Every Sweet Thing is Bitter by Samantha Crewson

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When I saw that a fellow reader I admire had a debut novel coming out I was so excited and jumped at the opportunity to read an early copy thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.

Marketed as perfect for fans of Lisa Taddeo and Tiffany McDaniel, some of my favorite authors, I knew this would be right up my alley and I it really was.

The story centres around Providence who has a violent past gets a chance at redemption after near fatally reversing over her mother some thirteen years prior. Imprisoned and estranged from her family until her mother disappears years later under suspicious circumstances and she returns home to face her past.

This was so compelling and had me hooked from the first chapter, I love a redemption story that is messy and nonlinear, it really resonated with me both personally and as a reader, I think the comparison to Tiffany McDaniel is valid in that we have strong women in the story who have been through it, they are not perfect but they are ultimately good people and I was so invested.

I listened to this on audio and the narration was brilliant, captured the suspense perfectly.

Even though I had the ebook I had to buy my own copy as a trophy for the shelves! I highly recommend if you love a dark suspense, why not make this your next pride month pick?

The audiobook of Every Sweet Thing Is Bitter, narrated by Lindsey Dorcus, does a great job bringing the story’s raw emotion and tension to life. Her performance captures the grit and complexity of Providence’s character, making the heavy themes of trauma and family drama feel immediate and personal. The pacing keeps you hooked through the twists and emotional ups and downs. While some listeners find the characters hard to connect with, Dorcus’s narration adds depth that helps maintain engagement. Overall, it’s a gripping listen for fans of dark, psychological suspense who appreciate a strong narrator bringing a messy, emotional story to the ear.

This one is very heavy. Providence was a great character. Morally gray for sure. What a life.

Sad family drama. Excellent read.

Audio was very well done.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ALC.

Providence Byrd is a convicted felon. She did time in prison because years ago. When she was young, she shifted the family vehicle into reverse and ran over her mother, injuring her terribly. The life Providence knew was forever changed. When she got out of prison, she never returned to her hometown or her family. Thirteen years later, her mother disappears under suspicious circumstances. Despite her familial estrangement, Providence returns to her home in the hopes that she can held find her mother and address the estrangement between her and her sisters. But addressing the estrangement, for her, means confronting her toxic and abusive father.

As the community searches for Providence's mother, the distance between her and her sisters pains her. Sisters Harmony and Grace are scarred by Providence's attempt to kill their mother, years ago and both have ideas about what their reconciliation with their sister will look like. However, neither Harmony nor Grace has any illusions about their toxic father. They know he is trouble. Harmony encourages Providence to make him pay. Grace wants Providence to forgive and forget.

This book explores the dynamics of a home shadowed by domestic violence. This needs to be talked about more. I felt helpless, at times, as to the way Providence was treated and as a young women, just couldn't speak up for herself because the consequences were dire. I thought the twists in the book were well done and the domestic violence was well handled. The narrator was also top notch.

Every Sweet Thing is Bitter is one of those novels that sneaks up on you. Not just in its tension and slow unraveling, but in how deeply it explores what it means to survive damage and still manage to shape something meaningful from the wreckage. This is a haunting, emotionally layered story about family, accountability, and the generational weight we carry. But more than that, it is about the quiet kind of strength it takes to keep moving forward in a world that was not made for us.

Providence Byrd is sharp, complicated, and deeply human. Her return home is both a reckoning and a quiet plea for healing. The emotional terrain here is raw and real, especially in the way the story portrays sisterhood—tender, bitter, fractured, and laced with longing.

My own relationship with my sister isn’t quite like the one between the characters in this book. We’re ten years apart, and that age gap shaped us in very different ways. But there’s something sacred in the shared history you have with a sibling. The inside jokes. The memories you squabble over. And especially with a sister, there’s a shared lens, even when your view through it is completely different. You are shaped not just by what you experience together, but by what you each carry alone.

It is also deeply refreshing to read a story where queer characters are fully centered. Not as sidekicks or comic relief, but as whole people with messy pasts, real dreams, failures, and the kind of complicated agency that feels lived in. The representation is natural and rooted in the characters’ lives, never added as an afterthought.

This is a book about what women endure and how we respond. We weather loss, violence, abandonment, and grief. And somehow, we continue. We adapt. We gather what we can and patch together a life that, if we are lucky, holds moments of grace and even joy. There is power in that, and Every Sweet Thing is Bitter honors it.

Hoo boy, this was quite the ride and I was hooked from the first few minutes of listening. Providence is a flawed human being that is firmly in the morally grey area. At seventeen she accidentally runs over her mother (she was aiming for her father) and goes to prison. Many years later her mother goes missing and Providence comes home to help find her (and prove her father is responsible). She is not welcomed by the town, her sisters, or her abusive father with open arms. I was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns even though they were heartbreaking and I was left hopeful for Providence's and Grace's futures.

Apparently a book store isn’t the only place I can’t be trusted. I went in to buy birdseed and came home with so many flowers! I needed the brightness to lift my spirits after reading Every Sweet Thing is he Bitter by Samantha Crewson.
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I was destined to read this book! @CrookedLaneBooks sent me a copy, @NetGalley and @DreamscapeMedia gave me an audiobook copy and I picked it from Book of the Month. Thank you all.
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It was so well written that I immediately became immersed in the lives of these characters. The book left me unsettled because I empathized with the women so much and hated what they had lived through. It wasn’t an easy read, but a good one.
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Thirteen years ago, Providence threw the car in reverse and ran over her mother, injuring her severely. She spent time in prison for it and stayed well away from home and her family once she was released. When she gets word that her mother is missing, she returns home to help in the search and hopefully reconcile with her sisters. If she can get evidence that their abusive father is behind the disappearance of her mom, that would be even better.
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There are some twists and some tender moments, but definite animosity and hard times as well. I honestly did not love these characters, but I felt like I understood them and wanted so much for them.
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Gritty, tragic and real, this one will stick with me awhile. I think I need to go plant some flowers now.

This novel dives deep into the complexities of family trauma, fractured sisterhood, and the messy quest for both justice and healing. The premise is undeniably powerful—Providence's return home after years of estrangement carries emotional weight, and the tension between revenge and reconciliation is compelling. The story is sharp and unflinching, but the emotional intensity sometimes overshadows the pacing, making it harder to stay fully invested. A worthwhile read with strong themes and voice, even if it didn’t quite stick the landing for me.

✶ Every Sweet Thing is Bitter | Samantha Crewson ✶
🎧 ALC - Audiobook
★ ★ ★ ★ ➌.➐➎ /𝟻 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜

Thank you partner Dreamscape Media and #Netgallery for the Advanced Listeners Copy!

💭 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:

This book was heart wrenching but yet so empowering with deep depths of revenge.
Providence Byrd, a once troubled woman with a violent past that everyone in town knows her. The incident where complete rage took over and before she knew it she put the family car in reverse and ran over her mother.
She returns home when she finds out that her mother has gone mysteriously missing. As her family is already known and the talk of their small town, Coming back has haunted her to ever feel free.
Not only is she back to find her mother but she returns to face the old wounds and demons of her past. Including her abusive father.

As a lover of books that make you deeply feel I felt the emotional trauma Providence went through from her past. You see her try her hardest to save and be there for her siblings all while feeling rejection but in the end they all needed one another.

Abuse is a hard thing to overcome especially when it involves a family member that is suppose to care for you and protect you. You see Providence crumble to her past but prevail to her worst enemy, that’s also including herself.

If you have any triggers for self harm, mental and physical abuse this book may not be for you.

As it does have these elements I would recommend it to those who would love a medium paced, suspense that gives you the relief of knowing that there is hope and resilience to overcome anything and everything.

⁕ PUB DATE: April 22, 2025
Every Sweet Thing is Bitter is brought to you by Samantha Crewson, Dreamscape Media and Crooked Lane Books!

I really enjoyed the narrator for this and was rooting for the protagonist despite her flaws. It didn't stand out as anything profound but it was an enjoyable read

I wanted to love this, but I think I ultimately ended up liking the plot more than the actual story. This was about Providence, a woman who is freshly out of jail after she ran her mother over with her car 13 years ago. Her mother has since recovered and even though they are estranged, she's shocked to find out her mother is missing. Providence makes the decision to go back to her hell hole of a small town, face some of her demons, and try to get answers on what exactly happened to her. I think the reason I didn't connect with any of the characters and was unable to rate it higher is because I just didn't like them. I wanted to like Providence so much because I do think she has a good heart, but she ultimately just ended up saying the same things over and over without a ton of context. Her father was horrible, yes, but we were never really told exactly how. Just the same small little snippets. I should also add in that there was lots of talk from Providence about how she self harmed to deal with her past and it was... graphic. I did rate it higher then I normally would after taking into account it was a debut novel and I would still recommend to an avid reader. But if you're someone who only reads 1-2 books a month, this would be a skip for me.

I feel like this was such a great redemption story of Providence reunited with her family and getting the ultimate revenge on her father. Unfortunately, this can be all too common in the real world and a lot of people can probably sympathize with what her childhood was like with a father who was a violent drunk and a mom who wouldn't leave him and ultimately paid the price. It was very sad what all she had to go through but I am so glad she got the happy ending she deserved.

This one was a fast-paced read and consistently entertaining throughout. Although it was entertaining and fast-paced, I didn't overall love it- the book was stressful rather than suspenseful. I did enjoy this author's writing and will pick up a book from them in the future, I just don't think this one was for me. However, I think there is a large audience for this book, and I will be recommending the audio to others that I think would enjoy it.

“It boils my blood to think of people settling into their living rooms to consume my mother’s tragedy. They think of themselves as bystanders, but they’re fiends, nourishing themselves with someone else’s suffering.

There is nothing Americans love more than butchered women. Nothing captures our imagination so completely.”

An emotional and dark thriller, Everything Sweet Is Bitter follows Providence as she unravels the mystery of her mother’s disappearance while confronting the weight of her own lived trauma. The audiobook narration was outstanding, perfectly capturing the intensity and vulnerability throughout the story. While a few loose ends left me questioning some of the plot choices, I couldn’t put it down and finished it in a single day. Definitely read the author’s trigger warning at the start of the book before diving in.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I was really impressed when I found out Every Sweet Thing is Bitter was Samantha Crewson's DEBUT book. I really enjoyed it. I felt she wrote amazing characters. There was murder, family drama, found family, and of course the twists. I really enjoyed listening to this. Lindsey Dorcus was the narrator and really made the book. Overall it was a great edge of your seat mystery thriller. Right when you think you know whats going to happen a new twist slaps you in the face.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for a honest review.

Providence Byrd is one of the most interesting main characters I have read in a book. She is deeply problematic and her story is heavy. This involves a lot of toxic family dynamics and addiction. I would make sure you are ready for this story before you start.

My only note is that I like to think I have an extensive vocabulary and yet I had to look up words... a lot. Overall, this was a great story and an amazing start for Samantha Crewson.

When I saw that this was on BOTM, I immediately requested the audio to check it out! The performance and voice were solid and kept me engaged throughout.

The plot itself follows Providence Byrd who returns home to search for her missing mom—the same woman she was arrested for attempted murder after hitting her with her car years earlier. While this may have driven their relationship further apart, Providence was never out to get her mom—she wanted her abusive father dead, the man she believes is responsible for her mother’s disappearance now. Providence can’t leave until she tries to save her mom and sisters from the man whose presence has scarred them all in more ways than one.

This is dark and twisted in ways were difficult to hear in moments. Being a teacher, I’m aware of how trauma can appear in different ways in kids’ lives, but hearing their innermost thoughts over time is jarring. It’s hard to consider people, so young and innocent, wrecked inside and out forever. The trauma does, however, make a clear connection between the characters, their actions, and the development of their relationships.

The plot twists near the end in a way that, upon reflection, I feel could’ve been picked up. That said, I didn’t foresee it, so it caught me off guard. The didn’t seem to be significant repercussions of the twist in the end—which I recognize is for the greater good of the story’s overall ending. Overall, it felt a little weak or incomplete.

The bows are tied neatly and the story resolves smoothly after a great deal of chaos, leaving the sweet to overpower the bitter in the end.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty dark book about a family with addiction issues. I thought the story moved well. I thought I had it figured out, but was surprised.

The narrator was okay but she didn’t really do different voices for the characters. I thought that would have improved it.

I enjoyed this book and the audiobook narration. The narration was wonderful, it really brought the characters to life. 13 Years earlier, Providence ran over her mother and was arrested. Now present day, her mother has gone missing, and Providence returns home to help search for her. Reconnecting with her estranged sisters and father, along with old friends. This book was tense, emotional, unpredictable, and a quick read. Thanks, Netgalley and the publisher, for the advanced reader copy!

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rep : Lesbian MC, Includes Native American Side Characters, Self Harm

🏳️‍🌈Queer Thriller
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒Complicated Family Dynamics
🏚️Small Town Setting
🚓MC Went to Prison
❓Missing Mum

What I Liked
1) I absolutely loved the audiobook experience! I think the narrator perfectly suited the MC and really expressed the emotions she was going through well.

2) This book had me absolutely hooked! I expected this to be a pretty basic thriller going in but then discovered this book has so many layers. Complicated family dynamics, the failure of the prison system, dealing with childhood abuse, realising those who we idolised in childhood should have done more to help and then the actual mystery unravelling. I think this book could be very triggering for some people but also very healing so I'd definitely recommend checking a full list of trigger warnings.

3) So many of the scenes felt real. There is a scene where the abusive father comes home angry and everyone is trying to do everything perfectly to not trigger him into a rage. The tension in that scene was amazing and I think this book has some of the most realistic portrayals of dealing with abuse from parents I have ever seen.

4) I am always looking for more queer thrillers as I think they are severely underrepresented in the genre and if you feel the same I definitely recommend picking this one up!

What I Disliked
1) I think the reveal of what happened was just ok. I didn't find it very satisfying but I think all the other elements of the story certainly made up for it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media and Samantha Crewson for this ALC in exchange for an honest review