You Are Not Alone

some aspects of the book I found interesting but in my opinion, the situations that occurred between the characters and their dynamics were off.

Remarkable! This well-crafted tale builds in momentum from an intriguing and startling beginning to its breathless and heart-stopping ending. Be fore-warned: this story will keep you reading well into the night.

When I requested to read You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, I did not realize it was the same writing duo who gave us The Wife Between Us, but when I did, I was so excited to get started. And I was not disappointed. The story was full of twists and turns and all you can do is go along for the ride. When Shay sees a woman take her own life, Shay’s life begins to go in a different direction. But is it the right one? The story was captivating, intriguing and thrilling!

Happy reading!

I was given an ARC kindle copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book was great! The main character, Shay, is leading a non eventful life. Living with her roommate Sean, who she’s secretly fallen in love with. One day her world changes drastically when she observes a woman jump in front of a subway car. She’s drawn to this women, she wants to understand what happened to make her jump. Before she knows it, she’s at the woman’s memorial service and not knowing what to say to people asking how she knew the woman she lies. A couple of the woman’s friends befriend Shay and before she knows it Shay is in way over her head. Are these women really her new friends? Or do they have an agenda? Kept me guessing until the very end.

Of the 3 books written by this duo, this one was my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good read and Hendricks & Pekkanen are a writing force to be reckoned with, but this one just did not have the same sizzle as The Wife Between Us and Anonymous Girl.

The first issue I had was the too large cast of characters. I had a hard time keeping the secondary characters straight. I couldn’t remember all the friends in the circle and for lack of a better phrase, “who’s who in the zoo”. After a while, I just gave up and didn’t really care.

I liked the short chapters and the fact that the story moved along at a good pace, but there was no big “aha” moment. One of the best aspects of The Wife Between Us was the mid-point twist (which is a doozy) and then the final twist which closed all of the loops. You Are Not Alone didn’t have any “big” moments, the story just unfolded and there wasn’t anything that left me with my kindle in my lap and my jaw hanging open.

I am clearly in the minority with enjoying the book but not being blown away by it, so I would highly encourage you to check it out for yourself.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

As the story opens, Shay Miller lives in the Murray Hill section of New York City with her friend, Sean. She is secretly enamored with him, but he has recently acquired a girlfriend, Jody, who is annoyingly spending more and more in the apartment. That causes Shay to feel increasingly unwelcome in their shared home and spend time away from the residence. Shay is a market researcher who analyzes data to assist companies with decision-making about their product offerings. Since she was eleven years old, she has maintained a data book full of statistics and obscure facts.

Shay’s life is disrupted on a quiet Sunday morning when she finds a gold necklace with a dangling charm resembling a blazing sun lying on a concrete subway platform. Before Shay can ask the woman standing near her if she dropped it, the woman jumps in front of a speeding train. “One minute she existed, and the next, she’d been erased.” Deeply shaken, Shay has no idea at that moment that her future has just been irrevocably altered.

Shay becomes obsessed with Amanda Evinger, the woman whose death she witnessed. Amanda was about Shay’s height and age, with a pleasant face. Why would Amanda take her own life, especially in such a violent manner?

Shay learns Amanda’s identity and attends a memorial service in her honor. There she meets Cassandra and Jane, glamorous sisters who own a public relations firm. They take an interest in Shay and welcome her into their sisterhood of friends. The fast-paced thriller details the skillful way in which Cassandra and Jane ensnare Shay in their tight circle of friends. Pekkanen and Hendricks reveal the background of each woman and how she came to be affiliated with Cassandra and Jane. And while each character’s backstory is intriguing in its own right, the story is all about Shay.

Shay lacks self-confidence and considers herself lucky to be embraced by Cassandra and Jane because she really has only one close friend who is a new mother with limited time to devote to Shay. She eagerly accepts suggestions from Cassandra and Jane about how best to enhance her appearance. She is thrilled to be included in get-togethers with the women, and grateful for their offer to housesit in a glamorous apartment ostensibly owed by one of their friends that she could never afford on her own. Sean has informed Shay she must move out of the apartment because Jody is moving in. So the housesitting assignment affords her time to secure an apartment of her own. Shay has has no idea what Cassandra and Shay are actually up to, or why they are so interested in her. But her unrelenting obsession with Amanda and every aspect of Amanda’s life causes her to make reckless choices in the name of obtaining data that will help her understand why a young, beautiful woman would end her life prematurely. What Shay doesn’t realize is that every revelation about Amanda’s history, every detail she uncovers about Amanda’s circumstances and motivation to end her life, puts her further in danger.

Pekkanen and Hendricks gradually reveal Cassandra and Jane’s actual mission, what part Amanda played in their scheme, and why they must now ensure that Shay either does not uncover the truth or, if she does, is deemed so inherently unreliable that she poses no threat to them.

You Are Not Alone is full of twists and surprises that propel the story forward. Shay is a smart, compelling, and likable character. She’s a young woman on her own in America’s largest city — a place where people are surrounded by other people, yet often experience isolation and loneliness. You Are Not Alone is a tale about vulnerability, and how Shay’s need to feel loved and welcomed into a community of women inspires her to tale actions that put her life in danger. Indeed, Cassandra and Jane instantly recognize Shay’s susceptibility and capitalize on it, as Shay hungrily basks in their attention. Pekkanen and Hendricks illustrate just how deceiving appearances can be, and the perfect personae cultivated by Cassandra and Jane belie an agenda and secrets the conniving sisters will do anything to protect. When Shay finally realizes that her life is in danger, the story’s pace accelerates as she relies upon her instincts and the data she has meticulously documented for so many years to outwit the sisters and stay alive. For good measure, Pekkanen and Hendricks deliver a shocking conclusion that readers may find controversial.

With You Are Not Alone, Pekkanen and Hendricks further establish themselves as premier storytellers focused on female-centered thrillers.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.

This is actually something that could happen . I found it mesmerizing

Obsession, revenge, murder and lies and told from multiple points of view. You Are Not Alone started out slow for me, with the building of characters and plot, but the last third of the book was on the edge of your seat good! I recommend this book to those who like psychological thrillers. I have enjoyed other books by these authors and can’t wait for the next one.

I have really enjoyed all of the other Hendricks and Pekkanen books but this one just fell flat for me. I was interested enough to keep reading through to the end but the character’s motivations didn’t feel realistic. There was a twist but not one that caught me off guard or blew me away. I don’t regret reading it but it was just so-so.

I love a book that sucks me in and keeps me turning the pages. YOU ARE NOT ALONE sucked me in and kept me turning pages. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are masters of the psychological thriller. Their brand of women’s fiction is edgy and sharp. When you think things are moving in a very specific direction, they are not. The tale twists and turns and twists again until you have to keep reading to find out how everything will ultimately work itself out.

The opening action scene, on a New York City subway platform, put me in mind of “Orphan Black” insomuch as it made my skin crawl. That’s where the similarity to the successful sci-fi series ends. There is tension with purpose in the writing that makes it nearly impossible to put the book aside. I do a great deal of my reading at night before I go to sleep. I started YOU ARE NOT ALONE when I went to bed and read more than half before my eyes literally closed. When I awoke in the morning, the first thing I did was pick up the book and finish it.

I won’t give anything away here. You need to pick up a copy and read it for yourself. I promise, you will not be disappointed.