This is a difficult review for me to write as I hate to be negative, particularly when I have been sent a free copy of a book in exchange for a review. I know that every author puts their heart and soul into each book and for Jessica Lynch, this is her debut, so for her this will be her pride and joy. However, we are asked to provide honest reviews so, (with a heavy heart) this is what I will do.

The story is about Tessa who, along with her husband of one year Jack, is en route to a second honeymoon which she hopes will rekindle their troubled marriage. Whilst driving they experience car trouble and have to stop off in the very small town of Hamlet. On their first night there, staying in the only hotel in town, Tessa finds herself in the drunk tank for the night and Jack is murdered in their hotel room. Tessa finds herself as the prime suspect in the eyes of the local sheriff, Caitlin and the source of relentless ogling from one of her deputies and the local doctor.

There is the hint of a good plot lingering there somewhere but for me the painful element of this book is the language. It’s like all the characters are from a ridiculous old romantic novel where the women are all terribly frail, needy and stunningly beautiful or stubborn, jealous and feisty. The men are brooding and mysterious with chiselled features and cool blue eyes. You get my drift?

The men all instantly want to protect beautiful Tessa and words such as fragile and innocent are used disturbingly often and the suggestion that these big strong men can keep her safe is just achingly old and desperately out of touch. One of them seem to think it inappropriate to try to get involved with her with her husband only days dead at the hands of a murderer!

So many other things within the plot are patchy. The way Tessa is interviewed doesn’t seem right and the whole way her case is dealt with seems to me, despite my lack of experience of small town America, to be very strange and somewhat far fetched. The “twist” at the end did nothing to redeem the tale I’m afraid. Or at least, not in my eyes.

The character of Caitlin, the sheriff and ex wife of the local doctor and designated medical examiner, is irritating to the point of ridiculousness. Her inability to let go of her ex husband despite being years divorced and her neediness towards him seem to me to be yet another hugely stereotypical portrayal of a woman.

I’ll stop there as I think I have made it clear that I didn’t particularly enjoy this book. Others who enjoy a thrillers intertwined with schmaltzy romance may well love it. But it’s a no from me.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Loved it! I read it in less than 24 hours, it was hard to put down! Good characters, great story. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

Beware !! This book is creepy ! Jack and Tess are on their way to a second honeymoon destination when they get a flat . They have to spend the night in small town Hamlet and Jack hopes to get the tire fixed the next day . Then things go horribly wrong ! Tess winds up in jail and Jack is murdered ! Incredibly gripping page turner ! Sharp , well defined plot that is full of twists ! Jessica Lynch is a remarkable storyteller ! I highly recommend ! Thanks to #Netgalley and #BooksGoSocial for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review ! #DontTrustMe

4.5 stars for this well written quick fast thriller! I adore stories that take place in small towns/villages (under 200 residents) unable to be located on a map or on any GPS as Don’t Trust me does. A married couple Jack & Tess, who have lost their love for one another, getaway in an attempt to rekindle their spark. Every time I thought I had figured out where this story was taken me I was thrown in a different direction which leaves you on the edge of your seat from beginning to the end. I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review, Don't Trust Me by Jessica Lynch.
This book was a pretty fast and easy read, the story flows and the characters are believable...Tess and her husband are on their way for a 2nd honeymoon after being married for a year they are already drifting apart....they end up stuck in a seriously small town where things are about to happen that neither one of them saw coming.....or did they? There are numerous plot twists that leave you questioning what you think you know.

Short, rushed, and frankly annoying. The plot sounded great on paper, the actual execution of it was, at best, half-assed. I got a few pages in and spotted that I'd already read 30% which immediately made me think this was going to be rushed and I was right. Pace was far too uniformly fast. BAM, BAM, BAM, finished. I HATED the ending. The fact that the entire story is written/read one way and the ending shows a wholly different side/story was frustrating, confusing, and downright p'd me off. The "hint" of another murderer was so obviously fake you could spot it as soon as it happened, the fact that the author tried to use behavior that was so very opposite of the character until then made me believe this was a forced twist because otherwise, again, it would have been so obvious it hurt. Very little character development (obviously or you'd figure the ending out before you were 2 pages (aka 1/4) of the way in. I can see why this was rewritten/re-released in the hope of being improved, I hate to think how bad it was before. It reads like the author had a great idea, started well, then rushed to meet some imaginary deadline or shorter word count. It would probably make a good serial in a magazine where if you miss 3/4 of it you still know what happens as long as you read the first and last chapters.

I am a spoiler-free reviewer( because I have read reviews that reveal the main twist or ending with no warning). So I avoid that type of situation and stick to the book blurb and why I liked or disliked the book. Don't Trust Me opens strong. Jack and Tessa are in the middle of a long drive to a destination that will hopefully serve as a second honeymoon and get their strained relationship back on track. It is a dark and stormy night with incessant pounding rain and with several hours of driving to go, a flat tire means they won't be going anywhere soon. Jack and Tessa stumble on a very small town named Hamlet and hope to find somewhere to spend the night and someone to fix their tire come morning. Things quickly go horribly wrong when Tessa winds up in jail and someone murders Jack. Who in Hamlet could have a reason to commit murder and is Jack the only target?
This wasn't a story that kept me up all night furiously flipping pages but Don't Trust Me kept my attention and did have me trying to figure out who killed Jack and why. What better setting than a creepy little town with no cell phone service and the murder of an outsider who none of the residents would seem to have a motive to kill. The killer's identity and the ending were surprising( and I did one of those talking out loud to a book going what) and I started thinking about what type of clues had been given that had either totally mislead me or that I had just missed.
Overall, a good mystery and my first by this author. I will definitely check to see if she has written other books. The one thing that I think would have increased my engagement would have been to better understand the character of Jack before he died. As it was, it took a bit for me to get invested in the story since I didn't relate strongly to his being dead or alive.
Thank you, Jessica Lynch, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for the complimentary digital copy. Once again you have provided me with a good read and an introduction to an author I might have missed.

I haven't been able to download this one and sent the feedback in error. I read on my iPhone and only the Kindle edition was included for download unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.
A very enjoyable mystery with some unexpected twists. The writing was ok. Some of the sentence structure sloppy, could have used another round of editing, but doesn't take away from the plot which is very good. I didn't want to put it down... Kept thinking, "What happens next!?!" The characters are interesting. I have to give this one a 5 because of the plot and recommend it if your a mystery/thriller fan!

Thank you Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for this arc.

I made it through 37%% of the book before giving up entirely. DNF, just not for me.
I see where many readers have really enjoyed this book, and while the story and the premise was okay, I found the characters to be too flat and stereotypical to care about any of them (especially Tessa and Deputy Walsh). Also found the eerie, creepy tone of the book underwhelming.

This book was really good it kept me on my toes the whole time. It is about a young married couple who are forced to stay overnight in a small town called Hamlet. When Tessa the wife comes back from an unfortunate overnight in jail she finds her new husband dead. This is when detective Lucas starts looking at the case. This fast paced thriller amps up the suspicion fast and keeps you guessing through the whole book. I loved the main characters Luc especially he had a down to earth feel about him and he was very likable. I found the book had a pretty creepy feel to it which started early on and lasted through the whole story. Well done. This was my first book by Jessica Lynch and after that roller coaster of a ride it definitely won't be my last one. I think that my favourite part had to be at the very end I never saw it coming no matter how I looked at it. Great
read.

Tessa and Jack have been married for one year but they’ve lost their romantic spark and decide that a trip away will rekindle their relationship. While enroute to their destination it’s clear that there’s zero chemistry between them and only a scrap of mutual respect to be found. The couple are on autopilot and the trip doesn’t solve any of their problems. Before the night is over, Jack has been strangled to death and Tessa has been detained for attempting to drive drunk. Tessa becomes a suspect for all of five seconds but then the investigation leans toward identifying one of the locals as Jack’s murderer. Before the book ends, Tessa has effortlessly garnered sympathy from nearly everyone she’s met and a suspect is finally charged for Jack’s murder.

The premise was excellent but I struggled with the execution and nothing about this story made sense until the final chapters put everything into perspective. There wasn’t a single interrogation scene that was comprehensive, Tessa never called for a lawyer since her alibi was airtight, and the story seemed soap opera-ish in many instances.

Overall? This story was underwhelming and all of the contrived/ overemphasized adoration towards Tessa felt overdone. The characterization was too weak for me to enjoy the surprise ending but it was a good twist. I just wish the characters weren’t so wooden.

On the cover we see the beautiful Tess in profile. A phrase Welcome to Hamlet is above the title.

The story takes place in Hamlet: population 192 inhabitants. We can not even find this little village on a map and gps do not know this place. The top everyone knows each other, there is no television or phone, the Sherif is the law. It all starts when during a storm the Tess and Jack couple find themselves in Hamlet with a flat tire. They were supposed to stop for the night to repair the tire except that Tess will end up in prison, her husband has just been murdered. She will soon be the target of the killer.

A gripping story with the character of tying Tess. I was immediately attracted to the cover and its summary. I hung on the story right away. Jessica Lynch is an author with potential, her books deserve to be translated in France to have more readers. Eager to read what follows.

I started out thinking that I was not going to like this book. The character of Tessa lacked depth and Jack was just an ass. What adult slugs someone in the arm while driving in horrible weather causing an accident? I thought it was going to be a ridiculous book. I was greatly surprised as I got further into the story. I went back and forth over who was the actual murderer and in the end I was totally surprised! I do have a difficult time believing that a flat tire from running over a nail in the Road was part of the plan all along.

This is a hard book to review and I barely know where to start. It kinda threw me all over the place. But here goes.

The writing isn't bad, but I do think it needs at least one more round of editing. Towards the start of the bool, especially, the sentences are awkwardly constructured and the word order jumbled. Take these two for example: 'Except for the radio, he preferred silence when he drove if they were going somewhere new.' - 'Was he so miserable to her that finding a hotel to stay the night in brought the life back to her?'

The story is okay. The mystery aspect is clever, but I feel like the romances are the plot rather than the mystery. The romances are easily the main focus, and considering that I don't ship anyone and that I don't like any of the characters, it doesn't work well for me.

The characters are dull. Tessa is the beautiful, innocent damsel everyone falls in love with, and she has no depth. The secondary characters are boring, too.
But the guys are the worst. Mason and Lucas are alpha males and ridiculously overprotective. Thankfully, Tessa has the sense to think, "This wasn’t a contest, and she wasn’t a prize", but that doesn't make me warm to them any more. They're still jerks. And Mason assaults Tessa, so there's that. (Although, thank goodness, that isn't glossed over and Tessa is actually outraged by it).
There's also the ending. It's a shocker, which is good, but it's too open-ended. I don't like it.

This is a decent thrillet novel, but the characters and writing disappointed me.

Great cover and great story!This was read now for me so I decide to give it a try!I like the concept and the story line.It was captivating and the suspense make me want to read it without stopping!I could say it was a fast paced story!Also there were some unexpected twists that made me enjoy it even more!!