This is one of the best books that I have read in quite some time. I was hooked immediately, and I was completely surprised by the ending!

Cady is a successful event planner who seems to have it all: a thriving business, a loving husband, a faithful dog named Champ, and a beautiful home. But when her twin sister, Dana, dies in a tragic accident, Cady's perfect life begins to unravel. A chance meeting with a grieving woman named Morgan sets off a chain of events that threatens to destroy everything Cady and her husband, Matt, have worked for. Cady embarks on a self-destructive path of obsession. She will stop at nothing to insert herself into Morgan's life and "help" her in any way that she can. Cady wants what's best for Morgan and has a quick answer and justification for everything that she has done for Morgan regardless of who or what is harmed.

The book is written from Cady's perspective to her late sister and gives glimpses into their past which provide a foundation for Cady's tendency for some of her current behavior and also as an update for Dana on events that have transpired since Dana's passing. Throughout the book, Cady's day-to-day responsibilities and focus have all moved towards Morgan and ultimately impact almost everything that she has worked so hard for. The ending of the book is perfection, and I definitely did not see it coming.

The author's style is a nice change of pace from the one chapter per character approach or the switching of each chapter between past and present used by many authors today. It is a quick read with characters that are interesting and easy to keep track of. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and I felt myself wanting to stop Cady from every escalating bad decision she made. It is so hard to believe that this is a debut novel - I was so disappointed that this is the only book released so far - I was ready for more! I look forward to new releases from the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

Loved this book, it was a little slow in the middle but by the ending I had whiplash! This was more suspense IMO, but regardless it was hard to put down once you get into it. I truly enjoyed this

Good Intentions by Marisa Walz is a gripping and emotionally charged read that left a strong impression. From the start, the story pulls you in with its intriguing premise and complex characters. While the pacing is somewhat slow through the middle of the book, the story never loses its emotional weight or sense of tension.

The ending comes on fast—almost too fast—and delivers a shocking turn that I didn’t see coming. It wraps up the main arc but leaves quite a few loose ends, suggesting that a sequel might be on the way. If that’s the case, I’ll definitely be reading it. There’s still so much more I want to learn about these characters and their futures.

Overall, Good Intentions is a strong debut that balances drama and suspense, with just a few pacing issues. Fans of emotionally complex stories with surprising twists will find a lot to enjoy here.

First of all, I want to thank Netgalley for letting me read this ARC. It was definitely full of emotions. It kept me guessing the whole time. The beginning was a little slow for me, but then bam, a twist, and you have my undivided attention. I am a little sad/upset with the ending. I totally guessed/expected it, but to leave me hanging like that. Please tell me there will be more.

The main character, Cady, has many flaws. In her case, if there is a decision to be made, she will make the wrong one all while trying to justify it, when it can't be justified. Each decision made is for Cady's benefit and hers alone. She does it to make herself feel better even though she claims she is trying to help others. She is selfish and a user. Cady uses everyone, her husband, her friend, those that work for her and even her dead sister. After a short while, I did not feel any sympathy for her at all. She suffers losses that are terrible but others around her have suffered too, mostly do to her poor actions. I felt more symapathy for them than I did for her. I will say the twist wasn't expected but at the same time, only reinforced my thoughts about Cady.

I received an e-ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story gripped me from the very beginning with the immediate realization that the main character (Cady) is stalking someone. The book feeds the reader pieces of information as doled out from Cady's point of view while she speaks to her twin sister, Dana. While it is evident that Cady has suffered tremendous loss, she seems to make every situation worse as she insists she knows what is best for the people she thinks she loves. Her codependency and lack of boundaries were appalling, but because it became clear that her intentions were not malicious, I kept wanting to see if/and when she would understand how inappropriate her behavior was. I could have gone without the final twist, but overall, this is what a psychological suspense book is all about.

3.5 stars!

I love a good villain—especially when she’s also an unreliable narrator—and this book nails that dynamic. Cady kept me guessing throughout the story, and I somehow genuinely didn’t see the ending coming.

That said, it’s a slow burn. The first half dragged a bit at times, weighed down by excessively descriptive internal monologue (and overuse of referencing Dana’s name). By the end, I found myself wishing for less time in Cady’s head and more focus on unresolved plot threads.

Still, the final twist landed hard, and there’s real promise here as a solid debut. With tighter pacing and focus, this author’s next book could be a knockout!

3.5 rounded to 4 because it was kind of fun to be in the mind of a delulu girly. While it started out pretty strong, the pacing slows way down after the first major event of the story which is within the first few chapters. I found there to be a lot of rinse and repeat scenes throughout the novel that I wished had been altered into more delulu action scenes or just condensed altogether. The writing style was interesting, but most of the characters lacked a certain amount of depth that I’m always searching for. Would read something else by this author just to see. Thanks to NetGalley for ARC access!

First let me say what a beautiful cover. This is a gorgeous design and being a person who will buy a book by its cover I would and will definitely purchase this one upon its release.

Cady is a high end event planner who has tragically lost her twin sister. While in the hospital waiting room she see Morgan a woman who has just found out her young son has died. Cady has the good intentions to get through her own grief but help this lost mother with hers.
In the beginning I felt great sorrow for each of these women but soon I started wondering and questioning Cady's true intentions. A very well written psychological adventure that kept me on the edge. While I was questioning many of Cadys actions I had to remind myself that we never know what we would do in the same situation.

Hard to believe this is a debut book. I look forward to reading future books by Marisa Wall


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advanced E-book in exchange for my honest review.

Cady, a high-end event organizer, loses her pregnant identical twin in a car accident, then becomes obsessed with a woman named Morgan who loses her son on the same day. Cady's fixation warps into a pattern of stalking and telling little "white lies," even as the two women are drawn closer together by their participation in a grieving support group where Cady misrepresents the details of her loss. The story is written as Cady's confessional account to her late sister Dana, revealing the good intentions behind her increasingly absurd behaviors. I was drawn in by the humorous narration and the sympathetic tone in regard to Cady's grief. I expected more of a domestic thriller based on the premise, but it's more of a comedy-drama with a dark underpinning, not dissimilar from a show like "Dead To Me" or a movie like "Twinless." The ending left me wanting in terms of a more finite resolution, but I enjoyed the story overall and would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for. the eARC!

A Psychological Suspense to Die For!🥀

Good Intentions- by Marisa Walz

🩸Blurb🩸

Cady has worked hard to have a good life.
She has a thriving luxury event-planning business, the man she's loved since she was seventeen, and a social calendar she can barely keep up with. She also has Dana, her identical twin, her beyond best friend, her most trusted confidante. When Cady gets a call that Dana has been in a serious accident and arrives moments too late to say goodbye, her world falls apart.
But to Cady's family's growing concern and confusion, it's not Dana's death that consumes her. It's Morgan, a grieving mother Cady encountered in the hospital waiting room, the day her sister died. It can't be a coincidence, that they both experienced tragedy at the same moment, in the same place-Cady doesn't believe in coincidences. Instead, she is convinced that she must help this stranger overcome her tragedy, in order to come to terms with her own.
Or...is there more to it? Is it possible that Cady wants something else from Morgan?
Something she can't even admit to herself?

🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀

A gripping read that will have you wondering WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!

When we first meet Cady it seems as though she has everything she could ever want. That is until the death of her twin sister and best friend, Dana. It is only then that you realize Cady’s character is going through hell.. to put it lightly…

Stricken with unbelievable grief, and what I can only imagine is PTSD from the tragic death of her sister.. she develops a very deep, intense and almost scary connection with Morgan, a grieving mother whom she met in the hospital the day her sister died.

What follows is literally the definition of “What the Hell is Going On Here?!”

An absolute page-turner that you won’t want to put down!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A huge thank you to the Author, as well as NetGalley for allowing me to ARC read for you.

I gave it a 3 (could have been a 4), but it’s just too long. This psychological thriller is a page turner and Cade is deliciously rotten to the core. I loved hating her. Wildly successful as an event planner, her twin sister’s death in a car accident sends her spiraling down paths that leave the reader in a perpetual state of jaw drop (not a spoiler, the book opens with this). Twin sisters who were “naturally” best friends. A perfect husband who can’t be reached the day of Dana’s death. Two strange encounters in the ER that day. Cade I loved hating you.

The book is too long. It doesn’t need every deviant thought in Cade’s addled brain. As I looked at the percentage still to be read (I read on an iPad) at about the 75% point I knew I was going to start skimming to the end. Consider an edit.

The story starts with the tragic death of Cady’s twin sister, which serves as the foundation for the entire book. The main character, Cady, is deeply obsessive and unreliable, but I found being in her head more frustrating than anything. She often comes across as miserable, and her reactions to certain events felt overly dramatic or unrealistic at times. Her messy obsessions and choices end up unraveling the people and relationships around her.

The dialogue didn’t always feel natural, which made it hard to connect with the characters or understand their motivations. Some of the twists and plot choices felt a little corny to me, and I had a hard time fully buying into them.

That said, the pacing is quick, making it easy to read. For me, though, the lack of character depth made it hard to feel invested in the story. The ending delivers a surprising twist, but even that wasn’t enough to make up for my overall disconnect with the book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a review.

This was a fantastic read and I didn’t want to put it down. I was hooked from the very beginning as event planner Cady navigates the loss of her twin sister. This book looks at loss and obsession and Cady’s descent into a frightening level of obsession. What an ending!!

Cady’s twin is killed in a car accident and Cady becomes obsessed with a woman she sees in the hospital waiting room. Cady should be broken with grief but her emotions are focused on this person she doesn’t even know. Crazy twist!

Interesting psychological thriller surrounding the death of a sister, a twin to the protagonist, Cady. From the beginning, the book swirls around Cady’s obsession with her twin, Dana, to the point she fixates her grief onto a woman who was in the ER at the same time as Cady and who has lost her son. What falls is a decent into a madness of sorts for Cady as she follows the woman (Morgan) befriends her, and sneak her way into her life Other things are going awry in Cady’s life as well. The twist at the end makes this a good read, though it was slow going at the beginning. I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this ARC.

If the goal was to make me hate the main character then great job! I absolutely could not stand Cady, not a single redeeming quality in her. Every single thing she did and said just made me mad.
There’s allot of satisfying and frustrating drama going on from 60-85% of the way through and that was the best part of the whole book.

The story line is easy to follow, however, much of the book felt weighed down by filler that didn’t move the plot forward. I wanted more drama and confrontations with her employees, friends, and family instead of long stretches of Cady’s internal spiraling.
I hated being in Cady’s head the whole entire book, it was very exhausting and SO repetitive. It reads like she’s talking to her deceased sister in her head… and I was not a fan. I understand the purpose once the ending tied it together, but the execution felt more repetitive than impactful.

Overall, this wasn’t my cup of tea, but I do think Marisa Waltz has potential — especially with how well she captured the messy, emotional drama when it did show up.

“That’s the thing about inertia. It takes a lot more to keep a good thing going than it does to let a bad thing run its course.”

Although Good Intentions is not the type of book I generally read, the premise was interesting, so I gave it a go. And I really enjoyed it! I loved the unreliable narrator aspect and trying to figure out how both the past and present tied together. It was also interesting to see the way different characters struggled with and handled grief, as well as obsession and guilt. There were many twists and turns, and while I did guess the big twist pretty early on, that didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I was always on the edge of my seat, wanting to see what would happen next!

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time. It is very dark and tragic and follows one woman after another inexplicable series of losses and how she copes with grief in the aftermath. She is her own worst enemy and it is a page turner for sure to see how she copes. I really enjoyed the book, as it was a very unique look at someone grieving.

Lots of twists and turns at the end! Cast lost her twin sister and this novel really navigates grief and how it can make us do crazy things.