After the tragic loss of her father, Ash struggles to accept the new man her mother begins dating. Taking it upon herself, she tries to dig up more information on this new addition in her life, and she may be very surprised by what she uncovers. Whenever I’m in any kind of slump I crack into the latest Lisa Jewell. I really liked this one! It gives the vibes of “You”by Caroline Kepnes, when you spend a lot of time in the POV of the villain, which I always find interesting. I really like mysteries where we kind of know more than the main character (in this case Ash) and but we mostly get revelations as the investigation is happening. This one has really great pacing, with multiple POVs and short chapters. If you want a fun, quick mystery/thriller involving scammers/conmen that will definitely get you out of a slump, this is a great choice!

A family is mourning the loss of their father and husband, a larger-than-life restaurateur after he was pushed into the path of a London Subway when a character from his past enters their present. As Nick Radcliffe, a former friend of Paddy’s, passes along stories and things of Paddy’s he gets closer and closer to Nina, Paddy’s widow. Ash, Paddy and Nina’s daughter has concerns about Nick and Nina’s relationship but is trepidatious to bring them up to her mom after a recent anxiety episode that has estranged them.

Martha, a small-town florist, thought she had it all. From her perfect husband, Al, to her thriving business, beautiful home, and children but suddenly her husband is around less and less and she can’t figure out why. It all comes to a head when an emergency brings their daughter to the hospital and she realizes she’s not meant to do this alone.

This book does a wonderful job of weaving past and present storylines in a way that is captivating and easy to follow. Leading the reader to wonder what is going on with Nick’s suspicious appearance and Al’s mysterious disappearances.

I have read a few Lisa Jewell books now and I tend to enjoy them quite a lot. This one was interesting to me, the premise of the book sounded so interesting, but it didn’t really keep my attention until about 60-70% of the way through. Most of the twists I guessed and I didn’t feel like the ending was twisty *enough*. That said, I wouldn’t say it was bad by any means, it was a solid thriller and a unique premise, which I did enjoy. I just wanted a few more twists that shocked me!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell!

The novel presents a chilling portrait of a man whose charm belies a deeply narcissistic and abusive nature. It reveals a disturbing portrait of calculated deceit and emotional violence.

The book keeps the reader on edge, gradually revealing past secrets and current dangers in a suspenseful way.

It is a compelling and unsettling read. It will appeal to readers of psychological thrillers.

I could NOT put this book down! 🤯

I was recently given the opportunity to read an early copy of Lisa Jewell’s upcoming thriller novel Don’t Let Him In through NetGalley and when I tell you… this book is EASILY a new favorite thriller book for 2025.

The story is focused around Nick. A handsome, romantic, perfect man, husband, and Father. He’s a “too good to be true” type guy, who seems to always know what to say and what to do.

But Nick isn’t at all who he says he is. Between his mysterious background, all the unknown gaps in the tales he spins and the fact that he continuously disappears on the women in his life? It’s safe to say, those ladies are beginning to get suspicious of him.

This book will absolutely have you hooked from the first chapter and delivers an incredibly satisfying end. I wanted more! I honestly could have kept reading this one, it was just that much fun.

Thank you again to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books, for the early copy!

This was SUCH a good book, Lisa Jewell is an amazing author. All the lies and intermingling stories made it hard to put down. Nick is a true sociopath who is easy to hate as a reader but it makes sense why Nina and everyone else loved him. I was kind of hoping for a more satisfying ending maybe in the realm of gory revenge but i still enjoyed it.

After the horrific death of her father, Ash and her mother Nina are struggling to cope until Nick, an old friend of Paddy’s comes into their lives. Martha, a florist with a young family, is also struggling - with her finances, her children and most of all her disappearing husband, Al. Ash is skeptical of Nick especially as he begins courting her mother and slowly inching his way into their lives.

This psychological thriller has you on the edge of your seat in a dual timeline with plenty of unreliable narrators and characters. Nothing is ever as it seems and the moral of the story is… don’t trust anyone.

I will read and devour anything by Lisa Jewell! I can’t wait to read some of her backlist too.

This book was a bit confusing at first, but it all came together in a jaw dropping twist. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rhe story. I was so glad that Nina got out at the first sign of trouble and didn't follow the creep through anything as some characters do. One of my better reads this year..

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this E-ARC. I was excited for this after loving None of This Is True but unfortunately this one didn’t do it for me. It didn’t feel suspenseful or twisty and instead just seemed to drag. It was entirely too long to have nothing happen. I’m still a Lisa Jewell fan but this didn’t work for me unfortunately.

I feel rather awkward giving this 3 stars when I see so many folks have enjoyed this novel. However, calling this a thriller is misleading, and i'm wondering if we all read the same book.

I wasn’t expecting this to be a story of revenge, but at its core, it is. It’s about a man with a colossal ego not being able to come to terms that he was spoken down to in the early 1990s when he worked for a restauranteur. That the entire novel hinges on this fact (which we don't learn until deep into the story) isn't a twist as perhaps Jewell intended it to be. It's an annoyance. It feels like thin plot that a man should be such a petty bitch.

This book is Dirty John. It's Tinder Swindler. For me, this story just missed the window of opportunity to hit that zeitgeist when we all clamored for such tales. But this isn't the have nots taking away from the haves (which in 2025, we love), it's a lazy man who thinks he's deserving of more than he is and truly, doing very little to cover up and get away with it. He has one M.O. and his tricks are all the same. We don't see him zig and zag or ever truly feel the heat. Quite the opposite, he's quick on his feet and always has an answer. It's rinse, lather, repeat with these women and the monotony? It's killer.

Even for the most heinous of characters, you need something to cling to in order to keep reading. However, you do not feel empathy for Nick/Al as you read "Don't Let Him In," and make no mistake about it, it's very much HIS story (though some may argue it's shared with Ash and Martha). There is nothing in his background that has caused him to turn out this way - no real reason for the reader to connect to him and feel any sense of empathy. He is simply just a bad seed; a core issue of the novel. At the end of reading this, all I could surmise is that I'd spent a few hundred pages just tracking a sociopath/narcissist, the conclusion of the novel and confrontation suddenly feeling rushed.

Thanks to the lovely folks at Atria and NetGalley for this ARC.

Nina Swann and her family are devastated when her husband Paddy is murdered. Ash, Nina and Paddy's daughter is having a hard time moving on from her father's tragic death when a man named Nick Radcliffe, an old friend of Paddy's gets in touch with Nina. Ash is suspious from the start and gets Paddy's old flame Jane to help her dig up information on Nick. Soon Ash finds out that Nick is not who he say's he is and that everything about him is a lie, Martha Grey has been together with Al for four years and now she is seeing signs that he is keeping secrets from her. She put a tracker in his car after he goes away and has no contact with her for days on end. Martha is then outside Nina's house wanting to confront the other women. Ash and Jane start to untangle the web of Nick's lies and with the help of both Nina and Martha they decied to take him down. This was a fast paced read that will have you hooked from the very first chapter. I would like to thank both NetGalley and Atria Books for letting me read an advanced copy of this novel.

🚪 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 :
-domestic suspense
-red flags 🚩
-con artists
-multiple timelines & POVs
-unlikable characters
-super short chapters

🚪 𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 :
Let me preface this by saying I absolutely love Lisa Jewell. She has written some of my favorites (Then She Was Gone, The Truth About Melody Browne, None of This is True) so it truly pains me to say that unfortunately this one was a miss for me.

I was able to figure out what was going on about 20% in, but the book started with an authors note promising “nothing is as it seems in this kaleidoscopic thriller” so I kept waiting for some reveal to knock my socks off… but it never came. There was a lot of flipping between timelines & POVs, so much build up.. but it ended up just being about a huge narcissist gaslighting, manipulating & taking advantage of gullible women.

Luckily the short chapters made for an easy-to-binge read, but I was left feeling underwhelmed. Although this wasn’t my favorite, you can bet that I’ll continue to read whatever Lisa Jewell puts out.

Thank you to @netgalley & @atriabooks for the opportunity to read this arc!

Lisa Jewell does it again. I’ve read most of her books and loved them all. This one was wild with lots of twists and turns. It was way more convoluted than I could have imagined. I really enjoyed it. The narration was great! Thanks to NetGalley, Lisa Jewell and the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review ✨

✨Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

Listen, I’m a huge Lisa Jewell fan. Her books are some of my absolute favorite, but unfortunately this one fell very flat for me.

The beginning had me a bit confused with the multiple storylines. Although they all come together in the end, the storyline DRAGGED. At 450 pages, this book could have been told in 300.

My other issue? This was NOT suspenseful or shocking. I enjoy Lisa Jewel’s writing, so I kept reading but I didn’t find it to be thrilling and the twists were not your typical Lisa Jewell twists.

Overall, I was very underwhelmed and pretty disappointed.

Still love & will continue to read Lisa Jewel’s books. This one was just not it for me!

3⭐️

✨Don’t Let Him In hits shelves 06.24.25
-Huge thank you to Atria for the review copy!

3.5 ⭐️ This book was entertaining enough but not a thriller IMO. There were no twist and turns, no “I did not see that coming” moments, and it was pretty straight forward for a book categorized as a thriller. Did I feel suspense while reading it, yeah a bit towards the end when it started picking up in pace and I started feeling nervous for some of the female characters. I don’t know if that had to do with the authors writing or the fact that I knew I was reading what was supposed to be a thriller so my body was on high alert expecting the unexpected. The more I got towards the end I kept telling myself, ok maybe she’s gonna drop a bomb at the end and leave me 🤯, but it never happened. She did however write a great villain, a despicable vile psychopath of a man, who made me want to keep turning the page so I could try and figure him out. He was fuc*ing terrible! A Grade A manipulator who used these women, married them, impregnated them, took their money, left them in debt and then abandoned them (and his children!) when they no longer served his purpose. Then there’s the women themselves, who you can’t help but be infuriated by at times. You want to pull them out of the page and say “get a fuc*king grip for christ sake!”. Especially poor Martha, like are you serious? You know it’s all bullshit you feel it deep down, you know the way he’s acting the things he’s doing aren’t ok, why do you keep giving him the benefit of the doubt?! Especially when he’s so damn sketchy. But it was because she loved him…and I guess it’s not too much their fault, this is what he does, he’s a pro and they fall right into his web. He showers them with the love and affection they need and it makes them see or believe something that really isn’t there. Even I as a reader sometimes felt, I don’t know, sympathy? Like maybe he does care and he can change and do better. Then I snapped out of it and continued shaking my head at what a piece of sh*t he was, a complete and utter narcissistic sociopath. There were moments when I questioned a couple of characters and their reliability, but I think that was the intention. The fates of the some of the women and other characters in the story were sad and unfortunate, but I’m glad that for the most part, the other ones made it through. I do wish the ending had given us a little more than it did, it was little anticlimactic, but it was still satisfying. Again, not a thrilling story, nothing mind blowing, no twist no turns…but still very entertaining. Overall it was a good story of a sick despicable calculating man and the women he used, manipulated, and conned to better his status in life. He did a lot of other vile stuff, but I won’t spoil that in my review.


Thank you NetGalley, Lisa Jewell, and Atria Books for the advance readers copy of Don’t Let Him In.

Lisa Jewell is a master of thrillers, as many as I read, I still just adore this author. She is an auto buy for me at this point. I think that you should go in knowing as little as possible, that way you can be just as surprised and shocked as I was. I think that makes the story even better.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for my early e-arc.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, Lisa Jewell made it very easy to hate Nick and also feel compassion for all the women he continually wrongs. I was always looking forward to coming back to this story and following Ash as she builds her case against nick!

Lisa Jewell's books are always such a roller coaster ride, in the best way! I love her book and this was no exception.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, this book was good but it was not a favorite. It seemed like it took awhile for the plot to come into focus and did not keep my attention. I found myself not reaching for it so it took awhile to read. Perhaps I would have connected more had I read it more consistently.

Brimming with secrets and deception, this domestic thriller had me tense from start to finish—in the most thrilling way.

At first, the shifting timelines and multiple POVs can be a bit tricky to follow. But stick with it—Jewell’s signature short chapters make for an engaging read, and soon, everything falls into place.

While Jewell remains the undisputed queen of slow-burning suspense, I found this one a bit slower than expected. That said, her talent for crafting irresistibly twisted characters is as sharp as ever—this time, focusing on a completely unhinged narcissist and sociopath.

Though this one takes a slightly different approach for Jewell, its themes of control are just as unsettling as her darker plots, making it feel eerily realistic.

For the best experience, dive into this one with as little information as possible

LJ doesn't disappoint. Another book that I was immediately sucked into. I actually figured out the twist, for once in my life, but it didn't take away from the story. So well written, as always.