Sometimes a mystery reader just needs a fun one, and this totally fits the bill! Looking forward to more from this author!

This book had me laughing from the very first chapter. It’s a fun mystery filled with unexpected twists and turns. The story also explores the unlikely friendships between women who are united by their shared betrayal by the same man. This cozy murder mystery is packed with dramatic surprises, and the women make excellent amateur detectives.

I love how Kat often shares interesting facts and explains the origins of words. Along with Olivia and Elle, Kat devises a series of hilarious, glittering, shocking, and even gross pranks at his home, which ultimately leads them to discover his body. Their adventures as amateur detectives begin as they try to prove they didn’t commit the murder in order to avoid jail. Did they uncover the real killer, or is there more to the story?

This novel is so enjoyable that I would happily read it again. Overall, it’s a fantastic blend of comedy and murder mystery. Publishing tomorrow! Be sure to grab this exciting new release. Thank you to @htp_hive and @htpbooks for the gifted eARC and ALC of this release.

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is what you’d get if Clue had a sleepover with Mean Girls and Dead to Me. It’s fast, fun, and full of chaos—in the best way. Gloria Chao gives us three women—Kat, Olivia, and Elle—who find out they’ve all been dating the same guy (ugh, Tucker), decide to get revenge, and then walk straight into a murder scene. Oops.

The friendship vibes are strong, the humour is sharp, and the pacing keeps things moving… until the end, which felt like it stuck around a little too long at the party. Still, it’s a perfect one-sitting kind of read for when you want something snappy and not too serious. Think “cozy mystery with sass.”

Great for fans of ride-or-die friendships, messy murder plots, and amateur sleuths who don’t own a trench coat but absolutely should.

Thank you to Gloria Chao, Harlequin Trade Publishing | MIRA, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. On Sale June 24th, 2025

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)

Big thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Publishing, and The Hive for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This book had such a fun premise: three women connected by one no-good boyfriend… and then he turns up dead. There were twists that worked, especially the final reveal. The setup had me locked in at first. But as I kept reading, the story started to fall apart for me.

It was hard to suspend disbelief, especially with the way the main character was allowed to play detective—despite literally being at the crime scene and connected to the victim. I know it’s cozy mystery logic, but even for that, it felt like too much. What officer says, “Sure, potential suspect, go ahead and investigate”? Make it make sense.

And then we have these grown, educated women playing childish pranks like they’re in a college dorm, not navigating grief and betrayal. I’m all for fun and chaos, but this wasn’t the vibe. If you’re going to lean into unrealistic, it has to at least be entertaining—and this just didn’t land that balance.

There were some decent twists that made me curious enough to finish, and I don’t regret reading it. There was a set up. I can see it potentially being a series that follows the main character, but I don’t see myself reading anything else from this particular series.

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is a sharp, fast-paced thriller that blends dark humor with a genuinely engaging mystery. The premise alone—a group of women who all dated the same man finding themselves at the center of a murder investigation—is enough to hook you, but what kept me turning the pages was the mix of juicy secrets, razor-sharp dialogue, and the evolving dynamic between the characters.

The book balances suspense with emotional depth, exploring themes of trust, betrayal, and female friendship in a refreshingly modern way. While some plot twists felt a bit over-the-top and I wished for slightly more development in a couple of the side characters, overall this was a wildly entertaining read that didn't take itself too seriously but still delivered a satisfying payoff.

If you like your thrillers with a bit of sass and a strong female cast, this one's worth the ride.

Kathryn Hu is just your average postdoc studying chemistry in a Harvard lab. (Totally relatable, right?) Except her life is a mess. No one in her lab likes her, all her experiments keep failing, and her awkwardness has catapulted her into a world without friends (partly due to being new to the area, partly due to her overbearing parents, and possibly due to her encyclopedic knowledge of the origin on idioms). But there is one ray of hope: Tucker, her boyfriend of three months, who seems to be the only person who genuinely gets her and cherishes her. Until she finds him proposing to a completely different woman. Incensed and without anyone to talk to, Kathryn turns to the last person she could have imagined leaning on: her ex's ex, Olivia, the one who, similarly, just learned her almost-fiancee was cheating on her. Upon discovering yet another woman who Tucker misled, the three of them seek their revenge... only to find their mutual ex dead in his apartment right after they've messed with it, spreading their DNA absolutely everywhere and making themselves the prime suspects.

The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club immediately intrigued me. I immediately loved Kat (and genuinely loved her knowledge of idioms, which I will now similarly hoard in my own mind because I am just as dorky), and found her extremely relatable, even if her situation (luckily) isn't. The friendship she, Olivia, and Elle create is so wonderful, and truly the main focus of the book. Obviously, they don't make entirely intelligent choices, but then again, the smartest person would still likely find themselves at a loss if they found their cheating ex dead, implicating them, too. The characterization was well done (especially for Kat), the dialogue fabulous and the entire thing silly in the best way. I laughed out loud multiple times while reading this.

The two things that I think may have detracted from my rating are these: one, the romance between Kat and Adrian felt rushed (and likely unethical, which I'd assume Kat would have taken more issue with), and the ending fell a bit flat. While the reveal of the murderer did hinge on something I'd clocked early on in the story, I wasn't blown away by it. It does put everything you've read in an entirely different light, but sadly I didn't feel the shock of it the way I'd have wanted to.

If you're interested in a well-written (and hilarious) exploration of female friendship, fused with mystery and petty revenge, I absolutely recommend this book! I definitely need to read more of Gloria Chao's work now, and I'm eager to get to it!

So many thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for giving me a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Rating: 4 stars

Review posted to StoryGraph: June 23, 2025 (https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/d2ce6289-42ab-4556-9200-258d637412c6?redirect=true)
Review posted to Instagram: PENDING

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 320
Genre: Women’s Fiction/Murder Mystery
Audiobook Narrator: Carolyn Kang
Duration: 9 hours 47 minutes
Release Date: June 24, 2025
🥳#HappyPubWeek!🎉

Kathryn Hu doesn’t have much going right in her life except for her incredibly loving, caring boyfriend Tucker Jones. Tucker always knows just what to say and do to make things better. So much so that she respects and understands his boundaries—like how they only see each other on certain days. That is, until she finds out that’s because he’s been the perfect boyfriend to two other unsuspecting women. This revelation brings the now ex-girlfriends together as they plot their revenge against him. It’s all hilarious fun and games until they find Tucker’s dead, lifeless body. Now they have to find his killer before they’re either next or they get arrested for his murder.

This book was such a hoot! It was hilarious and full of unexpected twists. I’m not a fan of practical jokes so I personally thought they went too far with their revenge strategy but this is fiction, so anything goes. Overall, it was a really fun beach read with very likable characters. And Carolyn Kang did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you, @GloriaCChao, @htp_hive, @htpbooks, and @htpbooks_audio for my gifted copies. #HiveInfluencer

“From beyond the grave, Tucker was still surprising me, over and over, even after I already thought the absolute worst of him.”

4.25/5☆

📖 Recommended for fans of:
🧪 Fast-paced cozy murder mysteries
👯‍♀️ Found family with a side of chaos 🐸 aka girlhood
🎓 Smart-but-socially-awkward protagonists
💔 Breakup drama meets true crime podcast

Kathryn Hu is a chemist, a self-declared awkward turtle, and becomes a murder suspect real fast. She doesn't have the best luck, does she? But she does have Tucker—her charming, thoughtful, practically perfect boyfriend. Or so she thought… What starts as a clever romcom quickly spirals into something darker when Kat discovers Tucker was the “perfect boyfriend” to a lot of people. And suddenly, that boyfriend turns up lifeless in her closet, right after all his exes had reason to wish him dead? Let’s just say things escalate quickly. With Tucker’s messy web of secrets, enemies, and lies, Kat and her new partners-in-crime aren’t the only ones who might’ve wanted him gone…

I was genuinely amused. This book is witty, twisty, and absolutely addictive. I started off curious, mildly entertained… and then somewhere around chapter 3, I blinked and realized I’d inhaled half the book. From that point on, it was pure speed reading, eyes glued to my Kindle 📱.

The true joy of this book isn’t just the central mystery (though the twists genuinely got me, multiple times). It’s the characters. Kathryn, Olivia, and Elle each bring something essential to the group: the brains, the heart, the guts. Kat's fondness for idiom origins made her such an interesting protagonist. It was refreshing to see an Asian-American lead in this genre. So often, Asian characters are just side roles, and here we get a scientifically brilliant heroine!

"Before, I didn’t even have anyone to call on a bad day at work, and now I had two friends willing to put themselves in danger to save my ass from going down for a murder I didn’t commit."

Watching the trio form under the wildest circumstances was one of my favorite things about this story. Starting as a revenge plot to prank their shared ex soon turns into something much deeper: a judgment-free friendship and solidarity. The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club shouldn’t click, but the way they bring out the best in each other is so sweet. It’s giving chaotic but healing found family girlhood energy, and I was totally here for it.

I appreciated how effortlessly readable it was with its short chapters and crisp dialogue, it felt like watching a Netflix series in book form. Although I do have some critiques. The pranking made me feel quite cringed out (iykyk), and then that certain scene towards the end (👀) felt a little too rushed and veering into fanfic epilogue energy. Speaking about epilogue, that's also something I missed in this book. I would've loved a future perspective.

This is the result of throwing science, heartbreak, murder, and female rage into a blender. Loved it. Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin, and above all Gloria Chao for the ARC! Publication expected June 24, 2025.

This was such a clever and twisty retake on the classic 2000s teen movie, John Tucker must die that has three women bonding when they discover they've all been dating the same guy. Hatching a scheme for revenge, things go awry when they stumble on his dead body and have to race to figure out what exactly Tucker had been hiding that led to his death before the police wrongly imprison one of them. I really enjoyed this one, it was fun, had lots of emotional depth and fantastic female friendship plus a bit of romance and an end I didn't see coming. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Ex Girlfriends Murder Blub is a fun comic mystery about the exes of a cheating guy who get accused of his murder and have to solve it. Lots of wacky escapades, female bonding, and cozy mystery vibes.

I don't always love a podcast element, but in this book it was part of the hilarity, with the podcasters reporting all kinds of salacious rumors about the trio, most of which were completely false and that they found completely infuriating.

Perfect for fans of Elle Cosimano and Jesse Q. Sutanto

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!

DNF @ 20%

This is a mix of John Tucker Must Die and The Other Woman. The main male character who cheated is literally name Tucker Jones and the similarities were just too close to even say that it was a coincidence.

2025 is the year of me DNF’ing books if I feel like they are a waste of time. Happy to add this one to the list 🫡

A mystery with a twist.

Kathryn learns that her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend is just that —too good to be true.

Not only is he cheating on her, but he's doing it with two other women.

Gloria Chao introduces us to a sweet, naive and insecure Kathryn who is head over heels for her beau Tucker and is crushed when she learns she's not his only love. But she twists us.

Kathryn meets Olivia and Elle, and soon they become a trio bent on revenge. Chao deftly unites the women in funny and unique conversations as they all come to terms with betrayal and decide how to move forward.

In the three women we see a range of archetypes and personalities -- all drawing us in-- and then the mystery begins when they find Tucker's body and their revenge plot makes them prime suspects.

The book is hilarious, mysterious and empowering all at once. I really loved these women.

I also did not solve it first! So kudos for that.

Katherine Hu is painfully awkward and shy, but has the most amazing, thoughtful, caring boyfriend - Tucker Jones. who conveniently has several other girlfriends!

When Kat accidentally walks into Tucker’s proposal to Olivia, they both say screw it and dump his cheating ass and decide to go on vacation together. when they find out there’s a THIRD girlfriend, they all become fast friends and decide to plan the ultimate revenge.

well. revenge is kinda hard when you find your collective boyfriend’s dead body!! now the race is on for the ex-girlfriend murder club to figure out who actually did the murdering before they’re implicated!

This was laugh out loud funny and such a quick read! This one is perfect for fans of absolutely ridiculous cozy murder mysteries. I loved seeing the friendship grow between Kat, Olivia, and Elle and I can’t wait to see what they get up to in the sequel.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Was my cup of tea. I ended up dnfing the book after 20% in. It was to slow for me and I couldn't not develop a connection with the characters.

In Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao, Kathryn Hu took the ultimate L. The man she thought was it turned out to be a cheating scumbag and turned out he wasn’t just dating one other woman there was a third! You would think it could get worst but it did. When enacting their revenge they found their, ex Tucker dead in his closet. Now with the police assuming Kathryn was to blame it was a race against the clock to find the real killer and clear Kathryn’s name. Can Kathryn and her band of exes solve the mystery before time runs out?

I absolutely loved this one. It was all of my favorite things wrapped up on one story. With the bond between the three exes, the mystery and the hint of romance with the hot detective I was invested start to finish. This novel was effortlessly funny and the main character was so relatable. With her own struggles and how she worked through the mystery Kathryn Hu felt like a real fleshed out person and I wanted to keep reading to unravel the mystery with Kathryn, Olivia and Elle. I absolutely couldn’t put this one down. I was beyond excited to learn this was the first book in a series and can’t wait for the next installment!

I wasn't expecting this murder mystery to be actively hilarious! "The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club" somehow manages to be charming, sincere, and silly AND provides a surprising ending!

I loved the "meet-ugly friendship" and was completely invested in the supportive bond between the ex-girlfriends during their high-stakes investigation. The little descriptions of idioms throughout and the dialogue between Kathryn and her parents were fantastic little bonuses to the story. Loved it all.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

This was a fun and page-turning mystery that was full of hilarious moments! The characters were likable, the antics were so funny, and I didn’t want to put this one down! The trios personalities were so different but worked so well for the plot of the book! It was fun and engaging! If you enjoyed the Finlay Donovan series, you’ll love this!

Gloria Chao delivers a delightfully quirky twist on the classic whodunit with The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club, a sharp and entertaining blend of humor, mystery, and revenge. The story centers on a group of women who discover they all share a common ex—Tucker, a charming serial cheater—only for him to turn up dead under suspicious circumstances. Naturally, all eyes fall on the exes, making them the prime suspects in a crime they swear they didn’t commit.

What follows is an engaging, fast-paced narrative filled with wit, unexpected alliances, and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Chao balances the absurdity of the situation with a cleverly constructed mystery, keeping the tension alive while never losing sight of the fun. The tone remains light even as the stakes rise, and the chemistry among the women makes the story feel fresh and original.

With its unique premise and entertaining execution, The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club is a standout entry in the mystery/comedy genre. Chao’s flair for humor and heart makes this a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish.

LOVED this story and the cast of characters! It was so cute and I love how it was all about girlfriends but also science and solving a murder! Let’s just say it checked A LOT of boxes for me! :)

Mystery, mayhem, and friendship? Not exactly what you expect when three women discover the man they love has been cheating on them (they didn't know about each other before). So revenge is in the air but when they go to his home to trash it they find his body instead. Oh, Tucker hasn't just been deceiving them, but everyone in his life. There are plenty of suspects and they will have to work together, undercover and not, to find the real killer before for they go down for the crime.

This has shenanigans, laughter and a twisty story that will keep you guessing until the end. I really liked the friendship that formed between these women. A perfect summer read--or at any time of the year.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.