This one just didn't work for me, but I hope that others find something to love in it. Thanks to Net Galey and the publisher.

So, this is a fun concept! I really loved the idea and was really excited. Somehow, though, I felt a distance from the main characters and just didn't sink into the story. I felt as if this is a high-concept idea, but the character didn't feel 3-dimensional enough for me. I was also, a bit bored at times. I think, perhaps, some of the personal character stakes could have been woven through more.

I liked the characters and the story. Overall it was a fun and enjoyable read, even though it was a bit outlandish and surface level at times.

Thank you to Gallery Books and to NetGalley for the ARC!

Swiped was such a fun read filled with mystery, suspense, humor, and a topical commentary on friendships as well as dating in the modern age. I felt slightly nervous that this book would be too commercial for where my tastes typically bend, but the quick pacing and clever writing pulled me right in and never let me go until the very end! Chilton has a talent for writing hyper-specific, niche characters who fit a brand of society reader's will know all too well. Thus is our introduction to many of the protagonist's bad dates. Once we are off and running with Chilton's dynamic, baggage-ridden characters and their interwoven relationships (which are far more messy than meets the eye), the story is quite tricky to put down.

The protagonist, Gwen, is somewhat of an unlikable character since she has made mistake after mistake with men, friends, her career...the list goes on. This, however, turns out to be the very source of her character's allure and ability to make us root for her. Everybody loves an underdog, right? When men she has gone out with from a dating app begin to turn up dead, she embarks on a wild journey to investigate and clear her name, reflecting on her life along the way. She has the ability to garner empathy from readers so that you are peering through squinted eyes as she comes face to face with a killer, and perhaps even more terrifying, with her past.

This one wasn't something I'd ever tend to naturally reach for but it was extremely fun and I loved the pacing, characters, and how it all came to an end! Thank you again to the publisher, I'll certainly be recommending this and looking out for what Chilton does next!

4.0 dangerous dating world stars

Have you used a dating app? Many couples today have met on an app. What would you do if all your dates started turning up dead?

Gwen is a fantastic character. I loved her witty dialogue in this book. She’s trying to get over Noah and has turned to online dating. A series of disappointing first dates ensues.

And now her best friend Sara is getting married, and Gwen will be even more alone.
When the police question her about the outcome of several recent dates, we learn that Gwen has had some bad dates. But did she kill them?

She’s definitely a suspect to the police. She takes things into her own hands to figure out who the killer is and who will be the next target.

Dark and funny at times, this one was a fun read. That ending though . . . a bit over the top, even for me!

The main character Gwen comes off as an unreliable narrator. Though I suspected the culprit early on, the red herrings were fun and developed nicely.

Easy and kind of fun mystery. One aspect of Gwen figuring things out makes her appear a bit denser than she had seemed earlier (where she discusses why culprit chooses locations. I mean that seemed too obvious) Perhaps since it’s an ARC that aspect will be rectified.

Overall a solid 3

Thank you to Net Galley and Gallery Books for this advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review! I am so appreciative of the opportunity to read this book!

“Gwen Turner has made a bloody mess of her life. She recently broke up with the best man she’s ever known for reasons even she can’t admit to herself and quit a lucrative job to open her own coffee shop. To top it all off, her best friend is getting married and leaving her behind in singlehood.

Along with too much cheap wine and bad reality TV, Gwen turns to a dating app to help fill the void in her life. Swiping through the few eligible bachelors left in town, she spends her evenings out on one disastrous date after another. But when a string of murders suddenly occurs in her small coastal English city, she’s shocked by the connection between each of the victims—they’ve all been on a date with her.

Before she knows what’s happening, Gwen finds herself the main suspect in a serial killer’s murderous spree, and the only way she can clear her name is to track down her former dates (even those that have ghosted her) and unmask a killer before it’s too late.”

I absolutely loved this book. L.M. Chilton had me hooked with Gwen’s dark sarcasm by the end of the first chapter. I read the entire thing in one afternoon because I couldn’t stand to put it down. Chilton had my attention the entire time, and every time I decided I knew who the murderer was, a few pages later I learned I was wrong. The last chapter came and everything made perfect sense but also… WHAT?! This was a dark humor filled mystery more so than a thriller, but if that’s your jam (it’s obviously mine), you’ve GOT to read this one!

DNF @ 54%

Gwen goes on terrible date after terrible date hoping to dull the ache that her recent breakup has left in her heart, but none of these first dates have ever resulted in a second. And, now, they never will since all the men she’s been seeing have turned up dead. The police can’t overlook the weird connection, but since Gwen feels the police are spending more time investigating her rather than looking for the actual killer she takes matters into her own hands.

This synopsis is incredibly intriguing and I was so excited to see how this mystery played out. However, Gwen is an absolutely terrible protagonist. She is messier than a damn mop. Absolutely none of her decisions made any sense to me. I was debating with myself several times throughout this whether or not I should put it down. What finally got me to do it was reading a scene where Gwen leaves a crime scene against police orders, barges past security to confront who she thinks is responsible for the murders, and causes a giant commotion in this random office where she’s screaming and being held back by guards just to find it wasn’t the person she thought it was. Like… she needs to get that prefrontal cortex checked cause the decision-making skills are not there. What did she think she would get out of this? Somehow the person had enough time to leave the crime scene and return back to work in time for a meeting without being all sweaty and gross like her? She called the office before and asked if this person was there and the front desk was like, “Yes, he’s been in a meeting for the past hour or so.” So they have an alibi and you don’t need to make a fool of yourself BYE. It’s absolutely ridiculous and was just exhausting to read scene after scene like this.

Despite being unable to tolerate this protagonist, I also felt kinda weird that a story exploring the horrors women face while online dating is written by a man. On one hand, I appreciate the ability to be empathetic, on the other this felt extremely inauthentic. I also ended up skipping to the end to see if my hunch about the killer was correct, and it was. I’m actually disappointed, though, because my guess was based on the fact that a man was writing this and the ending was incredibly sympathetic towards the men even though none of them (at least out of the few I read about) was worthy of that. I mean, these men cheated on pregnant wives, made sexist and racist comments, and tried to force themselves onto Gwen even after she said no. Sure, they didn’t deserve to be murdered, but what’s the messaging here? The motivation of the killer was terrible as well. To not just murder someone, but to turn into a full blown serial killer with a motive of “these men were falsely boosting their profiles, so I decided they needed to die.” I’m trying not to be a hater, but I just don’t understand what this author was trying to accomplish. There were some good jokes sprinkled throughout, I’ll give it that, but this was a big fat no from me.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's a pretty good book! I liked that it was witty and campy. I guessed the killer right away though. I jumped ahead a little once I felt my hunch might be right. It's a three stars but a good 3 stars! I know of several friends and patrons that would enjoy this one.

3.5 stars ✨

If you are looking for a darkly comic, entertaining book-this one might fit the bill!

Things aren’t going very well for Gwen Turner.

She still isn’t over her last boyfriend, Noah, and her best friend Sarah is getting married in a few days and moving out of their shared flat.

Gwen turns to the dating app, CONNECTOR, to help fill the void but so far all of her SWIPES have led to one disastrous date after another and the same end result-BLOCKING each match as soon as she can walk (run!) away!!

No one is more surprised than Gwen when a string of murders suddenly occurs in her small town and she learns from the Police that there seems to be only one connection between each of the victims—they’ve all been on a date with her-arranged through CONNECTOR.

She is suddenly the main SUSPECT and with the Police not really wanting to look elsewhere, she decides she will have to investigate on her own…

FOR THE MOST PART, this is a highly original, and really fun story which kept me amused-especially the chapters which give us the “fly on the wall” peek of what happened on each of her dates, and the two which share with us “what happened with Noah”.

It would have been a solid 4 stars if not for the slightly ridiculous and very OTT ending which let me down.

A buddy read with DeAnn. Did the ending work for her? Be sure to check out her amazing review!

Original Title: Don’t Swipe Right
Expected Publication Date: May 21, 2024

Thank You to Gallery/Scout Press for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Swiped has a fun premise - Gwen learns that a man she went on a date with a few weeks ago has been murdered. She’s surprised - but only had one date with him and didn’t know him well so she wasn’t overly distraught. Until she learns the next man she went on a date with also turned up dead. She starts trying to figure out what’s happening and the police are also interested in what they can learn from her.

For the first half, I thought this was a fun ride. Over the top and unbelievable, but I was willing to roll with it and see where we were headed. However by the end it really felt like a slog. I find it annoying when things are held from the reader that the main character knows - like telling us Gwen wrote another name on the list and then tore it off. And just dangling that in front of us for ages. Too many red herrings drawn out for too long. And then the final conclusion was too unbelievable.

Thank you Gallery Books and Netgalley for the free book to review.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy of Swiped by L.M. Chilton from NetGalley! Review below:

Synopsis: We are Following Gwen Turner who, after breaking up with her boyfriend goes on multiple first dates that turn deadly.

Review: 🌟🌟🌟 stars. I'm conflicted. I read this book in one sitting, couldn't put it down in fact. That being said, this one was just a popcorn thriller to me. I knew "who dunnit" from very early on. The main character is somewhat unlikeable at times with her decisions, and the ending was a bit all over the place. However, if you like Freida McFadden, you're going to love this book. It was fast paced, there were pretty funny scenes I enjoyed and I did like the fact that at times I was so engaged and had to find out what happened next. This comes out May 21st so be sure to pick a copy if you want a thriller you won't be able to put down until you are finished!

Thanks so much for the ARC! I requested this book based on the cover, and then the premise. I’ve read a few books that felt similar to this in genre (Ghosted, Followers) and enjoyed them enough to try this. This is a solid read that I ultimately enjoyed, though there was nothing that particularly stood out to me as a book I’d read again.

Thank you so much Gallery Books and Netgalley for this e-book, in exchange for an honest review!! Swiped is out May 21, 2024!!

Swiped sounded like the comedy relief that I needed after so many serious serial killer books. Swiped was a 3/5 ⭐️ for me! This one was hilarious. I loved Gwen and her big hot mess of a life. I figured out the killer about 20% of the way into the book, so the wow factor was ruined for me. Otherwise this was a funny thriller!

Swiped is about Gwen, a woman who’s extremely miserable. Her business is falling apart and she’s just gone through a breakup with the love of her life. Something Gwen does to numb the pain in her life is go on lots of dates through a dating app. But one day Gwen learns that there’s a string of murders occurring in her town. And each victim is a man Gwen has been on a date with. Gwen, obviously, finds herself as the police’s primary suspect for these killings and must find who the real killer is in order to prove herself innocent.

The first thing that struck me about Swiped is that it’s SUCH a fun and creative concept. When I read the description of this book I knew there was no way a book with this premise couldn’t at least be a fun read even if it had no other good qualities. And I was right. It was a very fun read. It was incredibly fun trying to figure out who the killer was. It was fun to feel the stakes increase as the police became more and more confident that Gwen was the killer. It was fun to follow Gwen’s sleuthing and journey to collect clues.

Each date that Gwen went on had a chapter dedicated to it where Gwen explained how her date with that particular victim had gone. Every one of those chapters was intriguing. All of Gwen’s dates were bad (giving the police even more of a reason to suspect her!) and L. M. Chilton did an incredible job at building the descriptions of cringy dates and terrible men that were sprinkled throughout this book. He also distributed the perfect number of red herrings throughout the story to make it difficult for the reader to be sure of who the killer would be.

I was so invested in this story that I actually cared about Gwen’s love life! There was a particular character I wanted her to end up with at the end of the book. She didn’t end up with him. But it was still fun to be invested in her love life lol.

I don’t think I have any one specific thing to criticize about Swiped. I just gave it four stars because although I enjoyed it a lot while reading it hasn’t really stuck with me. When I think back on the books I’ve read this month I always forget about it.

Struggle to tolerate characters that cannot get over their ex so I am glad that was not Gewn. Kinda. Its a little cringey and a little creepy at times.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

Modern day who done it based on dating apps. I hate to say something is light and fun that deals with multiple murders but this one actually was. I liked the story and liked the main character could easily relate to her and the issues she was facing. There were a lot of twists in this one and while I did have a good idea who was behind it all towards the end it was a fun ride to get there. Rating this one about 3.5 stars would totally recommend and will look for more from this author in the future. I want to thank NetGalley and Gallery Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who is on dating apps, I completely identified with Gwen. From the horrible dates, and reading horrible profiles. Gwen was a great main character, and I found her wit at times and inner dialogue to be funny. She was very relatable, and if I was Gwen, I’d be concerned as well that men I had one date with were mysteriously dying. Although a thriller, there really wasn’t much tension. It was honestly a fun, campy, thriller and I had fun being in Gwen’s mind.

I kind of figured out who was doing the killing, and had my suspicions, and I was correct. This did not take away from the book, and I wanted to know the motivations as to why. The ending was a small disappointment, and I definitely don’t need romance in my thrillers, but overall I did enjoy this one!

this book was well written and fast paced. I never felt like anything was being dragged out and the ending was the most shocking part. Never saw that coming. I really enjoyed this one