Time off from good behavior by Susan Sussman
Liked this book a lot because the alternating chapters were about the wife and then the husband.
She's still working at a new job with costume design for a movie-she's only ever done smaller projects.
He has sold the family business and as a millionaire he just wants to travel and spend time with his wife-but she's too busy.
Complications from her mother and his father stir this book around a bit. Loved learning about design parts.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

By: Blake Crouch 

Letty Dobesh Books #1-3

ISBN: 9781503940499

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer 

Publication Date: 11/15/2016

Format: Paperback 

My Rating: 5 Stars + + +

Top Books of 2016

Blake Crouch returns from Wayward Pines and Dark Matter (2016) with his latest smashing hit, GOOD BEHAVIOR The book, audio, TV series- (The Letty Dobesh Chronicles): EPIC! Brilliantly crafted.

Extraordinary from book, audio, to TV on-screen, Landing on my Top Books of 2016, and best 2016 book to screen. The collaboration between Blake Crouch and Chad Hodge is a “match made in heaven.”

Yes, I am enjoying the ride. Please do not let it stop!

Ongoing: “I am the best me I can be!” (Letty)

In the series, Letty is fresh out of prison, (meth-addicted) when she overhears a hitman being hired to kill a man's wife. When she sets out to derail the job, she puts herself in the crosshairs of a killer, entangling them in a dangerous and seductive relationship, and so much more.

This sexy hitman man Javier may be her path and key to redemption. That is if she does not screw it up.

Javier is sensitive and caring. He has pain in his life and his past. Leading him to his path as a hitman. They have a love/hate relationship. He lives on the outskirts of society due to an event from his childhood (we discover in the TV series).

A constant pull between them as well as their own individual lives. They have a connection and this makes them want to be better. They are perfect for one another. They rescue each other and find a home in one another.

Forgive me here, since I have watched the TV series (Season one Episodes 1-9, read the book, and listened to the audio (twice). You could say, I LOVE GOOD BEHAVIOR, so using this review as a combo review of all three.

I first listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan and the author, Blake Crouch. (Exceptional).

Directly afterward, quickly immersed in Amazon Prime (TNT) TV Good Behavior. Purchased the entire season. Taking the fantastic information provided by Blake in the audiobook and applied to how the 3 novellas were transformed to on-screen.

This is a “Must” to read the book and learn all the backstory. The backstage, inside scoop of how the author created these characters, and his collaboration with Chad Hodge for the television show. Quite intriguing. (Dying for a Season 2)….please, please!

In between, while getting caught up with the TV episodes, anxiously awaiting the weekly next episode, was “granted my wish” for a digital copy of the book, Good Behavior via NetGalley. Was so excited, with “Christmas coming early”, began diving into the book, and once again, read it in one sitting. I bookmarked so many pages.

Letty Dobesh is troubled, flawed, beautiful, striking, smart, inventive, charismatic, self-destructive, a chameleon. She crosses between good and bad. A constant struggle. She is authentic. Real. Even though in (Episode 9) not happy with her attitude and kicking Javier to the curb with her betrayal. (Let’s hope she can turn her mistakes around once again). I was dying with this one. Javier is good for her.

Don't score. Don't kill.

We follow Letty on a journey as she attempts to discover who she really is, and wants more than anything to make peace with that woman, even if she does not fit “inside the box” society has drawn for her. She wants to be a good mother, a daughter, and a friend; to make up for her past mistakes and misdeeds. Every time she tries, she gets knocked down.

Crouch is pitch perfect with his character development of both Letty and Javier. I like the transition from the book to the screen.

The book:
• The Pain of Others
• Sunset Key
• Grab

After each of these novellas the author adds some insightful commentary about the work, the show, images, and other additional content from the journey, he has taken with Letty. No, I would not dare skip over these parts. I love it!

With the book, it is like a backstage pass, with a peak at the inside operations. The reader becomes invested in the characters, the story, and a fan for life. Letty is flawed, irresistible, broken, lovely and brave. She wants desperately to get her son back. She keeps running into obstacles and pulled in by her addictions to stealing and the high. She is so good at being bad!

I wanted to hold off writing my review until the last TV episode Season One; however, being it was on my Top Books for 2016 List my fellow GRs friends wanted to know my thoughts. Yes, I loved it!

Letty Raines is a thief and con artist whose life is always one wrong turn, one bad decision, from implosion. Michelle Dockery is amazing. Juan Diego Botto (Javier) is sexy and to die for; each episode, I love him even more. Currently I am in HIS corner.

Christian, Jacob, Estelle ( a piece of work), Rob and the other supporting characters only add to the intense drama. What a riot! In the meantime, I am now just finishing the 9th episode, and let me say, starting at episode 5, I fell totally in LOVE. A turning point, from five on.

Letty and Javier are intimately connected on so many levels, and ultimately become each other’s saviors. Both emotionally-- two souls which are perfect for one another.

At the opening of the 5th episode, when Letty opens with, “you came.” Javier replies, “you called.”

OMG, that look between the two of them, was the best since Jerry McGuire’s "You had me at 'hello," and Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook, "I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year. It wasn't over… it still isn't over."

A modern SEXY twist of The Notebook and Bonnie and Clyde. Letty can rock a wig. I think she needs to have her own line. I would definitely buy one.

Season One: (TV)
• So You’re Not an English Teacher (Good opening-Statesville, NC caption) even though filmed in Wilmington; Letty is rocking the red bob wig—love the Grove Park Inn) book mention, even though not filmed here. She has the southern accent down as well as the blonde bangs.
• Only the Best for Mrs. Diaz
• From Terrible Me
• Your Mama Had a Hard Night (Letty-Sad but moving)
• Beautiful Things Deserve Beautiful Things (Hilarious!)** My favorite. Loved the short blonde wig and the St. John’s knit ensemble—Classy!
• We Pretend We’re Stuck (Loved the tie in with Jacob)- Emotional
• The Ballad of Little Santino (Javier-Sad but moving) Fantastic look at his character’s past.
• It Still Fits Bitch – A fun episode featuring Letty’s mom and Jacob. Tables are turned.
• For You, I’d Go with Strawberry – Did not like the turn this one took. Please get Letty back on track with Javier. Bad, bad girl. Sure, there is a plan here.

Waiting anxiously for the next episode . . .. in suspense.

Letty and Javier: Sexy, dangerous, thrilling, and flawed. With their tough exterior, we see their hearts, their desires, and love of family. The pull- of right and wrong. A fitting title for a struggle between right and wrong. Good and evil. From danger, intrigue, style, humor, emotion, heart, sex appeal, well-developed characters and an edge of your seat plot. All the ingredients for a HIT! Superb acting and pitch-perfect writing.

OK, Crouch fans and everyone else, BUY—the book, GOOD BEHAVIOR and watch the series! A show stopper. Hats off - A job well-done. Hopefully, we will see Season Two. I am hooked! Fingers crossed. 5 Stars +

Now that I have sold you on the book, and the author, I want to add a side personal note: I am a native of Statesville, NC, as is the author, Blake Crouch.  Read More on my Blog @  JDCMustReadBooks

A very special thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for granting my wish with a review copy.

Good Behavior is a collection of the three short stories about Letty Dobesh, written by Blake Crouch. Crouch is a best selling novelist and screen writer. His Wayward Pines trilogy has been adapted into a series on FOX, and Good Behavior is currently airing on TNT.

Good Behavior introduces us to Letty Dobesh, fresh out of prison and trying to make a new start. But as her boss reminds her, once a junkie whore, always a junkie whore. Letty tries to make a break from her past, but making it in the straight world is harder than it seems. And a good grift makes it easier to coast by for a few months.

"The Pain of Others" finds Letty a party to an unusual situation. Interrupted in the middle of a heist, she overhears a murder being planned. "Sunset Key" sends Letty to the Florida Keys, to the side of a man spending the end of his free life on his private island. And of course there's a heist involved. "Grab" finds Letty in Las Vegas, going along on the steal of a lifetime. 

At the end of each novella, Crouch tells us of his experiences turning Letty from a character on a page into the star of a TV series. These bits are not short, but they give some great insight into the creation process of a new TV series. And as Crouch is both the writer and a producer on the Good Behavior series, the continuing development of Letty should be seamless. 

I enjoyed the novellas, there were a few twists in each one, but while I think the best twists were in "Sunset Keys", many feel that is the weakest story in the book. I'm not certain I agree with that, but Letty in that story is much different from her in the others. She and Javier are the recurring characters in both the novellas and in the show, and their relationship is an interesting one, filled with admiration, dislike, and some serious flames. I'm hoping that Crouch will continue to both write new Letty novellas as well as episodes for the series, but we'll see how that is able to unfold. 

In the interest of disclosure, the publisher, Thomas & Mercer provided me with an advance copy of Good Behavior.

I’ve been looking forward to the new TV show, “Good Behavior”, starring Michelle Dockery, which will premiere on TNT on November 15, 2016. So I was quite excited to be reading Blake Crouch’s three novellas that comprise his work centering on the character, Letty Dobesh.  Also, this is the tie-in to the TV show and has photos of the cast at work and also the author’s notes about each of the stories and how they were incorporated into the TV show.

Letty Dobesh is out of prison and is back to being a thief and con-woman. She’s an alcoholic and a drug addict.  The only way she seems to be able to keep from the alcohol and drugs is to have the excitement of a heist going on.  There are three novellas about Letty.  The first is “The Pain of Others” which is my favorite of the three and which is apparently going to be included in the first season of the TV show.  That one is about Letty’s intervention with a hitman in doing his job.  The second, “Sunset Key”, involves Letty’s attempt to rob a man who is being sent to prison the next day for fraud.  The longest of the three novellas is “Grab”, which is about a casino heist.

From the advertisements I’ve seen of the upcoming TV show and from my reading of other books by this author, I expected to have sympathy for Lettie. That wasn’t the case at all.  I had a hard time connecting with her or sympathizing with her life.  She has a 6-year-old son who she has lost custody of and throughout the books, she longs to set things right with him and become the mother he needs.  However, it just seems that her love of the excitement of thievery overcomes her maternal instincts so I had a hard time liking her.  When things don’t go well for her, she feels she has two choices – do a heist or do drugs.  I just hope that Michelle Dockery can instill some sympathy into this character on the TV screen because these stories didn’t for me, though other readers have said that they did have sympathy for her. 

As always, the author has written very entertaining stories, which are exciting and suspenseful, with quite a few surprise twists. It was a fun read, especially in light of the upcoming TV show.

This book was given to me by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.