🍸 The Bartender by James O’Sullivan — ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 Stars)
Ohhh this one was a WILD ride. 😈🍷
If you like your thrillers with cat-and-mouse tension, morally bankrupt sociopaths, and a heroine who finally learns to play dirty? Pull up a stool.
⚠️ Trigger Warnings
Murder (multiple, graphic)
Home invasion
Gun violence
Torture
Suicide (referenced)
Drug use
Emotional manipulation
Sociopathy / lack of remorse
Vigilante justice
📚 Overview (Spoiler Warning Below!)
The Bartender is a multi-POV psychological thriller set between Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Catalina Island. It follows Olive Fairbanks, a 26-year-old bartender who falls for the wrong man — and ends up entangled in a deadly con orchestrated by one of the coldest female villains I’ve read in a while.
And yes.
Full spoilers ahead. 🚨
🚨 FULL SPOILER SUMMARY
🍸 Meet Cute… or Meet Your Executioner?
Olive works at The Belly Flop in LA when she meets Austin — charming, attentive, supposedly from Virginia. She’s instantly smitten.
Meanwhile…
Chapter 2 reveals Austin’s real name is Jared Austin Jenkins, and he is actively participating in a plan to eventually kill Olive.
Romantic. 🫠
Enter Becca Poe, Austin’s former classmate and lifelong manipulator. She filmed him brutally assaulting a classmate years ago (a boy who later committed suicide) and has used that blackmail to control him ever since.
Becca’s newest scheme?
Use Olive to gain access to her wealthy boss Barry Gant’s $500,000 safe.
🧠 The Con Within the Con
The POV structure rotates between Olive, Austin, and Becca, and surprisingly? It’s super clear. 👏
I’m usually NOT a fan of too many POVs (you know this about me), but here it works. Each voice is distinct and easy to track.
Becca recruits:
Chet Watkins (violent felon muscle)
Austin (blackmailed puppet)
Olive (unwitting access point)
They stage a home invasion at Barry’s Pacific Palisades mansion. It goes sideways:
Barry shoots Chet.
Chet shoots Barry.
Becca executes both Chet and Austin.
She leaves $75,000 behind to stage infighting.
Escapes with ~$600,000.
Olive wakes up in the hospital.
Her boyfriend is dead.
Her boss is dead.
Her entire relationship was fake.
🕵️ Olive Becomes Nancy Drew
This is where I really started enjoying it.
Olive doesn’t just sit around grieving. She flies to Atlanta, investigates Austin’s past, and realizes the mysterious “Holly” from the bar is Becca Poe.
Becca threatens her.
The police? Useless.
So Olive hires Richard Levert, a semi-retired PI.
Richard tries to blackmail Becca for half the money.
Bad idea.
Becca murders him in Vegas by injecting him with a lethal mix while he’s watching the Bellagio fountains. Cold. Clinical. Efficient. 🧊
Now it’s personal.
💔 Catalina Island Bloodbath
Olive starts dating Rory.
Becca tracks them to Catalina Island (because apparently this woman has GPS built into her soul).
After a romantic evening, Becca bursts from the hotel closet and:
Shoots Rory dead.
Beats Olive nearly to death.
Escapes by swimming to a docked boat.
I genuinely gasped here.
🔥 The Final Showdown
Olive stops trusting the system.
She teams up with Hector Reyes (Richard’s friend).
They track Becca to Santa Ana.
Becca attempts to kill Hector at a Motel 6 — but Olive is waiting behind the door and tases her.
YES. 👏👏👏
They kidnap Becca.
Olive interrogates her.
Becca proudly confesses to everything.
Olive walks away.
Hector tortures and kills Becca.
Six months later, Olive learns the LA Public Library received an anonymous $600,000 donation — Becca’s blood money.
Olive moves on.
Peace at last.
💭 My Thoughts
✅ What I Loved
The Cat & Mouse Dynamic
This is the strongest part of the book. Once Olive stops being reactive and starts being strategic? SO satisfying.
Becca as a Villain
She is a true sociopath. No guilt. No remorse. Pure predator energy.
Multiple POV Structure
Shockingly clean and easy to follow.
The Ending
Watching Olive finally outwit Becca felt earned. I loved that she didn’t just “survive.” She fought back.
The Steamy Scenes 👀🔥
I have to say it — O’Sullivan writes intimacy better than many male thriller writers. It didn’t feel awkward or robotic.
❌ What Didn’t Work
The biggest issue?
The writing style feels amateurish.
The plot is strong. The pacing is strong. The twists work.
But the prose sometimes reads like a talented high school writer rather than a polished, seasoned author. The dialogue can feel on-the-nose. Some descriptions lack depth.
It doesn’t ruin the experience — clearly, I gave it 4 stars — but it’s noticeable.
🧠 Themes
Manipulation and control
Female sociopathy
Vigilante justice
Identity and deception
The danger of charisma
📖 If You Liked This, Try:
The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
You by Caroline Kepnes
⭐ Final Verdict: 4 Out of 5 Stars
Not perfectly written.
But wildly entertaining.
Dark. Twisty. Revenge-fueled.
And honestly? Watching Olive finally flip the script was worth the ride. 🍷✨
Would I read more from this author?
Yes.
Would I trust a charming stranger at a bar again?
Absolutely not. 😌
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