If there is one thing my students love, it’s a good mystery. I can’t wait to add this one to my library. I know they will inhale it. It has enough intrigue for my more sophisticated readers, but my struggling readers will be able to get on board with it too—especially with the audiobook. Some of the fat-positive messages were a little much, but as a plus-sized reader myself, I even found some of the thinking patterns matched some that I have experienced. That lent an air of authenticity to that lived experience that I didn’t anticipate. This is one that I’ll buy two copies of. It’s going to be a hit!

Kate has finished her first season as an actress on a TV show and is looking forward to filming the next season. Drama on the set causes the show to get canceled, but she doesn’t want that to slow her down. She still plans to pursue acting full-time, even though that will require her to skip her senior year of high school. Her parents don’t want her to stop her education and require her to pay rent if she isn’t in school. Since she hasn’t been able to get an acting gig, she takes a boring office job to pay the bills. The only bright spot is the window that lets her see a romance between a woman and her assistant … that is until the romance turns into a double murder. What will she do, since no one believes her?

Three Drops of Blood is a stand-alone mystery that was lauded as a blend of A Good Girls Guide to Murder and Hitchcock, but I don’t agree. The murder didn’t take place until I was 59% through the Kindle version, so over half of the book was character development. Please, no one needs that much for a stand-alone story. The last 40% (which is the actual mystery) would make a wonderful novella, but as a novel … it was a disappointment.

"Three Drops of Blood" read like two completely separate books spliced together in the middle. I heard this book compared to "Rear Window," which is why I decided to read it because I love that movie. Unfortunately, that aspect doesn't come in until hundreds of pages of a completely different story had been shared first. The story starts on the set of a teen drama show that erupts into scandal when the older, married producer is caught in a sexual relationship with one of the teen stars. Because the show is canceled and her parents started charging her rent (another unnecessary, confusing plotline), Kate now has to get a job, and it's at her job that she witnesses something she shouldn't have and now must get people to believe her. These two plots would work fine on their own, but together it just seems unfocused.

The Gist: Teen actress is forced to work in a law firm filing after a scandal wrecks her career. One night after hours she sees something she shouldn’t see…

Pairs Well With: Rear Window (1954 film), the wonderful but cancelled too soon teen soap mockumentary Grosse Pointe

YAYs

Child Actress: Kate is a plus sized actress who just started in her first show, a teen soap opera on Netflix. Her career is rocked by scandal when it comes out the show runner is having an affair with Kate’s teen costar. Kate is caught drinking at a wrap party so now she has to go to work in order to pay her way (her parents are not supportive, see below). Kate is really down to Earth and I enjoyed the honest conversations about her weight and how it plays in Hollywood. She could be a doormat at times (I’m looking at her relationship with Rowan) but overall she was a fun hang.

Alfred Hitchcock Vibes: Kate is working nights as a filer at a high profile law firm. One night she sees an executive hooking up with her assistant. Kate then sees that same executive breaking off with her husband. This gave me Rear Window feels in the best of ways. Kate knows something is up, but since she can’t hear what is being said, she doesn’t have the whole picture.

Childhood Loves: Kate enlists her best friend’s brother Ty to help her prove the murders happened. Ty had previously professed his love to Kate, but she had turned him down. They reconnect and watching them flirt/banter was a highlight.

NAYs

Filler: The action doesn’t get going in this book until I was 36% in. That’s a lot of filler and if I hadn’t liked the author’s books I probably would have given up.

Terrible Parents Masquerading as Good Parents: I think we are supposed to love Kate’s parents and appreciate their tough love but personally I think they were awful. Kate decides she wants to be an actress. Rather than talking it out with her they demand she pays rent and withholds her earnings from her acting days unless she goes to college. Kate has proven she has what it takes to succeed and even has an agent. Charging your minor child rent is always a gross look. Also, when Kate is caught drinking at a wrap party and clearly being taken advantage of by an older man? They do and say nothing. Except to tell her she is on her own now unless she goes to college. Maybe you want to get her into therapy?

Terrible Best Friend: Kate’s best friend is Rowan and she SUCKS so hard. She comes across as pretty narcissistic. I guess at the end we are expected to believe they have made up but I didn’t buy it. Drop Rowan, keep Ty Kate!

Horrible Cops: I really didn’t like how everytime Kate called the police she was accused of pranking? That did not feel real.

Overall, once the book got going (ie Kate was working at the law firm and Ripley appeared) it was a fun read. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long to get into.

I enjoyed this story. I loved the main characters. This was my first book by this author, and I will read another one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

I really, really need to quit expecting new things from this author. My students all love her book Ten and because of that, I read Dig Two Graves and now this one. With Ten, the allusions to Agatha Christie were there, but not something that I couldn't get past. With these other two, they feel like rip-offs. This one is a clear nod to Rear Window.

I gave this one two stars because it was, in every sense of the word, OK. The story line was kind of interesting, the characters were somewhat realistic (although, the side characters were VERY flat and one dimensional). McNeil's nods to LBGTQ+ representation were lacking and boring.

If you are looking for purchase recommendations, there are still better options than this one.

Kate is living her dream acting in a popular teen drama, with unlimited possibilities on the horizon. But when the underage star of the show is caught having an affair with the married director, the show falls apart and so do her dreams. To make matters worse, videos of a drunk Kate at the cast party have been made public, and now Kate has to repair her image before anyone will hire her for another job. Her parents want her to go back to high school, but Kate is adamant that acting is what she's meant to do, and she's going to prove it to everyone. In the meantime, her parents force her to get a job, so she takes a filing job at her best friend's dad's law firm in a big shiny building. Unfortunately, she also has to work for Tyson Chen, the older brother of her best friend and also the boy she rejected last year before he left for a year abroad. While doing her mundane filing in the afterwork hours, she witnesses a murder in the building across from her. She tries calling the police, but no one believes her, except Tyson. Now the two of them have to figure out how to prove it, before the evidence is scrubbed clean and the murderer gets away with it.

I liked this book, and I enjoyed the story, but it did kind of take a long time to get to the murder/mystery aspect. It was mostly just Kate and her work/friendship/romantic issues. Still good, but it was different than I expected, with a lot less mystery than is typical for McNeil. I'll definitely still buy it and recommend though.

I received this ARC courtesy of Netgalley, in return for my honest review.

This book is published by the Disney Publishing Group so I had certain preconceived expectations.
The plot line of the child star seemed realistic and interesting. I was enjoying the characters and their interactions in the beginning of the book. There were so many directions the story could have gone from there that would have been so intriguing.
Instead the author took us on a Rear Window ride (old movie reference from the 50's) that was strange on so many levels that things took on an absurd quality. I couldn't reconcile the two different plots.

I have loved every book by Gretchen McNeil that I have read so far and Three Drops of Blood was no exception. I did feel like the first half was a bit slow, but the rest was very fast paced and action packed!

This was an okay read for me. It reminded me of Strangers on a Train and I didn't really care for that book. This one was better, but I guess I'm not a big fan of the unreliable narrator or the narrator that isn't believed. The writing wasn't bad and the pacing was pretty fast. I would be interested in seeing what else McNeil comes out with in the future.

Plus-size Kate is a new teen actress whose Netflix series just tanked, so she's hoping for another job. But she doesn't want to get cast as the fat, funny friend.

Most of this story centers on Kate, the unlikable, immature, selfish main character. I wasn't a fan. Nothing much happens until 60% through. And then we have a mystery on our hands.

Much different than the other books I've read by this author. I quite prefer the others, which got right into the action, instead of stringing us along for hundreds of pages about Kate and how she feels so disappointed by everyone.

I was disappointed that the synopsis and the book didn’t clearly align. The description of the book touts the novel as a murder mystery, but the murder doesn’t happen for half the book.

The first half of the book is teen angst I don’t believe any of my students will find relatable, and I muddled through to find the conflict mentioned in the synopsis.

Admittedly, once the murder did happen, the novel was a quick read because I wanted to know how Kate would resolve all of the issues, but it just wasn’t enough for me to promote it in my classroom.

#ThreeDropsofBlood #NetGalley Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out!

This story was actually a lot better than I thought. I have a hit or miss with McNeil, but I thought this one was cleverly set up.

Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

What follows is a whydunit, with our main character questioning her own thoughts since very few people seem to be doubting her.

The plot does slow down about 1/2 way in the book, but the action picks up again with a satisfying ending (well, to me anyway).

When plus size up and coming actress Kate ends up in a scandal and her show that was suppose to help her make it gets cancelled she finds herself working an office job and watching the beautiful woman who works in the office across from her having an affair.... and also witnessing murders. Kate is a teen actress, and landed the role that would help her start her career in acting... but when her costar is involved in a scandal with an older married actor from the show, Kate is also involved and the show is cancelled and Kate finds herself needing to find a way to get money to pay a fixer to help fix her image so she can get another job. Her parents dont want her to pursue acting so when she tells them despite her showing being cancelled she wants to continue acting and not go to college, they decide that she’s going to have to start acting like an adult : paying rent, paying for her own bills, food, and utilities... and that also means Kate needs a job fast. So when her ex friend who told her he was in love with her and she promptly rejected him, who just happens to be her best friend’s brother, returns and offers her a position at the law firm he’s working at she has no choice but to accept. Now she spends her days trying to find another acting job, working the temp job, dealing with regret over rejecting her friend and having a crush on him, and being a voyeur and watching the beautiful private investigator who works in the building across from her as she has an affair with her younger secretary... and she just happens to be married. During one of her voyeur sessions she witnesses two murders and no one believes her. Now she’ll have to try and prove it and stop it before she is next. Honestly, this one fell flat for me. it had an interesting premise and as a big fan of Hitchcock and A Good Girls Guide to Murder as well as liking the author’s previous work, this one just missed the mark. Unfortunately it felt all over the place from trying to be a mystery to dealing with Kate’s acting struggles to her crush on her ex best friend. The overall ending was meh and the characters didn’t really interest me that much. Unfortunately this was a miss for me, but definitely give it a go if you like mysteries.

*Thanks Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A reluctant teen actress is caught up in scandal, murders, and friendship drama in this appealing YA novel of Hollywood.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview copy of this book. It was a little different than I was expecting; I anticipated that the murders would happen earlier in the book. As a result, the pacing felt a little off for me, but my reluctant readers and Gretchen McNeil fans will be clamoring for this book. Therefore, it's an easy purchase for my library.

Many of my students have enjoyed Gretchen McNeil's other books like #murdertrending and Dig Two Graves, so I know that Three Drops of Blood will be popular in my high school library collection. Being a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, I looked forward to this unique twist on Rear Window. The way McNeil unravels her stories is interesting and definitely compelling. I enjoyed her writing here more than the #murdertrending series because her main character's personality was relatable, and it was easy to sympathize with her self-doubt. There are parts that are racy, so I would more than likely recommend this for the 11th and 12th graders at my school. However, I think any student who is looking for a twisting murder mystery will enjoy this immensely!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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Okay, I feel like this book is very ambitious, in a sort of Agatha Christie slash Alfred Hitchcock sort of way. There's that "I witnessed something but no one believes me" theme, and the emphasis of the book is placed on the catching of the culprit. We don't see a lot of the how or the why of the act itself (sorry, being super vague for you prospective readers!) - and as a lifelong mystery reader, that was supremely unsatisfying. I would have been far more interested in learning more about the motivations behind the act. The supporting cast is just teeth-grindingly frustrating at times - the parents are unsupportive and the friends are often terrible. This book could have been a lot more than it was, and I was left wanting more. That isn't to say this is a terrible book - it's a fun read and casual mystery fans will like it. It's worth a read, especially for readers just getting into YA mysteries.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley and Disney Publishing for this eARC, these opinions are my own. This story had all the twists and turns! It kept me intrigued! After Kate's show is cancelled she has to get a job at a law firm. Where she spends time looking through the windows of the offices in the next building. But when she sees something she shouldn't have can she get anyone to believe her? This book was fun and a quick read! I highly enjoyed it and definitely recommend it for mystery fans!