This was a pretty good book but unfortunately I was disappointed by it. The book itself was good and I enjoyed the story but everyone comparing this to Yellowjackets or Bite are really doing this book a disservice. This book is nothing like either of those things other than having queer women as the main characters. This book could never live up to that hype.
I say all that to say if you go into this book actually aware of what you're getting into you'll probably really enjoy this. Don't expect this book to be a masterpiece of a thriller or to really say anything. This book.is fun but that's really about it.

No Body No Crime by Tess Sharpe follows Mel a private investigator and Chloe who is on the run. They are tied together by a murder they committed on Chloe’s 16th birthday but also by the love they have for each other.

I had a great time listening to this story unfold. The narrator/ author did a great job of bringing this book to life for me. I could picture each moment like a movie playing in my head. I loved how both female leads weren’t scared to stand up for what they thought was right and to protect themselves.

yeah that was ridiculously good and i'm going to need 12 more just like it. No Body No Crime was captivating from the jump, and if it hadn't been day 2 of a new job that I started it I absolutely would have read the whole thing in one sitting. The characters were dynamic and interesting, the action sequences were believable and exciting, and the twists were twiiiiistyyyyy. All in all, spectacular.

rep: bisexual sapphic love story

spice: none

tw: murder, attempted murder,
manhunt, killer feral peacocks, kidnapping, plane crash, death

Tess Sharpe doesn't miss.

Which is honestly WILD because I usually only enjoy speculative fiction and yet I've only given all of her Contemporary Thrillers 5 stars. (Technically this one's 4.5/5, but I'm rounding up)

This is pure summer blockbuster adrenaline with some badass babes who are strong and capable and yeah, okay, maybe they killed someone. Let women have hobbies!!

Told in alternating POVs with multiple timelines and flashbacks, the story got juicier and juicier, the twists and surprises were genuine, the sapphic yearning was on point, the villains were villainous, and I felt the tension right alongside the characters.

Absolutely pick up Tess Sharpe if you haven't yet. The Girls I've Been and its sequel remain in my top favourite books of all time, and this is a worthy addition to Sharpe's catalog.

Audiobook Notes: Tess Sharpe narrates this book as she does for her duology I mentioned above. I actually really love her narration and think it's great to have the author be able to deliver all the intonation and emphasis she envisioned while writing it.
I will not that a friend has historically not loved her as a narrator (she likewise adores the duology but just didn't vibe with the audio) so different strokes for different folks. But as far as my personal experience I'd rank her narration as above average and with no notable issues of any kind.

3.5 stars. Lesbians on the run in Canada for righting women’s wrongs — what more could you ask for? I was a little confused at times with the multiple timelines and characters, but I was still invested and enjoyed the story. I didn’t see a couple of the twists coming, which I always love in a thriller. I enjoyed the audiobook, although I think this could’ve benefited from multiple voice actors to help differentiate between the different characters/POVs.

I personally struggled to get through this read. It's telling there was a heavy inspiration from Yellowjackets so it felt inauthentic to me.

First, let me say what a delight it is to listen to an audiobook narrated by the author. Being an author and being a narrator are two very distinct skill sets, and Tess Sharp excels at both.

This book is very fast moving, the moments to breathe are spaced throughout but they never linger long enough to bring on boredom. This is a multi timeline book, pingponging all over an 8 year span. The jumping from one timeline and POV to the next certainly brings a sense of urgency and "just one more chapter". Unfortunately, between multi timelines and the multi POV, I had trouble staying immersed. Each new chapter started with me figuring out who the POV was from, and then trying to figure out what point in the timeline we were at. If you were visually reading, I would assume this transition wouldn't be as jarring. But audibly reading throws you straight into the chapter without adjustment. While this is primary a dual POV, there were a few chapters from secondary characters.

If you're looking for a fast moving mystery romance to enjoy this summer, this is perfect for camping. I can perfectly picture listening to this while relaxing in a cabin or tent, bringing a sense of nostalgia.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced listener copy. All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.25 ⭐️

This is my first book from this author and I liked it! It was very fast paced and suspenseful. I enjoyed the sapphic badass women representation and I was hooked the whole time! I loved getting to see Mel and Chloe as both teens and adults but it almost made me picture them as teens the whole time so I kept getting myself confused (totally a me issue). I didn't get a lot of romance from this book though - its listed as a romance but I would call it more of a thriller with a dash of romance.

I appreciated the storyline jumping around a bit to give more context but it did get confusing at times. There were so many past chapters from different time periods I just didn't really understand. I found myself getting a little lost in the beginning since the author really just throws you straight into the story, but it does clear up later and it comes together in the end. There was SO MUCH action in the beginning but it did taper off a lot towards the end and get a little boring, which was disappointing. The villain's POV chapters were just kind of annoying and I found myself dragging to get through them. I know they are important and give context to the story but I was a little bored where I wasn't in the girl's POVs. The villains were much bafoons though it was funny.

I saw some other reviews mentioning Yellowjackets and I can totally see fans of that show loving this book!

I loved the characters and the story kept me on the edge of my seat - unput-downable - while some of the plot required a bit of suspension of disbelief, it was a fun story

This book hits the ground running and doesn't let up. Told through present scenes and past flashbacks, this story keeps up a propulsive, engaging pace. While the book is heavily plot-driven, both Mel and Chloe are well-developed characters. Mel in particular is an engaging take on traditionally straight male hard-boiled detectives. I enjoyed the growth and change of Mel and Chloe's relationship both in the present and flashbacks.

Tess Sharpe narrates the book herself, and while I'm sometimes wary of author-narration, hers was excellent. Characters were easy to differentiate, and pacing and tone were perfect for the book. I have read but not listened to other books by this author, and I would definitely listen to more narrated by her.

I will never love any book more than I love The Girls I've Been duology by Tess Sharpe. Nobody writes character-driven thrillers like her. I absolutely devoured this book. It's the first adult book I've read by her (the main characters are 24, so it's kinda like new adult, but I always struggle to define where the new adult genre begins/ends, LOL). I didn't love it as much as TGIB (I honestly wasn't expecting to, though, haha). But it kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt myself stop breathing at certain points (I kept having to remind myself "jules get a grip this is fiction these characters are not your friends"). Yes, not everything was realistic or believable, so you have to suspend your disbelief a little bit.

I feel like I'm in the minority here, but the dual timeline (more like multi-timeline, because there are chapters from when they are 16, 18, two hours ago, present, etc.) didn't bother me. It might be because I'm used to Tess Sharpe's writing style; this is how she writes all her books, and she somehow always delivers a cohesive story.

I wish we saw more of the connection between Mel and Chloe. I didn't really feel the love between them until the very end. I also wanted to see more of Mel's relationship with her brother, Ted (I also couldn't get a sense of how old Ted was. I don't think we're ever told this. I think he's older because he's homeless when she's 16, but she was very much the caregiver in their relationship. How much older though?). Overall I didn't feel like Tess developed the relationships between the characters as much as she has in her other books. I really loved Gigi and Whitney (Mel and Chloe's best friends).

I didn't care for the chapters from Rick's POV. I don't think they added a whole lot or told us anything we didn't already know. It did show us what a dumbass he is though, LOL.

So, I liked this book and I recommend it, but I don't consider it one of Tess Sharpe's best.

Sometimes I get sick of the perfect people with cute little lives and their romances. Tess Sharpe's books are all a triumph of dealing with the most traumatic and darkest things and still striving to overcome, and finding your allies.

I've loved every single Sharpe book that I've read because it is refreshing compared to the other stuff that I tend to read. I started with "The Girls I've been" and made my way from there through the majority of her works. She creates such a rich world of gritty characters doing their best in a dark world and she is so skilled in making characters and relationships that truly wreck me.

All that being said, this is not my favorite Tess Sharpe book. I still listened to it, I still enjoyed it to a point, but perhaps the fact that this is not my introduction to her work and instead the latest, her writing style, the situations, and the endless injuries, arguments, fractured timelines, and survival didn't feel as novel and some of the mechanisms of the story felt perhaps a bit off to me and/or I anticipated them this time.

I still tend to like the overall message of Sharpe's work, and if I hadn't listened to all of her other original books (rather than the IP ones), I probably would enjoy this one to the max as well. So someone who wants to read about a couple of badass girls surviving bad men and circumstances they shouldn't hesitate to pick this up.

The feral peacocks were fun though.

I received this audiobook for free from netgalley and am providing my unbiased review

I thought this book was decent. I listened to the ALC, and I wasn't completely captivated by it, but I enjoyed the characters. The plot delivery maybe didn't capture my attention very well... But overall it was a good FF thriller.

I really enjoyed this listen. It was a slightly unhinged, twisty, fun, summer thriller. There was lots of blood, killing, feminine rage, and even some sapphic kissing. A few plot points required quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, but if you're picking this up, you should already know what you're getting into. It was a quick read (even in audio), so I didn't feel like I needed to dwell on the parts that I didn't think work as well.

Tess Sharpe narrates. I'm usually kind of ambivalent about authors reading their own fiction. I have to say, she didn't do much to change my mind. While she was animated and did a more impressive job than some authors, she did tend towards exaggeration. She turned the dial to 11 and kept it there for much of the novel. I didn't hate it, but I can see how it would rub some people the wrong way.

Book: 4 / 5
Narration: 3.5 / 5

Overall, a strong recommend for me.

This one was… meh. The story was fun, if not convoluted at times. The narrator is really what killed this one for me. Something about her tone and cadence really threw me off. There are times where she drags out her words painfully slowly, then rushes through the next sentence so fast I missed it entirely. Enunciation is nonexistent and a lot of the character voices got on my nerves.

If this had been a written novel, it easily would have been a 4 or 5 star read, but the audiobook experience was subpar

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an advanced listening copy of this title.

There were parts I really enjoyed about this book. That combined, with the narrator (the author herself), is why I rated the book five stars.

However, there were parts of this book that I really didn't enjoy. The timeline jumping felt very random, and the scenes from the past didn't feel as fleshed out and put together as the scenes in the present did. We go straight into the past with Mel and Chloe's relationship already there. We're told that they've had feelings for each other, but we weren't ever really shown any of that. How did they meet? When did things start in relation to the night the past is revolved around? Show us that, not just tell us. I also think that Nat's relationship with Mel wasn't very well put together. Again we're told that they're close. But we're never really given a how or why. It made the scenes in the past feel very unmoored and jumbled.

It also felt like too many things going on at once with all the little mysteries thrown in together. It left things feeling a bit muddied. However, the scenes set in the present were the reason this book got a high rating. The older versions of Mel and Chloe felt very grounded. You could feel their shared history and their feelings for one another. And for that, I'm going to give the author's other books a try.

4.5 rounded up. I couldn't get through this fast enough to find out what was going to happen. I wish there was more of an "after", I'm so curious to know what happens right after the book ends. I would not be mad with a follow up!

3.5⭐️
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I felt like I was watching an 80’s action movie. The book is a perfect mix of action, suspense and comedy. Also, pacing was perfect.

How many times can "Bag of Dicks" can be thrown into this book? Not enough.

A fun, suspenseful tale about the repercussions of running from your past, holding murderers accountable, and the pull of your first love.

I loved this thriller romance from the author of The Girls I've Been. It feels like a grown up version of that book in a lot of ways, and since I'm a big fan of The Girls I've Been, I appreciated that. P.I. Mel has a lead on the girl who ran out of her life six years ago, but when she finds her hiding in the Canadian wilderness, it's clear she's on the run from something big. Claire never expected to see Mel again, but when the private plane they're flying home on crashes, the truth about what sent her running all those years ago finally comes out. Sharpe found the perfect balance between thriller, mystery, and romance in this one. I couldn't put it down. The dual timeline really enhanced the suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat as the story slowly pi9eces together everything that's happened to Mel and Claire. Full five star recommendation.