Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

A BIG thank you to #NetGalley, #AtriaBooks, and Lisa Jewell for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

About the book: Nina Swann is a widow who has just lost her husband. Nick Radcliffe writes a letter of condolence to Nina, claiming to know her husband from his past. They meet and Nina feels like Nick is exactly what she needs to help her move on from her husband, and so they start dating.
Ash, Nina’s daughter is super suspicious of Nick. He just seems way too perfect. So, she starts doing some digging to find out more about him.
In another part of the story, Martha is an owner of a flower shop, and she’s married to Alastair. But he isn’t being truthful with her, and lies constantly. His job seems to keep him further and further away from home, and for longer periods of time. Martha starts to become suspicious and begins questioning Alastair more. He always has a “good” excuse but Martha still feels like something just isn’t right.
All three women don’t realize it yet, but their on the same insane path that is eventually going to collide. They all start wishing they never starting trying to dig for the truth.

What I thought: This book started off super slow for me and was a bit hard to really get in to. I don’t know if I actually did really get into it. Honestly it never really picked up pace any, but it wasn’t boring either. It’s labeled as a “thriller” but there was nothing suspenseful or thrilling about it. No twists. I’d say it’s more mystery. I also felt that it had a lot of characters that just weren’t necessary to the story. It just made the story a little confusing. I absolutely hated the antagonist, which is probably good, because you’re supposed to! There were times while reading that I just wanted to slap all the women! Open your eyes! I enjoyed how all three different storylines tied together at the end. While this story didn’t exactly keep me on the edge of my seat, it still kept me invested where I wanted to keep reading. I also really liked the shorter chapters. I felt like I really flew through the book because of this. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you are a Lisa Jewell fan. I’d rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This book will release June 23, 2025 so be sure to pre order a copy!

Nick Radcliffe enters Nina Swann's life at a seemingly perfect time. Her husband has just passed away from a tragic and unexpected death. She's lost and looking for some type of companionship, which Nick is more than happy to try and help provide. Ash, Nina's daughter, is ever so careful of her mom's life. She is very hesitant about who Nick is and where he magically came from. After some initial digging, her gut tells her right away he is not who he seems.

Lead in the 2nd storyline, of Martha. Martha is a mom. A tired mom. Whose husband Alistair is consistently mysteriously disappearing for days on end. He is supposedly travels to different hotels and restaurants to troubleshoot logistics, but "turns his phone and location off" for days. When Martha has a true emergency one evening with her kids, that is the final straw.

How will these two storylines combine? Will Nick be who Nina thinks he is? Will Martha get the courage to leave Alistair?

I think I've mentioned before, but Lisa Jewell is such a hit or miss for me. She either blows it out of the ballpark or sinks it by ship. This was a five star ballpark read. I couldn't put it down (something that hasn't happened in a long time)

This took a few chapters to get into but once I finally wrote down all of the characters names and could remember their backstories, I couldn’t put it down!
I am a huge fan of Lisa Jewell and this book did not disappoint! Overall this was a
great domestic thriller/suspense!

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

Lisa Jewell is back at it - this latest thriller is reminiscent of some of her best work. The plot is intriguing and captivating and keeps the readers at the edge of their seats throughout.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this arc. Omg I just loved this, what a twisty time I had reading this book. I could not put it down I needed to keep reading and I love when that happens. Basically a man cons a lot of women into doing all these things for him and you have to figure out the connections between them all. Such a good time. Definitely recommend to anyone wanting a good twisty time.

Am I to believe that these strong, and otherwise capable women, repeatedly fall victim to this man’s okidoke? I don’t buy it for a single second.

I can summarize this book very concisely. Ahem (clears throat) here ist goes…

Man loves multiple lives, with multiple women. Man uses women for financial gain, but mostly just to satisfy sociopathic urges. Man exhibits extremely shady behavior. Women confront man. Man makes terrible excuse and women somehow buy it (again and again and again). Women dig deeper into man to uncover incriminating information (over and over and over again). Women still don’t believe. Woman’s daughter has to step in and be the adult, but is repeatedly (and I mean repeatedly) ignored and diminished. Women finally realize he’s bad, and set out for revenge. Twist, surprise, end.

I can’t tell you the ending because that’s literally the only thing in the entire book I had slightly positive feelings towards.

The number of women in this book that were made to be naive, mush-brained, mealy-mouthed, incompetent fools was infuriating. I don’t know how any woman, or any slightly enlightened man, could read this book and not be enraged. I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room.

I wish I didn’t let this book in.

Lisa Jewell is the queen of the thriller and mystery. She is an autobuy author and she had never let me down. This book was no different!

This starts with a father's shocking passing - his daughter and wife mourning. When a package arrives from a stranger saying he knew their husband/father from long ago and he'd love to share something he'd had from him years ago - a lighter. It's a sweet gesture and the mother reaches out to him and they start talking. This is the POV of Ash, our main character, as she narrates their loss and her mom starting to date someone new.

Another POV is Martha, a weary but happy wife. She's a business owner, a mother, and she's exhausted by having to constantly hunt down her husband. He works hard, at a very intense job that can call him away at any moment, leaving her to take care of everything in their life.

Our final POV is Nick aka Al. He's both Martha's husband and also the man just starting to get to know Nina. He is a horrible man, self centered and disgusting. He's a rough POV, one that made the book hard to read, and although I see how his POV rounded out the story, I hated it.

I did enjoy the mystery though. Ash is dogged and I loved her spirit and her push to want to know more. The chapters were quick, the mystery was interesting, and I enjoyed this one. Just be prepared for that third POV and you'll love it, too!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I had to draw a diagram for the first chunk of this book, but it did get significantly easier to differentiate what was happening soon after. There is turning point in the story where there is no going back and a need to know how it all ends. Frustrating in that way where you want to yell at some characters, but enough depth to understand.

Side note, I really liked 'None of This is True' and wouldn't shut up about it for weeks after.

This book was clearly inspired by the mega-viral "Who the F Did I Marry?" TikTok series; it follows the stories of several women and a mysterious man who weaves in and out of their lives, wreaking havoc. To be honest, because you figure out what's going on right away, I lost a bit of interest in this book. When I read a thriller, I really like to be surprised by reveals and be able to go back and pick up on foreshadowing. I didn't experience that with this book.

That being said, I did enjoy the book overall, and Lisa Jewell is a great writer, so the book was redeemable. Definitely not my favorite book of hers, but still a good reading experience!

3.25✨ You all know I love a thriller and I wanted to love this one but it fell short. First, calling this a thriller feels inaccurate. It’s much more of a psychological drama. Yes, it hooked me early on, but ultimately, it just didn’t deliver. I saw the direction it was headed almost from the start, and while I kept hoping for a surprise twist, it never came. That’s the whole point of a thriller, right? To shock you, to leave you questioning everything. Instead, I closed the book feeling disappointed. Where were the 🌪️🌪️?

There were too many POVs for my preference and switching from 1st to 3rd POV made it hard to keep the stories straight.

I am purposely being vague with the story overview as most anything I share can be a spoiler. Sorry about that!

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the Advanced Readers Copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Lisa Jewell’s books used to captivate me with their clever writing and intriguing storylines. However, I’m afraid I’ve lost interest in her work due to the rapid pace at which she releases novels.

This particular story was a bit sloppy. The protagonist, who went by so many names (IYKYK), was incredibly unlikable. The plot became increasingly far-fetched and absurd, making it hard to believe that any of the women would allow him to treat them so badly. Additionally, the female characters became difficult to keep track of, and by the end, I didn’t even care to figure out who was who.

I almost gave up on this book multiple times, but I eventually managed to finish it. However, I don’t recommend that you do the same. I know there are some Lisa Jewell stans out there who will probably eat this one up, but that unfortunately wasn’t my reading experience with this one.

No one is more disappointed to report my rating than myself.

Overall this isn’t a bad thriller, it just wasn’t for me.

This heavily reminded me of the Netflix show You (which I also stopped watching after one season) so if you enjoy that type of thriller (being inside Joe Goldbergs head) then there is a high chance you will enjoy this book as well.

Personally, I don’t enjoy reading about men being a menace to women and to society (we have enough of that in real life). I mean my goodness, if there is a red flag, our mmc nick, has it.

On a positive note, each chapter is very short, so it’s easy to say “just one more chapter”. There also isn’t a lull in the plot during the second act, but to be fair there’s like 4 different timelines we’re working with and quite a few characters. So there was always something happening.

There are some trigger warnings - not atypical for a thriller but they are as following:
Detailed description of murder
Psychological and physical domestic abuse

This book was slow and dragged on. There was little bits and pieces that kept me thinking it was going to pick up, that something crazy was going to happen, but it was very predictable. It had potential and could have been a great story, but there was a lot of unnecessary details. Then these dumb women, what married person leaves for work on a minute notice in the hospitality industry and shuts off their phone for a week because they were “too busy” to ever contact their spouse. Then he whines and begs for money, even though the women are in debt already and they find a way to get him more money and dig deeper holes for themselves. Multiple women just giving away money they don’t have and believe him when he doesn’t contact his “wife” for a week. I wanted to like this story as Lisa Jewell is usually a great author, but this one fell flat for me.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review! and whew i will be honest.

unfortunately, i was so disappointed by this one. i loved none of this is true, but this book was such a slog. it was so hard to care about any character who wasn't ash—perhaps that's part of the point? that normal, smart women can be snowed by losers like [insert name here]? but it was hard to read.

this was a really slow read for me overall, though. i kept waiting and waiting for action that just didn't happen. ugh. i'm sad. i was so pumped to get this as an arc! but it was a slog.

thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

I don’t even know what to say about this book. twists and turns of course and a wild ending that I am shocked and confused about. it didn’t take me too long to figure out that it was the same man, but I kept reading to know why and what he was doing. I look forward to reading whatever Lisa Jewell comes up with next.

(was the form size difference between his chapters and all of the women’s chapters just because it was an ARC/Kindle copy? I don’t know why but it was throwing me off once I realized it was happening.)

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell is psychological suspense at its most unsettling—and I mean that in the best possible way.

Right from the start, Jewell pulls you into a story that hums with quiet menace. There’s nothing splashy or over-the-top here—just a subtle, creeping dread that builds with every chapter until you’re flipping pages like your life depends on it. It’s that signature Lisa Jewell slow burn, where the tension coils tighter and tighter until you realize you’ve been holding your breath.

And the characters? Let’s just say they’re not exactly the kind you want to grab coffee with—but that’s part of what makes this story so compelling. Flawed, messy, and morally murky, they felt real in that slightly uncomfortable way that makes you want to look away but keeps you watching. I didn’t like them, but I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I needed to know how it would all unravel.

What Jewell does so brilliantly here is explore the psychology behind the characters’ choices—the manipulation, the denial, the twisted sense of self-preservation. It’s completely fascinating and just a little disturbing. Okay, a lot disturbing. But that’s the thrill of it!

If you love psychological thrillers that don’t scream but whisper their warnings—slowly and eerily getting under your skin—this one’s for you. Just… don’t read it with the lights off.

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell starts with an intriguing premise and atmospheric writing, but it lost its grip on me early. I was able to predict the direction of the plot by the ~18% mark, which made the rest feel somewhat monotonous. Additionally, I found it difficult to stay engaged with the characters—particularly the main male character, whose frequent name changes made it hard to keep track of him and his storyline. While Jewell’s signature style is still present, the lack of suspense and character clarity left this one feeling underwhelming.

Don’t Let Him In
I finished! 😍😡🧐🤨🥸🥳 That was something else. I highly recommend this psychological thriller if you don’t mind getting pissed off over and over again. Nick Radcliffe is charming, suave, a silver fox and seems like just what Nina Swann needs to feel grounded again after her grown daughter returns home and shortly after her husband is run over by a train.

But Nick is not what he seems and Ash, Nina’s daughter, is going to get to the bottom of it.

Lisa Jewell employs multiple POVs and third person narratives to paint the picture of the various characters and settings in this book. I think the execution works well.

The synopsis for this book makes you think, we have a guy has two separate lives. Oh but I have heard this story before. What will make this book better? Nick is a serial scammer that targets widows. Yes, widows not just Nina and Martha. It’s genius how the other widows get introduced.

Lisa had me guessing till the end what sort of book this will be… will Nick get away with it again, will he get captured, will he commit su!c!de, will he meet his match, … what will happen to Nick? Lisa has been on my TBR pile for a long time and this is my first so I really did not know what to expect. As to not spoil it for anyone. HA.

Lastly, thank you to Lisa Jewell, Atria Books, Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the digital ARC which allowed me to read and voluntarily provide an unbiased review.

Solid 4 star read. None of this is True set the bar so high, and really is in a league of its own. I really enjoyed the latter half of the book, where a few of the big reveals came out. Had some pacing issues for me, but overall, a very fun read and will continue to be an auto-buy author. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book!