I had heard buzz about Someone Had to Do a debut novel of Amber and Danielle Brown releasing in December of 2022. WOW - It's quite the page turner and very suspenseful kept me wanting to read more and more. Brandi Maxwell is a young black intern working as an intern at the Van Doren fashion house in Manhattan.even though its not as glamorous as one one would think it would be. Taylor Van Doren is a Fashion influencer and Brandi can't help but fangirl her a bit - we all know influencers aren't' exactly what they seem online - She's Brandi's bosses daughter and it seems she has a past with Brandi's boyfriend - when Brandi meets her at a party and hears something she shouldn't - Brandi's life spins out of control and she sees another side of Taylor - and its definitely not a nice one) Pretty shocking how mad I got at Taylor's actions throughout this book. She is so selfish and doesn't care about anyone but herself. I was glad to see how the book turned out.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House, & NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this digital ARC

The debut novel by Amber & Danielle Brown is not your typical thriller/mystery. The story has it all: family dysfunction, snobby, entitled,rich kids, discrimination. Oh and all the SPICE! If this were a TV show it would come with a warming for adult subject matter due to nudity and sexy scenes.

Narrates by both complete opposites, Taylor Van Doren and Brandi Maxwell. Taylor, the supermodel daughter of fashion icon Simon Van Doren fits all the rich-girl stereotypes and is as entitled as they come. Brandi on the other name is an impoverished student-intern at Van Doren who desperately wants a career in fashion. While I initially found Brandi's character a little annoying, I ended up cheering for her due to her perseverance and never-give-up attitude!

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and my favourite part was the last 30% or so where the authors pull it all together while simultaneously hit too g us with more twists.


Thank you to Net Galley, Harper-Collins (and Killer Crime Club on Facebook) and authors Amber and Danielle Brown for the Advanced Readers Copy!

Release Dec 27, 2022!

This is a debut thriller novel coming from a sister duo! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this early e-arc!

We are following dual POV’s. Our first perspective comes from Brandi, she is an intern for a fashion house. This has always been her dream, so when she begins living her dream it doesn’t entail everything she thought it would. She jumps at the opportunity to meet her boss’ influencer daughter, Taylor.

Taylor is a fashion influencer. By all accounts, she has everything. Only she’s on the brink of losing it all. Her mom recently was killed, and she’s convinced that her dad did it. Only her dad has threatened to donate her entire inheritance to a charity if she can’t pass a drug test. Taylor wants to take what is her’s, but she needs someone to take the fall for it.

This was a fast paced and fun ride. I will admit that I did not connect with the characters as much as I wanted to, but this good for her thriller was a fun time.

Wow, I loved this fast paced read! I felt a lot of sympathy towards Brandi throughout the story because she was really put through the wringer! The final confrontation between Brandi and Taylor was really fun to read. Very well executed.

Thank you net galley.
This is basically about two young women, one white the other coloured.
Brandi is working as an intern at Van Doren wanting to get in to the fashion world. Taylor Van Doren is Simon Van Doren's white privileged daughter. If Taylor doesn't clean her act up her father will give her inheritance to a charity.
Yes, Simon can be controlling with having Taylor do drug tests just to make sure that she is clean.
Brandi and her boyfriend Nate are invited to a lavish party at the Van Doren house. Brandi goes looking around for an empty room to be alone with Nate. As she is wandering the halls she soon hears Taylor and two of her friends schemeing to kill Simon.
Everything from then on goes down hill for Brandi as she is accused of murdering Simon Van Doren.
But which girl will come out on top?

‘Someone Had to Do It’ by Amber and Danielle Brown was a wild, somewhat chaotic, fast-paced, smart, truthful, utterly intriguing thriller. I literally couldn’t put this down. Highly recommend!

Someone Had to Do It is a fast-paced and compelling debut thriller from author duo Amber Brown and Danielle Brown.

Brandi Maxwell, a young Black woman, did not grow up with wealth. So when she lands an internship at Van Doren, a high-fashion company, she thinks it will be a stepping stone for the rest of her career. Although Brandi mainly does grunt work, like cleaning vomit from dresses, Brandi believes it is going well. That is until HR informs her she needs to start fitting in with the “culture” of the company.

Then there’s Taylor Van Doren, a spoiled, drug-addled style influencer and daughter of Simon Van Doren. Taylor’s father has threatened to donate her trust fund to charity if she doesn’t clean up her act within six months.

When Brandi and her NFL boyfriend Nate attend a party at Simon’s house, Brandi is excited to meet Taylor. And she hopes she can convince Simon to choose her for the company’s upcoming trip to Milan. But Brandi accidentally overhears something she wishes she could forget. Not long after that, her life starts to fall apart.

This wild thriller follows Brandi and Taylor’s POVs. It is a popcorn read, replete with plenty of chaotic scenes that sometimes border on absurdity. It has been a while since any characters have frustrated me as much as these characters did. Although, the story is entertaining if you go along with it.

It also discusses white privilege, entitlement, racism, and microaggressions.

I think there could have been more character development, especially with Nate. He felt like a shell, a shell that was too easily swayed.

If books had movie ratings, this one would be rated “R” for nudity and sexual themes. It is extra heavy on the spice.

I will definitely keep an eye out for more books from this author duo.

3.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Graydon House for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

Spoiled heiress vs the lowly intern at her father’s company…who will come out on top?

It was a quick yet fun read with lots of twists and turns. I found that most of the plot was actually a bit predictable, until right at the end when I didn’t see the final twist coming. Definitely a page turner, I did appreciate the entertainment this book provided me and would recommend to anyone who was looking for a light and entertaining read.

This was a surprisingly-accomplished debut thriller by sisters Amber and Danielle Brown. Brandi Maxwell is a protagonist to root for. She has had a difficult past, raised in foster care and wrongfully placed in juvie but is now seemingly on an upward trajectory, having achieved a dream internship in a prestigious NYC fashion house and a rising football star boyfriend. Her job is not everything she might wish, but she is hopeful that her prospects might improve when she is invited to a party at the designer's house. Unfortunately, she overhears the designer's influencer It Girl daughter plotting his demise, and then he is murdered. Brandi is embroiled in this situation and must use her wits and resolve to get through it, pitted against the evil daughter. Twisty and suspenseful.

All right, this book is realistic thriller, approaching to micro aggressions, racism, betrayal, exploitation, hypocrisy at the fashion industry with fresh and honest look!

In the beginning it took a lot of time to get into the story and connect with the characters. It’s obvious I was on team Brandi: she was aspiring intern who is dreaming to climb the corporate ladders at fashion industry, working as an intern and only Black girl in Manhattan fashion house.

She loves her job, even though her job title includes cleaning hard partying models’ puke stains from the designer clothes and dealing with, racist, condescending comments of her colleagues. She also loves her boyfriend. So it seems like she’s living a dreamy life and now she’s invented to a famous fashion mogul Simon Van Doren’s private party but unfortunately she hears something very very inappropriate from Taylor: the famous IT Girl she’s admiring, who is also the daughter of Simon!

Taylor is trapped because she’s so close to lose her inheritance if she cannot pass her drug test. Her father dearest is about to marry a girl at same age with her!

After eavesdropping something she shouldn’t have, Brandi finds herself as person of interest of Simon’s murder and it seems like there is enough evidence to put her behind the bars. How will she prove her innocence? How will she save herself from the trouble she’s get in?

The beginning of the book was a little slow burn. You have to be patient to get used to characters and their relationship dynamics but at the second half, pacing quickly picked up and mystery immediately hooked me up. I couldn’t stop reading!

It was meaningful, strikingly powerful read about racism and dark face of fashion industry! Highly recommended to the thriller readers!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Harlequin Trade Publishing and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A fast paced thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller. I liked getting a glimpse into the lives of the ultra-rich echelon of society.

Book: Someone Had To Do It

Author: Amber and Danielle Brown

Rating: 4 Out 5 Stars



I would like to thank the publisher, Graydon House, for providing me with an ARC.



I will admit that in the early stages of this book that I almost gave up on it. I didn’t mesh with the characters nor the plot at all. However, once things got moving, I found myself unable to put it down. I had to keep going and had to find out what was going to happen next.



This one follow Brandi, who is working hard to prove herself. She has her dream internship at a fashion company and the perfect boyfriend. Everything seems to be finally going her way. You see things haven’t always been perfect for her. She is the girl who wasn’t supposed to turn it around. Her entire life has been very difficult and it wasn’t her fault. This quickly changes though. She loses is all and finds herself being accused of killing her boss. She knows who did it, but it is her work against Taylor’s, who just happens to be a rich white girl and the daughter of her dead boss. Her world is turned upside down as she seeks to uncover the truth. The deeper she gets, the more she realizes just how much the wealthy will protect their own.



Like I started my review, I did have a hard time getting into the characters. I thought that this was going to be another book about people who are completely out of touch with the real world. However, the more I read and the more I got to know the characters, the more I found myself becoming invested in them. I will admit that I did enjoy Brandi a lot more than Taylor. I think that was the point though. There were times that I found both characters to be very unlikable, but the way that Brandi’s character was presented, it made you understand more why she was the way she was. Her actions were justified. Throughout the course of her life, the world has been stacked against her. What I am getting at is that it makes sense for her to act the way she did. It also makes sense for Taylor, but, again, I didn’t enjoy her character as much.



The writing, like the characters, it took me a little bit to get into. However, once things got moving, I found myself involved. The authors did an amazing job at capturing the world in which the characters live in. The plot pulled me in and I had to keep going. This is the making of a great book. It's a page turner for sure. It did take me a little bit to get into it. Again, get past those opening sequences and it is worth. This ranks right up there with some of my top thrillers. A really big part of me wants to get a hard copy and go through this again.



Overall, I really did enjoy this title. I can’t wait to read more from this author. The only reason I gave this a four star again because of the slow start.



Youtube: https://youtu.be/KYrquf0NPwY

Brandi is the only Black woman intern at a Manhattan couture fashion house and is hoping her hard work will eventually pay off. She thinks she might be on her way up when she is invited to exclusive party hosted by the house's owner, but then she overhears his daughter, Taylor, saying something extremely troubling. Cue the plotting and scheming and backstabbing and bribery and murder, topped with a heaping dose of racism.

I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. It was fast-paced and twisty and infuriating (so much gaslighting and racism). There were a few aspects I didn't love - like some of the characters feeling more like caricatures - but this was overall a tense, suspenseful debut thriller. Great for fans of Alyssa Cole's When No One Is Watching.

3.5 rounded up

Someone Had To Do It is a dark and riveting page-turner with an intelligent twist that kept me on the edge of my seat and had me wanting more. This is a juicy, brilliant treat of a thriller that had me turning the pages and staying up past my bedtime. You’ll have to keep turning the pages to see how it turns out, and you are more and more shocked as time goes on. I enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to reading more from these authors.

Things in Brandi Maxwell's life haven't always been easy, but she's fought hard to create a life she is proud of, one that has landed her at prestigious Manhattan fashion house. But she quickly learns that being an intern isn't all it's cracked up to be, she's not doing the job she hoped to be, she's too busy cleaning up messes of the rich and famous. When she receives a invite to a prestigious party at her employers house she thinks maybe she might be one step closer to the job she's supposed to have... but it winds up being the worst night of her life, a night that could cost her everything!

Someone Had To Do It is a captivating and riveting tale that shines a light into the glorious lives of the rich and famous in the fashion world... and the dark side of their lives too! As we follow our heroine on her dream journey we soon learn that the job she signed up for came with complications she never saw coming. As well as, put her in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now she's fighting to clear her name and hoping for a little miracle!

This story was everything I'd hoped it to be and more, I was looking for a thriller to lose myself in and I definitely got that!! Once I cracked the first page I was hooked, who knew the fashion world could be so dangerous! I really enjoyed this first time read, the pages took me places I never saw coming!! Highly recommend!!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.

Fast-paced, fun and hugely entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where thrillers are popular.

Someone Had to Do it is the debut novel of Amber and Danielle Brown coming in December of 2022. It's quite the page turner and very suspenseful. Brandi Maxwell is a young black intern working as an intern at the Van Doren fashion house in Manhattan.even though its not as glamorous as one one would think it would be. Taylor Van Doren is a Fashion influencer and Brandi can't help but fangirl her a bit - we all know influencers aren't' exactly what they seem online - She's Brandi's bosses daughter and it seems she has a past with Brandi's boyfriend - when Brandi meets her at a party and hears something she shouldn't - Brandi's life spins out of control and she sees another side of Taylor - and its definitely not a nice one) Pretty shocking how mad I got at Taylor's actions throughout this book. She is so selfish and doesn't care about anyone but herself. I was glad to see how the book turned out.

This book blew me away. It's unlike any thriller I've read in that it's young, fresh, and at times, darkly hilarious and downright poignant. It stars incredible, well-defined characters that make you sad, angry, and enraged with their circumstances. Brandi and Taylor take the reader on a wild journey with twists and turns that left me reeling. Can't recommend it enough!

Super fun, super readable, where there are gaps in characterization they can be more or less accounted for with privilege and rampant drug use. My main issue was that the monetary amounts mentioned didn't really make sense. At several points both 10k and 5mil were bandied about with life changing implications, but, given the lifestyles led by the respective characters, well, it just didn't work.