True crime podcaster Ella Takeda is a sucker for a good mystery. She has an uncanny knack for pinpointing killers … until she gets it wrong. Turns out that identifying an innocent man as the Canceled Killer—a serial murderer who targets high-profile fraudsters—is cause for immediate backlash.
Now she’s returned to her small Midwest town, but the Canceled Killer may not be done with her yet. Ella has a terrible suspicion she’s his next target … and worse, she might be dating him. Could it be Jude, the sexy, cheese-loving nerd her mom is convinced she’s going to marry? Or Aaron, the hot Chicago detective who’s the walking embodiment of every Swipe Right fantasy? And finally, there’s Mateo—a Hollywood stunt double who’s got allll the right moves.
Trusting guys is hard enough, especially when one wants her dead. Will she be able to unmask the killer before she becomes the next victim?
If you’re a fan of the true-crime-podcaster-thrown-into-the-true-crime-they’re-investigating subgenre of thrillers, this may be the perfect book for you!
Twenty-seven-year-old Ella Takeda has found herself living at home after a very public mistake. How public, you may ask? Ella had a popular true crime podcast, and had revealed the identity of a local serial killer called The Canceled Killer. Except that she was dead wrong. Her named suspect had several alibis for different killings. The public instantly turned on Ella, and she had subsequently been fired, effective immediately. And so Ella is stuck at her parents’ inn, dodging her mother’s attempts at matchmaking. But Ella quickly realizes that one of the three men who’ve been romantically pursuing her may be the actual Canceled Killer.
From the first chapters, it’s clear that Ella sees herself as a tough, BAMF who doesn’t let anyone else dictate what she does. She’s a Krav Maga expert, is afraid of any kind of commitment, and has a lot of strong opinions about the patriarchy. And these facts were over-played, being repetitively mentioned in each chapter. Unfortunately, this made the book’s first-person point-of-view feel clunky and under-developed in some places.
I really enjoyed the concept of the three potential killers, and I historically have really enjoyed a podcasting main character who finds themselves in the middle of the action. However, Kiss, Marry, Kill’s plot just didn’t feel developed enough to fully grab my attention and make me fully invested. There is a twist in the ending, and unfortunately, that twist was the final nail in the coffin to bump this book down to a 3-star rating for me.
Overall, this was a fun and tense read that definitely immersed me in the worlds of online dating and true crime podcasting, but the plot and main character development wasn’t enough to fully win me over in the end.
Thanks to BookSparks for the free book in exchange for an honest review!
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