This book was amazing. It's very interesting, because you are discovering this characters just like you would if they were real people in our world and you were reading their memoir.
I really liked the multi points of view. I feel like it really helped understand what happened, and see through the eyes of more than an unreliable narrator.

You learn about a lot of different dynamics through this book, and through very different lenses.
It's a beautiful story about loss, grief, friendship, love. It's a story about humanity and it's many facets.
I adored the way some part of the story written by Cate Kay mirrored her past or how some part of the adults lives of the characters mirror the past. While I was reading I kept having this moment of "Wait… I know about that! She wore it, she went there, she talked about it". It's full of call back.

From the first page, you get that something big has happened to the narrator, and everything is just a game of discovering what exactly and how deep it impacted her. There's several points of view that are very interesting and add depth to the narration. The writing is incredible too. Definitely an incredible book.

4.5 stars! In my opinion, The Three Lives of Cate Kay will be the next 'it girl' must read. So rarely do you find a book that actually feels like its references in the description rather than a copy and I believe Kate Fagan accomplished that. I look forward to recommending this book due to it's incredible character work as well as amazing use of multi POV.

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

We were promised a book similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I completely agree. I loved this book!

We learn about the life of Cate Kay, a prominent author. When she was young, she was called Annie and was inseparable with her best friend, Amanda, then tragedy strikes, Amanda is hurt, Annie is in shock and runs away changing her name to Cassandra Ford or Cass. When Cass meets Sidney, she thinks her life is going to change for the better not realising what type of toxic relationship is in store.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Atria Books for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

Girl, the amount of highlighting I did?????

This book is stunning. It reminded me of Taylor Jenkins Reid (there's some Evelyn Hugo here but also Daisy Jones) but it stands as it's own masterpiece. There is so much to love but making your soul ache for your best friend is the stand out emotion.

The characters are so real and imperfect and that is expertly executed through multiple POVs and the ability of Kate Fagan to just write raw emotion on a page. I was so invested that I kept staying up too late to read and kept making audible gasps when the story took one of its many turns.

Yearning is back, people! I think this will be a big book club hit, and I definitely look forward to reading it again!

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my review <3

As a HUGE fan of Evelyn Hugo, this hit all the right notes! I absolutely loved this story and can’t wait to force all my friends to read it. 😂

Oh my God, I really love this book! It’s so powerful! So intense! I understand why it’s compared with Evelyn Hugo, but I think the only things they have in common are that they both are memoirs and queer.
The three lives of Cate Kay is a very original, very powerful book and I was hooked since the first page. I just want to erase my memory and read it again for the first time.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I will admit that at first I was a little worried that this book was too similar to Evelyn Hugo, but I quickly got over that. This was great writing with complex characters and a lovely story. I also love it when an author doesn’t force feed you every tiny detail but trusts the reader to infer what we need to/when we need to, and in turn the reader can trust that the author will reveal what they need to at just the right time - I think that’s not easy to accomplish but really worked in this case.

One note: I had a hard time with the endnotes being at the end of the chapters instead of footnotes at the bottom of the page. Maybe it’s because I read the ebook, but I found that a little harder to deal with than I would have liked. I love footnotes, and these added a lot to the story, but the placement bugged me.

Thanks, NetGalley for the advanced copy!

This was so good! I was invested in the story. I loved that it switched POVs to tell Annie/Cass/Cate’s story and that she added her comments in footnotes throughout. Very meta. I which there was a little more background on Cass and Sidney’s relationship for that is the catalyst for a lot of events in the book. But overall I loved the characters.

Bravo to Kate Fagan on an incredible debut novel!

Written as if a memoir, we follow the 3 lives of the writer: Annie, Cass and Cate.

Annie, daughter of an alcoholic mother, and her best friend Amanda dream of and aim for lives as successful Hollywood actors. Just before their adventure begins, there is a horrific accident. Fearing the worst case scenario, Annie flees their hometown in a panic and reinvents herself as Cate. Thus begins the journey of trying to escape her past in search of overcoming a guilt ridden past and achieving a pain free future.

The story of Annie/Cass/Cate is detailed with multiple points of view by the supporting characters. Their added viewpoints provide us with expected and at times surprising insights.

This is a beautiful story of friendship, love, guilt, obsession and abandonment. A great kickoff to a new year of reading.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the complimentary eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love any book about a writer! This one had me at the edge of my seat. It really was gripping and it held my attention the entire time. Despite its fast-paced nature, it also felt like Kate Fagan held a lot of space for emotional depth with these characters.

****Publishing January 7, 2025****

Cate Kay is a successful best-selling author hiding behind three different names and lives. When Cate is asked by her publisher to write a memoir detailing her past, her 3 different lives will come to a head, and she will have to confront the past. Is she ready for this? Can she finally find peace?

A heartfelt and fast-paced story that examines how Cate goes about figuring out who she ultimately is and what she wants in life, but while confronting her troubled past. It’s a book within a book where you not only learn about her three identities, but also about the books she wrote! It definitely keeps you turning the pages to find out her fate. A great book for book clubs as it will lead to many great discussions.

Thanks to Atria Books, I was provided an ARC of The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5
Thank you @atriabooks #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

This book….was nothing like I thought it would be. Ya know when you read a book and you can’t quite pinpoint why you feel a certain way or what exactly gave you those feelings? That’s what is happening to me with this one. I did like this book, I think I was expecting more of a thriller and it was not even close to that for me. It was compared to Evelyn Hugo and although I can kind of see that too I don’t fully agree with that either. If I try and nail down my feelings more I think the characters felt a little flat or a little like they didn’t react the way I would expect sometimes. I do think this is a ME issue and maybe I just read this at the wrong time because I am seeing rave reviews about this book. I just think it wasn’t a match made in heaven for me. I may reread this one another time to see how I feel about it later because I am encouraged by seeing others reviews!

I loved this book. It was well written, well paced, and delightful to have an LGBTQ angle. The plot line kept the story moving and didn't cause too much frustration for this reader (e.g., I wasn't constantly thinking "why did she do that?" or, "for God's sake, just check the internet"). I will definitely recommend this book to friends.

The three lives of cate Kay. You may think you know who famous author cate Kay is. But when you read her new memoir. You will find you never knew her

A slice of life story about an engaging and mysterious storyteller. Cate Kay, the author of a bestselling trilogy, has been busy writing stories about the lives of others while protecting her own. When a life-changing revelation changes her perspective, she decides to stop running from her past and instead face herself head on. This suspenseful book is hard to put down and well worth picking up.

i enjoyed the perspective of this, i think the way it read like a memoir but like a creative memoir was really fun, it made every new revelation exciting and every new pov enticing

thank you to netgalley for an arc of this title in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

“Isn’t it possible that the author is trying to show us the most extreme example of the false binary the world presents us - that it’s either ambition or relationships?”

Cate Kay is leading a double life, and she is finally ready to stop and share her story with this memoir. She is the mysterious author of a best selling series, but is also a girl hiding from her past. This story is told from multiple POV’s which at first was hard for me to follow. I couldn’t remember who was part of which “life” of Cate Kay’s. While many books are structured this way, when I say multiple I mean LOTS of POV’s. I think this was meant to be charming in a way to see how many people are affected by one single person but to me it did seem a bit confusing and unneeded. Once I made myself a little diagram of which character was which I could follow along much easier. I loved the plot and most of the characters, but I do think the ending was anticlimactic and I felt like many characters didn’t get the closure they needed.

I think this book portrayed female friendship very beautifully - incredibly loving and deep with a side of unexplainable jealousy and slight distance.

I got really excited about this book when it was compared to Evelyn Hugo and that a few reviewers were saying it was unputdownable. I didn’t feel the same.

It is told in many many povs which was an interesting way to tell this story from different time periods of Cates life to piece together her and her different love stories.
Overall I felt disconnected and just wasn’t vibing. I wonder if I would have done better with an audiobook?

Thanks to netgalley and Atria for an eARC

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for this e-arc of The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan.

This is a fiction novel. 4.5*.

Synopsis: "The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan is a gripping debut novel about secrets, reinvention, and the journey to self-acceptance. Cate Kay, the enigmatic author of a blockbuster book trilogy turned film sensation, has never revealed her identity—because Cate Kay doesn’t truly exist. Behind the pseudonym is a woman haunted by her past. Years ago, a tragic event derailed her plans to escape her troubled upbringing with her best friend Amanda. Fleeing her old life, she adopted new names and crafted a new path. But now, after a stunning revelation, she must confront the ghosts of her past and return home to reclaim the life she left behind. With emotional depth and unexpected twists, Fagan’s novel explores the power of truth and the resilience it takes to rewrite your own story."

Things I liked:
• The Novel/Story
• Characters
• Pace
• The deception surprised me from S.
• The forgiveness from A. surprised me.

Things I disliked (if you can call it that):
• The Character R. for me had not closure, I felt a grab in that story, but it did not take away from the main story.
• The jumping around was hard for me as I wanted to stick to the core story.
• Took so long to circle back to A., hard for me the departure and waiting.

I highly recommend to fiction lovers and thriller/mystery lovers, this is kind of a hybrid.
Tags: Fiction, LGBTQ, flf, Contemporary, Mystery, thriller, etc.

Huge thank you to Atria and NetGalley for the ARC.

Plot: The identity of best-selling author Cate Kay has been a mystery - until now. The book is styled as a memoir from Cate Kay, walking us through the life events that caused Cate Kay to choose to remain anonymous. We learn about her former lives, relationships, friendships, and personal tragedies and the events that have motivated her to finally step into the limelight.

Review: This was a surprising favorite read of all time for me. First of all, Kate Fagan’s writing grips you from page 1. The characters all felt so real. The timelines and shifting POVs were so easy to follow. The story was compelling. I smiled and teared up throughout. I just loved every single second of this book. If I didn’t have young kids, I probably would have read it in one sitting. She’s a new autobuy author for me. I can’t recommend this book enough.

5🌟