This was a twisty mystery novel about the secrets behind a young girl's death and why she was found twenty seven minutes too late.

I really enjoyed this novel. There were times when I found myself totally engrossed in the story. I just had to know what was going to happen.

This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat!

I picked this one up for my most recent flight and was hoping to get sucked into a thriller, but sadly that’s not what happened.

Even at 77% into the story, nothing remotely mysterious or thriller has happened. The story switches between past and present POVs of Becca, Wyatt, and Grant surrounding the death of Grant’s sister, but doesn’t give us much. Each character comes off as one note and each does stupid things. Additionally, each character is even more annoying than the last.

Thank you @poisonedpenpress and @netgalley for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own.

Shortly after seventeen-year-old PHOEBE DEAN left an unsupervised party she was killed in a car crash. Her brother, GRANT, was the driver. BECCA was a passenger in the back seat and though she was severely injured, she survived the accident. Ten years later, as Phoebe’s mother plans a memorial service, Becca still has no memory of the accident.

The story unfolds with flashbacks to ten years earlier and through the multiple perspectives of Grant, Becca, and their former classmates, JUNE and WYATT. As the date of the memorial approaches, old resentments and feelings surface, still raising the question: why did Grant wait 27 minutes to call for help?

This character-driven story is a slow burn, with unrelatable and bitter characters. I had difficulty at times keeping the multiple characters straight and I was not a fan of the ending, which delivered a twist more akin to a horror novel. Readers who enjoy drawn-out suspense and dark characters may enjoy this novel.

Well this story was quite the rollercoaster!

It’s been ten years since Phoebe died in an accident while her brother, Grant, was driving. Oh and Becca was in the backseat too, but no one acknowledges that she was there too. Why did it take Grant twenty-seven minutes to call for help?

I absolutely loved that the chapters were from multiple POVs. Getting insight into what various characters are thinking really intrigues me with thrillers especially! I thought the author was clever with which POVs she used to tell the story or move it forward. At one point I didn’t understand why a couple of characters POVs were included, but their relevance became more clear as the story went on. This was a story told about grief, regrets, processing trauma, and moving forward. And that plot twist at the end? Beautiful! I never saw it coming! A knockout debut and an author I will be following a long with to see what’s next!

Thank you to the author, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGally for an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

I don’t think this was the book for me. There were so many characters and their views that I couldn’t keep track. I’m also 50% in and I feel like nothing has happened. If you like a lot of characters POV and a slow burn I think you would like this one. Unfortunately it’s just not for me and I ended up DNF’ing

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley for my honest review.

The idea of this book was interesting but I ended up skipping almost 80 pages just to get to the end. I contemplated just DNF’ing it but I was curious about how it all ended.

The ending was really the best part of this whole book. The rest of it was just dragged out. A bunch of different POV’s and most chapters nothing happened. It just showed us the flaws and how messed up some of these characters were.

I believe this was a debut so I might give the author another shot if they come out with something else.

Twenty-Seven Minutes by Ashley Tate is a dark thriller set in a small town over a time span of just a couple of days leading up to the 10year memorial for high schooler Phoebe Dean's death.
So many people have remained stuck as a result of that fateful night, but what actually happened? There's her big brother Grant who was the driver that night when his sister died and his football career ended before it ever started and their mother who lost the daughter she loved so much and is stuck with the son she likes a lot less. There's Becca who was on the backseat that night but only has hazy recollections of what actually happened and has a hard time separating reality and fiction. She feels underappreciated in her grief and the impact the accident had on her but how delusional is she really ? Then there are June and her brother Wyatt who disappeared that fateful night. What really happened in the twenty-seven Minutes it took Grant from the moment of the crash to calling help, the twenty-seven minutes that were too long for Phoebe.
There are people who now want the bridge that is the crash site torn down- but why is that so important to them? What would Phoebe have wanted ?
This is dark, twisty and very fast moving.

This was a fantastically told sad story of how a single event can change the path for so many people. I loved the characters and each of their flaws made them more likeable. Well told, and a very smart yet sad story.

A slow burn thriller with a twist I didn't see coming. Told from four different povs and time jumps, this gets you hooked from the first page. Being a debut book, I'm excited to read more from Ashley Tate in the future.

While this book had some great suspense there were a lot of loose threads. I also feel that it should have been billed as a YA novel, it was definitely more juvenile than an adult book.

I was frustrated at the length, I think it could have moved much faster and been less pages. Why did we have Wyatt's point of view? He was dead? And that was the mystery - what did that have to do with the 27 minutes? Are we to assume that it took 27 minutes to throw Wyatt off the bridge?

And I'm not clear on what Grant's issue was - was he taking steroids? Was that the drug problem?
And Becca and Grant, was there ever a relationship? Or she made it all up?
And Grant and Harley were involved, but later in the book there's mention that he throws a football with her kids? WHEN? He's so messed up and angry with a bad leg...I can't really see him throwing a football in good mind frame with anyone .

Disappointed at the ending and what the big reveal was. So much talk about June's mom and her illness, who cares? And what was with the journal moving all over the house? And why so much talk about urine smell on the journal? Or urine smell on the bed?

Could have been 100 pages shorter......definitely wouldn't recommend.

This book was a slow one for sure. It took too long for me to get into it but overall it was a good story. I couldn't find myself getting "close" to the characters and couldn't keep up with the amount of characters as well. It felt a little like if I had to solve a mystery of who was who while keeping up with the story so I felt like that took away from the story too.

If you like multi - POV and timelines that go back and forth then this would be a good book for you. I recommend it to someone who is on the bridge from simple to complex stories as I feel this would be a good story for someone like that.

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

thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

this one had so much potential, but it unfortunately dragged on for most of the almost 400 pages. i was hooked in the beginning but sadly lost interest shortly after the start. there were too many characters to keep up with and an emphasis on the drama rather than the suspense. i’m glad i stuck around for this ending because it was wild, but not much happened until the last 5-10%. this was a debut, so i’m willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt and try out their next novel.

2.5 stars. This book was super slow to me. I appreciate a slow burn, but this was too slow. I also felt it was repetitive. These characters weren't likeable and still seemed extremely immature, even in adulthood. There were also a lot of characters to keep up with and there were points where I was confused.

There is a lot of suspense building, but the ending came in fast as a train, and then it was over. I couldn't guess the big twist at the end, but it felt slightly rushed. This was just ok to me.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

Good book but I found a little slow to get started! I ended up enjoying it so I will give it three stars. If a friend asked if I recommended it I would say yes

Twenty-Seven Minutes was an amazing read - I love endings that I don't see coming, but that don't materialize out of nowhere. While a slow-build suspense, this was a page-turner. I really enjoyed the characters, the plot was solid, and the ending was spectacular. I look forward to rereading it again!

It wasn't particularly to my taste. It felt overly-dramatic and the characters weren't fully fleshed out. The twist also was quite self-indulgent.

Phoebe Dean died ten years ago in a car driven by her brother Grant, after leaving a party. There was a 27 minute delay between when the crash happened, and the call for help. Some of the people in their small town think Phoebe might have been saved if help had come sooner. Was her brother, Grant, trying to avoid a DWI or was there another even darker reason why he didn't call for help immediately?

Ten years later the small town still seems obsessed with the accident that took the one girl in their town who showed promise and may have made something of herself had she lived. Phoebe and Grant's mother is going to throw a memorial, because she was too upset to do anything to honor Phoebe at the time of the accident. It is never explained why it has taken ten years to correct this omission, but it serves as a plot device to age the characters ten years and show that they really haven't moved on from this accident. Becca was also in the car, and has always been obsessed with Grant.

I hate to be too critical of this book, because to me it read a little like a YA novel, even though the characters were now in their late twenties. I found them all weird and impossible to relate to in any way, but I am also much older than them, so perhaps I am not the best audience for the book. For me, the storyline dragged, and I skimmed through some parts that seemed repetitive. There was a mystery: what happened in those twenty seven minutes? But for me, it just took too long to get there.

I feel like a younger audience who is into dark and moody stories with damaged characters and a little mystery would enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ashley Tate, and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars & I'm feeling generous tonight so rounding up (but also because this was all written and kept me engaged and wanting to keep reading). This story was good and twisted, like the characters and their relationships are twisted, not necessarily extremely twisty although there are a few.

This story was really beautifully and descriptively written. I loved the experience of reading it. The characters are seriously flawed and I didn't particularly like any of them but it didn't make me dislike the book or story line. This book opens with a serious bang with a girl laying in the rain, dy!ng on a bridge. Wow, what a start! Told from multi POV and multi timeline.

There are several different POV so it takes a bit to find out who's who and how they relate to each other. Also multi timeline, there are specific chapters from "THAT night/ day" that progress along; and in addition, there are flashbacks in the character's 'current' chapters too (indicated by italicized text, so you'll have to be paying close attention when reading via audio book). Once it becomes clear who each narrator is, I found the multi view and multi timeline easy to follow.

Overall, I really liked this story; the ending fell a little flat for me. There are some twists throughout but they're mostly a play on the same and the biggest reveal at the end felt a little "meh" after allllll that build up.

Would recommend if you love:
-multi-POV
-multi-timeline
-a big secret in a small town
-unreliable narrators

🌟🌟🌟.5
"Twenty-Seven Minutes" was one of the top thrillers I was excited to read in 2024. As someone who enjoys discovering new authors, I always look forward to reading debuts. In this book, Ashley Tate crafted an emotional narrative that delves into domestic drama, sibling relationships, and the secrets of small-town life. Her writing is captivating and her portrayal of teenage life in a small community is realistic.

While the big revelation that took a decade to unravel wasn't as shocking as I expected, the plot was well-crafted and engaging. The book had a dark sense of foreboding that made it feel depressing and slow, but it was still interesting. I will definitely be interested in reading more from this author.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing this book through NetGalley. As always, all opinions are my own and left voluntarily.

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I just couldn't get excited about this one. Too many POV's, I guessed the reveal pretty early on and it was just an ok story.