Wednesday, August 11, 2021

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
by Ashley Winstead
Published August 3rd 2021 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Six friends.

One college reunion.

One unsolved murder.


A college reunion turns dark and deadly in this chilling and propulsive suspense novel about six friends, one unsolved murder, and the dark secrets they’ve been hiding from each other—and themselves—for a decade.


Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent—not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year. Ten years ago, everything fell apart, including the dreams she worked for her whole life—and her relationship with the one person she wasn’t supposed to love.


But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.


Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.



Review
5 Stars

I cannot get over how good this book was, it was a Bookstagram influenced read that totally knocked me off my feet. Addicting and totally binge-worthy, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife a debut-novel that reads like a more senior author penned it. Ashley Winstead delivers a suspenseful thriller that is engaging, totally believable, and completely unforgetable.


Jessica Miller is more than her plain-Jane name lets on, she's going places and she always has been. A childhood trauma has kept her chasing the spotlight for her entire life, but this ten-year homecoming may have her desperate to be forgotten once again. College was a dream for Jessica, she was part of the East House Seven, a crew of friends that left their mark on Duquette in more ways than one. Back in college her best friend was murdered and her boyfriend was the number one suspect, only evidence didn't back the accusation up. Jessica's treating the ten year reunion like it's the red carpet, but the unsolved murder may be what turns the attention back onto Jessica and her six, well now five, friends rather than her beauty and brains.


If you had told me I'd pick this book up and read until 11 at night, when I have to wake up before the sun comes up, I'd have laughed at you. I'm too old to read like that, but read like that I did. Ashley Winstead pulled me in deeper with every word, I felt like I was a student on the fringes watching the sparks fly and burn when the East House Seven were near. Told in dual timelines, Jessica takes readers through her narcissistic perspective of the events of college and the present day. Flawed, desperate, popular, and all hiding the trauma of life, these seven friends party and laugh and hold damning secrets close, at least until this reunion. As secrets begin to fall from their lips it becomes clear that one of the six in attendance are the true killer of their friend Heather. I could not guess the ending, even with the hints dropped, Jessica was so self-centered that she just missed everything. With a character driven plot and some fantastic dialogue, In My Dreams I Hold a Knife is one of my favorite thriller reads this year.

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