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THE LAST HOUSEWIFE by ASHLEY WINSTEAD

September 25, 2022

My Review:

⚠️ TW: Suicide, sexual assault, self-harm, misogyny ⚠️

My third book by Ashley Winstead and I have so many thoughts. A page-turner for sure. An engrossing psychological thriller that deals with many timely and often taboo topics. While not completely my cup of tea, I was still drawn into this very dark suspense novel.

Shay Deroy is living a comfortable if unfulfilled life in Texas when she hears of the death of her college best friend Laurel on a true crime podcast hosted by her old friend Jamie.

Soon Shay and Jamie travel to Upstate New York trying to uncover for themselves what really happened to Laurel. Shay tells Jamie of their college experiences many years before with their friend Rachel and her father Don.

Their relationships took a dark turn but Shay tries to explain to Jamie how as a young woman, she fell under the thrall of the handsome and sophisticated Don. It isn’t a pretty picture and here the author explores themes of self-esteem, beauty and misogyny.

”And then he said, in the same breath, ‘Tell me the truth: how often do people tell you you’re beautiful?’”

This was one of my most anticipated thrillers and it did not disappoint. Ashley Winstead is an incredibly versatile writer – I absolutely loved ‘In My Hands I Hold a Knife’ and ‘Fool Me Once’! This one takes a much darker and disturbing turn, so heed the trigger warnings. There are many parallels to the notorious real-life NXIVM cult, all told within the framework of a true-crime podcast. If you like your thrillers on the darker side, then you will devour this story.

(Thank you to the publisher Sourcebooks for providing a review copy via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.)

About the Book:

From the author of the acclaimed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife comes a pitch-black thriller about a woman determined to destroy a powerful cult and avenge the deaths of the women taken in by it, no matter the cost.

While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay’s built a new life in a tiny Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel’s death—delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader—she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend’s life, she’s pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay’s obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it—both inside the cult and outside of it—is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?

Categories : 3 Stars, Contemporary, Dark, Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Reviews, Suspense Tagged : Ashley Winstead, The Last Housewife

FOOL ME ONCE by ASHLEY WINSTEAD

April 3, 2022

 

About the Book:

 

Lee Stone is a twenty-first-century woman: she kicks butt at her job as a communications director at a women-run electric car company (that’s better than Tesla, thank you) and after work she is “Stoner,” drinking guys under the table and never letting any of them get too comfortable in her bed…

That’s because Lee’s learned one big lesson: never trust love. After four major heartbreaks set her straight, from her father cheating on her mom all the way to Ben Laderman in grad school—who wasn’t actually cheating, but she could have sworn he was, so she reciprocated in kind.

Then Ben shows up five years later, working as a policy expert for the most liberal governor in Texas history, just as Lee is trying to get a clean energy bill rolling. Things get complicated—and competitive as Lee and Ben are forced to work together. Tension builds just as old sparks reignite, fanning the flames for a romantic dustup the size of Texas.

 

My Review:

 

Ashley Winstead proves that she can write in every genre! She wrote the unputdownable thriller ‘In My Dreams I Hold a Knife’ and now does a pivot to contemporary romance in the fabulous ‘Fool Me Once.’

Messy main characters, Texas state politics, green energy vs. big oil and a strong female protagonist all come together perfectly in this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy. I love when an author writes something fresh and exciting and that’s exactly what Ms. Winstead has done with Lee and Ben.

Lee Stone is a smart, ambitious executive at a female-owned electric car company that doesn’t quite get the recognition that Tesla does. Lee is determined to change that. She is given the task of helping pass legislation in the state of Texas that will not only be environmentally friendly, it will be a huge boost to her company. Lee has sworn off any kind of meaningful romantic relationship.

Lee gets the shock of her life when she suddenly discovers that her old law school boyfriend Ben Laderman is the Texas Governor’s new policy aide. Will they be able to work together to pass the new legislation?

This all might sound a little trite but I promise that the author perfectly reveals both Lee and Ben’s vulnerability and carefully builds up the tension between the two. Their chemistry and their banter is believable and realistic and very, very funny.

I am usually bored with books in the romantic comedy genre but I adored ‘Fool Me Once’. The author isn’t afraid to write about contemporary political issues and it all worked perfectly here. And can I talk about the Prologue? FINALLY a romance that doesn’t end up with the heroine pregnant and married! THANK YOU MS. WINSTEAD!

If you love contemporary romance that features an intelligent, ambitious heroine and a hero that looks like Clark Kent (not Superman!), then I highly recommend this book. It was a total delight from beginning to end.

(Thank you to the publisher for providing a digital review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Categories : 4 Stars, Contemporary Romance, Office Romance, Reviews, Romantic Comedy Tagged : Ashley Winstead, Fool Me Once

IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE by ASHLEY WINSTEAD

December 5, 2021

 

About the Book:

 

Six friends.

One college reunion.

One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has been invited back to her university for a reunion and she is obsessed with dazzling everyone with her beauty and success. This time when they see her, it has to be perfect because she is perfect. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.

But there’s more at stake than the delicious envy of her peers—not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. In fact, someone has orchestrated the whole weekend to trap the real killer. As the weekend unfolds and they get closer to the truth, the group finds there was more than murder hidden amongst them on campus.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is an addictive, propulsive millennial thriller you won’t be able to put down.

 

 

My Review:

“One of you is a monster, hiding behind a mask.”

What a fast-paced, riveting book! I had this one on my Kindle since release day and after reading tons of great reviews, I decided to dive in. This book absolutely lives up to all the hype! I rarely come across commercial fiction that reminds me of Penelope Douglas but this one does. I am also very surprised to learn that this is the author’s debut novel.

A group of friends reunite at their 10 year college reunion, where the main protagonist and narrator Jessica Miller is determined to show off how far she’s come since graduation. Once part of a popular group called the East House Seven, Jessica never felt completely at ease with her friends. She always felt like the outsider and outlier, with family secrets and insecurities that constantly undermined her self-confidence and sense of self. She attended the expensive private college Duquette just to try and please her family and always felt out of place.

“And I think I knew, even then, that it would never get better than this. I think some part of me could sense—even here in our triumph, in our wild, perfect beginning—the small seeds of our destruction.”

Everyone’s old rivalries and secrets come to a head at the reunion. A member of their clique, Heather, was brutally murdered in college and the killer was never caught. Was her killer one of them? It was difficult to tell whether it might have been the wealthy and privileged Mint, Jessica’s old boyfriend, Coop, Caro, Frankie, or one of the others. Or even Jessica herself!

“I understand,” he said slowly, drawing the words out, “that you’d do anything to win. You’re kind of a sociopath.”

I froze. “That is the single worst thing anyone has ever said to me.”

The story alternates timelines between college and present-day. As the book rockets towards it shocking conclusion, each of the former friends learn new things about each other and themselves. Did one of them have a motive to kill Heather? Or was it a stranger who entered her dorm room that terrible night?

Overall this book was an entertaining and enthralling thriller, with a dark undercurrent that I loved. Highly recommend!

“It’ll be okay, I whispered to myself. You’ll tell the truth. Just not all of it.”

Categories : 4.5 Stars, Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Reviews, Thriller Tagged : Ashley Winstead, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

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