4.5/5. Was pleasantly surprised by this book, as it kept me guessing throughout the story as to who was behind everything. EVERYONE was a suspect at one point. Looking forward to reading more by this author in the future!

Reading Between the Wines book review #73/115 for 2021:
Rating: 3.5 🍷 🍷 🍷 1/2
Book 🎧: I Don’t Forgive You
Author: Aggie Blum Thompson
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers | Women's Fiction
RELEASES on June 8, 2021!!!
Recommended to readers who like a good salacious mystery.

Sipping thoughts: Good solid read. It kept my interest and had me trying to figure out who hacked Allie and set her up for murder. There are so many red herrings you might not figure it out, although it wasn’t too hard once you know what happened in the past. I loved seeing how Allie was slowly unraveling while trying to prove to her husband, the police, and the community that she was innocent…or was she?

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @MacmillanTorForge for an advanced copy of @IDontForgiveYou

#IDontForgiveYou #MacmillanTorForge #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThriller #WomensFiction

So my whole life, I've had dreams that I was accused of murder. Like, scary, heart-pounding, and terrifyingly realistic nightmares. I've always had a permanently guilty conscious, and add a not-so-small dash of anxiety, and...Yeah. Fun times!

Anyway. I Don't Forgive You is what my nightmares were made of. A (presumably) false murder accusation, a shaky narrator with an unreliable memory, and the horrors of the internet. I mean, I don't even have Facebook app on my phone anymore and I'm still legit paranoid.

I Don't Forgive You is a thrilling ride from the get-go. I literally could not stop reading and it is currently 1:41 am. I do not stay up until 1:41 am to finish a book and fire off a review, but for this book...totally worth it.

If you're looking for a non-stop mystery that will keep you up all night, here ya go. 😊

I Don't Forgive You is a mystery thriller written by Aggie Blum Thompson and is perfect for those that love a little dash of family drama mixed in.

Allie Ross thought that she was finally making it somewhere in the world. Her photography business was finally doing well enough to move her and her son to an upscale DC suburb, which on the outside seemed like a huge success.

Right up until she got framed for murder, that is. Talk about highs and lows hitting all at once. And to think, it all started because one of the new neighbors knew about the darker past that Allie had worked so hard to hide.

“Symmetry reigns here, and I am askew.”

I think this is the first time I've read a thriller novel that used Tinder as a premise. That was unexpected, but I have to admit that it certainly added something to the story! I Don't Forgive You is very much a mystery and thriller.

This is the sort of psychological thriller perfect for people who like wondering about skeletons and closets. It makes you wonder how big a secret has to be to it to be explosive when finally out in the open.

“Forgiveness is not a luxury but a necessity. Forgiveness is the backbone of love. And love makes life bearable”

I loved Aggie Blue Thompson's writing style here. It was easy to get to know Allie and her world, appreciating what she was working so hard for. But, likewise, it is so painfully easy to picture oneself as the target of this sort of attack. It feels too easy, given the technology we so frequently take for granted.

Admittedly, this novel ended up having fewer twists than I expected. I won't say that I hoped for more, as I really did enjoy the read. But I was surprised by the lack of well...surprise. Maybe I've just gotten too used to convoluted tales.

Thanks to Forge Books and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book wasted no time getting into the action which I loved. I immediately wanted to know what Allie was hiding. There were small flashes to Allie’s past, and I couldn’t wait for all of the pieces of the puzzle to come together. From a fake Tinder account alleging a relationship between Allie and the murder victim Rob, someone was set on taking Allie down, and I wanted to know who and why. What I enjoyed most about this book was that it gave you just enough backstory, to keep wanting more.

I received a free ARC and am leaving this review voluntarily...

This book was interesting. It started off with Allie meeting a very insistent creep who calls her a nickname she left in the past and somehow he ends up dead with her being the main suspect. I enjoyed the fact that there were so much twists and turns that I genuinely couldn't figure out who the villain was until the end. However, I felt that the evidence linking her to the murder was circumstantial so I didn't understand the police's insistence on arresting her.
I also couldn't connect with Allie. I found myself very annoyed with her during most of the book. If she had just come clean about certain things, I feel like the crime would have been solved earlier. The damning evidence (revealing pic) was already out so she didn't have anything to lose. And to top it off, after her attorney advised her not to speak to the police already, she went ahead and did just that.
However, even with my annoyance with Allie, the book was interesting enough that I quickly ran through it. So I actually won't mind reading more books by this author.
Due to certain scenes, this book should be read by adults. There's also an attempted sexual assault and mention of statutory rape which may be triggers for some.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

This book began with a pop and I really enjoyed the beginning of the novel. Being introduced to Allie, I found myself having some similarities with her as far as her personality. She’s the mom in the suburban neighborhood who doesn’t feel like she always fits in and she’s a little frustrated about all of that kind of wants to walk away from trying anymore. I really was interested in the book until the whole murder plot/twist came into it as well as the familiar lessons on the dangers of the Internet. It just kind of fell apart for me and I lost enthusiasm to read it honestly. It’s just a miss for me unfortunately.

I Don’t Forgive Youpresents us with Allie Ross, a professional photographer, mother, and new resident of an exclusive D.C. suburb. Her life seems to be falling into place, but her past is waiting for her. Allie is so ashamed of her past, of events that transpired while she attended a private high school, she has not even told her husband, so when someone calls her a name she only used for a very short time at that school and when a shirt from that school shows up among her child’s clothes, she thinks someone is coming after her.

And are they ever! A local man is murdered the night after he called her a tease and accosted her at a party and there is a trail leading right to her door. And still, she does not tell her husband. He recommends a lawyer and she dilly-dallies. Even after meeting with the lawyer, she goes on her own to the police to file a complaint about false identities being used on social media.

There is a lot to like about I Don’t Forgive You. The suspense is real and I wanted to know who was persecuting her. Was it her former high school teacher, her sister-in-law, her former best friend, or some other neighbor? There was plenty to wonder about, but it was ruined by how completely stupid Allie was.
So, I get that people are reluctant to speak about past trauma. It’s certainly horrible that the victim of a predator carried the blame for so many years. But, when you’re husband thinks you are either unfaithful, an alcoholic, or losing your mind, you come clean. For your child’s sake, if you are a murder suspect, you tell the truth to your husband and your lawyer. You don’t risk losing your child and your liberty out of embarrassment, especially since the most damning element, a nude photo, has already been made public.

My frustration with Allie, the ability to know that her confidential work would be posted, her absolute stupidity made me angry. Seriously, the bad guy would have won the day if winning depended on her own actions other than one fortuitous move near the end, and that involved instinct, not intellect. It was the oh-so-tired ending of all spy films where the evil genius recounts all the steps of the plot before killing the spy but then is thwarted by some move or another.

It does say quite a lot about Aggie Blum Thompson’s writing skills that I remained in suspense and involved to the end of a book that irritated me so much.

I received an e-galley of I Don’t Forgive You from the publisher through NetGalley.

I Don’t Forgive You at Forge Books | Macmillan
Aggie Blum Thompson author site

“Most people think of their memories as immutable, but in fact, they change. We are constantly editing them throughout our lives, unconsciously adding bits and cutting out other parts. What rarely changes is our confidence that we accurately remember an event.”
 
I won’t give much detail about this book other than it involved Tinder and a lot of craziness! (swipe for book description) This was a fantastic and gripping debut thriller by Thompson that had me unable to put it down!! This book is told from the perspective of Allie who I really liked along with the other characters in the book. This is one of those books that truly kept me guessing until the very end with multiple twists (and I read a lot of psychological thrillers). This book had great suspense throughout and made me second guess trusting every character I encountered which made for a long list of suspects. Overall great thriller and I highly recommend this to anyone who loves this genre like myself. I can’t wait to see what Thompson comes up with next!!
 
Thank you to MacmillanUSA, NetGalley and Aggie Blum Thompson for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
 
I just have to end the review with another quote from the book that I absolutely loved and that resonated with me  – “Forgiveness is not a luxury but a necessity. Forgiveness is the backbone of love. And love makes life bearable. I hope that one day, my turn will come and I will forgive myself.”

TW: sexual assault, murder, student/teacher relationship

Allie Ross is married to lawyer, Mark and is mother to Cole, her young son. The family have moved to an upmarket area of Washington DC, but Allie is struggling. She and Mark attend a neighbourhood party to make friends as she hopes to feel more settled and accepted in the community. At the party, Allie flirts with Robert, a dad and she has a conversation with him that resonates with something in her past; he uses an old nickname of hers, leaving Allie disturbed. The next day, he is found dead and the police come knocking for her as a suspect... As Allie, flawed and unreliable though an accomplished photographer, finds herself a target of cyberbullying, her life starts to unravel spectacularly.

This is an amazingly good début; the writing is excellent; the pacing is nigh on perfect and the characterisation is first class. Disturbing and grim, I enjoyed I Don't Forgive You a great deal. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone looking for a fabulous psychological thriller.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Macmillan/ Forge Books via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Wow... an absolute page turner that doesn't let you rest till you turn the last page. This fast paced, brilliantly written novel was disturbingly relevant and grim in the polarizing way social media can be used to tear apart an individual's life with no remorse or regret.

Aggie Blum Thompson has written an absolutely compelling plot that's filled with suspense and keeps you guessing throughout.

An intelligent, intense, dark, unsettling psychological thriller that will keep you thinking about it long after you've turned the last page. Brilliant... can't wait to read more from this author.

Too convoluted for me with just too much going on yet not much at all. I lost interested halfway and was only clicking the pages to get thought it. Lindsay finished first and took one for the team and I gave up. Since I did read more than half the book I am still giving it a rating.

2 stars.

Allie and Mark move into a posh new neighbourhood with their young son, Cole. After an incident at a neighbourhood gathering, Allie finds herself wrapped up in a murder investigation that ties her to social media accounts that she never opened.

What started off as an intriguing plot quickly turned into an eye-roller. While I understand that identify theft on social media is an important issue to be aware of, I didn’t find the characters thoughts or actions believable so I wasn’t invested in any portion of the storyline.

This was a complete miss for me, but I encourage you to check out the many positive reviews out there.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy through NetGalley.

3.5★s

Photographer Allie Ross, lawyer husband Mark and their young son Cole had recently moved to Washington DC. Both Allie and Mark had good jobs while Cole was picked up from school by Susan – a sixty-something woman with a heart of gold – until Allie arrived home from work. The night of a neighbourhood party – which Allie didn’t want to attend – she and Mark were doing their own thing. Mark chatting with some guys about sports, while Allie had been approached by a man who thought he was god’s gift. The abuse from him caused Allie to leave the party with Mark, distressed and not wanting to discuss it. The next morning, that same bad experience was found dead.

Before Allie knew it, the police were interviewing her, doubting her story. It wasn’t too long, and she was a suspect – did they think her capable of murder? What was happening – she didn’t even have a Tinder account! The hacking of her online accounts saw Allie’s reputation take a beating; no one took her side, even Mark wondered about her innocence. What was she going to do? Was she in danger?

I Don’t Forgive You by Aggie Blum Thompson is the author’s debut, and a gripping, twisty thriller. I didn’t find many of the characters likeable unfortunately, although Cole was pretty cute. Allie needed to get a grip and report what happened to her; she needed to release the horrors of her past. Fascinating and intriguing, I Don’t Forgive You is one I'm happy to recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers Forge for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Allie Ross has just moved into an upscale neighborhood in the D.C. area with her lawyer husband and young son. At a neighborhood party a man comes onto her, a man who says he knows her and calls her a nickname, one she hasn’t heard in many, many years. The problem? She has never seen him before.

The next day the man is found murdered in his home, and Allie is soon the prime suspect. Someone is impersonating her online and has created fake profiles and interactions on social media, including Tinder. Her entire life, both professional and personal, is soon in a shambles with neighbors turning against her and even her own husband doubting her innocence. The evidence quickly mounts and increasingly strange occurrences are happening.

She, of course, knows this is someone who has ties to her past, a past she hasn’t shared with her husband. There’s no shortage of red herrings and suspects, and even some evidence that Allie is losing it because of her drinking (which didn't sound all that excessive).

The trope is a common one with a secret past, accusations of a crime, hacked social media accounts, gaslighting, a neighborhood clique, inept investigators, and no one believing the accused, including the husband.

But, still, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The escalating tension with misdirections and red herrings, and her day-to-day routines as a mom and photographer, along with the complicated, dysfunctional relationship she had with her mother and sister made Allie seem real and authentic.

Another plus is I didn’t guess the final reveal, and I appreciated how the book ended without everything tied up in a neat bow. This is a quick entertaining debut, perfect for a lazy summer day (or any season!).

This was a decent debut thriller, and I really enjoyed the the social media impersonation component of the plot because it added an alarming layer of helplessness that felt very relatable,

However, the main character, Allie, was unlikable, and not in a fun way. I don't need to *like* characters - (especially women) to want to read about them, and the pieces were there to maybe make Allie interesting (tumultuous past, snarky sort of funny personality, job as a photographer), but they were assembled in such a way that she became just another boring, self-involved, not so quick on the uptake, middle-aged, rich-ish suburban white lady with an annoying kid and a dull husband, who winds up in an extremely far-fetched situation.

There were some entertaining parts (especially the first bit at the party with the judgy neighborhood ladies) and it was a quick read, so this would be a good pool/beach read for someone who doesn't read a ton of thrillers.

2.5 rounded up to 3

I really thought I would love this book, but unfortunately I had a really hard time connecting with Allie, and the storyline dragged a little bit for me that I lost interest.

Thank you so much to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

A good suburban thriller, with identity theft and murder set amidst a gossipy crowd of PTA moms and overly involved neighbors. Lots of misdirection, plus a satisfying ending.

A great debut from this new voice in the world of domestic thrillers. A story that once started is difficult to walk away from. Allie and her husband, along with their young son, have recently moved to an upscale new neighborhood in a DC suburb. Allie is anxious to make friends, but it’s not an easy process. After a neighborhood party where a local dad puts the moves on her and calls her by a name she thought she’d left in the past, Allie is suddenly at a total loss. Someone has created a fake Tinder and Facebook account in her name, someone is out to destroy her. When a murder takes place, she is instantly a person of interest. Things escalate and soon no one believes her outrageous accusations. Is she telling the truth , or is she an unreliable narrator? With enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing until the very end, this book was highly entertaining.

4 stars. Kept my interest as a definite whodunnit. The ending was unexpected but not totally unbelievable. Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.