This book felt like it was marketed in the wrong way. I was expecting a mystery/thriller with a lot of drama, but it really just ended up being drama. And it was way too long. This easily could have been less pages and possibly more enjoyable??

This book was selected as Laredo Book Club’s July book, and the discussion about gender roles in the novel took center stage. One of our male members said he had to put the book down because he couldn’t stand the way Lore cast her struggling marriage aside so quickly for a man in another country. That her husband was going through difficult times and didn’t deserve to be abandoned with so little care. In contrast to that statement, female members declared that they appreciated the point of view this novel gave as men aren’t the only people that matter in a marriage.

Not that what Lore did was right or wrong, but that’s what can happen when peoples’ emotions are on the line. Lore wasn’t feeling wanted or appreciated and found herself in a difficult position. Take it or leave it, that’s what happened in this book that led to all sort of trouble for the protagonist. I agreed that it was a view we don’t often get to read about: a strongly opinionated woman going after her own desires even if it makes her world explode. And the fact that it was written around my own city added a massive element of excitement to the whole thing. The street names, the ambiance, buildings, and general culture is captured so perfectly the only way someone could have written this book is if they’d lived here.

I read varying reviews regarding the fact that so much of Lore’s dialogue is written in her Spanish/Splanglish way of speaking and many were upset that the author didn’t directly translate each statement. But for me personally, that aspect of the book I absolutely reveled in. It’s an amazing thing to feel seen when you read a book, when your culture and community shines on the page and you’re able to relate so strongly. One thing I can’t stand to read, as a Latina, is when Spanish phrases are directly translated after being spoken. I specifically seek out novels about Latinas because I want to relate, I want to feel immersed!

What gets me even more though is when no Spanish dialogue is used in a Mexico-based novel (looking at you, Mexican Gothic. I’m still not over that one). The way Lore talks is completely natural to the way we speak, that easy flow from one language to the other, even expecting the other person to know exactly what’s being said without asking them whether they do or not. That captured the essence of who we are as a people so well and I’m extremely grateful to Katie Gutierrez for writing this novel.

Thank you to the publisher William Morrow for providing an eARC for review and a hardback copy to promote this fantastic novel about our city.

This novel is amazing!!!! It sweeps the slan of 1980's to present time telling the story of a woman's double life. Unheard of is a woman leading two different lives but this author shows us how women can be deceitful and cunning . I highly recommend this book

I think perhaps my timing of reading this one, in the midst of reading many other thrillers, skewed my view. Overall, I felt the plot was fine, but the pacing and timeline a drug a bit for me. The mystery and characters were fine, I don't have any major flaws to note, it just didn't stand out compared to others.

What I loved:
✨The discussion around motherhood, womanhood, working mom/wife, and sense of self - I understood and related to the conflict and complexity of these roles we play. Examining this complexity offered lots of worthy discussion points in our book chat.
✨True Crime storyline - We’ve seen this many times now. But here, the story provides not only how the obsession with true crime tugs at the truth/justice vs. entertainment POV but also how those lines blur in and out of focus with amazing clarity when you become attached to the true crime subject.
✨Gutierrez writing - loved, loved, loved it! The Spanglish, the descriptive settings, the emotional roller coaster of both Cassie and Lore, the justifications of their actions, and the secrets kept. I’m amazed this is a debut novel and eagerly await her sophomore novel.
✨The narration - both narrators enhanced the story. As I moved between physical book and audiobook, I became drawn more to the audiobook due to their narration.

If you're a fan of historical fiction, mystery, or true crime genres or enjoy family dramas or complex women characters, I highly recommend both the audio and physical book! 4.25 stars!

✨ Review ✨More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

I'm SCREAMING. I'm in love with this book. Gutierrez, who grew up in Laredo and now lives in San Antonio, writes South Texas so so well. Her descriptions of each of the places in the book (from Austin and SA to Laredo to South Texas ranches) resonates so deeply, and I loved how she wove in both the historicity of these places and their contemporary identity. Her descriptions of the fluidity of the border, of how transnationalism complicates identity, of the messiness of motherhood, and so much more are off the charts.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

This dual POV book follows Cassie, a journalist from Austin in 2017 who discovers the story of Lore, a Laredo woman who was married to two men, and the Laredo husband was arrested for killing the husband from Mexico City (DF) in 1986. The book alternates between these characters -- Cassie seeking to learn more about Lore in the present day, and Lore's story from 1983-1986 as well as in the present day. I love dual POV historical fiction, and this was beautifully done, weaving in mid-1980s economic crises and border banking, the 1985 earthquake that levels much of DF, and more.

She also really brilliantly reflects on the genre of true crime and the relationship between author and subject through the relationship that grows between Cassie and Lore. The ways that the stories paralleled and intersected and both characters grew because of their interactions with each other was incredibly beautiful. I also loved how she took you so deeply into Lore that she made her choices understandable while also not shying away from the consequences of her actions.

Admittedly, Cassie isn't always likeable or relatable as a character and some pieces of her story might feel a bit peripheral, but I think much of this is still helping advance the larger narrative.

This was an incredible debut, and I'll be back to read whatever she writes next!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: family drama, literary fiction, with light thriller/mystery vibes
Location: South Texas (Austin, SA, Laredo) and Mexico City
Pub Date: Out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ really well-done bilingualism, blending some Spanish into the narrative in really natural ways
⭕️ family drama with female protagonists
⭕️ borderlands stories with strong Latinx / Mexican / Mexican American representation
⭕️ dual POV historical fiction + true crime

Also - our whole bookclub agreed that we loved this book - something that never happens! It was a GREAT book club pick. Thanks to @bookclubgirl and William Morrow for sending us a copy of this!

This riveting debut novel is told in alternating chapters set in 1985 and 2017 from the perspectives of Dolores "Lore" Rivera and Cassie Bowman. Cassie, a struggling true-crime author, encounters an article about the double life Lore led in Laredo, Texas and Mexico City in the mid-1980s when she was a successful international banker, and the murder of one of the men she married. Cassie feels compelled to investigate further, hoping it will be the break she has been seeking. Lore is resistant to Cassie's overtures but eventually lets her in; her charisma is evident from their first encounter. As the investigation unfolds, Cassie questions the facts surrounding the murder and she wonders what really happened. Did Lore's husband Fabian really kill her second husband Andres? Cassie's relentless pursuit of the answer to that question threatens Lore's now quiet life.

I really enjoyed the way the story was presented and felt that the alternating chapters captured each woman's voice and the places and times in which they were told. I can't say that either was particularly "likable" (which I don't have an issue with), but I found them both fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed the story, which kept me hooked from the first page to the last. This was an impressive debut and I can't wait to read this author's next novel based on this thriller of a tale. Many thanks to the Book Club Girl Early Reads program and HarperCollins/William Morrow for a chance to read this NetGalley version!

More Than You'll Ever Know is a uniquely ambitious tale of domestic fiction with a hint of mystery at its core, and as long as you go into this book knowing it is NOT a thriller or suspense novel, the reader can wholly embrace it to the fullest. The changing POV between modern day Cassie and Lore's past provide a compelling narrative that ties in true crime to the identity of women, and in Lore's case a woman of color. The story weighs the precarious balance of motherhood against the career life, and brings up many thought provoking aspects as which is more important and how society tends to demonize women who value their career after they become mothers.

I've yet to come across another story in my reading that has tackled polygamy from the female standpoint in contemporary fiction, and I found it fascinating to watch how Lore finds herself in this predicament. Highly recommended if you're looking for a thoughtful, prose-filled, slow burning novel that intricately details the female identity and discusses timely issues that have affected women in the past, and still do in the present.

While this read more like domestic suspense than a thriller, it was still an overall enjoyable read! It was slow to start but picked up once some twists were thrown in. The writing was good but I felt this story was a little too long and parts of it dragged.
Thank you William & Morrow and The Scene of the Crime for this eArc.

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez starts off slow but picks up and once it does, I was unable to put it down. The different timeline device worked really well in the construct of this book. The characters were not very likable, but they kept my interest. I also enjoyed the diversity throughout the story. Two families, one woman, many, many different emotions.

Lore is living two lives, with two families, waiting for the day things come crashing down. Fast forward 20 years, and Cassie is investigating how one of Lore’s husbands was possibly murdered by the other, while also hiding secrets of her own. Their stories weave together as they get to know one another, realizing they may be more similar than they thought.

I really liked this book and the way the author portrays the struggle each woman faces and creates some serious levels of empathy for both of their situations. Add in a little mystery and it rounded out well. Would recommend!

I’ve been having a true crime / thriller mismatch where I’m just not super into them right now. I think that’s why this book was only okay for me

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Told in three parts with an alternating timeline, this book truly is a work of art. Gutierrez has chosen to write about something that is virtually impossible for many of us to imagine - a person that married two people, and lived separate lives..... and that person is a woman, which made this even more thrilling. Add a murder mystery, and you have it! Dolores 'Lore" lives a dual-life - one with a husband and two children in Texas and another with a husband in Mexico. She risks it all and this book has it all... it is a slow-burner, suspense-thriller, and did not disappoint.

The writing was fantastic. I actually stole some quotes, and it started out great with the true crime fanatic. I think my problem is I really didn't have any interest in the true crime case Cassie was trying to solve with Lore's dead husband and the double life she led. The little twist at the end might have hit me harder if I didn't want it to just end at that point. I feel like it didn't hold my attention and really rambled on, but I got it as an advanced reader's copy from @netgalley, so I wanted to finish for an honest review.

Lore Rivera is an unusual protagonist, who makes decision based on her heart and not her hear. She finds herself in a complicated and strained marriage and seeks out a new relationship that leads her to even more heartache. But eventually realizes that her first and legal marriage is the more supportive one and needs to hide the truth from from both husbands.

This was an interesting concept but I felt like it was way too long and I expected a thriller but got more of a domestic suspense story. That being said, I enjoyed the two POVs and the true crime aspect and I was surprised by the ending.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the copy to review.

I received this from William Morrow and Scene of the Crime for the early read copy.

This is the story of a woman who ends up being in love with two men and is married to both of them. She ends up struggling to maintain two households and children at her homes. Then one of her husbands ends up dead.

It was an interesting story and scenario. I enjoyed the story and book.

I really enjoyed Katie Gutierrez's first book. It was a slow burn at first but I liked the surprising twists at the end. The only thing that bothered me was the use of Spanish throughout the book with no translation. It added an authenticity to the characters but without a translation it could be confusing. I look forward to reading more from Katie Gutierrez.

Unfortunately I am DNFing this book at 40%. I believe this is another book misrepresented as a “thriller”. The writing is good, but I think the book would be more interesting if it was shorter and only written in Cassie’s POV.

As More Than You'll Ever Know opens in 2017, Cassie Bowman is trying to eke out a living as a true crime writer. Growing up in Enid, Oklahoma, she watched "Dateline" with her mother and checked true crime books out of the library, reading In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter at an early age. By the time she was in high school, she was obsessed -- determined to become a journalist and write the kind of books she grew up reading. "Books that looked at the ugliest parts of humanity and asked: How did it come to this?" So far, she works fifteen hours per week earning thirteen dollars per hour writing blog posts for a television network that broadcasts low-budget true crime productions. It is Cassie's job to find novel, gruesome crimes and write posts about them for an insatiable audience. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her fiancé, Duke, who owns and operates a food truck, and encourages Cassie to pursue freelance work on other topics because he finds true crime "macabre." Cassie is tiring of her pursuits, feeling "like a forager of other people's tragedies, . . ." she relates in the first-person narrative through which Gutierrez tells her story. "It was hard to be proud of this kind of work." Duke grew up on a dairy farm with a large, loving family whose members have embraced Cassie and are eager to help plan and host their upcoming wedding. Cassie has never told Duke the truth about her own family, which is why she can never take calls from her younger brother, Andrew, in his presence. "There was too much he didn't know. Too much to risk by telling him."

A Google alert leads Cassie to a story in the Laredo Morning Times about Dolores and Fabian Rivera, and Cassie is drawn to the accompanying photographs. One, taken in 1978, shows the couple with their twin boys, Gabriel and Mateo, and was taken at a ribbon-cutting event. The second photo is of Dolores standing next to Andres Russo with her hand on the shoulder of a teenage girl, and was taken in 1984. The article reveals that Dolores was the girl's stepmother, and Penelope Russo painfully recollects being deceoved by Dolores. The headline? "Her Secret LIves: How One Woman's Double Marriage Led to the Murder of an Innocent Man." Cassie is hooked. "I had to know more." Pondering the sheer effort is would take to lead a double life, Cassie has to know why Dolores -- a mother -- would do such a thing. Her interest is in no small part fueled, as Gutierrez details incrementally, by her own family history. Cassie's mother, a third grade teacher, died tragically just as Andrew came into Cassie's life. The fact that Dolores refused to participate in an interview for the article does not deter Cassie. She begins researching the case, intent on finding out how Andres Russo ended up dead on August 2, 1986, after being involved with Dolores for three years and married to her for nearly a year. And why Fabian murdered him and is still incarcerated for the crime. She soon learns that Mateo owns a veterinary clinic in San Antonio and Gabriel is a high school basketball coach. And Dolores is still in their lives, plainly visible in family photographs posted on Facebook and Instagram. Cassie is flabbergasted at the notion that her sons were able to forgive Dolores . . . because Cassie has never been able to forgive her own mother.

In alternating chapters, Dolores's story unfolds via a third-person narrative that begins in 1983 as she -- "Lore" -- commences another business trip to Mexico City. She loves being able to travel to the large city. "Nobody knows her. She could be anyone. She could become anyone." Indeed. Gutierrez says Lore's story had to be set in the past because today so much information is readily available online. Additionally, it "created the opportunity to explore truth in a different way -- what if the events known to have happened didn’t actually happen that way, or what if there was a deeper story behind them?" Lore meets Andres during a recession when she and Fabian are extremely stressed because Fabian is desperately trying to keep his business afloat even as the peso's devaluation continues. Lore's job in international banking is secure, but Lore opened a store selling custom doors five years earlier. With people struggling just to hold onto their homes, and constuction and remodeling projects stalled, the market for doors has shrunk dramatically. The pressure is impacting their marriage. Gutierrez, who grew up in Laredo, "a border town," depicts Fabian's intense pain and disappointment about failing for the first time. Even though it is not his fault, "in Mexican culture, there’s that element of machismo, and expectation that men will be the providers." If Fabian's store goes out of business, Lore will be the primary breadwinner. Meanwhile, her parents are experiencing the same consternation about their own business, and Lore and her siblings learn her parents have made horrendous choices, leading them to need financial assistance from their grown children in order to survive.

Mexico City provides Lore a respite from her responsibilities. She is invited to the wedding of the daughter of a Mexican entrepreneur and bank customer. It's an excellent opportunity to network, and it is at the reception dinner that she meets Andres -- the bride's professor and advisor at the university. Lore is a beautiful thirty-two-year-old woman and the way Andres looks at her is electrifying. She does not tell him that she is married and has two sons at home. "And it's only a dance, after all."

Cassie's pursuit of her story unfolds as, in alternating and thoroughly grossing chapters, Lore and Andres fall in love in 1983, and Lore's deception has escalating consequences. Her frequent business trips make it possible for her to spend time with Andres, who teaches and parents his daughter. Lore actively conceals the truth about her life from Andres, arranging to receive his telephone calls at the bank at specified times, for instance. When Andres asks her if she wants childen, she tells him, "I'm not sure," conflating the inquiry in her mind to "Do you want more children?" so that she can delude herself into believing that she is being honest. Her relationship with Andres is exciting -- romantic and dangerous -- and something that Lore possesses just for herself. Gutierrez convinclingly and compassionately portrays Lore as a woman who truly loves Fabian and her children, but for whom her life with them is not enough -- it's both too confining and requires too much of her. Even motherhood did not fulfill Lore. "Motherhood is supposed to be quiet and pretty. But motherhood is not pretty. Motherhood has teeth." She went back to work over Fabian's objections. Gutierrez also draws readers into Fabian's plight. Back at home in Laredo, striving to provide for his family, he has no idea that his wife's business trips are actually trysts.

Cassie locates Lore, who agrees to be interviewed but not about the murder of Andres. Cassie also speaks with Lore's sons, Penelope, and others who can provide background and context to the story she plans to write. With Lore, Gutierrez strove to create "a character who is acting in an ostensibly amoral way and portray her in a way that very quickly makes her actions understandable." She succeeds. Like Cassie, readers are drawn to Lore, realting to and empathizing with her desires and dreams. Like Lore, Cassie is passionate and driven. Her ambition connected her with the woman to whom she reveals details about her own family history that she has never been able to tell Duke, blurring the line that separates her professional pursuit of the truth with her personal needs. Lore cleverly turns the tables on Cassie, drawing information from her as they spend hours talking. As her work on the story continues, Cassie's perspective on her own family evolves as her relationship with Duke begins to falter, particularly when Andrew needs her help and Duke becomes privvy to the aspects of Cassie's past she hid from him.

Once Lore's story advances to 2017, it becomes a carefully curated first-person account that seems mostly straight-forward and honest, but it is always clear that to see Lore as a victim is a mistake. She manipulates Cassie, telling her just enough to satisfy her, but not everything. And there are several junctures at which Cassie discovers that she has been fooled by Lore, who agreed to participate in the intervews for her own purpose, as Gutierrez skillfully reveals gradually. Is it a performance for Lore or is she a sixty-seven-year-old woman with regrets who has spent many years trying to right the wrongs she committed? She acknowledges that she loves reliving that period in her life. "And the truth is, I had always been a hedonist. A slave to the pleasures of the moment. Wasn't that how everything had started? Because, in a time of deprivation, Andres had given me his hand? How could I have said no? To the dance, to the wine?"

Cassie's investigation reveals inconsistencies in the details related by witnesses during police interviews and the evidence uncovered during the criminal investigation. Cassie comes to believe that the wrong person is serving time for killing Andres. But if Fabian did not kill him, who did? Is Fabian covering for someone? The book's pace accelerates as Cassie closes in on the truth and finds herself in danger. But Gutierrez delivers more than just a murder mystery. She also examines, through Cassie's conflict with Duke, the -- perhaps unintended -- consequences of true crime stories. Despite her agreement with Lore not to discuss the murder, Cassie cannot ignore her misgivings about Fabian's conviction, even though he confessed to killing Andres. Cassies tries to convince Duke that revealing the truth is a means of honoring the decedent, "a way of saying their life mattered." But Duke reminds her that she only has Lore's permission to write about her double life. She has not obtained permission from anyone else connected to Lore or Andres's death to write about it, and her unwilingness to respect boundaries has the potential to bring about devastating results. She envisions uncovering the truth as a duty. But the truth always comes at a cost, as Gutierrez deftly demonstrates.

More Than You'll Ever Know is a inventive meditation on the demands of marriage and motherhood, the sacrifices they require from women, and the way society views women who refuse to settle for less than they want and feel they deserve. It is also an absorbing look at ambition and the power of investigative journalism, as well as forgiveness. Is there any action that is truly unforgivable? Or is the capacity for undertanding and empathy so vast that the most unimaginably hurtful betrayal can be forgiven in order to preserve one's family?

But at the core of the story is that nagging question: Why? Why did Lore risk the family she had already created with Fabian in order to pursue a new one with Andres? Did she really think that she could get away with it? Didn't she understand that it was a catastrophe waiting to unfold and that when her duplicity was revealed, the people she loved would be devastated by her betrayal? Lore tells Cassie, I wasnted to be known. I wanted to know myself. That's what it was all about. And I ended up alone." Is Lore's explanation worthy of belief? And in the end, is Cassie's dogged pursuit of the truth worth what it costs her? Finding out the answers to those questions, and pondering the issues Gutierrez broaches in More Than You'll Ever Know is a delightfully entertaining and engrossing experience. More Than You'll Ever Know is so tautly crafted, her characters so fully developed and fascinating, it is hard to believe it is a debut work of fiction.