So.....OMG!!!

I love love loved this book!!

The writing, the characters and the plot. It was simply fantastic!

Did I read that this is a debut for Ashely Tate?! Wow! She has firmly set herself among the genre's greats like: Ware, Jewell and Lapena!

If you love a dark, twisty, your own theory getting blown out of the water on the reveal, then this is the book for you!!

You must read it!!

I had a very hard time getting through this book. It just couldn’t grab my interest like I thought it would but it was a decent read as I wanted to see how the story ended.

Oh my gosh, such an amazing story of secrets, lies and skeletons in the closet. Each character is going through an enormous amount of trauma in different ways but all due to the same tragedy. Really interesting portrayal of the limitations of grief and sadness.

Conceptually this book sounded like one I would really enjoy, anticipating a big twist at the end.

Unfortunately, the premise was not enough to detract from the writing style, random plot holes and an entire cast of unlikable characters. I found it distracting how many times the author used ! In the middle of the sentence or when relaying facts about the character. The convenience of someone being missing for 10 years and then randomly showing up was bizarre. The multiple POV normally works well for me, but in this case I felt there were too many and it was not only overwhelming, but led to a lot of gaps not being filled in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of “Twenty-Seven Minutes” in exchange for an honest review. Maybe this is not fair of me, but the second I realized how many exclamation points there were in this book I just had a feeling it was not going to be the book for me. I just really cannot fathom why that many exclamation points are necessary in a novel. This really felt like a YA novel to me. I also feel like many of these characters could benefit from some professional mental health support that was grossly lacking. Check it out for yourself, but this one wasn’t for me.

While this is billed as a thriller, this book is also an exploration of the psyches of several different characters and the moments leading up to a great tragedy. I did not expect the ending at all, and I could feel myself getting more engrossed as the clues began hurtling me towards the truth of what happened the night of the car crash. Ashley Tate does a great job portraying each character, their flaws, and the way their mistakes and secrets begin to impact them psychologically and physically.

The Book begins with THAT one night almost 10 Years ago. The Night Phoebe Dean died in Becca Hoyt's arms and gave the whole Town of West Wilmer its collective Trauma.
Except for June Delroy though… for her that terrible Night marks the Day, her big brother Wyatt ran away from the Family without another word.

Phoebe, 17, dies because of that darned bridge on a rainy night. It's not one of those well lit bridges, no… far from that.
So after this horrible accident happens and things don't add up, for the next 10 years everyone mourns and reminiscences Phoebe, some putting her on a too high pedestal, AND many ask themselves what in hell Grant Dean did in those 27 minutes until he called the ambulance for his beloved Sister?

Would Grant's sister still be alive if he didn't "wait" for those long 27 minutes?
Was he drunk and just waiting for his alcohol level to lower?
Or was it really all Becca's fault and Grant was maybe in shock?
Why did Wyatt run away that same night? Did he see something. that could potentially compromise Grant and/or Becca?

One thing first, this Book starts very slow. I was sooo close to DNF'ing this after less than 25%.
BUT NOW I am very happy, that I kept reading!

From the very first sentence the author mentions June, I felt connected to her. I really hurt for this poor young woman. (No, fortunately none of my big brothers ran away… but still.)
With her mother dead now she's the only occupant of her family's small, weathered house. A sad, fragile woman yearning for her big brother to come back and help her. To be there for her.

On the other hand I could not warm up to Becca and Grant. I know, I know… they didn't have it easy after this fateful night but Becca was such a psychotic Drama-Queen and Dean was a self-centered A*sehole. It was easy to hate them, end of discussion.

Wyatt, June's Brother, was a mystery to me for about half of the Book… but even he was a victim of the time. I had a hard time sympathising with him, but in the End I did.

Though how could you or I judge any of those Kids, after all a lot of this mess has a background story. Widows who did behave erratic towards their children and picked a favourite. Or Parents who did not know how to get a hold on their child, not knowing how to help them getting back on track.

Unfortunately the Tragedy took its course 10 Years ago, and now after all this Time the one's who survived have to pick up the pieces.
Some might cut themselves deep while doing so.

To tell the truth, the last few pages had me a bit close to tears. Personally the last 20-25 pages were the Best, to which this was all building up to.
Well done, Mrs. Tate!!!

𝑴𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑴 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅!

There's more than one mystery in this novel about an auto accident and its impact on a small town. Unfortunately, the characters are so dislikable and everything else about the book is so depressing, that, more than a third of the way through, I have no interest in learning any of the outcomes. It doesn't help that the book skips from character to character and from the present to the past to the present, etc.

My thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

Love this story about how the truth will set people free. A nice slow unwinding of the truth. Very well done with well developed characters, with the exception of June. I wanted more about who June was back then.

2.5 stars

Meh
It wasn’t the greatest. The premise was great. The prologue was great. The book seemed like a first draft, and maybe it is. It’s kind of messy and repetitive.

I had high hopes for Twenty-Seven Minutes. The prologue was written beautifully and was really compelling. Because of that, I was so excited to dive into this book.

Unfortunately, shortly after that, it all fell apart for me. While I found the novel’s premise really interesting, the execution is what kept me from enjoying it. The writing wasn’t tight, which made me have a tough time focusing on the story. It felt like there was much more telling going on rather than showing—something about the way it was written lacked both polish and confidence. For these reasons, for me this book felt really tedious to get through.

I found Twenty Seven Minutes a little disappointing. The plot was messy and dragged on.

Grant and his younger sister, Phoebe, are in a horrible car accident. This accident ends in her death. Questions arise on whether or not that should’ve been the case. Grant survived and there are twenty seven minutes unaccounted for before he called authorities. She could have lived. What really happened?

The ending was good but I needed a little more suspense throughout the book. It felt like it was dragging a little.
I think I would have enjoyed this book more if the characters could have been more relatable. One of the characters didn't even seem to be necessary in the book.

A missing person, a ghost of a dead girl, and the ten year anniversary in the horizon stirring up trouble for this quaint little town.

Usually I hate books with supernatural aspects and ghost mixed into a mystery but this was done well. It was more like hallucinations than ghosts. Done very well. This is a first read for me of this author and I will be back for more

I had hopes for this novel, but it got so tedious and repetitive. It’s told from several different characters’ perspective, and every single one of them is a miserable, unlikeable loser for various reasons. Apparently, everyone in this small town suffers from some kind of mental disorder, which seems a high percentage. Everyone either treats other people miserably or lets themselves get treated miserably. They don’t leave the town where the car accident that killed the local wunderkind, Pheobe, ten years earlier happened, to try to improve their lives in any way.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JANUARY 30, 2024.

This book was twisty and I wasn’t sure how it would work out. I had some suspicions, but it was an interesting read.

Twenty-Seven Minutes is so secretly suspenseful with hidden tidbits cleverly revealed that you won't want to put it down until the surprising ending. I loved all the twists that builds the anticipation of solving the mystery. Ashley Tate is a writer to experience.

Wow, that prologue REALLY drags you into the story. I needed to know what happened. So that really kept me reading.

The parents in this book make me so sad. They pick favorites and are just terrible people.

So far I'm 30% through, and it seems fairly repetitive, however, I am still enjoying it and wondering what the big secret is and where a few of the character fit in.

There are multiple timeliness throughout which can get a little confusing because some of them are from characters that don't have a huge role in the story.

Wow, that ending really turned this book around for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I would definitely recommend this to other thriller readers.

3.5 star

Not my favorite book to be honest. The death was too much for my taste. I also seemed to loose interest as I was reading until about the last 10-15% where I couldn’t put it down and the twists were totally unexpected.

Did you ever have a friend who likes to rub in our face that they have a secret but then never tell you the secret? That is how I felt reading this story. Like everyone knew what happened but they didn't want to tell me. Then when I finally found out what the secret it was, it wasn't a juicy as you expected it to be. I think the downfall for me was that I just didn't care much for the characters so I just couldn't invest in them. It took me forever to finish because I never felt compelled to pick up.

I am actually speechless. 27 minutes was a slow burn thriller that followed a community, a decade after tragedy stuck. The characters were so well written that I felt like I knew and grew up with each and every one of them. The mystery, grief, and trauma were real and so powerful. My heart pounding right to the every end.

Thank you, Ashley Tate, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review!