Cassandra Bowden wakes up in a luxurious Dubai hotel room, in bed next to a dead man. It's not the first time she's been blackout drunk, not by a long shot, but this is the first time the consequences have been worse than just embarassing. Terrified of what might have happened, what the consequences might be, she slips out of the room and rushes to make her next flight, lying to her fellow flight attendants about where she was the night before, then lying to the investigating officers. This one has been in my to-be-read pile for years, since before the book came out, let alone the television series. It wound up being more of a political thriller than I expected, but watching Cassandra try to end her own self destructive streak made for an intriguing read.

I love Chris Bojhalian’s books because almost every one is a page turner and has interesting and well thought out plots. This was a page turner and I enjoyed it but I only gave it three stars because I had a hard time following it towards the end when everything was getting wrapped up. I’m still a little confused about how everything fit together.

Loved this so much I forced my husband to read it. So many surprises in it for me but of course he figured it out pretty quickly.

This one was gripping from page one. My first Bohjalian novel, but certainly not my last. I'm late to this one, but glad to have read it before picking up the streaming series.

Get ready for a wild ride. Find a comfortable chair and settle in for this adventure. I loved getting to meet Cassie and the other cast of characters.

I received a digital ARC via Netgalley though all thoughts are my own.

This was quite the wild ride of a book and I am still trying to figure out how some of the pieces fit together. Was not expecting those twists at the end and Cassie puts a whole different spin on an unreliable narrator!

Full of mystery, danger, has an unreliable narrator and surprises along the way, I highly recommend if any of these themes interest you.

Trigger warnings: death, murder, some violence, black out drinking, mentions of a rape, drunk driving

Cassie is an alcoholic. She's also a flight attendant on an international airline, a job that allows her to eat exotic cuisines, stay in posh hotels, and hook up with mysterious men. Only this time her one-night stand has ended not with a quick shower and a flight out, but with murder.

Alex Sokolov's throat has been cut with the neck of the vodka bottle he and Cassie were drinking from the night before but Cassie can't remember a thing. She has no idea who killed Alex and she's worried it might be her. Embarking on a search for the pieces of her fractured memory of that night, Cassie finds herself careening through life, drinking even more, and becoming more and more paranoid as she gets closer to finding out what happened to Alex.

This book was an enjoyable read and a great companion to the Netflix series that was (loosely) adapted from the novel. Cassie is one of those characters you can't help but root for even though she appears unable to take her life-- and its consequences- seriously, even after the unthinkable happens. She is an unlikely heroine in this story and trying to guess the truth through the novel's twists and turns makes for a great read.

I loved this book! It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! I will definitely read more from this author!

I've been excited to read this book since it was released, but I finally found the time to read it before watching the new show on HBO Max!

What happens when you wake up not remembering anything from the night before? And what happens when there's a dead person beside you?! You can only hope that you didn't do it. As the protagonist, Cassie, tries to piece together what happened that night, we also get perspectives from other people like the FBI investigators and a mysterious woman named Miranda.

Cassie was a complex, well-developed character. Although she's hard to like sometimes given her messy/bad decision making, she always had a good heart and cared for those around her. She genuinely wanted to do the right thing.

Something I didn't expect - without giving too much away - was a subplot around an international spy/mob situation. I appreciated the different aspect to the typical mystery/suspense/thriller novel that I read.

My one issue was how the book ended. I felt like it was confusing and not very clear.

And as for the show, it was so different that you can enjoy both without comparing them. For example, the show added new characters, changed the supporting book characters, and had different plot details.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

3.5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and Doubleday Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was an interesting read for me, I don't normally read books described as "thriller", but I have really enjoyed this author's earlier books. The overall premise of the book was intriguing, a woman wakes up in a hotel room next to someone who is dead. She is a binge drinker and suffers from occasional blackouts and she can't seem to recall the full details of the previous night. Did she kill this man? As she flees from the scene and tries to uncover exactly what happened, the lies start to build up until she has to face the reality of what really happened it that hotel room.
While the story kept me turning the pages, at times I didn't find it to be a gripping thriller. Although in the end, I couldn't figure out the whodunit and that took me by surprise, so all in all an intriguing read.

This one was a solid MEH from me. I liked it enough that I finished it, but found myself skimming to get to the point, especially the last half. Could definitely have sped things up a bit to make a more enjoyable experience. Not my favorite

I expected more from this read. The writing was good and it was semi fast paced. I found the MC a bit annoying but that’s just me.

The plot itself is good, but the plot twists were a bit predictable.

I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. It’s a good read, but not great.

I felt like this book had a lot of potential to be something but didn't turn out the way I expected it to. The concept of a flight attendant waking up next to a dead man sounds so gripping! True there are a lot of twists and turns that made me invested in this book, but in the end I felt like something was off. The pacing is also a bit inconsistent. While the book starts off with a bang, it slows down where nothing happens for a while, before picking up again. Honestly, the author could have avoided a few pages to keep up with the pacing on this book. For instance, he did not repeatedly mention that Cassie had a drinking problem. It was also hard for me to root for Cassie because she did not have any traits which I found charming. I found her to be rash and dumb for the most part. Overall, this was a rather disappointing read which I felt could have been executed better.

Very well-written book by one of my favorite authors, the story plotted through, and the mystery of who killed the Russian man was was intriguing. Highly recommend this thriller.

I was really excited by the description of this one, and was anticipating a fast paced psychological suspense story. Although it was definitely more more slow burn, the main character’s story was interesting enough, but it disappointed me in the end :(

Amazing mystery that had me staying up all night. Brilliant writing and plot that will stay with you forever. Fantastic.

I have been a CB fan for years and had eagerly anticipated this book. When I got into the book, I really found it couldn’t keep my attention. I also found this book to be a bit more formulaic and cookie cutter which is a NEVER for this author. It took me months to finish this book and I am a fan who has finished a CB book in a matter of hours.

When Cassie Bowden wakes up she is disoriented. That's not anything new; as a woman who drinks too much she is used to waking up in unfamiliar rooms, often with a man she barely remembers. As a flight attendant, she often can't even immediately place the city she is in.

But something is even stranger this morning. As she tries to orient herself, she realises something is very wrong. There's a smell and a feel around her she has never experienced. As the fog lifts, she sees the charming hedge fund manager, Alexander, she spent the night with. But this is Alexander covered in a cascade of blood; his throat slashed. What could she have done?

Cassie manages to get herself together, leave the hotel room and make it back to her own hotel before the flight out of Dubai leaves. She is full of questions. Could she have done it? Why doesn't she remember? Who was the woman who came by to have a drink with them? How can she get by and keep the secret?

Inevitably, the story emerges. Cassie is caught between her job and the police investigation. The FBI are called in as the victim is an American in a foreign land. Worse, it turns out the woman who Cassie barely remembers was an assassin. That woman, Elena, is in trouble herself for not killing Cassie at the same time she killed Alexander. Cassie is left to wonder who will get her first, Elena or the law?

Bohjalian has written an engaging premise and opening chapter for this book. The reader cannot help but imagine what that scene must have been like and what they would have done in Cassie's place. But, at least for me, I found Cassie's lack of personal engagement with others and her selfish self-destruction offputting enough that I had a hard time relating to her. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

Another book, that got lots of hype that I didn't think was anything great. It starts out great with dead guy and no idea how he got dead, but then pretty much drags from there. The Epilogue didn't go with the rest of the book as far as I was concerned.

A thriller novel with twists and turn that I personally did not see coming. It one book I would recommend to every thriller lover out there.