Book Review: Here Lie All The Boys Who Broke My Heart by Emma Simmerman

Here Lie All The Boys Who Broke My Heart by Emma Simmerman

Content Warnings:

TW: sexual content, alcohol abuse/drunk driving, violence, murders, toxic relationships, stalking. Readers 18+.

Publishing Date: March 26th, 2026
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genres: New Adult // Contemporary, Romance
Quick Thoughts: A wickedly smart and genuinely funny read that completely flips the script on the modern thriller, breathing fresh air into the cross-genre tale. It’s wittiness and relatability is, at it’s heart, exactly what makes it such a standout read.
Rating:

Gifted/PR

I was gifted this book via the Publisher/PR. All views/opinions are my own. I remain entirely impartial.

Literary Trope Guide

“My Exes keep dying”

College life

Solving the murders

Enemies-to-lovers

about this book
Sloane Sawyer isn’t just writing off her exes. She’s burying them. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Sweetpea in this binge-worthy murder mystery about a college student whose senior year takes a deadly turn when her exes start turning up dead…
‘A whipsmart mystery for anyone who’s been dumped, ghosted, or tempted to give Karma a helping hand’ Katy Brent, bestselling author of How to Kill Men and Get Away With It
‘As bingeable as your favorite Netflix series… one seriously entertaining debut’ Stacy Willingham, NYT bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark
Each time Sloane’s heart is broken by a boy, she writes them a dramatic eulogy in her journal. She’s over them already. They’re dead to her.
But when the exes start turning up dead in real life, with her eulogies left at the crime scenes, things get complicated.
Now the prime suspect, Sloane must dive headfirst into the investigation before the body count rises higher, or she ends up behind bars. Even if this means having to team up with the stubborn, sarcastic, and dangerously attractive Asher.
Between college parties, messy exes, and an inconveniently hot partner-in-crime, Sloane’s senior year is turning into a real killer.

My Review

When I was kindly sent Here Lie All The Boys Who Broke My Heart, I was floored with how twisty and intriguing it felt before I’d even cracked open the story. It felt like a welcomed departure of typical fields in the mystery genre, the New Adult edge giving it a modern and clever shine. We meet Sloane, a College student who is not having a great time. After her Senior Year kicks off post-drama, like a DUI and online rant she’d rather forget about, she’s looking forward to a fresh start. Only, life has a very different plan when her teenage love, the boy who broke her heart, dies. She’d already sort-of killed him off in her head, though, like all the boys who wronged or hurt her, writing them eulogies in a secret journal, so knowing he’s really gone now feels strange—even more so when more of her exes start croaking.

It wouldn’t be so terrible for her reputation or point any blame her way if her once-secret eulogies weren’t turning up at every crime scene where her exes lay dead. Now all eyes are on her. Wary of her implication to the crimes, swearing she hasn’t gone around maiming her exes, Sloane knows her only option is to find out who’s really killing her exes—and why they want it to point to her. But bodies are slowly but surely stacking up, rumours and friends casting doubt over the real truth. Sloane hasn’t always been reliable, and her past only harms the belief she thought people had in her innocence. Surprisingly, the person who offers up himself as her partner-in-crime is Asher, her crush’s cousin, the cousin who just so happens to be the last name on the exes list—the last to potentially be killed. So when the hatred mellows to tension and possibly something altogether new and enticing, Sloane didn’t see any of this coming. But she knows nothing in her life will stay the same—or get the happy future she deserves—if she doesn’t nail down her ex-killer first, and it’s proving to be more twisted than she anticipated.

Here Lies All The Boys Who Broke My Heart was a wickedly smart and genuinely funny read that completely flips the script on the modern thriller, breathing fresh air into the cross-genre tale. It’s wittiness and relatability is, at it’s heart, exactly what makes it such a standout read. The writing doesn’t rely on Gen-Z lingo to feel current, but instead, it has the cinematic quality of a hit Netflix series destined to go viral. It strikes that good balance of being perfectly accessible to younger readers while remaining a page-turner for an older crowd, too. Sloane is hugely understandable and I felt so sympathetic to her as she broke and mended, finding so much commonality with her. The banter between her and Asher set the pages alight with a sexy, enemies-to-lovers/love-to-hate-you vibe that kept me glued to the book, chapter after chapter. I was surprised how fast I finished the book, in just two nights, truly immersed. If you’re a fan of books with a steady pulse of romance but love your thrills and mystery, this offers the perfect blend of all my favourite qualities in NA lit. Emma’s debut is definitely something to shout about and I can’t wait to see what she writes next if this killer book is anything to go by!