This was a book I shouldn't have enjoyed. It was a mostly narrative book, and I will admit that I skipped over several paragraphs from time to time. I get bored with just reading a lot of someone's thoughts and descriptions. However the storyline kept me going, and trying to guess who was behind the mysterious happenings. I thought it was a good book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the prerelease ebook.

What a ride! Reading Never Coming Home I had NO idea who to trust or what was going to happen. I certainly had a few things figured out, but I sure had no idea how they'd play out and what would actually transpire! I LOVED reading a thriller from the villains point of view, something that is pretty rare in the genre. I love the depth that Hannah Mary McKinnon gives to her characters, weaving tales that relate to their past and experiences that play into the story as she goes. It's pretty rare these days that a thriller will leave me fulfilled, mind blown and talking about it for days after, but this one hit all the marks!

Is it odd to call a book that begins with a man's plan to kill his wife and take her money a fun read? It might be, but Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon is really a fun read. This "who done it" is all about the "who" - Lucas Forester. He is a con man, a thief, a liar, and a murderer. However, despite everything or maybe because of everything, he is fun character to follow.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/07/never-coming-home.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and the HTP Summer 2022 mystery and thriller blog tour.

I looooved this book. I do not compare thriller often, but this one really does measure up to the strongest in the genre.
Never Coming Home should be on the top of everyone's summer reading list.

Loved this book. The villain is usually someone I hate but I loved the ones in this book. It was a great read!

Lucas’s wife, Michelle, is smart, beautiful, and rich. Lucas thinks he deserved” all of Michelle’s wealth, but trouble is, Michelle is alive. This book was one of the most interesting to read. We get a look inside a ruthless con man/murderer/liar’s mind first hand: I really enjoyed reading the story from the villain’s perspective. Narrated solely by Lucas,, you cant help but like him, even though, at the same time, he is a horrible person. I guessed some of where this was heading, but still found it delicious and entertaining. This is my first book my this author, and will be looking into more by her.

# netgalley

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This was quite a book and definitely a rollercoaster ride. It took me a little time to get into the storyline but it was worth the read. The book is basically following the trail of the"bad guy" which is really unusual for me. I thought I had it figured out and was somewhat right at the end. The twists were definitely worth the read

This is a well-written suspense novel. I read it quickly due to wanting to the know how it ended. Well written. Great story telling.

Time to dive into another thriller novel! Never Coming Home, written by Hannah Mary McKinnon, immediately caught my attention. I love the cover, especially the colors. The description further pulled me in.

Lucas Forester is what some may call a black widower – though they don't know that yet. He married his wife, Michelle, intending to get access to her fortune. Now he's biding his time for it to all be his.

For a moment there, he thought his plan had succeeded. Then a note changed the name of the game, turning him into the target. An ironic twist, given what he'd just done.

Man, I do love it when thriller novels start in media res. There's something so dramatic about an introduction like that, don't you think? Never Coming Home starts with Lucas having spent quite a lot of time planning his wife's death, forcing readers to get up to speed quickly, or else they risk missing what happens next.

In truth, this novel starts a little further along than that, but I don't want to spoil it all for you. You'll have to check out that introduction (and the whole story) yourself. I enjoyed it, even while I was immediately rooting for Lucas to fail (who wouldn't?).

I was a little surprised to find myself almost like Lucas at times. Almost. He's still a jerk, but he's got a sense of humor; I'll give him that. Hannah Mary McKinnon did a good job portraying two sides of his character here.

Unfortunately, those moments didn't make up for everything Lucas did and planned. It made it easier to be a neutral party to the tension he was dealing with, though I'm not sure if that was the intention.

4 stars.

This is the first book i have read from this author, and it was a ride for sure. You are kind of thrown right into the middle of the situation. I liked that you knew that the bad guy was the bad guy but the author did a good job of making him likable enough that I didn't want to just chuck the book because the whole thing was from his pov.
He is a caring human who just happens to want his wife dead so he takes a hit out on her so he can have her money. I liked the fact that this was kind of a reversal from the typical stories like this where the women kill the men for their money.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading another book by this author.

Thanks to Mira and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Never Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon is a psychological thriller about a husband, Lucas, who sets up a hitman to murder his wife, Michelle. I know this sounds like it would be a spoiler, but that is only just the beginning. When Lucas finally thinks that he has gotten away with the murder, anonymous notes start to arrive at the house. Does someone know what he did? Is this the hitman asking for more money? Lucas finds his web of lies unraveling before him. Will he get away with the perfect murder?

I loved the premise of this book. It was written differently than other thrillers that I have read because you know pretty quickly who the killer his and his motives behind the murder. Some might think that it makes for a less thrilling read but it really didn’t. There were still several twists and turns throughout the story to keep you on your toes and entertained. It’s also an interesting read because although you're not supposed to like the husband in the story, I couldn’t help but sorta like him. I kept wanting him to get caught but then not wanting him to get caught. I enjoyed that this book toyed with my emotions like that. He was an unlikeable protagonist with redeeming qualities at times.

Although I did have a good guess about how this book would end.. the story still played out differently than I anticipated and I enjoyed the ending very much. There was one character and storyline that I particularly enjoyed making a comeback in the ending, although again, I would have been content to see that character go down as well (I don’t want to give any spoilers.) At one point in the story, I wasn’t sure if that character was going to be brought up again.

Overall, I really did like this book and would recommend it to other readers. This book gave me both My Lovely Wife and Gone Girl vibes and I really enjoyed both of those. I am very interested in reading other work by McKinnon in the future.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love a story told from the POV of the villain!
Never Coming Home is an entertaining thriller about Lucas, a past criminal who hires a hitman to murder his wife in hopes to inherit her fortune. Fun, right? He is the protagonist you will love to hate! So of course we have twists and turns as things start spiralling out of control and secrets are revealed! It sort of shifted into the realm of ridiculous for me at times but nevertheless the angle McKinnon took with this novel is one I would like to see more of! I mean who doesn’t want to know what goes on inside the mind of evil?

Slow burn turned to twists and turns. Loved the pacing of this and how engrossed I was with the story. Definitely recommend!

This would have been a four star book for me until the end. There are so many things that threw it off the cliff for me with the last 1/4 of it though.

Our "protagonist" is a fun character to read the book through, as he's a con man and a murderer but he's also funny and surprisingly human. Lucas has married Michelle for her money and then decided to hire a hit man to speed things up. While he's clearly a bad guy for this, he also loves his stroke-disabled father, makes sure his wife isn't going to suffer, honestly cares about his dying mother-in-law and even adopts a stray dog that his wife wanted to have killed. We're in his head for the whole book as everything goes terribly bad and it's clear that someone knows and is after him.

Michelle, on the other hand, is a victim I didn't feel that bad for. She wants to kill the sweet stray dog that comes around. She fires an employee for using the copy machine to print out flyers for a muscular dystrophy fundraiser. She treats "the help" as if they're dirt. She spends money on expensive clothes, jewelry, furniture and art for herself with both fists but then tells her beloved new husband that there's no way he can move his sick father to a care home in the U.S. because he doesn't have enough money to do it. Of course she didn't deserve to be murdered, but I just didn't feel that bad for her.

I enjoyed the cat-and-mouse element to the story as Lucas starts to get notes and signs that someone is on to him, but the book started to hurl itself into ridiculous territory in the last quarter. As multiple reviewers have mentioned, the end seems straight out of a Scooby Doo episode. And the final outcome? Ugh. Without giving any spoilers, I can't root for any of that. Blech.

The story telling was good but McKinnon needs to figure out how to write better endings. The plot holes were huge and the ending was such a let down. What a waste of such a good character.

Goodreads defines two stars as "it was okay" and that's the most I can say about this one since I cannot say I liked it. I seem to be in the minority though, so pick up a copy and see what you think.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

If you enjoyed You by Caroline Kepnes, then I think you will enjoy this book. I don't mind unlikeable characters and Lucas is definitely unlikeable. The story is told from his POV and we learn early on that he targeted his wife for her money and always intended on having her killed. His only redeeming quality is he loves his dog. I had some of the plot figured out early on so no shocking twist for me but I don't always have to have that to enjoy a book. I was planning on giving it 3 stars until the end which I did not like. I can't give any details as this would spoil the story but it just wasn't for me.

Fast and fun domestic thriller.

Lucas Forester has murder on his mind. He's got a brilliant plan to complete his reinvention and become a wealthy man. Unfortunately, its his wife who has the money and divorce is so messy. Hence, his scheme to hire a hit man off the dark web. Everything goes off without a hitch, the deed is done, and Lucas has deftly shifted suspicion away so well that the police no longer view him as a suspect. Just as everything is moving in the right direction, things suddenly start to go awry. The first clue is when Lucas finds a photo with a taunting message in his mail. I KNOW.

This was so entertaining watching Lucas try to navigate through his rapidly changing position. He is a character the reader will love to hate, and his internal musings and rationalizations are often witty and funny. As his situation goes from bad to worse and his clever maneuverings start to fail, you almost can't help but root for him a little. Although I figured what must be going on behind the scenes, it was still a blast to reach the denouement and -- that ending!!!!

I totally enjoyed this one and thanks to NetGalley and Mira Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

My thanks to Harlequin, H.M.K., and Netgalley.
I m definitely the wrong audience for this book!
Domestic thrillers aren't my thing...at all!
So, I quit this story at 28%. Yes, I know! I didn't give it the full 30% like I usually do, but sometimes a person knows when to quit. I quit.
This isn't to say that this is an awful story. It's just me saying that it's not my kind of story.

Oof. This thriller went from intriguing to unrealistic to so insanely unrealistic it’s insulting. Look, I know that with every thriller there will be unrealistic elements, but Never Coming Home was in a league of its own and I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment. For one thing, the author spent a lot of time in the beginning of the novel introducing the reader to a meticulous and clever criminal, which I applauded. I found myself rooting for Lucas and appreciating his attention to detail and tenacity, even if it was rooted in evil. However, a third of the way through the novel, Lucas begins making haste and rash decisions that deviate so drastically from his persona in the beginning of the book that I thought at first that I had started a new book! Also, the side characters aren’t fully fleshed out and are so obviously included to either be a red herring or an actual suspect - nothing in between. So here I am, getting annoyed at the character’s ridiculous decisions, screaming to the book that I already know who really is involved and who isn’t involved (no matter how many times the narrative tells me this person just HAS to be a suspect), hoping at least that this all wraps up soon. Then, it does wrap up and it’s just beyond; beyond ridiculous, beyond unrealistic, beyond what any actual person would ever do…ever. This thriller was frankly just way too unrealistic for me to enjoy.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mira for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lucas is married to Michelle. Michelle's family has a lot of money. Lucas's father is in a care home back in England and Lucas needs money to upgrade his father's care. So, obviously he decides to kill Michelle and get all of her money for himself. But, shortly after her disappearance, Lucas starts getting strange mailings that lead him to believe someone knows what he's been up to. But how can that be, when he planned so carefully and covered all the bases so thoroughly?

This was a fun book. Lucas was a bit of a pyschopath, but a sort of loveable one, like Joe Goldberg in You and Paul Strom in Best Day Ever. He endeared himself to me when he took in Roger, the stray dog that was at his back door, rather than taking him to the pound. He also had a noble use for the money. And Michelle wasn't really that nice of a person...Of course we knew Michelle's murder couldn't have been executed as cleanly as Lucas told us it was, and that started the cat and mouse game. I thought that part got a little long, but overall I liked this book.

DNF at 15%. I get the appeal of an unlikable character - but in this case, I just couldn't make it work. Lucas isn't just unlikable, for me he is grating on my every nerve. And while I get that's the point and have some ideas where things are headed - I can't see spending hours in his company to get there. I've seen lots of great reviews so I think it's more of a "me thing" than about the book but this one isn't for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.