A delicious female protagonist revenge story. I was really looking forward to this one as this is exactly the storyline that I love. It was a bit slow for me in parts and some of the language I personally struggled with, but despite this it held my attention. I would say the best happens in the last 30% of the book with a few twists and some tense action rushing me to the end.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for the opportunity to read and review this ARC

A super slick revenge thriller with intriguing characters that grab your interest from the opening pages. If you love a dark, twisty revenge plot you’ll love this.

would like to thank netgalley for letting me read this book

what can i say...loved the action of this book

but

the descriptive dialogue i skipped over in the end...felt at times was being lectured...i want to escape blm and every possible slight against any person of colour creed or homophobia.... i dont want to read it in a book that i chose to read... i want action which in part this book gave, just a shame about the other side of this book

but the actions of the main characters in this book was what kept me reading...had to find out if they managed achieve their goal

3.5 stars rounded up

This is a story about Hannah. She seems shy. Some would even say spiky. People don't pay much attention to Hannah. Which is exactly how she planned it.

It's also a story about Ricky. Ricky is anything but shy. Rich, charming, good looking. Ricky has never had a problem getting what he wants. And now he wants Hannah.

There's a spark between them from the moment they meet. Even Hannah can't resist a man like Ricky for long. But this is not a love story. In fact, it's a little like Hannah. First you'll be intrigued. But you'll soon realise she knows something you don't.

It took a few chapters to get into the story but I'm glad I stuck with it. There's also parts that dragged out. The last 20% was, by far, the best part. The pace is steady throughout. I liked the main characters, they were well developed and believable. There's plenty of twists, it's unpredictable and thought provoking. I took half a star away for being hard to get into.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #PenguinMichaelJosephUk and the author #AshokBanter for my ARC of #AKissAfterDying in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good book - I loved the question over identities, and I really appreciated the need for revenge, which was revealed as the reader progressed through the book. A lot of it was cleverly done, and well written. I'm happy to recommend this to any reader!

Overall a very good read. Different from the usual in that the protagonists were intelligent women, WOC and not American,. Very refreshing to have female protagonists as WOC. Written by a male author who did slip up occasionally with the female voice. Yes, the plot was a bit far fetched but not that bad. I could more or less believe the plot. The book lost its way about half way through for a while and I found my attention wandering but it did pick up again. I did very much like Hannah/Kiari and although they were the "baddies" a lot of me wanted them to succeed. A bittersweet, I suppose, ending.
Like I say, overall a very good , entertaining read and I will certainly look out for the author's next book

There are a number of typos that should be corrected

Hannah is shy an no one pays her much attention.
Ricky is the opposite and always gets what he wants and he wants Hannah.
Unknown to Ricky Hannah wants more but her plans are not going the way she wants.

The book opens with a Huh? What? Why? chapter that leaves you needing to know much, much more and it doesn't relent throughout the acts!

I had no idea about the massive twist in the middle of the book, did anyone see that coming? But it didn't stop there, more and more revelations followed which has left me wanting to read it again right away!

This is one seemingly straightforward book that's hellishly twisty!

Loved all the twists in this and how many surprises snuck up along the way. Absolutely brilliantly twisted story

Without the teaser at the beginning of the book, I might have given up. Despite unbelievable characters and plot, I still enjoyed it overall, even the unsatisfying ending. The book never really achieves it's potential. I kept wanting to re-write the plot.
This is an honest review of a complementary ARC.

When I finished ‘A kiss before dying’ I felt like it was the most fast paced thriller I had read in a long time! From the synopsis I felt like Banker alluded to some of my favourite dark stories like ‘You’ and ‘Killing Eve’, but these allusions were perfectly used in the narrative to keep readers on tenterhooks throughout.
The story centres on the explosive relationship between Hannah and Ricky, each having the potential to destroy one another as they travel the line between want and obsession. This thriller really kept producing unpredictable twists after a bit of a slow start for me it definitely kept pace to the end. I think the only downside was that sometimes there was an odd slip by the male writer as he wrote in the female perspective which did jar the narrative on occasion but didn’t take away from the movie pace and drama of this story.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It got off to a great start and I was intrigued and looking forward to a right good read. After a while though it became too over the top unbelievable for me, and there was too much that I couldn’t understand. I was hooked again when I read ‘a shock’ half way through that really grabbed my attention, but after that my interest began to wane and the story seemed to drag on. It was an enjoyable read (sort of), but I think it would be better as a film, not a book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read it.

This had the makings of an excellent book with a riveting story line. Unfortunately the pace in early chapters was just too slow to hold your attention. We needed to know more about why Hannah was hell bent on murdering Ricky and how she planned to do this in her long game. From all her techno savy digging into Ricky’s life, and gaining access to not only his social media presence but much much more, and being able to take control of peoples phones and private communications, even adding to them, pretending to be them, she should have been head of Apple. In a way she was just too much to be believable. She had enormous talents which allowed her to choose her course, her college and numerous more quite distinct qualities, including her knowledge of how to perform an autopsy, for one person in all reality to have as part of their arsenal. She was relying on Ricky facing, probably for the first time in his rich and privileged life,, a girl who wasn’t interested in him. What if he wasn’t interested in her, then, of course, there would be no story. Hannah needed to give us a lot more information and her character to be less perfect robot and more a human.

This story is a bit improbable, The assassin, Hannah/Kiara is taking revenge for her parent's death by targeting the man responsible, and his children. I'm not sure why none of these people recognised her as they were meant to be friends of the family before. There were some twists, but I found the book to be overly long, and a bit repetitive.

An unusual story where the main protagonists really believe that revenge is a dish best served cold. There are interesting twists which catch the reader unawares which adds to the story.I found the first part full of American references, eg. Tv programmes/ initials that would mean nothing to many British readers. The second half had less of this which made it more enjoyable. The main characters are devious, ruthless and careful planners with a very clear aim in view, The ruthless approach make it difficult for me to engage with the characters.

I was intrigued by the premise, but this one didn’t deliver for me. I think the problem is that Hannah is like Villanelle from Killing Eve (an overrated show that should’ve ended sooner) with these antiheroines getting away with everything and never dying 🙄 Not for me. I also wasn’t sure what Hannah’s plan was and what the purpose of the seduction in the first act was all about. At times it felt like this a female character who’s been written by a man. The tone felt more dark comedy than a suspense read.

Wow!! I went into this no entirely sure what the overall premise would be and it turned out to be absolutely not what I was expecting! Your jaw will be I the floor as your dragged through this fast paced tale with barely time to catch your breath. Absolutely amazing!I loved it

Fast paced, tense and incredibly plotted. This was a read that I couldn't put down and I read it really quickly. I loved it,

A woman and a man alone on a desert island. It is their honeymoon. It is also where she plans to murder him in revenge for what he did to her family. Who are they, what did he do, how will she kill him and why? That in summary is the opening scene and the rationale for this thriller. Beyond that I find it difficult to give any information about the plot, or the characters which would not stray into spoiler territory. Even naming the protagonists might spoil some of the twists in this ingenious plot. It is safe to say that the two people on the island are of Indian ancestry and that the woman is the more prominent in the story.
The story is told mostly from the POV of the characters at the centre of the three acts and the two entr’actes. The characters are all well drawn, especially in their use of idiomatic language. The woman on the island, in particular, appears to talk in a Gen Z dialect, which I found quite entertaining and even educational. Speaking of language and erudition, the quality of the writing overall is extremely good and there is depth in the text which is unusual in this genre (the author is a polymath). The complexity of both the plot and the writing can make it feel slow to develop, but actually I found I was moving at quite a pace, particularly towards the end, and was one of the fastest 400 pages of intricate prose I have read in recent years. It is not without flaws, but overall these are of no consequence to the clever and convoluted plot.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I am really humming and hawing about this book for the most part I really enjoyed it but sadly at times the story seemed to drag and I felt bogged down in overly descriptive passages and wordiness. I admit I did consider giving up on the book a few times but was then hit with a big twists that grabbed my attention and immediately I got back into the story. I think that what kept me reading the book was the excellent plot line it was clever and had as I said some really good twists, the characters were all well crafted but the story just seemed never ending and I usually enjoy a long read as I like to get immersed in them but for some reason this just didn’t happen for me in this particular read.
So just a 3 star read for me but still an enjoyable read in parts.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.