Thank you to NetGalley & Random House - Ballantine publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

Can I give this book 10 stars because that is what it deserves. I mean, wow...a psychological thriller that actually THRILLS you? How novel.

The book flows right from the first page and Delaney fans will be happy that the writing style is just as straight forward as it was in “The Girl Before”. The chapters are pretty short which makes this one of those dangerous books you do NOT want to start if you have plans. But what made this book so good is that I truly, 100% thought I had this book pegged halfway in and yet the authors managed to deliver an incredible twist at the end. I highly recommend this one. It’s a fantastic read and totally worth the hours not spent sleeping!

If I had to paraphrase my entire review in one sentence it would simply be, "Wow!". I was second guessing every single page in terms of where this story would go next. I was intrigued and it was the true meaning of a page turner. The story is about a murder, an actress trying to catch her big break, and mystery. We second guess who the murder is at least times and following the story of an actress who is too suspicious not to be a suspect. The ending is pure magic and will take your breath away. Who is the killer? How does it end? Where is this going? Are all questions I asked myself as I was turning the page. This one is bound to be a fan favorite as most of Delany's works are. Pure, magic and again, "Wow!"

Claire has a very unique job. She works for a divorce lawyer, helping him discover if husbands are actually open to cheating on their wives.

The book is told from a first person POV as if Claire was speaking directly to the reader. Other parts are written as if they are a screenplay. “Is it just me who does this -who feels they’re constantly watching themselves in the movie of their own life?” It took awhile to get adjusted to, but it does make for a fast read.

Claire has an interesting ethical standard. She says what she does isn’t lying, it’s “behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances”.

I vacillated in my feelings about this book. At times, I found it totally unbelievable. But I found myself appreciating Claire’s observations, especially relating everything to acting. The writing isn’t overly dramatic. But a few good turns of phrase to paint a complete picture. “Only Kathryn is as full of restless energy as ever, a terrier eager for the kill.”

As the book goes on, you’re not sure who is right or wrong. And then the book takes a big turn I didn’t see coming and goes off in a totally different direction.

The title is very aptly named. Whom to believe? Whom to trust? Not just others, like Patrick, Kathryn or Frank, but is Claire herself even believable? “Those are always the most interesting characters: the ones that deceive themselves. Because sooner or later, the deception always falls apart.” This one kept me engaged right until the end. But I’m sorry, the ending went too far into the unbelievable category. So, I would have happily rated this a 4 star but the ending just lowered it to a 3.

My thanks to netgalley and Quercus for an advance copy of this book.

Believe me when I say this book feels like a merry-go-round. He said, she said, he said, she said.

Nothing is cut and dry in this story. Things get really twisted. You don’t know who’s telling the truth until the end. I had my suspicions but the reasons were wrong.

Give it a try and see if you can figure it out.

Meet Claire. From England, she’s studying acting in the United States. Unfortunately, she does not have a green card, so cannot get work as an actress. Instead, she earns money under the radar by taking jobs with a private investigator, tempting husbands in bars and getting the proof their wives need for divorce. Until she meets Patrick, and the next day his wife is found dead.

Claire ends up in the middle of an FBI sting to try and get Patrick to admit to his wife’s death. Who is innocent and who is guilty?

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book. I liked that it was narrated from Claire’s perspective. As an actress, she portrays many events as scenes from the theater or a film. JP Delany kept me guessing until the end.

Believe Me is a fun page turner that will keep you reading late into the night to see what happens next. I did.

What a rollercoaster! I loved this book. I, seriously, could NOT figure out what was real and what was an act. Thank you for the wild ride!

Who can you trust? Everyone in this book seems to be playing a role…and they are all very, very good at it. When I began reading, I found the play script format a little distracting, but as I got into the book, I understand how and why the device was being used. There is a good deal of theater lore, literature, and a great deal of background and theory about Baudelaire's famous volume of French poetry Les Fleurs du mal. If this was an action movie, I would say the main characters played the roles of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Despite the deux ex machina ending, the book kept me riveted throughout. According to the author, this is a rewrite of a novel she wrote a while ago – I’d say the revision and updating succeeded. I highly recommend this book.

Thanks for the chance to read this book and OMG is all I can say. I was hesitant to read this at first, it didn't seem like the first few pages were going to pull me in bit I kept reading and I am so glad that I did. This book had so many twist I couldn't belive it. I was so convinced that each time it was over it really was and then bam another twist was thrown at me. I really liked how the author used the acting lines back and forth like they were running lines with one another. I rwally liked this book! Read it when it comes out!!

My first by this author, I own The Girl Before. but haven't read it yet. The beginning of this novel had me hooked and flipping pages to find out how it would play out after a quite intense beginning.

Claire is a British actress who is looking for work in America, but can't get hired without a green card. She is resourceful though, and uses her acting skills to lure unfaithful husbands into a sort of divorce trap (so the wives can be certain whether their husbands are cheaters). The wives are her so-called "clients". Is this called a "honey trap"?

The temperature starts to rise in more ways than one when one of her clients is found murdered in one of the hotel rooms on the same night Claire met up with her hubby. This is where the twisted show of cat and mouse really begins. When I say twisted, I am talking....tangled, distorted and disturbing!

I have mixed feelings because I really enjoyed the first half and was looking forward to a compelling end, but it turned out to be more confusing and bizarre that what I could even imagine. Why, did we have to go there? The unreliable narrator turned out to be quite the actress in my opinion. This is only my take , so check it out and see what you think of all the strange twists and turns that spin this one!

Believe Me by JP Delaney is a psychological thriller that will have your heartbeat thundering in your ears from the very first page. Fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will be just as fascinated with this book.

This is a new-to-me author and I was definitely in the mood for something other than romance. Oh boy, did this check all my boxes? It’s full of suspense, some snark that makes you chuckle at times, and the twists leave nothing to be desired.

This is a story that will keep you guessing who the killer is, but it is so twisted that just when you think you’ve cleared everyone you thought was a suspect, BOOM! The one person who you really thought was innocent turns out to be the culprit.

But goodness, the mind games are incredibly twisted to the point that you find yourself saying “what in the world?” several times. But wait until you find yourself screaming at it “Believe her! Please, believe her!”

The way this is written isn’t like your regular fictional books either. It’s a mix of a screenplay and a novel. It made me want to pick up my screenplay writing again. I loved it!

This is such a good story, I read it in one day. I just couldn’t put it down. It was that good. Seriously, if you’re looking for something good to read, pick up this book. It will mess with your head but you won’t regret it. Trust me.

A fascinating psychological thriller ! I love this book and how the plot had so much subterfuge.!
This book kept me reading long into the night.
The book was told from the point of view of Claire, an actress who is broke from the UK. She is living in NY and desperate to make money so she takes on a job as a decoy and is to wait until one of the philandering husbands attempt to pick her up. She is employed by a law firm who is doing this scam with her on a thin line between what is legal and what is illegal. She is never to approach the men first, then the law firm has the evidence for the wife that the husband is cheating and was not "entrapped". Her job seems to be going along as planned then a crazy twist takes place after a murder.
One of the wives of one of the men turns up dead. The police believe it is the husband, or so that is what they tell Claire. She agrees to to see if she can get a confession . Or is Claire really the one being set up? She doubts the police and does not trust anyone involved. Claire realizes she is in danger of being the primary suspect and begins to follow leads herself to save herself . Who is after her and can she find out who the real suspect is in time? The plot twists kept turning and I was more intrigued at every chapter.
This was very well written. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC which does not influence my review. This is one very compelling read. I look forward to further work by this author.

Believe Me by J.P. Delaney is a psychological thriller that brought out that side of me that argues with myself. My reaction while reading this one…. What?? Yes… well, no… yes… no way! Yeah, you get my point.

The book begins with Claire doing what she does to earn money, propositioning a man in a bar. But it’s not what one would think in any way, Claire works for a law firm going undercover to catch cheating spouses since acting jobs are hard to come by for someone without a green card.

Normally these jobs go very quickly for Claire, all she has to do is wait for the mark to approach her and flirt a bit all the while getting them on camera. But Claire is surprised when a mark doesn’t fall for her attempts but even more surprised when the wife is upset her husband didn’t cheat. What Claire never expected after the job was over was to find herself in the middle of a murder investigation.

This is one that I’m not sure if it would be for everyone as it is certainly different. They style the author chose was one that took a little getting used to. A lot of the conversations and such are in an interview type of format but since the story was intriguing I went along with the differences well enough. Once the twists in the book begin to happen my internal debate meter shot off the chart and it wasn’t as if you are thrown a whole pile of suspects but the psychological side showed in playing mind games with the reader. In the end I was glad I picked this one up as it certainly was an entertaining read.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book had so many twists and turns in it! Just when I thought I knew what was going on, it spun a different way. I rate this book between a 3 and 4. There was a nod to Shades Of Gray, that I wasn’t expecting and not sure if that plot line was for me. However, the book kept me reading and I finished it in a couple of days!

This is the second book I have read by J.P. Delaney. The first book, The Girl Before, kept my interest because of the way it was written. I was hoping for something similar with this one. But I got something even better. The book was told from the point of view of Claire, an actress from the UK. She is living in NY, taking acting lessons and doing what she can to pay the bills. She takes on a job with a law firm. Her job is to be a decoy, for lack of a better word, and wait until one of the philandering husbands attempt to pick her up. She is never to approach the men first, the point is they approach her and then the law firm has the evidence for the wife that the husband is cheating and was not "entrapped". Things take a crazy turn for Claire when one of the wives of one of the men turns up dead. From here it is a cat and mouse game - did Claire kill the wife? She had opportunity. Did the husband do it? He had opportunity. Was it someone else entirely? The police believe it is the husband, or so that is what they tell Claire. She agrees to be interested in the husband to see if she can get a confession from him, but is that what the police want? Or is Claire really the one acting or being set up? From one moment to another I had no idea who was playing who - maybe the cops weren't who they said they were either? Oh my, I just kept reading and reading and reading and couldn't wait until the end.

was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I had read The Girl Before by JP Delaney last year and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to get the chance to read his new release. And it did not disappoint! This was a really great book, it was dark and mysterious and honestly entrancing. I didn't want to put it down. The reader really gets drawn into Claire's character and mindset, and while she can be somewhat of an unreliable narrator, her character was fascinating. I also loved how the dark poet, Charles Baudelaire, played such a critical role in the plot of the book. Baudelaire was an actual French poet, and his most famous work, Les Fleurs de mal, is a dark exploration of sexuality and death. And so too, this book is a dark and twisted exploration of reality and relationships. We as the reader are dependent on Claire's version of reality, which alternates between seemingly clear and downright delusional. I did not at all see the ending coming, this was one of the few gasp-worthy endings I can remember experiencing. This was really a great book and I would highly recommend giving it a read!

This is an intense psychological thriller with many twists and turns. It sucks you in and you have to keep reading to find out what is real and who is guilty. Keeps you guessing. I didn’t really like any of the characters though., all pretty weird and depraved.

I liked this psychological thriller but I didn't love it. I was fascinated by the way the author wove snippets from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal into the story and plot line. This created an eerie vibe throughout the book, in a good way. The main character, Claire, is an actress with a difficult past full of disappointment and heartbreak. She moves through her life as if she's playing a part in a movie but it is her life so she seems disengaged from whatever she's doing. She agrees to help the police by playing a role to entrap a supposed serial killer. Because she is so disengaged, I found it difficult to like her or feel sorry for her when things went wrong. The many twists and turns in the story were confusing at times and it was hard to distinguish truth from what was really happening or what had happened and who was genuine and who wasn't. Claire is paranoid about everyone so doesn't really form close relationships with anyone. Much of the book is written as though it's a script so again, I found it difficult to care about what was happening to the characters. I liked the story but I felt detached from the whole narrative. I wanted to care about the characters but because the writing style was so cold and aloof, I didn't. The police sting operation was a bit far-fetched and over the top. I don't believe any police department would be able to invest that amount of time and money in such an elaborate attempt to catch a supposed serial killer. I wish I could have liked Claire and the other characters more but they weren't likeable. Overall, I think this was an interesting and brilliant idea for a story but I wished it was written in a less detached way. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for this complimentary book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Twist upon page-turning twist. This is a tale from the ultimate unreliable narrator, masterfully told and I would defy anyone to figure it out on their own before the final reveal. Will definitely recommend to friends.

Now this is a twisty story. Maybe even the most twisted I have ever read. I didn’t know who to believe or even who to root for. Can’t give away the plot but it’s a tension filled read with an ending that is just a teensy bit disappointing. But that being said, I definitely enjoyed the book and was mesmerized by the story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc. Opinions are my own.

I had difficulty getting into this book. It never really took off and I felt like I was reading a book that I had read before.