A fast paced thriller. A fun and quick read. Twisty but at times predictable. Entertaining and enjoyable. Elizabeth is a bit unreliable but likable. Her past comes back to haunt her in the form of a submitted assignment. She returns home to investigate and finds her mother ill and the mother daughter tension ongoing. It’s a fun read from there- suspenseful in a sort of who done it back and forth. I would read the trigger warnings. It doesn’t get too graphic but there is sa and abuse of a minor by an authority figure and that’s not a spoiler as it’s mentioned early in the book. Thank you, NetGalley for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Posted to goodreads and soon to be posted Facebook and TikTok.

Rating: 2.75 - 3⭐

Someone Knows had a really strong premise... one of those storylines that instantly pulls you in and makes you want to devour the book just to find out what’s going on. That’s exactly why I requested it. The idea had so much potential to be intense and twisty… and in many ways, it was.

The story follows Elizabeth, a creative writing professor with a past she’s tried to bury. When something from that past suddenly resurfaces, she’s forced to confront old trauma, secrets, and people she thought she left behind. She’s a complex character (clearly dealing with deep emotional scars) and while I appreciated the path towards her healing, I didn’t always feel as connected to her as I hoped I would ( she feels very cold and distant...)

The book starts off with an intriguing setup and moves at a fast pace, which I appreciated. But as the story progressed (from at least 50% up), things started to feel rushed.. like scenes and major revelations were being dropped in too quickly without enough emotional buildup. I often found myself needing more time with the characters, more depth, and more space to feel what was happening.

There were definitely moments that had me curious and engaged, but there were also parts that felt messy and underdeveloped. Some of the character decisions were hard to connect with, and the emotional delivery in key scenes didn’t quite land for me. The final chapter, especially, felt like it went in a direction that clashed with the rest of the story and I left the book feeling more conflicted than satisfied.

This isn’t a bad book, it has great bones and a strong concept... but for me, it just didn’t fully hit the mark. I think with more development and emotional layering, it could’ve been something truly powerful.

📢 ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t binged a book in so long but I read this in one sitting!! Loved every bit of it. The story is constantly unraveling and just when you think you know where it’s going, there’s another turn. Absolutely devoured this.

I guessed one detail and then it was revealed on the very next page lol. Love that my mind/thought process was exactly where the author wanted it.

Thank you Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!! This is my second book by Vi Keeland and won’t be my last.

dang that was crazy

20 years ago, a girl killed her teacher because he was abusing her friend. now, the woman is a professor at a college, and starts receiving chapters of a novel from a student - but the novel is a true story. the one from 20 years ago.

this was so interesting and a unique concept for a thriller! i was constantly questioning who was sending in the chapters. with the book being in first person, you’re at the hands of the narrator, and that was a ride.

overall, four stars! would recommend for a twisty mind-fk of a book.

thanks to netgalley and atria for the arc.

Elizabeth teaches creative writing at a New York university. When she receives a chapter to read by a virtual student, about a young girl who has an affair with her teacher, she knows how the story will end because the girl was her friend, and Elizabeth is the one who killed the teacher.
So many twists and turns as Elizabeth goes back to her hometown in Louisiana. Everyone could be the author of the manuscript (who’s chapters keep on coming) including her emotionally abusive mother who is dying, the police officer who keeps turning up, the sexy son of the dead professor, and her childhood bestie.
As Vi has done in previous psychological thriller, The Unraveling, even when you think you have it all figured it, the path changes and then your mind gets blown on the last page.
I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It is best to go into this spoiler free


I received an ARC of this story from Vi Keeland and Atria in return for my honest review.

TW: Grooming, statutory rape

Our main character, Elizabeth, is a college professor and teaching a writing course. Her students send her the first chapter of their stories for feedback. She reads one and freaks out because it appears to be about an experience her friend Jocelyn had in high school where their English teacher groomed and eventually had sex with the friend, and eventually the teacher wound up dead. The only people who should know about that are Jocelyn, Elizabeth, and their other friend (whose name escapes me). Elizabeth tries to learn more about the student writing the story and figure out what's going on. As part of that, she goes back to her hometown with her disapproving mother.

Overall, this was an interesting book. There were a lot of twists and turns. I wouldn't call them excessive, though I'm sure other readers will. I enjoyed the final twist, though it didn't make a ton of sense. I guessed some and was surprised by others. I have an issue with the main twist, since it's so overdone.

This book required me to suspend disbelief pretty regularly. Especially the parts where the student in the present is writing about what happened to Jocelyn in the past and Elizabeth keeps saying "that's EXACTLY what happened". I kept expecting the twist to be that Elizabeth was writing the story and sending it to herself, because it felt like the only way for it to work.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this advance review copy.

If Vi Keeland wrote a menu I’d read every word so when I saw she wrote a thriller scheduled for release June 17th, I stepped away from the comfort of my rom-com novels and into SOMEONE KNOWS.

Fiction meets reality when Professor Elizabeth Davis begins receiving chapters of a thriller novel from online student Hannah Greer, forcing Elizabeth to face the dark past she’s tried to forget and wonder who Hannah Greer is and how does she know?

This was a disturbing tale of twists and turns with a reveal that left me in tears and an ending with a gasp.

Add Someone Knows by Vi Keeland to your June must read list.

Probably closer to a 4.5*

Vi Keeland is so good at messy, unhinged characters.

Elizabeth was truly descending into madness and I don’t even blame her. I was SHOOK (maybe I shouldn’t have been?) at the twists in this book. I gasped when I read one twist and I had to flip back to reread certain chapters when it was revealed.

I suspected everyone and trusted no one. The “chapters” from the student were heartbreaking and stressful and the present day chapters really executed Elizabeth chaotic and frantic feeling so well.

I gave a blow by blow retelling to my husband because I HAD to talk to someone about the ending. Absolutely wild.

I will pick up any thriller by Vi Keeland (& I enjoy her romance too). I loved The Unraveling and this was a great follow up.

📚 E-ARC BOOK REVIEW 📚

Someone Knows By Vi Keeland
Publication Date: June 17, 2025
Publisher: Atria Books | Emily Bestler Books

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you SO MUCH to Atria Books, Emily Bestler Books, and NetGalley for this #gifted e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

📚MY REVIEW:

If there's one thing I love - more than anything else - in my thrillers, it's twists, turns, and more twists. And Someone Knows, Vi Keeland's upcoming psychological thriller from Emily Bestler Books and Atria Books, just delivered one of the twistiest stories I've read in quite a while.

This fast-paced psychological thriller was PACKED with suspense and an unhinged tension that escalated with every turn of the page. This is my second thriller read from Keeland, and she is a master at delivering unreliable narrators that unravel so divinely they'll keep you on the edge of your seat from the very start.

Elizabeth is a college English professor in New York City, having left her small-town home in Louisiana years ago and never looking back. One of her students sends her chapters for review as part of a class, and Elizabeth is stunned as she begins reading, as she knows the story being told in this student's book -- because she lived it. To try and figure out who is sending these chapters to her, she takes a trip back to her hometown...and life just continues to unravel for her as she struggles with the traumas of her past.

Just past the halfway point of this book, a twist dropped that left me shook, and I absolutely devoured the rest of this read. I seriously couldn't put it down until I knew what was going on and how it was all going to end. This is one of those books where the twists just keep on twisting and our main character just becomes more and more unreliably unhinged.

I loved every minute of this book and I highly recommend it if you're a fan of psychological thrillers, non-stop tension, twisty reads, or unhinged narrators. This book will publish in June and it's available to request now through NetGalley. Either way, don't miss this brilliant read!

#SomeoneKnows #ViKeeland #AtriaBooks #EmilyBestlerBooks #ARCs #NetGalley #NetGalleyReviews #bookreviews #bookrecs #MUSTREADS #fivestarreads #thrillerlover #thrilleraddict #booklover #bookaddict

Elizabeth Davis has made a life for herself in NYC and lives on her own terms. She’s an English professor with a steady career, dates without commitments and doesn’t have to answer to anyone, but when the past comes knocking in the way of a student’s assignment on her email, her pleasant life will unravel in unexpected ways and she’ll find herself returning to the small town in Louisiana she never wanted to come back to and will have to confront her past, an ailing mother and the people she least expected.
This is an interesting story and the author can definitely deflect like nobody else, but I was not surprised at the end like I was with her previous thriller. Still, it’s a story that will keep you turning pages just to find out who did what at the end of it all and there are some good surprises.
Someone Knows is a good book, well written and nicely developed, but I was a little disappointed in the predictability of the whole thing as I personally like my culprits to be an unexpected surprise at the very end, but that’s my taste.
If you like psychological thrillers and enjoy mind bending games, this is definitely a book you will enjoy.

With "Someone Knows" Vi Keeland deliveres another gripping thriller after "The Reveling" last year.
Already the blurb gives chills, but when reading the actual book and the story of Elizabeth the chills are not ending.

Although the story is mostly told from her POV, there are some chapters sprinkled in, which tell the story of Jocelyn a friend in high school of Elizabeth who experienced the story that is getting told. And when the first chapter of the fictional book turns up, this one is paints a quite haunting picture of Jocelyn and what she will be enduring in the future.
Throughout the book, I had to stop myself to breath through the story, to reflect what just happened, and how is suspect. There are quite many curveballs thrown to the reader that I needed to think about.
Some chapter endings were such WTF moments, that I couldn't believe what I just had read.
Even at the end there are some questions still open. Open for interpretation, drawing my own conclusions and possibly how it could continue. I am not sure, whether to be happy about those possibilities or terrified.
Overall I loved the book and it showcases that Vi Keeland can write anything.

This was a fast paced, twisty thriller about Elizabeth, a college professor teaching a creative writing course.
I enjoyed the style of the book. One perspective is told from chapters from one of her students creative writing assignments. As Elizabeth is reading the assignment she realizes the story is familiar. It's telling the story of an event that happened in Elizabeth's past that she has kept secret all these years.
Even though the story itself was a little predictable I could not put it down. The fast pace along with the alternating timelines in the chapters kept me on the edge of my seat.
Thank you to Atria Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Bang! Bang! Bang! BANGER ALERT!

My favorite book of 2025....DANG, this was so good. I was so invested in finding out who Hannah was that I could NOT put this down and ended up zooming through the last 75% of this in a few hours and it just got better and better and better as I kept reading. I love an author who knows how to finish a book and hats off to Vi Keeland for bringing this one home spectacularly.

Thank you so much to Atria for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review. Love, love, LOVED IT!

This one started out a little slow but after about 20% I was hooked and the ending had my jaw on the floor.

Vi Keeland é conhecida por escrever romances bem spicy! Desta vez presenteou-nos com um Thriller. Descobri este livro na Netgalley e fiz o pedido para ser cedido em ARC. Tem uma escrita muito fácil, como ela nos habituou nos romances dela. Este livro conta a história de Elizabeth, uma professora de escrita criativa, que começa a receber e-mails, de uma suposta aluna, com capítulos de um livro. Mas esse livro é a descrição exata de algo que se passou com a amiga Jocelyn. Algo que levou à morte de um dos professores do secundário. Será que ela descobre quem desenterrou o passado dela?

Foi um livro que me deixou a pensar o tempo todo, há muitos plot twists que nos vai deixando cada vez mais longe de quem realmente está a tentar desenterrar o passado de Elizabeth. Dei esta pontuação porque não percebi bem o final... Afinal qual foi realmente o objetivo? Ficou em aberto a intenção. Mas de resto vale bem a pena ler este thriller.

I’ve always enjoyed Vi Keeland’s romance novels and truly appreciated her thriller—it was a fresh and exciting direction. With Someone Knows, I was curious and hopeful, especially given how much I enjoy her writing style.

The story follows a woman who begins to question her past after a chilling revelation, leading her down a dark path of secrets, lies, and unexpected truths. It’s definitely an intriguing premise, and the pacing kept me turning the pages.

That being said, this one didn’t fully work for me. Maybe it wasn’t the right time for me to read it, or maybe my expectations were set too high, but I ended up guessing almost all the twists—except the last one—which took away from the suspense and surprise I was hoping for.

Still, Vi’s signature voice is there, and I think readers who love her writing will enjoy the emotional depth and personal stakes woven into this thriller. While it didn’t become a favorite for me, it’s worth checking out if you’re curious to see her take on a darker, more mysterious genre.

Ohhh this is gooooood……. I love me a good thriller and this was top notch! A must read!! The twists and turns had me double guessing everything!

This book had me hooked from the first chapter!!! Loved it! Fast paced and twisty and I read it in 2 settings!

3.25🌟 good thriller to pick up as a palate cleanser.

We follow Elizabeth, an English professor in New York with a seemingly idyllic city lifestyle. One day, while grading English essays, she reads one from a student who seems to know a lot more about Elizabeth’s dark past than anyone should.

Elizabeth is rapidly sent on a hunt to find out who is tormenting her and why.

The pacing is good but the characters are bland and some even pointless, only popping up once or twice and then disappearing off the face of the earth.

The red herrings were a bit too obvious and I was able to see where the story would go from chapter three onwards.

I still had a decent time with the book but I wouldn’t rush out to buy a copy.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review

As a college English professor, Elizabeth looks forward to the start of each new semester teaching her creative writing seminar. At least until she reads chapter one of The Reckoning, a tale about a high school senior who has an affair with her teacher. To anyone else it would be the beginning of a great page-turner, but to Elizabeth it is the beginning of the end.

She knows this story. It’s all familiar because she lived it. The girl in the story was her best friend Jocelyn, and Elizabeth knows exactly how the story will end—with the professor dead. Because she was the one who killed him.

Someone knows what Elizabeth did twenty years ago and her secret is about to be exposed, but who is the mystery student submitting the chapters? In an effort to find out, Elizabeth returns to her Louisiana hometown where it soon becomes clear that no matter how many years have gone by, she can’t escape her past.

-This was very different with lots of twists, some that I saw coming, some that I definitely did not! Since I’m originally from Louisiana I was hoping for a little more commentary there other than humidity. Since the book is not out yet, I don't want to give too much away. There are some characters from Elizabeth’s past that make an appearance that I really wish were given more time, more of a story.

Small Spoiler: As far as the relationship with her mother, it confused me that its not until after its too late that we finally realize she did care about her even if she had a weird way of showing it.

While that ending was a curve ball, it still irritated me. There are simply some things you should not have to atone for in this manner, and the mistakes she made as a child should be one of them.

Very quick read that will keep you guessing and trying to figure out who you can believe right up until the end.

*I received an advanced reader's copy of this book in return for an honest review.