Wow! Kill For Me, Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh is a total thrill ride! He takes the classic vengeance story and flips it on its head! The female characters are all strong women that I could identify with in some way. I have never read any books by this author but now I will read his whole back catalog for sure. I was in a reading slump, but once I started this I instantly was hooked and could not put it down. I can’t say enough good things about this book! Make sure you read this! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Oh Steve Cavanagh, you have just brought my inner demon to surface…

Kill for Me, Kill for You

Without even realizing it, I just picked up two back to back “revenge” books and all I can tell you is, I like it.

There is nothing scarier than a woman scorned. Maybe that’s why my husband keeps me happy 😉 you know the saying “happy wife, happy life”

What happens when people aren’t what they seem? Well, I’ll tell you, you put on your big girl panties and you handle it.

There is no secret I absolutely adore Steve Cavanagh, I have bookstagram to thank for the introduction. After seeing just about EVERYONE post about Kill for Me, Kill for You. I knew I had to make this one a priority. I pushed aside my plans and took a dive right in.

Hey guys… can you pick my jaw off the floor for me?

What did I just read? Literary gold, that’s what.

I had plans to go see my favorite 80s/90s band tonight. I’ve had these tickets for 3 months. My girlfriends and I had our outfits picked out, wine stocked up and our designated driver assigned.

I bailed

This book right here is going to make you cancel all your plans so be prepared !

I could not move . Picture the scene from Mean Girls “im sorry I can’t come out ::fake cough:: im sick” . Yup, that was me.

Worth It !

I read this book in one sitting . Im ashamed to admit it but I’ll own it, i didnt even shower today! I just couldn’t spare 5 minutes away from this book. I was completely consumed and nothing was going to get in my way.

5 stars

Now, excuse me while I finally take that overdue shower.

Check out this teaser ;

For fans of The Silent Patient and Gone Girl, a razor-sharp and Hitchcock-inspired psychological thriller about two ordinary women who make a dangerous pact to take revenge for each other after being pushed to the brink.

One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect plan: if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you.

In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

This is my second book by Steve Cavanagh and I always hear such great things about his Eddie Flynn series. This definitely kept my interest and had a very "Strangers on a Train" feel. I couldn't stop reading to find out where everything would lead. I definitely would like to read more in the future by Steve Cavanagh.

So I was a little torn between a 4.5 or 5 star rating, but I’m certain this book is going to stick with me, so it deserves the 5⭐️👏🏼

Big thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy! This one is out 3/19 and you need it!!!

I have been dying to read Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn series, but when I saw he had a standalone coming (and with such a gripping title!!!) I knew I had to read it asap!

This was an incredible read. The twists and turns are jaw-dropping. Multiple times I was saying WOWWW out loud while reading.
It does seem like some of the details can be a bit repetitive, but I promise they are worth it and will make sense! When you get to the end you will be so glad you read this one!

Absolutely recommend!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this book, with my honest review below*

An amazing thriller! We follow Ruth and Amanda’s perspectives as both process traumatic events that leave them wanting revenge. The journey we take with these characters is excellent, both are well developed and there were twists I can’t describe due to their spoiler nature but which were incredibly satisfying. I didn’t expect the ending, and in fact the writing was so well done I was of the mindset that of the characters vendettas was futile, but when it came I was shocked.

Detective Farrow, as another character, has a lot of stories to tell and I’m eager to read them if this becomes a series, which it should as I would devour anything by Steve Cavanagh after this one.

I could not put this book down. The plot is enticing and the writing is sharp. The twists will keep you reading to figure out the ending. The alternating POVs for each chapter keep the story moving and reveal things at a good pace. Most plot points are tied up nicely at the end but one in particular will leave you wanting more. Read this book! (4.75/5)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!!!

I first fell in love with Steve Cavanaugh reading the famous Thirteen novel. I knew that would be a hard one to top, but boy did he do it!! You begin the book not really knowing where it was going, thinking you have an idea, then BAM. Turns out you know nothing. This is a book you will not be able to put down.

Do yourself a favor and purchase!

Steve Cavanagh is a master storyteller--no doubt about it. In this standalone thriller, a riff on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, he tells a suspenseful, twisty story from the point of view of several of the major players. One is Amanda, whose young daughter was murdered and whose husband committed suicide soon thereafter. She is obsessed with stalking the man she is sure killed her daughter and will only be happy when he is charged with her murder. He strikes back with a restraining order, and Amanda is required to attend group therapy, where she meets a woman with a strikingly similar story. As in the Hitchcock story, they agree to kill each other's nemesis. The other protagonist is Ruth, who is brutally attacked in her home and will never be able to go out in public until her attacker is dead. And then there is the police detective assigned to both cases, a fascinating but somewhat undeveloped character.

Personally, I much prefer Cavanagh's legal thrillers about con-man-turned-defense-attorney Eddie Flynn and the outrageous cases he takes on. I particularly love the exciting courtroom scenes in that series. This thriller is very bleak, and it feels like the characters make their lives even bleaker by their actions, making for a quite depressing plot. And while one of the twists came as a surprise, there were a couple that were easy to predict, even though I never intentionally try to solve the mystery when I read. I would have appreciated a bit more nuance and creativity, which I regularly enjoy in Cavanagh's work. I'm hoping for more Eddie Flynn in the future.

My thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance arc of this thriller that I could not put down. Amanda is a grieving Mom who lost her daughter brutally and then her husband. She meets another Mom in a support group who is also suffering and together they make a plan to get venegence....thus the title. But this is just part of the plot in this twisted, clever, fun thriller that kept surprising me. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, it was flipped around again. Great writing, unreliable narrators and a satisfying ending. This book will be on people's lists during 2024!!

What starts like the Hitchock thriller where the killers plan to kill each other's prey, turns into something else entirely. Amanda and Ruth are dealing with grief and trauma and attend a therapy/grief group where they befriend each other one night.

They devise a plan to avenge each other's loved ones deaths by killing the alleged perpetrators. One person keeps their word and another does not.

Without giving too much way, this was a surprisingly fun books full of twists. I would read another Steve Cavanagh book.

Steve Cavanagh is an author I discovered in 2023 and I'm hoping to read more of his backlist in 2024! This one, like his others, did not disappoint. Two women in a parental grief group become friends outside of the session and strike a deal to kill for each other. I liked the multiple viewpoints in this one. Even though there were quite a few characters, I didn't find it hard to keep track of them all. If you like a good whodunit, con artist story, you will enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book.

4.5 stars rounded up
Holy cow, the twists! I figured out some of it (a first for me with a Steve Cavanagh book) but some twists had me gasping out loud. I really can't divulge much without spoilers; suffice to say if you're a fan of his Eddie Flynn series, you will love this one. A little slow to start but once it ramps up, you will NOT be able to put this down. Read in one sitting. A great book to start the new year.

4.5 stars rounded up
Kill for Me, Kill for You came to me at the perfect time. After a month of cozy holiday books, I picked this up and was gripped from the opening pages. The story primarily shifts between the perspectives of 2 women, Amanda and Ruth, both living in New York City and dealing with immeasurable grief and trauma. Amanda recently lost her daughter in a horrific crime and can’t help but feel that justice was not appropriately served. She meets Wendy in a grief support group and comes to find that she too is a mother who has lost her child in a heinous crime in which the perpetrator has not been convicted. The two women devise a plan to avenge the deaths of their daughters for one another with a fool-proof plan not to implicate themselves. Elsewhere in the city, Ruth is a successful realtor with a marriage on the rocks after unsuccessful attempts to conceive when she becomes the victim of a violent home invasion. Her crime unsolved, Ruth is dealing with immeasurable trauma when she happens to spot her attacker at a restaurant one evening. Her husband, Scott, is dissatisfied with the police’s approach to Ruth’s case and decides this may be his opportunity to get some answers. Without giving away too much, what follows is a twisty, page-turning psychological thriller that I could not put down. Amanda and Ruth’s stories ultimately intersect in a way that is clever, although I did guess the connection about halfway through. This was really a fun ride and the perfect smart page-turner. Thank you to the author, Net Galley and Atria Books for the opportunity to advance read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

“For fans of The Silent Patient and Gone Girl, a razor-sharp and Hitchcock-inspired psychological thriller about two ordinary women who make a dangerous pact to take revenge for each other after being pushed to the brink.”

This is my first Steve Cavanagh book and won’t be my last! From the very start, this book sucked me in and I didn’t regret staying up late multiple nights to finish!

This story is about two women who have suffered unimaginable losses. It seems like their meeting is kismet and they find solace in each others company, both having lost a child to a senseless act of violence. One night a pact is made that changes everything. This book will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat straight through. As an avid reader of thriller books I find that I can guess what’s next. Not this time! Just when I thought I knew what was next, I was wrong and loved every minute of it! This was a great read and I highly recommend!

Kill for Me, Kill for You was an intense, twisty thriller. The passion for family, revenge and justice vibrated throughout the story. The book had several tight surprises that kept me engaged to the surprising end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you, kindly to NetGalley and Atria Books for the gifted eARC to read and review.

Welp. The second a book is compared to Gone Girl, I immediately know not to trust anyone and start looking for planted seeds, so naturally I was highly suspicious while reading this. An interesting plot and smooth prose, yes, but this one suffered from third-person narration syndrome—in other words, it would have been so much better in first-person. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Ruth’s storyline felt disjointed for most of the book, and once I understood her purpose, her actions seemed misplaced. I didn’t care for the outlandish ending and found the first half of the book very underwhelming. Overall, 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. This one has pretty great reviews though, so maybe it’s just me!

At first I was a little reluctant to read yet another Hitchcock retelling, but this turned out to be so much more than that. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this because it did have Patricia Highsmith vibes but the story was anything but predictable. I think I had more fun reading this than any other thriller in 2023, and I suspect it will be a huge hit when it drops in 2024.

The characters were really fun to spend time with, the plot wasn't too twisty or predictable, and it was full of unique psychological suspense. So may thrillers I've read fail on one of these three counts.

Like others, I suggest going in blind on this one. You won't regret it!

A great read! I read this in one sitting! I could not put it down! I needed to know what was going on and it did not disappoint! My first 5 star read in a while and I read a lot! Thought it was going one ear and then a twist! Writing was superb and characters were well written also. Definitely recommend this one! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Torn between 4.5 and 5 stars, so rounded up for NetGalley. This was a pretty solid mystery and I definitely didn't predict all the twists, which is saying something given how many murdery/mystery/thrillers I read. This was an engaging and propulsive story that had me guessing from beginning to end.

I absolutely loved this book. An arc I received from Netgalley. Amanda has been stalking her daughters killer. When she decides to kill him he attacks her and she is forced to go to mental counseling. There she meets Wendy who has also lost a daughter. When they decide to take revenge on the killers the roller coaster of twists and turns begins! A 5 star read Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh comes out in March 2024.