Tess Sharpe’s return to adult fiction is bold, exciting, and—most of all—styled for fast thrill. With layered characters, a star-crossed queer romance, and relentless twists, this book delivers exactly what its title promises: high-stakes justice with love buried deep. A slightly neat wrap-up keeps it from perfection, but not by much.

This was a very intriguing book that went back and forth between different points of view and along a timeline. The writing and story was fast paced and did good job teasing along thing that happened or might happen to keep my interest and make this a fast read.

This book was such a fun, over-the-top read. It grabbed my attention from the very first page and I enjoyed the twists. The main characters were well developed and engaging. Overall, this was an entertaining and fast-paced read that I’d recommend.

I wouldn't know what to do with my life if Tess Sharpe ever stopped writing her Calabama stories. Her latest work is pure joy. The passion and fear these characters feel is palpable. I never knew where the mystery, action was going next. Sharpe's ability to leave the reader wanting more is unmatched. I can't stop gushing about this book to my friends and family. Such a freaking fantastic book. Go buy it now!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously go get it!

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

I went into this with such high expectations and was a bit disappointed unfortunately. I saw this being compared to yellowjackets quite a bit, which isn't a very good comparison in my opinion. Even though there is a plane crashing on the cover, we only get a few scenes of them surviving the plane crash. It's not a big part of the story at all.

The other similarity is the dual timelines, which I thought were well written and it was always very easy to tell where and who you were reading from. I also think the story was paced very well and I never found myself dreading reading from a different timeline or perspective.

The characters were very well developed and I was invested in them and their romance. All of the side characters were well developed too.

Unfortunately the main reason why I couldn't love this book was because it felt unfinished. Everything that happens in this book is due to them killing Toby, but we don't actually get to see them kill him. We see the lead up to it and understand why they had to. But I finished the book feeling unsatisfied because we didn't see the most important part play out, and it felt like that's what the book was leading up to.

Overall I do recommend this book and did enjoy my time reading it (and struggled to put it down!)

I will definitely continue to read from Tess Sharpe in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read No Body No Crime in exchange for my honest review. No Body No Crime is a gritty, emotionally charged thriller that’s as much about survival and second chances as it is about buried secrets and bloodshed. Tess Sharpe delivers a dark and fast-paced story that flips between the past and present, revealing how one night of violence bound two girls together for life, and how far someone will go to protect the person they love. Mel Tillman is a rugged, sharp-tongued PI who knows how to navigate a cover-up, but when she’s hired to track down her long-lost first love, the case gets personal fast.
Chloe and Mel’s shared history pulses through every page, adding a raw, aching tension to their reunion. The survivalist setting in the Canadian wilderness adds a fresh edge to the usual thriller formula, with booby traps, isolation, and unhealed wounds pushing both women to their limits. Sharpe writes with an urgency that makes it hard to look away, and while the central mystery is compelling, it’s the fierce, complicated love between Mel and Chloe that steals the spotlight. This is a gripping story about what it means to choose love, even when it costs everything, and how sometimes, the past never stays buried.

First and foremost, thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio as well as Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD for providing this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review

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⚝ Rating ⚝: 3.5✩ / 5✩’s (rounded up)

⚝ Review ⚝: I have slightly mixed feelings about No Body No Crime. It was very enjoyable, but also...pretty far-fetched?? Which I guess makes sense for a thriller, but sometimes it was enough to kind of jerk me out of the story.

Mel and Chloe have one thing in common: At 16, they killed a man. Now, years later, Chloe has disappeared, having gone into hiding in the Canadian wilderness, while Mel has become a PI in their hometown. But now Chloe's dad is dying, and so is Mel's mentor and Chloe's dad has hired Mel's mentor to find Chloe. In turn, Mel's mentor hands the assignment to Mel.

Using the information given to her by her mentor, Mel gets to Canada and is able to track down and convince Chloe to come home with her. But things don't go according to plan. After their plane crashes and Mel wakes up to find Chloe once again gone and determines they were drugged, she runs into a strange man, asking if she needs help, but something is off, and then Chloe shows back up, killing the man without question.

Now the two need to get through the wilderness and somehow get home while being pursued by one of the most powerful families they know of, but they are tangled up in so much more than one dead boy, both holding pieces to a puzzle that has cost lives.

This was a Dual POV (kind of a Triple POV as it occasionally jumped to Rick), and Dual Timeline. While at times it was a bit hard to follow from the bouncing around, that's definitely more of a 'me' problem that could have been fixed with physically reading the book over listening to it. ESPECIALLY considering most of the antagonists were named some variation of 'Richard'.

Even still, it was entertaining, decently paced, and while I wasn't 100% sold on the relationship dynamics between Mel and Chloe, I enjoyed them enough as separate characters to keep going.

⚝ Audio/Narrator⚝: This is the first time I've either read or listened to by anything by Tess Sharpe. For the vocals, I wasn't disappointed. Her voice is easy to listen to. The only critique I had for the characterizations was the voice choice for Junior. Now, I know he's supposed to come across as a petulant and spoiled individual, but every time he had dialogue, it gave '6 year old'. I was shocked when they mentioned he was old enough to be running for a political office, more so than when he mentioned wanting to stab Chloe.

⚝ Representation ⚝: Sapphic, Bisexual, Lesbian

⚝ TWs ⚝: Blood, Murder, Strong language, Death, Child Abuse, Gun Violence

i was so excited for this book, and while the writing is good because tess sharpe is a great writer, i just did not connect to this book the way that i have her previous works

WOW! This book was a wild ride right from the beginning and basically sucked me back in immediately with the first chapter. I loved the way the author did the backstory and world-building development by switching the POVs and the time-zones with (almost) every chapter. 5 STARS no notes, I can’t wait to read more of Tess Sharpe’s writing after this.

In the end, I enjoyed this one.
It’s probably 95% plot, and once I got halfway through, I read most of it in one sitting with barely a breath. That said, I’m not sure how much of it was convincing, and I think it all comes down to character development.
I feel like I know nothing about any of the characters besides what happened to them. I don’t know what kind of people they are or what motivates them besides the obvious. And it made it very hard for me to actually relate to and care for them. Because so much of the book was plot, there was almost no time spent developing any of them, especially the central romance. Instead, it read to me like we were just supposed to accept this relationship we never saw in any way besides physical (both in the flashbacks and present timeline), so I honestly just didn’t care about them together. And there’s not truly anything that tells me the main characters would stay together besides history. Maybe that’s all it takes, but I would be hard pressed to say there’s a romance subplot in here.
I feel like the entire book reads a little bit young. It’s a very approachable thriller, which worked for me because I truly came for the romance aspect of it, but could also be easily disappointing to people who were looking for something different. There were multiple povs in this, and while most of them felt useful, I thought the antagonists pov was entirely unnecessary and really just a hotspot for disgusting sexism.
I’m glad I read this, but ultimately I feel let down by many of the building blocks to this story, and thus by the book as a whole.

DNF @ 40%

Taylor Swift song title? I JUMPED at this the moment I saw it because I mean, LOOK AT THE COVER. IT'S COOL.

Unfortunately, the writing was ... not it. I had a really hard time with it and it was just ... bad. I don't think the time jumps helped either.

The cartoonist caricature of Mel and Chloe drove me nuts. Can we please give them a bit more character and less stereotypes?

I feel like this is an example of a great idea, but it was poorly executed in my opinion.

This was a fun, quick read. Nothing crazy new or life-changing. I really enjoyed the writing for the relationship between Mel and Chloe. I wanted more steaminess between them after so many years, though!

A fantastic queer romp that locks in readers for the whole novel. I enjoyed this novel a lot and reccomend it for all readers.

I was really excited about this, but I realized that from the beginning the writing was just bad. There were so many grammatical errors that I’m sure didn’t get edited because it just seems like the author’s writing style.

Also the book jumped around so much. Usually POV and time jumps don’t bother me when they make sense. Here, they did not make a whole lot of sense. For example, why do we need the bad guy’s (and I mean really bad guy) perspective at any point in a SAPPHIC romance thriller? We had his POV multiple times too. I hated that.

I did keep reading because I was really holding out for a big finale, a big twist maybe, but even the ending wasn’t that great

What a wild ride!

I don't even know where to begin. There were so many twists and revelations that remind me why I enjoy Sharpe's books so much. The chapters are short and easy to read, and the action is practically non-stop. Nothing bonds ex-girlfriends more than running away from murderous politicians.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I was accepted to read this book before official publication through NetGalley and below is my honest review.

A sapphic thriller?! Take all of my money!!

I devoured, I ate and I left no crumbs (shoutout to my gal Lauren)! I have wanted to read this book for SO long and it exceeded my expectations.

No Body No Crime is told through multiple POVs and follows the story of the main characters Mel and Chloe. It’s set in the wilderness and gives me Yellowjacket vibes (what a show!)

It’s fast paced and had me hooked from start to finish. I did not want to put it down and I’m sad it’s over 😭 it is a thriller with elements of romance.

If you have some content triggers, I advise you to read any trigger warnings beforehand.

I’d like more sapphic thrillers please - my two favourite genres 😍

Tess Sharpe - you are fantastic.

I recommend this to anyone who loves a sapphic read!

Overall, I give this book 5 stars!!

This book has a great plot; the outcome was totally unsuspected and proved to be a very good read. The main issue for me was the extreme slowness to develop the plot. Our protagonist Mel Tillman is searching for her high-school friend Chloe Harper, a daughter of a wealthy rancher, bisexual, who is forced to disappear because of a murder she supposedly committed at 16 years of age. Now twenty-four years of age, she is being sought after by another wealthy and powerful family from her hometown reason unknown for a good part of the book. This author expertly developed the many exciting players in the story, who each were very unique in their own traits.
Many themes are developed including.adolescent bisexuality, to ideas of what a woman could do, male dominance, and small-town politics. They are intricately interwoven in a great mystery. The author uses the technique of changing time and place, person between chapters until the main plot comes out at which time the story is much easier to follow.
Thanks to netGalley and publisher Farrar, Strauss, Giroux for an e-book copy .

✨ She’s always loved this woman, she’s always surviving with this woman. Nothing ever changes. ✨

3.5 stars. I'm always surprised but delighted when I remember that yes, I do tend to enjoy action thrillers way more than I do psychological thrillers or family drama thrillers. Surprised, because my love of mystery always makes me feel like what I'd want is something more cerebral and twisty and introspective, but those attributes in a thriller tend to just, um, annoy me. But stuff like this, with high-stakes action, chase sequences, surviving in the woods, plane crashes, shoot-outs... yes! This was just a really fun, fast-paced, humorous, energetic romp, made all the more compelling because there was an intense second chance f/f romance at its core.

The book is pretty short, but the basic premise is that Mel and Chloe were teens from opposite sides of the (figurative) tracks in a small town, who are unexpectedly thrown together in the wake of a deadly confrontation with a boy. At 18, Chloe leaves town with no explanation, Mel mourns, becomes a PI, but never tries to find her. Until now, 6 years later, when Chloe's family hires Mel to track Chloe down, thus setting in motion a chain of events that'll unravel the mystery that brought them together years ago. I keep using this word to describe this book, but it's because it's the one that fits the most: it was so fun! It's sorta told out of order, flipping back and forth between past and present, slowly revealing to the reader what happened back then, and the high-octane hijinks they've gotten into now.

Both Chloe and Mel are keeping certain secrets, which makes it complicated for them to rekindle what they had as teens, but the connection is strong enough that it feels inevitable. We get a few additional POVs, including from the villains who are chasing them, which I usually don't love, but this was a situation where it worked. It was the best way to get to know the villains, and why they had to be taken down. I really liked the supporting cast, and there was a B-plot with sisters that had my whole heart. Chloe and Mel were great main characters; I loved that they were both so tough and capable and strong, with moments of vulnerability. Especially loved tiny buff Chloe.

I liked this so much, overall, and it could have gotten a higher rating, but there are some things holding me back. The tone is juuuuust a little off. I've never read from this author before, and it's my understanding that she mostly writes YA, and you can tell. There are a lot of legitimately dangerous and harrowing situations in here, but mixed with a humorous tone, and the general ineptitude of the villains, and some outright slap-sticky moments. It just didn't mesh well IMO. I've been praising this for how fun it is, and I'm not taking that back, but it just needed to feel more well-balanced. SPOILERS AHEAD for the rest of this paragraph. I'm not saying we need to get rid of the vengeful misandrist peacock, which was pretty funny. But I wanted to see Chloe and Mel actually grapple with the fact that they had to legit murder a couple men. In self defence, yes, but we swept over it so quickly, and by the end, they were making jokes about it, which just felt off. Especially since other things that had emotional weight, like their relationship, were treated seriously. And speaking of things that left me unsatisfied, there was the gaping plot hole of how apparently no one ever checked the blood at Whitney's car to see if it was all her own. Or how cavalierly Mel just went and dug up the diamonds. Like, we get nothing about how potentially traumatising it might have been to see Toby's body. And how the police will definitely know the grave has been tampered with, no matter if it rained. Actually, the police bought their entire story so easily; I can't believe it worked.

Basically, the end was just way too convenient and way too quick. I needed at least 50 more pages to have this really work for me.

But still, my prevailing feelings are good ones. I flew through this, like you should with any good thriller. And there was enough good in it, in the plotting and the writing and the lovely relationship, that I could definitely see myself coming back to the author again. Kudos!

I was given the honor and the privilege to receive a digital advanced readers copy (ARC) of No Body, No crime by Tess Sharpe ( @forest_of_arden ), and I had so much fun reading it.

The book comes out July 15th, 2025 and I cannot wait to get a physical copy. Due to the book not being out yet, I will be even more vague than usual in my book reviews!

It is Tess Sharpe's first adult thriller under this name and was clearly fun to write. I loved how funny it was while still being a thriller. Mel and Chloe are the most murderous darlings and I would happily be adopted into their circle. They're so sweet and murderous in a way that's probably only cute because it's sapphic and fictional, and honestly, what about it? I love them, your honour.

If you look at my reviews of other Tess Sharpe books, you'll see that I say she's an Instant Buy and she truly is. I've read 3 of her books in the past 5 months and I would read so many more.

If you see it on the shelves in July, pick it up. If you're able to, pre-order the book.

It’s my second book by this author and i really enjoy her writing style ! This book was great in terms of characters, the plot with the different timeline was well done too! The only downside is that i found the ending a bit too easy