🚪💸😳 Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell 😳💸🚪
Genre: Domestic Thriller
Length: 384 pages
Pub Date: June 24, 2025
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC of this book. The opinions stated here are solely my own.

Lisa Jewell does it again! This book was absolutely NUTS, in the best way. I don't know how she came up with such an insane MMC and honestly, I would've had to have made some kind of family tree at the onset of writing this book because there were so many interconnected people.

Nina Swann's successful restaurateur husband, Paddy, was tragically killed, leaving her and two adult children behind (Ash, Arlo). Within one year of his death, Nick Radcliffe walks into her life and seems like the absolute PERFECT man to mend her broken heart. Ash, however, is sure something is off.

Martha is married to Alistair Grey, and they're living the typical middle class family life with a toddler of their own and two tween sons from her first marriage. Al is the PERFECT husband - caring, compassionate, etc., but he is always traveling for work and leaving and unreachable when Martha needs him most.

Are these stories related? Why, yes they are. Are there even more caveats to this plot. SO many!

Once I started this book, I could not put it down. I started and finished it in the same day and felt myself getting more and more stressed as the chapters unfolded and I learned just how insane the MMC was. I was really hoping for justice for all the swindled women and families in this book and the ending was so satisfying. Another amazing read by one of my favorite authors!

I’m a big fan of Lisa Jewell’s previous work and I love the way she tells a story. Although the way it was written was a bit confusing at first, I really enjoyed the different POVs and timelines and how these short chapters all came together to tell this story of a con man. However, I did find it a bit slow at times and I was waiting for a big twist to really blow me away, but unfortunately it just never came. Overall, it’s a great concept but I was left wishing for more.

Thanks Atria for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

I love Lisa Jewell and have all her books, so I was excited to read this one. Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the ARC copy of this book because it made my day.

I didn't even read what this book was about I just jumped into it. Let me tell you now, @lisajewelluk, did not disappoint. This book sucked me in from the beginning and I could not put it down. The story does have multiple POV with multiple different timelines so be aware. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening.

I give this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a story about a several women that falls in love with a charming good looking man and he is not it seems. The story is told through 2 timelines, present and 4 years before.

You know it's the same man right from the start because of his m.o. so it was really connecting the why.

I felt that the storylines for each woman was very similar and I got confused at times because it felt repetitive. This story moves at a slow pace. I wanted more background on his character to see what led him to this behavior but it was talked at a high level.

Thank you @atriabooks for a copy of this.

Pros: The book is very fast paced. The short chapters make it easy to binge and keep you engaged. Also while some books with alternating POV chapters can get cumbersome, these just add to the mystery.

The mehs: There’s aren’t bad things just things I didn’t love. For one, the MMC is one of the most awful, pretentious, gaslighting a-holes ever written. The dude has zero redeeming qualities. With this said there were even added creepy guy things in his POV that honestly didn’t make him less likable - he was already at rock bottom so they were just too much.

Overall it’s a quick suspense read. Not really a psychological thriller.

This book was insane and I loved every single moment of it. I think this may be my favorite Lisa Jewell book by far, I was on the edge of my seat. The beginning was a little confusing with all the POV changes but it didn’t take too long to get everyone sorted. The last 30% of this book had my jaw on the floor.

A tale told from multiple POV’s, with a character made perfect for loathing. How Lisa Jewell writes these horrible people I am truly fascinated by I will never know, but I love going down the rabbit hole with her.

I had ideas of what may happen and what I wanted to happen. But even in the last 5% of the book I wasn’t sure. This to me, is what makes a thriller absolutely worth reading.

“Don’t Let Him In” was such a fun book for the summer. Perfect for sitting outside and forgetting about the world for a while.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book for my honest review.*

First, thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for this Arc! Second, I had to DNF this one at 40%. I tried, but nothing was really happening. I wasn’t getting “thriller” from this. I’m not sure if there are more twists towards the end, but I decided it wasn’t worth it.

So many POVs and names to keep up with, I keep forgetting who everyone is because i’m not invested in the story. Just bored tbh.

I will probably try another one of Lisa Jewell’s books, maybe this just wasn’t the one for me.

The newest from Lisa Jewell sucked me in immediately!! The multiple points of view were initially difficult to keep track of, but as I got through the first bit of the story it all started to fall into place. Nick seems way too good to be true, and when he starts seeing Ash’s mom, Nina, after her husband was killed, Ash has many questions. She starts to dig into his past and the things she uncovers had me gasp out loud! Meanwhile, we have Martha, who is concerned about her husband, Al, spending so much time away from home. The way all of these stories came together flawlessly was just amazing. This book is twisty and turny, and ultimately so fun. I love the women empowerment aspect as well! Thanks so much to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

I found the this book almost too disturbing to read, as the main villain felt so overdone, but was also sort of believable. I think because he's so despicable and the women who continue letting him back in their lives are so frustrating, I did not enjoy the read. It gave me anxiety. Surprisingly, because I generally like bite-sized chapters, I found the constantly shifting timelines difficult to follow and impossible to connect with any of the characters. Overall, this one just wasn't for me.

This is my first Lisa Jewell book and it won't be my last! Set in multiple towns in the UK, this is the story of three different women (and actually more, as the story evolves) with one awful man connecting them. The story unravels slowly and strategically as these three set out to figure out who he is and what he has done. I would classify this more as a mystery than a thriller. At times the story moved a little too slowly and bounced around too much for me, but I enjoyed reading the story from different points of view as the women's relationships with "Nick Radcliffe" unfolded. Overall, this was a good read!

3.5🌟

This is the tale of the ultimate con man. He takes on different roles, personas and names in different women's lives. Eventually his web of lies starts to crumble and different areas of his life begin to intersect.

I'm not quite sure I would consider this a thriller/suspense novel. I was expecting a twist at the end that never came. The book was well written and kept my interest, it just was not what I was expecting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced copy to review!

Early on, I found myself struggling to keep track of the characters and even made a quick character map to follow along. But as the story unfolded, it became clear that the confusion was intentional and part of a very clever setup. Once things started to click, I appreciated just how layered the story really was.

I absolutely hated the main male character but in the best possible way. He’s the kind of character who gets under your skin because he’s written so well. The ending felt incredibly satisfying, offering a sense of justice without being overdone. Another smart, chilling read from Lisa Jewell.

*Publishing June 24th, 2025**

This newest thriller in true Lisa Jewell fashion sucks you in super quickly initially. The story jumps between points of view as well as timelines pretty frequently, giving us a glimpse into the mind of our (increasingly unsettling), antagonist. As he becomes more unhinged, so does the story telling and POV, really immersing you in the storyline.

Personally I found it really hard to keep tabs on the different timelines throughout, and I felt like the first 50% of the novel moved a bit slower than I would like. The last 25% had me rooting for the main character(s) to get their justice. There were also a few plot twists thrown in which I didn’t see coming.

Overall, this thriller had me questioning what I was reading (intentional by the author), dropped my jaw several times, and definitely had an ending I didn’t see coming.

Please check out the trigger warnings before reading this one.

Thank you Atria books for this Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

4.5⭐️ (rounding up to a solid 5!)

Lisa Jewell, you’ve got me again. I tore through Don’t Let Him In like it was my job. It’s suspenseful, creepy (in the best way), and packed with those “wait, what?!” moments that Jewell does so well.

The setup: Classic psychological thriller vibes—mysterious man, tangled timelines, women slowly piecing together the truth. I was hooked from the jump and fully invested in figuring out what was really going on.

Now, I will say I spent a good chunk of the book waiting for a final mind-blowing twist that… never quite came. Maybe I’ve read too many thrillers? Maybe Lisa was going for realism over shock value? Either way, even without that final gasp moment, I had a blast the whole way through.

This is a perfect pick if you’re craving something twisty but easy to follow, dark but not too heavy, and totally bingeable.

Love Lisa Jewell books! This one was a bit difficult to follow at first with many different characters and their stories, but once it all connected together it was a great read! Really enjoyed this book!

This was a HUGE miss for me. I could see where this book was going from the second that it started. And the whole time all I was thinking was that if everyone had like at least one more brain cell, perhaps 90% of this book could be avoided. There were too many characters and changing of how people were identified that confused me and muddled the plot line. I was just waiting for this book to be over quite honestly.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this book!

My thoughts are all over the place. This book was extremely frustrating, which was, definitely the intent of the author. I wanted to scream so many times at all the different characters to open up their eyes to the schemes of “Nick.” His character was so sneaky, yet I was still shocked that he was able to get away with all the things he did.

I will say that the story was quite predictable. It was also a relatively slow paced book. There wasn’t a lot of big, exciting moments happening in this one. It was more of a build up to the conclusion of the book. A “will all the actions of the con man get found out, or will he get away with it” type book.

I did ultimately like this one, although it wasn’t my favorite book by this author.

Thank you to Atria and the author for a free review copy of this book.

This one is best to go in blind but just think con artist suspense.

Jewell is an exceptional storyteller- pulling the reader in immediately. As always, I was immediately interested in this book. It was full of tension and deceit. The story is ultimately a slow burn but that didn’t stop me from turning the pages as quickly as I could. There were several twists; a few I figured out and some I did not. All in all, a good read!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria, and Lisa Jewell for my ecopy!

Another hit from Lisa Jewell - lots of twists and turns (and characters to keep track of!) but ultimately a satisfying payoff in the end.