The idea behind this book was interesting, but do we really need a book promoting inter-generational discord in such a black and white way?  I really found this book a struggle.  I couldn't identify with any of the characters, and I didn't recognise any of the characteristics of the members of Generation X or Millennials I know either.  The storyline seemed wildly improbable, and I wouldn't really recommend this book.

An enjoyably twisty thriller, from two viewpoints, unpicking a toxic female work relationship and playing with the fear of the usurper. Lily is everything Katherine used to be, a young, vivacious, brilliant mirror of Katherine's past. But is this imitation the sincerest form of flattery, or something much more sinister?

Whilst I enjoyed the concept and plot of this book, even being shocked at the ending. There was just something that irritated me about this book. I found Katherine utterly abhorrent, and whilst that indicates good writing to rile me so much, it just made me a bit grumpy. I hated the constant use of the word snowflake. Not bad writing or plot line as indicated, just not for me sadly.

*Thank you to the author and Netgalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

2 stars

From the first line, I couldn't help but compare this book to Caroline Kepnes' "You" and for me, this felt like a watered-down female-driven version of "You." I'm hard to please when it comes to thrillers and even if I wasn't to have made the comparisons to another book it wouldn't have made me enjoy this one any more. I struggled to find sense in the motives and what was drawing the main characters together because they were both fucking annoying in their own ways, so this lead to my not caring about uncovering the reasons why and more so made me question why I should keep reading to the end. I didn't find it particularly thrilling or interesting to read and found myself skimming a lot of the passages... Sorry!

I thought Precious You started off really well and I liked the power play between Katherine and Lily but overall I found it a little dull. It had Killing Eve vibes to it and a great premise but I found myself struggling to pick it up and finish each time I put it down.

This book was a a great choice for a winter season. It lets you loose yourself in a story which seems simple at the beginning yet it quickly unwinds into a complicated portrait of two very different women. The book explores two different generations meeting in today’s typical workplace. The story includes rivalry and jealously as the older character just cannot accept the existence of new girl who just seems to be here to replace her. I enjoyed the reading yet, to be honest, the middle part was a bit dull. 

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with the copy.

It took me a while to get into this book but once I was in I was really in. The two narratives weave together in a way that convinces you that you know which way the plot is going but I was truly surprised by the last 50 pages or so. It's dark, gritty and really outlines the current power struggle between Millennials and the Gen X-ers. 
I can't remember ever having read a power play novel with two such strong female characters. Loved it!

The cover of this book is what initially caught my attention. Who doesn’t love some neon in their life. Once I read the synopsis I knew I had to give this book a go. Thank you to the author and HQ Stories for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Description 🔖

Katherine is editor in chief at Leadership magazine, successful and in her forties. Though she has had her struggles in her personal life, she has kept hold of her role and is confident in her abilities as editor; with the help of her interns. Lily is a new intern at Leadership magazine, just starting out and in her twenties. She’s determined to bring a fresh voice and approach to the magazine and prove herself as worthy.

Katherine thinks that Lily is a spoilt millennial, handed her opportunities, scared of hard work and doesn’t deserve her voice to be heard without doing her time. Lily thinks that Katherine has had her hey day, is stale and is intent on “pulling up the ladder” for those that are coming up the ranks behind her. The two women ensue on a battle to prove their worthiness. Is Lily really trying to dethrone the editor in chief and ruin not only her career but her personal life too? Or is Katherine merely paranoid? Is this just a struggle of egos within the magazine or is there something far more sinister behind the toxic relationship between Katherine and Lily?

General Thoughts 🤔

I’m not sure I really know where to start with this. I finished this book last night and I’ve thought about it an awful lot since. It’s really made me question my own career, my own life choices and where I sit in the generation categorisation. I see the perspectives of both women in this book (that’s not to say that I agree with either of them). Yes, it’s easy to see how millennials may see that generation X have had it easy but I also see how generation X may feel that millennials feel that they are owed something from the world.

There’s so much to unpack from this book. The generation gap and how that manifests itself within the workplace and also within society. I’m not sure that older women should be respected no matter what, just because they’ve been around longer. I’m also not sure that younger women should be granted opportunities because they’re “in touch”. Surely there is something to be shared between the generations? Fresh ideas and a different perspective shared with experience and lessons learnt?

Characters 👫👭👬

The main characters in the book are obviously Katherine and Lily. Not that I felt that I had to pick sides, but I constantly went back and forth between the two in terms of which I liked/disliked the most. Both characters are quite obviously flawed in so many ways and who am I to say that one persons problems are worse than another’s?

The other characters in the book came across as enablers to me. Iain (Katherine’s partner) seemed to be treading on egg shells around her constantly, rather than being firm with her. Katherine had a firm belief that they were solid, but my interpretation was more so that they tip toed around their problems rather than facing them together. Gemma (Lily’s aunt) knew about Lily’s problems from her past but gave her life changing opportunities anyway. I sympathised with Gemma actually. When it comes to family, I think there is a very fine line between wanting to help and condoning bad behaviour.

Writing Style ✍🏽

Straight away I loved the way in which this book is written. Sections are written in either Katherine’s voice or Lily’s voice. The part I loved though was the difference in which they were written. Katherine’s section were written as her voice and as though she was talking to Lily; whom she refers to as “you”. Lily’s sections were written as her diary entires. I loved this touch.

I also loved that as a reader, I got to read the same story but from a different character’s perspective. Mostly, Katherine’s version of events followed by Lily’s. Every time I read Katherine’s telling I’d think surely not! She has to be paranoid. Then I’d read Lily’s diary entry and be reminded of just how damaged their relationship and their individual characters were.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This is probably one of the longest reviews I’ve written in a while and I’ve really scaled back. I have so much to say about this book and so much discussion I want to start on the back of reading it. It’s made me really think about my own behaviour around not only other women, but women from other generations. I cannot recommend this book enough. Helen Monks Takhar has done an outstanding job and I challenge any woman to read this book and not think about it for days afterwards!

Woah. What a whirlwind of a book. I loved the unreliable narrators and how the whole book played out. The plot unfolded so smoothly and I was in equal parts captivated and horrified. Both Katherine and Lily are such dark characters that I didn't know what was going to happen next.

A stonking debut and I can't wait to see what the author does next.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book.
It has some great ideas,two strong females at the lead,even if they're both more than a bit nuts.
It is a proper power play between them to be top dog.
However,there were times I could have put the book down and not picked it up again,not caring I didn't find out who won.
I did pick it up,and I'm glad to have got to the end,having all questions answered and thinking it couldn't have finished better.

Really enjoyed this thriller! Was a good and easy read and I feel people will love the story too. The author has a way to keep you enthralled to carry on reading!

Precious You is a obsessive thriller about generation gaps, revenge, and lies. Katherine is an editor in her forties, dealing with a takeover at work and a feeling of being past her prime. When she meets her new twentysomething intern Lily, she dismisses her as another millennial 'snowflake' who doesn't deserve what she's got. However, she also finds herself drawn towards Lily and her youth, and Lily seems interested by her too. A strange rivalry emerges, but neither of them are quite what they seem, and soon the stakes are very high.

This is a well-written novel that uses the current obsession with antagonisms between generations (in this case, Gen X and millennials) to twist expectations as the narrative unfolds. The main characters are unlikeable, but also troubled, and the story the book seems to be telling at first isn't quite what it is. Katherine can be a bit of a parody of someone who hates millennials, purposefully so but possibly makes her easier to dislike early on (or maybe that's just me being a millennial). The focus on mental health and trauma felt like another element that made it timely, though it did make the book less dark and more sad by its conclusion in some ways. The narrative is definitely gripping, and the two characters felt well-balanced, but the ending wasn't as satisfying as you might hope.

Precious You was an enjoyable read that felt fresh and explored interesting concepts through a tense narrative. The characters were complex and things weren't always as they seemed (the depiction of Katherine and Iain's relationship in particular was good as it unfolded), but the ending lets the novel down a bit for me.

This was an interesting read and went places I didn't quite see coming. One of the things I liked about the book was that all of the main characters were unlikeable. Obviously, I like novels where the characters are likeable, but sometimes it's nice to go against the grain.

Katherine is bitter and needs to own her age, her experience and what she has in her life rather than pining for her youth. She's a woman who wants to be respected but also refuses to grow up and seems to be a perpetual teenager in some ways.

Lily is entitled, selfish and deeply damaged and creepy. She's mostly easy to dislike and the obvious villain of the piece. But, is she the only villain? On the one hand, her efforts to bring Katherine down is vicious, but at times I did think "well, Katherine deserves some of it" because at times she was the author of her own destruction.

A secondary character, Gemma, Lily's aunt is also unlikeable and while Iain, Katherine's partner, is the closest to being likeable, but the's so weak and ineffectual that it's hard to feel anything other than slightly sorry for him. And then not slightly sorry for him at all.

And in the midst of all this disliking Lily is trying to destroy Katherine's life. Katherine knows it but neither she nor we, know why until the very end. Is the end satisfying? In some ways yes it is, but the reason for my 4 rather than a full 5 is that there were aspects of it that didn't sit right with me. That said I'm not sure what I would have done differently and this was definitely a book that I found hard to put down and wanted to know what happens next all the way through. 

If you like a decent thriller you'll love this single white millennial thrillfest. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#PreciousYou #NetGalley 
Best psychological thriller of 2020
Katherine dismisses her early-twenties intern as a millennial ‘snowflake’: soft, entitled, moralistic. But Lily’s youth and beauty remind Katherine of everything she once was, and she soon finds herself obsessively drawn to her new colleague. But is Katherine simply jealous of Lily’s potential – or does she sense that her intern has a dark hidden agenda? 
Author's writing style is so good that i was hooked from the first page. Characters seemed real to me. Its the best psychological thriller. 
Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

This book will blow you away. Such a great read. Will have you gripped. I found it quite a quick read and hard to put down.