This was a knock-out debut thriller that drew me in from the first page. Told from alternating perspectives, the story centers around Kira Rascher, an aspiring actress, and Joanna Cuyler, the co-founder of a theater company in Chicago. The two women's paths cross when Kira lands a leading role in a play entitled Temper and gets the opportunity to work with the mercurial actor/director, Malcolm "Mal" Mercer, who is the other theater company co-founder and is known for pushing the limits on and off set. From the first few chapters, the reader knows that the relationships in this triangle will be far from easy.

As the plot progresses, the tension is palpable and continues to build right up through the final pages. I tend to like thrillers with an edge, especially when they explore the dynamics of female relationships; this one definitely checked that box for me. I found myself wanting to find out what happened next to Kira and Joanna. I could not put this book down after a certain point. While I deduced the outcomes of a couple of the plot twists prior to them being revealed, I was still riveted from start to finish. In some ways, I felt satisfied after the twists were revealed because I had guessed right. It made me feel like I had connected with the characters and understood their perspectives and how they would behave. I liked the twists, which felt true to the characters and moved the story forward well.

The writing was strong and evocative. While I don't have any theater background, the author did an excellent job of describing this world and making it feel like I was there in the audience watching the drama unfold. My only regret in reading an early edition of her debut is knowing that I will now be waiting impatiently for her second novel to be published, which can't come soon enough! This review is based on an advanced reader edition that I received courtesy of NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press (thank you!).

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

The reviews are what pulled me in and I thought, I have to sink my teeth into this! It was a quick read with complex, developed characters, but truthfully, I am not into behind the scenes of play production; it was a little hard for me to stay entertained throughout some of it because of this, but overall, it was a decent read. The characters are extremely polar, fascinatingly modern and interesting. The writing was good and the drama was nice. I would recommend this for a quick read, but it definitely didn't live up to the raving reviews I read.

Realer than real. That's what my drama teacher in high school used to say about acting, about theater: to seem real, the play must be realer than real.

How do performers achieve that state? Stanislavski's seven questions are used by many: Who am I? Where am I? What time is it? What do I want? Why do I want it? How will I get what I want? What must I overcome to get what I want?

There are other methods, darker methods, things born from desperation...

Temper describes what can happen when the lines blur between actor and character, between performance and reality.

It's frightening.

It's realer than real.

I was privileged to read a pre-publication copy; Temper will be published on 2 July 2019.

OOOOH! What a dark and twisted tale! Kira finally gets an acting job in a new play called Temper and is both delighted and skeptical as director and co-star, Malcolm is known to push his actors, often with cruel and manipulative techniques. She takes the plunge and comes into conflict with Joanna, the manager and roommate of Malcolm. Things get ugly quickly as this odd triangle evolves and emotions become more volatile as the novel progresses. Sexuality, jealousy, rage, bitterness, and tension all reign supreme as the suspense mounts. Told in alternating perspectives of Kira and Joanna, the book never loses its break-neck speed as it culminates in a "What the heck just happened?" conclusion. Dark, very dark, but oh so satisfying!

Ooooo Weee! This was a spicy, sexy, intense, story. The actors (characters), in this book will stop at nothing short of giving their all in their quest to put everything into their performance of the play, Temper. Kira, Spencer, Malcom, and Joanna, have intertwining relationships, and none have boundaries in terms of their sexual preferences. This choice that the author made when writing Temper leads to intriguing twists in the friendships, relationships and ever shifting loyalties to one another. The cast of characters is interesting and intense. They each have their own motivations, and will not let anyone stand in the way of achieving their goals. The contents of this hot story boil over in the end with insane repercussions...

I was very excited to finally read a thriller that was not in the format of the current domestic type craze. This wasn’t a married couple where one is murdered, most likely the husband. It wasn’t a story with an unreliable narrator, most likely a woman with a drinking problem, mental instability, etc. Temper was unique. And while I had an idea as to what would happen in the end, I really enjoyed the ride the story took me on. The only times I didn’t feel like the story was believable was when two of the characters who had been close for over a decade seemed to have a massive falling out over what didn’t seem to be a huge deal. Don’t get me wrong. It was bad, but not as bad as they made it out to be. I think the author may have needed to add a few more details about the tension building up between them for some time in order to establish the intense anger the two felt towards each other. It felt slightly false to me when reading it.

I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced readers edition of Temper in exchange for an honest review. :)

After thinking on this one overnight, I do believe the less I say here the better for you, future reader. I would recommend throwing caution to the wind and just diving in when you're in need of a dark and gritty psychological thriller. At times, the plot gave off a similar vibe to JP Delaney's Believe Me, yet I feel that this novel focuses more on the drama and slow building disintegration of the character's relationships, which gave a feeling of creeping dread until the explosive final page. I'll end here, but if you are interested in a suspenseful novel that isn't hinged on solving a mystery, put this on your summer TBR.

A fiendish premise, surrounding a story line fraught with jealousy, bitterness and unbridled ambition. The suspense was palpable, with enough surprises -- even for jaded readers like me -- to keep me on my virtual toes. The ending, too, was not what I anticipated it to be, which is always a pleasant occurrence. Recommended to anyone looking for something just a bit different to keep them up at night.

** I thank the publisher and/or author for allowing me to read this novel as an ARC, without recompense, in exchange for my honest review. **

Twisty, sexy, and so believable it's scary, the pages of Temper bleed an irresistible blend of voice, subculture, and character. Compulsive reading for fans of Black Swan, Mozart in the Jungle, or (dare I say it?) real-life backstage theatrics.

This book gripped me with a death hook and did not let go until the end. It was so intriguing from the first chapter and kept that riveting flow going to the very last page. I loved the different glimpses of the same thing from the different characters, really showed how differently we can perceive the same thing. Also, shows just what wanting to be the best performer can do! I highly recommend to my fellow thriller lovers!
Will be using in a challenge and highly recommending to those members of Chapter Chatter Pub!

I’m kind of torn about this book- I liked it, found it unique and thrilling in parts but kind of dragged for me. The ending, however, was spectacular. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review.

3.5/5 stars

TEMPER is a dark and sexy ride, its characters’ passion and rage snowballing in equal measure as the story builds to its shocking conclusion. This is the Black Swan psychological suspense novel we’ve all been waiting for.

When Kira takes the starring role in Temper, she knows she'll be working closely with Malcolm, a director and actor known to enjoy manipulating people, driving them past their absolute limits both on stage and off. With an overtly sensual, bold character like Kira, you might expect a tumultuous affair as the primary storyline. What you get is a dark psychological ride with sexy, dangerous characters in a constant power struggle. It's as hot as it is disturbing, with Kira's reality blurring with the play that threatens to consume her.

Joanna is another compelling character, and I felt Fargo was contrasting these two disparate, sharp-edged, and vulnerable women against each other with great intentionality, asking questions about femininity that the reader mulls over throughout the story.

I'm still wondering--who was the puppet master and who was the puppet?

I highly recommend this book. I can't wait for July 2019 so I can buy it for all my thriller-reading friends!

Temper by Layne Fargo start out pretty well, but became impossible to read with an irritating cast of characters. Could not finish.

Started out decently enough, but just kept getting more and more unbelievable with every page. Not recommended.

Wow, Temper is a book you will want to put on your summer reading list! This thriller had me truly stumped on how it would end! Usually by half way through you know exactly what’s going to happen, but Layne Fargo did a fantastic with throwing in some unexpected curve balls! There were many moving parts to keep you glued to your kindle- trust me, you won’t be able to get these characters out of your head! Temper is a novel that will have you in knots until the very last page—love that! I am so excited to see what Layne Fargo comes out with next!

While the novel wasn't not mysterious or thrilling, it kept a quick pace and the drama high. I loved that the characters were sexually fluid and non-binary, and that they were all deeply flawed.

Let me start by saying I LOVE David Mamet. Not a non sequitur; this felt like an homage to the nth degree. And that's what endeared me to it early on, despite the generally unlikeable characters and distasteful power struggles/personality clashes that felt like the opening skirmishes in what promised to be (and was) a full-on war... I saw the ending coming a mile away (again, Mamet fan), but still found myself rapidly turning pages because there was always that tiny seed of doubt about what was real and what was all in the alternating narrators' minds (Mamet again). It was an interesting sojourn through the dark. Fargo writes a compelling story and I'll be on the lookout for more...

TEMPER is a standout debut. A heart-pounding dive into the darker side of the arts, with vibrant, complex characters and a twisted plot that will stick with you for weeks after turning that final page. I physically could not stop reading until I finished this one. Get ready, because Layne Fargo is about to become one of your new favorite thriller writers.

Temper by Layne Fargo is an unusual story about psycho-sexual manipulation, power and control, predators and victims, set in a tiny storefront theater in Chicago. The artistic director, Malcom Mercer, Mal for short, (a clever play on the words malignant, malign, malfeasance), is a sociopath who specializes in emotionally abusing the young actors he casts, under the guise of craft.

Though Mal has a well-known reputation for driving actors beyond their breaking point, young hopefuls continue to line up for his auditions like lambs to slaughter, prostrating themselves before him for the chance to appear on stage. Their need for attention is so great they’ll submit to his cruel manipulations merely to gain his approval and a role in the spotlight. (As the mother of Millennials, with a background in theater, I felt protective of the characters and outraged on their behalf.) Temper is well-written and slow paced, with an absolutely perfect ending. Received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I really, really wanted to like this book. Just the title alone was what drew me in initially, because I adore a great thriller. Plus I saw so many requests for this title by other thriller lovers, so I was sure it would be a winner. Admittedly, I have not finished the book, but I became turned off because of my dislike for the characters. The woman/actress is completely hedonistic, and the man/director is more of the same. I did not care what happened to either one of them, so I left this for another day.

I hope others were more engaged and actually found something thrilling about this. Unfortunately I did not.

I am definitely in the minority when it comes to my review of Temper. I read only glowing critical evaluations about this book by members of Netgalley and Goodreads. Though I thought the novel was exceptionally written, my dislike for the characters colored my opinion negatively. I realize, the liking or disliking of the characters, should have no bearing on my formal assessment of the read. The cognitive component should supersede the emotional component. I failed to separate the two and therefore did not enjoy this book. Thank you Netgalley and Gallery/ Scout Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.