Wow.
I am trying to wrap my head around what I just read. This story took a turn I wasn't expecting.

The characters will surprise you, frustrate you, leave you reeling. Chapters are written from different character POVs, so you really get an in depth feel for each character's emotion and state of mind.

The story unfolds slowly, but it also kept my interest and I wanted to keep reading.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

This had me hooked from start to finish. I love the way it was formatted and found that it only made me more intrigued. I was racing to the final chapter to figure out what happened.

DNF: 32%

I wish I was more invested in the characters, the plot, etc. by this point… but I’m not and so I’ll be moving on. The pacing up to this point leaves something to be desired; there seems to be several tangents occurring in the same story but nothing *really* happening if you catch my drift. I’m sure there will be others who love it though.


<i>I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Doubleday Canada, of this advanced digital copy for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed are my own.</i>

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Canada for this read. I found this book to be okay. I didn’t hate or love it...but I did like it. The book had parts that were too long and did not quite get tot the point and I could not enjoy it for that reasons. The characters were okay but not that interesting to want to see what is going on. I read it and found some of it good but it was not the best for me.

Twenty-Seven Minutes follows four individuals connected by the tragic events that occurred on a rainy night 10 years prior, and the days leading up to the anniversary and planned memorial.

Phoebe Dean died on the road that night, after her brother, Grant Dean crashed. But what people can't understand is why he waited 27 minutes to call for help. When the third passenger. Becca corroborates Grant's version of events, the question is dropped, and the town moves on and tries to heal from its grief over the loss. Now 10 years later the Deans mother is having a long overdue memorial service for her dead daughter.

Not everyone in the town is grieving Phoebe Dean, however. June Delroy is truly alone now after her mother dies. She hasn't heard from her troubled brother since he also left the night of the accident. But now he is back and avoiding June's persistent questions over his whereabouts the last decade.

In the three days leading up to the memorial tensions are rising, questions are being asked again, and secrets that have been buried for 10 years are about to be revealed.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the mystery element had me hooked. I kind of saw the twist at the end coming and especially in the last 20% I started picking up on small things in the writing that made me question certain things.

Thanks so much to the publisher, the author, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

An entertaining psychological suspense debut that explores the fallout of a terrible car crash that changed the lives of a group of teens. Now ten years in the future, each of them is still grappling with grief, guilt and secrets about that fateful night. While I didn't love this one as much as I was hoping to it was well written and would be perfect for fans of books like Suzanne Redfearn's In an instant. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review and for Librofm for a complimentary ALC!

Twenty-seven minutes. That is the difference between life and death in this debut thriller from Ashley Tate. We are dropped into a small town that is about the experience the decennial of a young girl dying tragically on an old bridge, and to make matters worse, an elderly woman has also found her end on that same bridge, opening old wounds and bringing the entire town swirling back into ten year old rumours.

We have dual timelines happening, as well as multiple points of view from several characters who were either directly involved in the accident or deeply affected by it. Becca is the forgot victim, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Grant was driving the vehicle that crashed and killed his younger sister. June's brother ran away that same night after a fight with their volatile father. Wyatt has finally decided to return to his hometown to set things right.

What a brilliant way to unfold this story through the eyes of several people who only know parts of the truth. The reveal at the end was awesome.

The writing in this book is really gorgeous in such a visual way. They way that June tries to grasp at cotton ball words coming out of her brother's mouth to the way that Becca is handling her mental illness and spiralling in her own mind.

I highly suggest this book if you like a fast paced small town thriller where secrets are finally uncovered.

I unfortunately found myself bored with this one. Even though the book itself wasn’t too long, it dragged on and I couldn’t get myself invested in it. The characters weren’t well rounded and I didn’t connect to any of them. Unfortunate

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Net Galley for the arc . Unfortunately , I was not able to get into this book at all .. and I’m extremely sad about it ! It felt like I was reading a 300+ page long chapter as opposed to it being broke up . It sounded so good from the get go but ended up falling flat for me . Maybe when it’s released I’ll try and pick it up again but at this time , it wasn’t a read meant for me !

I’m a huge sucker for thrillers, and from the beginning of Twenty-Seven Minutes’ synopsis, I was hooked, line and sinker. But upon opening the very first pages, something immediately felt off to me. Perhaps it was the writing style, which was disjointed and flipping across 4 characters. Or maybe it was the way each character was already being portrayed. Either way, this should’ve been my warning sign.

Spanning only the course of 3 days – which felt like a lifetime while reading it – we follow mostly Grant, Becca and June who are assumedly 3 adults in their late twenties still stuck in their old town and in the trauma they all faced on the same night a decade ago. Let me be clear. All three of these individuals are badly in need of consistent therapy. Becca claimed she went when she first survived the accident that claimed Grant’s sister’s life, but it’s clear she should’ve never stopped. Frankly, her POV probably left me with the worst feeling out of all of them. And that’s saying something because they’re ALL super messed up.

There’s definitely guilt and plenty of secrets between them all. How that would play out and explode into the public sphere was probably the only thing that kept me going at times. None of these characters were likable, although June was probably the closest one I could feel a smidge of sympathy for. But every single one of them was wrapped up in layers of grief, trauma, and addiction to unhealthy, obsessive behaviours that would make someone unsettled from only one of these POVs. There is no break regardless of who we switch to as each POV had so much to unpack. They were also unreliable narrators as you know at least one or all of them are hiding something from us, the readers. The overall result of this? Just a cloud of unsettled discomfort and despair over me outside of this book. I would definitely not recommend this for anyone who struggles with grief or feelings of despair in general. This book will only compound those feelings.

When I finally came through to the other side, the ending was partly something I should’ve seen but also not what I expected. I expected something bigger, for the fact that it ruined so many lives for so long. I suppose there are some points to be given that I didn’t see the twist right away until close to the end but a part of me feels let down. It was the only thing driving me to finish. And I can’t say I wanted to finish because it was fast paced or super suspenseful. I just like knowing the answer. The only reason this rating isn’t lower is because I did manage to finish and I did push through – a part of me was too afraid to stop reading for fear I’d never be able to pick it up again. That counts for something at least.

I’ve read my fair share of mysteries and thrillers over the years. While this could’ve been an amazing read, there was too much focus on grief and trauma to give us anything else to hold onto (or anyone healthy to read from for a reprieve). With no likable characters means no one cares what happened to them all. As this is a debut that was apparently borne of grief the author suffered herself, I can empathize this may have been therapeutic for her – but not quite so for anyone else. I can only hope any more books after this one will be a little more well-rounded, emotionally.

Overall Recommendation:

Twenty-Seven Minutes is not for the faint hearted, or those who do not want to fall into a pit of despair. While it tried to be a super twisty thriller, it ended up being a super slow read, filled with unlikable characters you can’t root for, all while a cloud of hopelessness permeated every page. I didn’t quite see the twist at the end coming, but at that point, I couldn’t utter much emotion for it either way. If that’s what the author wanted, then it was a success. Otherwise, please be warned.

An accident happens and the truth of what happens dies. Ten years later, lies have been told and the truth seems to be buried, but everything is about to unravel and finally everything will be uncovered.
I figured this twist out pretty early, but I've been wrong in the past, so I kept reading. This time, I was right. I enjoyed the multiple POVs, short chapters, and jumping from past to present to have the full story.
Thank you to Netgalley, Ashley Tate, and the publishers for this free ebook. This review is 100% my own and honest opinion.

I wish I’d liked this more - it was a good premise and a satisfying ending. Some of the characters were very interesting with well-written interiority. But the way the story was told just didn’t work for me. I found it too drawn out with many parts that didn’t seem entirely relevant to the story. This is an example of too many POVs not working well together. I think others might enjoy this more though, I think it would appeal more to readers who like multi-POV thrillers that are heavy on character interiority.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC ebook!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.
First off I want to say I struggled with rating this book. I love a good suspenseful book, even if it isn't super original.
The characters felt real for me. Growing up in a small town I felt like I could picture these characters as people I knew and the small town gossip was so perfect.
All of the characters were super suspicious and once I was reading the book I had to finished it within a day.
What I struggled with most was the ending. It was a surprising but I felt it didn't make sense given some of the information we are being given throughout the book. I understand what the author was trying to do but for me that made the book 4 stars instead of 5.

I have a hard time with books where I don't connect to any of the characters. The plot of this was interesting, and the twist at the end was powerful, but by the end I disliked every single character. That meant I didn't really care about the reveal, which I'd more or less figured out anyways.

Grant was a terrible person (then and now). I think we are supposed to dislike him. But Becca was even worse. As the book progresses, we realize that Grant wasn't abusive, but that Becca had made up a relationship in her head and was basically stalking him (then and now), and that Grant was feeding that delusion. It wasn't hard to figure out why he was doing that.

There were a couple timeline issues, specifically relating to AJ and the age of his kids. It could have happened that he met his wife and she got pregant right away, but that timing is so tight. Why not make his twins five or six? At six, in a small community, they could still have been on the side of the road making a card for June. Every time the age of the girls came up, it took me out of the story.

Phoebe spiraled out of control by the end of the story, which was a bit frustrating. I think if she was trying so hard to keep Grant in line so she could get out of town, she wouldn't have drunk so much herself. It's pretty hard to accuse another person of destroying your chances when you are destroying your own with no help.

And June was insipid. If I was supposed to care about Wyatt because I cared about June, that never happened. Realistically, the sherriff should have actually done his job and figured out what happened that night, but it sounds like he might have been drunk and just didn't care enough.

Small town grieving the loss of a teenage girl. So many lies and secrets. So much blame. Three days for everything to come to light. Sign me up. I really enjoyed this story. I was worried at first with there being so many characters and POV’s to follow but I quickly navigated who was who and it took off from there. So many twists and turns and I was absolutely not expecting that ending. There’s nothing better than a solid twist at the end to make your mind explode!

I have been consistently reading romance lately and this was the perfect change up for me. If you’re looking for a wild ride with a great twist, pick this one up!

Out January 23rd!

Huge thank you to Net Galley and Author Ashley Tate for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

For me this book was long, drawn out soap opera style book. It had 5 different POV it took me a while to remember who’s was who’s and where I was with in the story. It was also predictable as to what happened. I found the characters in the book unlikable.

Twenty Seven Minutes is about a small town coping with the 10 year anniversary of the car accident that killed Phoebe Dean. The question on everyone’s mind is why did it take her brother Grant twenty seven minutes to call for help? They weren’t the only one in the car though Becca was also in the car and is trying to cope with guilt of that night. June’s brother Wyatt also went missing but no one remembers that.

As the story unravels each characters POV sees them coping with guilt and loss in different ways.

Life's too short to read bad books. I'm sorry, halfway through and I don't care enough to finish and find out what happened. The plot, the characters...it is all so meandering. Like this review!

Despite this, thank you to the publishers and net galley for the arc.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing style, the author ended so many paragraphs and chapters with dramatic foreshadowing, but instead of building suspense, it got annoying, as the foreshadowing wasn’t leading to any new information, it was just skipping to another perspective. I’m not invested enough to see where this foreshadowing eventually ends up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review

3.5 stars! Twenty Seven Minutes is a small-town thriller told from multiple perspectives, and explores themes of trauma, grief, revenge, and more.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel. The prologue set the story off with a bang, and got me immediately hooked. It then transitioned into a slower-burn, which I don’t mind. However, the revealing of the plot moved a little too slow for me.

At times, I found it difficult to follow the intertwined relationships because it felt like there were so many. Many of the characters were unlikeable (hated Grant!), but I think that is sometimes necessary. Having characters that are so completely rotten to their core makes the good ones more enjoyable. For a debut novel, I think this was pretty successful!

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for access to an advanced reading copy.

A good fast paced mystery. I love a mystery with a good twist and the ending surprised me. If you like a great fast read this is worth the read.