Yours Always by Corinne Sullivan-review & interview

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 1, 2026

Talia Danvers is an engineer for a high-end dating app who hasn’t managed to code her own love life. Then she reconnects with Townsend Fuller: the one who got away.

Or, more accurately, the one who left her for someone else. But Townsend swears he’s a changed man, and Talia wants to believe him. Even if he is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Amanda Reade, the same woman who broke them up in the first place.

In cases like these, it’s always the boyfriend. That’s what Amanda’s sister Kaitlyn thinks. So does Talia’s colleague Meera Ratnam—and she’ll risk everything to convince Talia that she’s making a deadly mistake.

Then Talia starts receiving menacing texts from Amanda. Suddenly, no one knows what to believe. Is Townsend guilty? Is Amanda alive? Or is someone playing games?

Featuring unreliable narrators and written with acid wit and creeping unease, Yours Always is a mind-bending tale of dangerous love.

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REVIEW: I picked up Yours Always because the blurb sounded really good, a brilliant dating app engineer who can’t seem to debug her own romantic disasters reconnects with the ex who shattered her heart, only for him to be the main suspect in his current girlfriend’s disappearance. 😮 Add in creepy texts from the “missing” woman, friends warning her she’s making a fatal mistake…. I was all in.

Talia Danvers is smart, sarcastic, and so logically wired from her tech job that you almost believe she can “code” her way through this mess. Reading as she desperately wants to believe Townsend has changed, despite every red flag waving in her face, was equal parts frustrating and heartbreaking.

I found myself yelling at the pages more than once, “Girl, run!”

Townsend himself is charming in that polished, privileged way that makes you question everything he says. Is he reformed? Is he dangerous? Or is something far more twisted at play?

What really had me hooked was the creeping dread mixed with sharp, biting humor. The writing has this edge that had me snorting at Talia’s inner monologue one minute and getting chills the next.

The texts from Amanda!? They ratcheted up the tension beautifully, sudden, menacing, and impossible to ignore. I loved how the story toys with who you can trust…. Talia’s colleague Meera, who’s willing to risk it all to protect her, Amanda’s sister Kaitlyn, convinced it’s always the boyfriend, even Talia herself starts to feel… slippery.
It’s a mind bending ride that plays with obsession, second chances, and the stories we tell ourselves to justify dangerous love.

If you’re craving a psychological thriller that’s clever, witty, and deeply unsettling rather than outright gory, this one delivers. It’s the kind of book that lingers making you side eye your own exes and wonder how well you really know anyone.

Bottom line: Yours Always is a thriller about love, lies, and the terrifying blur between them. Perfect for fans of smart suspense (with a tech twist) and a few twists thrown in.

It was a good read, though a couple of threads felt a touch convenient in the final act!

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Julie B 🦋

TRC: Hi Corinne and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release YOURS ALWAYS.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Corinne: In addition to being an author, I’m the senior news editor at Cosmopolitan, as well as the mom of two girls: a one-year-old and a three-year-old. I’m also a former collegiate dancer, a former spin instructor, and a forever book lover.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Corinne: From the time I was five years old, I was telling my parents I wanted to be an author when I grew up—and thanks to their constant encouragement, I became one!

TRC: What challenges or difficulties did you encounter writing and publishing this story?

Corinne: Balancing multiple POVs is always a challenge, but with YOURS ALWAYS, I was especially challenged writing from the perspective of a man (and not a particularly nice one) for the first time. The other biggest challenge: keeping my timeline straight.

TRC: Would you please tell us something about the premise of YOURS ALWAYS?

Corinne: YOURS ALWAYS is about a dating app engineer who gets back together with her ex…only to realize that he’s the prime suspect in the disappearance of the woman who broke them up in the first place.

TRC: What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning YOURS ALWAYS?

Corinne: In addition to plotting out the order of events before I started drafting, I spent a good amount of time researching life in Austin, startup culture, and machine learning.

TRC: How do you keep the plot unpredictable without sacrificing believability or content?

Corinne: It’s hard to find a balance between shocking and simply inexplicable. I use my trusted beta readers (aka my parents, my husbands, and a few willing friends) to do a gut check, and they’ll usually tell me if a twist asks them to suspend too much disbelief.

TRC: Believability is an important factor in writing story lines especially stories of mystery and suspense. How do you keep the story line believable? Where do you think some authors fail?

Corinne: I believe that—with a successful thriller novel—you can read it through a second time and say, Ah, yes. There are the breadcrumbs I missed. But if you do a reread and still don’t feel that the “big reveal” is earned, it’s possible that believability was sacrificed for the shock factor.

TRC: Does the ‘unreliable’ narrator add or detract from believability?

Corinne: I personally love an unreliable narrator. That said, even if you can’t believe what a narrator is telling you as a reader, you should be able to believe that the real story will eventually come to light.

TRC: Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Corinne: Absolutely. I often pick up books based on compelling cover art alone (especially if it includes a great blurb from an author I already know and trust).

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Corinne: Even if I start writing with the intention of directing my characters, it often happens that, as my characters develop on the page, they eventually take over the direction of the writing.

TRC: The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writers fail in this endeavor?

Corinne: For me, there is a lot of power in specificity. Even if you can’t relate to the exact experience of the characters, you can still be drawn into their world through the use of specific, tangible details. Likewise, moral ambiguity is important to me. As much as I love an unlikeable character, I do feel that it’s hard to get on board with a character who is irredeemably bad.

TRC: Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Corinne: Call me weird, but I never listen to music while writing. I find it too distracting. I do, however, love light background noise. My favorite place to write is in a cafe, where I’m aware of some conversation and soft music but able to tune it out.

TRC: What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Corinne: That good writers are simply innately gifted. That may be true for some, but for me, my writing is a craft that I’ve studied and worked to improve for years (and something that I will always continue to hone).

TRC: What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Corinne: One of my hottest takes: I struggle with ebooks. I just don’t enjoy them as much. It’s a physical book or bust for me.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Corinne: I can’t say too much, but I can say this about my next book: It’s about motherhood, and it’s dark.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Corinne: Something I’ll always believe: the best writers are the ones who read as often (if not more than) they write.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food:Meatballs

Favorite Dessert:Any chocolate-based ice cream

Favorite TV Show:Girls

Favorite Sport :Anything that happens during the Olympics

Last Movie You Saw:Sinners

Dark or Milk Chocolate:All chocolate is good chocolate (but if I had to choose: dark)

Secret Celebrity Crush:Jason Momoa

Last Vacation Destination:Tokyo

Do you have any pets?:I lost my beloved dog of nine years, Jack, last summer and still think about him every day.

Last book you read:Once More From the Top by Emily Layden

TRC: Thank you Corinne for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of YOURS ALWAYS. We wish you all the best.