
Member Reviews

I am a die hard, HUGE fan of the you book series, and I was so excited when I got approved for this early copy. I was so disappointed that it jut fell flat. just seems a bit regurgitated and I also wasn't fond of Wonder Parish. I didn't find her remotely interesting and I couldn't understand what all the fuss was over her.

The much anticipated (end?) to the series! I believe this is supposed to be the last book, but I am not sure after reading it. I have been following Joe since before the series turned into a show and I have gobbled up every page that Caroline Kepnes has written thus far. When I saw the opportunity to be an ARC reader I knew that I had to go for it and thanks to NetGalley it was made possible for me.
Without giving anything away, this book kept me wondering until the very end and it was nice to see Joe a little more humanized. He makes mistakes just like everyone else and he knows it. Honestly, I hope this isn't the end because I am not ready to see him go yet!

Have you ever enjoyed stepping onto a carnival ride that brought you speeding through rooms and shadows on a wild and frantic journey? That is my best description of what it’s like visiting the busy, impulsive mind of Joe Goldberg. If you are at all invested in any of Joe’s shenanigans, this latest installment is essential reading.
As an author and an avid reader, I found the central premise of an eclectic group of various young talents coming together to form a writer’s workshop at Harvard, so intriguing. Surely, any academic gathering that would have our dear Joe as a member is bound to be stimulating and have quite an edge . . . and as expected, delicious drama ensues.
Find out what Joe gets up to in Cambridge — April 25, 2023
Big thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of For You and Only You for my unbiased evaluation. 3.5 stars

Joe is back and in love again! Surely this time things will work out for him and his love interest, right? Hopefully a Harvard writing fellowship with a cycling obsessed instructor doesn’t derail Joe and Wonder’s budding relationship.
Oooooh boy. This book almost lost me in the first quarter, I won’t lie. Dan’s stream of consciousness thoughts felt waaay over the top and distracting from what was actually happening. I’m glad I pushed through and I did enjoy the last 50-75% of this book although I would argue that it could have been significantly shorter. I didn’t find Wonder to be a particularly interesting character. I enjoyed reading about the relationship between Dan and Glenn and LOVED the side plot with Sara Beth. I wish there was more of that!
All in all, this was definitely not a favourite read. It had some redeeming moments but was a battle to get through at times unfortunately.

We are now four books into the Joe Goldberg Series by Caroline Kepnes, and by the time I got to FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU I was worried that things might start feeling a bit repetitive. After all, there is a clear formula with Joe: he obsesses over a woman, he weasels his way into her life without her realizing the stalker lengths he's going, and people die in the process. But Kepnes manages to keep this formula feeling fresh and unique as she satirizes terrible people, lofty ideas of ideal places, and romance in general. Joe is now at Harvard as an aspiring author, and his wit, creepiness, and dark side are all in tact. I once again really enjoyed his voice and the twists and turns of his newest fixation, this time on fellow writer wannabe Wonder, all while he tries to keep his murderous past in the past and all while trying to fit in in a toxic and elitist academic setting. Joe is still hilarious, there are still things that take me by surprise, and honestly I think that I have such an affection for the twistedness of these books that I will probably be on board until the bitter end.
FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU is another darkly delicious romp involving a favorite fictional psychopath.

I was so excited to receive a galley of Kepnes’ newest novel. Unfortunately, the writing style (as for the others in the You series as well) is very hard for me to follow as it feels like run on thoughts and begins to not makes sense. I think I would have loved this as an audio book as listening to the run on thoughts would have been easier for me.

I like this change for Joe, instead of selling books, he's writing them. Joe is back to his old tricks, killing to make sure this new relationship works out. This book felt like it dragged for a bit, not a lot happened or the same thing happened over and over.

Joe Goldeberg is back, but this time around, it was a struggle to keep up with his internal dialogue and at times I found myself skimming over the pages.
Unlike the stories before, this book took me a while to get into. The first 25% of the book felt drawn out, slow, and at times I considered putting the book down for good. Thankfully, the story got more interesting once Joe started thinking about his favourite pastime - murder.
I wasn't a huge fan of Wonder's character. She came off flat and kind of boring. It was actually surprising that Joe would obsess over her. I also was not a huge fan Joe's constant ramblings overshadowed the story this time around. It just gets repetitive and slows down the book. I found myself thinking "Just shut up already!" multiple times throughout this read.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but not as enjoyable as the previous books.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest feedback.

when we last heard from joe, he was in florida running a bar. now joe managed to be accepted into a writing fellowship at harvard thanks to the glenn shoddy. joe’s excited to become the writer, finally. that is, until he meets his fellows. thankfully, there’s wonder. joe deems them soulmates(and by now we know how he gets when it comes to those he loves). wonder is like joe, a reader turned writer, and obviously they’re meant to be.
joe gets taken under glenn’s wing, which will help both him and wonder, and learns more than he wants to about the writer and his wife.
i listened to the other books in this series on audible(highly, highly recommend!) but was so excited to get the arc for this one! its hard to rank the books because i think for you and only you would be tied with you, and followed by you love me. my favorite in the series is hidden bodies!
i really enjoyed this book. i honestly couldn’t read it(especially the second half) fast enough. i highly recommend this book and the entire series.
a special thank you to @carolinekepnes, @randomhouse, and @netgalley for the advanced readers copy!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher’s for this wonderful opportunity to read this novel. I must say I did watch the show before picking up this series and so far I’ve loved both. The characters are likeable but also not at all. It’s so weird being in Joes POV. I love this series and wish to read anything else this author comes up with.

Oh, Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe...how equally unsettling and satisfying it is to be back inside the mind of Joe Goldberg. He's still here, he's still murderin', but he STILL LOVES BOOKS so somehow it's all ok. Look, I don't know why it works, but it does and I really had fun reading this one.
In FOR YOU AND YOU ONLY, the fourth go around, we find Joe Goldberg in Boston (yay!) at Harvard (yay?), working on his own book (YAY!). He walks around Cambridge, he stops at DUNKIN' (because duh), he becomes obsessed with one of his Fellows. You know, totally normal stuff. It's really the usual Joe being Joe: bits of completely irrational rationalizations and long inner-monologues, but that's what I've come to expect from and love about Caroline Kepnes, who is really excellent at getting into the mind of Joe with just the right amount of wit, intelligence, and delusion without it going over the top. Ok, sometimes it goes over the top but it's still so dang enjoyable. I enjoyed the character of Wonder also, who was just different enough from Joe's past love interests (yikes!) to make her intriguing, but you could still see why he would become enamored with her.
There were a few bits in the middle that felt a little long, and the supporting cast of characters were a little more insufferable than usual (I suspect this is on purpose?). This book was fun, Santino Fontana narrating the audiobook will be even more fun and I will forever and always read anything Caroline Kepnes writes.

Caroline Kepnes consistently writes thrilling, suspenseful plot lines that have me hooked each time. Thank you for the oppty to read an arc, in exchange for an honest review.

Joe is back and getting himself into all kinds of trouble per usual! In this era of anti-heroes, I feel like Joe could not have come back at a more perfect time. As a fellow Goodreads girl, I am going to follow Wonder’s lead and leave a review that does not include a lame plot summary. Although Wonder isn’t my favorite of Joe’s leading ladies (Team Beck), I did find her to be an intriguing match for him. While I know we shouldn’t technically root for Joe, I do hope that he finds his match at some point in the future.
Caroline Kepnes is a literary genius. I always say that her books are dense. I make sure to take my time and read multiple times to soak in all of the references and get a full understanding of the characters. The way she strings words together is remarkable! On a side note, I cannot wait to hear the audiobook version and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Santino will be reprising his role as Joe. No one else can read Joe quite like Santino! I’m here for Joe always and can’t wait to see what happens next.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. It was an honor to be chosen for this one!

When I got this advanced reader copy, it was like Christmas. The You series is one of my favorites and I LOVE Joe Goldberg. He's my favorite serial killer.
In the fourth installment of the Joe story, he's on his way to Harvard to be part of a writing fellowship. He's ready to find love again, but all the women are so wrong -- until he meets Wonder Parish.
I wish I could say Joe was back to his old ways. But he wasn't, except for his willingness to fall deeply in love with another woman he just met. Maybe Joe was still in mourning from losing Mary Kay in the last book. He didn't start collecting victims like he usually does, didn't lock anyone in The Cage and barely did any stalking or other small crimes.
It did have some moments where the old Joe poked through. It had a slow start and really fought to pick up and keep the speed. At least the ending left it open to more Joe because for better or worse I will keep reading these for as long as they keep coming.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the copy

I was so excited to read this book For You And Only.You featuring our favorite twisted narrator Joe Goldberg. It's funny in parts for the lengths he will go to, to please the he loves Wonder. Joe is a writer, and so is Wonder. They are members of an Ivy League Writing Group looking to publish their first book. Joe loves Wonder so much that he will not let anyone get in her way of success, no matter what it takes. I loved this book! I cant wait to read more about Joe Goldberg! Check it out for an entertaining read!

I have excitedly waited for each installment of the You series as they've published. I'm somewhat of a Joe Goldberg fanatic and I was so excited to get an early copy of FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU. This is book four and Joe is at it again. The only difference is this time I'm just not as into it. At this point, I've seen the series and Penn Badgley's voice is the one in my head and I'm not sure if it's the fact that Gossip Girl's voice is in my head or the constant rambling (way more than the other books) that's annoying me but I struggled with this one. Honestly, I felt like it could have been at least 150 pages shorter. The book series takes a different turn than the TV series, and of course, the books are way better. This one doesn't hold up as much as the first three for me but I'm still excited for more. I do hope there's a book five!

This book couldn’t have been written more perfectly!!! Kepnes continues to amaze me with each book!! With all the twists and turns she definitely kept my attention the WHOLE time.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I've enjoyed our adventures with stalking serial killer Joe for several years now and I have always been excited to see a new book release. The third book was a bit less exciting to me than its predecessors but I was ready to give this one a go. The idea this time is that Joe has written a book. He thinks that this book is a wonderful literary work of art and that he will be another JD Salinger. In his mind, it is just a matter of time before everyone will hold him in reverence. He receives the opportunity to attend Harvard as a part of fellowship with an accomplished author named Glenn leading the class. But then he spots another "you"- this time it is a woman named Honor who lives with her father and sister and works at Dunkin. Immediately he starts in on his usual ways and builds her up to be his perfect fantasy woman. Here is the deal: only the setting is different here. And I never really feel like Honor is someone compatible with Joe...she's very different to the other women he gets fixated on. Maybe that should be a good thing but she's bland. He kills the exact people I anticipated he would kill as soon as we met the cast of characters. And this time it didn't take long to get tired of being in Joe's head...something I have previously quite enjoyed. His thoughts were even more repetitive than in earlier books. The author has created a great character in Joe and she is a really strong writer. We just spent far longer in his head without anything suspenseful or deadly happening than in the other books. I feel like this might be a sign that its time to wrap up the series. Let's see how things end for Joe one way or another. I don't want to see him just fade out because this is a psycho we need to see go out with a bang.

Joe is up to his old tricks again: falling in love and…killing anyone who gets in the way of it. This time, he has been invited to a writing fellowship at Harvard where he presents his literary work, titled, “Me”, and meets Wonder Parish: fellow aspiring writer and girl of his dreams. And Joe is willing to say and do anything to keep Wonder for himself.
This 4th installment of the series unfortunately fell a little flat for me, and unlike the other books in the series, I never quite found myself rooting for Joe. While I loved reading the brilliantly detailed in-depth inner workings of Joe’s dark and sarcastic mind in the beginning of the book, about halfway through it became a bit repetitive and even boring. Similarly, I didn’t find Wonder’s character to be interesting in the least.
Do I regret reading this book? Not at all. Will I read the 5th installment of the series, should Caroline Kepnes continue it? Absolutely. I am still addicted to Joe Goldberg with his crazy mind and crazier obsessions.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a huge fan of Joe Goldberg - I've watched the TV show "You" too many times to count at this point and I'm so excited for season 4 being released on February 9th. When I saw I was approved for this ARC, I squeaked just a bit out of excitement lol.
With that being said, this particular Joe story felt a bit anti-climactic and slow burn for me. Joe leaves his time in Florida to attend a fellowship at Harvard in the hopes of having his book published. I would have LOVED to see excerpts from said book, but we only receive brief glimpses and his character names. Joe, of course, falls in love again with another girl who honestly feels a bit too much like a repeat of Beck's character from Book 1 with the added element of a dependent extended family instead of the dependent friend group. I felt like the most interesting character in this story was Sarah Beth - another fellowship recipient who is a mystery novel author (which kind of begs the question of why she's in the fellowship since she has multiple books already published). Her relationship with Joe is the most climactic and interesting part of this story for me.
While I love Joe's stories and will forever be entertained by this character, I hope if we receive a 5th book that there will be a new angle and more immersion into Joe's character.
I gave the book 3.5 starts rounded up to 4.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the E-ARC.