If you’re craving a super fun cozy mystery with a steamy romance on the side this book is for you.

Our detective, Sam, sets out to solve a murder case on an island before anything else can go wrong.

This book had me engaged and through some twists I did not see coming!

This was a really fun mystery/romance novel. I loved that it revolves around so-called influencers and it wasn’t set in Detective Sam’s usual setting. They had to start from the beginning as the book started, new place, new people, new coworkers, not knowing what’s going to happen. I loved to see that, because most crime shows don’t show that aspect of the job, it happens in real life all of the time and most media doesn’t show it.
I loved that the plot immediately started as the book started, we barely got any backstory and we really learned everything as Sam did. The book really did keep me on my toes the entire time I was reading and I really did enjoy reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author Elle Kleos for an eARC of this book.

Ahhhh, again the title sucked me in! What a fun little romp of a story that kind of fits into so many different boxes, it's a great beach read! I wish the characters had a but more depth but it was a nice, breezy resd

I have not started reading the book yet (sorry, Elle!), but since this is a queer book with an enby MC, I am sure that this book will be a fantastic read.

"...As long as I can rely on you to be straight with me, having someone who knows 10 percent more about the ins and outs of this place could make all the difference..."

"Well, being straight has never been my specialty but I'll do my best."

Come for the murder, stay for the banter, steam, and insta love between non binary detective Sam (just Sam) and bad boy bisexual Teddy in the queer cozy murder mystery Like & Subscribe For Murder by debut author Elle Kleos.

There has been a murder on Paradise Island and Detective Sam has been called from the mainland to solve the case since the population of the Island is too small for a homicide division and that makes everyone a suspect.

Props to narrator @faketjclark for equal comedic, sultry, and crime drama talents. The murder takes place at a hotel hosting the wedding of a YouTube sensation to a pure bridezilla social media influencer. Both sides of the family are extreme examples of privileged brats. Teddy, however is no pretense, what you see is what you get, and when Sam interviews him with their trusted tape recorder, they are aware of Teddy's appeal. As for Teddy, how he feels is obvious when he says, "I think my heart has known you all my life."

Despite a few red herrings the resolution of the murder was quite satisfying and believable considering the social media consciousness of all the suspects.

I read and listened to this writer's easy to follow story and really enjoyed the mash up of Scream Queens/Columbo/Knives Out. I hope there are more Detective Sam books because I would definitely like and subscribe to that series.

I received a free copy of this book and audiobook from the author via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Primary content warnings are murder and violence. Minor content warnings include racism, misgendering, misogyny, and slutshaming.

This was a fun read! Murder mysteries aren't my usual genre, but I've been wanting to get more into them and this felt like the perfect choice to close out the summer. Frothy, quick-paced, and well-suited for escapism, Like and Subscribe for Murder follows non-binary detective Sam as they try to solve a mystery that took place less then 48 hours before the influencer wedding of the decade, and it certainly delivers on the premise. The characters by and large are fairly two-dimensional, leaning into stereotypes—Maggie, our bride, is a shining example of this—and this is where the book draws most of its humor from. The whirlwind romance was charming and I did enjoy it quite a bit, feeling sold by the end on their fling and the joy they both got from it.

The floating POV at times detracted from the storytelling (it implied that Sam knew things they didn't) and I was confused by the author's choices around the Spanish language here in general. Additionally, the sheer amount of misgendering happening in the first twenty or thirty pages of the book was a bit jarring. Sam's total non-reaction to it was surprising, but I settled into it as time went on and ended up ultimately liking that choice for their character.

One reason I struggle with this genre is in the inherently flawed and biased nature of the American justice system, which this book does touch on a bit, though it still ends up being mostly upheld as "the right way" by the story by the end.

Overall, a solid three star read for me that I'd recommend for people looking for a queer romp and a quick, fast plot!

I really enjoyed this book. If you want a cozy mystery with rich person drama and some steamy romance on the side, then definitely check out this book. Plus there's LGBTQ rep in this book for numerous characters, and Sam is non-binary. 🏳️‍🌈

We follow Detective Sam who is called in from the mainland to this small island, as their expertise is homicide and the police on the island don't have a homicide unit. We are introduced to a number of interesting characters throughout Sam's investigation, and some are more willing to help than others. Sam also enlists the help of a few people throughout the investigation to better understand the nuances of the staff and customers that are staying on the island.

There were quite a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming. And I loved seeing the clues that Sam discovered and how they put all the pieces together to solve the investigation.

This was definitely a wild ride and I read it pretty quickly. Not gonna lie, as a romance reader I always love when there are romance subplots, and I was here for it! I loved the large personality of Sam's love interest (without giving too much away).

Considering this is mentioned as book 1, I'm really hoping the author continues with this series. I will definitely be picking up more books from this author in the future.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Enjoyment: 4
Total rating: 4.07

Like & Subscribe for Murder is a delightful queer mystery. Sam is a quirky non-binary detective who's not afraid to mix business and pleasure. I feel that the representation alone is worth reading this book for. As an "origin story," I get that some mistakes were made in the investigation that resulted in Sam finding a sidekick. I hope that the story focuses more on Sam's development and their job as a detective in future novels.

It's a solid debut, and I hope Kleos continues delivering light-hearted whodunnits.


Disclaimer: In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to the publishers and NetGalley for providing a copy of Like & Subscribe for Murder

I am always up for a cozy mystery and when I saw that this book was described as Knives Out/Scream Queens queer murder mystery, I was hooked.

I really enjoyed the pacing of this story particularly, I thought it was done well when there was a lot of action surrounding the initial murder as well as the other twists and turns.

The characters were very memorable & likable, especially our main character Sam & I already am wishing for a sequel. The way the story wrapped up reminded me of a crime drama "episode of the week", which gave closer to the reader & allowed for an open-ended possibility for another book.

At times, the story was a bit confusing and I had to take a minute to go back and re-read the chapter I was in just to check in and make sure I understood who the side characters were and what I already knew about them, but I feel like this is to be expected with a murder mystery.

This was - generally speaking - a fun mystery with a sweet romantic side plot. I enjoyed the mystery plot, which is really saying something, because I'm super particular about that. The mystery really unfolds in unexpected ways. All of the clues and puzzle pieces were well laid out and the progression of the mystery felt very natural.

The romance was a little insta-lusty, which I don't mind, and while inside of the book, you kind of forget that Sam and Teddy have only known each other for a very short period of time. It's only now really that I've been away from the book for a while that I realize that that all happened in the time span of a couple of days.

My only real qualms with the book were 1. most of the minor characters are portrayed with very flat, stereotypical depictions of what wealth and privilege looks like. In all fairness, there's a lot of characters here and we didn't get a lot of time to know them all. So take that for what you will. 2. I thought the choice to have the Spanish spoken during the book written out in English even though the character through whose narrative we are experiencing the book doesn't understand Spanish was odd. I'm not sure how I feel about things that were happening outside of Sam's purview being completely unknown to us with the exception of this one thing. Tack on that then the Spanish would be translated for Sam so we'd read the same text twice? Bizarre choice.

For me, these are relatively small qualms and didn't impact my reading much.

That all being said, I had a fun time with this.

CWs: references to f-slur, misgendering, homophobia, death and dead bodies

An island paradise doesn't seem so idyllic as police Detective Sam is called in from the mainland to solve a tragic death of a hotel staff member. The Paradiso club is the stage of the most anticipated social media wedding of the year and the show must go on as Sam investigates the Paradiso rich and famous.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for a review.

With many twists and turns, this book is a detailed and well executed mystery. The colourful cast of characters, many with secrets for Sam to uncover as they piece together a mysterious death that seems at odds with the perfect product placement of the social media wedding. As with all good books of the genre, it keeps you guessing as you identify one suspect and then Sam unravels a new clue to make you question all over again.

I tend to prefer romantic liaison in my police procedurals to be slow burn rather than the instalust that happens in this book. Particularly when it looks like the romantic partner may be a suspect. That said, Teddy is delightful and stands in stark relief to the other soulless and superficial island inhabitants, I'd personally love to see him and Sam have a long term thing. If you are looking for sex, this book is fade to black, so there's plenty of sexual tension and preliminary exploration on the page but no sex.

This book hovers somewhere between cozy mystery and police procedural with periods of lighthearted chatter and some methodical police work. All in all a fabulous introduction to Detective Sam, I think they could make a great reoccurring character for a series.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book! I thought that the mystery in this book was very well written because every time I thought I had a solid idea of who did it I would be completely wrong! There were so many working parts to this book but it never felt chaotic, which made it all the better. I also loved the LGBTQIA+ representation since this is the first book that I have read with a Nonbinary main character that is a detective, which is PERFECT for Pride month! This book was published May 31st, 2022 so be sure to check it out!

‘A queer (and fun) murder mystery’ were the first words that made me interested in reading Like & Subscribe for Murder. The book did deliver an intriguing murder mystery with good queer representation and quite a few twists along the way.

Right from the start, I loved to see the use of they/them pronouns for our non-binary main character, detective Sam. It was refreshing to see how easily that was taken and used without the MC having to point out their pronouns to every person they met (there were many).
Here, Elle Kleos gives a modern and fun take on a detective story. Social media is an integral part of the plot and makes it easy to point out futilities of very rich and entitled (young) people. It shows how social media may drive influencers lives. However, I think it’s good to notice that all the futility and, let’s be real, stupidity presented here is not the norm of the digital social world, but it can be part of it.

There’re some points that weren’t my favourite. For instance, I found the book quite slow paced. The writing style compensates a bit for it since the interviews were mostly dialogues. This different writing style was interesting and I think it has a lot of potential, but I did miss a bit of descriptions both of the characters and places. I generally like to go into a book and be able to image everything that’s happening there, so more descriptions would definitely improve this aspect.

Overall, this was indeed a fun queer murder mystery with great potential. The writing is easy to follow and the plot is able to hold the reader’s attention at the same time making it difficult to figure out who the murderer was and how the murder really happened.

Ah, what about romance? Well, that was romance too. Detective Sam meets Teddy, (the cousin of the bride and the black ship of the family) in the beginning of the story, and they work together to solve this mystery. Teddy is a charming, handsome and confident gay man. They click and start flirting right from their first interactions. So, even though there’s a romance and they definitely form a connection, I’m glad it wasn’t pointed out falling in love or anything too deep. The whole book takes place in less than 48 hours, so I appreciate that there was physical attraction and that new hookup fire, but not instant love. It will be nice to see how Sam and Teddy’s relationship may develop in future books.

Thank you NetGalley and Akleos Production for providing me with an arc of this book.

Delighted to include this title in ‘The Rainbow Connection,’ my latest round-up for Zoomer magazine’s Books section highlighting new and notable books for Pride (see mini-review at link)

A great idea - love a detective story and a good idea combining this with the world of social media and influencers.

I did not finish this, but not due to any reason around the writing or story. I just struggled with the imagery - I am a really visual reader and the main character being non binary made it difficult. Perhaps there needed to be more of a description to enable the reader to build a picture up of the character, this could still have been done without gender.

Given 4 stars because I liked the story and idea, I just found the imagery hard.

This was a very fun read. The writing kept me interested in the mystery and the potential romance. I don't want to spoil a thing so all I'll say is if you love a modern day murder mystery, this is the book for you!

Also, we love a non-binary protagonist. It was genuinely an interesting reading experience with the pronouns corrected to reflect this. A wonderful reading experience.

LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MURDER is a fun queer murder mystery complete with: 🥹constant affirming use of they/them pronouns (and gender neutral Spanish!) for its nonbinary protagonist, very hot very gay “enthusiastic romancing” and "rich people suck, hotel staff deserve more” solidarity.

The way Elle Kleos gets the absurdity of wealth and the traditions of the rich SO SHARP, alongside the ridiculously serious business of an influencer’s lifestyle (complete with product placements) is SO DAMN PERFECT. The entire book is simply chef’s kiss! but a quote I adore: “Who do you think you are?” Maggie asked, and Sam cringed a little at the shrill note in her voice. “Arresting someone? In the middle of a sponsored livestream? Someone tell me this is a sick joke.”

If you wanted HBO's 'The White Lotus' to be the murder mystery we expected, only way more queer (nonbinary detective protagonist! several horny gay dudes!) and heavier on the ‘eat the rich’ energy…. LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MURDER is everything you need and more! It's kinda ruined my life, in a 'what do I even read after this' way —because it had never occured to me that one book could have so much of who i am and what i love ALL AT ONCE?!

The author dedicates this book “to any queer readers who are tired of crying over sad stories and are ready to laugh again.” and continues: “If this story can make even one person smile, then it’s already everything I dreamed it would be.” If I could give this billion stars I would. There's gonna be a sequel and i simply cannot wait!

I was immediately hooked by the prospect of another nonbinary detective starring in a murder mystery as I have loved queer murder mysteries recently.

Detective Sam is brought to Paradiso Island during the biggest wedding of the season to investigate the murder of a staff memeber working the event. Thrown into a world of influencers and having a language barrier with the staff, will Sam be able to solve this case?

I read this book right when I needed something just like it - being easy to follow, containing humor, and having lots of diverse characters. However, is it the best written book? No. I felt that it was lacking both in character development and writing engagement. I would have loved to learn more about the characters, their personalities, who they are. Instead, they felt rather flat to me. The writing - I'm not quite sure how to describe it, other than it's not one that I would struggle to put down and take breaks reading. It's just missing that really engaging factor for me.

Plotwise, I did really enjoy it. Some pacing was off and the timeline was fairly confusing, but the mystery and way the case was written allowed me to relax and enjoy the book. I was mostly kept guessing along the way which I like in mysteries & thrillers.

Characterwise, we have a nonbinary MC, Sam, who uses they/them pronouns and I really liked the way some of this representation was done. There are also various characters who fall somewhere on the achillean spectrum, including Sam. There's a lot of Latine representation & Spanish language, although it felt too much like it was playing into the stereotype of Latine staff & rich white country clubbers, rather than including POC characters in other positions.

One other reason I couldn't rate this higher, is the poor inclusion of gender neutral language in Spanish. I myself do not speak Spanish aside from a few words here and there, but when it felt off to me, I consulted people in the bookstagram community who do speak Spanish. The consensus on what was done wrong:
- El detectivex: detective is already gender neutral in Spanish, as it ends in -e. The -x is also not pronounceable in Spanish and the -e ending is preferred by Spanish speakers. Using "el" (or the masculine form of "the") also defeats the purpose of gender neutral language and should be "le" instead.
- Ellos as "they": ellos is the masculine version of the plural "they" in Spanish, with ellas being the feminine version. Referring to Sam with the pronoun "ellos" is still using gender to refer to them. Instead, the gender neutral singular they, "elle" is used by Spanish speakers & should be used instead of "ellos".

Overall, I would still probably pick up the next installment out of curiosity and a general state of enjoyment.

Rep: nonbinary MC, achillean MC & SCs, Latine SCs, Spanish language

CW: murder, death, blood, needles, alcohol, explosives, misgendering, cyberbullying, bullying, ableist language

Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience

4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience

3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience

2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others

1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone

I'm not sure why, but I could not get into this book. I picked it up and put it down multiple times. Unfortunately this is going to be my first DNF for the year. I will try again in a few months. I want to like it!

OK OK OK MY DUDES AND DUDETTES.

This book was FUN.

Two influencers are getting married on an island. It's going to be "the wedding of the century." But the day before the wedding, a body is found in the wine cellar. A detective from the mainland is shipped in (because this tiny island definitely doesn't have a homicide department) to solve the case.

THE DETECTIVE'S NAME IS SAM. SAM USES THEY/THEM PRONOUNS. SAM IS A BADASS NON-BINARY/ANDROGYNOUS PROTAGONIST. I LOVE SAM.

This book had me hooked. The writing is fast paced and while I wanted to murder the bride influencer, I could NOT stop reading. It honestly is a quick whodunnit for 2022.

5/5. All the 🌈 All the 🏳️‍🌈 I need more Detective Sam ASAP.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for my advance e-copy in exchange for my honest review.