"We don't always live to see the ripples we make, but we must make them all the same." - - I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite quote.

This book simply reached in and plucked all my heartstrings. I don't exactly know why I connected with it so intensely but I did. I would describe it as a multi-genre novel - - a little mystery/thriller, with some romance and family drama blended in.

This story focuses on Anna. She grew up in a small town in Kentucky that she always wanted to leave. But life changed and she found herself tied there. Her mother became sick and Anna is the only family there is. When she loses her job teaching at the local high school, Anna is forced to ask for a job from her ex-fiance and things only get more chaotic after that.

The town that Anna lives in has a history - - years ago, there was a brutal murder of nine women and it's still unsolved. It hangs over the town like the elephant in the room that no one wants to mention and many seem to have forgotten about. But there are many that can't forget about it. They were there and can't erase the images from their minds. Either way, things in this sleepy little town are about to get heated.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I also listened to the audiobook and the narration was absolutely wonderful. It enabled me to completely immerse myself in the story. I simply loved it. 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the audiobook and ebook.

Thank you to NetGalley, Court Stevens, and HarperCollins Focus for the eARC. This fast-paced page-turner hooks you from the very beginning. An intriguing narrative expertly intertwines past and present to unveil a cruel plot.

"Tell Me Something Good" by Court Stevens is an adult debut novel that weaves together past and present mysteries within a close-knit, yet secretive, Southern community. Twenty years after nine women were brutally murdered on a Kentucky river, a crime quickly dismissed as unrelated to the locals due to a similar Texas incident, a new accidental death resurfaces the buried secrets. The story follows Anna Ryder, who, desperate to save her ailing mother, takes a job at the wealthy hunting lodges across the river from her impoverished Illinois town. She soon discovers that nearly everyone in her life has been lying to her, and the secrets surrounding the annual "Royale" event and the decades-old murders are far more interconnected and dangerous than anyone imagined, forcing Anna to uncover the truth at all costs.

This book had a lot going on. Maybe too much. It took the first half of the book to set up the story and have the multitudinous threads start to weave together. The 2nd half was more compelling. The plot picked up and the stories started to connect. By the end, everything came together and I walked away with a good read. I would recommend it. Just be aware that the setup takes a bit and give some grace as this is the author's adult novel debut. Thank you to NetGalley and Court Stevens for the opportunity to read this book free in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

What an atmospheric, mysterious, unsettling reading experience this was. Written in the omniscient narrator-style of Backman's Beartown trilogy and featuring a vast cast of characters, Stevens never let me feel like I had a good grip on what was happening. The chapters are very short, the POVs alternate with speed, and every single person has secrets and ambiguous motives. On the surface, these words may sound like I didn't like this book, but I have to say that DESPITE the unease I felt on nearly every page, I very much enjoyed this book. Bodies abound, gunshots are the background music, secrets lurk in every moment of quiet, and lies are the common language.

I'm going to be thinking about this book for awhile. I've never read Court Stevens' YA books, but I'm excited to see what else she brings to the adult fiction world moving forward. Stevens' writing style is the closest thing I've ever seen to Backman's (which I consider a huge compliment as I adored Beartown). With scant few exceptions, this cast of characters is unlikable, but several found themselves in horrible situations and were forced to make impossible decisions. Does that redeem them? What would you do? This is a book that makes you think.

Overall, it was a truly engaging, unique reading experience, and I'm grateful to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for allowing me to read this book prior to its publication in exchange for this honest review.

Twenty years ago, 9 women were found murdered in a small town in Kentucky. When it is linked to a similar crime in Texas, the locals write it off as not committed by a local. Years later, a local's seemingly accidental death opens up old wounds and the past is resurfaced. A woman desperate to help her sick mother inadvertently starts to uncover a number of secrets which may implicate locals not only in the deaths of the young women from years ago, but also uncover sinister goings on in the community. Reconnecting with her ex-fiance, they uncover secrets that some locals will do anything to keep buried at any cost.

A well-written small town mystery thriller where secrets of the past are uncovered and we discover some who aren't who they seem to be will do anything to keep secrets of the past hidden. There are a number of characters and layers within this plot which I found a little confusing to keep track of initially but it's definitely worth persevering as this is a solid read with some great characters. The ending brings all the elements of the story together in a satisfying and heartbreaking conclusion. ⭐⭐⭐.5

Thank you to Net Galley and HarperCollins Focus for the opportunity to read and review this book.

An atmospheric and enveloping mystery, Tell Me Something Good tells the story of a small Kentucky town with a dark past. This was a quick read with an engaging plot and I think it would make an excellent book to toss in your suitcase for vacation.

I tandem read the print copy and audiobook and found the audiobook a bit more unwieldy with such a large cast of characters. I would ultimately recommend the print version if that's something you have a hard time keeping up with.

It’s a beautifully layered story about loss, forgiveness, and the messiness of healing — all wrapped in a small-town mystery that kept me hooked. The characters felt so real, and the emotional depth reminded me a lot of Fredrik Backman.

This powerful story is narrated by Marin Ireland — yes, the Marin Ireland who brought the Beartown series to life. If you’ve heard her narrate, you know how incredible she is! If you loved that series, this one is a must-listen too.

Tell Me Something Good by Court Stevens
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“We don’t live to see all the ripples we make, but we must make them all the same.”
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In Tell Me Something Good we follow Anna who is taking care of her mother after learning she is ill. But she is going to need help financially and winds up asking her ex for a job at the one place her mother has told her to never work at: the hunting lodge.
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What I liked:
-There were lots of secrets to uncover. Why has Anna been warned off from the lodge? Who is Anna’s father and where has he been all her life? And the ultimate secret of murders commited twenty years ago.
-I LOVED how many layers there were to this story. It was a slow burn and took some time to pick up steam but then that last 20% was crazy!
-I enjoyed trying to guess what was going to happen next.
-The ending was not what I was expecting.

Tell Me Something Good is a compelling story of a community with lots to hide. Perfect for mystery or drama fans.

You can't always control when the truth will surface

Sometimes if it weren't for bad luck some people would have no luck at all. That seems to be Anna Ryder's lot in life; she is tied to the small town of Luxor by loyalty to her mother Starr and Starr's attachment to the family farm. A once-in-500-years flood cut short her dream of going to college, when it was clear that she would need to get a job to help cover expenses at home. Her mother has just been diagnosed with cancer, and she either has to get the treatments that they can't afford or accept that she has eight months to live. Oh, and ongoing budget issues have led to her losing her job at the local high school. There are no other jobs in Luxor, but maybe across the bridge on the other side of the Ohio River in Bent Tree, Kentucky, The Lodges, a top-five destination for hunters, will be hiring. It is the one place that her mother has made her promise she would never work; that it has ties to Anna's former fiancé and her mother's ex-boyfriend, but short of selling the farm (which her mother absolutely forbids...selling the farm is worse even that drinking and driving) it is the only chance Anna has to get her mother the treatment she needs. A dead body will be found, an accidental death it is called, and it will make the locals remember the deaths of nine women twenty years earlier. Things happen at The Lodges that aren't good, aren't legal, and the community can no longer turn a blind eye to the goings on. What connection might those things have to Anna? Lie after lie after lie has been told, and the ripple effects of actions long ago reverberate into the present and beyond.
Tell Me Something Good is a multilayered story that combines elements of Southern Gothic atmosphere, small town secrets, traumas that are passed along from one generation to the next, flawed characters, the relationship between mother and daughter, and more. The action moves back and forth between different time periods, and there are a lot of characters of whom the reader must keep track as well as keep straight how they are connected to one another (other reviews indicate that this is a particular challenge when listening to the audio). Its not a perfect book, but it is one that grabbed my attention and made me care about the characters even as I furiously tried to figure out what really happened to the Choir Girls, a 4.5 ⭐️ rounded up to a 5. Perfect for fans of Chris Whitaker, S. A. Crosby and Wiley Cash, it is a book to savor. Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus/Harper Muse for allowing me access to this fascinating read.

An excellent, emotional story that gives you Fredrik Backman vibes. I read and listened to the book. The narrator brought me to tears several times.

Tell Me Something Good promised a deep dive into a small-town mystery, weaving together class divides, past murders and secrets that ripple through generations.

On the bright side, the book did set a pretty atmospheric scene in rural Kentucky and the initial premise of a long-buried crime resurfacing definitely hooks you in. The idea of a community forced to confront its past and a protagonist uncovering layers of family lies has all the makings of a compelling read.

However, despite all those intriguing threads, it struggled to truly deliver. It felt like it was trying to juggle too many plotlines – the rich vs poor, the illegal auction, multiple murders and none of them quite get the depth they deserve. The narrative can feel a bit convoluted and while there are secrets, the uncovering of them didn't always land with the punch you'd expect. It's like the book knew it had a lot of dramatic ingredients but just can't quite bake them into a satisfying cake.

Ultimately, Tell Me Something Good had a interesting concept and some atmospheric moments but the execution left something to be desired.

This was an intense read that uncovered a mystery buried in the town’s past and the lingering impact of long-hidden secrets.

Anna Ryder lives with her mother Starr in Luxor, Illinois farmhouse by the convergence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. They don’t have much - not even Internet service, and as the story begins, Starr is diagnosed with cancer and Anna loses her job. They badly need money for Starr’s treatments.

Anna is forced to look for work across the river at The Lodges in Bent Tree, Kentucky, a place where her mother told her never to go.

Bent Tree sponsors a hunting extravaganza every year, and some thirty years ago, nine young women were murdered during the event. Although some podcasts focus on the unsolved crime, the people of Bent Tree seem not to think about it much. It certainly hasn’t stopped anyone from flocking to the Lodges during the “world-famous hunting experience.” The upshot for Anna is that they need employees, and she can get a job there.

What follows is actually hard to follow - too many characters and disjointed writing. I frankly had trouble keeping track. Perceptive readers will see right away however that somehow the mystery of the murdered girls will be solved, which may make persistence in reading the book rewarding.

This moves between past, present, and a bit of the future to tell a murder mystery that's deeply atmospheric and twisty. Anna's mother always told her to stay away from the Lodges but that's the only place she can get a job and she needs one. What she finds is an old story about women dying but there's more. Know that there are a lot of characters and much packed in but also that it becomes compulsively readable. Thanks to netgalley for the ARc. No spoilers from me.

I inhaled this amazing book over the last two days, mostly as an audiobook read by Marin Ireland, one of my absolute favorite narrators. Court Stevens' adult debut is Southern literary fiction at its best, with generous helpings of family secrets, murder, and deep truths about the power of love. Court's writing has been compared to Flannery O'Connor, and Tell Me Something Good also reminded me of last summer's favorite The God of the Woods, with its multiple viewpoints and slow-burn unraveling of multiple mysteries.

In Tell Me Something Good, Anna Ryder finds out her mom needs expensive cancer treatment on the same day she loses her job at the local high school. Even though her mom has always told her to stay away from the Lodges, the shady hunting resort near Paducah, Kentucky, she knows that a job there is the best chance she has at saving her mom's life. Years ago, nine women were killed at the Lodges, and Anna quickly discovers that crime is still rampant at the resort. Stevens does a masterful job setting up the stage and introducing us to a large cast of characters, and then the family secrets are revealed in rapid-fire succession to keep you turning pages long into the night. Highly recommended! Thanks so much to Netgalley, Harper Muse, and author Court Stevens for the librarian preview copies!

This is my first time reading anything by Court Stevens. I was excited to receive an ARC copy of Tell Me Something Good based on the book synopsis. There are many characters, timelines, and places in this book, but the main storyline centers around Anna and her mother Starr. Anna is not living her best life. Her beloved mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. To make matters worse, she loses her only source of income. Anna is desperate to get her mother the best care they can afford, so she will have to go against her wishes by seeking employment from a place her mother has asked her not to go.
The story is told by an omniscient narrator who takes the reader between past, present, and future. There are also journal entries interwoven. I enjoyed the style of writing and was captivated by layered mysteries and harrowing storytelling. There was a lot to keep track of and at times I needed to go back to remember who was who.
Overall, a good adult debut by Court Stevens. Lots of twists and turns that kept me reading even if I wasn’t in love with the ending. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Focus for an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.

I should have dnfd this. The only reason I didn't is because it was it was so quick and easy to get through. The only thing I cared about was the mule.

tangled and rooted thriller-mance (ish) book filled with some very interesting ideas and generally good writing. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.