Francesca &
Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

2.5/5 I honestly thought I will love it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very mid and boring. "But now here he was, although even in the dark I felt like I could see the color slant across his cheeks. I hoped he never lost that." "I don’t regret giving you my heart, Phoebe. I just wish you’d taken more care with it.”

Unique concept but the execution fell flat. I didn’t get what was promised in the summary so yeah, this was a let down.

this was very cringey very millennial vibes lowkey wanted to burn it at times but it was okay i guess but the main character gave very im not like other girl vibes and i don’t like her

This book didn’t leave my mind after starting it. Some parts were a bit weird and awkward to me, for example the wedding. However i really enjoyed the idea the character represents and the plot as a whole. Plus i love my true crime as well! The MC was honestly very relatable, and i really felt in touch with her. I couldn’t not help but love all the other character’s too. However i would’ve loved it if the whole serial killer next door went on more, as it seems like a main point but doesn’t last that long.

3.5/5 This book has been on my to be read list for awhile and I had such high hopes for it. From the title to knowing that it involved someone who loves true crime, I was excited to read it. I think that I may have just had my expectations set to high. However, after realizing those expectations were too high and understanding it, I did enjoy the book. Maybe not as much as I hoped for, but it was still a decent read! It’s partially my fault for hoping for more.

The first 75% of the book is good however the ending feels too cliche and rushed

Just an average rom com. The premise of the book sounded interesting, however, I don’t feel it was fully executed. Was very slow in places.

It was good and it was cute but that’s it

Yes there’s a flash mob and no there’s not a lot of serial killers

I am Phoebe. Phoebe is me. I honestly love the FMC in this book so much. Her obsession with true crime and literature along with her dark humor and sarcastic quips felt very relatable. Thoroughly enjoyed this very well written exploration of being afraid of love more than you’re afraid of serial killers

so fun to see my own paranoia personified in a rom com leading lady

The story of Phoebe and her true crime obsession turned doctoral dissertation and Sam who is simply adorable was such a fun read.

I loved them. The side characters are great too and I liked following Phoebe on her journey of figuring out life.

What an amazing read. It had all of my favorite things: humor, romance and all the true crime references. But it also touched on personal matters that I think a lot of people go through and I found myself relating to more than one chapter in this book. There were time I laughed out loud and time I felt my heart breaking with the characters. Just an all in all good book and I hope many others will give it a chance.

Good enough romance novel, not the direction I was expecting it to take. Thought they would play more into her paranoia to add more comedic value. But still enjoyable.

I don’t think I’ve ever loved a main character more than I love Phoebe. I could relate to her on so many different levels and I think I might have fallen in love with her character just a little. The humor and romance in this book were my favorite parts, I loved all of the different relationships, this was just a fantastic book.

I found it very hard to get into the book. I LOVE the cover art. Unfortunately, I just found the book very boring. Nothing special. Just an average romcom. I started to skim through it at the end because of how bored I was. I wish I got more into it. I wasn’t terrible. Just an average rom com read.

Kept me entertained but it wasn’t an amazing storyline. Just a classic little romance book with a few unique themes that made it a little more interesting.

In a world obsessed with true crime documentaries and podcasts, where people on social media task themselves with trying to solve gruesome murders before the police, where women are warned in all the ways they need to protect themselves from being attacked - can you blame a girl for being paranoid about serial killers? Not really, no.

I rated this 3.75 ⭐s

I really wanted to love this book, the premise enticed me but unfortunately, I was left a little bit disappointed. The beginning was set up perfectly ambiguously, you could've been reading the start of a horror/thriller novel just as much as you could've been starting a romance novel. A young woman, Phoebe, moves back into her childhood home after her father passes away - a place she hasn't lived since she was a teen. Her father wasn't the best of dads, slow to show love, quick to rage, a gaslighter who was prone to violently throwing bowls of jello at the floor and her brother chose to live with him after the divorce? Plus there's a creepy man next door who wanders around at midnight barefoot and hauls stained drop-sheets out of his garage to dispose of. Her brother, the neighbor, a stranger - anyone of them could've been a murderer!

Except this is a romance, not a horror/thriller and therefore, the not-so-creepy-actually-cute guy next door is not a potential murderer but a potential summer fling - or more...

The use of true crime and horror in this book was okay, the dissertation topic Phoebe is writing is super interesting, well described and clearly well researched by the author, Alicia Thompson. But I wanted thrill and excitement, I wanted a proper potential serial killers to lovers story line. I wanted Phoebe to be so neurotically obsessed with writing her paper that she could barely tell reality from fiction but instead this just read like Beach Read by Emily Henry, and unfortunately it was not quite as good as that book.

Sam was an adorable love interest, he's sweet and very kind, shy and nerdy, and the banter between him and Phoebe was super cute. The side characters stories were well fleshed out, Alison, Conner and Shani were all there own individual people who were fun, corny and beneficial to the story. Phoebe was flawed, self-deprecating and frustrating. She clearly needed therapy from past and fresh traumas inflicted by her parents (who clearly also needed therapy - multi-generational trauma at it again) but she became more likable as the story went on, which I think was the point - she relaxed a lot more around Sam, once she finally accepted love is possible and that not everyone gets divorced or murders each other.

Overall, a nice cute romance, great for a palate cleanser between actual horror/thrillers, or epic fantasies in my case - but unfortunately lacked a bit of oomph. This could've been something really unique and interesting, and I'm sad it didn't end up being that but was still a good read in the end.

I had a terrible time getting into this novel, so I opted to listen to the audiobook to keep me in pace. For some reason, I found it hard to get attached to the characters. I loved the idea of this, but the story was missing something. I did not care if the couple ended up together, nor did I really see HOW they fell in love. It all felt fast, and I didn't necessarily feel their connection. I would've appreciated more storytelling on that front, and more about the character's father and the abuse that they seemed to have suffered from him. This was only briefly touched, despite the note at the beginning of the book making me think that there was going to be more discussion about it. Overall, it was an enjoyable book, just nothing I'll think about ever again, and will be gone from my memory in just a week.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. The very first thing that grabbed my attention was the title. I'm pretty sure there's more people like me out there but I have a deep love for romance novels and also thrillers and true crime. I spend my free time from adulthood and books, listening to true crime podcasts and occasionally watching documentaries. So, when I read the title I said ''I need to read this asap". I think that our main character in this novel is an odd ball, which is why I love her. The very first thing she thinks when a handsome stranger offers her help is that "He probably wants to murder me". She even gave him a news-worthy-serial-killer name. It is truly hilarious. I felt the whole story to be wholesome and clever. There are a lot of facts about crimes included, which is incredibly good. No one want just random lines written about something that truly happen and that it was devastating to a lot of people. The romance portion was incredibly good. Spicy when it had to, swoon-y when it was appropriate. I would love to read more from this author and definitely will be looking forward to it. Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the opportunity.

This was a lot of fun. So many references to my own childhood and life. If I had a complaint, it would be that the serial killer thing was resolved much too quickly and the romance was a tad too instalove for me. But that's a nitpick because I did like Phoebe and Sam. And Phoebe reconnecting with her brother and his wild plans for proposals was sweet. I also think it tackled grief pretty well. A solid effort, will read more from her.

I had really high expectations for this book and while I really enjoyed it, the main character was not cohesive enough for me. It almost felt like one person wrote most of the pages and then for the romance part someone else wrote.

I thought mixing the true crime fascination was a fun twist and combined two things I really enjoy.

Grumpy/Sunshine

🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

A few spicy scenes, but doesn’t take over the whole book.