Book Review: In My Dreams I Hold A Knife

IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE | Ashley Winstead
08.03.2021 | Sourcebooks
Rating: 5/5 stars

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.

I think this might be the year that my backlist books own my top ten stack. I fully credit the #23in23 challenge for this obsession.

I know you probably remember all of the hype for this book back in 2021 and I’m here to tell you all that the hype is real! From the minute I started reading this book I was pulled into Jessica’s world (okay, maybe it helps we share a name!) and became obsessed with her friend group. Winstead alternates timelines between present day and different moments from Jessica’s college days. These woven timelines work to unravel hints about the unsolved murder of one of Jessica’s best friends. 

You know those movies/shows/books where people are forced together and are made to spill their darkest secrets? This is exactly that! This style is perfect for sucking a reader into the web of deceit these friends have created. I couldn’t look away! The pacing is lightning quick, which lends itself to hooking the reader more and more into binge reading this book. 

Fun fact about Winstead: She also writes romance books and this was her debut into the thriller world. I’m usually not a romance fan, especially in my crime fiction reads, but the way Winstead drops it throughout felt natural and it served as one of the driving factors for the story. 

In case you can’t tell from my raving love for this book, Winstead is now firmly on my auto-buy list and I’m very excited to already have The Last Housewife waiting for me on my shelves!