Story for the Week
Just this past week, I was reminded of the closest I have ever come to being off the grid for an entire weekend. When I read a book, I make notes when something looks like it might work as a tie-in for the blog post. Some books offer several. Some of them I really have to work for. This one came to me in the most convoluted way possible because I didn’t even think about my weekend off the grid while I was reading the book.
The Epilogue of the book reviewed below mentions someone drinking an Aperol Spritz. I hadn’t found a tie-in until then, so I anticipated writing this blog post about my first taste of an Aperol Spritz—Aperol Aperitivo Liqueur, Prosecco, and club soda. If you haven’t tried one, and you enjoy light, refreshing drinks, I highly recommend them.
But that is not what this post is about. This post is about the weekends I spent off the grid that I somehow didn’t remember while reading the book. This post takes you into the random way my mind works (or doesn’t work). Be afraid…be very afraid. 🫣😉
As of last Wednesday, the weather forecast for the Chicago area included the season’s first potential snowfall. I hadn’t yet planned our meals for the weekend. With a plan to go to the store the next day, I started thinking about what we could have. Chili makes for a great cold-weather meal, and I haven’t made chili in quite a while. That became the plan for yesterday.
I knew I had some of the ingredients, so I added what I needed to the shopping list. While I did that, I remembered a great bowl of chili that I experienced at an ashram in Wisconsin when I was in college. And then I started thinking about the ashram.
I have mentioned before that I was very active with campus ministry in college. Through that program, I participated in two trips to an ashram. The first time I went, I shared a cabin with classmates, including my best friend Stephanie. The whole point of going to the ashram was meditation, self-discovery, spending time with your own thoughts. It was a great experience.
The second time, I took advantage of the option to be in a cabin alone. My cabin included a bed, a small table and chair, and a wood-burning stove. My classmates visited, but I spent the vast majority of my time alone. I wrote, I meditated, I spent quiet time with my thoughts. It was winter, so I bundled up and I walked alone through the snow-covered woods just experiencing some beautiful surroundings.
This was before the Internet, before cell phones. I didn’t even have a radio with me. It was one of the most serene experiences I’ve ever had, and I loved it.
And then it occurred to me that this would be a better tie-in to the book. The characters go for a weekend in the Catskills with spotty cell service. When they’re hit by an unexpected snowstorm and lose their Internet service, though, their weekend isn’t nearly as serene as mine.
Aperol Spritz to potential snow to chili to an off-the-grid ashram. That’s how my mind works. This is why I read books that are far from serene and enjoy them. 😉
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Made You Look by Tanya Grant
363 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: November 18, 2025
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Berkley.
Publisher’s Description
Sydney Kent is the ultimate It Girl. You want her effortless style, her charisma, her hair. You want to be her; you want to be with her.
But the trouble with a star is that everyone else looks dull in comparison.
Despite Caitlyn’s social media cunning, it’s impossible for her to step out from Sydney’s shadow. Even Lucy, Sydney’s best friend since before her fame, can’t escape her role as full-time photographer to the influencer.
When the women are invited to post content for a secluded new retreat in the Catskills, alongside Sydney’s boyfriend Jeff, stylist Nash, and manager Brent, the weekend feels like it will be a fresh start. But an unexpected snowstorm traps the group together with no cell service, no Wi-Fi, and no way out.
Then a killer strikes, and the dream trip becomes a nightmare. Secrets, lies, and scandals are forced to the surface, and the friends can’t help but suspect the murderer might be among them. Worse, the killing has only just begun.
But where there’s danger, there’s juicy, jaw-dropping, name-making content to be created. You know you want to look.
************
Main Characters:
- Lucy – 26 years old, a photographer, Sydney’s college roommate and best friend, hired by Sydney three months ago as her full-time photographer, had a double mastectomy when she was diagnosed with cancer, just broke off her engagement with her fiancé Nick
- Sydney – actress and successful social media influencer
- Jeff – Sydney’s boyfriend, owns a marijuana-themed apparel company called High Standards
- Caitlyn – another social media influencer who has recently started working closely with Sydney
- Nash – make-up artist and stylist
- Brent – talent manager for Sydney, Jeff, and Caitlyn
Trigger warning: cancer, implied sexual assault
When an author delves into a new genre of writing, there’s always the possibility that they won’t be as successful. As Tanya Gallagher, Tanya Grant writes romances about smart, sexy women. In her debut thriller, Made You Look, Grant proves that she doesn’t only write romances about smart, sexy women.
We know something is very wrong as soon as the book begins. Someone unknown to readers narrates a livestream of social media influencer Sydney running from something or someone. With blood gushing from her arm, Sydney’s hair suddenly catches in a tree branch and she falls. The livestream cuts off before we know what happens to her. This is one of three points of view that tell this story.
The second point of view belongs to Lucy, photographer extraordinaire who earned Sydney a ton of new followers in the last several months. She and Sydney were tapped to experience and post about a new retreat center in the Catskills. Sydney invites her boyfriend Jeff and Caitlyn, another influencer and the third point of view. Nash, a makeup artist and stylist, and Brent, the group’s talent director, round out the group.
Chapters mostly alternate between Lucy and Caitlyn, but the addition of the narrated livestreams really adds to the mystery. Until the very end, we have no idea who is responsible for the livestream or who’s watching it to tell us about it. As the weekend goes increasingly more haywire with a snowstorm, no Internet or cell service, and people starting to die, the group of friends and colleagues start to become suspicious of one another in ways they never have before.
I really enjoyed this. The pacing was fantastic, with chapters long enough to keep things moving and POVs shifting to keep the reader interested. Every character had a distinct voice, which not every author does well when they create a group of characters around the same age and working in the same industry. I thought I had things figured out very early, but there are definitely twists that I never expected. I kept thinking to myself, “Of course it’s this…of course it’s this.” But it wasn’t “this.”
I’m really glad I picked this one up. I’ll be looking for Tanya Grant thrillers in the future.
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