Ooh I don't feel good about this, but I have to say it. This was not a good read for me. I was oh so bored. I did not care for Wonder or anyone in close proximity to her. It was all a bore. Joe was a disappoinment. His kills were ho-hum. The ending was a snooze.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

Another thrilling Joe Goldberg book! I loved diving back into Joe’s story as it took him to Harvard. His adventures are always surprising and interesting. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and RandomHouse Publishing for this ARC! When I saw Caroline had written another Joe Goldberg I jumped at the chance to read it before it was released, because I have loved this series since book one. I really wanted to give this book 5 stars and at the start I had every intention of doing so. I love how Caroline writes Joe and it’s the reason I enjoy this series. For You And Only You felt a bit drawn out to me at times. It was over 400 pages that I felt could have been 350 or even 300. However, this one like the other You books was entertaining and I liked how it ended.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes. Will I read another You book? Freaking yes!

I love Caroline Kepnes Joe Goldberg novels and will read everything about Joe that she puts out (and I hope that she continues to write books about him)! This latest one didn't quite grab a hold of me as hard as the others, but I still really enjoyed it.

Oh, Joe. You never disappoint!! This was a fantastic read, and I was consistently at the edge of my seat waiting to see how Joe will get out of yet another tense predicament. Definitely recommend this book!!

What a clusterfuck of a book!

I was so excited to be able to read this easy via netgalley. Every book of this series I have been blessed with an early copy and I have loved the series but this book was disappointing.

There was too much going on, I lost interest halfway through and Joe is so captivating but he lost his touch in this book.

The quick wit is usually easy to follow and read but this book took me a week to read because I really didn’t want to pick it up.

Reading the last 50 pages was a struggle and I did not care for the end at all.

Well, I’m sad. I just read 400 and something pages and this just didn’t feel like the other 3 books. I understand that this storyline is always going to be formulaic to a degree…. Joe sees girl, Joe obsesses over girl, Joe kills and manipulates his way into girls life, and then he eventually realizes that, shocker, she’s a normal person with flaws, so he inevitably loses feelings, or somehow he ends up with the girl and something horrible happens. Moral of the story is that he never gets his happily ever after.

I don’t mind this formula, and usually it’s a comfort to know that I’m about to read him go through some crazy shit. Like, I wholeheartedly expect and look forward to the chaos that is Joe Goldberg, but this one just… I don’t understand what happened.

Joe meets Wonder at a fellowship at Harvard, they are both writers who have written their own books (you go, Joe!), and they both received scholarships to attend, whereas everyone else in the fellowship is rich, privileged, and connected. He sees Wonder wearing a tight graphic t-shirt and it was love at first sight.

Everything felt rushed, but then at the same time the book DRAGGED. He spent most of the book just talking to himself as if Wonder lives inside his head and the kills were anticlimactic. I only enjoyed the very beginning when there was one solid twist.

In addition, the dialogue was just painful, this was nonstop author banter and endless evaluations of both of their novels and everyone else in the fellowship. I felt like maybe if I was a writer myself maybe I would have connected more, but there were endless evaluations of Wonder’s Goodreads reviews and we get that mouse in the house shit (Dr. Nicky throwback) brought up again SO many times. This entire book was Joe just being nervous and self conscious over his book and trying to succeed, while simultaneously trying to help Wonder succeed. I can see Caroline Kepnes was kind of making this a love letter to writers and readers, but it just didn’t work for me.

Now in regard to Wonder, Wonder herself had no personality! If Beck was a better writer, was more kind/empathetic, and had zero friends; that’s Wonder. However, she is smarter than Beck. I liked Wonder for her instincts, and her constant intuition that Joe wasn’t always honest. She was the strongest of all his female love interests, but she wasn’t developed enough. After reading all of those pages I feel like I barely knew her, but maybe that was the point. I feel like maybe in this book Joe just slid further into insanity and that’s why he felt more unhinged in this one.

All in all, I love being in Joe Goldberg’s mind and Caroline Kepnes does an amazing job with these books, but I hated the setting and overall execution of this one. Joe felt sloppy and for much of this book it felt like nothing was happening and that was a huge bummer.

I’ll still read the next one, but I do hope it’s a final book because the ending was so lackluster I couldn’t even believe it was over.

Thank you NetGalley, Randomhouse Publishing Group, and Caroline Kepnes for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

For You and You Only is the 4th book in the You series written by Caroline Kepnes. The narrator speaks directly to the reader by referring to the subject of the book (Wonder) as "You," just as he did in previous books with the woman he'd fallen in love with. In the previous three books, Joe Goldberg (narrator) essentially kills his love interest when she doesn't love him the way he wants or needs to be loved. These books must be read in order, or you'd never understand the history and complexity of his mind. That said... as much as we should hate Joe for killing about ~10 people at this point (and not getting caught), we love him. But by this book, I admit, I'm starting to waver about his appeal.

Joe's fallen in love before, sometimes with a girl we don't necessarily like. Wonder is a lot like Beck in that way, but she's also seemingly ordinary and not his type, so I didn't quite care if they were together whereas in the past, I wanted him to win the girl. At many points in this book, I rooted for Joe, but there were chapters that bored me for several pages. I kept plugging along and would hit moments that were sheer brilliance, and then I found myself intrigued with one of the fellows is writing group, Sara Beth. While the relationship and plot between them expands, it doesn't go where it should have gone, and quite honestly, it would have been the perfect ending.

All that said, it's not as good as the first in the series (none usually are) but it fits well within the overall theme of the larger story. Fans should read it. Newcomers shouldn't start here. I hope the books end here because there isn't a lot more to do with Joe unless he goes to prison or a psychiatric hospital where he falls in love with a guard, warden, nurse or doctor! But Kepnes is a strong writer, and amid the ethereal literary fiction droppings and silly Goodreads references, there's a woman with a deep and profound understanding of human nature.

For You and Only You by Caroline Kepnes
Publishing Date - April 4th 2023
Rating (4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an eARC from Netgalley on this 4th installment of Caroline Kepnes’ You series. I enjoyed the first 3 books so I was beyond excited when I received an eARC!

In this fourth installment , we meet up with Joe at Harvard. He wants to be a writer. He becomes obsessed with Wonder who is also a writer in the fellowship program. He meets new enemies and struggles to keep his past secrets buried.

I really enjoyed this one! While the fourth installment kept me turning the pages , I was a little disappointed by the ending. I really hope she continues this series.

my mind is blown by how good this book was.
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any new release from the YOU series proceeds similarly: ecstatic that I got it, enjoy consuming it for a few days at most, sad that it’s over. FOR YOU AND YOU ONLY is no exception.
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content warnings for toxic relationship, stalking and murder.
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brief synopsis: our favorite narrator/protagonist/serial killer/monogamist Joe Goldberg is a WRITING FELLOW AT HARVARD. this means two things: 1) the book is a love letter to books/writers/writing, & 2) everything takes place in THE LAND OF DUNKIN! seriously, the object of Joe’s obsession is a writer named Wonder whose day job is at Dunkin.
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being from Barrington, RI, I loved the scene(s) that take place on Route 6 in Seekonk, MA! Joe also ventures to Cape Cod to the home of the rich ‘Hornblower’ family. prose is sharp, insightful, & funny as always.
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notable quotation: “it wasn’t enough for people like us to be readers, that we would only be loved for who we are if we became writers.” perfect timing for me after my first book deal! further, “you ran online to tell everyone about every book you devoured, as if your private communication with a novel wasn’t enough.” @ me next time Caroline Kepnes ❤️
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while YOU series fits one of my favorite genres, social media psycho thriller, where the murderer hides in your DM’s not the closet, THE FIRST FEW PAGES CONTAIN CYBER STALKING VIA GOODREADS! Goodreads makes it into the fictional cyber-stalking.
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overall the kind of book that made my whole week. I can’t wait to re-read via audio post-publication. I want to gather all the bookish Internet culture references and also create a Spotify playlist for all the great songs referenced. tbh maybe I should do those before then.

When we meet up with Joe, he is on his way to a fellowship program at Harvard. He spent his time during quarantine writing a book and is sure that it's the next Great American Novel.
But Joe wouldn't be Joe, if he didn't have a new obsession, which is where Wonder comes in. Also in the fellowship program, Wonder is the first woman Joe becomes fixated on that puzzles me. Seemingly picked at random, or rather out of convenience, the connection is loose the entire novel. In fact, at several points I wondered if he even liked her. But, desperate to not be alone, he clings to her whenever, or especially, he feels her drifting away.
Which is often, because Wonder is also the first woman who doesn't appear to need saving. She likes her life and her choices.
I found this to be a very entertaining read. A tiny bit too long, which is my only complaint.
Selfishly I hope that this isn't the end of Joe's journey. I'm in it to the end with him.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRQCLgTe/
Initial review above, will be mentioning again on the release date.

What happened? This was boring. Not like earlier books(or movies). ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

E-ARC provided by NetGalley for a review! I listened to the first three books in the series as audiobooks, narrated by the incredible Santino Fontana, and so this was the first of the series I actually read on paper. Kepnes’ characterization of Joe is so strong, and he’s such a realistic person(while still being a terrifying psychopath) that his voice just jumps off the page.
In For You and Only You, the fourth book in Caroline Kepnes’ Joe Goldberg series, we follow Joe to Cambridge. Post-COVID, Joe’s been accepted to a Harvard writers fellowship and moves up from Orlando where he meets the latest object of his obsession, Wonder, another aspiring writer who also happens to be a Goodreads Girl. This book does get a little meta, diving into writing and the publishing industry, and Kepnes gives herself a voice in some of the characters, breaking the fourth wall a bit. I wish there had been more of Joe trying to be with his son in this book-there was barely a mention of him in this one and that was a pretty big focus of the last book.
Overall, this is a strong fourth installment, but the ending feels like a little bit of a let down. The previous books have a strong buildup to a climactic ending, but I didn’t feel that with this one. Maybe Kepnes was trying to escape criticism that this book is just more of the same from Joe? Obsession, fixation, murder, his relationship not quite working out for whatever reason, more murder to try and fix things, and then his life blows up because he can’t keep juggling everything and he has to move away and become obsessed with someone else… I haven’t watched the Netflix show but I’ve heard it doesn’t stay true to the books in the more recent seasons, and that seeing Joe grow as a person is more compelling. I think with this ending, she was trying to show that Joe was growing as a person, but it felt a little like a cop-out. I do think that fans of this series will enjoy this latest book (I did, and I was thrilled to be approved for this ARC) but it left me wanting more from this book than excited and dying to read the next installment.

“For You and Only You,” by Caroline Kepnes, is the fourth in the Joe Goldberg “You” series. I’ve read the three previous books, though I did have to jog my memory a bit for some of the names mentioned in passing in this book. While I think one can read this one as a stand-alone, I think at least reading the first book (or maybe watching the show? I don’t know, having never watched the program) would be beneficial as to how Joe Goldberg ticks. One of the things I greatly enjoy in this series is just how powerful Ms. Kepnes uses the second person (you). Joe is his usual self, with his little zingers of humor (I had a smile at the word autodidact being tossed about). I found Joe’s love interest, Wonder, a bit flat this time - she seemed very young and whinged a lot at least on paper. Maybe that was part of Joe’s attraction to her - that she was different from the others he’d fallen in love with. I do like seeing things through Joe’s eyes - from his obsession to his self-justification of his actions. I did fly pretty quickly through this book, but at times I found the pacing a bit slow and some of the side stories seemed to detract from Joe and Wonder more than I would’ve liked. But, overall, another good book in this series that held my attention.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc. Thoroughly enjoyed reading about Joe at Harvard. Hoping there will be another book in the series. Joe fans are going to love this one.

Thank you to #Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

It’s a post-COVID world in Massachusetts, and Joe Goldberg has entered a writing fellowship at Harvard. He sets his eyes on a new “you” and quickly becomes enamored with Wonder (eye roll, yes that’s her name). We see the typical *no spoiler alert* stalking, obsessions, half-cocked ideas, narcissism, delusions of grandeur, but now Joe has written a novel! His love interest/stalking victim is also an author. Joe has his ups and downs through his relationship with Wonder, but all in all it just falls flat. There is a plethora of unlikeable characters, but sadly only 2 get murdered…

I was beyond excited to receive the advanced reader copy of this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed You, Hidden Bodies, and You Love Me, therefore I anticipated devouring this one. Unfortunately, this was my least favorite of the series thus far. This time there wasn’t enough character development for me to be invested in the character. I understand that character growth was intended and that he’s now “breaking his cycle,” but I really just didn’t care about any of it.

In You, I was invested in Beck. In Hidden Bodies, we fell in love with Love and loved to hate Forty. In You Love Me, Mary Kay was relatable, and her death came as such a shock in the end. Wonder is forgettable, whiny, and one-dimensional. I am choosing to look at this entire novel as a plot device to move Joe’s story forward and hoping that #5 will return to the original intrigue and excitement. 3/5 stars.

Hello, You...

The scream I emitted finding out I got approved for this ARC, I probably sounded like RIPFortyRIPBeckRIPBenji... you get it.

In For You and You Only, our love-him-cause-ya-hate-him character Joe Goldberg takes on a Harvard fellowship (dark academia vibes?!), where he stumbles across his next hyper-fixation/love interest, Wonder. Wonder is a wonder to Joe (ba-dum-tskkk); smart as a whip, a fellow writer, and no ex-boyfriends... why it's almost like Love at first sight (ba-dum-tskk x2). And yet problems inevitably pop up, both in the book and outside it.

While this was undoubtedly my favorite You book since the first, some of my sentiments from books 2 and 3 carried over to this installment: Joe Goldberg is stuck in a loop and it's getting repetitive and predictable.

Sometimes that's not a bad thing. But when it comes to You, I preferred the 3rd season over it's novelization because it strayed from the book. Joe had to do a little more self-reflection with a wife and kid, and contemplate his priorities; I mean THE MAN WENT TO THERAPY!! Hell, Book Joe is practically burden-free compared to Netflix Joe.

I nevertheless dug right into this novel and was pleasantly surprised. Kepnes broke the fourth wall in this installment and I LOVED IT. It was so trippy reading about how someone like Joe is written, as well as getting into the psychology of why readers/viewers are obsessed with him. Joe, as part of this fellowship, is finally forced to confront his worst enemy: himself.

And one thing I will always give Kepnes credit for over the show is how recognizable and scarily-human Joe's voice is. I could also practically read it in Penn Badgley's voice, which I will never get sick of. She creates this perfectly imperfect psyche of someone with mommy issues to the nth degree. Her characters jump off the page fully formed and just the right amount of crazy.

The only point in this book where I had to deduct a star was at the ending.

I will not remark on what happens for the sake of remaining spoiler free, but just know that it's... oddly philosophical?? Like imagine if Kepnes pulled a Stephenie Meyer in Breaking Dawn. If you get it, you get it.

Overall, I would without a doubt recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of the You series. My deepest thanks to Caroline Kepnes, Random House, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For You and You Only is available April 25th, 2023 and available for pre-order now!

Joe Goldberg is at it again, this time in a place that his genius can truly be recognized- Harvard University. Joe wants to be a writer, and believes the fellowship at Harvard will offer him connections to publish his brilliant book. He has found a new object of affection in Wonder Parish, who is also a writer in the fellowship. However, Joe makes new enemies at Harvard and struggles to make sure all his former secrets stay buried. Will his brilliance finally be recognized? Will his relationship with Wonder thrive, or will she become another of Joe’s victims?

This book is the fourth installment of Caroline Kepnes series featuring You, Hidden Bodies, and You Love Me. This series is also an amazing show on Netflix, but as always, the books are even better and differ quite a bit from the show. I highly recommend starting from the first book before reading this one. I have read and loved this entire series, so it was truly such an honor to review this book. I love Joe’s voice, his hubris, and it’s such a unique perspective to read a book from the perspective of the anti hero. The academic setting was perfect for Joe, and I enjoyed the other characters in this book, particularly Sarah Beth Swallows. If you have read this series, you’ve got to pick this one up! If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

Thank you so much to Random House, Netgalley, and Caroline Kepnes for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have zero self control....

I JUST received this book two days ago and there was no way I could scroll and read another book knowing that this one was sitting on my shelf.

I had to do it.

I need Caroline Kepnes books in my life like I need the air to breathe.

We all obsess over the series "You" I mean come on, what is not to love, not only do we get to watch this suspenseful thriller play out in front of our eyes but we also get to swoon over Penn Badgley.

Buttttttt...

The books are better!!! I know that is wild to wrap your head around but the books are always better. It does not matter how great the series is, the book is where it all originated. I have read all three previous books, including, You, Hidden Bodies and You Love Me.

If you know anything about this series, you know there is no shortage of murder and deceit. If you know nothing about this series, I will tell you that you are in for a wild ride. Caroline Kepnes is a master within her field and will have you salivating as her words glitter across the page.

If I can offer you one book series suggestion for the rest of this year, it will be the Caroline Kepnes series.

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes

"What a shame to be so angered by what you don't have that you treat what you do have like it's nothing" - You

For You and Only You by Caroline Kepnes carries on this series brilliantly. I love Joe Goldberg and his stream of consciousness. He's just as brash, sharp, and crazy as always. The writing is crisp, moves fast and is simply some of the best. Highly recommend this book, though it might help to read the other books by this author, and get to know Joe the lead character first. Recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.