Cover Image: Believe Me

Believe Me

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Member Reviews

Thank you Netgalley for this copy of Believe Me by JP Delaney. Claire looking for a career in acting arrives from London, time for a fresh start. After having been blackballed in London, she has no breaks here in the USA. No green card down on her luck, she begins to work for divorce lawyers, catching errant husbands looking for some fun on the side. Turns into a page turner, typical for JP Delaney! Worth the read.

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Wow!! Wow!! This book... I absolutely loved this book.. I was not disappointed at all, from the second I started reading this book, it sucked me in like magnet.. Claire and Patrick's relationship was something else, the twists and turns. Stuff that I didn't see happening.
This book is a must read, very addictive, and a absolute thrill ride of a lifetime. You will not forget this book.

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Claire is a struggling actress. Desperate, she takes a job as a decoy to catch cheating husbands, with her, on tape for divorce lawyers. Then, a wife of a target ends up murdered and Claire is being asked to get a confession for the murder. Can she handle it?
This is and entertaining psychological thriller with great twists and turns!

Thank you to Netgally for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Good, lots of plot twists I didn't see coming. I was hooked from the first page and would recommend for fans of Gone Girl and Girl on a Train. Looking forward to more titles from JP Delaney!

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Ugh. I don’t know how to rate this because the first half was great, then it got boring but then the ending was crazy yet implausible. Actually the whole thing was soooo implausible but i really liked the first half so I’m going with 3 stars.

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I loved the authors first novel, and was super excited for this one but it fell very flat. Things were a bit too predictable and it didn't have the same dreading atmosphere the first book had.

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Believe Me by JP Delaney

JP Delaney did an outstanding job with his latest novel Believe Me. I was hooked from the first page and could not put it down.
Claire is a struggling actress trying to make it big in New York. Without a Green Card, she has trouble get and keeping jobs. She works for a divorce firm, who hires her to be a decoy to catch cheating husbands. When the wife of a targets is brutuelly murdered, Claire finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
I don't want to give too much away because, believe me, you want to be surprised in all the right places. It's a psychological thriller that kept me guessing til the end.

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WOW, lot's of twist's and turn's in this one...what a great read I will definitely be reading more from this author.

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Waited to long to get my copy on Netgalley, but ended up listening to the audiobook. Really enjoyed! Very fun, twisty story that does the genre justice!

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If you like page-turners with lots of twists and even French poetry, then Believe Me is a book you don't want to miss. It is the story of Claire Wright, an expat British actress who is trying to live under the radar in New York City without a green card while studying acting, which for her, is a sort of escape from her troubled past. As she is studying acting and not actually getting any roles, money is an issue for her, and she finds an intriguing, yet sort of sketchy way to earn a living. Claire will do almost anything for money, and when her side job results in a murder, her life gets very interesting. Throw in a professor who is a translator and expert on the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and this book becomes almost impossible to put down.

Claire is quite a complex character and Believe Me has several "wow, I didn't see that coming" moments which thoroughly engaged me as a reader. The sub-story of Charles Baudelaire was enlightening and gave me a thoroughly different picture of him than the one I studied in high school and college French classes. And even though I thought I knew where this book was headed, I ended up being completely surprised by the ending. I would definitely recommend this book and know you won't be sorry you picked it up.

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Claire is an actress trying to make a living, so she has a side gig where she helps a private investigator “catch” cheating husbands. (She’s the bait) Turns out that one of the husbands doesn’t fall for her trap; however, his suspicious wife is killed the same night as as the “trap”. Claire becomes involved in the investigation (to put it mildly) and then the book turns CRAZY. I kept picturing Claire Danes in the role of “Claire” when I cast the movie in my head. I mean, have you seen Homeland?? This book was really good and hard to put down once I got rolling. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

4+ stars

The three parts to this story read almost like three separate stories for me. Each intriguing in their own rights, and obviously it comes together as one cohesive story, but the transitions were just the slightest bit choppy.

However, I was engaged throughout. I found this story to be unique and the main character interesting. The plot was full of ups and downs and I enjoyed the ride.

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was a gripping thriller that took you to every aspect of trying to figure out what was really going on and what was going to happen next! This was such an amazing book and I can’t wait to see what else is released from this author!

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A novel constructed on a Jenga stack of twists and turns, Believe Me grows more complex the longer it goes on, making it unclear not only who the killer or killers might be but who the true manipulator is in a damaging and imbalanced romantic relationship built on terrible decisions and freewheeling morals. The main character's complicity as well as her involvement with the police are kept muddy until the very end. It's a good read for people who like plot-driven psychological suspense novels.

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Review:


What I Liked:


Middle Twist. I had no idea that the first twist near the start of the novel was coming at all. It was shocking and made the story even more compelling.


Characters. The novel only follows Claire's point of view, a character that you both like and dislike. She does stupid things (some of the twists explain it) but is still an interesting characters. The other side characters were well done.


Writing Style. This was my first experience with the work of Delancey and I went in blind. The novel flew by because of the short chapters and the author's writing style. The prose flowed really well and I enjoyed how much detail went into the story.


What I Disliked:


Unrealistic. I felt that aspects of the novel, and some of the twists were a big too unrealistic for me. It took me out of the story and ruined the conclusion for me.


Ending Twist. The novel reveals another big twist at the end that once again changes the whole story. However, I felt that the twist was not realistic and did not fit with the whole plot so far.


I recommend checking out this interesting thriller. It is well-written and suspenseful.


Rating:


4 Stars Out of 5 Stars

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I was enjoying this book until a big plot twist about halfway through, then I lost interest. Skimmed through the rest. Ridiculous stuff.

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I have chosen not to review this title. My apologies for the delay in responding to this and advising you of this, especially as it is likely obvious I have chosen not to review, I thought I had sent in all of my DNF titles.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity.

Laura

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** The book started strong, there are a fair amount of twists and turns to keep you engaged. The problem for me is I couldn't connect to the characters to make me care about who was right, or who was wrong. That made it a very long read for me.

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Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I highly recommend this book.
I thought that it was an original, exciting and suspenseful psychological thriller.
This was the 1st book that I have read by this author and I can’t wait to read his next book, The Perfect Wife.

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Claire Wright is an actress from the UK. She has a student visa to do acting school in the United States, but she isn't able to work. She is able to find odd jobs that help her to stay alive. One of her jobs is trying to catch cheating husbands in the act. When one husband, Patrick, doesn't take the bait, Claire has to explain this to his wife. Later, the wife ends up dead and the police suspect Claire, but she didn't do it. Then they team her up with the husband to find the real killer. But are the police after Claire or Patrick? Who is telling the truth and who is using their acting skills to the best of their ability?

Thank you to NetGalley & Ballantine Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book kept me on my toes the entire time. I didn't know what was going to happen next. I'm not a person who understands the visa process in the US. So knowing the difference between a student visa and a work visa, I have no idea. I don't know how I would have survived if I was not able to work while I was in school. So I can understand Claire trying to find work where she can in order to survive.

Being a professional cheater catcher is not something I would ever do, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get by. But when one husband doesn't take the bait that Claire throws at him, first she is shocked and then she is happy for the wife. But the wife is not happy and seems scared. She has good reason because she winds up dead. Claire is determined to clear her name as the person who didn't kill her. She agrees to work with the police to find the real killer. But are the police in her corner or working with the husband who they also think may have killed the wife?

You never know who to trust in this book. Who killed the wife and why? Is the husband innocent? Is Claire? What about the police, can they be trusted?

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