3.5 Stars* (rounded up)

A Wicked, Wild and Wacky Novel.

What is real and what is not? That is the question. The mind is a tricky tricky thing and if you trust it, you are being very silly.

Claire is an Actress and a Brit in the U.S. without a Green Card. She can’t get a decent job and the kind she can get is heavily frowned upon: she becomes a decoy, a woman who seduces men, just to catch them cheating on their wives. Then something crazy happens - one of the wives who hires her is murdered and then everything blows up Claire’s her face.

Just like that however, things turn around on a dime - and what you see is not what you get. Claire has a new employer. Her new job is quite dangerous. Can Claire be trusted? Can her employers? Can her new boyfriend Patrick? Color me intrigued. And scared half out of my wits.

What JP Delaney does here is as cray cray as Ben & Jerry’s best ice cream flavors: picture Cherry’s Garcia or Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream. It’s shocking, delectable, wacky and wild all at the same time.

This was a buddy read with Kaceey. Thanks for keeping me company during the wackiness Kace! This storyline was so out there that I had no idea where it was going to go and while I admit that the ending was a bit too much for me, it was an entertaining, enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing - Ballantine and JP Delaney for an ARC of this novel in exchange for for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 8.5.18.

I first want to thank NetGalley for sending me this book.
Wow! What a dark and twisted psychological thriller this turned out to be! Not for those who are easily disturbed. I love unreliable characters, and Claire turns out to be the ultimate in unreliability as she not only holds back from sharing her tumultuous past, but by also being an extremely talented actress. She finds herself hired to hit on a man who may or may not be involved in a murder, as well as being obsessed with a poet whose poems focus on murder of the darkest sort. As she gets tangled up with him- the dark and twisty ensues and it is quite the ride for the reader!
I read this book quickly- wanting to know where it was going and never getting bored. 4 starts from me!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a great psychological thriller and hooked me from the start. Set in New York, Claire Wright is a british citizen without a green card, so she works for a law firm investigator for cash. Her job is to catch married men who cheat by role playing and getting them to solicit her. She is attending a prestigious acting school where she is a top role playing student, so this is the perfect way to pay the rent for her. While on a job, things go awry and the woman who hired Claire is murdered. Now Claire has to take on the role of her life....one that could cost her her life. There are lots of twists and clever turns, and I was clueless as to who the killer was, as well as who could actually be trusted, including Claire. Believe Me...you will be glued to every page!

The story focuses on Claire, a struggling actress who came to America from England to pursue an acting career. Except a million people come to America, New York City especially, to pursue an acting career and they don't come with black marks on their record like Claire does. So she finds a job with a divorce lawyer and basically makes money by tricking men into thinking she wants to sleep with them while she records their conversations.

Through her work, Claire meets Stella and then Stella meets dead. Claire gets arrested for the murder. And what comes next is such a twisty, turny, upside story that you have to read it to believe it. When the book ended, I sat there staring and thinking WTF did I just read? I almost feel like I need to go back to read it again just to see if there were clues I totally missed along the way. Seriously, did not figure it out until the author told me what happened.

One bit about the story that annoyed me were the chapter openings that read like a script, including stage directions but you get used to it. None of the characters are trustworthy and I'm not even sure they are likeable but it's definitely a story you need to read to believe.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Just when you think you know whom to trust, Delaney rips the rug out from under your feet. A delightfully unpredictable thriller.

Interesting book that kept me guessing from beginning to end! It also made me wonder how much their roles impact actors in real life.

First book by this author, but I will be looking into her other works. Enjoyed the story, easy to follow along.

Believe Me absolutely captivated me. It has such a unique premise- Clare is a young British woman who has come to New York to pursue acting. She works for a law firm in Entrapment - she gets hired to try and get cheating husbands to sleep with her to get evidence for the wives. She's working on her acting skills and getting by, until one of the clients turns up dead the next morning.

The book took many turns and I never could tell what was real and what was an act. I loved the author's last book, The Girl Before, and I think I enjoyed Believe Me even more. Warning: this is one dark book so if you're sensitive to violence, you might skip. From this depraved reader, it gets 4.5 stars.

JP Delaney does it again! "Believe Me" was a total page turner that kept me guessing up until the very last page. Unreliable narrator? Check. Twists on twists on twists? Check. The story is well paced and every new development somehow managed to be both surprising yet completely inevitable, when you look back.

When struggling actress Claire Wright finds herself in dire financial straits, she takes a job as a law firm decoy, helping wives trap their potentially cheating husbands. She's good at her job, even though she loathes it. Then one night, everything changes when one of the clients is found murdered and she gets dragged into the investigation. The suspect? The woman's husband. Claire is recruited by the police to go undercover to seduce the hubby and discover if he's the serial killer he's suspected to be. As Claire goes deeper undercover and falls for her target, the question arises-- who's the real mark? Is he guilty? Did she fall in love with a sadistic killer?

Loved the book, I couldn't put it down! Equal parts disturbing and fascinating, I questioned everything just as much as Claire did. Don't want to give too much away, so all I can say is add this one to your reading list, stat!

Claire dreams of being an actress. Once a orphan in Britain, being shifted from foster family to foster family; she knows nothing in the world comes without a price.

Claire, never one to quit, finds herself in New York, she’s broke, without a green-card but still chasing her dream to be in the limelight - to be centerstage. To get money to pay for her acting classes and rent, Claire takes a job as a “decoy” with a local divorce legal agency. Her job is to get the target to proposition her all while catching their guilt on tape. After all Claire has no intentions of catching the innocent. With a cash payment of $400 a job, Claire is doing well - that is until her meets her match, Patrick.

Patrick can not be enticed or swayed by Claire’s charm. No worries though right? After all, Stella, Patrick’s wife should be thrilled that her husband is innocent, right? Wrong. Within hours of Claire revealing her fruitless effort to sway Patrick to Stella, Stella is found brutally murdered in her hotel room.

The story then takes a turn for the macabre. Believe Me reinforces what we all know already - evil exists. For, without evil lurching about taunting and tempting, how would we be able to distinguish all that is good in the world? With that said, how can you tell who is the hero of the story and who is the villain?

Believe Me was a fast, frenzied, frightening tale of just how evil can wear many masks leaving you guessing - who is the good guy and who is bad. 5 stars for this read!❤️

This is the first book by this author that I have read so I was not sure what to expect, except that a lot of people seem to love it. The description is so intriguing. I feel like this book would make a fantastic tv show or movie. I wasn't completely blown away but this was a really good book. I kept second guessing everything in it.

Are you paying attention? You'll need to be; because J. P. Delaney’s new thriller will test your brain and it's a page-turner to boot. This is a high-octane cat-and-mouse psychological thriller offers relentless suspense, quicksilver pacing and unusual characters.

Once again the reader is confronted with an unreliable narrator, an actress who, as Stanislavski suggested, immerses herself in the emotional truth of her part until it becomes part of who she is. Her dedication to “the part” lands her in a mental institution at one point and high on a list of murder suspects at another.

Some of the action is a bit far-fetched, but the pacing is persistant in a way that allows readers to suspend disbelief easily. BELIEVE ME has so many twists, turns and surprises that the less reader knows, the more they enjoy the journey.

Believe Me was a quick thriller with many twists. Unlike many mysteries though, not full of overly ridiculous plot turns to avoid predictability. The characters are well written and as a reader I wasn't sure who to like or relate to, which kept it interesting and open to plot twists.

A constant guessing game of what's real and what isn't. A mystery within a mystery. The writing is believable and you become lost in the story within the story. A good read for mystery fans.

A guessing game from the first page until the very end. Claire embarks on a relationship with Patrick as a part of a police sting operation that takes so many turns that the reader is hanging on. Believe Me, I could not put this down and I will be recommending this to every fan of psychological thrillers. It will leave you asking, what girl on the train?

Holy moly. This started just a bit slow for me, but by a quarter or so in, I was completely hooked. All of the way until the last page I was wondering what would happen next and "whodunnit." Twisty, dark and suspenseful.

This book made me think and left me feeling. Claire is amazing. You need to read this book. I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy and am thrilled to have been honored with it. #BelieveMe #NetGalley

After I finished The Girl Before I instantly checked to see what else this author had done. When I saw a new book coming out I was incredibly excited and I'm glad to say it did not disappoint.

Claire Wright is a struggling actress in New York who will do anything to make her dreams a reality, but unfortunately, reality is the problem. With crippling debt and green card issues, finding work and making any money seems impossible. So when she's offered the chance to make some quick cash, she jumps at the opportunity - but soon seems swept into a murder investigation and in for the role of her life.

This physiological thriller kept me entertained and turning the page obsessively. I could NOT put it down and had to see what insane thing was going to happen next. With a slew of untrustworthy characters and a perfect mystery - it left me guessing literally until the final chapter.

The writing style had me a little thrown at first (kind of a script format at times) but I got used to it fast and loved it. There was a lot of insight into the world of acting I had otherwise been blind and I found it incredibly interesting. The whole thing was well done and fast paced.

Once again I find myself eagerly looking forward to the next book.

This was a great book! I enjoyed this author's first book and this one was just as good! Would love more books by this author..

J.P. Delaney is back with another riveting psychological thriller that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Believe Me follows Claire Wright, a young British woman living in America who aspires to be an actor. When we meet Claire, she is struggling financially. She doesn’t have a green card which makes it difficult to find legitimate employment. She ends up working on the sly for a team of divorce lawyers, where she uses her acting talents to entrap cheating husbands and obtain video evidence for their wives.

Everything changes in Claire’s life, however, when one of the wives she is trying to obtain evidence of cheating for turns up dead. Believing that the woman’s husband is the murderer and that his wife might not be his only target, law enforcement officers approach Claire about using her talents to try to lure the husband into a confession. With the promise of a green card and a lot of cash dangled in front of her, Claire agrees.

Claire is a brilliant actor, but will she be able to help law enforcement catch the killer or will she end up in over her head? All I can say is buckle up and prepare for a wild ride!

Believe Me is one of those novels that I feel like I can’t say much about because I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m just going to mention a couple of quick highlights that I really enjoyed.

It probably seems weird to start off talking about the structure of a novel, but I have to admit this was my favorite part about Believe Me. The main character Claire, who as I’ve mentioned is an aspiring actor, often goes through life imaging incidents in her life as if they are scenes from a script. Since we are watching the events of the story unfold from Claire’s perspective, Delaney actually weaves together a tale that is mostly straight narrative, but which occasionally has little bits of script incorporated in as well to mimic how Claire imagines certain scenes playing out, complete with stage directions and dialogue she has scripted out in her head. At first, I worried that the script bits might seem a little gimmicky, but in the end, they really worked well for me.

Aside from the unique structure, I also enjoyed that the plot was filled with suspenseful twists and turns that kept me guessing from start to finish. The twists were such that it oftentimes made it hard to distinguish between what was real and what was fake in terms of Claire’s role in the murder investigation as well as what exactly was going on with the husband. I tried to predict what direction the story was taking a few times along the way but was so wrong each time that I finally decided to just settle in and enjoy the wild ride Delaney was taking me on. The fact that his writing flows so smoothly makes it easy to do that and just trust that the ride is going to be worth it in the end.

The main issue I had with Believe Me was that I just never really felt a connection to Claire. Because she played so many different roles throughout the course of the novel, I never felt like I knew who the real Claire was. Whenever she said something about herself, I took it with a grain of salt because I was never convinced she was being honest. While that kind of personality was helpful in terms of maintaining the novel’s premise of not knowing what was real and what was fake, it left me feeling very detached from Claire. Even when she was potentially in danger, I found that I didn’t really care. I wanted to know what was going to happen, of course, but it wasn’t a case where I was worried for her well being at all. If I had been able to better connect with Claire, this would have easily been a 4 star read for me.

There’s so much more I would love to say about Believe Me, but because I don’t want to spoil the mystery, I’m just going to say that I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys riveting psychological thrillers and to fans of Delaney’s last book, The Girl Before. If you enjoyed that one, I think you would also enjoy Believe Me.