3.5 Stars

Very quick read for me, 2 days. I wanted to know what happened. It was a little far-fetched in places but I enjoyed the multiple points of view of the co-workers, neighbor, friend. The twist at the end was a little shocking to me as I wasn't expecting that at all but I'm glad it was there.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I think I might not be the target audience of this book and potentially an outlier. The first half of the book was chugging along and I was enjoying it. That all comes to a halt when we start to learn more about the twist. I found the author to put more time and effort into TELLING the reader what happened, instead of showing us. I found myself very disappointed. The characters were very one dimensional, and there were certainly too many of them. I don't want to give any more away because I'm sure a lot of people will like this book, it just felt like a low grade thriller for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

Stephanie and Jasmine seem to have little in common, yet everything about their lives aligns in eerie ways. The two women are strangers to each other, but their paths cross on a plane—Stephanie on a business trip and Jasmine escaping an abusive relationship. After a few days, both women send their friends identical, increasingly strange text messages about the same man, Trent McCarthy. Then, they disappear. As their texts stop, alarms go off, and fear sets in. The disappearance raises the question: Who is Trent McCarthy, and what happened to these women, or perhaps, what did they do to him?

In the beginning, I found the story intriguing, though not completely captivating. The slow build felt like it was missing something, and I struggled to connect with the characters. But as the story progressed, I became hooked. The twists, especially the final one, were jaw-dropping! The plot was brilliantly crafted, and I was completely wrong about where the story was headed. The suspense escalated, and I finally felt a deeper connection to the characters. The suspense and twists made this an incredibly satisfying, thrilling read. The ending was a real shocker, especially the final twist—completely unexpected!

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

My first read from this author and I rather enjoyed it. I love thrillers and suspenseful stories are my favorite. This book starts with two women, Jasmine and Stephanie- both searching for something more in life. Seated next to each other on the plane, the women chat. Jasmine, escaping an abusive relationship begins to hatch a plan to give her a better life.

I really enjoyed the different settings. I was invested in the characters and felt there was a decent amount of character building- except maybe with Stephanie. I did find some of the details in the book to be confusing. What was the deal with Robert? Anyhow, I did enjoy this fast paced read and would read more from this author!

Stephanie and Jasmine both go send similar messages to their friends about this new mystery man that are interested in. That’s not the only thing they have in common, friends later come to find that they both go missing to the same person. The mystery man is Trent McCarty and why did both of these ladies go missing on his watch?

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc!

Jessie Garcia’s The Business Trip is the story of two strangers Stephanie and Jasmine who meet on a plane – both have different reasons for being there. I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this intriguing page-turner of a book that will keep you guessing until the end. If you like books full of secrets, suspense, lies, and deceit, this book is for you!

Wow! What a twisty book that completely captivated me—I read it in 24 hours. The various character POVs added to the complicated layers of the story, and were easy to follow. The author did a wonderful job of character development to have the reader root for some characters and completely hate others. What a fun read that I can’t wait to recommend!

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!

I was immediately pulled into the story! It was fast-paced and intriguing and I definitely wanted to keep reading (or listening!).

I did a mix of Kindle and Audiobook, and if you're wondering which version to get, with the fantastic full cast of narrators, I definitely recommend going for the audio! I really enjoyed the different narrators, and some really shine through with their performance!

The last third of the book dragged on a liiittle too much for me, but that ending had my jaw dropping to the floor!

It's shocking to me that this is a debut novel and I'm definitely looking forward to the author's next books!

I really enjoyed this debut story - from the suspense to the variety of characters and the plot twists. Reading the blurb left me wondering where the storyline was going to go and how it was that two women could have met the same man, let alone both become involved with him. So many surprises throughout kept me reading to see what would happen next.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Business Trip was a mixed bag for me. Told from a wide array of perspectives, two women are heading to the Madison airport en route to Denver, for very different reasons. Jasmine is escaping, in the dead of night, in an incredibly suspenseful chapter, from her over the top abusive jerk boyfriend. Stephanie, a news director, is traveling to San Diego for, sigh, yet another work trip. We switch between their perspectives in the first few chapters, seeing the prep they're going through with packing, in excruciating detail. We see Jasmine use UBER for the very first time. We know every outfit that Stephanie will wear, where she got her earrings, and every item in her toiletry bag. We know what perfume both women wear, which comes up so much I thought for sure it would come up as a major plot point. Patchouli! We know every member of Stephanie's news team, their name and role. Will this be important? Hmmm.

The next section shows the other side of the story. What does the abusive jerk boyfriend do when he finds Jasmine gone? How is Stephanie's neighbor doing with Fred the cat? Why do we need to know about every souvenir he's brought back from his world travels? Will they be important? Many perspectives from their circles, and none are more than one-dimensional. Garcia may have tried too hard to give them unique personalities, but is the knuckle dragging abusive jerk boyfriend waking up to an empty house going to think to himself, is something "amiss"? No, he would not. That's just one example of the clunky writing that took me out of this story.

The women disappear after each texting their pals back home about a mysterious guy from Hotlanta. You know that much from the blurb, I'm not giving anything away. What will give something away is if you look at the chapter headings. Don't look at the chapter headings. I sped-read this, I just had to get it over with. I didn't like the twists, I didn't like the characters (any of them), I didn't find their actions believable, I didn't like the backstory, I didn't like haves vs. have-nots champagne problems undertones, and I really didn't like the writing. But I did finish it in a day, just had to see what happened, even though most of it was easy to guess. Ugh.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC. The Business Trip has a publication date of January 14, 2025.

A lot of people are going to love this book. It has so many twists and turns.

While I did enjoy most of it. Some of it was just a bit too much and by the end I was like seriously?!?

Very entertaining. A few too many characters to follow.

This one of the best suspense books that I've read in a long time. The twists and turns kept coming and I didn't have it figured out until late in the book and even when I did, there was a major twist in the last several chapters that I never saw coming.

I can't tell you too much about the plot because I don't want to give anything away but here is a short synopsis. The two main characters are Stephanie and Jasmine. They don't know each other and their lives are very different. Stephanie is a news director on her way to a business conference in San Diego. Jasmine is a waitress who wants to get as far away from her abusive husband as she can. The first time their paths cross, they meet on a airline flight and talk during their flight to Denver. Once they land, the story takes a big shift and life has all kinds of changes ahead. A few days after they land, Stephanie's friends start getting some very strange texts from her about a man that she met at the conference. The texts get so bizarre that her friends begin to worry about her. No matter what they perceive has happened, the truth is much more convoluted.

Stephanie and Jasmine were both well written characters -- one of them was easy to love and other was easy to hate. The plot was a real roller coaster ride and held my interest from the first page to the last. It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel for this author. Based on this book, I can't wait to see what she writes in the future.

A twist of a twist of a mystery! I can’t say a lot more because I don’t want to give anything away, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it kept me engaged even while I wasn’t actually reading. The author’s style was conversational, and a quick and enjoyable read. I will most definitely be looking for future books from this author and will be recommending this book to my friends. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

An exciting debut with lots of tension, an interesting format, and surprises! While at times it felt overly and unnecessarily descriptive, nuances actually mattered here and I missed a few critical clues by skimming what I incorrectly viewed as an overly verbose paragraph. I found myself rooting for the complex “villain” and connected with several of the characters throughout the story. I loved the narrative switch between Part 1 and Part 2 and I was genuinely surprised at the end. A quick and engaging read from a new author that I will definitely be keeping my eyes on!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance electronic copy. All opinions are my own.

I would not have finished this if I hadn’t had an early copy for review. I don’t understand the hype, nor do I think this was original in anyway. There are too many characters given a POV, and absolutely none of the characters are likable. I don’t think I stopped rolling my eyes past the plane taking off.

I received an ARC. All thoughts are my own.

WOW! This book was so good. The writing pulled me in from the start, and the multiple POVs made the story even better. It felt like watching one of those unbelievable true crime documentaries on Lifetime.

Stephanie’s on a business trip and Jasmine’s trying to escape an abusive relationship, but their lives end up tangled in ways I, honestly, didn’t see coming. The twists were definitely twisting! If you’re into thrillers that keep you guessing, add this to your TBR. Jessie Garcia nailed it.

This book had me in edge the whole time, second guessing everything that I thought I knew, and confused me, sometimes in a good way, and sometimes not in a good way. The pacing in the first half was a bit slow and didn't really grab my attention, but the second half was where things changed and I was grabbed told and not let go until I finished. There were so many twists and turns that made me feel like I was on a constant roller coaster ride, which is helped by the story being told from multiple POVs to allow for the reader to see multiple view points of the same story.

On the other hand, I would just say that some parts of the story didn't really seem realistic, which took away from the complete immersion into the story. The characters (and there were a lot that we were introduced to) were also quite un-likeable. I would say that the only character that I really did like, was Robert, and he wasn't even a main character. However, his absolute concern and friendliness with Stephanie was so sweet.

Overall, for a debut thriller book, it was pretty good, but there were a couple of things that could have been better. Thank you to Jessie Garcia, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. This is my honest review.

If you’re looking for a book that will have you thinking one thing then turns out something completely different happens than you need to read The Business Trip.

Jasmine and Stephanie have nothing in common yet when they both text their people letting them know that they met a great guy, the same guy, red flags start to be raised and the fact checking begins.

I really liked the different POVs giving you an all encompassing picture of what was going on and how everything unfolded. You felt for Jasmine from the beginning but you don’t quite know what to fully make of her. It’s like a game of cat and mouse and you aren’t sure who is the cat and who is the mouse.


Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback

This book had a unique structure and had a fast pace making it easy to read in one sitting. The mystery was solid and the pacing was great. It was a popcorn thriller that was juicy and mind-boggling as they come. This was a fast and easy thriller that lovers of the genre will love!

One flight, two woman, lives forever changed.
This is a debut novel by this author, I was impressed. I thought Jessie Garcia did a fantastic job of pulling me within the first few chapters, and I was hooked from then on.

The story is about Jasmine and Stephanie. Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship, and Stephanie is a news Director heading to a work conference. They are seatmates on a flight to San Diego.
Jasmine has an all around troubled life, while Stephanie seems to have it all.

The book is told in multiple POV’s, but I didn’t have any trouble keeping up with what was going on.
During the conference, Stephanie meets a fellow conference jerk named Trent. He’s the type of guy that nobody likes. Egotistical and a player through and through, he quickly takes a shining to Stephanie. Meanwhile, Jasmine’s violent boyfriend is trying to hunt her down, once he realizes she lied about her whereabouts to get a head start on her escape out of Wisconsin.

Things take a crazy wild turn from this point on…
Both women are missing.
There a lot of twists in this one. I liked what the author did with Jasmine’s character, she definitely wasn’t one dimensional.
Make some popcorn, because this is definitely a bingeable popcorn thriller that many people are
going to enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the early copy.