Ii was excited to see a new book out by J.P. Delaney. I had a really tough time following this story. This book is not for me. I hated the content and can't get past the erotic sex scenes. Just being totally honest! DNF at 33%. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this complimentary book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Last year, I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC for JP Delaney's debut, The Girl Before. I loved that book and was incredibly excited when I learned that Delaney had a new book out called Believe Me. I was able to get an ARC of it through NetGalley and started reading it immediately.

In this story, we follow Claire, a British lady living in America without a green card. She is trying to get her name out there in the acting world, after messing up her chances of fame back in Britain. Without the green card, though, it is hard for her to find work. She does some under the table jobs, working as a decoy for divorce lawyers, trying to catch cheating husbands on tape for wives to use during their divorce proceedings. When one of the clients ends up dead, Claire is thrown in for the ride of her life. She works with the cops to help them discover if the now deceased lady's husband, the person they assume to be the killer, is who they truly think he is. Claire begins a relationship with him and we follow along, trying to separate the real life from the scripted life. 

Believe Me is a thriller of a different sort. Incredibly well written, with some fun parts written as if for a script, it immediately drew me in. I was captivated by Claire -- who is this woman? What is her history? Something about her just grabbed me and held onto me throughout the entire ride. Completely character driven, this story is one that has lots of up, as well as some downs. As always, there are some twists and turns, my favorite being one that showed up just over halfway through the book. The ending twist left a slight sour taste in my mouth, though didn't ruin the book for me competely. 

Believe Me is set to be published in July; however, there is another version of this already out, called The Decoy, that was published in 2002 by Tony Strong (whose pen name is JP Delaney). From my understanding, the book wasn't originally received as well as he believed it should have been, so he took the opportunity to re-work it and publish it again this year. I'm curious about the similarities between the two.

Book rating: 4 stars
Cover rating: 2 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the opporutnity to read and review this book. I look forward to future selections from JP Delaney.

This book was a wild ride. So often I was not sure who to trust and which character was the one being deceiving or who was being deceived. I don't want to give the plot of this one away, but it has to do with an actress who gets ensnared in a murder investigation. There are multiple twists and turns and it is a thrill ride till the very end. If you are looking for a thriller to keep you wondering, this is it.

It started out exciting and believable, just like I want a book to begin. But by the time I was half through it felt a bit over-the-top and more like a wild story.

Jp Delaney did it again! I was stoked to get the chance to read this book as I won a copy of The Girl Before on Goodreads last year. Delaney once again spun a story that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could. I liked Claire's character and kept going back and forth between liking her and being annoyed by her! But I truly rooted for her at the end especially when she threw out her safe word! Delaney has a knack for telling a story from the beginning to the end and never lacking that special twist he seems to be so great at weaving in between. I cannot wait to read his next story!

This book for some mediocre reviews. I, however, thought it was very well written. It was extremely complex. You had to REALLY read the book. The characters ~ omg ~ getting into their heads was crazy a d twisty..

Being a former Thespian, I really got the book. Getting into character so deep you don't know if you will come out the other end.

This book reminded me a bit of Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Marilyn didn't know where her character began and she ended. This book is similar

Please do not let some of the negative reviews deter you. This is a well written book with complex characters and an even more comp!ex story line.

As they say in the theatre ~ Bravo,
I would like to thank Net Galley and the Publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Not at all what I expected. I kept reading because I wanted so much to enjoy this but I never reached that point. Because it was intended to be suspenseful with surprises, twists, and turns, I never connected with characters. Each time I thought I had it figured out, there was yet another surprise. A murder of someone the main character met on the same day caused Brit Claire to come to the attention of the police. Claire was trying to stay low because she was in the US working toward making connections for her acting career. The career that she wants but doesn't have. Her work, currently, is as a decoy for a detective agency.
The police believe that they know who murdered the woman, and in fact, they believe that he is a serial killer and they have Claire without many options, to use as their decoy. Claire sees this as a win/win. They will get their murderer and she will get a green card.
Here is where this fell apart for me. There was no further connection to the characters and I really didn't enjoy this story.
Just a flavor that is not to my taste.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a difficult one to review. When I finished it the other night after staying up late because I couldn’t wait to see how it ended I was thinking 5 stars because I was so jazzed about it. Then I started thinking more about how parts of it made me squirm and/or didn’t work very well. This story was character driven, it is all about a pair of twisted messed up people playing mind games from their first meeting. But there were chapters that felt displaced and a couple twists that felt stilted and unnecessary. Turns out this is an older manuscript dusted off by the author. It’s a novel approach, definitely not the same old story, but it could have used a little more smoothing out.

This was a fast-paced, bizarre read and I really enjoyed it. The style was unique, such as writing some dialogue in a screenplay format, and it fit the unnerving feel of the novel. The characters themselves fall into the "awful people doing terrible things" category but I couldn't pull myself away. There are multiple twists and turns throughout the story and even though some ideas I anticipated came true, it didn't take away from the journey. One of the more entertaining thrillers I've read this year but you will need a shower after this one.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

One of the most undercover, undercover, books I've read. You don't know if what you're reading is real or the genius of the Author.
An actress asked to act a part to try and capture a murderer. Can she do it? Except the supposed murderer is trying to see if she was the actual murderer. Can she trust his innocence? Can he trust hers? A definite must read.
5 Stars

After reading about 1/3 of Believe Me I thought "this book is ok but nothing to write home about." By the time I finished, my feeling had changed to "not only write home about it, send it Express mail!" Even with the slow start, Believe Me has the "bursting at the seams" sensation you get from wearing clothes a size too small, along with the rush of relief when taking them off. It's a simplification to call Believe Me a murder mystery (even though the plot centers on the hunt for a killer)- there's so much betrayal, duplicity and depravity going on solving the crime becomes secondary. Claire works as a "decoy" for a law firm-posing as a prostitute to seduce wayward spouses (usually the husband) to provide evidence of their indiscretions as leverage in divorce cases. Claire never meets the women who hire her, but Claire's newest client, Stella, insists on speaking with her before Claire's rendezvous with Stella's husband, Patrick. There Stella tells Claire that Patrick is unlike any man Claire has tried to tempt- "Don't turn your back on him," Stella warns. "Trust nothing he says." Claire assumes Stella is referring to Patrick's infidelities, but when Patrick and Claire meet in a hotel bar he refuses Claire's advances. The next morning Stella is found dead in the hotel room where she met Claire, and suspicion immediately falls on Claire. But the police tell Claire they have a "person of interest" in the case-alluding to-but not specifically mentioning- Patrick. The police also know Claire is a "starving artist" from England-she's enrolled in the Actor's Studio at Pace University on a student Visa and barely able to pay her bills, so they promise Claire a permanent Green Card if she can get Patrick to confess to killing Stella. Patrick is a professor of literature at Columbia University-specializing in the writings of the 19th century French poet Baudelaire-specifically his controversial book of poems Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil). Feigning an interest in Baudelaire so she can get close to Patrick, Claire enrolls in his class. But enchanting her with quotes from Les Fleurs du Mal-"How I should like, one quiet night, When the hour for pleasure nears, To creep like a thief, Toward the treasures of your flesh," Patrick turns the tables on Claire and she starts to fall in love with him. With breakneck speed suspicion alternates between Patrick and Claire-after all Claire was the last person to see Stella alive-and Patrick is so gentle and charming Claire cannot believe he could be a murderer. Although erotically charged, there's little sex in Believe Me-it's brilliance comes from its elusiveness. Author Delaney gifts (curses?) both Patrick and Claire vivid and emotionally driven imaginations-some of the best scenes are Claire's internal musings as to if she is being set up by the police, Patrick, or someone else. Believe Me is devilishly seductive, enticing you with its words as Patrick does with Baudelaire's. In this web of deceit and double crossing, it's hard to know who or what to believe-the ending is both shocking and expected. Believe Me-when someone tells you what you need to hear you'll believe whatever you want.

Believe Me is the latest thriller from J. P. Delaney. J. P. Delaney is a pseudonym for a best selling author. No idea who. But whoever they are, they can really pull the reader into the pages, giving lots of twists and turns so you really have no idea what is coming next. Excellent read. Looking forward to the next story by this author. I was given a copy to review.

Believe Me by JP Delaney is a spell-binding, edge of your seat suspenseful read. I was completely engrossed in Claire's story and did not want to put this book down.
Claire is a British actress living in Manhattan. She has a unique talent of immersing herself into any character she needs to play. Sometimes the lines are blurred and this talent spills over into reality. But whose reality is it?
Claire needs to make ends meet and without a green card she takes cash jobs for a law firm. Her assignment is working to find out if husbands are cheating on their wives - she tries to pick the husband up at a bar and video tapes the encounter for the wife to watch. She is good at this, assuming any character she wants to be.
Until things go wrong and one of the suspicious wives ends up dead. Police want to know who killed the wife and Claire may be a suspect.
Claire is engaged to play another character and this role may be the death of her. Claire seems to lose her grip on reality and can't differentiate from fiction and real life. The author is a master of suspense - as a reader, I was never positive who the bad guy was.
I absolutely recommend this book to readers who enjoy suspenseful thrillers. You won't want to put this book down.

Sadistic and twisted, not words I usually like to describe books that I am reading but this one was excellent!. Fast paced and you won't want to stop until you put it down! I loved The Girl Before and this one did not disappoint!

I truly enjoyed this roller coaster ride! This one had me guessing until the end.

The writing style was a little bit different, but not only did I appreciate it, it work for this book.

I have read the The Girl Before, but did not enjoy it as much as Believe Me. Take the time to read this gem.

Claire Wright is a struggling British actress living in New York City. After being questioned for the murder of a woman she was one the last people to see alive, Claire is offered the role of a lifetime.

J.P. Delaney is an excellent writer. The novel moves at a fast pace, and suspense builds with every page. I tore through the first half of this novel in a day. I could not put it down. But then somewhere in the middle it starts to take a weird turn. After that first turn, there are a series of twists and turns. And suddenly Delaney is trying to do too much. Instead of a thriller with a big surprise or two, it becomes a roller coaster of ups and downs.

As the reader, you no longer know who to trust. You doubt all of the previous assumptions you've made. While this can sometimes be a great thing as a reader, in this case it's too confusing and complicated to enjoy the ride. This is an excellent thriller, that was well written on both ends, but loses itself for a good chunk in the middle.

4/5 stars! This was an intriguing read... the characters were neither likable nor relatable, yet I found myself unable to put it down. I was dying to know how the story played out. At it's core, it is a murder investigation with many unexpected twists (although I did not find them jaw-dropping). About half of the dialogue scenes were written in script form (the main character is an actress), which took a little while to get used to. There were many times where I questioned the reliability of the narrator... but this was seemingly intended and only added to the plot!

Thank you to JP Delaney, the publisher, Random House, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book as an ARC courtesy of Netgalley for my honest opinion. I read The Girl Before from this author and enjoyed it very much. I couldn’t wait to dive into this one and it did not disappoint. I love psychological thrillers and this one was very different than most. It really kept me guessing and had many “mind blown” moments. I don’t like to give things away in my reviews, but all I can say is read it! You won’t be disappointed! 5 stars from me.

Liked this book about a flawed character with a mysterious past. Cool premise! Had good twists but reader beware: it ends and youll really have to think through what happened and what didn't!

Claire is a British actress living in the States trying to make ends meet. To pay the bills, she agrees to work for a group of attorneys who want to use her as a decoy to help catch cheating husbands. One of her marks catches her attention. He's handsome and intelligent, and for the first time ever, he turns her down, claiming he loves his wife. Later that evening the wife is found dead. The cops now want Claire to work even harder to ensnare Patrick and get him to admit that he killed her, but she finds herself falling for him, and thinks his feelings for her might be real, too. Twists abound in this thriller--almost too many to keep up with. It could have used maybe one more run through editing to tighten everything up a bit. I absolutely loved The Girl Before, and this has none of that book's chilling originality. However, what Delaney does well is create these weird cerebral characters that are just shy of being unbelievable, but somehow making it work.