Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book! I loved The Girl Before by JP Delaney and Believe Me did not disappoint. This was a quick read for me - once I started it I couldn't put it down. I loved trying to figure out if the relationship between Claire and Patrick was real or if it was acting. I totally loved every twisted page!!

Believe Me is a story of life imitating art and a dark art at that. I love books that incorporate art into narrative, in this case Baudelaire controversial poetry, Les Fleurs Du Mal. I've read JP Delaney's previous book, The Girl Before, which I really enjoyed, but Believe Me was even better in my opinion. The first half of the book reads like a standard murder investigation that I did like, but the second half reads more like a very intense and twisty psychological thriller. The second half of the book blew me away.

There is a strong theme of dark genius throughout the book, how a talent often goes hand in hand with a disturbed mind. Claire's character reminded me very much of Natalie Portman's character in Black Swan, the way she often found the line between her real self and the character she was portraying blurring and disappearing. I found it fascinating. Believe Me was very engrossing and unputdownable, I highly recommend this book to any thriller and suspense lover.

Believe Me is one of those books that I requested purely because of the hype it's received from other reviewer friends of mine. It was getting a lot of buzz, so I expected it to be pretty good. I did not expect it to grip me by the end of the first chapter, but it did. This book is a perfect example of a strong opening. But once this book took off, it never let back up. I would advise you to wait to start this one until you have the time to devour it, because it is hard to put back down.

Believe Me was so different for me because a lot of the time I didn't know what to believe. I found myself suspicious that every character at different points throughout the book. It was an incredible mystery ride based on that fact alone. I couldn't tell what were lies and what was the truth. I loved it because it kept me guessing the entire time.

The characters were done really well especially Claire and Patrick. But every character in this book was done really well. The development is thorough, but without unnecessary details. I also found Claire to be intriguing from the very first chapter. She was mysterious and bold, but also impulsive. I liked her character right away. She was just so interesting.

I am kind of shocked at how J.P. Delaney pulled this book off. It certainly lived up to the title because, honestly, I never knew what to believe. But it is also a little difficult for me to review because I don't want to spoil anything. The plot was incredible and the twists came out of nowhere, but were clearly planned well. In the interest of keeping this review spoiler free I will keep it short and leave you with this, give it a chapter before you decide to pass on this one. I was going to read this later, but after reading the first chapter I wound up reading the whole thing.

Wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I had a hard time connecting with the characters. It could have been the mood I was in but ultimately it left me feeling underwhelmed.

Believe Me by J. P. Delaney

This is the third time in a row that I have requested a psychological thriller based on loving the author's previous work and have been hugely disappointed. This was just too confusing or I would really have to suspend belief to be thrilled or chilled. Claire is the main character who is in New York City attending acting classes. While she is trying to pay for the acting classes she gets work from an ex police officer who she masquerades as a prostitute trying to tape and video married men whom she approaches in Hotel bars to test whether or not the men will cheat on their wives.

Claire meets a woman named Stella who meets with Claire before meeting with Stella's husband. Stella is found murdered in her hotel room and the police and a forensic psychologist play Claire and the husband against one another. They both believe that each other are working with the police and the psychologist each one trying to get one another to admit to the murder.

The husband is a professor of Baudelaire and this is where the narrative takes off in too many directions. The husband writes a play for Claire to play in the role of a lifetime for her. There is a lot of text from Baudelaire that bogs down the narrative. Claire and the husband fall in love but who is predator and who is prey? This twist is used too many times. I didn't find this suspenseful or addictive. It was trying too hard to be clever and it just was unsatisfying. The ending was supposed to be explosive but it was just too far fetched to believe.

Thank you to Net Galley, J.P. Delaney and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

Not my favorite book. I enjoyed the first book I read by this author but this one was a struggle for me to get into. I don't know if it was the characters or setting but just wasn't my favorite.

Another great story by JP. Delaney. This novel keeps you reading well into the night. It's full of so many twists, that by the end I couldn't tell who to believe.

I can't decide how I feel about this book. I wasn't a big fan of Delaney's previous book The Girl Before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I found the premise intriguing -- Claire is a struggling actress hired by suspicious wives to test the faithfulness of their husbands. When a client is murdered, Claire finds herself in the middle of the police investigation. She once again is hired to use her acting skills on the victims husband to see if he killed her. The problem is that nothing is as it seems. The story then gets pretty dark and convoluted. It lost me somewhere along the way, but it was a nice quick read.

This book started out really good until I got to just to the 40% mark. From there, it just got too hard to follow and to unbelievable. I was not sure if she was acting or if it was happening. I did not care for the way it was written, like reading a script. I am not a poetry fan so all the poem quotes were a waste of time for me as I skipped them. I was very disappointed in this book as it came highly recommended to me.

As I loved The Girl Before, I was eager to read Believe Me. It’s a quick read and I loved the way the author wrote some of the dialogue as if it was in a play script. I didn’t like the characters, other than Frank, and found the premise of the book, a man recreating murders based on Baudelaire’s poems, to be confusing. I did love the idea that Claire, an actress, would be hired by women to see if their husbands were cheating. There are so many twists and turns that you will be as motivated to solve the mystery as I was. Thank you to the author, JP Delaney, the publisher, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for allowing me to read this thriller.

Well having read Delaney's book The Girl Before I was expecting a twist but was disappointed. Underwhelmed, would be the word that comes to me. I never really could get behind Claire and her foster family background. I really was into the book right up until she found the wires in Patrick's apartment and there relationship continued. I just didn"t understand why Claire would stay in the relationship.

Last year I read J.P. Delaney's The Girl Before, and loved the way he created a psychological suspense with the right amount of intimacy. So, when I saw that he had another psychological thriller work going to be published, I was eager to get my hands on a copy. I was lucky enough to get a galley copy of this book. I have been glued to my ereader since downloading the ebook. Believe Me was everything I could have hoped it would be. Delaney did not disappoint. The passion, murder, and psychological roller-coaster leaves you wanting to get to the heart of the story. About half way through, I thought, "Okay, so this is it. She is just crazy. What else could happen?" Boy was I wrong! There was so much more to it than I could have imagined.

Claire is the epitome of a struggling actress. She grew up in the foster system in the UK. When she meets obstacles that prevent her to become a successful actress, she comes to America. She again reaches a road block in her pursuit of becoming an actress in that she does not have a green card. So, in order to remain in her acting classes, she has to take on side work that pays cash. She assists a small organization in catching cheating husbands. However, she finds herself caught up in a murder investigation. In trying to help solve the murder, she, herself, begins struggling with whether or not she is a suspect. Or worse, if she truly is unhinged.

I do want to warn future readers that BDSM, mental illness, and self-harm are involved in this work.

Ok so what exactly did I just read?! I really was enjoying this book and then I wasn't. Claire is an aspiring young actress who has been blacklisted in the UK so she's in NYC trying to restart her career. She doesn't have a Greencard so she has to participate in some "off the books" work for a divorce law firm to make ends meet. Essentially her role is to get married men to hit on her, record it and then hand over the evidence to the wife. She then is retained by the NYPD to basically run a sting operation to flush out a potential serial killer. It was interesting trying to figure out what was reality and what was Claire simply acting but the end was a little too unbelievable for me, even for a thriller full of twists. Thank you to Random House & NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.

Have read several books by this author and have always enjoyed them. This book was no exception. I recommend this book.

Believe Me. JP Delaney. READ IT!!! Mind bending, dark, twisted, suck you into the story line (but all in a GOOD way), make you question every part of every storyline in this book until the very end. And you won’t EVEN see it coming. Buy Motrin, because you will read yourself into a headache!!

This novel started out so straight-forward, but then took such a sudden, shocking turn that I had never seen coming only to be brought back full circle. This was an inspired read and I'm glad JP Delaney gave this plot another go to develop it into one of the best psychological thrillers of the summer!

My head is spinning..spinning..spinning..There were so many curveballs that I couldn't keep them straight.( I state that in the best possible sense.) Be prepared to empty out your calendar and dig in because this is an all encompassing novel. However, be forewarned as it is dark and if this is not your cup of tea you will not be happy with the results.
Claire, an unemployed actress, is behind in her rent and needs to find a way to make extra money. At first she entraps and records dealings with men who are cheating on their wives for an investigator. Then she is offered a new way of making money by beguiling a man that the police feel is involved in shady rituals and murders. Who is the real victim and who is the real murderer? Delaney takes us on a exciting rollercoaster rider up to the very last minute until all we can say is ,"WHEW!"

First, my thanks for the galley copy of "Believe Me" from NetGalley.
Second, there is a spoiler further down - stop reading now to avoid it.

I wanted to read this book as I had enjoyed another by JP Delaney (The Girl Before). The style is well written, descriptive without being verbose, and makes for an easy read. This, like the first book by Delaney, pulls you in and keeps you reading until the end, whether you are satisfied with the conclusion or not. Delaney's books are "must be finished" ones.

I will say that this story lost a rating star from me, because a little more than halfway through the book, I knew who murdered Stella.

SPOILER ALERT - When Claire "confesses" to murdering Stella and Patrick doesn't believe her, which the reader is supposed to think this is him knowing and trusting her. In my world, nobody is that trusting without getting hurt or hurting someone. He knew she did not kill Stella because he had. That was the only logical outcome.

This being said, it still would not stop me from reading the next thriller from Delaney.

Three out of five stars.

Struggling actress Claire uses her skills as an actress to entrap husbands who their wives suspect of cheating. She doesn’t love her job but it helps to pay the bills. But one job changes everything for her when the wife ends up dead and she begins to work with the police to try and find the killer.

This book started off really strong, so much so that I literally couldn’t put it down. Then around the middle it started to slow down and then at the end it got unputdownable again. It almost felt like there were too many twists and turns that it was hard to keep everything straight. It was also very gruesome with some pretty graphic details from poems and murder scenes. I did like how certain parts were written like a play. It helped you to see how Claire’s kind worked how much she took herself into the roles that she was playing.

I loved JP Delaney’s first novel The Girl Before, and while I enjoyed this one enough, I don’t think that it was as good as The Girl Before. I’d consider this more like 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Interesting twists and turns -- as there should be -- in this book. Don't think it'll be everybody's cup of thriller, but it is well written, the characters are intriguing, the story line compelling, and creepy to boot.