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.

Not my favorite. I just couldn’t get into it, I felt like I had to force myself to keep reading. Maybe I’ll come back to it another time

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!!

I love thrillers and the twist and turns that come with it. Believe Me was no exception.

Claire's voice connects with the reader through her grim reality of wanting to be an actress, but due to unfortunate past circumstances that dream is ripped away from her. She needs money so she uses her acting talents for desperate wives to catch their cheating husbands.

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When one of those wives is murdered it's up to Claire to bring the killer out. Clever with a twisty plot. I was quickly ensnared by Claire and her acting abilities. She has to lure the killer of one of her former clients out, but to do that she must dive into his reality and lie. And that was just it, who was acting and who was telling the truth in this book?

This book was a different type of psychological thriller. The dialogue read like a movie script and I really found that interesting and unique. As Claire is embroiled deeper in her undercover lie, you turn each page to find out what happens. It was a real fun dark twisted ride.

Should you read it? Yes, a great thriller that reads like a movie, taking you on a wild ride with twist and turns.

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!

Sometimes when you wear a mask too long, you find it sticks to the skin.

I almost busted this one down to four stars at about 80% through. Why? Because sometimes a book that is fast-paced and exciting can have so many twists that the story begins to be unbelievable.

And this one is wholly unbelievable.

But what a freaking thrill ride! And the last couple twists and turns brought it back up to the five stars.

Because really, this is one masterful he said/she said tale, and it is very well done, all in all.

There were so many aspects I enjoyed. Most people watch trash tv to escape; for me, a book like this is far better.

And still, I learned some new things. All the Baudelaire stuff had me Googling like crazy. The whole Venus Noir/Venus Blanc info was fascinating and a new take (for me) on the Madonna/Whore complex. Loved it.

I'm not much into theater, but the way the author handled it was very credible to the lead character. I hate reading stories in playscript format, but in this case, it was a major propellant and gave insight into the underlying plot as a whole. Very effective.

I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed this one. I've read enough of the currently popular thrillers to see what works for me.

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.

Thanks to the publisher, Random House, via NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

After reading The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney, I felt sure I'd enjoy Believe Me. I did not enjoy it very much. It was hard for me to follow at times and the constant references to Charles Baudelaire's book of poetry, Les Fleurs du mal, slowed the pace of the book. Sometimes I felt this novel was drowning in twisty details. Since I was't expecting the erotic sex scenes and references, it would have been nice to be forewarned about them.

The protagonist, Claire, was messed up mentally, was promiscuous, in the U.S. illegally, would do anything to earn money, and used her acting abilities to make you wonder if she was for real or was she acting. Her backstory was interesting but didn't help to make me like her and I didn't care for any of the other characters either.

The ending was absurd. It added nothing to the story and made the rest of the book hard to believe.

Thank you to Netgalley & Doubleday for the ARC! I loved this one! This book was weird, insane and totally crazy. It had a vintage Hollywood vibe and was difficult to read at first because some of it was written like a play, but eventually, once you are sucked in and totally engrossed, you can’t imagine it being written any other way, it flows like a 1940s detective film. I was very worried I would be disappointed by this because I loved The Girl Before, but this novel did not disappoint. I honestly found myself questioning the sanity of the narrator, and even questing my own judgment. Overall, absolutely would recommend.

Expected Publication: July 24!

J.P. Delaney strikes again! I ran across this author several months ago when perusing audiobooks to listen to from the library. His previous novel, The Girl Before, was dynamite. My review of it here:

https://homesweethouser.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/the-girl-before-by-j-p-delaney/

So imagine my excitement when Believe Me came up as an option to request from NetGalley, and a couple days later I was approved to receive an advanced copy by the publisher.

The first thing that struck me was the way in which the story was written. In addition to traditional story writing and sentence structure, parts of the book were written as the script of a play and others were delivered via poetry. It made for really interesting transitions and kept me engaged throughout.

I'm not even sure that I could write a quick synopsis that would do this book justice. Believe Me is about an aspiring English actress, Claire, who finds herself in America, struggling to make ends meet in the Big Apple. Without a green card, she finds work difficult to acquire and soon ends up working for a private investigator of sorts, hired by suspicious wives to "perform" as a prostitute and see if their husbands will take the bait. However, things don't exactly go as planned when one of the wives is found murdered in a hotel suite, and her husband becomes the prime suspect. Claire will be hired for her biggest performance yet... seducing the husband and getting him to confess.

There are so many twists and turns in this novel that I never knew what was going to happen next. J.P. Delaney also did a great job of throwing just enough curve balls in that I found myself second guessing all of my intuitions. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, I started to doubt myself and think, "hmm.... maybe not..." I thought the ending was going to be an absolute let down, but I was caught completely off guard and loved it!

This book will make you question whether we are ever truly ourselves, or if we are just actors in the play that is our lives.

Highly recommended. And if you haven't, check out The Girl Before as well. They are both superb.

-I received this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, J.P. Delaney, and Random House Publishing's Ballantine Books for the opportunity to review.-