthly wrap up post with review the beginning of January

I finished this audiobook feeling pretty unsure on how I actually felt about it.

The pacing was so slow for the majority of it but then speed along so incredibly quickly at the end with lots of unbelievable twists and turns. The chapters also felt incredibly long which definitely didn't help the pacing.

I also wasn't a fan of the male love interests behaviours and how they were all basically brushed over?

The main character did have depth and I found her skewed perception of events intriguing.

The narrator did a pretty good job at doing most of the voices however a couple did feel a little cliche.

Overall I'm still not sure if I liked this or not but it was a different and unusual listen.

Thanks to Greenleaf Audiobooks & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this, I really did. But it's not really a thriller, it's a domestic story. I got to 51% before throwing in the towel, and by that point I hadn't even gotten to where the FMC, Kat, is even aware of her romantic rival. I feel like 51% of a book being used to set the stage for the main action is more than I can deal with. Add to that the voice acting - what can I say? Many accents are employed, some so straight out of central casting that I felt a little racist listening to them. And the voice that is used for MMC Jacob's older brother, Pete, feels sort of like the vocal choice made by Mark McKinney in "SuperStore." Yikes.

It also feels a little weird to assign a specific mental health diagnosis to a character and then have them become homicidal. I'm sure it happens, but we get little info on the why other than the FMC grew up in foster care and had a bad time. That character is difficult to relate to (maybe that's a good thing), so it makes it hard to root for her or much care what's happening to her. MMC is a bit of a self-involved ass, so it's hard to GAF about him as a potential victim. Other characters are pretty underdeveloped, except for maybe MMC's mom, a college professor/novelist who seems to be a big part of Kat's interest in pursuing a relationship with Jacob.

I have other quibbles (GenX cultural touchstones somehow being relevant to millennials, anyone?) but why bother. Two stars FWIW.

The Trouble With Drowning, written by Heather Hach and narrated by Laura Bell Bundy, is a fictional story following Kat. Kat is a struggling writer, that is until she becomes roommates with Jess Walsh. She goes home with Jess one weekend to meet Jess's mother Carol, an author who Kat really admires, but she also meets Jess's brother Jacob as well. Kat and Jacob fall in love and all seems to be going well as Kat has the support of Jacob's entire family while she works on her book, until Kat begins to struggle with her mental health and begins to spiral. Suddenly it seems like Kat is losing what she was so happy to have, and she will do anything to get it back.
I really enjoyed this book, and how it portrayed one individuals struggles with mental health. I liked the ways that the character was supported at different times throughout the book. I did not like how the Kat treated and talked to her animal friend, this made me give my own puppy some extra snuggles!!! I was also happy with the ending, that other characters were able to get some answers to some questions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, narrator, and to NetGalley for an ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love the cover and the narration. Good story snd the twists surprised me. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook

Heather Hach’s "The Trouble with Drowning" masterfully explores themes of love, identity, obsession, mental illness, and healing.

The story follows Kat Lamb, a bookstore employee with a tumultuous past in foster care, who finds her life turned upside down by first love, a budding writing career, and an unexpected connection with a celebrated author.

Kat’s world shifts dramatically when she meets Jacob, her roommate Jess’s charismatic brother. Their authentic and tender relationship offers Kat both comfort and challenges as she confronts the shadows of her traumatic past. A chance encounter with Eden Hart, a glamorous and successful children’s author, leaves Kat grappling with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. Eden’s return to Tucson adds twists that test Kat’s resilience and resolve, further complicating her journey. Hach excels in depicting Kat’s emotional struggles and growth, creating a protagonist whose vulnerability and determination make her deeply relatable. The narrative balances tension, romance, and self-discovery beautifully, with Tucson’s vast skies and vivid sunsets providing a stunning backdrop.

Though Kat’s journey takes darker turns, Hach’s thoughtful character development ensures that her actions remain rooted in her complex psyche. Although categorized as a psychological thriller, "The Trouble with Drowning" reads more as a character study, a unique and ultimately uplifting story about the messy, complicated nature of being human, making it a deeply engaging and memorable read.

Wow! I’m pretty much speechless. This book feels like a fever dream to me. There were so many twists, but I couldn’t possibly categorize this as a thriller. However, there were also so many parts that gave me the creeps. But there’s also a love story woven in?! What did I just experience? I feel like this is definitely one of those books that may need a second read through to be able to truly appreciate what has been crafted.

I enjoyed this audiobook told through multiple perspectives, although felt the pace was often slow, it emerged as a true thriller by the end!
This story follows Kat as a struggling writer, attempting to write her memoir detailing her troubled childhood. She soon falls for Jacob, the son of her literary hero. Things start to go awry and Kat finds she is unable to cope, resulting in some questionable choices.
There are several unlikeable characters in this book, although that is never something to deter me! This book has some fascinating insights into mental illness, from varying perspectives. There are also several tricky topics covered, including distorted belief of "if I can't have you, then...", self-harm, abuse, neglect and complex mental illness. I especially appreciated the note from the author at the beginning of the audiobook, which indicated the theme of mental illness so the listener could be prepared/forewarned.
The narrator of the audiobook did well to represent the various characters. I think I enjoyed the story more in audio format, as I likely would not have persisted with the physical book.
Many thanks to the publisher for the advanced listening copy, via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and all opinions expressed are my own.

The Trouble with Drowning never really answer its own question, unless the drowning is in obsessive love or the gorgeous eyes of Jacob, who has two women go nuts for him. He has to navigate their difficult mental states - first Kat who has never been in a relationship and has major insecurity that causes her to be hypersensitive to slights and conflict; then Eden who is recovering from the loss of her fiancee and not ready to commit.
Jacob also has his mom, siblings, and a new house flipping venture to juggle, all with various ups and downs.
Both Eden and Kat are authors -- a natural attraction since his mom is too, but then things diverge. Kat has no connection to music or other parts of pop culture --which seems like a red herring until a late twist -- seemingly more isolated than her foster kid past. Eden however fits in seamlessly with Jacob and his family, until Kat starts scheming.
This is an interesting rom-thriller with quite a bit to say about mental illness and insecurity; though some strange takes on the property business.
Overall, quite entertaining as all the pieces fall into place.