I really thought the concept of this book was great! I was a bit surprised when I realized that the book wasn't taking place in the 50s though, given how marriage obsessed the MC was. While I thought the narration was great, the book itself fluctuating between MC's fantasies and reality was a little confusing to listen to. Thank you so much to Dreamscape Media for the ALC of this one.

Thank you to @Crooked Lane Books for this ARC. I had high hope for this book on the description, but was disappointed. The main character had so much inner dialogue that became so annoying. At times I could not tell what was really happening and what was her own fantasy. Also there was no true ending, as we never get the murders resolved. Did not DNF because I was hoping it would talk more about the investigation.

I was really expecting to like this after reading the description and other reviews. However, I felt that this quickly went off the rails and was confusing me every which way. I had a hard time keeping the timeline straight and understanding which characters were relevant.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would give this 4/5 stars, it did take quite a while to get the speed of it going.

I think for a thriller it could have move a bit more fast paced.

Our main female character goes back and forth with herself internally about what she is willing to do to settle down and find love. I think the internal battle she goes through was almost more thrilling that the tip line was for the police department.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, and allowing my honest feedback

This book is about a delusional woman named Virginia, who is looking for a husband, in every man she meets. Literally every man she works with!!

I loved the premise and the way this was set up, it’s fast paced, and yet repetitive. I wasn’t always sure if we were in reality or Virginia’s delusions.

Despite it's setting, this is not a police procedural with a traditional plot structure and familiar comforting tropes, and a reader going in with those expectations because of how the book was marketed are likely to be confused and disappointed. The narrative is not about catching a killer but a descent into the rich, tumultuous world of a lone woman's mind.

Cuti skillfully builds tension, not only with the circling danger of a predator on the hunt, yes there finally is a mystery, but through the anxious, intensely introspective voice of the narrator, who does a fantastic job of making our heads spin with Virginia’s emotions!

Buckle up for this crazy ride! This book was done well, I just wouldn’t have marketed it as a thriller, more literary fiction mixed with mystery.

This sounded so good but the protagonist was a bit too delusional for my tastes and I just couldn't get into the story. I ended up DNF'ing at about 25%. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Serial killer on the lose! Virginia, working on the police department’s tip line starts receiving calls from a witness. As she does her job, she also searches for a husband-to-be. According to the witness, the killer is within their midst, can she find him in time?
Virginia Curry is hoping to find a husband. She’s 30 yrs old, so taking a job as a police tip line operator should give her ample opportunities to meet a husband easily. As she get to know the staff, a witness to a serial killer calls sharing the location of four bodies at a remote local beach. While she attends parties with some officers, her witness exposes the killer. Will Virginia be able to find the killer?
Narrator Sarah Narghton has a calm, soothing voice, with flucuating tonality and emotion making character distinction easy. The pace was a bit slow but I moved the rate to 1.2 and it was much better. Storytelling style was gloomy and drawn out until the seed was changed.
Overall, the book was good. I did not feel any moments of thrill, excitement, curiosity, or otherwise. I did not feel it met the criteria of a mystery/thriller.

1.5/5⭐️

This book was light years away from what I was expecting. The crazy thing is that I wasn’t expecting very much. I was expecting a thriller. What I got was a delusional romance.

There were two things I liked: the premise, the cover, and the narrator. The narrator was clear with her pronunciations, an easy voice to listen to, and invested in the story. The cover is epic! It’s what drew me in immediately. The colors and the errieness of the cover is what caught my attention.

The premise was great. I’ve never read a book about a police tip line main character. This could have been an awesome book with this premise, but the execution was terrible.

The main character was a joke. She ruined the whole book for me. She’s an adult but reads like a horny teenager who lists after every man that looks her way. Literally, a male can just glance her way and she’s already imagining dates, marriage, kids, and a complete life with this person. It gave me weird vibes and didn’t belong in a “thriller”.

I wouldn’t categorize this book as a thriller at all. It’s more of a woman who is delusional with her romance ideas. Basically, the whole story is set in her mind and her own delusions. I should have dnf’d but I wanted to give a fair Netgalley review.

Thank you Netgalley and Dreamscape for the alc of this book, in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the audio ARC. I saw a lot of reviews complaining about how insufferable and desperate Virginia is. I mean... the synopsis says she joined the police force just to find a husband – were you expecting someone mentally stable and not obsessed with men??? LOL.

Virginia Carey desperately wants to get married. When she starts working as an operator at a police tip line she hopes to have plenty of canditates to choose from.
Right at the beginning she answers a call from Verona—a mysterious woman who claims that four bodies were found on a remote local beach. Usually not much is going on in this area but this is big news.
Verona is a sex worker and trusts Virginia with details on parties attended also by police force.
While busy with her own private-love-life Virginia also wants to help Verona and is torn between supporting her and her new partner.
The story touches a lot of sensitve topics. As a reader/listener you have got to get used to the switch between Virginia's thoughts and the things that are actually going on. This was somethimes a bit hard and confusing for me.
I also couldn't quite understand why she is so desperate to find a husband.
This is what makes this a solid 3 stars-story for me.
I do want to point out that Sarah Naughton did a great job in reading this audio
Thank you #NetGalley #Dreamscape Media for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I was interested in the premise of The Tip Line by Vanessa Cuti but unfortunately this book was not for me. I was hoping for a thriller/mystery about solving a murder through the tip line, but did not get that. Instead, we hear Virginia's unhinged delusions. I honestly couldn't tell what was actually happening and what was her "day dreaming" much of the time. I almost DNF, but wanted to see how it played out and if it got better. Sad to say I was disappointed with the ending as well.
Thanks to Netgalley for the audiobook ARC!

I’m sorry, but this was a DNF for me. It was not interesting and did not keep my attention. So sorry.

I loved the unique perspective of this book: a tip line worker who received key information about a huge serial killer case. I couldn’t wait to learn more about the case, the anonymous caller, and figure out who the killer was.

Unfortunately, that’s not what we got at all. The premise of the book was wildly misleading, as I wouldn’t call this a thriller or even a mystery. Instead, we’re treating to the delusional ramblings of marriage-obsessed Virginia’s mind. More than half of this book could be skimmed as Virginia’s thoughts drone on about her imagined life with various cops in the building. When the reader finally learns more about the case and the killer, Virginia gets even more delusional.

The narrator did a great job with this audiobook, but I do wish I read a physical copy so that I could skim the internal ramblings.

While Virginia's obsessive thoughts and mind are fun at first the lack of mystery/thriller plot development leaves the book feeling one note. There were some moments of increased tension but I think there needed to be more of them for this to fully succeed as thriller. It kind of makes sense that this authors other work is a short story because this felt like someone dragged a short story concept to nearly 300 pages.

I would read from this author again as I did like the writing and found it humorous at times.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!

If you want to read the stream of consciousness of a person utterly obsessed with marriage, this is for you. Victoria bounces between daydreaming and reality while working at a police tip line. She spends most of her time attempting to get any man’s attention and then fixating on one repeat caller. The repeat caller is the most interesting part…a crime, dead sex workers on the beach…but does the book shift to that plot line at all? Barely. I was left wanting more.

Thank you NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and author Vanessa Cuti for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cover ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Narrated by Sarah Naughton ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story by Vanessa Cuti ⭐⭐

First off I want to say that I think Vanessa Cuti is an incredible writer and I really do believe she will go super far with her writing career, as long as she never does another character like Virginia where the reader is forced to spend a painful amount of time in her internal thoughts and fantasies. It was so excruciating and really destroyed this book.

While I didn't enjoy this one Vanessa Cuti writing definitely would make me want to read another story by her.

Hmmm so basically a 30-year-old woman, Virginia, took a job at a police station answering the tip line for a string of recent murders, with an ulterior motive of finding her future husband. She had her eyes on one detective, then the Chief took a liking to her, marked his territory, and approximately the next day she fell in love with said Chief. She literally confessed her love after the second time they had sex, the timeline of this story was about a month and she was convinced he was her one and only. I mean when you know, you know, but like don’t go blind to those red flags sis!! Listen up girl, if you need to continuously convince yourself that you’ve found yourself a nice mans, justifying that weird feeling you have in your gut, he probably isn’t the nice man you thought you found. And DON’T marry him. Just sayin’! If you can’t tell, I didn’t love the way the story concluded on an open-ended note. Did he do it or not? Was it the Chief? I’m choosing to believe it was the Chief - he is too sus to not be involved.

I listened to this book as an ARC courtesy of NetGalley - excellent entertainment while cleaning my apartment!! 3.5 stars

With the Tip Line it was so hard to get past my dislike of the main character that by the time they got to the interesting part I wanted to say, “Well, duh!” Yeah, this character fetishizes police officers and then is confused when they aren’t perfect. It left me feeling icky.

I love mysteries. And thrillers. And romance. This book is all of those and none of those at the same time. My issue is that we spend so much time in Virginia’s head and it’s not a fun place to be. She’s constantly in her own fantasy land and it’s annoying. The mystery had real promise and I wanted to know more but every time there would be a little about the murders, her thoughts would intrude and I would get annoyed and tune out again. I eventually gave up at 50% because I couldn’t take it anymore. The narration was very well done but couldn’t compete with a story that was all over the place.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this early. Unfortunately it was a miss for me. The story was all over the place. It was confusing and didn’t provide closure. I did like the narrator though.