I really enjoyed The Business Trip. Super twisty and engaging and kept me engaged as I listened to it through the entirety of a flight.

I was pleased with the narrators and had no issues with the audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced audiobook copy. The Business Trip is publishing on January 14, 2025.

The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is a wild ride!! I loved all of the thrills and twists that just kept coming in this fun story!
2 people meet on an airplane and by a strange coincidence, they look fairly similar! Both woman end up missing and the story takes off is crazy ways!
I enjoyed the multiple POV, it kept the storyline mysterious and intense! I love how things all played out in the end!

Thank you to NetGalley for an audio arc of this excellent book. The narrator’s were fantastic too!!
*It comes out January 14th, and I highly recommend it!!*

This debut was wild and so entertaining! I was a little apprehensive because there were so many character POVs but it was surprisingly easy to follow - the story was crafted really well and I was hooked from the first chapter! 4⭐️

THE TWIST AT THE END HAD ME SHOOK! 🤯 I quite literally gasped listening to the audio book. The multiple POVs narrated by different people had me in a chokehold!

I was honestly rooting for each of the characters throughout the whole thing! Jasmin was so likable and I would have never thought..if you know you know!

Truly a page turning debut and I cannot wait to read more from this author! WELL DONE!!

Now, this is a thriller of a ride with twists and turns you will not see coming unless you cheat and look ahead. Don't do that. I thoroughly enjoyed the multi-cast of readers in the audio version. It really makes a book with lots of characters easier to follow and enjoy. You will not find many to like in this book, and that is definitely the point. The main protagonists are looking for a bit of change in their lives, and they certainly got what they asked for! This business trip seems like any ordinary obligation, but it will surprise you.
I recommend this for lovers of a good mystery who love a good audiobook you don't want to turn off. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARL. All opinions are mine.

This was a very engaging thriller! I was hooked from the first chapter and felt myself sliding to edge of my seat the more into the story I got. I loved the complex plot, but did find that it was hard to keep up with all of the characters at times. It didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment, but I think some of the side character POVs weren’t necessary. The audiobook was impeccably done and really brought each character to life!

Full of twists that kept me guessing throughout, The Business Trip is a great debut! I love audios with full cast narrations and this one was done really well. I look forward to more from Jessie Garcia in the future.

Jasmine & Stephanie have nothing in common-- they come from completely different walks of life and had never met before booking the same flight. When the plane lands, the woman continue on their separate ways...... and then both mysteriously vanish. Did something happen on the flight? Did someone target the two women randomly? As their families and coworkers each mount searches, the details start to paint a concerning picture.

I absolutely loved this one! The story was great anyway, but the full cast narration really made each of the characters come alive and I just never wanted to pause it. I love the way the author only needed a little bit of time to ramp up a backstory robust enough that you feel like you know exactly who the characters are without feeling like you're being told their whole life story, it was really impressive. I also thought the big twist was great, while I suspected some of it, it went to much further than I expected, and it all worked beautifully. For me it only vaguely teetered on unrealistic because the explanations and set up behind everything was clever and reasonable.

This was an absolutely fantastic debut novel. I can't wait to read more from this author!

5 star Audible! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you both LISTEN TO and read books-I highly recommend that you listen to this one, as each character is voiced by a different narrator! Spectacular! I paired my reading 📖 with the Audiobook 🎧 which I love to do and finished in one day!
9 hours 7 minutes at 1.0x , 6 hours 5 minutes at 1.5x, 5 hours 13 minutes at 1.75x

“The Business Trip” really is gripping, and binge-worthy as advertised!

My synopsis will be vague on purpose as to not spoil anything for you!

Stephanie and Jasmine both board a flight to Denver, and by chance, are assigned to sit together in the SAME row. Stephanie is on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship.

After a few days, each woman is texting their friends and co-workers about meeting the SAME great guy-Trent McCarthy.

And then each woman vanishes at the SAME time.

But this book is not the SAME as any other that you may have read! It is LAYERED, TWISTY and UNPREDICTABLE!
I guessed NOTHING right! LOVED it! ❤️

VERY CLEVER Jessie Garcia! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

This debut is available on January 14, 2025

Thank You to both MacMillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted ARCs via NetGalley Shelf/NetGalley.
As always, these are my candid thoughts!

⭐️⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the gifted ARC (audiobook)…as all opinions are my own.
 
I was an instant sucker for the cover and title.  The book started off strong as we mingled between the two main female characters, Jasmine and Stephanie.  They have drastically different lifestyles that manage to cross paths and then the mystery begins.  Around the 30-40ish mark, the plot starts to pivot.  At 70%, I wanted to DNF the book but pushed through.  Once finished, all I could think was “What in the Scooby Doo and Crew was this?”  The plot was captivating but the twists were derailing.  The dialogue during the final chapters was unrealistic, especially where law enforcement was concerned.
 
It was difficult to care for the main characters….scratch that, the neighbor was tolerable; however, this book wasn’t about him.  I didn’t know if we were meant to like or loathe Jasmine…because she irritated my core.  After the first couple of chapters, her conflicts (specifically the inner thoughts) did not justify her actions at all.  There were too many POVs and irrelevant details to keep straight.  Especially when you realize the book could have carried on without this dialogue.  There was one final “yay” moment and sadly, it happened during the epilogue.  That redeeming moment should not have been left to the very end.  Le sigh! 
 
Side note: I opted for the audiobook and could not take Trent’s dialogue/narration seriously.  Mentally, I was picturing Gaston from Beauty and the Beast meets Johnny Bravo.  And kudos to narrating Glen(n) so perfectly.
 
The final sentence from the book’s description: “But who is playing who?”  Honestly, the author, that’s who.  It was a struggle to finish parts three and four as they did not properly align with the first half.  Had I physically read this book, it would have been DNF’d…quick, fast and in a hurry.  While the book wasn’t for me, I would read another by the author.  Fully understanding it’s their debut so fingers crossed for a redemption.  Fool me once…fool me twice…  I would recommend the audiobook to fellow thriller readers with the warnings above-mentioned.

I really wanted to like this book. It started off strong and peaked my interest. And overall, I never really lost interest. But there were just a couple big things that made me not fully enjoy this book. The first was that there were just way too many characters’ POVs at the beginning. I feel like a couple could have been eliminated, and just portrayed the same things through word of mouth of other characters. The second thing was I felt it was unbalanced that the second half or so is just primarily one person’s POV. And the last thing that just didn’t wow me was the ending. Did I see it coming? No, but it was about as interesting as my husband’s updates on his fantasy football team.

Since this book did keep me listening to it from beginning to end, I am giving it an extra half star. If thrillers are your pizza, as in you will enjoy it just because it’s pizza alone, then I’d say pick this one up. But just don’t expect gourmet toppings.

𝘼 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: This book had a lot of different narrators, so I’m not sure who all is who. I appreciated they had so many narrators, though, since there were so many POVs in the first half. It made things easier to keep track of, and I thought they were all great.

I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. Wowza. I was absolutely GRIPPED.

I really thought I knew where this book was going and I couldn't have been more wrong. I was surprised over and over and kept thinking to myself, WHAT IS GOING ON?!

I listened to this novel on audio and it was excellent. I enjoyed ALL the narrators - and there were a lot! - and the acting was on point. With so many different viewpoints, I was worried there would be a lot of fluff but every character brought something significant to the story and really pushed it along.

I really can't believe how much this book surprised me in the best way. Admittedly, I could have done without the final twist but it was definitely a jaw dropper so I'll enjoy it all the same.

If you are looking for a book that will shock and delight you, The Business Trip is it! It was a super-fast listen and I really think I could have listened to the entire novel in an entire sitting had my schedule allowed it!

A big thank you to St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for the copy. Don't miss this one!!

Thank you to Jessie Garcia, Netgalley, and MacMillan Audio  for the ARC audio of this book.

This is an engaging thriller, with surprise twists. Jasmine and Stephanie cross paths on a plane ride to Colorado, Stephanie catching a connection and Jasmine fleeing an abusive relationship. But when they meet, both their lives change forever. As friends and coworkers begin to receive weird responses from both women, things get tense. When a man comes into the picture, Trent, and the whole plot flips.
This book will have you second guessing what you thought you knew in the story. And the twist at the end, really shocked me! I would recommend this book for anyone who likes thrillers that take you on twist after twist.
The audio was really good, I enjoyed the narrator and found it easy to follow.

You should read this if you like ❤️
-thrillers
-shocking end twists
-unreliable narrator

Warnings ⚠️
-none that im aware of

When Lisa and Frieda recommend a book, you know you’re going to be on your toes and it’ll be a good one! This was fabulous! Highly recommend.

I read the kindle format of this and loved it so much I just had to request the audio for reread. The audiobook brought it to a whole new level. I loved it so much!!

This book took a little time to get started as the two main characters are introduced, but once it takes off - buckle up! Twists upon twists that honestly floored me, and an ending that had my jaw dropped. I liked the multiple point of views, even though I did want to shake each of these women!

The multiple narrators took the story to another level, really bringing it to life. They all did a fantastic job and helped me connect more with the characters. I throughly enjoyed this book!

Thanks for the opportunity to listen!

I love a good mystery that has me thinking I know what’s going on, but finding out there is so much more to the story.

There were some things that happened in here that made me hate some of the characters, but I still needed to find out what the hell was going on. I was mad about it, but the suspense had me coming back on for more! It made me want to get back to this every chance I had. So even though I was irritated with the characters, I still give this 3 stars for keeping me interested enough to want to finish it.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Very twisty mystery/thriller. A little Scooby-Doo-ish towards the end, but overall very gripping and entertaining.

Jasmine escapes an abusive relationship in Wisconsin. She sneaks out in the middle of the night and boards a plane to Denver. After a few days, she contacts a friend and tells her that she met a man and after that no one is able to contact her. Stephanie is a news director at a television station in Madison and she boards a flight to attend a news conference. After a couple of days, when she doesn't return when expected, her friends and colleagues receive a series of odd texts from her saying she has met a man and is going to spend time with him. Then she vanishes as well. What happened to these two women?

I listened to the multi-narrator full cast audiobook production of this novel and it was fantastic. It really helped to get immersed into the story and involved in what was happening. It allowed me to feel the emotions of the characters and get to know them better than I would have on the page.

The narrative moves between the present day, the near past, and the past. The story unfolds deliberately and I was absolutely captivated wanting to know what was going on with the situation. It's difficult to know who to believe--if anyone! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another curve ball is thrown and I was surprised yet again at the turn of events.

Although the ending felt a bit dumbed-down due to the over-explanation of every single detail of how everything transpired, this was still a completely entertaining mystery thriller that is sure to please readers of the genre. There's a bit of suspension of disbelief needed, but overall if you just relax into the story you are sure to enjoy the experience.

It isn't that this wasn't fun in a vaguely lifetime movie kind of way, it's that the characters were so flat and myopic that it became distracting.

Stephanie and Jasmine are strangers that meet on a plane by chance. Both of them go their separate ways and then begin texting their families about a man. Shortly after that, they both go missing. Is this man to blame or is there something more sinister going on? EVERY SINGLE TIME I thought I had the story or a situation figured out, I was slammed with another twist. It was an amazing read. I cannot wait to read more from Jessie Garcia!

I believe that the several narrators in this ALC are what made the story so special. Each narrator played their characters seamlessly so that there was never any confusion about who was who. They embraced the both the positive and negative qualities in there characters and played them beautifully! Jessie, you have a new fangirl! Thank you NetGalley, MacMillian Audio, and Jessie Garcia for this ALC. All opinions are my own.