5/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! The Hunting Wives was my favorite by May Cobb, and I think this is either a tie or close second.

Cassidy just moved to California from Texas after a bad break up. She works for a rich couple taking care of their home, and then professional lines start to blur and someone ends up dead. I kept trying to figure out who did it, and failed until right before it was announced.
Quick, fun read.

This was only told by Cassidy, and her observations of her new employers. Cassidy starts off bright eyed and bushy tailed, then she starts to become unhinged. And I honestly couldn’t look away from her behavior. It really made think she was very unreliable as a narrator. Marisol was self absorbed, and very exhausting with her hot and cold mood swings. Nate was very sketchy to me, and I did not trust him at all. None of these characters were particularly likable, especially the Sterling’s. While Cassidy was very naive, I didn’t find her as annoying.

As the story went on, I honestly didn’t know what to think. I thought I knew what was going on, but with Cassidy being so unreliable I started to question myself. Me being the nosy person I am, I couldn’t put this down until I had answers. I was so sure I had it all figured out and I was kind of blindsided by the reveal. This is a perfect summer read to read by the pool or at the beach.

When I first started reading this book, I wasn't too wild about it. But by the end, it was like a train wreck, and I couldn't look away...or put the book down!

Cassidy has left Texas and is now a personal assistant to a Hollywood couple, thanks to a hookup from her long-time friend, Lexie. The job and her new apartment seem perfect, but when everything seems perfect, it really isn't. Cassidy may be relatable, but she wasn't very likable, at least not to me. She has an obsessive personality, which is seen when she starts interacting with Nate. She is hired to be Marisol's assistant, but her husband, Nate, discovers Cassidy's writing ability and asks her to read scripts and provide coverage. Somewhere along the way, Cassidy starts obsessing over Nate and perhaps imagines a relationship that isn't there. Or is it?

I honestly do not like Cassidy. She is needy, obsessive, drinks too much, and has stalker-like tendencies. However, the situation she is put in near the end makes part of it understandable, sort of. I can see how she could be sucked into this lifestyle since she receives castoffs from Marisol and is brought into their lives. Cassidy does some good things, but what she is pulled into later in the book is sketchy, and she should have known better and said no. But I get the feeling she is a people pleaser and doesn't know how to say no.

Now, not everything in this book is her fault. Some of the fault lies with Nate, Marisol, and even her friend Lexie. It is hard to share much because there are so many plot twists that I don't want to give anything away. Even in the Epilogue, a new truth is revealed that was surprising, at least to me. I did start to suspect the killer, but I didn't know why or how. It was just a feeling I had about this character.

Needless to say, this book was hard for me to put down, and we give it 5 paws up.

💭 MY THOUGHTS: I love that May Cobb moved her usual jaw dropping drama from Texas to Los Angeles. Hollywood was a perfect backdrop for this compelling, juicy thriller!

I love the twisted web of deception that unfolded as Cassidy begins her new personal assistant job. Cassidy’s bosses, Nate and Marisol are as narcotic as you’d imagine famous celebrities would be. But Cassidy has her own narcosis that make you second guess her account of things.

I really did not know what was real, who to trust or what was going to happen. And when some hints started to drop as to THE major twist I kept thinking “no, no that can’t be it!” Oh, but it really was. My jaw dropped! I did not see it coming.

Being a So Cal native the only thing that threw me was the references to “the 1” highway. No local would call it that, we call it PCH so it kept taking me out of the story. In the book Cassidy just moved to LA from Texas so I guess it’s believable she would know. 😂 🤷🏻‍♀️

Read for:
🤐 Secrets and Lies
🌀 Unreliable Characters
💫 Famous Hollywood Couple
⁉️ Kept Me Guessing
🏠 Forced Proximity
🔪 Murder (of course)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Spice Level: 🌶️ / 5

Cassidy leaves Texas and heads for Hollywood with nothing but a broken heart and (thanks to her best friend) the promise of a job assisting a married actress & director with their day to day life. Still reeling from her cheating boyfriend’s betrayal, Cassidy is struggling to find confidence and the bounce back she needs and is hoping that a new life in LA and potentially switching gears from writing romance novels to screenplays will be just what she needs to reinvent herself.

Marisol and Nate are a gorgeous and very wealthy couple who are #goals for someone like Cassidy; better yet, they both take Cassidy under their wing - Marisol offering her loads of clothes & Nate offering the chance to review some scripts. However as their relationships develop, Cassidy sees that not everything is perfect between the couple and that they may even start to bring her in to be pitted against the other. As her attraction to Nate grows, she begins to wonder what it would be like if she were to be the newest Mrs. Sterling. But then one night things take a deadly turn and Cassidy is left floundering to clear her name with no one on her side.

I am a sucker for May Cobb’s stories about women behaving badly. I love a rich toxic character, I love a domestic situation where you’re not quite sure which one is the worst in the equation.

May did a great job building the characters with this one. I could never pinpoint who was the worst one or why I thought any given character was the worst at any given time! Every character had moments where they were incredibly likable. I can definitely see why Marisol & Nate took to Cassidy, why Cassidy was enamored with Nate, and why Cassidy wanted to be Marisol.

The plot moved quick, I don’t think there was ever a lag or at point at which I was like okay let’s get to the third act already. The twists continue up until the last page, and while I had some suspicions that turned out to be true, I didn’t nail any single thing down completely.

If I have to nitpick at anything, there were a couple of phrases and words that were overused and that is one of my literary pet peeves. It did not lessen my enjoyment of the book, but when it happens I do tend to start looking out for it.

As always, I look forward to what May gives us next.

Cassidy moves to LA to work as an assistant to a famous director and his actress wife. It's not all glitz and glam at their Hollywood hills estate and when Cassidy gets in over her head, she finds herself the suspect in a murder investigation.

May Cobb is back with the perfect summer thriller! One thing I love about Cobb's books is that she writes characters that we love to hate, and she does it so well. This book was no exception as I didn't really like Nate, Marisol, or Cassidy at all, yet I was sucked into their lives from page one and loved every juicy twist along the way. Cobb transported the reader to LA and made the life of an assistant in Hollywood seem so glamorous, that is of course, until it wasn't!

This is Cobb's first book that isn't set in Texas, and I loved this setting. When a thriller is set in Hollywood, you just know it's going to be scandalous, and this one certainly was. The pacing was a bit slow at times, but it really picked up after we find out who was murdered. There were some killer twists that I didn't see coming especially the one at the very end! If you're looking for the perfect thriller to bring to the pool, then throw this one in your beach bag!

Thank you, Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review.

A sizzling, tense, unputdownable thriller. I think this is Cobb at her best, and I ate it up. It is an absolute banger of a book.
💜 Rich people behaving badly
💜 unreliable characters
💜 murder, of course
💜 salacious, twisty, page-turner

I'm a huge fan of May Cobb, and her books are an auto buy for me. This was another 5 star from May Cobb!

I'm a huge fan of May Cobb's books. She writes the most juicy and compelling thrillers, and this one might just be her best yet! I devoured it! It's got Hollywood glamour, scandal, obsession, jealousy, and betrayal.

Cassidy moves from Texas to Los Angeles to become the personal assistant to a handsome, well-known director, Nate Sterling, and his gorgeous, up-and-coming actress wife, Marisol. Things are great at first until the perfect couple's facade shows some cracks. Nate takes an interest in Cassidy, and Marisol has secrets of her own. Things take a turn when Cassidy finds out the real reason she was hired, and when one of them ends up dead, Cassidy finds herself a suspect.

This grabbed me from the start. The story is told before and after the suspicious death, with questions and suspense mounting as the two timelines converge. I enjoy Cobb's writing style. She really sets the scene with this one, with pacing that keeps you on the edge of your seat while delivering some delicious twists. Every single one of the characters came alive. They were complex and exciting. They all created drama and made some questionable decisions, which just fed into the addictive quality of this book. I could not wait to see what they would do next. This was such a fun and wildly entertaining summer thriller!

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the free book!

🚨Pub Day Alert 🚨

Happy Pub Day to The Hollywood Assistant by May Cobb!

Thank you so much to @berkleypub for sending me an early readers copy to review for you all!

This is my 3rd book that I’ve read by her and boy are you in for a treat! This book follows Cassidy as she moves to LA to begin again. She’s recently heartbroken and she has yet to find someone who wants to publish her writing. Through a friend she gets a job as an assistant working for this famous Hollywood couple. Is this too good to be true?

❤️Review❤️

Of the three that I’ve read, this by far is my favorite book that I’ve read by May Cobb. The writing was so compulsive to read. I could not and I repeat could not put this book down. I flew through it easily in one day. The more you read the more unhinged the story gets. What starts off so glamorous becomes so intense by the end in more than one way. Even Cassidy’s personality parallels the way the story goes. Such a great summer release that you’ll want to get your hands on!

If you liked The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz, I think you’ll also love the vibes of this one too!

4 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#Bookstsgram #NetGalley #Berkley #NewBooks #PubDay #SummerReading #BeachReads #PageTurner #NewBookRelease #2024Books #BookReview #ReadingBooks #BooksBooksBooks

Absolutely loved this , the writing the story the twists and thrills !! Love may Cobbs writing
After I read the hunting wives

3.5 stars

This book starts out way too slow. I immediately wanted to start skimming it, but I kept going. Also, Cassidy talks with too many exclamation points. So overdone and annoying. Once I noticed this, I couldn't stop seeing it.

After a break-up, Cassidy moves to Los Angeles at the urging of her best friend to become an assistant to Nate and Marisol Sterling, a famous director and his actress wife. She soon gets immersed in their life and starts spying on them, witnessing their fights and learning their secrets. Then, she learns the real reason Nate hired her and gets a little too close to Nate. She soon gets a little obsessed with the couple.

This is told in two timelines--"Four Weeks Later" and "Now." In the "Four Weeks Later" timeline, we learn that a murder has happened, but we don't know who for a good portion of the book. The plot definitely picks up for the last third of the book. (Once we learn who was murdered.) It was quite the rush to the end!! LOL

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

OMG, I just finished and man is my mind blown 🤯 (ok, that was a few days ago but I still think about it.) I loved it so much! I never expected that ending.

✔️drama
✔️and more drama
✔️mild spice
✔️unexpected twists
✔️will leave you gasping

This is the third by Cobb that I read and she is an auto-read author! This is going to make a major splash this summer! 🔥

Do you like scandalous thrillers with twists at every turn? Then The Hollywood Assistant is a must read! I love this author’s books. They stand out to me because the plots are always thrilling, and the characters are also really freakin FUN! Who would have thought that a thriller book could have fun characters? It’s not something I ever really expected in these kinds of books but hers ALWAYS have this feature. I think this is why I always come back to her novels. They are just plain FUN! Anyway, this is a juicy thriller with lots going on, but you won’t be able to put it down for a minute- I couldn’t. I flew through this one in a day because I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s so good! Highly recommended!

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ Summer thrillers
❥ Rich people acting fresh
❥ Lots of twists

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4.5 Stars

I devoured this book!

I loved the fast pace and short chapters. The plot was scandalous, suspenseful and full of twists. If you enjoy books about rich people behaving badly, this one is for you. It’s the perfect summer thriller!

I highly recommend this one and it’s definitely my favorite by this author!

May Cobb is back with her best thriller since The Hunting Wives! The Hollywood Assistant is centered around the salacious lives of a hollywood couple and the woman who is hired to assist them, but soon finds herself overly enmeshed in their lives and naturally, their scandal. With shifting timelines, this held my attention from start to finish and I could not put it down.

Reading the latest May Cobb twisty thriller has become a summer tradition, and her latest, The Hollywood Assistant, is maybe my favorite yet. Those who know me will say that I say this about every one of her books, but it's just a fact that each new release becomes my favorite. The Hollywood Assistant is full of unlikeable characters. In fact, there wasn't one of them that I would want to call a friend, but that's part of what made it so much fun. Add in the fact that I could never predict what was going to happen next and this is a thoroughly entertaining and addicting read, which I will be recommending to all my friends for their beach bags this summer!

This is my 4th book from May Cobb and just like with the other, The Hollywood Assistant delivers on being a juicy, entertaining, and dramatic popcorn thriller!

Right from the start of the book, Cobb sets the stage with flashes forward in time to let readers know something bad is going to happen. There are going to be cops and our main character is going to be accused of something, but what and why?? As the story leads up to this fateful moment, there are fun twists and turns that keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

The Hollywood Assistant is told through the eyes of our main character, Cassidy, who in addition to having trouble brewing on the horizon, has some secrets from her past that she would like to stay hidden. Getting to know her and learn her ins and outs was so fun! Each new reveal makes the reader slightly suspicious of if we can trust her recounting, which gives the story a fun unreliable narrator aspect without relying on overplayed troupes to get there.

Read if you like:
🎥 Hollywood Gossip
🛍️ Celebrity Personal Assistants
😘 Catching a Cheater
👙 Summer Suspense
💋 Domestic Thrillers

When 20 something Cassidy gets hooked up with an awesome job by her bestie, while she is down on her luck, of course she says yes to this too good to be true job that takes her from Texas to being a personal assistant to a HOT Hollywood Producer and his gorgeous actress wife.

Things start great with the great pay, nice boss, designer clothes given to her, but soon, things get weird once the boss’s husband takes a liking to her and starts paying her extra to read scripts, including his top secret very sexy script that he doesn’t want anyone to know about just yet…

But it gets worse when he blurs the lines and starts to give Cassidy hints there could be more to their relationship… and then also asks her to spy on his wife, and that’s the real reason he hired her, was to figure out if his wife was cheating and to get confirmation.

But when Cassidy’s love struck eye’s turns to obsession… things start to go down hill fast… and then one of them turns up dead, and Cassie was at their house stalking them the day it happens….

This book is naughty, sizzling, spicy, and featuring a lusty FMC who doesn’t get boundaries in relationships it definitely made for a great summer suspense with all these boxes checked!

Thanks so much to PRHA for my gifted audiobook and to Berkley for my ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Berkley Pub for the free book and thank you PRH Audio for my #gifted listening copy of The Hollywood Assistant! #PRHAInfluencer #PRHAudioPartner #BerkleyBookstagram #berkleypub #BerkleyIG #berkley

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐛𝐛
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

★★★★★

May Cobb, I think I just found a new favorite thriller author! This was my first book by this author, and I can’t believe it took me this long to read one of her books! This is book is highly addictive and is the perfect summer beach read thriller.

This book was twisty and bingeable read with lots of spice! After Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, she gets a gig in Hollywood with Marisol and Nate Sterling. All Cassidy has to do is run some errands and in return, she has access to luxury and amazing pay. As time passes, Nate starts to take an interest in Cassidy. But Marisol and Nate are always fighting, and it’s clear to Cassidy that Marisol doesn’t realize just how great Nate really is. But soon, Cassidy learns the real reason she was hired and Cassidy starts to realize that she is caught in a web of secrets and betrayal. When one of the Sterlings is found dead, Cassidy ends up being the main suspect.

🎧I alternated between the physical book and the audiobook, narrated by Brittany Wilkerson. Wilkerson was phenomenal! I LOVED my time listening to Wilkerson bring this bingeable thriller to life. I felt like she was so dynamic and just overall did an excellent job with this one. You are in for a real treat with Wilkerson narrating this one for you!

Posted on Goodreads on July 7, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around July 8, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on July 9, 2024
**-will post on designated date

I really enjoyed this! Similar to many modern thrillers, we filter between post and pre-murder, but we don't know exactly who has been murdered until the timelines converge. This story follows Cassidy a girl who is just trying to start fresh in California with an opportunity of a lifetime--- being an assistant to a gorgeous couple. We quickly find that the couple isn't all sunshine and rainbows but Cassidy isn't reliable either!

Cassidy starts to get way more than she bargained for and this thrilling read is so easy to breeze through. You'll be yelling at the book and the characters while reading this.