From the beginning, the author immerses us in the plot. But unfortunately this thriller runs out of steam as it progresses, probably because of multiple characters. We don't dig into each of them enough. Do we need so many POVs? Do we need Glenn's POV?
The first 30% of the book was fast and then it started to be slow and repetitive, boring and at one point, I didn't care how it ended.. With so many POVs, some passages were repetitive without adding anything to the story ..
The ending is what Freida McFadden would have done if she had written it! 😉
This book wasn't for me, but I have no doubt that it will find its audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Marten’s Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 👍📖

This book was such an unexpected hit! It was a slower burn, it had gone girl vibes with a double shot of murder and a dash of whodunit mystery. 🎉🕵️‍♀️

The only complaint I feel I had throughout this entire novel was the anticlimactic ending. For some reason, I felt like there should have been more. However, the book was still so shelf-worthy! 📚🤔

I received both an ebook copy [@stmartinspress] and an audiobook [@macmillan.audio] thanks to the tagged publishers & @netgalley. 🎁🎧

I got very much into both versions of reading this book, I would recommend the audio 👌 for its multiple talented narrators. It made the experience of the book so great 👍👏

#qotd What's your go-to thriller subgenre? [Domestic, cozy mystery, police procedural, legal, etc]

#bookreview #NetGalley #stmartinspress #macmillian #macmillanaudio #thebusinesstrip #jessiegarcia #debut #booksandblogs

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Business Trip.

The premise of The Business Trip sounds very familiar, a Lifetime drama I've seen and read before but I hoped the author would surprise me.

Unfortunately, The Business Trip didn't hit the mark for me for a number of reasons:

1. Heavy handed exposition in each chapter; for example, in Jasmine and Stephanie's POVs we get details outlining what they're eating for breakfast, putting on their makeup, a literal info dump.

2. When the mystery begins, so do the multiple POVs and boy, are they a doozy! At the same time, they added some urgency to the narrative but also it was confusing to remember who was who and how they related to the two female characters.

3. The biggest cliche found in nearly every domestic thriller I've read in the last few years is the 'twist' which is ridiculous, silly, and painfully hard to suspend disbelief for.

I thought Jasmine was a silly antagonist; her voice was immature, childish, and irresponsible and her reason for 'taking' Stephanie's life was just as dumb. That's not to say there aren't people who think like that but that made me dislike her more.

The writing was okay, but tedious and repetitive.

I didn't care about Jasmine, not even Stephanie; there wasn't even a dog to like since I don't like cats. I'm allergic.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

This just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into the writing style and I just couldn’t get into the characters which overall just made me not really get into the book.

This was an absolute no for me, and I couldn’t even finish it. It was all tell, no show, with a rather ludicrous plot.

I will say that I found some of the domestic violence aspects triggering and I mean that as a compliment. I rarely feel this is accurately portrayed, and while there were some issues with what I encountered here, I feel like it was realistic enough to convince me the author either did her homework well or has had firsthand experience.

I am immensely grateful to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Despite an intriguing premise, this debut novel never achieved the level of excitement I was hoping for. The first half was a bit of a slog to get through as I hadn’t really become invested in the two women enough to care what happened to them. Or, rather, I was not invested enough in Stephanie to care what happened to her. Her character seemed to be much more in the forefront than Jasmine, which was disappointing since I found Stephanie and her life extremely boring.

Around the halfway point I thought the pace was picking up and things were going to start happening. Instead, the book went off the rails and proceeded in totally unexpected directions. I kept reading simply because the story became so unbelievable, I just had to see what the author could possibly throw in next.

I’m fine with unlikeable characters and even an unwieldy number of POVs, but I draw the line at continual repetition of lines and scenes, mind numbing details and preposterous actions. This book had an over abundance of all.

While travelling for work Stephanie is expected to be gone a week, but then sends her neighbor/cat sitter a text that she met someone and will be gone another week , Meanwhile Jasmine decides she's had enough of her abusive boyfriend and decides to leave. While on the same flight the two woman exchange a few words and each go their separate ways. Stephanie friends and coworkers become confused when they can't reach her in person only texts, until they receive a call for help.
Wow, this book takes some unexpected twists and turns right up to the very end. Certainly keeps the reader guessing at what's going on. Can't wait to read more from this author. Thanks Netgalley the author and publishers St Martins Press.

“The Business Trip” by Jessie Garcia is an absolute page-turner! The suspense kept me on edge the entire time, and the twists were genuinely unexpected. The characters are complex and flawed, which made their journey even more gripping. The mix of tension, secrets, and high stakes was perfectly balanced, and I couldn’t stop reading until I knew how it all ended. If you love thrillers with a fast pace and shocking reveals, this book is a must-read!

The Buisness Trip was a twisty thriller with a semi-shocking ending.

Told in 4 parts, it starts off with our main character Jasmine wanting to get out of an abusive relationship and buying a plane ticket to start a new life for herself. Sitting next to our other main character on the plane is where the story takes off and what she decides to do next is quite shocking.

A couple of things that bothered me was that I found it hard to keep track of information with so many character POVs in the first 3 parts of the story. Part 4 basically sums up everything that had just happened by filling in the blanks but I found it too repetitive and a tad boring. I did appreciate how the author tied everything up with a nice, neat bow at the end but it was the story itself that left me feeling uninterested in the characters or their well-being.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed The Business Trip. Super twisty and engaging and kept me engaged as I listened to it through the entirety of a flight. Strong debut from Jessie Garcia.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this advanced copy. The Business Trip is publishing on January 14, 2025.

This book finally brought me out of my book rut. I read it in two days because I was so curious about where the story was going. Fast paced and kept my attention the entire time.

That ending was so good!! Very unexpected and unique. I loved the twists in this story. The mystery was well written. Every character has a good background story. Once I started, I couldn't stop. A lot of characters to keep up with but once I got the hang of them all, the story was interesting. I enjoyed the views of both sides. At first readers got the views of Bruce, Trent, Lucy, etc.. then later readers got the view of Jasmine and how each part matched each other. I liked the use of technology in this book.

I disliked Jasmine a lot in this story and loved Robert. Each character has a view which was good and it gave readers a good mental image.

This wasn’t for me. I did enjoy the plot and found it to be very twisty. The non linear storytelling was good too. I didn’t like the writing style at all. The characters were all unlikeable, and not in a good way. They were all very one dimensional very dumb. I chose not to DNF because the story had me hooked. So for me this was a case of good plot but poor execution.

Twisty Thriller. Maybe Not The Best Read The Day I Read It. Without spoiling *too* much, I read this book on the same day that United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in cold blood - and given many peoples' opinions of that murder, opinions echoed by one of our characters within this text... it was a bit much to read on that exact day.

But since *you* won't be reading it *that* day (and, hopefully, not on any similar day), know that this book is actually one of the twistier, more inventive books I've read this year or even in quite some time, really. By the end of it, you're going to feel very sad for certain characters and you're likely to want to pull a gun on other characters yourself. Still other characters come off as incredibly sleezy basically every time they are "on screen", and other characters you're going to wind up actively cheering certain actions, at minimum.

If you enjoy twisty thrillers where nothing is ever as it seems... there is quite a bit to like here. If you're a fan of more straightforward books... this may not be your cup of... well, whatever you prefer to drink. (As an American of the Southern US, the only tea I drink is sweet and iced, and I'm fairly sure the idiom "not your cup of tea" refers to that disgusting British stuff that we rightfully dumped into Boston Harbor all those years ago - which is all that stuff is good for. But I digress. :D)

Complex. Thrilling. Titillating (to a degree) even. If those are things you like in your books, congratulations. You've found a book that is *right there*. If a more Hallmarkie approach is more your speed... there are a lot of those stories out there, but this aint that.

Overall truly one of the more enjoyable and interesting books of the near 200 I've read this year, it will likely be on my Top 24 Books I Read In 2024 list. :)

Very much recommended.

This debut was wild and so entertaining! I was a little apprehensive because there were so many character POVs but it was surprisingly easy to follow - the story was crafted really well and I was hooked from the first chapter! 4⭐️

Wow....what a nail biting story.

A female news director heading to a conference in San Diego. A woman escaping from her abusive boyfriend. A smarmy man hoping to get lucky at the San Diego conference. A dead body and a psycho. I loved it!

The Business Trip will have you on the edge of your seat, then will have you settle down, then takes you back up.. I thought I'd figured out what was going on....then my idea was blown out of the water. What a twist. The end was poetic justice!

I could have lived without the epilogue. Very anticlimactic and it seemed like trying to tie a hasty bow on an already well wrapped package.

Jesse Garcia’s debut psychological mystery-thriller THE BUSINESS TRIP is quite a trip itself!

The story unfolds seamlessly through multiple viewpoints, each voice clearly introduced in previous chapters. Since each viewpoint is given from the perspective of different characters, Garcia has the opportunity to characterize (and skewer) different stereotypes, for instance, bearers of toxic masculinity and class resentments. She does this skillfully, never sacrificing the demands of a riveting plot.

All in all, this book is well done and much fun to read.

With thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press @stmartinspress , NetGalley @netgalley , and Jessie Garcia @jessiegarcia_author for this free ebook.
“The Business Trip” by Jessie Garcia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Thriller. Location: Madison, Wisconsin, Denver, Colorado, San Diego, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Time: January, present.

Divorced TV News Director Stephanie Monroe is on a business trip to San Diego. Jasmine Littleton, who works in a bar, is escaping her abusive live-in boyfriend Glenn. They board the same plane in Madison, 1st stop Denver.
A few days after landing, they both text their friends that they have fallen for a 52 year old Atlanta news director named Trent McCarthy. The messages become stranger and more erratic. When the phones go silent, red flags go up, panic sets in. Who is Trent McCarthy? What has he done to these women? Are they missing, dead, separate, together, where, how?

Author Garcia has written a book with a suspenseful plot and complex characters. She tells the story from many points of view. From Stephanie to Jasmin to Trent to Glenn to their friends, their bosses, their colleagues, etc. The circle of information and misinformation spreads like ripples when a rock is thrown into a lake. It’s an unusual format, and it works really well for the 1st part of the book. The 2nd part is more single narrative. Garcia makes my head spin with all the twists and turns, but in a good way. Keep in mind this is fiction, so suspend your beliefs a little to really enjoy this book. It’s a page-turner (I stayed up way too late reading), it’s surprising, the action is non-stop, and it’s 4 stars from me🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️🎀

This was a very engaging thriller! I was hooked from the first chapter and felt myself sliding to edge of my seat the more into the story I got. I loved the complex plot, but did find that it was hard to keep up with all of the characters at times. It didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment, but I think some of the side character POVs weren’t necessary. This will definitely be an author I keep an eye on for any new releases in the future!

Two women’s vastly different lives intersect when they become entangled with the same man in Jessie Garcia’s The Business Trip.

Garcia has written a fun thriller with enough twists and povs to make a reader dizzy. While this keeps it entertaining, it also lends itself to plot holes. By the end of the story, the twists and turns are so big the reader risks being taken out of the story. If the book is approached with this knowledge it makes for a fun read.

Fans of unreliable narrators, chaotic plot lines, and a solid revenge theme will enjoy this book,