Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 18, 2023
Petal Woznewski left Madison, WI, and her adolescence, behind her when she moved to New York City. Now, Petal goes by Petta and is trying to live as normal of a life as she can, for an introverted pessimist who tries to push everyone away. When her new love interest (although she won’t admit it to herself), Gus, introduces Petta to the “must-have” novel of the summer, Petta realizes it sounds awfully familiar. It depicts a childhood tragedy that only one other person, besides Petta, knows the truth about. But the novel gives such detail, and even mentioned Petta by name, that she is forced to return to Madison to discover how many people know her secret, and what she needs to do to keep it quiet.
“I Know What You Did” is the debut novel by Cayce Osborne. Full of dark secrets that won’t stay buried and an engagingly twisted plot, it checks all the necessary boxes needed to make Osborne the next “one to watch”.
Petal is unique in more than just her name. She is the anti-protagonist protagonist, with her goth appearance and her negative view on life. However, it is this exact combination that also makes Petal completely lovable (much to her chagrin I’m sure), ensuring the reader will not only root for her, but will also expel a few laughs along the way.
“I Know” is a book-within-a-book, as Petal’s “past” is told through snippets of the novel supposedly based on Petal’s life. This is not at all as confusing as it sounds, as the book snippets are clearly marked and italicized and all of the characters in the featured book (besides Petal, of course) have different names. The reader gets to read the story at the same time as Petal does, ingesting all her thoughts and feelings about how her life is depicted. There were other ways to depict Petal’s past, of course, and I’ve seen variations of this in many novels, but I believe that Osborne went with the best option when scripting this story-within-a-novel.
Of course, the ending has a twist (and it’s a surprisingly unexpected one), but the overall conclusion has everything I could’ve asked for. “I Know” is a creepy novel with a hilarious and realistic protagonist, and Osborne has delivered with her new debut!

While this is a relatively short novel it took me days to finish. I just couldn't make myself stay with it for long periods of time and almost didn't finish. The main character apparentky never matured past high school, all she does is smoke pot and eat. She has a long suffering part time lover that she treats terribly and leads a very selfish existence. Petal absolutely ruined this book for me, I don't feel like I enjoyed it at all.

Petal Woznewski is living quietly in New York City. She's an introvert who spends a lot of time watching action movies and smoking marijuana. She has an off and on boyfriend named Gus. She's content with her like. Then her gynecologist calls her attention to the latest book that is climbing the charts. He's amused that it is dedicated to a woman named Petal Woznewski. Petal buys a copy of the book and learns that it is all about a tragedy that happened more than 30 years earlier when three girls went to hang out and only two came home.

Petal is surprised at how much of the book gets the facts about her long-ago friendship with Megan right and how much it gets wrong. All the names have been changed except for Petal's. More impartant, the book has her killing her friend. Petal knows that isn't true and becomes determined to find the author and set the story straight.

But setting the record straight means that she has to return to Madison, Wisconsin, and open wounds she thought were healed. Petal had a charmed childhood until her parents committed suicide forcing her to go live with her aunt. Then, just a couple of years later, her best friend dies in an accident. It was no surprise that she left Madison as soon as she graduated.

Petta, as she prefers to be named, has to try to connect with those she left behind and she hasn't kept in touch. Her main goal is to find the third girl in their friendship triangle. Only they haven't spoken since Megan died and Jenny dropped out of school and left town after their freshman year.

Making new connections isn't easy and it made harder by the fact that someone is actively harrassing her. Someone doesn't want Petta to be able to clear her name.

This was an intriguing story with a conflicted narrator who has never really gotten over the traumas of her childhood and now has to gather all her courage to find some answers and finally be able to move on with her life. It was a compelling story.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my approval to read and review the e-arc copy of this book.

Petal Wozmewski is shocked to discover her name in a recent best seller book about an incident that happened roughly 30 years ago when her best friend Megan Hollister is found dead!! The story was brought to fruition with a mix of plots in the present with chapters from the book included. I will recommend this book.

Main Characters:
-- Petta (Petal) Woznewski – late 40s, does data entry work in New York, lives in a studio apartment in the Garment District, lover of movies but not books, raised with wealth until her parents died when she was 11 and then she lived with her Aunt Shelly until she graduated high school, Aunt Shelly died from cancer the year after Petta left Madison
-- Gus Johnson – Petta’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, she tends to be the one to pull away, but Gus seems to get her, he works as a day shift security guard in her office building
-- ME Littleton – unknown author of No One Suspected who Petta spends all of her time trying to identify
-- Ben – met Petta their sophomore year, and the only person Petta would consider an old friend, he was her local weed hookup then and she hopes he will still have a hookup in the present day, still lives in Madison and owns a sign-making business

When a book starts with the sentence “Substitute gynecologists are the worst,” it really sets the tone for the main character’s narration style. I love Petta’s voice. This is a fantastic debut novel, a very quick read, and I had a really hard time putting it down to…well…sleep.

Petta is in her late 40s (high school class of 1994), and she stopped going by her given name of Petal years before. Her voice is much younger than her years though. Half of the chapters excerpt ME Littleton’s novel, which takes place when Petta was a teenager, so I think the book would appeal as a young adult title as well. My teenage daughter found the description intriguing enough that I’ll be ordering the book for her.

Here’s the gist. When Petta was 14, she befriended Megan and, to a lesser extent, Jenny. She pretty much pushed Jenny out of the #2 spot with Megan. When Megan tragically dies, Petta and Jenny are the only two who know what really happened. So either Jenny wrote the book (renaming only herself and Megan), Jenny told someone what really happened, or someone witnessed the whole thing. Honestly, there’s even the possibility that Megan survived.

So Petta needs to find the author of No One Suspected because the book implies that she murdered Megan, even though it claims to be a work of fiction. I suspected pretty much everyone in this book of being the author of No One Suspected, with the exception of Petta of course. I even thought that the local police could be involved.

Osborne does an amazing job of concealing the author as well as the truth of what happened with Megan and Jenny when they were all in high school until Petta reveals it to the police. This book is fast-paced with the perfect amount of suspense to make you want to keep reading.

I thought that the premise for this book was interesting - being accused of murder in the dedication of the fictionalised version of your high school best friend’s death. However, I found this book to be a little boring with characters I didn’t really care for.

I found Petta to be a strange character - she should have had my sympathies but there was just something about her that made me not like her. Finding out what secrets she was hiding & who was behind her tormenting was what drove me to finishing the book. I didn’t guess who this was but when it was revealed, it came as no surprise. For me, this book had lots of things that I usually like but in this instance, it just didn’t work out.

There really is not much to say about this book, it was short, but incredibly boring. The "twist" ending was very disapointing because the "bad guy" was such a minor character with a very weak easy to guess motive. The ending was similar to that of B.A. Paris's recent book, The Prisoner, the last 10% of the novel were the bad guy explaining how/why they did what they did instead of "finishing" the job--DId they not learn anything from Dr Evil in Austen POwers movies??
Petta 30 years removed from a tragedy that occured while she was in high school, she discovers a book written about that tragedy and puts her at the front and center (including her name!) The author is set on remaining anonymous, but the only people who knew about that tragedy was her two friends, one of which who died that night....and the other, is she the author? Or is there something sinnister lurking?

I never connected with Peta or felt any chemistry between her and Gus. Peta was a nearly 40 year old who acted like a sloppy, drunk pot head in her 20s. She was angry, dark and I never once cheered for her. Like I said earlier I can't say much about this book, you are given the plot pretty much in the first few pages, you read the "fictional" account--which was just page filler, then, the "Explanation" .
Thank you Net Galley and Cayce Osborne for this advanced copy read of this book. I was not influenced for an honest review.

BOOK: I Know What You Did
PUB DATE: 7/18/23 by @crookedlanebooks
RATING: 4.5 stars!!
PAGES: 272
GENRE: Thriller/Mystery/Suspense

Thank you to NetGalley and Lane Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

QUOTE: “I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will, too.”

SYNOPSIS: Petal Woznewski discovers she is named personally in a bestselling novel fictionalizing the death of her childhood best friend Megan, and after discovering it accuses her of her murder, she is determined to figure out who wrote the book. It upends Petal’s slow and quiet life in NYC, so she makes the trek home to Madison, WI to try and put the pieces together from thirty years ago, when she was fourteen years old and tragedy struck. Will she be able to solve the mystery before the person who’s out to blame her ends her life?

REVIEW: Debut author, Cayce Osborne, knocks this thriller out of the park! This book captivated me and I didn’t want to put it down. It’s not scary, but is incredibly intriguing and suspenseful, and I couldn’t wait to see how the story would all unfold! It’s quite the page-turner! This one comes out July 18 so get ready to grab it!

Happy Reading!

This was actually a decent, suspenseful debut novel by a quite talented author, whom I'll be sure to follow for future book releases. Cacey Osborne succeeds in constructing a solid, mystery-driven story with an unlikeable but smart and persistent female lead. Even though I predicted parts of the story and almost the full ending, I still enjoyed the book very much. The chapters were short but full of impact and cliffhangers. The story wrapped itself up nicely by the end and I appreciated the character development throughout the book, not only for the main protagonist but also for a few of the secondary ones. What I wasn't a big fan of was the fact that it lacked some backdrop nuance. I'd prefer it if the story was longer and we were able to see more details of Megan and her story, or probably some chapters dedicated to Petal's life before her arrival at West High School.

Overall, though, it was a beautiful debut novel with nice prose and a smooth story pace. 3 out of 5 stars, and I'll be sure to follow Cacey Osborne from here on out.

I Know What You Did is a novel by Cayce Osborne and revolves around the unlikeable Petal Woznewski, an aimless pot smoking, junk food eating introvert, quietly living in New York City. Her life of relative anonymity is quickly jeopardized when a bestselling novel is released falsely naming her as a perpetrator of a historic crime in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Petal must go back to Madison and face her past while uncovering the mysterious author as well as the person who is threatening her life.

What I liked about this book:
-flawed complex protagonist who loves junk food and action movies- I enjoyed the pop culture references particularly the Keanu Reeves/ John Wick references
-the book within a book framework
-the long suffering love interest Gus
-twists and turns throughout the book
-decent pacing throughout the book
-hints of humour and lightness in the book

What I didn’t like about the book:
-while I did enjoy a flawed protagonist, Petal was a bit too much to take at times especially her constant pot smoking
-this book almost read like a YA novel as opposed to an adult thriller since Petal seemed more like an immature teen or twenty something than a forty something woman
-the twisty abrupt ending I predicted- it could have been more build up and less anticlimactic
-the middle of the book lagged

My rating: 3 out of 5

My final takeaway- while I enjoyed this book, at times it seemed to be missing the extra oomph that elevates it from a 3 star rating to a 4 or 5. It had great potential and at times I had high expectations for a knockout thriller but unfortunately it fell a little short. However it still is enjoyable especially for fans of books within books and flawed characters having to face their past while confronting dangerous situations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this eARC.

Where do I begin? Summary: I didn’t enjoy this book and it was a painful read. The protagonist, Petta, is written to be a careless old pot head who makes it her mission to show she doesn’t give a fu*k. Her back story is an attempt to make you feel sorry for her, however by the end, I continued to not care for her. The writing tries way too hard to be witty. The only positive of the whole book is that it wasn’t longer. I found the plot to be interesting, but once I dived in I had a hard time staying interested.

Saw this cover and I instantly thought "Oh I need this one". The premise seemed good and I thought I was going to love it more. Not that I didn't like it but I didn't love it. The book started amazing, I went through the first 40% so invested. But then it went down. Petal, the FMC is annoying and not the smartest, behaves like a teen, talks about junk food all the time and then no idea why the author thought that presenting her as a weed addict was amazing, its mentioned so much that it's cringe. I get it she has lost people but her personality is horrible. And the more you read the worse it gets. And skipping that, I don't know all this self talk and I truly hate when characters play the "I'm in danger but not telling the police" roll, I'll solve it alone thing is so absurd. I just can't with that. I don't know. The book was really entertaining at the beginning and I wish the entire book were like that. I just think that the book started to feel too slow after being so fun at the beginning.

It was a fast read tho. It's a short book. And, as far as I saw, many enjoyed it. Just wasn't for me. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. Honestly, if it weren't because of the first maybe 45% of the book I'd have dnf.

I found this to be a very enjoyable read and I absolutely flew through it. The concept was so interesting, and I really liked the little excerpts from the book along with Petta telling us what the truth was.

However, I did find that, despite this book being fairly short, it dragged on a bit. A lot of the middle section was a lot of telling us what Petta was thinking about the mystery rather than showing us what was going on.

I also found the reveal at the end to be a bit disappointing, considering that it was revealed to be two characters who were largely not even in the book. I would have liked to see more of them and more clues pointing towards them to make the reveal a bit more exciting.

That being said, the book was a very fun read and a well done mystery overall.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.

Petal Woznewski, leading a quiet and introverted life in New York City, suddenly finds herself disturbed when her name appears in an anonymously written thriller. Accompanied by a cryptic note, the book hints at a buried secret from Petal's past, involving the tragic death of her friend, Megan, when they were fourteen. With only one other person aware of the secret, their old friend Jenny, Petal embarks on a journey back to her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. However, she encounters more questions than answers as Jenny has gone missing, and her former crush, Ben, seems unaware of the book's existence. As the thriller's plot veers away from reality and eerie clues accumulate, Petal is compelled to confront her past, uncover the identity of the book's author, and prevent her own life from mirroring the tragedy depicted within its pages.

Petal's character in the book was a standout for me. The author skillfully portrayed her vulnerabilities and avoided presenting her as a flawless protagonist, this added depth and relatability to her personality. Moreover, the overall pace of the book was quick and kept me engaged. I found it enjoyable to read, and to my surprise, the ending caught me off guard, delivering an unexpected twist that I did not anticipate.

Cayce Osborne has done it again! This has been my favorite read so far! It was written so well! The character development and plot was unlike anything I have ever read!

I had no idea who Cayce Osborne was but she surely wrote a killer book.

A huge thanks to Crooked Lane for my complimentary copy and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The book was amazing and if I could describe it , it would be remarkable. and thrilling. The book follows Petal who finds a bestselling book that fictionalizes the one thing that's a secret -the death of her childhood best friend and accuses her of the murder. Her whole life gets jumbled up as her name is not only for one of the book characters but also in the dedication “I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will, too.”. The book is a work of art and everyone should read it. What a book!

I thought the blurb was intriguing but the book exceeds expectations! Petta is complex. I loved Gus. There were plenty of twists to keep me guessing and questioning who was believable. The end was one I didn't see coming. I'll read this author again!

I loved the plot of this book. I found it to be very predictable , and found it hard to connect with Petal. I liked it but I couldnt say I loved it.

This is a heart-pounding novel that will captivate readers from start to finish. The author skillfully crafts a suspenseful narrative filled with unexpected twists and turns, ensuring an enthralling reading experience.

The story introduces readers to a diverse cast of characters, each with their own motivations and secrets. As the plot unfolds, their lives become intertwined in a high-stakes game of danger and deceit. The author expertly maintains a sense of suspense throughout the book, keeping readers guessing and eagerly turning the pages to uncover the truth.

One of the book's greatest strengths lies in its ability to create a palpable atmosphere of tension and unease. The author's vivid descriptions and attention to detail transport readers into the world of the story, making them feel as if they are right alongside the characters, experiencing the thrilling events firsthand.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.