Cover Image: You Can't Catch Me

You Can't Catch Me

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Member Reviews

This was a quick and entertaining listen. I really liked the cult aspect of the story. I’m a sucker for anything surrounding cult stuff. I also enjoyed the flashbacks to the cult, a dual timeline of sorts.

I think I got a little lost at the end and so the conclusion didn’t flesh out as well as I would have hoped. I might have been better able to follow along if I was physically reading and not doing the audio.

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I loved this book! Thank you for the ARC. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t leaving reviews on netgalley and was solely sharing on Instagram. My apologies. Huge fan of this author! I actually received the tangible copy. Trying to clean up my netgally account.

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Are you Jessica Williams? This book had me all over the place. I found my mind wandering as each new Jessica entered the picture. Not my first book by Catherine Mackenzie but definitely not my favorite. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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A cult, identity theft, and revenge...what more could you ask for in a thriller?

When Jessica meets a woman who shares her name and birthday at an airport bar, they play a fun game of 20 questions to see what other similarities they share, and then Jessica boards her flight and thinks nothing more of it. Upon returning from her vacation, she finds her world turned upside down: Jessica Two has drained her bank account and is threatening more if she does anything about it.

Having already climbed out of a deep rabbit hold as a teen when she escaped the cult her parents brought her up in, she goes down another rabbit hole that has many twists and turns more Jessicas who've also been victimized the way she was. They agree to team up in an effort to exact revenge on Jessica Two who has ruined their lives.

The story flips back and forth between present and past, revealing more and more interesting details about the cult Jessica grew up in. Talk about twisted, it was very interesting to read about this and watch Jessica learn about the atrocities she had blocked out of her mind.

There was a neat little added twist at the end, that I didn't see coming, so that was an extra bonus.

This was a very fun read that kept me on the edge of my seat. However, it did get me a bit worried about the amount of personal information that we put out into the world that anyone could just get their hands on and use against us...in all honesty, this made me a bit paranoid because it *could* happen!

Thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my advanced reader copy.

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Mystery: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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This book was a fast read and I fell into it pretty quickly. I don't like talking too much about thrillers, as they are best gone into as blindly as possible.

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3.5 - thrillers are touch and go for me. So they need to be near perfect in order to keep my interest. This one was exciting at times, but there were enough lulls that I just found myself putting this book down a lot.

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4 stars - Loved this book! The concept was interesting and had me interested right from the beginning.

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Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I love everything Catherine McKenzie writes. This was no exception, I loved this book.

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Cults, revenge, friends, murder, secrets ~ this novel has it all!
What a wonderfully woven story that had me guessing at every turn.
No predictability which I LOVED! Well done Catherine :)

This was my first novel by Catherine McKenzie and it will not be the last!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review. Please excuse my tardiness in posting my review as my TBR continuously grows and I keep finding so many book with so little time!

So much gratitude for this copy shared with me, always xo

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Identity theft is one of those things that I, along with many other people, think about. What would happen if someone cleared out my back account, took out credit cards in my name and destroyed by credit and put me into deep debt. Nah, it couldn't happen, could it? In this story Catherine McKenzie takes us on that journey with Jessica Williams.

Jessica has not had an easy life. First, she was raised in a cult, was rescued and had to start a new life. She gains a certain amount of notoriety before crashing and burning. Leaving her job with a nest egg after revealing harassment, she is trying to figure out what to do next, when she meets another Jessica Williams. Striking up a conversation and revealing more about herself than she should, she ends up with her bank account cleared out and without a job. She was a victim once, and has no desire to be another one, so when the police do nothing, she takes it into her own hands. She will track down this fraudster and get her revenge.

This is a twisty story that had me doing a read/listen whenever I had a moment. There were some great characters in this story, but this was not a character based story. This story was well paced and plotted. Just when I thought I knew what was going on, there was a twist or new plot point that sent it in another direction. There were hints here and there, but not enough to give it away. There were parts of the story told in flashback to let us know what had happened in Jessica's past and to give us some insight into her personality, but it all flowed well. You Can't Catch Me is a story of revenge, with deception, secrets and some wonderful twists. I did have to suspend belief a couple of times, but it worked in this story. If you enjoy being entertained with a thrilling, cat and mouse story, then pick this one up, I recommend it.

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This one had a lot of promise and started strong for me, cults! Stolen identity! Twists! It wasn't a five-star read for me because it felt a little forgettable, like the kind of book that you want to read on the plane to distract yourself from your own mortality but not one that sticks with you afterrward and really makes you think. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, for what it is, it was a decent book.

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Catherine McKenzie's, You Can't Catch Me, is an intricate and certainly complex weave of characters, a cascade of women named Jessica Williams, one of whom is the main protagonist. The main Jessica, that is the narrator of the story, appears to be the victim of identify theft. She is in bad shape both financially as well as emotionally, for not only has her money been taken, so has her reputation as a journalist, which has been scarred by the taint of plagiarism. Losing one's identity is traumatic, but for Jessica, (number one), it is a double whammy made even more complex by the fact that she had already lost her identity as a child when her parents joined a cult called LOT, a group headed up by a seriously demented leader by the name of Todd.
These are the building blocks of the plot on which many unexpected bridges are built. I was absolutely taken by surprise at the ending, which is an amazingly satisfying way to finish a book. Karma knows no bounds and Jessica 'one' was not who I'd figured her to be at all. A riveting read.
#Cece Reviews the Read www.cecescott.com @cecemscott #YouCan'tCatchMe #NetGalley #Simon&SchusterCanada

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Have you ever wondered if you could meet another person with the same name, and the same birth date? Impossible, right? .... Or not?

Jessica Williams learns the hard way that she could've been more cautious. After a well-due vacation, all of her cash is long gone... She decides to hunt the person who did this, because she wants her money back. Ensue a crazy and captivating ride in which I couldn't help but ask myself what would I have done if I was in Jessica's place.

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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You Can’t Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie

Synopsis: After being exposed as a plagiarist, Jessica William’s is fired from her investigative journalist job. After all the negative press, she decides to leave the country and go to Mexico for the week. While at the hotel bar, she meets a woman with the same name, she instantly nicknames her “Jessica Two”. Jessica Two convinces her to play 21 questions, to see what else they have in common. When Jessica returns from vacation, she realizes huge cash withdrawals have been taken from her account. The bank's video footage shows Jessica Two making the withdraws, with the bank and the cops not willing to do much, she takes matters into her own hands.

Review: The book hooked me from the beginning, I finished this book in less than 24 hours. It's fast paced, action packed, suspenseful, and has a hint of romance. The plot remained strong throughout the entire book, it got stronger as more information was thrown our way. The twists and turns were shocking, especially the ending! The character’s were great, their progress was written so well! I highly recommend picking this on up!

 4.5/5🌟

Thank you @netgalley and @simonschusterca for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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<b>The Short of It:</b>

If you enjoy cat and mouse type games, then this might be a good one for you. Not sure I was in the right mood to read it.

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

Jessica Williams escaped a cult more than a decade ago. She attributes her rescue to a detective with whom she still keeps in contact with. This is convenient because at an airport bar, while waiting for her flight, a young woman sits next to Jessica and asks her if she wants to play a game. Why not? Enjoy a few drinks, a little bit of banter. Whatever helps the time pass.

Except, this young woman is also named Jessica Williams and shares the same birth date as Jessica #1. Weird, right? Once they finish their drinks and part ways, Jessica #1 quickly learns that all her money has been taken from her bank accounts. That game that they played pretty much told Jessica #2, everything she needed to know to go online and wipe her out.

When Jessica #1 shares this information with her long-time detective friend, they decide to go after her and find that she’s left other victims in her wake.

This story was just too convenient all around. No one would be that gullible. Okay, Jessica #1 was in a cult once so perhaps she was the level of gullible needed to play a 20 questions like game that pretty much tells the world who you are. But it seemed all together too easy.

There is a lot of chasing fake Jessica around. I quickly tired of this because I just didn’t buy the story as a whole. It wasn’t suspenseful in the way I expected it to be. Overall, it was disappointing. Instead, I recommend her other book, Fractured.

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I read this a while ago … This was a pretty twisted read if I recall. An imposter was involved! I can't recall all the details, but I do remember enjoying this book.

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This book really kept me guessing. There were so many twists and turns. The ending really caught me off guard. Not what I thought or expected.

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An interesting read with some unexpected twists. As I read a lot of thrillers I can usually see the twists coming, but a couple caught me off guard in this one.

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Thank you Lake Union for letting me me You Can't Catch Me for an honest review.

This one started out great, cults and con men are two of my favourite subjects for thrillers so I couldn't wait to read this one. However, I found there were a couple of storylines too many and the ending felt rushed and not connecting enough to merit having both of the cult and the con together. The main romance in the book never felt necessary to me either, I wish the plot lines were better weaved together in the end

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How often have you met someone with the same first name as you? How about the same full name as you? Now imagine you also shared a birthdays down to the year? The odds of this happening are rare, but real. This happens to Jessica in an airport bar. They begin to play a question game to get to know each other better before Jessica one leaves on a week vacation to Mexico. When she returns home she finds her bank account has been emptied by this other Jessica. She also finds a trail of other Jessica’s who have the same story, meeting someone with the same name and birthday and ending up with an empty bank account. The team of Jessica’s work together to try to find the bad Jessica before it’s too late and she strikes again

I really enjoyed the writing of this book. Such an easy read and kept my interest throughout. The characters were likeable enough and it was different than most things I’ve read. However, I found the whole thing a little underwhelming. The first half really drew me in but as the twists started coming too fast and too often I found myself left behind questioning why it had to be such a complex story. It would of been better without all of the complexities, in my opinion.

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