Believe Me: The twisty and addictive thriller from bestselling author of The Girl Before

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Those are always the most interesting characters: the ones who deceive themselves. Because sooner or later, the deception always falls apart.” One thing I always remember about studying Baudelaire was his passion for contrast. Highlighting the incredible beauty of the grotesque and challenging our sense of propriety. Baudelaire pushed boundaries beyond many poets and writers of his day. His poems tend to leave me breathless. They leave me mesmerized but disgusted. The beauty of his words and verse contrasted with the dark imagery are really something to behold. Claire is our lead here and not entirely reliable. She’s forced into some situations that are less-than-ideal but makes the most of them. And Delaney – via Claire – gives us a lot to consider. Sky, now called Anna, preys upon Susie’s guilt-but is she genuinely interested in a relationship with her-or could there be an ulterior motive at play?

I read that Delaney had actually written a book like this nearly seventeen years ago, under a different title. The book was published but didn’t take flight. When Delaney went to republish it following his recent success with The Girl Before (which you should really go read), he felt that there were flaws in the original work. He rewrote it from scratch and says it is “completely different in plot, characterization, and structure.” Well, Mr. Delaney, I did not read the original version of this book, but I would like to go on record saying that this recreation of your original idea is a true masterpiece. That’s what you’d think if you saw me here, perched at the bar of this corporate-­cool New York hotel, trying to make my Virgin Mary last all evening. Just another young professional waiting for her date. A little more dressy than some of the other women here, maybe. I don’t look like I just came from an office. I did think the novel suffered from too much telling, and not enough showing. There was a lot of info dump and over explaining, and it slowed the plot down. An average read, but definitely not my favourite by J.P. Delaney. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession. Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide. This is a well researched novel, I like the psychology and legal sections as they make the whole thing feel very authentic. As the storyline builds I think some situations may be a tad unlikely, possibly even implausible but it does make for darn good fiction and that at the end of the day is what we as readers are after. Claire is an accomplished actress, one of the best in her class. She identifies as an "actress." That is who she is. But, what happens when the line between fantasy and reality blur? What happens when Claire gets too deep in her role? And what happens when Claire loses sight of herself.. When she can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction? This is an excellent read and will be a bookclub treasure as there are a lot of breathless discussions to have.

I vacillated in my feelings about this book. At times, I found it totally unbelievable. But I found myself appreciating Claire’s observations, especially relating everything to acting. The writing isn’t overly dramatic. But a few good turns of phrase to paint a complete picture. “Only Kathryn is as full of restless energy as ever, a terrier eager for the kill.” Fifteen years ago, Susie Jukes made the difficult choice to give her newborn daughter up for adoption. At times this book is written like a play (or maybe a script) in keeping with the part of Claire being an actress and giving performance. There are also a lot of quotes from Baudelaire's Les Fleur du Mal (his book on S&M Poetry) thrown in.She’s an actress but a student of the Constantin Stanislavski method which suggests you don’t ‘play’ a character. You become it. You ‘immerse yourself in the emotional truth of a part until it’s a part of you.’ And her quite-attentive teacher, Paul, seems to be impressed by her talents…. which come in handy for her part-time job/s. A dark and haunting thriller . . . A superb evocation of conflicted emotions, this never lets you guess what’s coming next.” — Daily Mail I know what you're thinking, Claire's method's come off a certain way but I'll tell you that what you're thinking is not AT ALL what happens. You'll have to read to find out more. I enjoyed the Author's other book "The girl Before" and was hoping to be blown away by this book as I was by that book. Sadly, I just did not connect with this book. Yes, it is well-written, but I just didn't care about any of the characters to even care what happened to them. There are some twists and turns along the way with lots of lies, deceptions and revelations. Even with the twist and turns I was underwhelmed by this book. I may be in the minority on this one but it just felt flat to me.

This is Traveling Sisters GR Reading Group Review and it can be found posted on our themed book blog Two Sisters Lost In A Coulee Reading. The book also features poetry by Charles Baudelaire, a French poet known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil). The serial killer is thought to be re-enacting the perverted scenes from the poems. I didn’t enjoy the poems and skimmed most of them. Thank you to Random House Publishing-Ballantine and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was quite a foray into a very twisty psychological thriller mode. We meet the main protagonist, Claire, who is a British actress wannabe struggling to remain in the US and attain a green card. Previously there had been a "misunderstanding" in her native country and she came to the US in search of her big break. Claire flounders, is in need on money, and accepts a position in a law firm trying to ensnare wayward husbands so their wives could find out the truth about their mates. Told in first person through the eyes of Claire, a struggling British actress trying to reinvent herself in New York City, much of the book is written as if it is a script with Claire in the leading role. Although it is a novel idea in theory, I found it quite distracting at times.Through a series of circumstances, Claire is hired by law enforcement to try to seduce a confession from a murder suspect... or is she? I sat up and gasped more than once while reading this book having been completely taken off guard. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. A strong ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me.Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing - Ballantine and JP Delaney for an ARC of this novel in exchange for for an honest review. When her next "job" doesn't turn out as planned, EVERYTHING changes and things take a very dark turn. Claire is resilient and cunning, but can she do what she needs to finish this assignment?

An incredibly juicy, outlandish, addicting story that I had a blast reading. I read this one with The Traveling Sisters, and I think every last one of us enjoyed it. It gets 4.5 stars from me, rounded up. This was an enthralling story that left me not trusting anybody! I thought it was so uniquely told I loved the script aspects... I loved all the psychology and the criminal profiling... The poetry discussed in this book will probably resonate with others more than me... poetry not my thing, to be honest I didn’t even know this was a real poet... color me ignorant! This was a group read and fortunately my fellow sisters were kind enough not to make me feel stupid when I excitedly told them that Baudelaire was a real live poet!🤦‍♀️ MY DARLING DAUGHTER was so much more than what the synopsis suggested. This was a gripping domestic thriller riddled with moral dilemmas and the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture. It’s always in the eyes—that slight, almost imperceptible stillness as an idea dawns behind them. He turns the possibilities of what I’ve just said over in his mind. Decides he’s reading too much into it.Someone’s standing in front of me. A businessman, about forty-­five, wearing an expensive casual-­cut suit that suggests he’s something more than the usual executive drone, the collar lapped by hair that’s just a little too long for Wall Street.