Definitely not my cup of tea,
I found the characters to be weak and ineffectual; Cate Kay had so much potential to
be on the side of good but consciously chose a detour.
Her best friend is paralyzed in a swimming pool mishap and Cate Kay decides to leave town
at graduation, as the two had planned to do together, instead of sticking around for her friend.
Here search for success and what comes with it is long reading.
Did not get much out of it.

I was gifted this ARC by netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

First off, any book that mentions Cate Blanchett within the first few chapters is an automatic win for me and thankfully, that impulse reaction stuck. This was one of my favorite recent reads and an easy five stars. If you liked The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkin Reids or Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, this should be your next read. My only hesitation with writing a review is giving any snippet away. This was brilliantly crafted and had just the right amount of chaos, intrigue and confusion. It had me second guessing my guesses and eagerly flipping through to see what was to come. I've always been curious about pen names and the reason for authors choosing to use one. Is it to hide from the spotlight, or is it to cover up something more scandalous? We get to know the author behind the pen and all of her personas she's ever had, the story of her romances, real and not real, and her muse for her novel is also her victim, in some ways. This was a definite page turner, fast paced, well-written adventure and I cannot wait to see more from Kate Fagan. She will be an instant buy author for me!

Absolutely loved this book! Perfect for those that like the complicated characters and stories of Taylor Jenkins Reid, the protagonist finally shares her secret story that's been hidden since she left her old life as a teenager.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

“The Three Lives of Cate Kay” was a lovely story about self discovery, friendship and heartache. The beginning was a little slow I thought, but soon I was invested in the lives of our main characters: Annie and Amanda.

If you are a fan of character driven stories, I would encourage you to check this one out.

I thought this was super fun and enjoyable! I wish it had gone a bit more in depth in some of the sections, but I like that it explored sexuality and friendship! The story was well thought out and I really enjoyed the character development over time.

This was a super interesting concept and overall I liked the book. That being said, a lot of it did feel like a big ole miscommunication trope. Annie did not need to run away and then to trust what Sydney told her? It was a little absurd and I truly did not like Sydney's manipulative and somewhat abusive behavior. I was rooting for Annie and I did love when we realized why she came up with her alter ego of Cate Kay. Cate with a mother f***ing K. I did appreciate how all the characters came together and that the truth did eventually come out. This all felt like fate and I appreciated all the perspectives and different people involved to make it all come together. This was a good read and I enjoyed it.

This was my first Kate Fagan book and I really enjoyed it. The back and forth between characters and timelines could have been confusing but Fagan did a great job in making all the characters different enough that it was easy to keep track of everyone. I found the story to be compelling and engaging even though I felt like the ending was rushed and I would have liked to have more of a resolution. Overall, this was an emotional read and I recommend it.

3.5 stars rounded up. This book started off really strong for me, but then my interest kind of faded in and out as it went on. The premise was fun and the execution worked for the most part. I felt like there were too many different perspectives though. I think my attention drifted when the narrative did too. It was a decent book overall though and, while I didn't enjoy it as much as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I can see why the comparison was made.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

An eclectic debut novel of a woman finding her own way in a life full of lies and d finding her truth.

The writing was good, but I struggled to like the main character everyone else seemed to fall head over heels in love with instantly.

Many thanks to my friends at @atriabooks and @simon.audio for the #free gifted copies of this book.

Addictive. Enthralling. Utterly FUN. Y’all.... the way I LOVED this book!

Some of my besties told me that I would be immediately captivated, and they were right.

But what they didn’t tell me was that this read would become my ENTIRE personality. That I would be absolutely OBSESSED with Cate, and that I’d be completely distraught when the book came to an end.

The elusive Cate Kay is a bestselling author—one of the most successful of her generation. Only that’s not her real name. Throughout all her literary achievements, she managed to maintain her anonymity...hiding a multitude of secrets. But now she’s ready to tell her story—the good and the ugly—with a little help from those in her circle. And what a story it is!

Written in memoir-esque fashion, this story excelled in its clever structure and engaging premise. The plot was fast paced and intricately layered with secrets galore. The characters were multifaceted and richly drawn, and the relationships were beautifully complex.

But it was Cate that truly dazzled. Every aspect of her life was sharply observed, and I found myself mesmerized. I appreciated her struggles and sometime shook my head at her choices. But mostly, I rooted for her.

Given that her story is both an exploration of self and connection, it seemed fitting that Cate felt like an old friend by the time the book concluded.

This was a refreshing tale full of quirks and ripe with love. I couldn’t have enjoyed it more, and I can’t wait to see what Fagan writes next.

🎧 This full cast audio will be one of my FAVORITES of the year! With multiple narrators, I was fully immersed into the unfolding story, told by Cate and her close-knit circle. It breathed life into Cate and made her feel as though she was a real person.

This was just silly for me. The friend zip lined into a pool and her friend just left her there and never cared to see if she was dead. Heh?! What the heck kinda premise is this?!

I went Into this book having no clue what it is about. It was an easy and enjoyable read. I read It quite fast which was great,

This pleasantly surprised me. I loved the storylines with Cate and Cass. It really showed her progression and growth. I found myself loving the various glimpses into who she was.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay takes the format of a memoir of the author (Anne Marie) of one of the most popular trilogies of novels in the 2000s who uses the pen name, Cate Kay, and has eluded all media and fame until this point in time. We learn about Anne Marie's childhood, her formative friendship with a girl named Amanda, her relationships, and her rise to fame from her own perspective and those of others in her life, such as Ryan Channing, the actress who portrayed one of Cate Kay's characters in a movie adaption and also had a brief fling with Anne Marie (then known as Cass Ford).

While the story was gripping (I read it while traveling over the course of two days), it did not live up to the hype for me. I read reviews (and the marketing blurb) comparing this book to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (one of my favorite books by a favorite author, Taylor Jenkins Reid) and this book is not that. The only similarities, in my view, are that the two are books about women who become famous, include characters that are actors, and depict same-sex relationships. What really disappointed me though was that the big "twists" of the novel rely on miscommunications, which could have been easily cleared up or looked into. I just did not find it believable that some of the characters would have stayed in the dark as long as they did or would not have done their own research earlier. The book did have a satisfying end though.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for my free electronic ARC of the book.

I think I got a little too excited when I saw this was compared to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and so my expectations were set a little too high. (That’s one of my favorite books.) I can kind of see why it was compared, but I felt like it was set up a to be a letdown after doing that.
This book kept my attention throughout, and I found the premise to be very interesting. I loved that Cate Kay was this elusive, famous author. And the whole “dating a celebrity” aspect was fun, too. However, the love stories never felt fully developed, and while this isn’t a romance, I would have loved to see more of that. The ending seemed very abrupt, and it didn’t feel like Cate Kay’s story or character arc really got finished.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑰'𝒅 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐:
This one’s hard- I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. Maybe just fans of general fiction or fictional memoirs.

Oh, did I ever enjoy this story! This is the story of a friendship and a love. Two girls, Amanda and Annie, friends from childhood, decide to leave their small town and head to CA for fame and fortune. But, on the way, there is a tragic accident, and a decision by one of the girls changes their friendship. Annie becomes Cass, and then Cate Kay.Now, Cate Kay has written a trilogy about their lives, but no one knows who Cate Kay really is. Ryan, a young actress chosen to play the part of Samantha in a movie about the book, meets Cass, and discovers her true identity.
There is so much happening in this story, love, lies, sorrow, grief. I loved it!

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the DRC of The Three Lives of Cate Kay! All opinions in this review are my own.

I have a hard time articulating my thoughts about this one. There were times when I couldn't put it down and I had to find out what happened next, but then there were also parts that I didn't really care for. I didn't like that there are chapters from Cate's book because I feel like her story is more interesting than the dystopian book she wrote.

I also didn't love that Cate had to annotate everyone else's chapters. I switched reading between an ebook and a physical book. The astericks didn't really work in the ebook format because they all come at the end of the chapter instead of at the bottom of the page so I do recommend reading this one as a physical book.

Overall, the main character is hard to root for which makes it difficult to fully enjoy this book at times.

I requested this as soon as it had comparisons to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and was pleasantly surprised to find I massively enjoyed Cate Kay’s life, like I did Evelyn Hugo’s.

Part historical fiction, romance and a little mystery, we start to learn who Cate Kay is and what she has had to do to become the great success she is.

Great book.

thank you to netgalley for the e-arc. i thought this was okay, i wouldn't want to re-read it. the writing was nice the the plot was done well enough. i don't like how one of the characters relied on third-person accounts about what happened after she left her hometown;wouldn't you want to reach out to people and find out on your own about the truth?