No spoilers! Ivy's got a secret (surprise!) and when she is woken up by her typically hateful teenage daughter, who is disgusted that there's a strange man in her bed, she's shocked to find that that man, who she doesn't remember, is, um, dead. Dead dead dead. Oh, and there's another dead man under her bed. Told in three time frames (but the most important are 1993 and the general present) her story will wiggle out slowly (well, not that slowly because this is a page turner). While this does get a tad implausible at times, it's a very good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Having previously read Without a Trace by Carissa Ann Lynch, I jumped at the opportunity to read her latest novel, The One Night Stand. I am so pleased I did as there were no disappointments here!

Divorced mum Ivy is struggling with raising her teenage daughter, Delaney. Ivy's life completely changed after Delaney's dad found a younger, better-looking wife, called Sam. According to Delaney, Sam - her new step-mum - can do everything better than Ivy. And so Ivy, with Delaney frequently staying at her dad's house, and encouraged by her friends, decides to try online dating. When Ivy wakes up with a complete stranger lying next to her, she knows her one-night stands will have to stop. Ivy discovers the stranger in her bed has been stabbed to death, and she is covered in his blood, but Ivy has no recollection of bringing this man home. Did she kill him? As she tries to fill in the blanks as to exactly what happened, Ivy’s own past returns to torment her. And secrets can’t stay hidden forever...

Carissa Ann Lynch delivers an unrestrained story with a compelling blend of foreboding, harboured secrets, suspense and long-buried memories. The One Night Stand is beautifully plotted, a cracking story and a book I revelled in all the way through. The author did a brilliant job of drawing me into the plot, capturing and commanding my attention with her superbly drawn characters and their secrets, while adding in clever twists. It brought no let-downs and everything was wrapped up in the satisfying finale.

A riveting, stellar and exemplary novel that I'm delighted to recommend to all thriller lovers.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my request, from One More Chapter via NetGalley and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy. Ivy wakes upwith a strange man in her bed and cannot remember anything as to how he got there. She realizes that he is dead and has no memory as to how it happened. She has no idea who killed him. The story jumps way back to Ivy's childhood and also go to the past and present. Not a bad read just gets a little hectic and confusing at points in the story.

Alright, I admit..I devoured this in one sitting. Yep, it was that good! I was hooked by the synopsis and then it all went uphill from there. Even with a small cast of characters, they each played well together. I didn’t trust anyone!! Told in a ‘now’ and ‘then’ setting - when Ivy recollects that morning and the events leading up to the body discoveries. Fair warning, there is a 1993 timeline in between and I was a little confused at first and it threw my momentum off for a bit (had to learn new characters). I don’t want to give away any spoilers! In the end it all comes together seamlessly, but I wish the book started off with 1993. I enjoyed not knowing why Ivy, doesn’t immediately do the obvious solution - but that timeline explained it all. I did not figure out the ending and was sent spiraling blaming everyone LOL. Good job Lynch! Such a quick and easy read - highly recommend to all the thriller lovers!

What a great premise! Single mom Ivy wakes up after a drunken one night stand to find a body in her bed. A dead body. A dead body she does not recognize. Then she looks under the bed ( I know, why?) and discovers another dead body. This one she does know but we won’t find out who he is until much later. Then follow several days of frantic activity as she and her best friend Pam try to solve these murders while the bodies remain in her bedroom. The door stays closed, of course.

I so wanted to love this book. I tried. What threw me off was the total lack of sympathetic characters...and the convoluted plot. Ivy and Pam have a long-standing friendship. Learning just how they became best friends moves them quickly into the unlikeable category. Ivy’s ex-husband Michael is a caricature of a work obsessed man who leaves his wife to marry his girlfriend. Ivy’s daughter is a self-obsessed teen whose irrational anger is never explained. The plot, littered with red herrings and blind alleys, careens towards an unsatisfactory conclusion. For instance, in the prologue, one of Ivy’s twins is stillborn. That tragedy never figures into the rest of the story. Her daughter is revealed to be a lesbian. Again, why? It has nothing to do with the plot. And at one point, Ivy accidentally backs into a neighbor with her car. No reason. These are not spoilers because they have absolutely nothing to do with the storyline.

As I said, I wanted to like The One Night Stand. Carissa Ann Lynch writes well and obviously has a fantastic imagination. Her creativity would have benefited from better editing. Tightening the plot would have given far better results. Two stars for this one but I definitely will look for Carissa Ann Lynch’s next book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK and Carissa Ann Lynch for this ARC.

I love Ms. Lynch’s writing style and the way she shows you a story. This story was the hardest for me to follow of her works and only because of the time jumps from before to after, back and forth.

About halfway through the book, I was able to keep up and everything started making sense. There is a lot going on and if you’re not paying attention you will miss something crucial.

Read it and enjoy its twisty ride.

I enjoyed this insightful and thrilling novel very much. The storyline flows at a great pace, and the characters are well fleshed out. Highly recommended!

An enjoyable mystery that starts when Ivy wakes up with a strange man sharing her bed, a man she has no recollection of. To make matters worse the man has been stabbed to death. Ivy has no idea who he is or how he got there, let alone who killed him. It wasn't her, was it?

Set in three timelines, before the stabbing, after the stabbing, and back in her schoolgirl days, I did sometimes get a bit confused as to where I was, but it soon cleared itself up. We slowly learn what happened to the dead man, what happened to Ivy in the past, and what's actually going on now. A quick and easy read, I recommend this novel to all lovers of mysteries and psychological fiction.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This one definitely kept me guessing. I like how the author pulls you in slowly and methodically until you realize you’re on the last page! Highly recommend!

DNFed at 30%. I was attracted by the blurb but the book, even if it's well written, fails to deliver and it didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The synopsis for the One Night Stand sounds like a great thriller, the book just doesn't compare,

Told in before and after the plot is confusing and I struggled to keep track of what was going on. Maybe a formatting issue since some of the before chapters seemed to fit better as after chapters?

I just found the entire book unbelievable and unimaginative. The only positive for me was this was a quick read.
Just not an enjoyable story and I can’t recommend when there’s so many other great thrillers on the market.

Ivy has a 1 night stand
She wakes unaware of what she has done and only realises when she sees the man in bed next to her, how on earth did it happen and what could she have been thinking?, or drinking
Oh yes, she then looks and realises
He’s dead
As is the man under her bed!

And so the story tries to put together the piece’s that have led to this bizarre and awful situation for her

Ivy has, naturally, a past, a shocking one at that and little by little you get to learn more about it and how the people in her life now are related to it

Going from past events to the present and with an array of characters, some like her teenage daughter are unlikeable ( under statement ) but they play their roles well and as the story unfolds so does a grim and horrific secret that is set to ruin her

I enjoyed the story and the way it was told, a few parts were a bit OTT in the believable factor but hey ifs fiction afterall and it did all wind up to be a fascinating and well told story that you NEEDED to know just what was going to happen next

8/10
4 Stars

This story is like a firework without the boom. There's a lot of pent up anticipation then it just kinda fizzles in the end.
Ivy wakes up with a stranger beside her and no memory of what she did, who he is or how she got in this situation. As if that's not crazy enough, she soon realizes the man is not just dead but has been murdered. This was such an intriguing scenario and had me hooked from the beginning. The perspective shifted from present day to right before the harrowing one night stand (as well as flashbacks to 1993) in order to piece everything together.

Loved the alternating perspectives. Loved pretty much everything about the book until the last 15% I was so unsatisfied with the conclusion. It was lackluster, unimaginative, and lacked the oomph of the rest of the book. That being said, it wasn't a bad read. There was so good twists and turns, some really crazy moments and was overall enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy wakes up to a dead stranger in her bed. I almost gave up on this one early on when it seemed clear that Ivy had no intention of actually going to the police or doing anything legally sane in regards to the body, but I stuck it out and mostly enjoyed it. It was a really quick read, and I never saw most of the events of the book coming. One nitpicking complaint is that Ivy's son supposedly died of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome before birth but that's impossible in fraternal boy/girl twins. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

this was a quick read, a bit confusing at times with all the switching back and forth in time, to three different times. It was interesting but the motivations of the main characters never became clear enough. so not nearly enough was spent on that and that would have made it ring more true for me. but nothing is as it seems in this story, which did make it interesting

Ivy’s life is that of a typical single mother struggling to raise her rebellious daughter, Delaney, after her husband left her for a new woman. Except, Ivy’s got secrets, and they tie into the dead man in her bed.

I am left breathless from this book.

Every chapter had a twist, every character a secret, and now that the book is over, my head is spinning. That ending! Wow, I still can’t catch my breath. After everything that Ivy went through, this book had a sort of bittersweet ending to it, but that was why it was so real, so easy to feel.

Ivy was definitely an unreliable narrator, and while it’s easy to think that she’s innocent at first, her flaws start to seep through more and more throughout the book. I love how Miss Lynch gave us the impression of getting to know Ivy the way we would a person in real life. Layer after layer, we slowly became aware of who she was until she had no secrets left.

Just another top-notch thriller from Carissa Ann Lynch.

This book was given to me for free through Netgalley at my request, and I provided this voluntary review.

Quick read, good story. This book kept me guessing from start to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a decent read that starts out with an interesting premise, a woman wakes to find a dead man in her bed (& there’s more) and tries to find out who he is and what happened, all whilst juggling an ex husband and his new wife and a surly teenage daughter.

The book switches from past to present and at times I found it confusing and hard to stick with, however, it’s got good twists and turns and a surprise ending and is a decent holiday read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for my honest review.

Didn’t get going or Into the story as quickly as I would have liked but once I got into it I really enjoyed it!!

This book took a bit of time to get into, lots of cut backs and changing of time. About 1/3 of the way through, it picks up and gets better. However, the ending was too quick and could have been more expansive.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC