4.5 ⭐️ read !

An ex-boyfriend, a murder, a rich family with secrets. What more could you ask for? Bowen had me hooked into this story from the beginning.
Rowan & Natalie were such a relatable mother/daughter duo and their story will keep you on the edge of your seat.
When I say my jaw DROPPED while reading the twists, I mean dropped.

One of my favorite reads this year & highly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for the advanced ebook for my review.

4.25 Stars 🌟

I have to first mention that I am a fan of Ms. Bowen - specifically her romances, which is what she is known for. She did come out with a thriller type book last year (The Five Year Lie) which I did enjoy. I was looking forward to this book - her first official foray into more of a suspense/thriller - and I was not disappointed.

We are introduced to Rowan Gallagher. She is an architect and single mother of a 15-year-old daughter. She has a 2-year contract to renovate a historic mansion for one of the founding families of the state of Maine. A job that she loves, and she also works alongside and for one of those founding families who just happen to be the owner of the mansion.

Things begin to get crazy when her new boyfriend (Tim) breaks it off with her out of the blue and then a few days later, she happens to be the one to find his dead body. Dead body, you say? Yep, and he was parked in the driveway of her place of employment (yes, the Mansion). He had been shot to death.

Then, things begin to fall apart for Rowan when her ex-boyfriend and father of her child moves back into town. The last time she saw him was when her daughter was a toddler and her then boyfriend tried to kill someone in a bar. He was sentenced to prison, and while in prison, he signed away all of his parental rights. To say this throws her for a loop would be an understatement.

Unfortunately, she becomes a person of interest and when there aren't OBVIOUS other suspects for Tim's murder, the police decide to focus on Rowan's con ex-husband. He just happened to return to their small town VERY recently and does not have an alibi.

Anyway, enough of the summary. I enjoyed Rowan as an FMC. She was strong and funny but shows the cluelessness that every parent feels when their child enters the teenage years, and you feel like an alien came and replaced your child. That part came through extremely realistically to me.

This story does a fantastic job of building the tension and dropping hints that may or may not lead you in the right - or wrong- direction. I did realize who the killer was, but that was AFTER thinking that it might have been several other people as the book unfolded.

So, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Ms. Bowen has done a great job with the transition to this new genre. I will be gladly looking forward to see what she comes out with next.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks | Harper Paperbacks for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone. This book will be out for publication on May 13, 2025.



4.25 Stars 🌟

I have to first mention that I am a fan of Ms. Bowen - specifically her romances, which is what she is known for. She did come out with a thriller type book last year (The Five Year Lie) which I did enjoy. I was looking forward to this book - her first official foray into more of a suspense/thriller - and I was not disappointed.

We are introduced to Rowan Gallagher. She is an architect and single mother of a 15-year-old daughter. She has a 2-year contract to renovate a historic mansion for one of the founding families of the state of Maine. A job that she loves, and she also works alongside and for one of those founding families who just happen to be the owner of the mansion.

Things begin to get crazy when her new boyfriend (Tim) breaks it off with her out of the blue and then a few days later, she happens to be the one to find his dead body. Dead body, you say? Yep, and he was parked in the driveway of her place of employment (yes, the Mansion). He had been shot to death.

Then, things begin to fall apart for Rowan when her ex-boyfriend and father of her child moves back into town. The last time she saw him was when her daughter was a toddler and her then boyfriend tried to kill someone in a bar. He was sentenced to prison, and while in prison, he signed away all of his parental rights. To say this throws her for a loop would be an understatement.

Unfortunately, she becomes a person of interest and when there aren't OBVIOUS other suspects for Tim's murder, the police decide to focus on Rowan's con ex-husband. He just happened to return to their small town VERY recently and does not have an alibi.

Anyway, enough of the summary. I enjoyed Rowan as an FMC. She was strong and funny but shows the cluelessness that every parent feels when their child enters the teenage years, and you feel like an alien came and replaced your child. That part came through extremely realistically to me.

This story does a fantastic job of building the tension and dropping hints that may or may not lead you in the right - or wrong- direction. I did realize who the killer was, but that was AFTER thinking that it might have been several other people as the book unfolded.

So, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Ms. Bowen has done a great job with the transition to this new genre. I will be gladly looking forward to see what she comes out with next.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks | Harper Paperbacks for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone. This book will be out for publication on May 13, 2025.

A few months ago I read this author's last book, The Five Year Lie, and I liked it so much that I was very excited to read a new thriller by Bowen.
Unfortunately, this new book didn't work so well for me.
At first I was enjoying it. The setting, the ambience, the mystery of who murdered Tim, and how the 3 POVs would end up being connected in the end of the story. I liked the whole idea of it. I was in for it.
But, sadly, I didn't particularly like the main character, Rowan, or anyone else in this story, really. And if I can't connect or care about any characters in a book, I simply cannot enjoy my reading experience. What's more, the fact that this is a very slow-paced mystery didn't help my enjoyment of it.
The writing also bothered me. Some sentences are repeated several times, which only made me even more bored with this book.
In the end, I just didn't care for what was going on, whether Rowan would find out who was Tim's killer or not.
There is also a ghost presence within the mansion - which we could say it is a character in this book, that initially caught my attention, but then it got forgotten and only in the penultimate chapter it got mentioned again.
I'm really sad to not have enjoyed this book, but I'm sure other readers will like it.
I'd recommend it to anyone who has read a book by this author before and enjoyed it.

Thank you, NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I had to keep turning the pages because I was dying to find out what happened next!

This thriller kept me invested in both the mystery and the characters.

I loved that the mansion was a character of its own, and brought so much to the plot and the atmosphere of the novel.

I dove right into this book because I am becoming a huge fan of Sarina's thrillers and this one did not disappoint. I enjoyed that we got multiple POV's. I was one with Rowan while she and Natalie did their detective work. It will have you going down a rabbit hole to get the answers. You try to connect the missing pieces. I was tricked somewhat throughout the book with a certain pov. There is some twisted stuff going on at the mansion, it took me till the end to correlate these key players but when it clicked, it left me flabbergasted. It was so well done! I was completely wrong in my assumptions. I loved that Harrison and Rowan made their way back to each other and the relationship he has with Natalie. I was shocked as to who the killer was and the why along with the clever way of setting up plans in motion for Rowan. Overall, a great read!

I really wanted to like this book since it was set in Maine, the author did a wonderful job of capturing how Portland, Maine is.
I felt like the beginning was really good and then it just dragged on, it started out fast paced and then just kind of fizzled out.
I really liked the 5 year lie so I went into that thinking it would be the same as that book.
There was a few different POVs in this book which kept it interesting

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks Publishing for the ARC of this book!

Rowan is an architect currently working on restoring a mansion for a very wealthy family. As a single mom to a teenager her main focus is work and Natalie. Her ex went to prison after a violent episode and has not been in their lives. Rowan meets a sweet and charming guy at her favorite coffee shop and decides to give him a chance. after multiple dates she is really feeling this guy until he completely ghosts her with no explanation. after dwelling for days she still has his location and decides to just see where he is. she notices he is near her neighborhood and decides to take her dog to go scope out the situation and see if there is another woman. when she approaches his car everything changes. he's dead. shot himself in the end. traumatized she has no choice but to get to the bottom of what happened. when the police start pointing the finger at her she has to protect herself and with her ex out of prison and back in town things are getting messy. this book had me on the edge of my seat and i absolutely enjoyed every moment of it.

What a ride this book was! I love a book that is unpredictable, I was not able to predict what would happen next 😱 Rowan is an architect who was recently broken up with by her boyfriend, still hung up over the breakup she remembers she has his location information on her phone and sees that he’s just down the road at the spot where they used to park for some alone time. Rowan wants to confront him but also wants their run it to appear accidental so she takes her dog on a walk but when she gets there she finds his dead body inside of his car. This was a five star for me up until the last 1/4 which I felt was rushed, the build up was intense and then it all wrapped up so fast, I loved the read and I will read more of Sarina’s books in the future.

I will say I adore Sarina Bowen as a romance author, AND I've also come to love the thrills and feels she write in this lane. Long ago, Rowan's ex gave him access to his phone location. And now that they've broken up, Rowan is still seeing where he's at - This habit really takes a turn when actually going to a spot he's at results in her finding him murdered. From there, Rowan has to figure out what got him to there, especially as there is suspicion on her as the murderer. She starts to realize he had some secrets of his own, and now she's got figure out just what the heck was going on! I really liked how this story was built around Rowan, her daughter, and another woman as narrators and with their individual (and collective) stories. The twists and clues were a good little ride, and it was a nice mystery to have in my life. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this May 2025 release.

YESSSS! The spooky mansion thriller I've been waiting for. I literally could not put it down. Twists and turns around every corner, reminded me of some of my favorite thrillers (think Riley Sager). I read back my annotations and I guessed no less than six separate scenarios, way to keep me on my toes!

This was another great thriller from Sarina Bowen. A fast paced and intriguing mystery with the story told from multiple viewpoints.

I really enjoyed this and flew through it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Sarina Bowen, one of my favorite romance authors, is now easily becoming one of my favorite mystery thriller authors.

Dying to Meet You introduces us to Rowan, an architect in charge of the high-profile restoration of a historic mansion in Maine. She's also a single mother who has recently found herself dumped via text. Still hung up on what could have been, she keeps virtual tabs on her ex and soon finds herself discovering his dead body in the parking lot of her work site.

What sets this thriller apart is the depth of character development that Bowen can achieve while also unraveling a satisfying murder mystery. I barely put this book down once I started it and found myself just as invested in what happened to Rowan as I did in figuring out who killed her mysterious ex-boyfriend. Highly recommend this one!

Sarina Bowen becoming one of my thriller authors was not on my bingo card but here we are! Her mysteries are like intricate puzzles that are so much fun to piece together while still carrying a lot of heart. I think a lot of mystery/thrillers these days skimp on likable characters and Bowen is really able to balance interesting plots with great characters.

I do wish the ending had been a little less rushed and that we'd had more time to digest all the reveals and motives.

Review to come, accidentally put a different review in for this book (both had "death/dying" in the title, oops).

This book was so good! I am absolutely a fan of Sarina Bowen writing suspense.

Rowan's easy life is suddenly in shambles. Her boyfriend breaks up with her through text and refused to talk to her about it. Her daughter is sneaking around behind her back and visiting with her father who has recently been released from prison. During some light stalking of her ex she finds his dead body and is now the prime suspect in his murder.

This book was so great! I was so invested in the mystery of "who done it". I could not put this book down the twist caught me so off guard. The use of multiple points of view made the mystery even more intriguing.

There were so many twists and turns, and the pieces start falling together one by one. Even though I was able to start connecting the dots it was not until THAT chapter that everything clicked!!! It was like someone turned a lightbulb on. I was so surprised!

Harrison, Rowan's daughters' father, might have been my favorite character. I wanted to wrap him up in a big hug. The way he was so selfless and accepted all blame and criticism was so good. His concern for his rescue cat was probably the thing that sent me over the edge for him. I have a soft spot for men who loves cats. I was rooting for him the entire book; I wanted so badly for him to get a second chance with everyone.

This is my second suspense written by Sabrina Bowen and the just keep getting better. I am hoping that this is not the last!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for this title. This is my very honest review.

Dying to Meet You was a fun thriller about a woman named Rowan who finds her ex dead and then becomes involved in the case. There was some slow spots and some twists. Overall the writing was amazing and the ending was great.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks Publishing for the ARC of Dying to Meer You, by Sarina Bowen. I really enjoyed this story about Rowan and architect who is contracted to work on an historic mansion. The mansion’s history is very concerning, workers at the site claim to see ghosts, and then one night Tim, Rowan’s ex is killed in the parking lot. Who killed Tim, what significance is it that he was killed by the mansion? A fast paced thriller you are sure to enjoy!

While I love the Portland setting and the gorgeous historic mansion, the story didn't read like the suspenseful thriller I expected. The mystery took too long to get moving, and the plot lines around Rowan's job and daughter just didn't hold my attention. I'm so bummed that this was a DNF for me, but it looks like it's a strong fit for many other reviewers.

read if you like:
🏰 haunted mansions
👥 family dramas
🗣️ whodunnits

summary:
This book quickly became one of my favorite reads of 2024! It tells the story of Rowen Gallagher, a single mother and architect overseeing the restoration of a historic mansion for a wealthy, influential family in Maine. Fresh out of a relationship with a man named Tim, Rowen struggles to move on, obsessively checking his location on the FindFriend app and wondering if he’s already replaced her. One fateful evening, in a moment of impulsivity, she decides to “accidentally” run into him. She takes her dog for a walk toward the mansion, where she believes Tim is, only to stumble upon a chilling discovery—Tim, murdered in his car. His death triggers an intense police investigation, and Rowen becomes entangled in the case. Determined to clear her name and seek justice for Tim, she dives headfirst into the mystery, uncovering far more than she expected.

The description can’t even adequately describe how good this story is. It alternates POV’s between Rowen, Natalie, her daughter and one of the homeowner’s assistants. There are multiple storylines running throughout the book — Tim’s murder, the return of Natalie’s ex-con father from prison, and the assistant’s dynamic with her boss, all of which I loved. I also loved the relationship between Rowen and Natalie, and the mother-daughter dynamics. For someone with a lot of empathy, this book hits hard — and really forces you to think about, on what terms would you have or not have empathy for someone’s journey? There are so many red herrings throughout the book but you will NOT see the end coming. It’s brilliantly told, explained and backed up, and as someone who loves a well thought out ending, this book did it for me!

Thanks so much to Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and NetGalley for the advanced copy, and you absolutely need to read this when it releases on May 12!