The story follows Joni Ackerman, a woman who has spent five years rebuilding her life after secretly murdering her husband. Now, she runs Sunny Day Productions alongside her daughter and best friend, but her world is shaken when her estranged brother resurfaces, forcing her to confront dark family secrets and unsettling truths about herself.
The theme of the story is powerful, especially for women. It tackles family and friendship. How long will you take to protect your loved one? What are you willing to do to totally bury your past just so your present becomes perfect?
From the very beginning, it was an easy read and made me think a little—I really enjoyed it. However, as I got further into the book, it became flat and didn’t make sense anymore. This book feels too biased. Of course, I love women’s fiction, but I don’t know... this felt too unrealistic for me.
Still, I love how the story unfolds the complexities of women's friendships—what brings women together and what drives them apart. This book has a lot of potential, but I just wish it had been written in a more engaging way. Also, the fact that this is book two in Invisible Woman—which I was not able to read—really affected me in a negative way. I just wish I had known that before starting. But this can be read as a standalone—it’s just me, promise.
Overall, though this wasn’t what I expected, I’m still grateful and enjoyed reading it. It’s really a different feeling being inside the mind of a woman.

I didn’t realize this book is a mystery thriller. I don’t know why I assumed it was literary fiction. Women Like Us is a well written novel but highly predictable. I figured out the mystery about halfway through. The book has some comical moments but overall, I was slightly disappointed.

3.5 ⭐️

SO many theories went through my mind when I was reading this and I should’ve seen that ending coming but I didn’t and I loved it. I was smiling when that thing happened.
I liked the pace of the book, but I guess I wish there were more “action” scenes.

I was really excited about the project Joni was working on, and wish it was real!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book made me want to be sitting in a hotel on a sun lounger around the pool purely because this would be the perfect book for that. It hooked me in right from the start and kept me guessing. It also made me laugh out loud at several points,

This novel was just about but not quite a hit for me. Lots of possibilities with the premise and set up, but it just didn't quite carry it all home for me. But a quick beach read for an entertaining afternoon.

this was reaaaaally good. the world needs more books like this!!! thank you so much to the publisher for this arc!!!

This is part thriller and part literary fiction. I found myself hooked a little after the beginning and couldn’t put it down and wanting to know what happened. I found the ending to leave some questions to be answered and almost rushed

The mysteries in the plot are predictable, but it was still an enjoyable and satisfying read. Despite the sketchy behavior from everyone, you still want to root for them and hope that they become a better person in the end. It’ll make for a great summer read. This is a super quick and engaging read that can easily be done during the weekend or while on vacation.

Engaging and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

Thank you to Netgalley and Katia for the ARC!

This one just didn't do it for me, with the blurb I was expecting something completely different. Although not always a bad thing, I just didn't enjoy the direction it went.

Unfortunately this one was really slow and boring for me. None of the characters had any depth and the writing was sub-par. I couldn't really care less about any of the characters and I noticed this one was a huge tell don't show kind of novel and it made it hard to get into.

My main issue is its just not a very interesting plot at all, and a lot of what happens has no emotion or anything really behind it because you aren't invested in the story and certainly not the characters.

There were parts where I read it and went "really, that's it?" since I always do no spoiler reviews, Ill just say Things that are definitely a big deal get shrugged off. Some things that happen your really just like " Yeah not shit bud??"

The book has been read!

I was hoping for more from this story but didn't get what I was after. I thought it would be the type of story that's hard to put down. It was not. The characters were not memorable and the story dragged at certain parts. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

While there was a lot of character development, I didn't care for most of the characters and I felt like there wasn't a lot of plot going on. However, those that enjoy rich character descriptions may really enjoy

This book dragged for me. There were too many subplots and a lot of noise that could have been cut out. Whether or not it was intentional, it didn’t help the book. What were we really supposed to be focused on - the question of Joni killing her husband or her brother’s secret past?

“She would be this: a woman who excavated the forgotten lives of other women and thereby saved herself”

Women Like Us explores female relationships, what binds and breaks them, and the age old questions, is evil an inherited trait?

Joni is a truly unlikable character, yet for the entire book I found myself rooting for her and many cases, relating to her. The guilt she feels over the death of her husband, her constant questioning of if she is a bad person because her parents were and her brother is. Will her daughter, Chris, also be a terrible person? If I wasn’t wanting to throttle her, I was wanting to hug her.

Her friendship with her childhood best friend Val is balancing on a precarious thread that is pulled tighter the whole book due to a tainted history and Joni’s inability to accept the truth of her brother and you have to wonder, “when is it going to snap?”



Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Women Like Us lays out an intriguing story that forces readers to face the age old debate of nature vs. nurture. The novel starts out strong with main characters that felt fleshed out and a thrilling premise that seemed fun to follow but eventually led to a story that contained too many sub-plots with too much unnecessary sideline activity. While I really enjoyed Lief’s writing—sharp, witty, intelligent—this story and its pacing did not feel well-executed.

Thank you Grove Atlantic for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available Jun. 03 2025

I really enjoyed this as a thriller novel, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall storyline that was told. The characters were so well done and enjoyed the way they worked with this story. Katia Lief has a strong writing style and was invested in what was happening.

I read this book quickly and felt that it moved at a fast pace overall, but it fell a little flat for me. The story centers primarily on Joni, who runs a production company with her daughter Chris and best friend Val. Joni has gotten away from suspicions that she killed her husband 5 years ago and is just living her life when her estranged brother Marc shows up and she worries he has an ulterior motive.

There are some pretty major events here (Marc's arrival and subsequent disappearance, the dognapping of Joni's beloved dog, the fact that Marc might be leading a double life, etc.) but those tended to get buried in day to day miniate and Joni's internal dialogue. I felt like really huge things were not taken all that seriously in some cases, while smaller things seemed like they got more attention. The whole dynamic between Joni and Blair (and even Val, at times) didn't seem real I found myself questioning the depth of some of these characters. Overall, I enjoyed the plot twists but wish that there had been more detail attached to some of them rather than staying surface level. I thought the ending fit the rest of the book, though there was no major event that tied everything together.

Overall, this was an OK read but there were a few things that caused it to fall a bit flat. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m one of those readers *obsessed* with writing style. The way an author crafts sentences can truly make or break a book, period. Some authors overdo it, but I loved Katia Lief’s writing - it’s simple, straightforward, yet brilliant and eloquent. Plus, she’s witty and insightful in her portrayal of a woman’s struggle versus the male specifies. For example:

<i>“When men did their thinking with their penises and women felt empowered by that, the women usually lost when things went off the rails. In the end, men still held most of the power. When they got sick of those women, they still tossed them out like garbage and society still snapped on the lid.”</i>

<i>“After all that, how much had society really changed? Had history just looped in on itself? Was it back to the inevitable ending for women: be quiet or be destroyed?”</i> (Facts.)

Plot-wise though, I struggled. A lot. There were just so. many. plots and subplots that I got lost in; my focus was being pulled everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And let me get into that:

(i) We’re introduced to Joni, who might’ve killed her husband - main plot potential, right?! But it got overshadowed by other plot threads.

(ii) Then Marc shows up (the sleazy brother from the synopsis), hinting at family drama. One would think, “OOOH, it’s starting to get juicy here!” But it didn't quite deliver on its promise.

(iii) And then, we get Marc’s 2nd ex-wife who accuses him of fraud and murder [of his first ex-wife]. (GASP!) (THIS in particular - not only was it unresolved, but it felt [to me] disconnected from the main storyline and contributed almost nothing to it. (Although at this point, I didn’t even know what the main storyline was.)

(iii) And if that wasn’t enough, Marc then pulled a Houdini on Joni and kidnapped Stella, Joni’s beloved dog. (DOUBLE GASP!). It added to the chaos rather than contributing to a cohesive plot. I just… really didn’t get it.

(iv) Oh you thought that was it? No. Because here’s more. When Blair, Joni’s PA, supposedly became unreachable, I was FUMING because instead of pointlessly asking everyone where she was, couldn’t Joni or anyone for that matter just GO to Blair’s apartment to check?? It was these kinds of moments that left me frustrated and questioning the narrative's direction.

Thats not it, by the way. So when I tell you my attention was going everywhere and nowhere, I wasn’t joking.

On top of alllllllllllll that, what bothered me as well was the lack of reaction and urgency from the FMCs that didn’t quite match what was happening and it ended up falling incredibly flat. Everyone was just going through the motions, even when things were getting intense. As someone who loves thrillers, I was disappointed by the lack of it.

Furthermore, the loose ends REALLY bugged me. I mean, for example, what happened to Billy the doorman? And Blair!? Because her disappearance in particular was just left hanging. It was frustrating to be left with sooo many unanswered questions 😭

In the end, the great writing style and tone just weren't enough to make up for the massive drama-filled plot and underwhelming ending. Sigh.

***

Many thanks to NetGalley, Morgan Entrekin (Publisher of Grove Atlantic), and the Grove Atlantic team for allowing me to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book didn't quite work for me, the premise was interesting and there were interesting questions raised, nature vs nurture among others. A woman who is denial for years about her husband predatory ways, kills him, her friend suspects and then she is forced to question who her brother is. A lot of it was internal and a little flat to me, it moved faster towards the end but it never felt believable

This is a slow moving book for the most part and I dont think my students will like that. It deals with a lot of very serious topics but not in a way that felt serious, felt more matter of a fact, so not a book to recommend to them