Dr. Hannah Bryers is a professor trying for tenure. One of her graduate students, Winter, is determined to take her down, due to an incident in their shared past. As there isn't truly a twist, as this is revealed in Winter's POV chapters very early on, I found myself enjoying this more than most thrillers even though I found both protagonists annoying.

Revenge, betrayal, and a secret enemy prove to be a deadly combination. The Protege is a slow-burn mystery with a foreboding undercurrent. It's character-driven, original, and has moments of intensity. The narration added a layer of intrigue and suspense. Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for my audiobook.

A twisty insane thriller that had me on the edge of my seat. I could not put it down. Loved the narration. Thank you to the publisher.

I absolutely loved this authors last book so I was so excited to get to this one. I didn't really care for it in writing so I thought audio might be a better bet, but it still didn't work for me. I just wasn't really interested or invested in the story. Narration was great, but not enought to save the story. If you want a winner definitely check out The Summer We Buried, it's an awesome read. I still want to check out The Girls' Weekend too, I just can't recommend this one. But I will definitely read her next book as well as The Girls Weekend.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media, NetGalley and Jody Gehrman for and advanced audio copy of this book. I enjoyed the narration, both narrators were quite good. The storyline was intriguing, but not my favorite. I really didn't like either main character and that took away from it for me a little bit.

Hannah Bryers is a forensic anthropologist, whose student is trying to destroy her life. I enjoyed the alternating viewpoints, it was an interesting choice to reveal the person behind Hannah's troubles so early in the book but it took away some the mystery suspense of the novel. I wanted more of Winter's story. Overall, it kept me engaged but not a memorable thriller.

👩🏼‍🏫 A L C • R E V I E W 👩🏼‍🏫
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Title: The Protege
Author: Jody Gehrman
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️✨ (Rounded up to 3 stars on Netgalley)
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This one was definitely interesting, but I think I have come to the conclusion that the majority of "reverse who dun its" are not for me. I find them to be incredibly boring UNLESS the story is executed in a totally "knock it out of the park" fashion. This one, this one did not have that wow factor I needed. 
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The main character - Hannah - is supposed to be socially awkward and to not understand social ques - which sometimes can be a completely endearing quirk in characters; in The Protege it was actually super annoying and really gave me no reason to like her. Within the first few chapters we are well aware who the killer is and their intentions, again this isn't my favorite kind of story, but the execution was lacking as well. It was a slower burn with a lot of information that I didn't really feel like I needed; especially all the talk about specific body parts (I'm a nurse, ususally love that shit and even to me felt incessant and became intolerable). 
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I kept reading because I wanted to know the why. Obviously, that's the point of these reverse-who-dun-its right? Well, if you plan to read this one, buckle up because you don't find out the why until the very end, literally at about 98% and I hate to say it, but it was one big, huge letdown. I was literally like "wait this is the reason?". Yeah, it's out of revenge, I get that, all who dun its usually are, but I really expected something more astounding. 
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I think listening to this one was the only reason I finished the book, narrators Cindy Kay and Jess Nahikian played their characters great. Overall this one was interesting enough to finish, but not one that I would rant and rave about. Not my favorite, but fans of the who-dun-it’s may love it! Give it a shot. Thank you to @netgalley and @dreamscapemedia for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This novel was so trippy! In a great way! Winter is a mastermind & skills for revenge are epic. This is the summer thriller we all need!

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. Hannah our main character, a professor doesn’t like people or relationships giving her a immediate hard to connect to vibe. I mean you can’t even pretend to like your close friends? Strange things start happening at the school that cause some hesitation towards Hannah in her last year before she can apply for tenure. Honestly the struggle was to even finish the book. The ending predictable and disappointing. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Protege - Jodi Gehrman

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher of this book for providing this eARC.

Hannah Bryers, the main character in this novel, is an anthropology professor and a forensic expert (meaning she helps solve crimes by examining bodies at crime scenes and providing the cause of and manner of death).

Winter Jones is Hannah’s promising anthropology graduate student who becomes Hannah's teaching assistant.

Winter chose to attend Mad River for ONE reason, to destroy Hannah Bryers.

Read this novel to find out Winter's agenda and why she despises Hannah, AND to find out who is left standing at the end of this one-person vendetta.

An exciting novel, with a top-notch ot development and excellent ramp up as the tension escalates.

The only (minor) thing that I thought didn't quite fit the novel is that the cover is a bit subdued, and ths nve is pretty fast paced. The cover had me moving this towards the end of my 'reads" list, because without referring to the description, and by just looking at cover, you think you are going to be reading something like a sleeper or an Agatha Christie type of a novel, not something like a Samantha Downing of a novel. Perhaps a more modern photo or an abstract rendering of an old established school would have been a better fit. Something to consider next time - another author to watch!

Until next time...

Never got a chance to read/listen to this book before they took it off of my shelf, so unfortunately i cannot leave a review at this point in time. Too bad because it looked/sounded very interesting.

Dr. Hannah Bryers is a brilliant and prestigious forensic expert who loves her job. She's extremely anti-social and I feel borderline on the spectrum so public gatherings and occurrences are difficult for her. Her lab at mad River University is her haven and when she's not teaching she examines victims from all over.
Her protege, Winter Jones is one of the best students to even come through her school. She's her right hand in many ways but she's only there for one reason: to destroy Dr. Bryers.
The story is told from both Hannah and Winter's prospective and ramps up quickly when things start to become dangerous. There's an accident in the lab. Then there's another accident where a student is injured.
What could Winter be harboring that makes her want to take Hannah down?

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review.

I kind of had mixed feelings about this. Though I did enjoy this it was not as thrilling as I was hoping it would be. I did feel like there were points where things were heading into a really exciting twist but it never seemed to get there.

I am under the belief that Dr. Hannah Byers is on the spectrum but as someone who is not I can't really say of this is good representation.

I will say that this is an enjoyable way to spend a weekend.

3.5 Stars. This plot was fairly predictable, but I enjoyed Hannah and her quirky personality. The anthropology lab scenes were interesting and I wanted more of them. The audio narrators did a great job! 🎧

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the advanced copy.

If you're a fan of Bones, this one's a must-read. There's no way the author isn't a fan of the show, and of Temperance Brennan. Hannah = Temperance but steeped in the world of academia in a small coastal Californian town. I did have moments of pause, re: Hannah as a neurodivergent character, but nothing enough to ruin the book. I would defer, however, to autistic readers and their thoughts, re: the characterization.

Essentially this is a dualing POVs thriller: a strongly autistic-coded scientist/academic verses a clearly sociopath-coded grad student. You flip back and forth, tension and frustration building and building and building until you're ready to explode. It's frustrating in that delicious way you get in a well-crafted, taut thriller. Once I got a handle on Hannah vs. Winter, I spent every Hannah chapter on edge and horrified at the escalations against her, worrying so much for how this fictional character would come out of things. And I spent every Winter chapter SO MAD. Just YELLING. Actually out loud sometimes, luckily not in public!

There's also a dash of romance, a "dark academia"-ish vibe, and coastal Northern California small town flavor. It all adds up to an excellent psychological suspense novel, supported by vivid, voicey writing. I was already a fan of Jody Gehrman--I loved The Girls Weekend, and having read this I'm on a mission: Jody Gehrman is being slept on in the thriller world and deserves a far wider readership. This book and her writing was better than several thrillers I've read from the Big 5 and big names recently. I need to read her last one, but she's pretty much going on my "auto-buy" list.

Basically if you like academia-set thrillers, revenge/toxic relationship dualing POV stories, and sociopath POVs, it's a homerun. It isn't, however, the kind of thriller where you're reading for a twist with redding herrings, etc... you know exactly what's happening by a third in, and from there it's watching the trainwreck in slow motion and wondering how it will all end. A character driven suspense novel. I found it engrossing.

I do have two quibbles: Mad River University and Salt Gulch as the college and town names, respectively, were such head scratchers for me. They went over the edge, re: twee/cheesy/silly for me. No one in their right mind would call their brand new LAC (liberal arts college) Mad River. What? Talk about handing the admissions department a tall order, re: marketing. And it's abbreviated MRU which made me think MRI every time. But mostly... Mad River? (my brain also filled in "Moon River" a few times and played the song in my head) And there's just something kind of gutteral and awkward in Salt Gulch. Every time the audiobook narrators said it I twitched a little. Quibbles, though. Regardless, I loved the Northern California setting.

Speaking of: I loved both audiobook narrators. Each had a challenge in their character with characterization that called for a flat, logical affect the majority of the time, while still giving their characters an emotional richness and edge. I thought both Cindy Kay & Jess Nahikian were great.

Pluses: I actually appreciated the quirkiness of the protagonist, even if she was a bit of a stereotype. Leaning on the archetype of the spectrum genius (Bones being the model example), I had fun with Dr. Byers and even though I wasn't as interested in Winters's voice, the varying between the two worked for me. Protagonist and antagonist.

Anyone who follows my updates knows I enjoy a mystery or thriller (or any sort of book) set in academia (or, similarly, DC--I wish I knew what it was about these settings, but there you are).

Minuses: The twist at the end, which had to happen because we knew whowasdoingit (as opposed to whodunnit) and a large piece of why, absolutely didn't work for me. It fizzled. But often page turners do--it's *hard* to nail an ending in this genre.

My thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me to review this audio book.

Dr Hannah Byers was an interesting and quirky character . I liked the narrative, twists,and plot. A bit of a challenge for me balancing between the 2 pov but not a bad listen.

I enjoyed this audiobook immensely. I spent a lot of time while listening, filled with tension about what was going to happen. The main character is very quirky but I found that that made her more interesting to me. The supporting characters were well-written and added interesting and humorous components to the storyline. I would highly recommend this book or audiobook.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I I find myself sitting here thinking about this book, about the characters, the setting, the twist at the end, all of it and I like it, I like it a lot.

Hanna is a scientist, at the top of her career, teaching the next generation how to let the dead speak for themselves, training young minds on how to handle complex situations and help solve crimes, if only she had turned that insight inward with things that started happening.

While she may be brilliant she's also very awkward socially and in interpersonal relationships, with only a couple of close friends that she can truly be herself with she can't see what's right in front of her until it's almost too late.

Winter has been grieving and plotting for most of her life, faced with unexplainable terrors at the hands of her grandmother she and her twin sister only have each other. Then after the unthinkable happens there's only Winter trying to get revenge for what happened to her sister.

Through twists and turns, we watch as Hannah tries to figure out who is out to get her, why, and what she can do to stop it before she pays the ultimate price.

As I had an audiobook of this one let's talk about our narrators for a moment, Cindy Kay and Jess Nahikian did a wonderful job with this one, the voices were soothing while putting just the right amount of tension into the story where it called for it and gave individual voices to all of our characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing an advance copy Audiobook, I have voluntarily listened to it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
aracters, the setting, the twist at the end, all of it and I like it, I like it a lot.

Hanna is a scientist, at the top of her career, teaching the next generation how to let the dead speak for themselves, training young minds on how to handle complex situations and help solve crimes, if only she had turned that insight inward with things that started happening.

While she may be brilliant she's also very awkward socially and in interpersonal relationships, with only a couple of close friends that she can truly be herself with she can't see what's right in front of her until it's almost too late.

Winter has been grieving and plotting for most of her life, faced with unexplainable terrors at the hands of her grandmother she and her twin sister only have each other. Then after the unthinkable happens there's only Winter trying to get revenge for what happened to her sister.

Through twists and turns, we watch as Hannah tries to figure out who is out to get her, why, and what she can do to stop it before she pays the ultimate price.

As I had an audiobook of this one let's talk about our narrators for a moment, Cindy Kay and Jess Nahikian did a wonderful job with this one, the voices were soothing while putting just the right amount of tension into the story where it called for it and gave individual voices to all of our characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing an advance copy Audiobook, I have voluntarily listened to it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Protege by Jody Gehman was a delight. I couldn't wait until Iwas done with it. Winter Jones is such a sneaky character that you would never have guessed that she was stalking her professior Hannah Brines. So many twists and turns in this one. Absolutly loved it.