Second read for me by this author, and really enjoyed both books. This is actually a rewrite of a prior book, per the author. It’s a fun, quick read, a mystery/thriller with a few twists. Excellent character development, with great mix of personalities. Although I had an end in mind, it wasn’t the ending I expected. The H is a professor, a translator of poetry of a delicate nature. The h is an actress, with a troubled past. They meet on the night his wife is killed and both are suspects. I don’t want to spoil the book, there are numerous twists. For me, it was an intriguing and worthy read.

After reading a string of run of the mill mysteries, this book surprised me. The plot is fresh and I kept turning the pages trying to figure out what was going on. The characters in the book are hard to pin down and psychologically twisty which adds to the fun ride. The ending is satisfying, too.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital advanced review copy of the book.

Believe Me by JP Delaney is a well written novel. Its main character Claire is. lonely and desperate for. work. She has many adventures and is taken advantage of several times throughout the story. The author sets up many tricky situations that Claire hs to manage and come through safly. To mention more of the plot will. give it away and I don't want to do that. One must read the entire book and discover how each event leads to a satisfing end.

Claire has dreams of being on the big stage and making her mark on the acting world, but in the mean time in order to stay in the country while trying to make her dream a reality, she needs a job to pay the bills and keep her afloat, so she takes a job working for a local law firm. This job not only pays the bills, but also gives her the chance to tap into her acting skills by playing the temptress that lures married men into compromising situations... which ultimately helps their spouses prove that their not the devoted husbands that they claim to be. All seems to be going according to plan until her current client asks her to catch her philandering husband by luring him in and making a move on him... but for some reason he doesn't take the bait and her client winds up being found dead in her home. Claire is certain she knows who the killer is, but catching him may be a little tricky!

Believe Me is a spellbinding tale riddled with twists and turns that will toy with your thoughts and have you teetering on the edge of your seat the whole way through! This is my first experience with this author's work and I have to say he just scored a new fan with this one, his newest offering was downright thrilling! The story line was well crafted, the characters were top-notch, and I think it is safe to say that this one will be a big hit with thriller-suspense fans!! Highly recommend!!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed.

It's probably an excellent thriller. She writes well. But I can't get past the first 30 pp. due to the nature of the subject matter. Sorry.

Having previously read The Girl Before I was excited to read another book by JP Delaney. Believe Me did not disappoint. I was gripped by this thriller right away and raced through the book, nervously, as I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next. Brilliantly written with the perfect amount of suspense. Cannot wait to read more from JP Delaney.

I loved it. I was a big fan of The Girl Before and was glad to see that the next JP Delaney book didn’t disappoint like others have (cough Into The Water). Read this one in a day.

Believe me when I say, this was not my cup of tea.

Claire is a struggling actor looking for work. Her one main obstacle is that she British living in the United States without a green card. This makes getting a job quite difficult and one does need money to survive.

She finds a job which will pay her cash. She works as a decoy, hired to entrap cheating spouses on tape. There are rules that need to be followed, the spouse withe the wandering eye needs to proposition her, and she needs to get it all on tape. Then one day, the wife of a suspected cheater is found murdered. The police believe her husband is to blame and have Claire help them get his confession.

The premise of this book sounded extremely interesting to me. Like a cat and mouse book where one often questions just who the good guy is and who is the bad guy. I so wanted to enjoy this, and I will say that I did enjoy it in the beginning and then things went downhill for me. I found myself losing interest and didn't really care who was telling the truth, who wasn't, who was acting, who wasn't, etc.

I enjoyed the Author's other book "The girl Before" and was hoping to be blown away by this book as I was by that book. Sadly, I just did not connect with this book. Yes, it is well-written, but I just didn't care about any of the characters to even care what happened to them. There are some twists and turns along the way with lots of lies, deceptions and revelations. Even with the twist and turns I was underwhelmed by this book. I may be in the minority on this one but it just felt flat to me.

At times this book is written like a play (or maybe a script) in keeping with the part of Claire being an actress and giving performance. There are also a lot of quotes from Baudelaire's Les Fleur du Mal (his book on S&M Poetry) thrown in.

The Author does note that she wrote and published this book years ago and she re-wrote it after her book "The Girl Before" became a best seller.

As I stated I have read and enjoyed the Author's previous book and would be very open to reading more from this Author in the future.

Thank you to Random House Publishing-Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided a copy of Believe Me through NetGalley and Random House Publishing, in exchange for an honest review.

Believe Me is a psychological thriller by a man that writes under the pseudonym JP Delaney. The premise is that a young immigrant actress in NYC finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation, quite by accident. She believes that she is working as an informant for the police force in return for a chance at a green card. As the investigation continues, Claire, the young actress begins to reconsider what actually is occurring.

Personally, I enjoyed some parts of this book, but the majority of the book was too much for me. I typically do not read twisty thrillers as so many of them include dark, sexual, seedy themes. This book only made me more certain not to read thrillers. BDSM was a large theme of this book and what the narrative was based around. I would not suggest this book for anyone that is a sensitive reader or someone who is easily triggered.

I would have a difficult time recommending this title to others, in spite of a well written, cohesive story. The end was a bit unbelievable and left me thinking I had wasted my time with the book.

Loving this book so far! What is real? Who is real? This books keeps twisting every which way. Just when you start to believe what you are reading is reality for the characters, the rug gets pulled out from under you and you are dropped in to a different, still plausible, reality....

This is one of those thrillers that zigs and zags all over the place. While I thought some of the writing was a little simplistic, the real draw was trying to see if as a reader you could stay one step ahead of the writer. In some places yes, in others no. As you peel back one layer, you are constantly thinking, is this it? or is there yet another layer beneath? It reminded me a little bit of the film Existenz where one of the characters is left at the end trying to figure out if they are back in real life yet, or are still in the game.

Believe me, this book keep me glued to my Kindle. I was pleasantly confused for most of the book. The entire book was charged with anticipation. I never really knew what was going on...and I knew so little that I couldn't even guess. The characters were well fleshed out, but I think a little mentally unstable (or was that me???). The writing was clear and concise. Claire is a wanna-be actress and the book is written at times like it is a script. It took me a while to get used to that, but I'm not sure any other style would be as exciting. All in all, this was a wonderful book.

This novel is very enthralling. I never wanted to put the book down. the writing style kept me intrigued.

I admit, psychological thrillers are my favorite genre to read. BELIEVE ME by J.P. Delaney did not disappoint me. It had all of the twists and turns that I love in a thriller. You had to keep guessing who the murderer was, and when I thought I figured it out, it would go down a different path. Was it Claire, the actress who was hired to prove that husbands were cheaters, or was it Patrick, the man wrapped up in French poetry? The book was somewhat demented, although I have no doubt that people choose to participate in the experiences described in the book. After this book, I think I read to read a book about puppies and babies. It is definitely not a book I would recommend to my students, but I would recommend it to my friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed J.P. Delaney's (pen name) other book THE GIRL BEFORE, and I am so glad that I read this one.

I was given this book in exchange for my honest review.

Believe Me is a character study in acting, desires, motivation, and murder. It made me wonder what is real, what is scripted, and how far an actress will go to hone her craft. It's a wild ride that you don't want to miss!
I love this cover with the black and red checkerboard accents, and the partial face of a woman looking fearfully behind her. It's very intriguing and mysterious.

The plot line alone is absolutely fascinating and I think that the author could have build the entire novel around the decoy mistress concept - but wait! There's MORE! I loved how this plotline progressed, and it kept me guessing until the very end.

The writing is stellar. JP Delaney knows how to keep a reader fully engaged and potentially missing life obligations because of this book. I liked JP Delaney's first book, The Girl Before, but I liked this book so much more because of the intricate and unusual plot. I binge read it until the end.

The characters were complex, developed, and phenomenal. Also, I learned about serial killers, their patterns, and their motivations through Claire's training with a police profiler. I loved that the story takes place in New York City and gives an inside look into the life of a starving actor and the New York acting scene.

Some parts of the book are written in a script format. It was new, different, and fascinating. This format made me feel like I was reading a screenplay or reading something that is scripted or orchestrated, and really created a play-like atmosphere in the book. Also, it made me wonder.... was part of the story actually just a play, or were the parts just written in a play format? Were these people just in a play, all along? These questions, the story, and the twists kept me riveted.

I liked this book so much better than The Girl Before, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a fun, unusual, fast-paced thriller. I think that this one lends itself to being a movie, too!

A psychological novel featuring Claire a British actress forced to leave England and attempting to find work in the United States. She is not eligible for a Green Card (document for legal residency in the US) and while seeking work must accept anything to make ends meet. Of all the opportunities offered to her the one that she becomes best at is working for a group of attorneys in the role of forcing husbands cheating on their wives to reveal what they are up to by coming on to her. She plays the parts with the mandate of not coming onto the man, films the transgression as well as recording the conversation and supplies the evidence to the wife.

In one of her roles she is called upon to visit a woman at her hotel who warns her to beware of her husband. Claire meets the husband and enjoys a fascinating get together when the works of a 19th century French poet: Charles Baudelaire form the basis of the conversation taking place between the two. She reports back to the law firm that the husband did not hit on her and the wife should be so informed. After forgetting about this case Claire is visited by the police who indicate that the wife was killed and a large sum of money stolen from her.

The police suspect the husband and also that he is the sadistic killer of a larger group of other women over time. Claire is asked to set up a relationship with him and attempt to extract a confession. The most noted work of Baudelaire "The Flowers of Evil" becomes an important aspect of the plot with various portions cited. The poet wrote openly about Bondage, sadism, and fascination with death and murder. Characterizations of both a White Angel and a Black Angel flow through Baudelaire's work and form an important factor in Delaney's novel. Where all this goes and Claire's possible success form the crux of the book. The reader would have to have an open mind about the side of sexual activity described at length to like the book. If the use of violence during love making is not one's cup of tea the novel will probably not appeal.

There were many things I really liked about this one. When it comes to books that are marketed as “the next gone girl” I think that this one comes pretty close. I root for the bad guy or girl most of the time and I like that he doesn’t wholly redeem characters. His books remind me of a smartened-up 50 shades of grey, too. Both of his books feature men who crave control. Some things are gratuitous and things go a little all over the place plot-wise but with both this book and his previous book “The Girl Before” I do feel like his characters could actually exist even if his situations are a little out there. This one kept me guessing and had good pay off.

I read this in one sitting,couldn't put it down. Didn't get my to-do list done for the day, but well worth it. I will leave 5 star review on Amazon under name of Connie

3.5 stars. I read the Girl Before and really liked it, so I was excited to read this one. I liked the initial theme of working as a decoy to catch cheating husbands and I got into the book right away. I thought having an actress as the unreliable narrator was an interesting choice because she could be acting at any time and we wouldn't know what was really going on. I thought the relationship with the potential killer should have been more suspenseful than it was. He was really boring though most of it, maybe because I would never go for a guy that is so wrapped up in French poetry. Also, the French poetry angle got a little old for me, just because that isn't my thing at all. I wasn't that awed by the ending of this one and I didn't really think we got enough explanation of why Stella had hired an attorney and the reason for her murder seemed very flimsy. Anyway, it was entertaining and I will likely read the next book from this author.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was highly impressed with The Girl Before and was very excited to have the chance to read the newest book by J.P. Delaney. It did not disappoint.

In Believe Me, you see the story through Claire's eyes. She's a British actress with a dark enough past that it chased her across the ocean. The question is, are things always the way Claire wants you to believe they are? Claire is an out of work actress that ends up doing some not-quite-legal under the table work for a law firm. She exposes men that are cheating on their wives by picking them up in bars. Everything starts to get crazy when the wife of one man ends up dead and she is pulled into the investigation.

Delaney is a wonderful storyteller that weaves an adequately complicated web throughout the book. It's a page turner that I could read again and again. I give this book a full 5 stars and I highly recommend it to anyone that likes a good psychological thriller.

Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. #believeme #jpdelaney #netgalley