I listened to this as an audiobook. It was really good and made me want to keep listening and I think this was partly because I loved the characters. However, I feel like the middle section of the book dragged on a bit too much.
However, I did really enjoy it and would definitely listen to more audiobooks like this and by this author.

John Tucker Must Die meets A Good Girls Guide To Murder! This book was a good mystery with a great twist that I didn't see coming!

Description
After the basketball star and most popular guy in school is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room, his three jilted exes become suspects...and the investigation turns from assault to murder. John Tucker Must Die meets One of Us Is Lying in a gripping, page-turning debut thriller.
When the HS basketball star is found bloodied and unconscious in the boy’s locker room after the big game, Nate Walker lands in the ICU fighting for his life—and Meghan and Nate’s two ex-girlfriends become the prime suspects.
The three teens have a tense relationship at best—and they each have their own motive for lashing out at Nate. But Meghan, Bria, and Robin are determined to clear their names amid escalating danger and suspicion…even if it means forming an uncomfortable alliance to uncover the truth.
The only problems? Meghan doesn’t remember everything that happened the night of the incident and the more clues they uncover, the more each looks responsible.
Then Nate dies of his injuries. Who is guilty of murder?

Thanks to NetGalley & RBmedia for the ALC of this book!

The Payback Girls
by Alex Travis
Narrated by Tamika Katon-Donegal
Publisher: RBmedia

This had a lot of potential but just really fell flat? By the second half of it, I was just pretty bored and I never had any strong feelings about any of the characters, I think maybe because there were just a lot of them 🤷🏻‍♀️ also just the fact that all three of the girls were still into Nate by the end of the book was odd to me? Like the dude is a serial cheater and yeah he’s hurt but like why would you still want to be with him? 🤦🏻‍♀️ overall, I think there was just too much going on in this story and it made the whole plot very uninteresting to me 🤷🏻‍♀️

Something about this book just is not sitting right with me. I'm not sure if it's the narration, the pacing of the dialogue, or the story itself but it is not keeping my interest. I made it 30% of the way through before I had to put the headphones down. I am not good at pushing through a book I don't like so I had to dnf.

While the premise of the book really drew me in, the actual execution is just a bit lackluster. I found that the characters were not relatable. super whiney, and frankly, I did not care what happened to him. I didn't really find any aspects of John Tucker Must Die (which is what reeled me into the book), except the fact that the main guy has multiple girlfriends.

I just think this book isn't for me. Thank you so much to Netgalley and RM media for this arc!

I was really excited to try this when I heard it was a cross between John Tucker Must Die and One of Us is Lying. Unfortunately, this just didn’t work for me. I felt like so much of the focus was on making us root for the relationship between Meghan and Robin. Their first few interactions make me like their relationship but the longer it went on I felt like it held the story back a little. There were some interesting conversations about Meghan, Bria and Robin’s experiences as some of the few black students at the school and the stereotypes and assumptions put on them but they never felt fully fleshed out. The author would bring up a really interesting thread and then drop it the next chapter. I also didn’t like the mystery element, it felt like an afterthought. I think I would’ve liked this a lot better if it was just a novel about these three girls getting revenge on their ex. I also didn’t like a lot of these characters, some of them felt a little too dramatic to me. Like the girls don’t really have a single friend/ally the whole book, not even in their parents, almost every character they come across hates them and that felt a little unrealistic. I would have loved to see more of a friendship build between the girls, it felt like they spent the whole book not really liking each other and then they were suddenly best friends at the end. Speaking of the ending, it felt incredibly rushed and the way the mystery was tied up was not very satisfying and again, felt like an afterthought.

1 star — Just not for me

DNF at around 40%. I wouldn’t say The Payback Girls is a bad book—it’s well written and some readers might really enjoy the revenge-fueled plot and dynamic characters. But I just couldn’t connect with the story or the pacing. It felt like something was missing for me emotionally, and I found myself putting it down more often than picking it up. I respect what the author was trying to do, but in the end, it just wasn’t my kind of read.

This may be one of those books I need to read rather than listen to. I only got 10% though when I needed to turn it off. We have a girl who started tutoring one of the most popular boys in school. And the tutoring turned into a relationship. But it was a secret relationship that the tutor thought many knew about. That is until the day she finds out she was a “beard” to cover who Nate the basketball star was really dating. But now these two exes are going at each other, and Nate was found bloody on the flow of the locker room.
This book was a little too John Tucker Must Die for me at the moment. I do think I would enjoy this more if I was reading it. We see the point of view of the different characters, but the beard action and dating two girls at once, it just gets to me and is not really my thing. I thought this would be a perfect fit as I did enjoy John Tucker. Either I didn’t get far enough, and it’s the readers’ fault, or the start of the story is too long. Not sure what but that is where I am at right now.

3⭐️

The Payback Girls by Alex Travis serves up scandal, secrets, and revenge, all wrapped in a fast-paced YA thriller. The audiobook captures the messy drama well, with a lively narration style that keeps the energy high and the twists rolling.

The story follows Meghan, who thinks she has her senior year perfectly planned—until a shocking betrayal throws her and two other girls into a tangled web of secrets and suspicion. The setup is strong, and the narrator does a great job of bringing out the different personalities, adding tension as alliances form and fall apart.

While the twists kept me engaged, I did find myself struggling with some character decisions, especially Meghan’s continued loyalty to Nate after his betrayals. The book does shine in its portrayal of diverse characters and layered social dynamics, which come across well even in audio.

Overall, this audiobook is a solid choice for readers who love YA thrillers with messy scandals, complicated friendships, and a side of empowerment. It’s fast, dramatic, and perfect for a binge listen, even if some elements don’t land as strongly as they could.

The Payback Girls was like Pretty Little Liars meets John Tucker Must Die — with “e-blasts” a la Gossip Girl. (And IMO, all of those were way more suspenseful and enjoyable than this!)

I didn’t really connect with the characters, and would have classified this as young adult vs women’s reading. The plot was fairly simple without twists.

Just ok. 2 stars for this one.

I definitely agree with this description where this book is a cross between John Tucker Must Die and One Of Us is Lying. The book provided many suspects with lots of different clues which kept me guessing. I did ultimately guess who I thought it was but I went back and forth for a while. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone enjoyable read.

The book is about Meghan who is dating Nate the senior basketball star at her new school. She’s excited to get a fresh start. He invites her to wear his basketball jersey to the pep rally where she finds out she’s not his only girl friend. There was also Bria and Robin. That night the three of them are upset about getting played by Nate the next morning the three of them find out that Nate was attacked and is now in the hospital where they are the main suspects. They bond together to figure out who really did it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was suckered in by the blurb comparing this to "John Tucker Must Die" but it was nothing like it. There was not one bit of humour in this so it was just flat.

Firstly, where was the payback? There was no payback for these payback girls. Secondly, how could the girls all still have feelings for this guy when he cheated on all three of them?! There's plenty of other questions. Why were they obvious suspects straight away but then nothing from the police at all? Why did they have to do their own investigation to find the attempted murderer? Why didn't she have any memory of the night before?

The three main characters were all strong black female girls but I got sick of hearing everything answered with the racist card. Sooo many times. And not even justifiably. It's just a tool to shut someone up and that was frustrating. There was waaaayyy too much bickering and name calling (slut was bandied about). And way too many characters. It just got confusing.

I'm sorry to the author, but for me, it was a hot mess. I barely finished it and didn't really enjoy much about it at all.

I really enjoyed this story! I found the plot really interesting and [most of] the characters were likeable. I loved the girls backing girls concept along with the BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ representation. I also liked the narrator's voice, a lot.

🌟🌟🌟🌟.2
Yes, I must say *John Tucker Must Die*, with a dash of *One of Us Is Lying*, is definitely the vibe this story was going for, and the author, in my eyes, did a good job. I enjoyed this story and finished it in 1.5 days! It was somewhat predictable, but that's okay, because this is a young adult (YA) murder mystery with suspense.

When high school basketball star Nate Walker is found bloodied and unconscious in the boys' locker room after the big game, he lands in the ICU fighting for his life. Meghan and Nate's two ex-girlfriends become the prime suspects.

The audiobook narrator, Tamika Katon-Donegal, did a good job telling the story and bringing it to life. She was easy to listen to and understand. She gave the female characters depth in her voice acting. I listened at 2x speed.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬:
•Young Adult
•Black Females
•Murder Mystery
•Suspense

Thank you, NetGalley and RB Media, for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't love or hate this book. It was a little too long and seemed like it was dragging on and on about the same stuff every chapter.
I was definitely interested in finding out who attacked Nate, but I think there was a lot of random things thrown in there as well.

Thank you Netgalley and Recorded Books for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟 🌟

After the most popular guy in school is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room, his three exes become suspects. Then the assault investigation turns into a murder investigation.

I loved the mashup of John Tucker Must Die with One of Us is Lying with many other important topics included. It was an interesting and juicy hook and the narrator was great.

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a little too YA for me.
It was a good story and well executed just not quite my cup of tea.
I think YA readers who like thrillers would like this one. It was fast paced and kept you engaged!
Characters were very high school but well written

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Overall a good read, although I guessed the ending pretty early on. I enjoyed listening to this one.

The Payback Girls tells the story of Meghan, who is in a relationship with Nate. She discovers that Bria and Robin are also involved with him. Things take a dark turn when Nate is found injured and unconscious in the locker room. Now, all three girls are under suspicion. They team up to prove their innocence, but as they dig deeper, they seem to look more guilty. Sadly, I didn't find this to be the best young adult thriller I've read. The story felt somewhat repetitive, and the narration was often too intense, accompanied by some childish dialogue that didn't feel realistic for high school students. At times, the plot seemed a bit unbelievable.

This was a great story. I found myself rooting for the main female characters. The three bad ass woman who despite the fact they should hate each other came together to prove they didn’t murder the cheating boyfriend.

2.75 ⭐️
I could not get into this book. The book was very drawn out. It felt very YA. Lots of teenage drama that just didn’t feel real. I could not relate to the FMC. She came off as naive and desperate for affection. The whodunnit was obvious from the start.