I loved this brilliantly witty and disturbing tale of psychopathy and revenge! Never Saw Me Coming revolves around the lives of psychopathic college students who receive full rides to their university in return for participating in a psychopathy panel study. Together, three of the study’s subjects, Chloe, Charles, and Andre, work to uncover the identity of a killer who seems to be targeting their fellow psychopaths. Each character has unique motives and manipulations of their own, blurring the lines between friend and enemy. Vera Kurian has done a remarkable job making the main characters relatable despite their lack of concern for others. I found myself rooting for them individually even thought I never knew who to trust. This book is an eye opening reminder that we are all living amongst psychopaths but not all of them are truly dangerous. Overall, it’s a unique, thrilling, and addictive read that effectively blends genres of suspense, mystery, and dark comedy. I hope there will be a follow-up because I would love to come back for more!!

I loved this excellent read! I was hooked by page one. Having a "normal" main character along with two psychopaths really helped to highlight the differences between the three of them. Chloe's schemes and planning were especially entertaining. The title is perfect because I definitely didn't guess the big twist at the end.

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian. This is another book I struggled rating because there was A LOT going on.

Always research your trigger warnings before reading a book.

The book follows three main characters but it also follows several other characters which made the story altogether confusing. There wasn’t enough character development in the beginning to immediately start switching from one to the other; often times I didn’t know who we were following from one chapter to the next until I was a paragraph deep and at no point did I actually care about any of them (unfortunately). The story is about psychopath’s and murder essentially, so I understood the authors attempt to convey the mistrust within the group of psychopaths as they try to uncover the murders. But all of these efforts fell through for me because it was either painfully obvious what was trying to be done or cringy. I enjoyed the mystery part of this book a lot, I liked guessing the ending (although, I feel like I had a better ending in my head) but in the end it all made sense. Perhaps I am a bit of a sleuth, but I knew exactly who was the culprit the second they were introduced. I think had the author honed in on the main plot the story would have been elevated but unfortunately there were several side plots that I just didn’t think were necessary. Now I know I sound harsh but I did enjoy this book! It dragged on a little but the story itself was unique, and with a little more editing I think it could have been great! Also, my personal opinion, just because you put swear words and sex in a book, it does not necessarily mean it is “new adult” or “adult” fiction. This one get very YA! (2.5 stars).

This was a decent thriller, but I was able to figure out one of the main twists early and the ending fell flat as a result. I was engaged enough to read to the end.

I have to stop reading these books where the main character is a college freshman. No matter how much I want to fall into the story, I can't help thinking how illogical it is that a 17 or 18 year old would be getting involved in so many unbelievable situations. It taints the entire story for me. Now, the premise of a college program involving the psychopathy of selected students was very appealing. The connections made to a BTK-like serial killer were completely on-point. I also appreciated the humor sprinkled throughout, even if it was terribly inappropriate for the situation. Thank you to Park Row/Netgalley for the advanced copy.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up!

I have been craving a TRUE psychological thriller, that combines a sense of humor with a decent body count
( my favorite combination) and this one fit the bill.

Chloe Sevre is a freshman honor student, who just happens to be psychopath. She is one of seven students offered scholarship money to participate in a psychology study at John Adams University. All she has to do is wear a Smart Watch which will track her moods and movements and participate in a few activities, at the Psychology building.

But, was she lured there under false pretenses?

Adams was always her first choice, as it is located in Washington D.C., a busy city with a relatively HIGH Murder rate. There are also plenty of pedestrians getting mugged, drunk people getting into fights and stabbing each other, and political protests like the MASSIVE one scheduled for October 23rd-60 days after Freshman orientation-the perfect day to kill Will Bachman.

You see, Chloe didn’t care about the scholarship money-She accepted under false pretenses as well.

Will Bachman is a student at Adams and she has decided that it is time for him to pay for the mistakes he has made in his past-Will Bachman has 60 days to live.

When the first of the SEVEN In the study is found murdered, Chloe realizes she may have went from HUNTER to PREY-but can she trust ANY of her fellow psychopaths?

FANTASTIC ORIGINAL PREMISE but, two things caused me to rate it 3.5.

The first-it should have been marketed as YA, because that is how it reads.
The second-at 400 pages, what started out as FUN, began to drag as the original focus of the story-Chloe’s plan to murder Will, became a bit diluted with the second storyline, and the book began to feel a bit too long.

But, overall, it was clever and creative and I look forward to seeing what author Vera Kurian comes up with next!

Thank You to Park Row for providing a gifted copy via NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
Available September 7, 2021.

Are you looking for an academic psychological thriller set on a college campus? How about the concept of a college running a secret admissions program to bring in young adult psychopaths? I mean, what could possibly go wrong right?

If this sounds interesting to you, then I strongly recommend checking this book out when it releases in September 2021. The story is intriguing and will definitely make you wonder if colleges with strong psych departments might actually already run secret programs like this. Candidates in the group are monitored with GPS enabled smart watches, and attend testing sessions meant to evaluate their thoughts/feelings at random times - but the group is never brought together as a whole; participants are supposed to be unaware of the identities of the others in the group. A necessary idea for testing purposes, but as you might guess, with a group of young adults and the internet/social networking of that age group, probably highly unlikely to maintain anonymity. So then what happens when a group of young psychopaths are brought together??? You will have to read the book to find out those details.

The novel has alternating POVs employed throughout the story, which was well done for the most part - just a few chapters where the switch between characters was not readily apparent for a few lines. That may be corrected by publication as the ARC I read did not have chapter titles, so if those are added that would resolve that issue.

The most interesting thing while reading this is that it makes you question your own biases about people with a diagnosis of psychopathy. Can a diagnosed psychopath truly be provided with sufficient tools to navigate the real world and a college campus without anyone knowing it? As I have always been fascinated by abnormal psych, this book was not only a pretty solid thriller, but also quite thought provoking when some of the psychology is though of in a real world setting, such as the college campus environment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Park Row publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC.

First off a huge thank you to the publisher Park Row- Harlequin Trade Publishing, the author Vere Kurain , and NetGalley for the invite to join the blog tour as will as to read and review Never Saw Me Come. Second thing is what got me to say yes is the cover its amazing and the colors draw your eyes to the cover . And the third and final thing is that its a thriller, which is one of my all time favorite genres to read. As for the story itself it was interesting, and a bit different from anything else I've read, which was good.
Because its the first book I've read where you have a group of psychopaths altogether in one place which makes the story work. Because when you think of psychopaths what comes to mind is that their the hunters you have to watch out for but this plays along the line of what would happen if the hunters became the prey. It'll have you setting on the edge of your set , turning the pages and so lost in the story thst you don't want to stop reading , all the time asking yourself whose going to come

I was the wrong audience for this book. It should definitely be marketed to young-adult readers as the writing was very childish. Chloe Sevre is looking for revenge but it seemed to take forever to get it. At one point I thought she'd forgotten all about it. This could've been amazing but it was pretty boring.

Really interesting story arc in this one.... I was kept on my toes wondering who the killer was and how the relationships among characters intersected

Thank you to netgalley.com for an advance copy of this book!

This book is about a program for psychopaths, where their tuition is covered to attend college in exchange for their participation in a long-term study. Upon the book's opening, it seemed as if it would focus on one main psychopath and her story, but it rather centered upon a mystery of someone murdering students in their program, and three of the students banding together to figure out what was going on. I felt that the novel appeared stronger when it focused on the one student's story--Chloe is exceptionally smart and is planning to murder the young man that raped her in high school. Her story quickly became background for the main mystery, which did not make that much sense. It seemed as if the author changed the idea for her book half-way through. Still, she is a great writer, the dialogue was realistic, and I cared about what happened to Chloe.

I am 1000% obsessed with this book!

I’m a psychopath. There’s 7 of us on campus for a psych study, and someone is hunting us. I’ve spent years planning the perfect murder, and I’m not going to let this get in the way. But to survive and get everything done I’m going to need to find a few psychopaths I can trust.

Chloe receives a college scholarship in exchange for participating in a psychological study of psychopaths, and plans to get revenge on someone from her past, now a current student at the same university, The death of a student involved with the study causes the remaining participants to form and reform alliances as they evaluate who can be trusted. A twisty, fast-paced plot with an unreliable narrator. Recommended for fans of The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn and Dare Me by Megan Abbott.

I never knew I needed to read this until I did. So good! Kept me guessing and the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see what my friends think of this one.

The new school year is just beginning for incoming freshman Chloe Sevre. She has more on her mind than frat parties and studying at Washington D. C.’s John Adams University. An honor student, Chloe has also been selected to participate in an exclusive study led by a prestigious psychologist. Only six other students are in the program. You see, Chloe Sevre is a psychopath, as is the other six, and she has plans to kill Will Bachman. She won’t rest until he’s dead.

As the novel opens, Will Bachman has 60 days to live.

On the outside Chloe is an ordinary college student. As she interacts with those around her, readers get to see exactly how she thinks and feels---or rather doesn’t feel. As Will’s days dwindle down, other murders begin to occur on campus. The murders aren’t random, however.

Beneath the surface of what is happening on campus, there is high tension in DC. Marches and protests seem to occurred daily, but the city is preparing for its biggest rally since MLK’s March on Washington.
I wanted to love this book so much, but I just didn't care. I didn’t care how it ended or what happened to Chole and her friends. It was hard sometimes to just turn the page, but I did and every time, my high hopes kept getting dashed. I think this book is more aimed at young adults as opposed to middle-aged women. I hate it when I read and read and read, only to be disappointed at the end.

“Never Saw Me Coming ” received 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

This is the most entertaining book I have ever read about psychopaths!

In the first few chapters, you are introduced to the newest crop of students enrolled in Adams University's Multimethod Psychopathy Panel Study. Dr. Wyman is studying how to help psychopaths learn how to think of other's feelings and function as contributing members of society. Chloe is smart, driven and focused on her goals (including the one to kill Will, a fellow student at Adams). Andre hit a bad patch when his sister Kiara died from an asthma attack. He fell in with a bad crowd, was diagnosed with Conduct Disorder, but then straightened back up and finished high school with a respectable GPA. When Dr. Wyman's department contacted him about the study, Andre decided to try to trick the doctors into diagnosing him with psychopathy, and he succeeded. Now, he has a full ride to Adams, and all he has to do is keep fooling the doctor and his graduate students.

Andre and Chloe don't know each other, or anyone else in the program; it is supposed to be a secret. But of course members figure out who else is in the study as their program-issued watches beep or buzz, or when they run into someone in the psychology building one too many times. When students start dying at Adams, and Andre and Chloe realize that both victims were members of the study, they team up with Charles, another psychopath, to find out whether they are really being targeted or if it was coincidence these two students died gruesome deaths in the psychology building.

You can't help but love Chloe, even though she is planning a murder and is rather cold-hearted in her plans to "win" college by making friends strategically. She embodies the definition of the charismatic psychopath (as does Charles). Andre's struggle to seem "psychopathic" is both amusing and disturbing. Readers will identify with his need to fit in, both with his fellow study members as well as his other friends in his dorm.

I guessed who the murderer was before the final reveal, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment of this book. There was just enough information about psychopaths that you feel you understand the characters and why this study might be good science (as well as how badly things could go with several psychopaths on a college campus). This is a fun read!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this thrilling novel!

High interest level for young adult audiences. The first part was enjoyable but I figured out The Who-done-it long before the end.

Seven college students, seven psychopaths enrolled in a study at a university, and each there for different reasons. ChIoe is bent on revenge, Andre for a free ride to a degree, and rich boy Charles in order to learn how to lead a normal life. There are more, but since this study attempts to keep all identities secret, it takes a while for the three main characters to identify the rest. But someone is taking them out, and two are dead long before the three main characters discover what's going on. These are not nice people, and someone else in the program is working hard to disintegrate their lives even before murdering them, leading C, C, and A to work really hard trying to uncover the killer. Compelling characters, snappy prose, twisty plot, and plenty of action. I didn't think I wanted to read about psychopathic college students, but I was wrong! This debut thriller is definitely one of the best reads of 2021.

People who are not psychopaths are curious about what motivates a psychopath’s behavior. This book had me hoping to make some discoveries, but I was disappointed.

The premise is good. The story is engaging. There is some intrigue, and my interest was piqued a number of times throughout the book. But, for me, the story missed the mark. The title gave me the impression that the game of cat and mouse would have a different outcome than was provided. The writing is fine, and I found myself involved with the characters. I did hope that the outcome would be a surprise. The author did a fine job of making everyone a suspect. Some of those suspects could have been developed more. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book, but would have liked more development of the psychopath’s thinking, and more a more remarkable outcome.

A copy of Never Saw Me Coming was provided to me by NetGalley and Park Row Books for an honest review.

I was drawn in by the premise, but I found the main POV character, Chloe, too unlikeable. Why I thought I would like any of the characters in a book like this, I’m not sure—hey, Dexter was likeable in the TV series—but the only person I really liked was Andre. I was kind of intrigued by Charles, I guess, but mad at him by the end.
It did keep me turning pages, and I was ready to give it a lukewarm 3-star rating by the end, but the big reveal and the last scene in the hospital just soured me on it. Seems like it could become a series, but I think one’s enough for me.