As police procedural dramas go this one was okay. I was an interesting premise but somewhat less exciting than the synopsis made me think. It took a bit to get into but once I did it was compelling and I did want to know what happened. The ending was a good wrap up. The personal bits about the main character at the end kin d of feels out of no where and the feud between the main character and her partner seems blown out of proportion so those two aspects felt disjointed. I don't know that I would pick up another book by this author but this one was good enough that I finished and wasn't disappointed.

The narrator did a fantastic job and I enjoyed the audiobook version of this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillian Publishing for this ARC.

On a brisk November day, a frat member steps off the curb only to be stuck and killed by a car. The majority of people who witnessed the tragic accident said that the driver not only looked identical to the victim but he was smiling.

I was so excited to read this academic thriller however it turned into more of a police investigation type deal. Those are hit or miss for me and this one was just ok. I also listened to the audiobook and while the narrator did a great job, the story was not for me.

The Resemblance is available November 8,2022


Thank you to netgalley and macmillianaudio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

If you enjoyed The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, this book will be right up your alley.

Detective Marlitt Kaplan enters the world of fraternities, brotherhood, and secret rituals when she begins to investigate an on-campus hit-and-run where the victim is the social chair of a prestigious frat.

Marlitt was a badass detective who could learn to follow rules and would probably succeed more in life. She had a wonton disregard for police procedures that keep the force in check. In the story, it's framed as her against a corrupt system, but if a real police officer went rogue like this, people wouldn't be pleased. Nevertheless, if there was a second book starring her or one of her fellow detectives, I'd probably read and still like it as long as the moral of the story wasn't so blatant (more on that in a bit).

I did like the writing style and the narration, but it seemed like the overall agenda of this book was to demonstrate why you should dislike fraternities, both from the storyline and from multiple internal monologues from the main character. I don't like frats either, I just don't need my stories to be so heavy-handed at teaching me things.

3 stars because I wouldn't recommend it, but I definitely think others would like it.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Lauren Nossett for the ARC of this book. All opinions provided above are my own.

A solid, good detective novel set in the world of academia and fraternities. A hit and run of a young fraternity brother by someone who looks exactly like him has his housemates and detective, Marlit Kaplan, stumped. As she investigates soon she finds herself the target of sinister attempts to derail her investigation. With her past also plaguing her ability to impartially investigate, Marlitt must defy the odds and identify this look-a-like killer. This was just a good detective novel. Nothing stood out to me as being super notable and other than the overdone trope of the dangers of the Greek fraternity system nothing was really negative. The narrator had an easy to listen cadence to her voice that moved the story along. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the audiobook.

Thank you so much to both Macmillan Audio and Lauren Nossett for granting me Advanced Listener access to The Resemblance prior to its release date of November 8th! This is the perfect crime-mystery read to divulge into, seeing as the leaves are changing and the weather is growing crisper with the changing months.

Jaded and damaged, Detective Marlitt Kaplan is the first on the scene of a brutal hit-and-run at the University of Georgia's campus, sending several students into an emotional whirl. The victim was a well-known Fraternity man, liked and loved by many, so there is much confusion about the motive at play. The further Marlitt and her partner dig into this case, the more they realize that they are in over their head, and there is little these men wouldn't do to keep their brotherhood protected -- including setting fire to a lead detective's home.

This book provides a very real and very scary glimpse into how such structured organizations at bigger universities can be toxic and corrupt from the inside and all the way up to the top. From hazing to sexual assault incidents, a murderer isn't the only thing this team will be unraveling throughout the course of the fall semester.

The Resemblance follows detective Marlitt Kaplan as she investigates a hit and run accident at the University of Georgia. What seems like a traffic accident soon turns into a murder investigation that pulls Marliit into the secret dark side of campus Greek Life. I liked the premise of this story and thought it was really interesting. I enjoyed the book and I was invested in seeing what happened. There is plenty of suspense, twists and reveals to keep the reader’s interest. However, I thought several parts of the story were too vague and needed more detail. For example, I would have liked more background on some of the characters and details of their relationships. I also felt like some of the transitions were a bit confusing. I found myself having to rewind the audiobook to figure out what was going on. I thought that the author brings up some important arguments about the activities of Greek organizations throughout the country.
I loved the narration by Saskai Maarleveld. She does such a good job and I thought her voice was perfect for this book.
This book kind of feels like the beginning of a series. I think it would be interesting to see more of Marlitt and where life takes her after the investigation.

Spoiled frat boys are the worst and this book did not improve my opinion of them. The mystery part of this was pretty decent and held my interest well.

However, the last twist that they throw to explain the speaking German piece felt like a bit too much.

🌀Synopsis
Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene of the death of a college student. He was hit by a car, which seems like an accident, but Marlitt is convinced it isn’t. It doesn’t take her long to find evidence to support her theory and the investigation begins.

She enters a world of frat secrets and dad’s who sweep things under the rug. These boys, she finds, will do anything for each other- including set her house on fire.

While she recovers, she’s determined to not give up on the case. When more information presents itself she’s convinced she knows who the murderer is and she won’t stop until they are behind bars- even when it threatens her job.

This is definitely a slow burn murder mystery. After a hit and run death on a college campus Detective Marlitt Kaplan believes that the death is more than just an accident. The detective struggles to separate the current death with one during her college days.
I really struggled to get into this story and the characters, it seemed to take until about the 40% mark before things picked up. This book focused a lot of negativity on Greek life and unfortunately fell short for me.

If you enjoy a slow burn mystery that blurs past and present, this may be the book for you.

Marlitt is unabashedly committed to her work. Wanting the big case, the increased responsibility and the promotion. But, her lieutenant sees her as too much of a daughter figure. So when a deadly hit and run occurs on the college campus she grew up on, thanks to her mom's role as German professor, she refuses to let this case slide out of her grasp. But is she willing to lose everything for this seemingly Greek life tragedy?

Author Lauren Nossett pulls no punches in "The Resemblance." From hatable AND likeable frat bros and cops, to twisted personal turns in the plot, this book is a whirlwind.

I'm a sucker for college campus scenery, and Nossett did a great job pulling in Greek life and college statistics to make this one feel extra compelling but the fire and German speaking detracted too much from the plotline and didn't add enough meat to the irons.

Part of my issue may have been that an audiobook format simply doesn’t suit the plot, but I found The Resemblance spectacularly overcomplicated and hard to follow, with twists that added nothing to the story. The author’s agenda also got to be bothersome. Tell me explicitly that you hate Greek life once; trust me, I will not forget your POV when the entire book is a litany of fraternity stereotypes.

Thank you Netgally for this advanced copy for my honest opinion and review of this book. I was not reimbursed or influenced in anyway for my review.

First Impression: Wow, Ms Nossett is one angry chick at Greeks.

The premise of this book was super promising, a college student is rundown in broad daylight by a driver in his own car by someone who looks just like him.
From there it turns into the inner monologue of Marlitt a very angry young cop. She pretty much despises all things College and/or Greek Life. She witnesses the crash and immediately begins her witch hunt to figure out which Frat Brother or Sorority Girl did it. Her whole pursuit is very juvineille and reckless.
The ending was a mess, very convoluted and confusing. Then there is the whole epilogue.......
Sorry to say this one just didn't do it! I am not even sure I Can say I enjoyed the writing. It was very long and too much of Laren NOssett's clear message thrown in the readers face.
I don't read for an agenda or bias, I read for entertainment

There was a lot to like in this book. A university student, a fraternity member, is the victim of a hit and run. Witnesses say that the driver looked just like his victim and he was smiling! That's an intriguing plot line, and the twists and turns do not disappoint.
But there is also things that annoy me - the female police officer, is of the tough as nails category, who wants so bad to be one of the boys, that she suppresses every feeling and breaks every rule. Women do not need to act masculine to be perceived strong!
Especially since the author's goal seems to be to fight the "boys will be boys" mantra and 'old boys club' power structure.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a chance to read and review this ARC

Thanks to MacMillan Audio & NetGalley for providing an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one was not great. I kept at it, thinking it *had* to get better, but it never did. The heroine, Marlitt, is unlikeable, and a bad cop besides (she regularly laments that they can't keep suspects in custody longer and basically wants to arrest suspects on the basis of gut feeling alone, all while lying to them during interviews). She has unresolved feeling for her partner, mostly on the basis of "always wishing she'd had a brother."

The case takes place at a University in Athens, GA, and Marlitt is practically rabid about fraternities. The hit an run victim in the case was a frat bro, and Marlitt decides early on that therein lies the answer. This is almost entirely because she had a close male friend, "like a brother," who died during a hazing incident during Hell Week.

In the midst of the investigation, Marlitt is involved in a house fire, and that throws the whole investigation off course. This also gets her to a point where she is obsessed with the case and starts inserting herself into it even though she's supposed to be on leave. To say she bends the rules is a huge understatement, Like I said, bad cop.

The ending is overly complicated and by then I didn't really care anyway.

The narration was OK, nothing amazing. I suspect the voice actor was chosen for her German speaking ability, which, weirdly, factors into the plot.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

I liked how everything unfolded with this. Good twists and pacing. The narrator did great as well.

The Resemblance fails to deliver a compelling campus mystery. The author attempted to blend the story of a detective to a suspicious death on campus, but neither held their own enough to deliver something unique to an already packed genre.

A fraternity member is killed in a hit and run, and Detective Marlitt Kaplan jumps to solve the case. Her own loss of a friend, in college, blurs her ability to separate her case and her past. The pieces of a strong thriller are there, but nothing new is brought to the table of a corrupt fraternity system and police department.

✨ Review ✨ The Resemblance by Lauren Nossett; Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

This book begins with the mysterious death of a fraternity brother at the University of Georgia, where he was hit in a crosswalk by a driver who looked identical to him. Detective Marlitt Kaplan begins to dig into this case, believing it to go much deeper than an accidental hit and run. As she plunges into the campus's Greek culture, she's fighting resistance from all angles.

While I was engaged in this book, it makes several great leaps and then some twists just weren't twisty enough. The author definitely had a bone to pick with Greek life, which is fine, but in some places, I think it took away from the story itself. I thought this might have more of a dark academia vibe, but instead it just had a depressing academia vibe. I wanted to love it, but instead, it was just okay.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: thriller
Location: Athens, Georgia
Pub Date: Nov 8, 2022

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

I found the story to be engaging, the characters well-developed, and the “reveals” to be expected given the general storyline. The ending was a little sad, but it’s also an ending that was expected when dealing with elite societies that have a lot of connections and power to manipulate various systems.

I am looking forward to reading more novels by Lauren Nossett!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
I listened to this in one day. It was really really interesting. I liked the mystery of who was who and that it had an ending that made sense. The narrator did a great job as well. Really an all around great audio book!

A police officer’s past is revisited when she must investigate the hit-and-run death of a fraternity brother at a college campus. The more she uncovers, the worse things get. This audiobook had a nice flow to it. The narrator effectively conveyed the feelings and urgency of the plot. The story moved along quickly with a lot of turns in the plot along the way. This will appeal to fans of contemporary suspense.

Well, this was a whole lot of wasted potential. I was so hooked by the premise. A student is killed in a hit-and-run. And "more than a dozen witnesses all agree on two things: The driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling."

This book promises to explore the toxic nature of Greek life and instead we get a police procedural with the most biased and stereotypical detective. This "brotherhood" would have been far more interesting to explore from the inside or even from a student or professor's perspective. I do not understand why the author chose to distance the reader from everything interesting about the book by limiting the book to the perspective of the detective.

Not only is the point of view limiting and uninteresting, but the detective is also so heavy-handed in her hatred of Greek life that it is impossible to take her seriously. She starts off assuming the absolute worst of every man in the fraternity, honestly every student at the school, removing any possible shock from the later revelations. Her internal monologue is preachy, she is reckless, selfish, and incredibly inconsistent. Her motivation for being obsessed with the case is very hollow. Flashbacks or something would have made it more believable. Instead, her hatred for Greek life reads as part of her general hatred for anyone below the age of 25. I can't remember exactly how old Marlitt is supposed to be, but her opinions aged her decades. She is constantly critiquing how often students are using their phones, treating them like they are stupid, and commenting that "they'll miss it when they're my age." I swear she comments on the students having "unwrinkled faces" like ten times. Every single character in this book is a bland stereotype.

The pacing made the book feel far longer than it was. The major event in the middle of the book really destroyed my interest in the plot. The end is filled with so many last-minute misdirections that I was just waiting for the book to end. And then the twist came completely out of left field and failed to impress. However, it did reveal a character that would have made for a much more interesting narrator.

The Resemblance is a waste of a fascinating mystery setup.