A dysfunctional family goes on a road trip, what could go wrong?

I enjoyed all the secrets the siblings had and all the head games they played with each other. The biggest let down for me was the ending. Beth does some things during the campsite scene and that, and everything after that seemed convenient, unoriginal. If you read this book you know what I’m talking about and I feel like this particular thing is boring, especially when done multiple times in a short period. It just didn’t feel right for the ending.

Overall I would recommend this book and read more by this author ( I haven’t read My Lovely Wife but plan to).

A road trip...making your way from state to state with your family while creating memories along the way. Who wouldn’t want to go on such a quintessential American experience? Except, I’d rather be quarantined for the whole summer than go on a road trip with the Morgan family.

Downing has done it again! She takes something so ordinary, a suburban family or a road trip, and puts her own original spin on it. I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this before and I loved it. He Started It had me questioning everyone and everything; I was picking up hints and making mental notes because I could just tell—something bigger was coming. This story is a slow burn and then it explodes! By the time I finished the last page my jaw was hanging open. He did, indeed, start it!

Thank you Berkley for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

Three siblings are going on a road trip they've gone through before with their grandfather when he was alive. But now he's dead, and this trip is what they need to do to get his inheritance. But Eddie, Portia and Beth haven't seen each other in a long time and the last time they went on this trip, things got a little out of hand and no one wants to talk about it. But two weeks in a car filled with the tension of sibling rivalry and secrets, some things are bound to slip out. Beth is the only one who remembers every single detail about the last trip. It was supposed to be fun, so what went wrong?

Well this was quite a novel and I think it's the perfect one to read at a time where everyone is stuck at home. It definitely made me feel like I was on this road trip with them, even though I didn't want to be.

There's so much to be said about this story, but let's start with the characters. The Morgan siblings are not the kind of friends you would want to be with. Each and every one of them is more despicable and detestable than the other. They each have their fair share of secrets and are manipulatively skilled liars. The story is narrated in Beth's point of view and since she remembers everything about the previous trip, the story is told in the present as well as the past. Through this, we get to see the siblings when they were young children and how they are now. I can honestly say that I have never hated a group of characters more than the Morgan siblings. I liked Beth the most, not negating that she was quite horrible as well, but she was MUCH better than the other two siblings.

Downing's plots just get more and more creative. Just like My Lovely Wife, this novel was crazy and wild. So much sibling rivalry, so much hatred, secrets, lies, deception. What more could you want from a thriller? And most of all, we have the famous unreliable character who is just as skilled at lying as her siblings. I love how Downing is able to stretch such a small storyline and create this explosive novel out of it. And the places they visit (all factual by the way) are wildly connected to the siblings' childhood and I loved the way the two timelines are intertwined so effortlessly, that it's so easy to follow along with them.

The strongest part of the story would 100% have to be the characters and their dynamics. Sure, we have the Morgan siblings who have a wild wild dynamic, but on the second trip we also have Krista and Felix, Eddie and Beth's spouses. More tension and more secrets. It's interesting to see what people would do for money. I love stories that explore the relationships between the husband and wife as well as siblings, it makes for a fun-packed tension-filled novel.

Overall, this is a wonderfully constructed novel full of shocking twists and turns until the very last page that will leave you reeling. I recommend that you join the Morgan siblings on this crazy road trip and see what they're up to. You won't be disappointed at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkely Pub for providing me with an advanced galley of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

If you like stories about family secrets, than this is the book for you! Just when you think you figure out what is coming next, a curve ball is thrown, and a new secret is revealed! This family road trip is definitely a ride like no other!

A group of siblings (with some added spouses) are off on a road trip, but not just any road trip, one that retraces a trip that they went on with Grandpa when they were kids, with the promise of his inheritance at the end. All of them have secrets, none of them are fully telling the truth, and neither of the spouses know anything about what is going on. But then weird things start happening, people start to follow them, and the car gets vandalized night after night.

This book goes back and forth through the present, the past, as well as through diary entries. The book is so good a keeping secrets safe until the exact right moment to reveal something new which made this book quite the journey. The characters are not very likable at all, which meant that I wasn't rooting for any of them, and their relationships with each other are very messy, but as we are brought into the secrets we can begin to see why.

This book is an adventure. As the family travels the United States, following a trip that has haunted them for their entire lives we change sides, jump ship, and then get right back on because you need to know how it is all going to end.

Samantha does it again, delivers a bunch of bonkers characters who keep you glued to the pages. This was one hell of a crazy road trip, and yes. He *definitely* started it.

Thank you Netgalley, Berkley, and Samantha Downing for an early copy of He Started It. This book comes out in the US July 28th, and in the UK sometime this month.

I’m just going to say it: I don’t think any thriller writer out there has a thing on Samantha Downing. If you enjoy mystery/thrillers at all, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not picking up her books. While My Lovely Wife was easily one of my favorite reads of last year, He Started It has officially solidified Downing as an auto-buy author, for me.
He Started It is an incredibly gripping story of an incredibly dysfunctional (though, I feel like dysfunctional isn’t quite strong enough of a word) family, told in two timelines. The Morgan children, now grown up, are being forced to repeat a traumatic road trip from their childhood step-by-step, in order to receive a massive inheritance from their recently deceased grandfather. We follow our narrator, Beth, and her siblings as they travel across the United States, as children and as adults. And nothing is quite as it seems.

I picked this up now because I was on the verge of a reading slump, and I needed something that would hook me. This was absolutely the perfect choice. Every step of the way, literally from page one, Downing seizes the reader, and keeps them hanging onto her every word. She does this amazing thing of constantly unveiling tiny, scattered puzzle pieces that blow your mind every dozen pages or so; letting you know that there is a much bigger picture in play here, without spoiling what it is. It’s infuriating in the best possible way.

Honestly, I could go on and on about this book, but I will stop with this: Samantha Downing has crafted another high stakes, unpredictable, twisted thriller that is a rollercoaster to the bitter end. PICK THIS UP.

He Started It featured my favorite kind of twist- the what did I just read, flip back two pages and read it again, still don’t believe it, read it one more time kind. And there was more than one of those! The book is about 3 siblings who are on a road trip together in order to meet the requirements of their crappy grandfather’s will. They stand to inherit millions if they complete the tasks, and they’re all lying, conniving, unreliably narrating sacks of shit. It’s great!!! Such a fun read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

You guys. Samantha Downing does NOT mess around. I read and loved her first book which was seriously twisted. Well, this one is also twisted and totally unpredictable. Completely different setting and characters but with the same undercurrent of psychosis.
Three siblings set out on a road trip to scatter the ashes of their recently deceased grandfather. They’re recreating a trip they took as children; something that must be done in order to inherit the huge money from their grandfathers estate. But they all have secrets and resentments and ulterior motives....
Can’t say more without spoiling it. Very much like a tv series: Breaking Bad and Ozark come to mind. If you like this shows, you’d love this book.

Samantha Downing's My Lovely Wife was one of the most original thrillers I'd ever read, making it one of my favorite books of 2019. When I heard she was coming out with something new, I was quite excited, but also a little skeptical of her ability to craft something I'd love as much as last year's release. Fortunately, Ms. Downing has proven herself to be quite adept at creating twisty stories with truly surprising twists and characters who will remain with the reader long after the final page is turned.

Siblings Beth, Portia and Eddie Morgan don't get along all that well, and that's been the case since they were kids. Now that they're adults, they see each other as little as possible, each sibling going his or her own way without much regard for the way their actions might affect the rest of the family.

Everything changes when their grandfather, an extremely wealthy man, passes away, leaving his estate to be divided equally among his three grandchildren. However, as you might expect, the inheritance comes with conditions, designed to bring the siblings together for a cross-country road-trip that mirrors one they took many years ago. All three must complete the trip, and no one is allowed to end up in jail. Failure to follow these rules means giving up the money, so Beth, older brother Eddie, and younger sister Portia are determined to see it through to the end, no matter how unpleasant the trip turns out to be.

So the three of them set out on their way, reluctantly joined by Eddie's wife and Beth's husband, and the tension between them is almost instantly felt by the reader. These people don't trust each other in the slightest, and although the reasons why aren't fully revealed until close to the novel's end, trust me when I tell you every single one of them is keeping secrets. These are people who look out for their own interests, regardless of how those interests affect the rest of the group.

The story is mostly told from Beth's point of view, but there are some journal entries sprinkled throughout the book that add an extra layer of suspense to the already complex plot. You'll be pretty confused at times, but that seems to be what the author intends, and it really does pay off in a big way at the end, so hang in there, even when you think you can't stand to read about these characters for another minute!

The characters aren't meant to be liked or trusted. It takes immense skill to write about such emotionally damaged people without managing to permanently alienate the reader, and Ms. Downing possesses this skill in abundance. I often struggle to connect with characters who come off as irredeemable, but my need to see how things would turn out kept me glued to my iPad for hours.

This is an extremely dark novel with a lot of subject matter that could prove distressing to readers who have trouble reading about themes of abuse, both physical and emotional. It's not that the author is overly graphic in her descriptions, but the dynamics between Beth and her siblings hark back to their troubled childhoods, and watching all of that play out on the page isn't always easy. I read a lot of dark books, so I had very little difficulty, but everyone's tolerance for such things is different.

The ending is on the ambiguous side, but I honestly can't imagine the story wrapping up in any other way. Neat and tidy endings are nice sometimes, but anything other than a messy conclusion would have been an enormous let-down in the case of this book. Still, if you need to have all of your questions answered when you reach the final page, you might want to give this a pass.

He Started It takes everything you thought you knew about domestic suspense and turns it completely on its head. It's unlike anything I've read before, and I'm doubtful I'll come across anything like it in the future. Samantha Downing has become an auto-buy author for me, and I'm beyond excited to see what she has in store for us next.

Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
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Samantha Downing has done it again, in her sophomore novel and follow up to My Lovely Wife. This time, we've got murderous siblings and an epic road trip where nothing - and no one - is as they seem. An epic twist ending, which seems to be Downing's signature, completes this fast-paced page turner.

Another fantastic, TWISTED story by Samantha Downing! I loved My Lovely Wife with its wonderfully horrible, effed up, murder-tastic characters. And the cast in He Started It is quite different (no copycat characters here), but somehow, they're JUST AS MESSED UP.

Seriously, Samantha Downing has a gift. No, wait, she is a gift to the world of thriller readers who eat up nasty characters and twisted families. (Ooh yes that's me 100%. *Raises hand.*)

The premise for He Started It was an excellent one. Like, Knives Out meets a family roadtrip. Granted, I'm usually not big on travel stories, but throw in an inheritance, a missing person, at least one killer, and a body in the trunk, and I'm in. (This review paints me in an interesting light, doesn't it?)

And... it lived up! Downing leaves the reader delicious morsels of breadcrumbs along the way. Every time I wasn't sure where the story was going, a hint would be dropped. A little clue. Sometimes a big clue. Sometimes a damn bombshell of a clue. And I'd be hooked again, torn between going back and rereading what I'd already read, with a new perspective, and reading the next chapter, desperate to know what happens next. This book was a lesson in suspense (for writers like myself)!

The ending STILL has my mind blown. Okay, okay, I read it just a few days ago. But I tend to forget books fast, and this one still has me reeling.

I think the only thing I could say I didn't *love* about the book is that the main character's voice was very hard for me to get into. I thought she was fascinating and her voice did match her personality. She's just not someone that's easy to connect to. So I found that a bit jarring.

Overall, this is an excellent, riveting thriller that DOES NOT HOLD BACK. I would highly recommend it for anyone ready for a wild ride full of awful humans and mind-blowing twists! Thank you Berkley Pub for sending me a free advanced copy of the book.

Great family drama with a crazy ending. I like the idea of a road trip which made this book different from the typical thriller book. In order to inherit money after grandfather’s death; siblings Ed, Beth and Portia have to go on the road trip and finish it without any problems which is not so easy.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair review.

This book was fantastic—like a book you want to sit down and read all in one sitting! Well done to Samantha Downing—this is even better than My Lovely Wife. Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the advanced copy ❤️

I LOVED the family drama aspect of this book. That combined with a murder mystery/twisted history is a perfect combo for a thriller lover!

The book follows siblings who have to take a final road trip together, making specific stops along the way, in order to access their grandfathers $8M inheritance that they all split. The book flip flops from the present road trip back to the same road trip they made 20 years earlier with their grandpa as kids—and it was WILD! Just goes to show you that you truly can’t trust anyone but yourself—not even your own family.

Also can we talk about this ending?! The biggest cliffhanger ever. Can’t wait to discuss this as more people read it!

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kelly
NUMBER OF HEARTS: 4 1/2
He Started It is a wild ride of three siblings fulfilling their late grandfather's final wish to revisit the family road trip that they went on 20 years earlier. What lays ahead for the Morgan siblings is a lot of memories, questions, lies and betrayals.

*Staring at the final sentence in the book wondering what the heck just happened*
I think it took me a whole 5 minutes to realize that the story was over. Wow, just wow!!!
Family road trips will never be the same after reading He Started it. This was a great follow up novel by Samantha Downing. I really enjoyed My Lovely Wife and was excited to pick up He Started It for review.
The story has a few slow parts but I could not put the book down because I had no clue what was going to be next. And boy was I surprised multiple times.

I am already looking forward to whatever Samantha has in store for us next!!!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley & Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

This thriller takes you on an adventure through the U.S. Three siblings are required to reenact a road trip when from when they were younger in order to get their inheritance from their grandpa. When they are in Alabama they discover a black truck following them after they were forced off of the road. They continue to see the truck throughout their trip and along with other mishaps that keep you on your toes and make you want to finish the book in one sitting.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the early digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

I read 250 pages of this book in one day. I couldn't put it down for more than an hour at a time. The ending basically punched me in the face. Needless to say, I LOVED this.

The writing is very vague so the reader doesn't get attached to the characters, which was a very smart move on the author's part. I ended up hating pretty much all of them just because they are worth hating. I think the only one I felt SLIGHTLY bad for was Portia. They all had incredibly unique and creepy secrets. They reminded me of psychopaths. I loved it.
I usually don't like character-driven novels, but this one had me on my toes the entire time I was reading it. The road trip aspect of the novel was a lot of fun. I think it added so much more to the story. They had to stay in sketchy hotels/motels and eat at rundown restaurants. It added some plot to the novel that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

I would highly recommend giving this book a try. It does start out a little weird, and even I was hesitant at first. Once I hit the 30% mark it did a complete 180. This was a great example of smart storytelling. I will definitely pick up future novels by Samantha Downing. She has become an auto-read/buy author for me.

Thank You Berkley Publishing for the Gifted EArc of He Started It.
I am a huge fan of Samantha Downing. My Lovely Wife was a favorite of mine last year and this one is going to end up a Favorite this year.
While I was getting alittle confused on where this book was going at first, The ending made it all come together. The author tells a story of 3 siblings that have to go on a road trip with each other to get their inheritance that their Grandfather left them. This isn't an ordinary road trip though, they are recreating a road trip that that went on with their grandfather when they were young. The Story goes back and forth between Past and Present. The twist and the turns lead you all up to the big Finale. You will not be disappointed reading this book.
If you are going in looking for a Thriller don't, this is more of a Family Drama/ Suspense.

First, let me thank netgalley and the publishers for approving my request for an early release of this book. All reviews of my netgalley books can be found on goodreads and youtube. Please be sure to check out the links attached.

This book was just as crazy as My Lovely Wife in a totally different way! Thank you so much to Berkley Press, Samantha Downing, and Netgalley for this advanced review copy. This book was truly insane and my heart was pounding from start to finish!

I was sucked into this story right away! Having the story set during a road trip was so fresh and creative, and what happened on the road trip was engaging from start to finish. I picked up this book only wanting to start it, and before I knew it I had finished the whole thing!

I loved the characters in this book even though they were deeply flawed. The narrator had an inner narration that was especially enjoyable and made you relate to her. I love a good unreliable narrator and this was one of the best. I didn’t know where the story was going even for a second and the ending of the book COMPLETELY BLEW MY MIND. I still have no idea what to think about the insane cliffhanger ending and I loved every second of it.

Samantha Downing is one of my new favorite authors, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next! This book was for sure an easy 5-stars from me!