Jessica Payne’s latest thriller is gripping, exciting and full of suspense. Lots of twists and turns that came out of left field. It starts off with a bang and just keeps going. I could not put this book down. I wasn’t sure who was guilty of what till the very end. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release. To be published March 2024.

Book Title: Never Trust the Husband
Author: Jessica Payne
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Pub Date: March 5, 2024
My Rating: 4.3 Stars
Pages: 357

The story is based in Seattle and revolves around Madeleine Hughes three years ago and Rebecca today.
Newspaper announcement
Madeline Hughes marries Benjamin North in a ceremony fit for Royalty.
A few days later
Madeline Highes-North missing - presumed drowned.

The Prologue starts with Madeline (Maddy) and Benjamin (Benji) on a 10-day backpacking trip aka honeymoon – that includes Gwyn- Madeline’s best friend as well as other close friends.
On the first night there Madeline has her camera ready and wants to take a time-lapse photo as a memento. She creeps out of the tent sets up her tripod etc. then returns to the tent and will return later to see her results. However later turns out - with hands on her shoulders and then she is flying over the cliff.

Now three years later Benjamin and best friend Gwyn are engaged!
Hymm
Rebecca is someone from Madeline’s past; she calls herself an observer and is investigating Madeline’s death which appears to be a murder. She is convinced that Benjamin or Gwyn
(the best friend) were responsible for her death.
We find out that Madeline inherited the family’s fortune and is worth approximately twelve Million dollars.
Story kept me curious as to what really happened!

As always I love reading the Author’s notes as to their inspiration for the story.
~ In :A Letter from Jessica” Ms Payne tells us that as a busy mom and wife of a hard working husband, she loves to run and would find time at 6 am As she ran it was often still dark and she noticed how she could see into people’s homes. Her creative mind got spinning the threads of a story - what if a character hides in the dark and watches – and thus a character and a story begins. ~
Personal Note: perhaps her next story will be ‘The Stalker’?.

This is my fourth Jessica Payne story- I am a fan! I read and loved " Make Me Disappear, The Lucky One, and The Good Doctor"..
I was excited that she has out a new story!!

Want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture or granted me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 5, 2024.

Wow!… Tense and captivating… Full of twists and turns and shocks!… Raced through it, eager to find out the ending – which was just brilliant!’

Thank you to ThrillerBookLovers Promotions, Bookouture, #partner, for an advanced e- copy of Never Trust the Husband in exchange for my honest review.

This is Jessica Payne’s fourth book and the third one I’ve read. I just love her books – they are twisty, addictive and totally binge-worthy and she has absolutely become a must-read author for me!

I love a good revenge thriller and this one takes the cake! It grabbed me from the beginning and kept me glued to the pages the entire way through. I kept thinking I had it all worked out, only to have the rug pulled out from under me multiple times. This book takes so many twists and turns, and while I did figure out one part – which in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this book by the way – it still managed to keep surprising me at every turn.

The characters in this book are so devious in their own right. Everyone has secrets and I loved trying to figure out what they were. This isn’t your typical revenge plot – it is so much more. Payne takes that trope, flips it and adds her own unique spin to it, giving us a thrilling, unique story that has you reading just one more chapter until you reach the end. And having the story move back and forth from the present to the past just adds to the tension and the suspense. The breadcrumbs are laid out…will you be able to figure it all out before the reveal?

I cannot recommend this book enough! It’s the perfect book to get lost in and I guarantee you won’t want to put it down once you start reading it!

The prologue starts with Madeline, camping somewhere in the mountain, with her husband and all of their close friends. But, that day, Madeline will die.
Four years ago, Madeline met Benjamin North, winery and vineyard owner, and she didn't expect she would fall in love with him.
Present time, Rebecca, starting over with her new identity, working as a travel nurse and she is keen to find out who murdered Madeline.

People say it's always the husband, but is it true? How about the jealous best friend? How about the husband's ex wife?

It's definitely an unputdownable book with a few suspects that when you just thought "oh this one is the murderer", you'll soon doubt yourself again.

Maddy is recently married and is on a hiking/camping trip with her husband and their friends. One night while everyone was asleep, Maddy slips away to take some photos and doesn’t return. Maddy has been missing for about three years. Maddy’s husband, Benjamin, and her best friend, Gwyn, are now together, engaged, and moving on. Rebecca is determined to find out what happened to Maddy and believes Benjamin and/or Gwyn had something to do with it and sets out to discover the truth. But who is Rebecca?

This book has dual POV between Maddy leading up to her disappearance and Rebecca in present day investigating Maddy’s disappearance.

Wow! This is an addicting, page turning psychological thriller! So many twists & turns that keep you reading!

Love that this book has short(er) chapters! Love that the book keeps you pulled in right to the end! Loved the book!

'A love story gone wrong resulting in the ultimate revenge' is the crux of Jessica Payne's latest thriller.

When Madeline Hughes, a self-confessed cynic about love, decided to marry Benjamin North, no one was more surprised or more jealous than her best friend, Gwyn. After all, Madeline was getting the life that Gwyn had always wanted. But now three years later, with Madeline, who had gone missing on her honeymoon, being declared dead and Benji announcing his engagement to Gwyn, Rebecca, Madeline's 'friend' is forced to accept the truth that Madeline didn't simply vanish from the cliff where she had been backpacking with her husband and friends; she may have been pushed. Rebecca may not have been able to save Madeline's life, despite all the warning signs and red flags, but she sure would avenge her death.

After The Lucky One and Make Her Disappear, choosing to read a Jessica Payne was a no-brainer. The blurb had me hooked and the short chapters made for a quick read. However, the manner in which the story unfolded made it too easy to suss out the culprit and their motive. The supposed plot twists - Rebecca's identity, among others - glared one in the face from the beginning that their reveal brought about no surprise/shock factor.

For a badass heroine who kept declaring revenge throughout the narrative, Rebecca seemed to be quite gullible. Also, I wasn't convinced by how Rebecca, who had no formal training, could pass off for a nurse with none the wiser, since patient care isn't exactly a clerical job that one can easily fudge. Much as I wanted to give a 5 star rating, my brain was stuck on these points.

Overall, a promising premise, an okayish in-between and a satisfying ending. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it!
This was a great murder mystery that kept me guessing all the way through the book! Author Jessica Payne did an excellent job at creating an engaging novel that had so many twists and turns and a great ending. Just when you think you have it all figured out, another character seems guilty. I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of what Jessica Payne writes.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an eArc for my honest review!

Who pushed Madeline off a cliff and killed her? Was it her new husband, Benjamin, or her best friend, Gwyn? Now, Benjamin and Gwyn are engaged, so things seem suspicious. "Rebecca Johnson" is back in town to find out and bring her killer to justice.

To be honest, I struggled with this book after reading the first few chapters. The beginning was intriguing, but then the back-and-forth chapters started happening and I am just not good with that. It's a me thing. But then the story got super interesting in the present and I was sucked in. Some of the twists I didn't see coming and a big one I guessed correctly. I binged it until the end as I needed to see how it all it ended.

Thank you to Bookouture, NetGalley and @ThrillerBookLoversPromotions for the advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to @thrillerbookloverspromotions and @bookouture for the #gifted copy of the book.

Jessica Payne has easily become a favorite author with this book! This is my second book of hers and I could not put it down! Imagine swearing off marriage and deciding you will just date for the hell of it. Well, that was Maddy until she fell head over heels for Benji. She has it made. Money. Looks. Friends, but one of them wanted her dead. One of them pushed her right off the cliff on her honeymoon, but she didn’t die. 4 years later she is back in her hometown and out to find out who killed her and get revenge.

Was it her best friend Gwyn who is conveniently shacking up with her husband? Was it her husband? Is it her jealous half-sister or is it one of her other friends?

There were so many twists, so many secrets, and so many lies. I really didn’t see it coming! Don’t miss this one!!

The prologue for this book starts things off with a bang! We meet a woman named Madeline, out stargazing and taking pictures right before she is pushed off a cliff, three years prior. Half of this book is about her during that time in her life, when she met Benjamin North and became a wife, then died on their honeymoon.

Rebecca is the other half of the book, as she tells us things from the present. She has come from Kansas City to Seattle to find out who killed Maddy, and avenge her death. She soon realizes that Benjamin has gotten engaged to Madeline’s best friend, Gwen. They are living in the house that Benji and Maddy shared, and Gwen seems quite happy to have gotten the position she always wanted: the wife of a wealthy man.

As the book bounces back and forth, red flags and red herrings start to come out everywhere. The reader is given so many questions, and so many options as to what is really going on. I did guess part of the ending, which is always a bit annoying, but there were still plenty of surprises in store! The writing was also very cohesive, despite going through the past and present.

I requested this because I am a fan of the author, and because I someone say it was the perfect popcorn thriller. I was in the mood for that, so read it I did. This didn’t disappoint - four stars!

(Thank you to Bookouture, Jessica Payne and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on March 5, 2024.)

Wow, what a great read. Twists and turns at every stage. Thought I’d worked it all out and then I’d read more and I’d review my thoughts, this happened a few times. Definitely recommend

I appreciate Jessica Payne, Bookouture, and Thriller Book Lover Promotions for the ARC.

Rebecca conceals her true identity while grieving her friend Madeline's death and investigating the circumstances surrounding it. As she delves deeper, she uncovers shocking truths, leading to a compelling, dual-timeline narrative that keeps readers engaged until the very end.

Jessica Payne's latest work showcases a gripping psychological thriller that builds tension and delivers unexpected twists. "Never Trust the Husband" receives top marks from me, and I eagerly anticipate Payne's future projects.

I absolutely love this one. It kept me guessing until the very end. I would definitely recommend this one to wants to read thriller with lots of guessing

When I first started reading Never Trust the Husband... the story felt familiar. An old time tale.. always look at the spouse when the other spouse dies, right? Who has the most to gain, who has the most to lose, and who was secretly messing around with someone else behind someone's back, etc.

'Never Trust the Husband' is none of those things. Nothing is what it seems!

That's what makes this great because I absolutely had not read this ending before!! I think parts of it felt anticlimactic as to the reasoning behind the villainous actions - but as a whole, I really needed every page to put the puzzle together! (If you're a thriller reader - you know that's half the fun!!)

**I read this is in a day so if you're looking for a quick thriller - this could be your next pick!

**Thank you to Bookouture & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I received this book for free, but all thoughts are my own. – SLR 🖤

Very good! I could not put this one down. I felt like I was the victim in the story. So many twists but ended how I thought it would. Would highly encourage people to read this thriller!

A captivating and unhinged thriller. Fast-paced and full of unexpected and shocking twists. One of Wayne's finest.

This is the first book I’ve read by Jessica Payne and it definitely won’t be the last. I was gripped from the start. I loved the dual POV between Maddy leading up to the death and Rebecca who is trying to avenge Maddys death. I was on the edge of my seat with every chapter and could not put it down, the twist and turns were amazing. All I can say is expect the unexpected with this book. Absolutely amazing.

Thanks to Net Galley and Bookouture for this ARC!

This is the fastest I’ve read a book with just my eyeballs in a long time! Audio has been my life force for a while now but this sudden snowfall and impromptu long weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to binge this twisty thriller! Jessica Payne can do no wrong and proves yet again she is a master of twisty plot lines!

WHAT I LOVED:

🖤 The main POV is a mystery narrator. You know she is a woman named Rebecca but she has changed her identity with the sole purpose of avenging Madison’s death.

🖤 Every character is sus. I love this because it makes it more difficult to figure out the twists.

🖤 There are multiple twists and all of them are shocking.

🖤 I love a PNW setting and this one is set in Seattle with a lot of emphasis on the Puget Sound.

🖤 The ending was action packed and full of jaw-dropping revelations!

This one will be available on KU on March 5! Mark your calendars and add this one to your lists!

I quite enjoyed this book , really loved the characters and the storyline . I thought I’d guessed the ending but there was an extra twist to the end . It lost a star for me as the tension wasn’t as good as I’d have liked. All in all a good book though that I would recommend.