A low 2 stars for a lot of wasted potential.

I LOVED the prologue of this book! The writing in it was so great. But it quickly went downhill from there! Gone is the fun and snarky tone. The rest of the novel is written in a completely different style and is quite frankly boring.

This book is very repetitive and I didn’t really care what happened to anyone. Also, the ending made me mad! Don’t read this book if you don’t like open endings that give no answers or explanations.

At first I thought the story line was good, and it would keep me going at a very fast speed, but then it got monotonous and drawn out, and I found it hard to finish the book.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House & Katherine Wood for the chance to read this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book was so much fun! I absolutely loved the setting and the past and present timelines. The characters were very entertaining & I thoroughly enjoyed it!

In Ladykiller by Katherine Wood, childhood friends Abby and Gia are pulled into a mystery spanning luxury and deceit. After a tragedy in Greece years prior, Gia, a wealthy heiress, now lives a glamorous life, while Abby works as an attorney. When Gia vanishes from her Greek island estate, Abby and Gia's brother, Benny, try to unravel clues hidden in a manuscript Gia left behind, revealing unsettling secrets about her new marriage and their friends. Tension builds as Abby races to uncover the truth before it's too late.

This was sexy and deliciously dark!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine in exchange for an honest review.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book. I thought the build up and the back and forth between narrators was immensely well done, but in the end I was let down. The lack of resolution felt less like a "whoa, what happened?" than a "eh, the author couldn't decide how to end the book."

This is a nice escapist read. It is about two very rich siblings and their poor friend that their parents also supported. It is set in a mansion in Greece and in some other expensive exotic locations. The characters are kind of shallow. The plot is ok. it was fun and very lightweight read.


I received the book from Netgalley

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read "Ladykiller." Unfortunately, I did not enjoy reading this book. I didn't find it exciting. I found flaws in the writing. Some of the characters were suppose to be learning English and one moment they speak broken English and in the next a perfect complex sentence. Some of the actions of the characters I found unbelievable, which made the book hard to enjoy.

This book was just ok for me, I think I wanted it to be something more than it was. I loved the idea, but just couldn’t get into the actual book. I think in this case switching between present day point of view and Gias manuscript didn’t really work for me.

Where is Gia? Gia and Abby have been lifelong best friends and are even more closely bonded as a result of the tragedy they experienced when they were eighteen. Twelve years later, Abby and Gia’s brother arrive in Sweden but Gia is nowhere to be found. This story unfolds through a manuscript Gia wrote about her life and it is difficult to tell what is true and what is not. I really enjoyed this way of storytelling, it kept me engaged and constantly thinking about what was happening. This was a very twisty tale and I am still undecided about the unresolved ending.
Thank you to @netgalley and @randomhouse for this gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

An incredibly fun impossible to put down thriller. I loved everything about this one including the fun Greek setting. I would love to see Greece.

As always, I can't help but love a book with multiple POVs. We gets Abby's as she tries to figure out what happened to her best friend, while we get Gia's through the manuscript that she's left behind. You can't help but feel for Abby, who clearly tries to live in the here and now. Gia is harder to root for as the spoiled rich girl that seems to constantly drag Abby along. However, as you dig further into the story, you start to realize that Gia may not be all she's cracked up to be.

I wanted to read this book because it mostly takes place in Greece, a place I have always wanted to visit. Wood creates this twisty, suspenseful story that you just don't want to put down because you have this deep need to understand what's going on.

With a novel like this, you worry that possible not everything will be discovered by the end of the book, but the author pulls it off flawlessly. I genuinely enjoyed this novel, it would make a great vacation read (but maybe not if you're in Greece).

I’m not a fan of ambiguous endings to a mystery/thriller, so when I heard that from other reviewers about this book, I decided to DNF because I wasn’t loving the content anyway.

I enjoyed this! The plot was fast paced and I didn't see the ending coming! Would read this author again

I really enjoyed Ladykiller! I found the premise of reconnecting with a long lost friend intriguing and different. This book kept me on the edge of my seat!

I liked the sound of this book and the story starts out strong. The manuscript to tell Gia's story was an interesting change. I really liked the build up of the mystery and how it would all come together in the end. Twists and turns all throughout. However, some felt very unrealistic and the ending fell flat for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

Once I started this I could not put it down. It was compelling. I just hated the protagonists. I feel bad about that. It is a solid book, it just was not relatable for me.

If you see a young, privileged, wealthy woman who is posing herself as the victim and keep whining about what it would be like to have a "normal" life, run for your life. Usually those are the ones to destroy you and everything you love in a jealousy fit. Gia was definitely one of them. In every two sentences, you would hear say "God, people are using me because I'm rich" or "Ah! how lovely it would be to have a normal dinner in a normal house with normal parents". Come! On!

Gia and Benny lost their father. Gia wanted to have a final rodeo in their summer house in Greece before she sold it. She might have good intentions to invite all these friends and her newly minted husband to the island, but she was getting more and more anxious with everyday passing. Did these people really care about her or did they have an ulterior motive to keep her around? As shiny and fun they were, Gia would need her BFF and her brother to feel secure again

Some twists were anticipated: when you have a transcript of events narrated by the person in distress and other chapters talking about her from the perspective of a close friend, you wait for the clash. And a crash it was!

"Ladykiller" ended up not being quite what I went into the story expecting.
The premisis surrounds two long life friends with unreliable narrators throughout.
"Ladykiller" took a little bit to get into, but overall a good read.

3.5 stars
The first 90% of this book was 4 solid stars.
The setting is gorgeous.
The characters are flawed.
The story is mysterious.
Once this plot began unfolding it was hard to put down.
Then we reach the last 10% of the book.
There is no closure.
There is too much mystery.
I was left with far too many questions.
Wish the ending had given a little more to the reader, but I would still recommend it.

"Ladykiller" by Katharine Wood is a new thriller set on an idylically beautiful Greek island. It is peopled with beautiful, charismatic, RICH folks who may just possibly be a teeny tiny bit...DANGEROUS. Yes, there are plenty of shady people here who possess, shall we say, some questionable moral character. Folks whose alliances shift faster than the white sand beaches of the Mediterranean Sea that surround that luxury hilltop villa where all sorts of shenanigans and schemes are playing out. Deliciously wicked voyeuristic moments abound!

A more perfect setup for a *spicy* thriller could not be imagined. And for much of this novel, this carries the story well, helping to build anticipation and allowing clues to be dropped and possibilities to be spun so that the reader remains engaged and entertained.

This novel was published on July 9, 2024. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced galley proof of "Ladykiller" by Katharine Wood.