US pub date: 8/13/24
Genre: suspense/mystery
Quick summary: Alex Marks lives a small life - until she applies to replace her favorite advice columnist and, against all odds, gets the job. But investigating her predecessor's murder will place her in danger...

If you enjoyed THE GOLDEN SPOON, I think you'll like this one too! I read all sorts of mysteries, from cozy to dark, and this one falls on the cozier side. I think a lot of the negative/meh reviews are coming from people who wanted a grittier story moving a mile a minute - this is not that story, but it doesn't mean it's not fun! I read it over 2 days and really enjoyed my armchair trip to NYC. I didn't see the twists coming, and I found myself satisfied with the ending. I also enjoyed the coming of age aspect of the story as Alex worked to build herself a new life.

If you find yourself inside on a rainy day, snuggle up on the couch and pick this one up! Or take it to the pool for a lazy mystery-filled day.

Thank you to Atria Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After really enjoying The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell last year, I was very excited to have the opportunity to read her follow-up novel! I don’t think I’ve heard the term “cozy thriller” before, but I think it’s a perfect description of what you get in this one. If you’re looking for a slow-burn, clever story that keeps you guessing, while also not making you try too hard, I Need You to Read This will be a great fit.

The story follows Alex Marks, a young writer who relocated to New York City for a fresh start in life and just landed her dream job of being the advice columnist for “Dear Constance”, a long running article in a famous New York newspaper. It’s bittersweet though, since the previous writer of the column, Francis Keen, was murdered months prior and the mystery is still unsolved. Soon after Alex starts her job, she feels a sense of responsibility to figure out what really happened to Francis and takes it upon herself to find her killer, while also still running from her own demons of her past.

I really enjoyed following Alex as a character, and I think there will be various pieces of her personality that readers will be able to relate to. Through Alex, the author paints an excellent picture of mental health struggles like anxiety and OCD, shown through things like ordering the same thing for breakfast every morning (guilty!) and systematically checking all of the locks in her apartment, and also feelings of imposter syndrome and little self-confidence as she starts her new job with big shoes to fill. There were other great side-characters as well that added a little more depth to the story.

While I enjoyed the reading experience as a palate-cleanser type of read, it landed in the middle of the road as far as overall rating for me. Even by the end of the book, it seemed like the storyline following Alex tracking down Francis’s murderer and the storyline of Alex escaping her past life never really intertwined like I hoped they would, and instead felt like two completely disparate plots that just happened to be happening to the same person at the same time. I enjoyed how the story kept you guessing as you turned the pages, but I also felt like the ending/twists were almost a little too predictable by foreshadowing. And while there were a few letters from the “Dear Constance” forum scattered throughout, I really wanted more of them!

All in all, I was entertained by this easy, slow-burn novel, and would encourage readers to suspend their disbelief and just roll with the story for maximum enjoyment. I think it would be a good introduction to “thrillers” for readers looking to dip their toe in without being too scared, but I do think readers should be aware of a trigger warning for domestic violence. Even though this one didn’t necessarily blow me away, I’ll still certainly continue to read this author knowing that I can expect a cozy, compulsively readable, palate-cleanser of a book when I need it.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This read was an ARC received by NetGalley and Atria and will be published August 13, 2024!

The idea of this was SO interesting to me! Taking over a job where the last person was murdered? Sign me up. Unfortunately, it ended up falling flat. The first half was so slow and nothing really happened. It did pick up in the second half. I liked some of the small characters, but the main ones I didn’t love! Overall, it was just okay, but not bad!

The title is also my advice: I need you to read this book. This one is a beauty and I love it. Funny, creepy, a little but grimy, its a writer suspense fantasy that I highly recommend.

I read Golden Spoon by this author and enjoyed it. The premise of I Need You to Read This intrigued me, but felt underwhelmed with the delivery. The self detective angle fell flat and some of the dialogue was unbelievable.

That being said, I appreciated the character development, the advice column angle was fun and the mystery was intriguing. I recommend looking up trigger warnings prior to reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6385788226

i’m new to this author and i was not disappointed by this! It kept me on the edge of my seat, i didn’t see the twist coming at the end and basically everyone and everything was so creepy and weird. the book has such a high level of mystery and mysterious people that it kept you wanting to read.

I loved the plot line of the story centering on a new author writing an advice column. I loved when you found out who the stand out letters were coming from.

overall, it was a fun time and i enjoyed it!

The cover of this book caught my attention and demanded that I read it. I was not disappointed. In fact, this book was incredibly easy and enjoyable. It wasn’t overly complex, it moved at the perfect speed, and it hooked me from the beginning.

I enjoyed the creepy vibes of Alex’s new job - writing the Dear Constance advice column. Her office is located in an old portion of the building, complete with its own mystique, noises, and history.

Alex visits a diner daily and has made 2 friends, who provide comedic relief as well as friendship. Despite all of their differences, the three of them make quite the trio! In the end, they will have each other’s back. I don’t know how to put my feelings about them into words, but I really enjoyed their characters.

Lastly, Alex “relives” a past trauma through previous letters she wrote to Dear Constance when it was written by Francis Keen. I like how this connects to the present day, explaining some of Alex’s personality quirks as well as adding to the plotline.

Every part of this book flowed and intertwined perfectly. I absorbed this book in a matter of a few days. It would have been quicker, but my time was limited. There was an element of mystery to be solved, wanting to know about Alex’s past, and finding the perfect letter to write her first column about.

I believe I had the ending pegged decently well, but I didn’t. There were some twists I hadn’t anticipated - and I loved it! I definitely recommend reading this!

I really enjoyed this book. It was different than anything else I've read recently. I couldn't put it down! I will keep an eye out for this author's future work!

Thank you NetGalley. This book was sooo good. I finished it within 2 days. I could not put it down. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I really loved this one, but I also went into it blind! If you go in expecting a thriller, you'll be disappointed.

If you expect this to be a cozy mystery with a twinge of hopefulness, you'll really enjoy this!

When the writer of a popular newspaper advice column is murdered, Alex applies for the opening on a whim. After all, the column means a lot to her and why not? When she gets the job, she starts to feel a connection to the woman she replaced and desperately wants to find her murderer. But when Alex starts receiving threats, she wonders if her own past is catching up to her. Or maybe she's in danger because she's gotten too close?

This was a super fast read, and very similar to Agatha Christie in pacing and style. While I did find it a bit predictable (I read a LOT of mysteries and thrillers, so it's hard to stump me now), I still found it extremely entertaining and well written. Even though I had a theory and was sure I was right, it was still engaging and fun to read through to the end to see if I was right and how we got there!

My only complaint is that I wish we had more of the advice column bit, because hearing Alex's advice to the folks who wrote in was a great addition to the story. I loved reading "Lost Girl's" story through her letters to Constance as well--it was a great way to provide the backstory without making it seem like a flashback, and keeping with the general narrative.

If you're looking for a great cozy mystery, this one is absolutely for you!

LOVED! Another hit for me from Jessa Maxwell. I loved The Golden Spoon, and really enjoyed this one as well. This time she takes on the world of newspapers. Although the ending is a bit predictable and very detail-oriented readers will pick up on who the villain is early on, I still really enjoyed it.

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me. I rarely found myself reaching for the book to continue reading it, and it wasn’t the thriller that I expected it to be.

4/5

Alex is living the smallest life possible in the biggest city in America hiding out from her past, until one day a chance encounter and a bottle of wine inspire her to go after her dream job - writer of Dear Candence, a year after the murder of the beloved prior columnist.

With a twist of luck she gets the job, and she’s determined to do the previous writer proud; but is this job truly what it seems? When her boss begins acting shady and her assistant convinces her he’s dangerous she starts pulling at the thread meanwhile her take on the column makes her an overnight success. With her new bold life propelling her forward she’s follows the clues to just what happened to her predecessor.

I loved the FMC, but found a the plot a bit more predictable than I wanted it to be.

Alex is a freelance writer with a secret. She loves the advice column in the newspaper. Months after the writer is killed, Alex sees that the newspaper is looking to hire a new advice columnist. Not thinking she would get the job, she applies. What happens next is a slow burn.

Although I did think the premise was decent, and the twist was interesting, I did not think there was much substance to the writing. The book was not very long, but it could have been even shorter. I thought there was a lot of filler in the pages and not a lot of character development or plot movement. All of the action comes at about the last 5%-10% of the story. We are invested in who killed Francis, the advice columnist, for the whole story. It ends up being a very minor part of the book and I feel like it was kind of gloss over.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for these ARC an exchange from my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book for an honest review. This book kept me turning pages from day one. It ended with twists I did not expect. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves action and twists. It did not have a dull moment in it. #netgalley

I Need You to Read This
by Jessa Maxwell
Pub Date: August 13, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGAlley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
The author of the “clever, atmospheric, and creepy” (Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author) The Golden Spoon returns with a sly and addictive new mystery about an advice columnist searching for answers about her predecessor’s murder.

Her most important letter might be her last…
I think this book suffers from incorrect advertising - it's billed as a mystery/thriller, but is more of a cozy mystery: light and breezy, which is not how I like my mysteries/thrillers to be. If this book were a movie, it would be a Hallmark one.

Unfortunately, I feel the same about this book. Additionally, the pacing is brutally slow, the character development lacking (which is even more painful in a slow burn of a book), and the ending anticlimactic and almost embarrassing. This one was not a hit for me.
3 stars

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up.

Thank you Simon and Schuster/NetGalley for the ARC! I really enjoyed The Golden Spoon so I was very excited to hear about Jessa’s latest. While this wasn’t as fun as The Golden Spoon (what can beat a baking show x murder?) — I do think Jessa stepped up the twists and harder topics.

Some of the chapters seemed a bit unnecessary, ex: the chapters having to do with Raymond’s confession seemed to have no real point in the end. Did we ever find out if Sam is okay? Etc.

I overall really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. I really appreciate shorter chapters and a likeable FMC. Would recommend this as a lighter palette cleansing thriller!

Loved the golden spoon but struggled with this one. Not my favorite. Very slow story. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

A slightly disappointing second novel that followed much of the same path as Golden Spoon, though with fewer perspectives which I appreciated. That book was slightly confusing with all the jumps each chapter.

I agree with others that this wasn't entirely a mystery or entirely a thriller. Needed to be nudged into one or the other category rather than the random midpoint it settled into. Much of this book felt that way, slightly unfinished. The backstories to the secondary characters from the diner just kinda meandered and there was never any resolution or real commentary on them. Would have been better without at least one of them. Even the resolution of the novel was half hearted. It just felt like this was rushed out after her first novel did so well.

Up front, I have to say this didn’t strike me as a thriller. I did not receive any thrills, and I think if it was listed as a pure mystery, maybe even with some slice of life elements, I might not have been as dissatisfied.

After submitting an application in a (slightly tipsy) act of loyalty to her all-time favorite & recently murdered advice columnist at The Herald, Alex Marks is hired in her dream job: the new writer of Dear Constance, AKA the replacement for the aforementioned recently-murdered columnist. Almost immediately it becomes apparent the position is less than a dream: her boss semi-accosts her drunken in the hallway, the receptionist hates her in a knockoff “Emily Blunt in Devil Wears Prada” way, she’s working 12 hour days, and there are rumors of sexual assault surrounding the editor in chief. Oh, and the previous columnist’s murder is still on the loose, and possibly sending Alex threatening letters.

Things that I liked! I liked how Jonathan talked about how much he loved Francis, that felt so genuine. I super related to the part at the beginning where she mentions buying fancy soap to try and feel like a normal adult, she’s real for that. Also, I like the moment toward the end when it really dives into Alex’s emotional connection to Dear Constance and Francis. Some elements of that were really so touching, though I do feel like that particular emotional beat could have been used more effectively from the start of the book to make that scene at the end even more impactful.

Generally, the concept had potential to be thrilling and twisty, but it turned out slow and predictable for me. Part of the general slow, dragging pace can probably be contributed to the constant interruption of the mystery for non-plot driving scenes.

For one, the Dear Constance letters that I think are meant to add to the mystery but are a bit too obvious to accomplish that. The letters are also VERY long and don’t read like advice column entries, because they’re supposed to be conveying backstory, but it makes the detours that much longer.

Second, Alex also has a blooming romance with a banker who works across the street from her, and there are several flirting scenes and date scenes that really wrench the rhythm away from any tension that might have been building.

Third, one of Alex’s slightly goofy diner buddies ends up having a tragic backstory reveal, which felt so random and out of place & I’m not sure how it contributed to the story or characters.

I think this would be good for people who like mystery that’s not going to make them actually scared. There is for sure a market for that!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!