This slowly builds up creating an eerie atmosphere of suspense. It continues with many twist and turns, great character development and unfortunately, a very disappointing and unsatisfying ending. 3 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy.

I enjoyed this book! I often like to read a thriller in between every few books. I don't find them as heavy as books I often gravitate towards and find they provide me that "popcorn for the brain" experience I crave every now and then. I love the twists and turns of thrillers, love the suspense and the mystery.

The Perfect Stranger certainly didn't disappoint. It was paced perfectly, had some excellent twists and really held my attention. The story, about a woman who moves to the Burbs with someone she assumes is one of her closest friends, is suspenseful and gripping. Our protagonist soon learns that no one is who they seem and everyone has their own secrets, their own past to battle.

I really did enjoy Megan Miranda's writing, too. I thought she formed the tale of Leah and Emmy very well and unfolded the drama at precisely the right intervals, certainly enough to hook me and keep me guessing.

Leah and her internal monologues did begin to grate on me after a while, a common complaint among readers from what I can gather. I also suspect, from what I have read, that Miranda's All the Missing Girls, the predecessor to this book, is her standout work so I am eager to read that and learn what the connection is (if there is one?).

An accomplished and enjoyable thriller that I would certainly recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.

The Perfect Stranger A Novel by Megan Miranda and published by Simon & Schuster is a great read. Thank you to Netgalley the publisher and author for my advanced copy for an honest review. I am one of those people who needs to read things in order so I did read All the Missing Girls and loved it. I feel that the plot was very well developed and the reverse chronological order was genius. So if you haven’t read that do start there. I am very glad I did, even though books can be read as standalones I am so glad I read them together.
Failed Journalist Leah Steven's life has hit rock bottom when she runs into her old friend Emmy Grey in a bar in Boston. Emmy has just broken up with her boyfriend and because both women want to get away from Boston suggests that she and Leah move to rural Pennsylvania and start their lives anew. All is going well until a woman who bears a uncanny resemblance to Leah is assaulted and left for dead and Emmy disappears days later, this should have you hooked if I stop right here but this is just the beginning. The Journalist in Leah is determined to find Emmy, but the more time that Leah spends time looking the messier things get. Leah gets help from Kyle Donovan a detective from the area that helps. I feel that the intrigue of potential love for this story makes it so much better.
This roller coaster ride is read in the prospect of Leah, the character is so well developed and complex that it makes the story so much better. The more time that passes the more Leah starts to second guess her thoughts and memories. every time you as the reader get the feeling that the idea of Emmy is constructed. Is all this real? All and all a perfectly strange read.

3.25 Stars.
“A Perfect Stranger” is A Less Than Enthralling Follow-Up to Megan Miranda’s “All the Missing Girls,” which was one of my favorite reads of last year.

So Leah Stevens needs to escape. Badly. She made a mistake. And she doesn’t want to admit it. To anyone. Not her boss or her family. And now she just wants to run away. And her old friend Emmy, who returns after having been away for eight years, gives her that option. Together, they take off for rural Pennsylvania, where Leah gets a job as a teacher and Emmy ends up working odd jobs. Leah and Emmy clicked from the start and Leah loved how Emmy backed her up, was strong where Leah was weak, and came back just when she needed her most. Then, when things finally seemed to calm down for Leah, everything goes to sh&t and Emmy goes missing and so does her boyfriend - leaving Leah in trouble - wondering who Emmy really is and whether or not she can be trusted.

A Perfect Stranger is a quick easy, enjoyable read. That said, I can’t say that I really liked any of the characters and therefore didn’t care what happened to them. That simple fact didn’t make the mystery all that compelling to me. I went into it wanting to love it… because I loved Ms. Miranda’s debut, All The Missing Girls, but unfortunately it didn’t happen for me. Like I said, it was an enjoyable read, but it didn’t blow me away.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 4.30.17.

*Will be Published on Amazon on 5.16.17.

I really enjoyed this book. It was easy to read. Lots of suspense and intrigue. I couldn't wait to get to the end to see how all of the pieces fit together.

Just as exciting as All the Missing Girls. Had me on edge right up to the ending! Megan Miranda is most definitely a one-click author,

When Emmy Grey leaves an abusive relationship and runs into her old friend Leah Stevens, it seems like fate. The two move into a rustic area in PA and start their lives over. But when a young woman resembling Leah is found near death and Emmy disappears, Leah learns that Emmy is not who Leah believes her to be. There are many twists and turns including the backstory on Leah's disgraceful departure from her newspaper job. I am glad NetGalley gave me the opportunity to be an early reader in exchange for my honest review.

I really loved Megan Miranda's debut novel, All the Missing Girls. I did not get the same feelings towards this book. To me, it was too confusing...... with the roommate going by multiple names, one of which was the name of the main character. It also felt like there were 2 story lines...... the one with the missing roommate, and the one with the stalker, and it felt like the stalker story line just dropped. I was not not a fan of this one.

I loved reading All the Missing Girls last year and I couldn’t wait to read Megan Miranda’s next book. The Perfect Stranger didn’t disappoint. It was a great suspense novel and it kept me guessing throughout the whole story.

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This author is my favorite. She doesn't disappoint in this one. Writing full review for my blog but my recommendation here is buy it.

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda was an interesting book filled with twists and turns, and all characters possible suspects [ I had an idea about what was going on but it was wrong - lol! (hide spoiler)]. The cast of characters is large, with minimal info and character development. Most of the relationships between characters is eluded too, with the exception of the relationship between Leah & Emmy. Most of what you learn about the characters is slowly uncovered as the book progresses. The characters have lots of secrets, and many have unresolved pasts that they are struggling with.

Unlike most of the current reviews of this book I felt that there were many unresolved issues, in fact when the book ended I say “really” out loud – that’s it! I was very unsatisfied by the ending. I’m not going to list my pet peeves as they go into too much detail on the actual story. Each reader will just have to make up their own mind on this book. For me was a 2 star read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Miranda and Simon & Schuster for the digital copy in exchange for an honest and fair review

Megan Miranda's All the Missing Girls was one of my favorite books of 2016. While Girls wasn't her first novel, it was the first of hers that I had read. When I so completely enjoy an author's work it can be a little nerve-wrecking to pick up their next one. With THE PERFECT STRANGER, Megan Miranda plots a creepy and twisty thriller that certainly left me guessing and questioning everything. I couldn't put it down!

THE PERFECT STRANGER is an eerie cautionary tale about the people we allow to become a part of our lives and those that force their way in without permission. What kind of unknown dangers are lurking around the corner, behind our backs, or sleeping right next to us?

One of the things I found so compelling about Miranda's All the Missing Girls was her ability to make the setting its own character, drawing the reader into a place the reader may not have been to but have now. In THE PREFECT STRANGER, Miranda brings readers to a lonely house near a lake in small town Pennsylvania with townsfolk who aren't so accepting of newcomers.

Miranda's restraint and control in her storytelling is most impressive with the way she methodically reveals Leah and Emmy's past in small increments. She slowly feeds the reader bits and pieces of information throughout the story, allowing the reader to be their own detective along the way. There is a lot going on plot-wise towards the latter half of the novel (my bit of criticism), but Miranda's talent is evident in her ability to write with clarity and simplicity.

This book is in all sense of the word a page-turner. That might sound completely cliché but I don't even care. I was glued to the pages from the time I woke up until I turned the last page. I had to know what happened with Emmy, who was responsible for Bethany's brutal beating, and what's to come for Leah. I was so affected by the book that I went to bed and had some pretty vivid nightmares (eeek!). Megan Miranda is a force in the world of mystery and thrillers and is an author that I will pick up again and again! Is it bad that I'm already hankering for her next thriller?

I haven't listened to the audiobook of this one yet, but I'm so tempted to buy it because 1.) Rebekkah Ross narrates it and I love her and 2.) I sort of want to re-read it.

* Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an early copy for review. It was such a joy to read!

Interesting premise, but hard to follow is some chapters. Would not recommend.

I did not like this book at the beginning, but that changed quickly as I was drawn in to the drama of Leah's life. Once that happened, I could barely put it down because I had to know what was going to happen. There were twists and turns and unexpected things happening throughout, so much suspense! I am a pretty big chicken and get scared easily, so while this book did creep me out a bit, it was not scary. Emmy was a character that I did not like from the very beginning. She was the reason I did not click with the book at the start. I thought it was going to be her story throughout, and while she was a central character, the book was Leah's story and how Emmy intertwined with her, so I moved past and enjoyed it quite a lot.

A different spin on the usual missing person story, this story is a mind bender.

Another one of those books that I read in one day, this book was intriguing and kept me glued to the pages. I loved the little bit of romance in the book, although I loved some of the characters the others were just plain creepy. Lots of lies are told and it is up to Leah to find out the real truth. A thriller that will keep you glued to the pages.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster via Netgalley for the copy.

I was a big fan of Miranda's first book All the Missing Girls so I was very excited to read this, sadly it was a big disappointment. The main character was annoying and her "oh so dramatic" life altering incident was not a big deal and the slow reveal only left you disappointed.
It's not bad, it's just nothing special. I wouldn't recommend it.

Megan Miranda seemed to be everywhere last year with her bestselling novel, All the Missing Girls. While it originally didn't strike me as something I was too interested in reading, I picked it up to test the waters of Megan Miranda's writing. I gave All the Missing Girls four stars and I thoroughly enjoyed the story being told in reserve. While she pulled that off rather flawlessly, I was curious as to how she'd handle a story told "normally."

The Perfect Stranger was slightly better than All the Missing Girls. I feel like it was easier to fall into the story. It was suspenseful and kept me engaged the whole time. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I'd be hit with something new and thrown for a loop.

Megan Miranda is adept at writing suspense. I can't wait to read another novel from her in the future.

I’m not who you think.
I’m not going to tell you.
I’m no one.

Leah Stevens has always believed that if you dig deep enough you will eventually get to the truth. But her quest for exposing injustice has cost her a career as a journalist, forcing her to move to the country until the scandal of her last expose’ has died down. So when she accidentally runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who offers her a house share in a small town in rural Pennsylvania she grabs the opportunity with open arms. Now settled into her new home and working as a highschool teacher, Leah thinks she may have had a lucky escape. Until one morning, when a young woman is brutally assaulted and left for dead near a lake close to her house. A young woman, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Leah. Suddenly Leah no longer feels safe in her new home. And why has her housemate not come home for five days?

As she becomes increasingly worried about Emmy, who seems to have disappeared at the same time as the assault occurred, Leah realises how little she knows about her housemate. Emmy has always insisted that the lease and all the bills go in Leah’s name, as she was running away from an abusive relationship. But looking for Emmy, Leah discovers that no one has ever laid eyes on the woman, even at the place Emmy was supposed to be working. Even the police are doubting that Leah is telling them the truth. It’s as if Emmy has never existed...

To discover the truth, Leah must go right back to the beginning, even if it brings her face to face with the demons of her own past.

"This was my belief. That the truth rises to the surface like air bubbles in boiling water. That it rushes upward like a force of nature, exploding in a gasp of air when it reaches the surface, as it was always intended to do."

I haven’t previously read any books by Megan Miranda, but have since put All the Missing Girls on my to-read list, as The Perfect Stranger is exactly the kind of book I enjoy curling up with. Extremely suspenseful, with an interesting main protagonist and a cat-and-mouse game that kept me guessing until the end, this was another one of those “all-night-read-a-thon” books that has been contributing to my permanent state of sleep deprivation lately!

I love an unreliable narrator in a psychological thriller, and Leah is perfect for that role. What is truth and what is fiction? Is Leah going crazy? As the story twists and turns, the reader can never be sure whether to take Leah’s version of the truth for gospel. Is she losing her mind and imagining things, or is she lying to protect herself? Miranda sows these little seeds of doubt very cleverly, hiding them in seemingly innocuous detail, which adds a lot of tension and an ever-present sense of danger to the story. The claustrophobic and atmospheric setting in rural Pennsylvania is a perfect backdrop, and I could vividly picture Leah moving around the house at night, fully exposed behind the windows of her new home as if she was on stage, watched by a sinister predator crouched at the edge of the woods. A perfect read whilst huddling under the safety of your doona, with only the rustling of the pages audible in the still, dark night. For me, the only slight let-down was the ending, which fizzled out a bit, with some questions remaining unanswered and the subplots not quite gelling in the way I had hoped. Whilst this did not spoil my reading pleasure, I missed the bold, twisty and unexpected finale the story had been building up to.

The Perfect Stranger is a suspenseful mystery with an interesting premise: how well do you really know your friends? Containing all the elements I look for in a psychological thriller – an unreliable narrator, a constant sense of menace or danger facing our main protagonist, an atmospheric setting and plenty of twists and turns that make you question everything you have read -I highly recommend it to any lover of the genre. The budding romance added a pleasant addition to the story, and perhaps an added element of doubt – you will need to read it to judge for yourself.