starfire1323's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
shandaparson's review
3.0
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book was a 3 out of 5 stars for me. It might be a little too generous though. Maybe I knew too much about this book before going into it but something about it just didn’t feel right. I’m not sure what the book was lacking, maybe some mystery? I’m not sure.
This book was a 3 out of 5 stars for me. It might be a little too generous though. Maybe I knew too much about this book before going into it but something about it just didn’t feel right. I’m not sure what the book was lacking, maybe some mystery? I’m not sure.
toosexyformyshelf's review against another edition
4.0
How Can I Help You follows the journey of Margo, ex-nurse and budding librarian in a sleepy midwestern town where the week’s biggest excitement is a man who shows up at the computers like clockwork to openly watch pornography in front of other patrons. However, it wasn’t always this mundane for Margo, who left behind a trail of suspicious deaths at the hospitals she used to work at. Enter Patricia, the library’s new reference librarian and an unexpected challenge for Margo. Patricia, a down and out author who was unable to sell her last book, is desperate for a new start. As Patricia observes Margo, she begins piecing together her secret past, causing a slow unraveling at the library as she records her theories in a notebook that Margo has her eye on. Margo, aware that Patricia has solved her true identity, orchestrates a show-down where only one will make it out alive.
How Can I Help You is a fast-paced, subtle thriller. The intensity comes from mounting interactions between Margo and Patricia, who both expect the worst and hope for the best in each other. Both women are simultaneously coming undone, but for entirely different reasons. Margo, because she’s been discovered, and Patricia, because she’s masking the identity of someone dangerous in hopes of writing a new and exciting story that will put her on the map.
Thank you, Netgalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for allowing me to read this story!
How Can I Help You is a fast-paced, subtle thriller. The intensity comes from mounting interactions between Margo and Patricia, who both expect the worst and hope for the best in each other. Both women are simultaneously coming undone, but for entirely different reasons. Margo, because she’s been discovered, and Patricia, because she’s masking the identity of someone dangerous in hopes of writing a new and exciting story that will put her on the map.
Thank you, Netgalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons, for allowing me to read this story!
bookwormnoelle1's review
5.0
Laura Sims is at it again with another psychological, edge of your seat thriller. Sims conveys the story of two small town librarians, Margo and Patricia, and their hidden secrets through her incredible writing style.
The dual POV really tied the whole story together, with a few twists along the way.
Thank you to Laura Sims and NetGalley for the ARC!!
The dual POV really tied the whole story together, with a few twists along the way.
Thank you to Laura Sims and NetGalley for the ARC!!
expertbooksmuggler's review
5.0
How Can I Help You is a uniquely riveting novel following two employees of a library as they gravitate toward one another.
Margo, who isn’t really Margo, has been working at this library for a bit now. She’s settled on a routine, a personality, a meaning for her life now that she has started all over. She relishes her role at the library and views herself as an integral part of the team.
Until failed novelist Patricia joins the team.
Patricia fixates rather quickly on Margo and from there all of Margo’s little secrets are unraveled.
While this book doesn’t share a premise with The Maid by Nita Prose the voice and tone of writing are so similar that I’d recommend this book to fans of The Maid based on that alone. It’s fun, fast paced, and just a little whimsical in a way that also reminds me of You by Caroline Kepnes.
Margo is a mish-mash of Molly and Joe except in this case she has her own stalker named Patricia.
The stakes are low, the entertainment is high, and with a surprising amount of coziness to this novel I think it would be a terrific book to pickup on a cold day. Highly recommend!
Margo, who isn’t really Margo, has been working at this library for a bit now. She’s settled on a routine, a personality, a meaning for her life now that she has started all over. She relishes her role at the library and views herself as an integral part of the team.
Until failed novelist Patricia joins the team.
Patricia fixates rather quickly on Margo and from there all of Margo’s little secrets are unraveled.
While this book doesn’t share a premise with The Maid by Nita Prose the voice and tone of writing are so similar that I’d recommend this book to fans of The Maid based on that alone. It’s fun, fast paced, and just a little whimsical in a way that also reminds me of You by Caroline Kepnes.
Margo is a mish-mash of Molly and Joe except in this case she has her own stalker named Patricia.
The stakes are low, the entertainment is high, and with a surprising amount of coziness to this novel I think it would be a terrific book to pickup on a cold day. Highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
danielleblechle's review
2.0
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book!
I was so excited by this premise but the novel itself let me down. When I saw the length, I was curious how the story would be built up and resolved so quickly and I think the author needed more length to develop characters and have a less rushed conclusion. While Margo does a great job of making you uncomfortable, I think more work could have been done in establishing why she is the way she is and discovering how she's become the person she is. Patricia also felt fairly superficial with writing/being obsessed with Margo being her entire personality. While this book is a quick read, it's not one I would recommend as a great suspense book.
I was so excited by this premise but the novel itself let me down. When I saw the length, I was curious how the story would be built up and resolved so quickly and I think the author needed more length to develop characters and have a less rushed conclusion. While Margo does a great job of making you uncomfortable, I think more work could have been done in establishing why she is the way she is and discovering how she's become the person she is. Patricia also felt fairly superficial with writing/being obsessed with Margo being her entire personality. While this book is a quick read, it's not one I would recommend as a great suspense book.
courtneycanread's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely could not put this book down. I was hooked from the very first meeting of Margo as we started to learn just what made her tick. Margo was previously a nurse but after leaving in the middle of her shift one day she decides to give it all up to help people in a new way, as a circulating librarian in a small town. Margo is deliciously disturbing as her story unravels and when Patricia joins the library as the long awaited reference librarian Margo’s strange desires and behaviors ratchet up a few notches. Told in alternating POVs but occurring almost simultaneously, How Can I Help You is propulsive, compelling, and unsettling in the best way.
sabireads84's review against another edition
tense
slow-paced
3.0
Margo has a secret. She is not really Margo. She is not really a librarian. She is an imposter hiding in a small town in Illinois, working in a library. Everyone knows her as the cheery and joyful Margo who enjoys her small town life.
Margo has tan two years ago from Chicago. In her job as a nurse, she left quite some destruction! Or shall I rather say death?! But now she has changed. for good! ?
That is until Patricia arrived. Patricia graduated recently and is searching a job away from Chicago and her boyfriend Dan. She wanted to be a writer, but failed to be one, in her eyes. Patricia soon gets suspicious of Margos behaviour.
Will there be more death?
Will Margi’s real identify be revealed?
Will se get away with it?
And what is up with all the weird questions research librarians get? Really?
That was a rough one. I neither liked nor disliked it. I think my problem was, that this is advertised as a mystery/thriller. I don’t find it very mysterious not thrilling?! It was very slow burn. The characters were incredibly unlikable (I assume that was on purpose).
I am torn. On the other hand I had to read on to know what happened, but I think I feel disappointed by the outcome and the whole construction of this. I was invested until halfway an and then my attention span dropped and dropped and dropped really really low.
I think the writing was not up to par and Patricia figured out things way too easy?!
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