
Member Reviews

This book kept you on the edge of your seat. Beautifully written and narrated, you’ll want to listen to this all day long!!

This audiobook was an unexpectedly emotional experience. The narration was excellent and really brought the characters to life. The story is heartfelt, with themes of identity, forgiveness, and finding strength in unexpected places. It’s the kind of story that quietly sticks with you.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced listening copy and the chance to review it.

My expectations were set high when I saw this debut compared to Fredrik Backman's books. I’m happy to say that the similarities in style worked out pretty well, and this story landed with plenty of heart.
The beginning was a little rough, as I struggled to keep track of all the characters and the fairly complicated details of the plot. But it smoothed out toward the middle, and I was then able to track the characters, even on audio.
This ended up working well as an audiobook, especially with the main narrator being Marin Ireland. That also helped secure the connection to Backman’s books.
I appreciated the unique setting as well as the overall theme and individual topics covered in the story. They are highly relevant and meaningful to today’s challenges and tragedies.
I am grateful for an advanced audio copy of this book from NetGalley, and I look forward to reading what the author comes out with next.

3.5 out of 5 stars. I was given an ARC of the audio version of the book for an honest review. I enjoyed the narrator’s telling of the story.
Anna and her mother Star, live in a small town in Illinois. When Anna loses her job due to cutbacks, she gets a job at a lodge across the river to help pay Star’s medical bills. Anna was told all her life to stay away from the lodge, but never provided any reasons why.
Anna runs into Jack, her former boyfriend, who happens to work there. Over the course of 3 days Anna learns the reason why her mom doesn’t want her working there. Death, murder, illegal gun auctions all wrapped together to make this a solid thriller. I recommend this book and enjoyed it.

3⭐
An entertaining medium/fast-paced, small town thriller/mystery(ies) over a dual timeline. Really enjoyed.
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Muse Audiobooks for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A highlight of family multi generational trauma and its effects if not addressed. Realistic circumstances of small town living. I enjoyed Anna, Foster & Jack. Beyond that, there were too many characters for me, and some you knew from the beginning what their arc would be. Thank you for this audio arc NetGalley.I

MY JAW IS ON THE FLOOR!!!
A small quiet Kentucky town has a large hunting event every year and what happens during this time isn't always legal. Years ago nine women were murdered on the river and the killer was never caught. In Tell Me Something Good you follow Anna- a woman who always wanted to leave the small town but, when her mother falls ill she has to take care of her. After losing her job at the school she is forced to look for employment across the river at the lodge. the place her mother has always told her to stay away from. but she has no choice and once she gets a job there all the secrets start to unravel. Everything and everyone are not who they seem. Can Anna find out the truth of what happened that night and how she is connected?

4.5 stars
I went into Tell Me Something Good blind, and I am so glad I did. It immediately grabbed me; I couldn't stop reading (listening). I really enjoyed the mystery and these characters even with their flaws.
The story takes place in Kentucky and southern Illinois only separated by the Ohio River spans decades, secrets, and murder. Stevens weaves many characters' stories into one great ending I didn't see coming. This intertwined story about the past and present colliding with a potential future event.
The audiobook was fantastic! I really enjoyed the narrator, Marin Ireland. She made it really easy to follow the different characters and components of the story.
I loved Tell Me Something! I would highly recommend it to people who enjoy mysteries and character driven stories. I can't wait to read more by Court Stevens.
What I loved:
the Beck files
the complicated characters
mystery
Takeaway: People are complicated and want to protect their loved ones.
Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Muse audiobooks for the alc.

i really enjoyed this one! i've read one other court stevens, which i didn't love, but this one really shone. i loved the writing style and the atmosphere and the themes of family.

Court Stevens' latest novel is a serious and heartfelt pivot towards the adult genre. You'll find Stevens' classic character depth and relationships represented here with heaping serving of 20-year-old murder that's gone long-unsolved, as an undercurrent to present events. I found myself trying to solve the mysteries, both past and present, as I read, making me an active participant in this journey. Characters worth following, a town with a history worth telling, and an annual hunting event folks won't soon forget are the threads that hold this novel together, keeping readers on their toes. Check it out for yourself!

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this book and especially the audiobook narration by my favorite narrator, Marin Ireland. This was a solid slow-burn suspense read with a great setting and premise.
I will say that there are a LOT of characters which could be distracting and made it difficult to truly connect.
In the end, I enjoyed it and found it to be a really good read.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I rarely review with spoilers, but I finished this book a month ago and I cannot process my thoughts on the book with including some spoiler-ish details this time.
It took longer to connect the full story to the introduction than I would have hoped. I was drawn in by this story once it got going…
I loved that the author incorporated the concept of an audio journal throughout the book.
I did struggle a bit to hang onto which characters went with which parts of the story as I was getting started. I wish there had been a few more little verbal cues surrounding each one… sort of like how Foster named a raccoon after her husband Gary… it was easy to recall his name.
I was a little thrown off by the ending because I think too many authors go down this road possibly for the sake of drawing in another demographic. However, I felt like we really had already established some of those connections, earlier in the book when we were learning about Foster and her husband’s arrangement.
For me, even with Jack dead, it took away from the authenticity of the rest of the story for the author to put the two female leads in a lesbian relationship.
Particularly, if we are to believe that Anna had such a great love with Jack that it showed up as “yummy,” as Foster initially indicated—then I find it difficult to imagine. It would have been more believable if the author would have said, they were the best of friends and raised the child, etc. and let a potential relationship be inferred.

Oh this is a good book! Love the narrator! There are so many twists and turns with this story. I really enjoyed every minute of it. Now to find more by the same author and narrator. Highly recommend.

The allusion to Beartown in the blurb hooked me right away. While it didn’t live up to that hype, I was entertained. My main issue is that there was a little too much going on. An interesting premise got lost for me in all the excess. Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse audiobooks for the ARC!

I found this to be a very interesting story with a lot of potential, reminding me of Fredrik Backman's storytelling structure, and the atmosphere leaning toward shows like Bloodline or Ozark. It could have been a five star read for me, but it didn't quite get there.
My biggest issue was the large amount of characters without clear descriptions or information to make me understand and remember who was who. I had no clue who was old or young, or what kind of person a character was. All I got was a name and sometimes a bit of backstory, but nothing that told me what they looked like or what their behavior or values were, which made for a confusing reading experience, and it also meant that I didn't really care about any of them.
There are also a lot of plotlines. I think they are all interesting and adding to the story, and they all come together nicely. However, it wasn't always clear which one I was supposed to care the most about, or pay the most attention to. I had expected the murder case to play a bigger part in the story. There was also the odd side story, which usually added some clarifying piece of information, but often in a vague kind of way. With the confustion about all the characters, and the different plotlines, I didn't always get what the piece of information meant for the story. Maybe that's a me problem, but it's in alignment with what I've mentioned already, with things not being explained clearly enough for me as a reader. I don't need or want hand-holding, but I do need enough information to get what's being said.
My final comment is that I think the scene when the choir girls are found should come earlier in the book, to create more tension and suspense from the start, and to validate the premise and make it clear to the reader that they're getting what they're expecting.
Overall, I think this could be such a fantastic book, but it didn't feel quite finished to me.

This is an intricate mystery and history of a small town and what happens when secrets are buried.
The audiobook is well done and the story is anything but predictable. I want to say more but NO SPOILERS!

I appreciate the opportunity to receive an ARC Of Tell Me Something Good.
I want to start off by saying that there are quite a few characters in this book. I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with all of them. I would have loved to have a bit more character development .
The story is a bit slow in the beginning of the book but does eventually start to pick up. I loved Court Steven’s writing style one this one. I think it is worth the read (or listen!)

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

I just finished this book, and wow—it's twisty AF. It had major thriller vibes but also threw in romance, mystery, and small-town hunting/fishing culture. Honestly, it was a lot. There were so many characters, all with their backstories and drama, that it got kind of hard to keep up. It felt super literary at times, which was cool, but I really think it needed to be told from just one POV. The third person with all those storylines made it messy.
That said… I probably wouldn’t have switched if it weren’t an audiobook. The narration was well done and interesting to hear.

Loved this story and the characters. I was hooked from the beginning of the book and loved the weaving of the characters lives throughout the book. The narration of the book was amazing and such a great read. 5 stars!! A favorite read for me so far in 2025.