A Likeable Woman is the third novel that I have read from May Cobb and it will not be my last. There's no denying that Cobb has a knack for writing Rich People Drama and I'm here for every OTT-minute of it.

In this story we meet Kira, a single-woman living in L.A., who is headed back to her wealthy and traditional hometown in East Texas for the first time in decades. She's been invited to attend the vow renewal ceremony of an old frenemy. Although that's not high on her priority list, there are other things calling her back as well. It's time.

Kira fled town all those years ago following her mother's mysterious death. Having left the way she did though, there's of course unfinished business. Additionally, her grandmother has been hounding her recently, telling Kira she has something to give her of her mother's. That's definitely piqued Kira's interest.

Thus, after reaching out to her childhood best friend, and biggest crush, Jack, Kira makes a plan and heads home. Jack agrees, if Kira is going, he'll go as well. After they reunite, Kira's surprised when her grandmother gives her a memoir that was apparently written by her Mom just prior to her death. Her Mom, Sadie, was an artist, but Kira didn't know she was a writer too.

Even with everything going on that weekend, Kira can't help but diving into the memoir. The story she finds there, in her mother's own words, makes Sadie's death look a lot less mysterious and lot more like murder. Is that possible?

This novel is told from two perspectives: Kira in the present and her Mom, Sadie's, perspective that's put forth in her memoir. I enjoyed this choice for telling the story and found both perspectives equally enjoyable.

Kira's return to her hometown played into one of my favorite tropes too, so right off the bat, we were starting off ahead. As someone who left my hometown decades ago, and also rarely, if ever goes back, I always find something intriguing and relatable about that type of narrative.

I particularly enjoy when the MC is looking into some mystery from their past. Kira has never felt comfortable with the accepted story of her Mom's death. She's always felt there was more going on and through this memoir, she finally gets the opportunity to look into it further.

Upon returning, Kira feels completely out of place, like an outsider even though she knows everyone there. I found it interesting that through her Mom's recollections, you could tell that Sadie also frequently felt like an outsider. Sadie was an artist and a bit of free spirit, who didn't quite fit into the mold that was expected of her in their small conservative town. Both Kira and Sadie ended up trying to fight the constraints put on them, but luckily for Kira, she was able to move away and build a new life for herself.

Unfortunately, Sadie never got that lucky.

In addition, I also really enjoyed watching Kira explore past relationships, particularly with Jake and her sister, Katie. Kira seemed to want to make connections so badly, but maybe because she had been on her own for so long, was a little clumsy in trying to express herself, or her needs.

The whole idea of the memoir was also great for me. I loved that idea of Kira finally learning about her Mom and having it be through her Mom's own words, even though she wasn't there to speak for herself. There was something so special about that.

I feel like there were some great messages in here too, which I won't get into for risk of spoiling anything, but honestly, this is more than an OTT-story. There's actually some great take-aways as well.

I know May Cobb's stories can be hit or miss for some, but I always enjoy her drama-fueled, East Texas-set, Domestic Thrillers. There's just something about well-to-do women and men behaving badly, that I am always down for.

I will say this one does feel more subtle than her previous stories that I have read. The others sort of pushed the limits in certain areas, or taboo subjects, but this one felt much more traditional, but also a bit more powerful. It's thoughtful, even in spite of all the drama. I liked that. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys small town Domestic Dramas, or Thrillers, where long-buried secrets are revealed. Also, to anyone who enjoys some quality Rich People Drama. Cobb always excels at that.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I cannot wait to see what Cobb delivers next!!

I became invested in her character from the get-go, and loved watching things unfold. It was definitely one satisfying read, for sure.

I really enjoyed this one, and it might be my favorite of Cobb’s yet. I loved the Texas setting including the homecoming that was not the most welcoming for our protagonist Kira. This one hooked my attention from the start and kept it the entire way through. While I did manage to figure out, I did not mind and I loved how it all wrapped up. Cobb is an auto read author for me, she does rich people behaving badly oh so well, and I know her books will always be a good time!

The audio for this was fantastic as well, I really enjoyed reading it this way. Thank you to Berkley for the digital copy and to PRH Audio for the ALC to review.

I look forward to a new May Cobb thriller every summer!

Kira is back in her wealthy Texas hometown for her frenemy's vow renewal ceremony and while reluctant to return, she couldn't miss her chance to reconnect with her childhood crush, Jack (who is married with a young kid, but I digress...) and to see her grandmother, who gives her a memoir written by her mother before she died. The memoir is full of steamy secrets that could lead to finding a murderer.
With Jack's help, Kira begins to unravel the mystery of her mother's death and soon it becomes a race to find the truth before Kira is next.

This was a juicy thriller from Cobb as always, but there were a few things that felt so unrealistic to me that I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I get that for plot purposes Kira has to read her mom's memoir slowly to keep the readers engaged and action happening, but come on - if you thought someone had killed your mother and was coming back to keep you from discovering the truth, wouldn't you lock yourself away somewhere to read it in its entirety rather than leaving to search for clues/questions motives or make out with your married best friend then coming back to read a couple more chapters at a time? I get it: it's fun, it's drama, it's a thriller. But that plot point was killing me!

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Cobb expertly weaves a tale with unlikeable characters, avoiding cliches and surprising the reader at every bend. She kept me guessing until the very end, and all the while, showing the complications of female friendships. Her use of imagery transported me to Longview, Texas.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the preview copy.

Short synopsis: 10 years after her mothers death, Kira returns to her wealthy Texas hometown hoping to find answers using an unpublished memoir.

My thoughts: Cobb is the best at writing characters that you kind of hate to love! They are real, extremely flawed, and salacious.

The book in a book aspect was untimely so fun and greatly enhanced the story. This kept me guessing through most of the book, and I really liked watching it all come together. It was a bit slow at time, but the scandal totally made up for it.

Read if you love:
- wealthy Texas women
- scandal and suspense
- book inside a book
- popcorn thrillers

This was a satisfying domestic thriller filled with catty woman, old gossip, and one drama-filled weekend.

This is my first May Cobb novel, but won’t be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed A Likeable Woman. Kira is a woman who had a breakdown and basically was sent to boarding school when her mother killed herself after a party. It’s been twenty years since Kira’s been home: she barely talks to her older sister with whom she’s got some old pains with, and only went home when her father died. But everything comes to a head when one of her old friends/ frenemies is celebrating her 20th anniversary and wants to bring the old crowd back together to affluent east Texas. Now, it’s kind of unclear why they would want Kira there – who wants to see someone you’ve not even so much as heard of in twenty years? But Kira gets invited. And doesn’t take it well. It’s clear her mental health is a bit strained still around any memory of her mother. But she decides to go and face some of her demons after two things happen: her crotchety but wealthy grandmother kind of bribes her with something of her mothers that she’s discovered, and Jack, Kira’s first crush and kind of “the one who got away” says he’ll go back with his wife and child, if she goes. In a lot of ways, May’s world reminds me of the gossipy Jilly Cooper, Louisa Bagshawe, Jackie Collins books that I devoured growing up.

Of course, the weekend is anything but boring. The story is an action packed two days that is interspersed with snippets of Kira’s mom’s diary/ memoir that she was writing for Kira. It shows her mom’s state of mind and life that a young Kira never really got to know. And then the mysterious and threatening texts start. Kira is trying to prove that her mom never killed herself, but it becomes clear that someone wants the past to stay buried. There’s a lot of relationship drama here in the story, and I do wish some of it had been a bit more fleshed out, especially between Kira and her sister Kate. They were close before their mother’s death but went very different directions after the tragedy.

I enjoyed the story line a lot, even if I suspected who the bad person was part way through. There aren’t a lot of likable women in the book – which at first bothered me, why did everyone have to be kind of awful? But then I realized that was kind of the point of the book and Kira’s mom’s whole struggle – being likeable versus being your own woman and not being defined by society’s expectations. Kira is not a perfect character: she’s pretty selfish and makes herself out to be the victim a lot, often to excuse her own bad behaviour. She was an interesting character. She has very much idolized her dead mother and made a saint out of her so it was fascinating to see the truth through her mother’s own words in the memoir. It’s always an interesting moment when you realize your parents aren’t perfect.

All in all this was a solid read for me. I am looking forward to picking up May’s other books and diving back into her hot, steamy world.

Give me all the small town reunion stories filled to the brim with drama!

This is my third book from May Cobb and I have absolutely enjoyed all of them. Cobb can craft some downright juicy and dramatic stories that never fail to entertain me.

A Likeable Woman is told through dual narration featuring our main character Kira and flashbacks through her mom, Sadie’s eyes. I loved both of these perspectives and I felt on the edge of my seat with each one as we crept closer and closer to the truth about Sadie’s death. So many clues! So many suspicious characters! I did guess the grand reveal at the end, but the journey to getting there was downright fun.

Cobb does a fantastic job of bringing to life this small, uber-wealthy Texas town. It’s filled with unlikeable characters who you will love to hate on. There are a lot of strange and unsettling things that happen to Kira when she returns here and it had me giving shifty eyes to all of these people!

With a lightning fast pace, A Likeable Woman is the perfect popcorn thriller for your TBR!

A huge thank you to Berkley for my gifted copy!

I really enjoy May Cobb's books, but A Likeable Woman was a bit of a miss for me. I did like the story, and I thought the ending was good, albeit a bit predictable, but I felt it lacked the drama and mystery of her previous books. Sure, A Likeable Woman is dramatic, but in the sense that the characters were annoying and the women were "mean girls" (which I'm sure was supposed to be the case.)

I did like how Cobb handled Sadie's story and how it was weaved in for Kira to help solve it, and once I hit around the 65% mark and the story really took off, I found myself invested a bit more. In her past books, I couldn't put them down, and this one definitely took some time.

All in all, I thought it was fine. Not her best, but I'll definitely keep on reading her books.
A solid 3 for me.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

2.5 stars rounded up

May Cobb leads readers into a twisty mystery about a woman determined to prove her mother’s death was a murder in her latest book A Likeable Woman. I’ve come to expect Real Housewives(ish) salacious thrillers from Cobb, but one of her earliest works is a littler known mystery called Big Woods. In A Likeable Woman, Cobb brings us a hybrid of her early writing and her later thrillers as this book reads as more of a dark, scandalous mystery. We still have the affluent Texas superb setting, gossip and status-hungry “rich bitches” as well as a sexually charged but forbidden relationship between our protagonist Kira and her oldest friend Jack. On top of that, we have a death shrouded in mystery that Kira is determined to solve—at any cost. With all of those amazing elements this one fell short for my expectations. A little too predictable and far-fetched, plus I really missed her spice factor she usually includes in her thrillers. This one was lackluster. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. It was a very middle of the road read that couldn’t quite elevate past a three-star read for me.

I’ve read both of Cobb’s previous books - The Hunting Wives and My Summer Darlings, and while they weren’t the greatest stories ever, I did find them entertaining. This one fell flat for me. I think I would have preferred it to be Sadie’s story rather than Kira’s. There’s just not all that much *there* in Kira’s story by the end, since it really boils down to stuff that happened when she was a teenager. I think I would have preferred a more straightforward structure - just telling the story as it happened back then, with Kira and Sadie trading off narration duties.

When Kira was a teenager (it’s unclear quite how old she was - definitely still in high school), her mother committed suicide. Kira always believed she was murdered, but never had any proof, and has basically cut ties with her family over it, starting a new life in California (this novel, like all of Cobb’s, takes place in Texas). When she gets an invite for a classmate’s vow renewal ceremony, she initially dismisses it, but then her grandmother claims to have new information about her mother’s death that she will only deliver in person, so Kira travels home for the ceremony hoping to finally get some closure.

It turns out that the evidence her grandmother has is a memoir Kira’s mother Sadie was writing right around the time she died. The chapters sort of trade off between Kira and Sadie (it’s weird, because the Sadie chapters start *before* her grandmother gives her the book, and then the progression is a little more natural - we see her leave the parties early to go back to her cabin and read, for instance. There’s a chance this was rectified in the finished version). Initially, I was more invested in Kira than Sadie - Kira wants to investigate her mother’s death - the party she’s attending is actually being held at the same spot as the party the night Sadie died, so she can sort of retrace her mother’s steps. And it also seems like someone is trying to keep Kira from figuring out the truth - she gets a series of texts and a few direct threats hinting that she should stop trying to learn the truth. Sadie is an artist, and most of her early chapters go a little too far down the arty rabbit hole for my interest (I’m not a great lover of art in the first place, but I’d much rather appreciate art in person than listen to someone wax poetic about it…without the visual).

By the time I got to the end, however, I felt like we would have been better served by a different story framing. The stakes in Kira’s present-day story felt sort of artificial, while it would have been far more suspenseful to watch all of this unfold as it happened in the past - especially once secrets start coming out at the vow renewal weekend. There’s so much that we end up being TOLD that would have been so much more effective (and interesting) to be SHOWN. I also didn’t love the ultimate unraveling of whodunnit and why - I figured it out pretty early on, and I kept hoping I was wrong. It felt cheap.

In all, basically a 2.5-star outing. It’s not aggressively terrible, and while I was reading it held my interest, but I definitely got to the end and went “that was it?”

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. The story had a promising start, but an unlikeable protagonist and an improbable plot twist pulled me out of the story.

The story does have a slow build but once it got going I found it to be very entertaining!! When the killer was revealed I was crushed. I was rooting for them the whole time *insert Tyra Banks gif* and they just had to be a monster. 😩 This is the second book that I have read by May Cobb and I love how she captures the messiness of these small town folks.

Ho-Hum.

That about sums up how I felt after reading May Cobb's A Likeable Woman. I guess you could say, it's a "likeable" book. Likeable however is lackluster and left much to be desired. After having loved both The Hunting Wives and My Summer Darlings, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this novel, unfortunately for me, once I did, it was a case of be careful what you wish for.

The moment Kira arrives back in Texas, I immediately knew where the story was headed, and was left wanting. This book would have warranted 3 stars if not for the cringeworthy car scene between Kira and Jack. No. Just No.

This was a case of my being the wrong reader for this novel.

A buddy read with Kaceey.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing for the arc.

May Cobb has so quickly become one of everyone’s new favorite authors and this is a great example of why. There’s just no stopping her! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

Another solid thriller by May Cobb! Her books are readable, fast-paced and only mildly predictable. I liked this one and thought it was a good read!

May Cobb's A Likeable Woman is a gripping thriller about old family secrets come to light. This was the first book I've read from May Cobb. It is about Kira who left her affluent Texas town years ago for LA after her mother died by suicide. Kira is back in town for a vow renewal. Her grandmother gives Kira her mother's unpublished memoir and we see that maybe her mother's death wasn't suicide, but perhaps homicide -- as the memoir reveals affairs and things that some would like to remain secret. Also, Kira comes across an old flame that she has feelings for, Jack. But, he's married with a kid. However, the marriage doesn't seem all that happy. A whole lot is about to go down while Kira is home.

I think because I don't read as many thrillers - I really did not see the twist coming in A Likeable Woman. The villain was not who I expected. However, if you are a more experienced thriller reader you might know who it is. I found this story very enthralling. Cobb does the sense of place and setting so well - I felt like I was there in the insular, wealthy town. Kira also is an interesting character - even though I didn't entirely know how to feel about her or what to think. The audiobook of May Cobb's A Likeable Woman is narrated by Amanda Stribling who was new to me. It is 11 hours and 1 minute. I thought Stribling's narration came across as serious and good for this kind of book.

Generational mysteries are always so engaging for me, but sometimes they can get frustrating with lack of infortmation or secrets, but May Cobb shines in A Likeable Woman. The Dual POV really worked here and allowed the mother and daughter perspectives to shine and slowly unravel, building tension through the story.

In a spellbinding exploration of family mysteries and buried truths, Cobb presents us with a thrilling narrative. Set against the backdrop of an affluent Texas town, this novel follows Kira as she returns to her hometown, determined to unearth the enigmatic circumstances surrounding her mother's death—a quest that leads her down a perilous path of danger and revelations.

Kira's journey is a gripping tale of resilience and reckoning, masterfully crafted. The protagonist's complex emotions, stemming from her troublemaker mother's passing and the secrets left behind, are skillfully portrayed. As Kira navigates the world of opulent parties, long-buried memories, and lingering connections, readers are drawn into her quest to uncover the truth at any cost.

The exploration of family dynamics and hidden secrets is a central theme that resonates throughout the story. Kira's interactions with her grandmother and her reliance on Jack for assistance add depth to her character, highlighting the importance of trust and connection in times of uncertainty.

As the narrative reaches its climax, the tension reaches a fever pitch. The stakes are high, and the threats are real as Kira races against time to uncover the secrets that someone is desperate to keep buried. The resolution is both satisfying and unexpected, delivering a final twist that will leave readers stunned.

Love this author and all of her books.

A Likeable Woman sounded so promising to me but unfortunately the story wasn't for me.
<spoiler>
So slow and OMG, Kira was dumb as a box of rocks! Plus, do you really have to wonder why all these women are going all mean-girl on you when you're carrying on with someone else's husband?! And you don't wonder why Jack is suddenly interested in you after all these years? Plus, I was so over the pointless reminiscing of Sadie, Kira and the batiks. <end of spoiler>

My eyes hurt from all the eye rolling.

Others have enjoyed this story so maybe read one of their reviews