I’ve enjoyed the first 3 books in this series and was excited to see what ol’ Joe Goldberg had gotten himself into this time. Unfortunately, I could not get into this book. I don’t think I’m alone in being sick of all the Covid/mask/political drama so be warned, there’s a ton in this book. Joe even drives a Tesla now. I read to escape, but with all the social commentary in this book I struggled to get through it. I don’t see myself continuing with this series.

The boo mk far surpassed the season. I could barely watch so I’m so glad I had this companion piece!

DNF @ 16% 3/20/23 - not at all like the series season 4, which was suspenseful and twisty. This was boring and repetitive from the last books. I just couldn’t force myself to finish. Unfortunately I won’t be continuing with the book series.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Random House Publishers and Caroline Kepnes for the opportunity to read an advance copy of FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU, to be published 25 April 2023. This stream of consciousness novel was not one that interested me. It was difficult to get through and seemed somewhat boorish but I guess that describes Joe. #NetGalley. #RandomHousePublishers. #CarolineKepnes. #ForYouandOnlyYou

I really wanted to like this but any growth Joe had in the previous book was demolished. Now I love me some Joe Goldberg but this one was difficult to get into.

I love me some Joe Goldberg, but this wasn't my favourite of the You series. I loved the previous book and felt like Joe was growing as a person. Now it seems like he lost that growth. I found him a bit whiny. I liked that we saw some new parts of Joe that made him more human. He doubted himself and got things wrong. But him and Wonder together seemed insufferable. I think Joe is at his best when he thinks he's superior and this setting made him vulnerable. The end felt like it is open for another You book.

I savored this book. Author Caroline Kepnes brings us back Joe Goldberg who is a villain you should hate but fall for hard.
I love the insight on how Joe's mind works and the chaotic mess of his actions.

This book kept me intrigued on where Joe's life would go next and the author gave another amazing story to keep us on our toes.

I enjoyed the humor of Joe's internal voice and how much he just gets us into his head.

Another great read in this series and this book leaves it open to more Joe adventures.

4.5 🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒popped!

Thank you to Random House, NetGalley, and the author Caroline Kepnes for this ARC!

Uggh. I feel bad writing a more negative review, but this became pretty difficult to read. Joe was really pissing me off. Listen…. I know he’s not supposed to be loved and adored. He’s done bad shit. But he annoyed the fuck out of me in this. He has become so whiny. And while I love Kepnes ability to show us Joe’s inner monologue, but Joe do you ever just stop and STFU? I just couldn’t get with this story as much as I had hoped. I really feel like Kepnes does well building up the world that Joe is immersed in, but he has become so unlikeable, and honestly half the time I was trying to figure out wth was actually happening. I really wanted to like this, but sadly I did not enjoy it as much. I’m sure others might, but I think I liked the show adaptation more than I liked this as a book.

I wanted to like this one I was excited to read it but it just fell short for me. Joe has become insufferable to read, it made it really hard to finish this book. joe just seemed to be missing his edge in this one.

Sadly, this missed the mark for me. I have found that, strangely, I prefer the show far more than the books.

This is the fourth installment of the series. Joe seems to get more annoying as it goes on. I do like some of the new characters in this one, such as Sara Beth. However, the pacing was uneven, and most of it was way too slow. The book seems similar to prior ones, just in a different setting. Unfortunately, I think Joe has overstayed his welcome with this series.

In this fourth installment of the You series, Joe Goldberg finds him in a Harvard writing fellowship, where he inevitably fixates on a new love interest- local Boston girl Wonder. And in true Goldberg fashion, people start showing up dead as he fights to keep them together. Okay so, full disclosure I didn’t like this book. I think I’m just over the character of Joe. He’s exhausting to be locked in his POV, and putting him in a bougie writing program just makes him way more insufferable. I liked a lot of the new characters they introduced - Sarah Beth Swallows was really fun- but the pacing just felt like a real slog. It hit me about twenty pages in that I remembered nothing about Book 3, and I remembered generally liking that one, but I retained nothing of the plot. I remember when I read Hidden Bodies, book 2, the main criticism I was seeing (and agreeing with) was that Joe wants to be a screenwriter so bad that he spends the whole book whining about his screenwriting career that it becomes more of his character trait than him killing people. This is exactly the same vibe but instead of the annoying world of Hollywood it’s the way more annoying world of Harvard writing fellowships. Ugh, I really really don’t want to dunk on this book, I wish I liked it more. I really like the way the show took Joe’s character post-book 2 than I think the books did. I still stand by the fact that You (book 1), is one of the best thrillers I’ve read. I just think I’m out at this point.

review will post on my instagram @boozehoundbookclub closer to the pub date.

Well. This book was pretty different from the previous three. Joe didn't seem edgy enough and too worried about his damn writing which frankly, made him pretty boring and annoying. I also wasn't feeling Wonder very much, her character was also annoying and I never felt any sympathy toward her.

This was not a bad book by any means, just too long and not the Joe we are used to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

For You and Only you starts with our Joe Goldburg joining a writing fellowship at Havard. This premise sounds like it would be the start to a bunch of new characters that would reach Peach status, but it sadly falls short. I wanted to love this book as the last Joe Goldberg novel was one of my favorites. I loved Mary Kay. This one feels like like a more subdued Joe, yes he was crazy and you start to sympathize with him like usual, but he did not feel as dangerous as his last book, and the murders that did happen weren’t thought out as well. Even stalking in the book was not as fun. Wonder the new main love interest did not draw me in, and I feel like she was made to be sympathetic, but she in all honesty was a spoiled brat in the book, and drank too much of the kool-aid. I did enjoy the premise, and there was standout character Sarah Beth. Sarah Beth was interesting and I feel like she saved the book. Sly was also an interesting character. The rest of the fellows fell very short and felt like 2d characters with no real dimension to them. I still believe the book is 3 stars as it is written well and it does play well into your head.Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House & NetGalley for allowing me to read this book

Was very excited to read this book, as with most people I loved You, but found it a bit lacking. Kind of disappointed.

“She is such a writer that she puts words in my mouth while I’m standing right here, rewriting life in real-time, and no, she can’t do this to me, to us.”
― Caroline Kepnes

Two years since the third book in the You series, Caroline Kepnes’s Joe Goldberg is at it again.

I noticed that most of the books in the You series follow a certain formula: Joe arrives somewhere new, he finds a girl he becomes obsessed with, the chaos around the relationship, killings, and onto the next city. Why this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, you do get a sense of what generally will happen from book to book.

Kepnes is excellent at building a setting that you become engrossed in almost like it is a character itself. This time around we are in the Harvard area. The setting affects the story in so many ways, it is great to see how it will get involved.

You can definitely tell that Kepnes knows her Joe character well. I really like how she developed Joe through all these books and yet he still has some of the same tendencies. They do say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I love the explanation of how Joe starts to spiral off course. It is like a domino effect seeing how the different situations and characters affect his thinking and his actions

One thing that bothered me a bit, was that some characters and/or storylines seemed to be dropped mid-story. I was curious about what happened and was disappointed that there were no real answers.

Overall I enjoyed For You and Only You. Kepnes just has a way with words to draw you into Joe’s life. I will always pick up books in this series to see where she will take Joe next. This is a good book for anyone who already read the other three books and someone who likes a bit of thriller and mystery. While this one in the series didn’t seem to have as many twists and turns as some of the others, it was still a read that I did not want to stop reading.

I am a You fan. The books, the series, a fan.
I made the mistake of watching the fourth season before reading this book. Because...I really enjoyed the fourth season and this book was utterly different.

The book started well. Good Ole Joe. But then I hit a wall of blah. It was like walking,walking,walking...
SMACK! Face first into a whole lotta talking between Joe and his new You. Both being writers, whose book was better, did she copy off of him, etc. Egos flying back and forth and I wanted it to stop.

I'm very happy I didn't stop. It picked up, got interesting and really developed. It became my enjoyable You.

I can't imagine I'll get tired of these books or the series. But, I need to remind myself that they truly are two different entities and don't match up. So, enjoy them for what each of them gives you...more Joe.

4⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for allowing me to have an advanced copy of this ebook.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I found Joe to be absolutely terrifying in You. He made my skin crawl, and I frequently had to put the book down to compose myself because of that 2nd person narrative.

By the time For You and Only You rolled around, Joe has become just insufferable and whiny. His inner monologue is repetitive, and I am completely disinterested in his love interests. Maryanne at least had things going on, Wonder is basically wonderbread. Which makes Joes fawning all the more annoying.

It feels like Kepnes was realistically done after book 2, though kept it open ended so she could return if ever she wanted to. And only came back because of the success of the show. Girl, get your coin - I get it. A lot of people love Joe no matter what. However, for me, Joe was interesting when he was ruthless and creepy. He is too much of a "anti-hero' who isnt even doing "that much wrong" (compared to book 1 Joe - he is still breaking many laws and being an absolute creep) that I find myself hoping he'll kill someone just for something to happen.

alas - this will be my last Joe novel. But - not my last Kepnes. Her writing is solid i just hate the protagonist.

It would have helped if I read the previous books in the series. Felt as though I was missing something and ultimately, did not finish. The character was too hip for me with a lot of cultural references. I will not be reading previous books.

Joe Goldberg has earned a fellowship at Harvard at the start of this book. I really enjoyed Joe in “You”, he is a really unique antihero sort of character.

However, I feel like I’m starting to get a bit tired of Joe. His egomaniacal-sarcastic -smart ass inner thoughts are a bit much sometimes. They also seem to go on, and on, and on….

I usually enjoy the author, and this book was well written but this one was a DNF for me.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

I was excited to be reunited with Joe but I feel like this series is just going off the rails. The first two books were solid books. I forgave the 3rd book because it still had some okay bits but this one is just to much. What I always loved about this series was that it had a sense of believability to it. Joe was always bat shit but I still felt like he could be a real person and thats what made the series so thrilling. Now things are going so outside that realm of possibility that the book has lost all of its stakes. We know Joe never suffers real or lasting consequences.
In the end this book alone is fine but as a whole this series has gone off for me. Its over stayed its welcome and I'm just ready for it to be over which is sad cause I never thought I would be saying that about Joe.