Thank you to Netgalley for this advance PDF. One cannot blame Caroline Kepnes for striking while the iron is hot with her series of books about Joe Goldberg. While the 2nd book, Hidden Bodies, ended in such a way that you wonder if she might have been ready to move on from Joe, the popularity of the TV adaptation of You (on Netflix since its 2nd season) and the cooler reception to her novel Providence (which I really liked) probably made her reconsider. The books and the show share a strange territory with Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series, where the first season is a mostly faithful recreation of the first book, and then it completely goes off in its own direction without truly adapting the subsequent novels. Season 2 of You shares little in common with Hidden Bodies outside of “Joe goes to the west coast,” with similarly little parallel between season 3 and You Love Me. I haven’t found it difficult to enjoy each for what they do, at least until season 4 of You, where diminishing returns were glaringly obvious. I was relieved there would be another book from Kepnes to redeem the disappointment from the show and an especially ill-conceived mid season twist it could never recover from.

That said, the books are also bringing diminishing returns in their latest installments, if not on the level of the series, and For You and Only You is the least of them. However, it does at least remain more enjoyable than its counterpart, as Joe’s singular and sarcastic consciousness informs the plot machinations. Like the show, Joe is at a university, having already departed the bar he ran at the end of the last book, but he is at Harvard rather than Oxford, and rather than teaching literature, he is writing it in a fellowship with more established or privileged writers, save for his new obsession, Wonder. Joe sets about ingratiating himself with group guru Glenn Shoddy to further his and Wonder’s chances of literary success, but Glenn isn’t who he presents himself and Joe doesn’t have the smoothest start with Wonder, either.

The book more successfully navigates the literature backdrop, which is much more incidental to season 4 of the show. The relationships, expectations, and delusions among the group guide the narrative. This does have the consequence of so many of the interactions between characters becoming exchanges of psychoanalysis, though. An author writing about the process of writing isn’t such a “novel” idea and potentially alienating for those who just want a good story, rather than the inside baseball of what might go into that. It does provide Kepnes a passage of reader comments berating a character to get back to the murders of her mystery/thriller brand when she strays into romance territory, which one can’t help wondering might be a thinly veiled re-creation of the reception to Providence.

One of the best moments is unrelated to the doings of the group, when Joe attempts to deal with a rival to Wonder’s affections, and the subsequent punchline to his effort. Speaking of Wonder, though, Joe’s immediate attraction to her isn’t as easy to ride with as past books. Maybe I’d find the same sort of hesitance with RIP Beck in book one, looking back, but there seem to be several warning signs that he shouldn’t bother trying with Wonder. It’s harder to get invested in his effort, sensing how misplaced it is. Some of the references to prior events didn't ring a bell for me, and it's not always easy to glean from context what happened, so maybe consider reading a summary of the past books. Introducing the writer group upfront rather than staggering them a little also makes it a challenge to remember who is who, even with Joe’s steadfast mocking of their personalities. His expected exasperation and condemnation of people and situations remain witty, though, which is perhaps one area where the series maintains its quality—the books are always funny, though my memory is that Hidden Bodies and its Hollywood satire probably did it best. The plot is also less fluid than some of the other outings, and it feels like the table is just cleared to set the next course without concerns for cohesion. It is at least never a chore to keep the pages turning, and I found I’d read through about 2/3 of it without realizing the extent of my progress or being that concerned about it.

Ultimately, For You and Only You has more apparent flaws than its predecessors but remains an entertaining read that shows Joe isn’t wearing out his welcome on both the literary and TV fronts. I’ll be much more eager for book 5 than season 5, with the hope that each is an improvement on the last.

3⭐️

I love a bad guy I can root for. I’ve been a fan of Joe since book one but at this point, they are starting to get a little repetitive. I miss the Joe of the first book. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I’ve enjoyed the previous ones. It fell a bit flat for me.

I will probably still read the next one, if there is another one, because I really have enjoyed the series overall.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline Kepnes has a way of keeping me on the edge of my seat, for a whole book. This series gets a lot of attention because of the show, but wow these books are so much better. Every story leaves a great opening for another, and I hope they continue to come out.

Joe Goldberg will always be my favorite serial killer (besides Dexter). His life if just out of control and his stalking is perfection (in fiction). Here we had another great installment of Joe’s life.

I love Caroline Kepnes’ writing style and she will always be an auto-buy author to me. No matter what she writes she does it in a way that I get so immersed I don’t want to leave them.

I've loved Joe Goldberg since the first "Hello, you." but I sadly found this one to be a labor of love to read. For You and Only You lacked the spark of the previous installments and I found Joe to be more tedious than anti-hero charming. Hopefully the Joe we love will be present in the next installment.

Kepnes did it again. Somehow she continually gets me to unwillingly root for an extremely disturbed serial killer. I ended up listening to the audiobook of this one, and I think the audiobooks of this series are just wonderful. I always feel like I am directly in Joe’s head through the entire story.

This book took me forever to read. I think Joe's days were long over after book 2. I almost DNF'd but pushed on through. Would not recommend.

Oh Joe! I’ve been delighted with Kepnes’ YOU series for years and finally getting to see Joe write a book of his own was a treat!

thank you so much to netgalley & the publisher for this arc!!

I love this series! the first three books I was so obsessed with and genuinely loved all of them. But I think at this point it’s time for the series to end. It should’ve ended with the third book.

It’s all become so repetitive & it all feels bland. It feels like none of the reveals or “horrors” of this book hit like they should’ve considering. It’s all just a copy and paste of the last book with a little tweaking. I hope others like this more than me but for real it’s time to finish the series.

Joe Goldberg is an enticing yet uncomfortable anti-hero to root for. For three books, it's been thrilling to follow his trajectory, city to city, victim to victim. Unfortunately, what made the former novels exciting - namely, stakes and interesting side characters - is missing from <i>For You and Only You</i>. It's an interesting premise: Joe amongst the literary crowd at Harvard; however, the interest stops there. it was hard to parse whether the other characters we meet seemed bland because of Joe's overinflated sense of self or because they were poorly written. Whatever the case, the story plodded and the characters bored me, which made finishing the book a chore instead of the fast-paced page-turner I've come to expect from Kepnes. Disappointing all around.

3.5 rounded up

There is a reason this series has sold so well. Despite the immensely creepy content and main character who just screams "ick", this book (like the others in the series) is incredibly well written. The way Kepnes can write the inner monologue of a psychopath makes me wonder if somebody should be looking for her 'mug of piss'. There were times I found myself agreeing with Joe's logic and then having to back track and realize that I should not be agreeing with a serial killer. I'd love to see a grand finale for this series soon, because the longer it goes on, the more unbelievable and unrealistic it seems that this man can continue to re-invent himself.

Short synopsis: Joe Goldberg is back, and this time he’s writing books instead of selling them.

My thoughts: Man oh man I forget how dark these books are. Joe’s thoughts a scary and repulsive at times, but there’s just something so addicting about this series. I love rooting for the disturbing antihero Joe Goldberg.

Going to keep this vague, because that’s the best way to read this series. But if you enjoyed the previous books I definitely think you’ll enjoy this.

Read if you love:
- Books about books and writing
- Sinister main characters
- Dark inner monologues
- College settings

Another great book in the YOU series. I enjoyed this book as much as the prior one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. I look forward to recommending this book.

This is one of those series where I think the novels should have stopped after the first three...each one is progressively worse. The latest instalment in the You series lacks the fun of its predecessors. This one is so different than the others and not in a good way. I will say the TV series is doing a much better job at keeping the suspense going! The formulas in the books is the exact same every time and it gets really old, especially once you are at the fourth novel. I think this series should be wrapped up.

Overall, For You and Only You is way too long and quite boring.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love a Joe Goldberg story, but I didn’t love his love interest, Wonder, in this story. This is still a worthwhile read. Some of my students have found her more likeable than I have.

Like other novels in the series, Kepnes keeps you interested in Joe's life. I had trouble putting this book down.

I didn’t realize this was a sequel before requesting so ended up dnfing about 10% in. this isn’t normal for me but I just couldn’t get invested into the characters’ motivations despite having watched the show before. fans of thrillers and the show will surely have a better time and I hope to read the original book soon. (2.5)

Thank you so much @AtriaBooks for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 04 April 2023)

SYNOPSIS | Joe has been invited to join a fellowship at Harvard and he is ready for the world to read his book. Once there, he meets & becomes infatuated with Wonder.

WHAT I LIKED:
- Joe being Joe
- literary setting

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- whilst I love seeing what antics Joe gets up too... I think I might be done with this series
- this felt like a bit of a slog to get through (it read a lot slower and felt a lot longer than the other books in the series)
- I didn't understand the hype about Wonder
- overall I think being in Joe's head is starting to get a bit repetitive

2.5⭐️
Joe Goldberg is back. He is amongst the privileged at Harvard doing a writing fellowship. While I liked the other books in the series, this was not it for me. First it is so so long and I was bored. The name Wonder?! I just could not get into this. I feel like this series just needs to end. This is one where the show may be better than the book. But I’m not sure because I don’t even want to watch it after this.

Thanks NetGalley for the ebook in exchange for my honest review

I have enjoyed other books in this series but struggled with this one. Thank you netgalley for the early copy!

Absolutely love this series. Love it so much I can't bring myself to watch the TV series. I don't want anything to ruin the books. Just amazing.