Hannah Mary McKinnon quickly became one of my go to authors this years, I’ve read most of her books in a short time. So I had to read this. Needlesd to say, I was not disappointed

I might even say that I am finishing off 2023 with one of the best reads this year. Yep.
That was an excellent read, even though one of my least favourite tropes is it to read about bands/music. I am one of these rare people that don’t care about music, I enjoy silence the most. 🤣 So colour me surprised, but this was soooo good.

Even though they were an unlikely pairing, Madison and Vienna united in Highschool through music. Madison attends college in NYC and Madison follows her.
When their band, the Bittersweet’s, takes off, tragedy strikes and the girls have a nearly fatal crash in the Catskills. They find shelter at an abandoned cabin, but will all of them survive the night? At the end of the night, Vienna is the only survivor, Madison having disappeared…

I was so not prepared for this book! I binged it!

Read this if
🤩 you like fame
🤩 love an unreliable narrator
🤩 love yourself some girl power
🤩 you want to grip your seat and be blown away.

The atmosphere was eerie and creepy and unpredictable, especially when reading this in December with snow pulling up. The characters were fabulous, love them or hate them. So buckle up for a wild ride and watch out for Hannah Mary McKinnon!

"Only One Survives" proved to be an enthralling and suspenseful journey. Vienna, a gifted drummer hailing from a troubled upbringing, joins forces with Madison, a talented vocalist and electric guitarist who enjoys a life of abundance. Together, they form a girl band that experiences a fleeting taste of fame. However, their dreams are shattered by a devastating car accident on a wintry night in the Catskills. Throughout the book, the unpredictable twists and turns kept me captivated and deeply engaged. Undoubtedly, it stands as one of the finest reads I have come across in recent times, earning a solid four-star rating. I highly recommend adding it to your to-be-read list!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC to read and review.

Hannah is brilliant at making the reader have sympathy for the killer…. Pieces of the story that get dripped with each chapter that has you both loathing and loving them. But it’s never particularly clear from the start … and then boom, the story unravels as the killers motives unravel.

Do I make sense? Nope. Good. Because I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you.

It’s a bat shit crazy kind of thriller. Leaning into the daisy Jones darkness and the darling girls of pain.

That’s all I’m saying.
Ps. It did take me like 15% to get my head around every character because there is a lot to start.

4.5 ⭐️

(NetGalley ARC- Release date July 16.2024)
What an incredible tale and fascinating journey of an up and coming all-girl rock band!!!
The main characters meet in high school...you know the story...rich girl meets poor girl, and an unlikely friendship ensues when they discover a common love for music. From their high school days and the early path they paved for themselves to become rock stars...the need, the obsession, and the fight for fame and fortune just gets stronger. Against their parent's wishes, they do have some early success as a duo, but then quickly become an overnight sensation with the formation of a 5-member all-girl rock band! It looked like they were on their way and their future was set!
.....and then that horrific tragedy....dreams are shattered... and lives are changed forever!
This is their story of what happened. A must read!!
What an incredible book!

I loved reading this one. It had me biting my nails, sitting on the edge of my seat. So So good!! Can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy

This book had many twists and turns in it that kept the story interesting. It wasn't quite as fast paced as a I initially thought it would be, but overall I'm glad I read it through to the end. The story truly brings to life what the opportunity for fame and fortune can do to a person. Overall a great read that I had a hard time putting down.

I really enjoyed Only One Survives by Hannah Mary McKinnon. The relationship between the two main characters plays such a huge part in the story and the events that take place. A couple major twists makes it hard to write a review, but I can say that it was a really fun read!

Vienna and Madison met Senior year and instantly become best friends. They both love music and start playing gigs as a duo. Vienna decides they need more members and soon they have a full band. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs.
Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard—leaving one member dead and another severely injured.
In order to survive the snowy night they take shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night.
What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms? What really happened that night that only two people came home.
I loved this book!!!!!! I loved the style that this book was written in. It was a mix of what had happened over the years and what was happening now. I really liked the main character Vienna #TeamVienna. I could not put it down, I was sneaking chapters at work. I did not see the twists coming and there was a few.
The only negative I have is I feel like it could of been a few chapters shorter. Toward the end I did lose some interest but not enough to change the fact that I loved this book.
Thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Hannah Mary McKinnon for this digital ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I found the spacing and font of this book to be difficult to read.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 16, 2024
Vienna Taylor loves playing drums and making music alongside her best friend, Madison. It seems like fate when Vienna and Madison meet three other women and they form a female punk rock band, “The Bittersweet”. Their debut single takes off and soon, the five women are driving to the Catskills to sign a record contract…………until their car careens off the road. Now, three are dead and Madison is presumed missing, leaving Vienna the only survivor. But there is a small portion of Bittersweet’s followers who believe Vienna played a role in the death of the band, all to increase her own infamy and popularity. But that’s impossible, no one would kill all of their friends just to be famous—would they?
Hannah Mary McKinnon’s newest release, “Only One Survives”, is like a deliciously twisted version of “Daisy Jones and the Six”, complete with murder and intrigue.
Vienna is the protagonist and the story is told in reverse order (for the most part), starting on the day of the accident and working backwards, right up until the very end. There is non-stop action and an endless supply of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages! Vienna and Madison have a toxic and co-dependent relationship that was definitely going to turn ugly fast, as they both struggled with their own ambitions and desires to be famous. But what actually happened on that snowy night? Only Vienna knows and not all parts of her story match up. Somehow, I managed to actually like Vienna and I almost (almost) cheered for her long after I should’ve stopped doing so. McKinnon wrote a character I grew unexpectedly attached to, and that was just another one of many surprises in this story!
“Survives” has epic twists but none more epic than the final one- which was completely unexpected. There were so many different routes McKinnon could’ve taken to get to the ending, but I’m glad she went in the direction she did. An all-girl band is bound to generate some drama, especially with young and ambitious musicians battling for the spotlight, but McKinnon takes it to the next level, making “Survives” an absolute must-read that I was unable to put down!

An incredible book! Loved everything about it: the excellent writing, the suspense, the wonderful characters, past/present timelines, the instagram passages and the fantastic ending.
The author made the story feel real and I felt like I was involved with their lives and experiences. A thriller that actually brought me to tears and the musical references were an added bonus. A perfect quote- “I couldn’t exist without music.”
Another 5🌟 read by Hannah Mary McKinnon!!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

An all female rock band that is in a horrific car accident and stranded in a blizzard known the Catskills. Kinda fun as I was just there so it felt a little more real because I could picture it.

One of the members dies right away and the rest escape to a creepy cabin. We also get some backstory about how the best friends who formed the band, Vienna and Madison became friends and their relationship.

Then people start dying and there are only a few left when everything changes.

Review:

HMM always has such great premises and unique suspenseful storytelling. Only One Survives doesn’t disappoint.

I thought the story was going to go one way and it went another and yet another which is one of my favorite things about thrillers: subverting expectations is one of the things HMM does so well.

Enjoyable read that made me want to put Josie and the Pussycats to rock out while murders splashed across the page.

3.5 stars rounded up

Tw: dementia

A group of band members were on their way to early fame…or so they thought. A blizzard in the middle of nowhere threatens the growing fame for these women.

I most enjoyed reading through the stories of their lives leading up to coming together as a band. Overall, it was a fun and quick read and I enjoyed it. The beginning of the book really hooked me up until what I’ll call “the incident” to avoid spoilers. I felt that the original twist was a little predictable, but the very final twist of the book, I couldn’t predict.

After an accident in the Catskills, all but one member of an up and coming band makes it home alive, and another has gone missing. Told in alternate timelines, we find out what happened to the members of 'The Bittersweet.'

Hannah Mary McKinnon is one of my favorite authors and this one was highly anticipated for me. Despite reading several mountain cabin murder mysteries recently, this book held my attention and kept me reading. While I can't say exactly what I loved without giving away spoilers, know that if you are familiar with this author, she stays true to her typical style. I loved the background and development on the characters, and didn't really know if I loved or hated them right up until the end. While much of the twist was fairly obvious pretty early on, that didn't stop me from enjoying it. The conclusion was quite satisfying.

There were so many good elements to this story... and then it hit just after 50% and fell apart for me. The multiple perspective telling/retelling just did not work for me. It bored me to read events twice with relatively minimal shifts in details. The ending was also pretty obvious. AND it committed one of my cardinal sins--a full confession of everything that happened step by step. Ugh. I hate that.

On the plus side! I did like the development of EmVee's relationship throughout the story, the unrealistic narration, and the parent-child dynamics that occurred. That late teen-early twenty time frame is definitely a good time for self exploration, and I think the characters accomplishing those types of events in different ways was realistic.

Overall: 2 stars (It was fine)

I'll tell my students about: language, sex, LGBT+, violence/gore/murder, drugs, alcohol, trauma, physical/mental abuse, arson, theft,

**Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.** Review posted to GoodReads 5/3/24

Obviously, you're not meant to know the first half of this book is a memoir, until the second half. But then even in the second half, it's not clear it's a memoir for a while, which I really didn't like. I don't personally like it when I'm being lied to by the author, by use of an unreliable narrator. I think it would have been better had the author stated in the beginning that this was a memoir based on her recollections.

I also felt like the second half was predictable and unnecessary long. It sort of dragged and I just kept reading to find out what was going to happen, but it lost my interest after a while. It felt like each chapter was more and more ridiculous and Vienna's actions were more and more unbelievable. I have read and liked HMM books before so a bit underwhelmed by this one...

Thank you to NetGalley for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Only One Survives
Hannah Mary McKinnon
Out July 16, 2024

Female Music group on the rise. There’s a car accident with 6 of them. They’re able to find a cabin to try and ride out the snow storm, but not everyone is going to make it home. Only two people walk out alive. What happened to the rest of the group? This mystery thriller starts off immediately! The chapters are short and it keeps you turning pages fast to figure out what happened! The chapters alternate between past and present with one of the lead singers and survivor of the group tells her side of the story.

While this book reads a little like it’s YA, the suspense, mystery, and thrilling parts are engrossing to all. I appreciated this refreshing and more youthful read. This book has unreliable narrators, shocking twists, and a satisfying ending! Absolutely loved this book!

Only One Survives was a thrilling duel timeline read. The story develops as your knowledge of the characters grow from past to present. If written in chronological order this story would be predictable, but the way that the author splits the book's timeline leaves the mystery to unfold at a perfect pace. If you like music, underdog stories, and psychological thrillers this is all that packed into one.

Vienna is a poor girl gifted with massive talent and cursed with a mother that has little love and respect for her daughter. Madison is rich, spoiled and in love with music, but has controlling parents that would rather her pursue a life of security. The two strike up a friendship when learning they are both musically inclined and later their talents take them to the stars This timeline shift to present day where we see Madison and Vienna wrecked along with their new band members in a snow storm unable to reach help. The girls discover a cabin in the woods where they decide to camp out until the snow stops. One by one the band members meet their fate. Is it all coincidence or is it planned? Is there a murderer among them?

Great read! I suggest this for all those who love music and thrillers! 5 stars!

I really enjoyed this, surprisingly so. I thought it was clever, the characters were interesting and realistically portrayed, and the integration of social media was well done. There were several twists that I didn't see coming, which really added to my enjoyment.

This was my first book by the author -- it won't be my last.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

I love the premise of this book, but not the execution. I just found the story boring. There was a big twist halfway through that I didn’t see coming, but after that everything became so predictable.