Three and a half stars: A book with a strong, suspenseful mystery, but it falters with wordiness and story lines that don't fit well into the story.

Leah has settled into her new teaching job in rural Pennsylvania after a disastrous article she printed in Boston ruined her career. She was grateful to reconnect with Emmy, her roommate from eight years ago and make a new start. Everything is going well when disaster strikes. A young woman is found beaten nearly to death by the lake. An anonymous phone call accuses one of Leah's coworkers. When the police come asking questions, Leah's instinct is to hide, but then when she realizes Emmy has gone missing, she is forced to work with the cops. Once the investigation begins to find Emmy, there are nothing but dead ends, leaving the police wondering if Emmy existed at all. Leah is determined to find the truth, but the more she digs, the more she realizes that she didn't know Emmy at all. Can Leah uncover the truth?

What I Liked:
*I know that I am not alone in wondering if Ms. Miranda can match the brilliance she achieved with All the Missing Girls. While Ms. Miranda proved with this book that she is not a fluke, she is indeed a talented writer, this book didn't quite live up to its predecessor. However, this novel is suspenseful with a strong mystery that kept me reading well past my bedtime. If you want a compelling mystery, this is one to check out.
*I loved immersing myself into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Emmy. There were so many twists and turns, and unexpected developments. I wasn't sure where it would all lead, and I questioned the reliability of the narrator. I loved the suspense and the many directions this story took.
*I liked the way the author wove in the details from Leah's past, especially when it came to the events that led to her leaving Boston. Sometimes utilizing flashbacks disrupts the flow of the story, but that wasn't the case with this book. The uncovering of events in Leah's past helped to establish her character, and helped the reader to understand her motivations.
*I appreciated that the ending concluded the story without a cliffhanger or a jarring ending. Most of the questions are answered. No head scratching, confusing ending with this one.
And The Not So Much:
*The first half of the story flew by. The writing was terrific, the suspense thick, and the story was tight. Then something happens in the latter half. The pace begins to drag as the author went off on these wordy, self analyzation sections that got to be distracting. I found myself quickly tiring of all of Leah's new self discoveries.
*Speaking of Leah, I struggled with her. I could not connect or even sympathize with her because I wasn't sure if she was reliable. Then as the story unfolded, I just never liked her. I did finally appreciate her tenacity and the way she dug to find the truth, but in the end, I thought she was a weak character, and that ruined the enjoyment of the story for me.
*I was frustrated at the inclusion of several story lines that were left unfinished and they didn't end up adding much to the mystery. For instance, I didn't like how the whole story line regarding Paige and Aaron from Leah's past ended. I was left wanting to know so much more, and it really had no part in the story other than to provide information as to Leah's character. I wished that this story line had been further fleshed out. I also didn't understand why there wasn't further explanation regarding Emmy's behavior. Finally, what was the deal with her student, was he troubled or what?
*There is a bit of a romance, but I disliked it because it started out as lust and sex and I never felt like there was any substance to it. I could have done without the romance entirely. It adds nothing to the story.
The Perfect Stranger is a book that left me conflicted. I was immediately drawn into the book by the strong and interesting mystery, but as the story progressed, I was frustrated by wordiness, unfinished story lines and a main character that I couldn't connect or sympathize with. I enjoyed the book, but it didn't measure up to All the Missing Girls. Still, Ms. Miranda is a talented writer, and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.


I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I really enjoyed All The Missing Girls last summer have been eagerly awaiting The Perfect Stranger since I heard the news about it.

The character, Leah, had the air of an unreliable narrator about her. As I said in my Goodreads review- “you just can’t be too sure she’s telling the truth or telling ‘her’ truth”.



What I Liked:

The cover. Gorgeous.

The mystery. It all starts off one way, but you begin to see that this will not be simple. There are tentacles curling many ways and encompassing many characters.

When Leah figures some things out. Leah’s on the run and the why behind it is slowly revealed. But there is even more to the story which Leah figures out.



Bottom line: This is def on par with All The Missing Girls and might be even better!



*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

**The Perfect Stranger is an April #FuturisticFriday selection from Traveling With T**

This book had me riveted throughout. For that reason alone, I have to give it 5 stars. The narrative slowly built, giving out little tidbits of information for the readers to draw their own conclusions. Was Leah crazy? Was Emmy real? Was Leah the unwitting victim of Emmy, someone she thought was her friend? My opinion went back and forth with all the various scenarios as the plot constantly changed, the possibilities endless.

I never give spoilers - I'll just say be prepared not to put this book down until you have all the answers!

This will go live on my blog on April 25. Kellyvision.wordpress.com

Leah's roommate is missing and she's not sure how long she's been gone, because they are on opposite schedules. And even worse, someone who looks like Leah was attacked and seriously injured. Things couldn't get worse---until the police start to think maybe the roommate isn't actually real.

This is a complicated book and hopefully readers will have the patience to go with it. I spent a goodly chunk of the book unsure about what was going on. So if you need a straightforward narrative, this is not your huckleberry.

I loved her first mystery and this didn't quite measure up. (It may be that the gimmick of telling the story in reverse was awesome and there was no gimmick here.)

I did enjoy this but it wasn't the must-read that her first one was.

I liked this book MUCH better than her previous All the Missing Girls. All the Missing girls was written backwards, starting with the ending really removed all anticipation. I tried this one in hopes that it was different, and I was glad I gave Miranda another chance.
This one is a great psychological thriller. As I read, I tried to figure out the plot twist but I didn't see this ending coming! Reminded me of The Girl on the Train in pace and suspense. At the ending, all the pieces fall together and you're left satisfied. 5 stars

I think I went into The Perfect Stranger with the wrong expectations. I thought it was going to be really suspenseful and have a big twist. I spent my time trying to figure out what the big twist would be and I think in the process the smaller twists and turns of the story were not fully appreciated. This was a good mystery, but I still find myself slightly disappointed at the lack of thrill and suspense.

The book focused a lot on character development and thus the pace seemed a little slow to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-done character driven story and this definitely fits that description, but again, I wanted suspense and a quicker pace. While I wouldn’t categorize some passages as flashbacks, there is a lot of Leah explaining events from her past and things are revealed to the reader slowly. While I felt this was done effectively, the reveals were never really shocking enough to pull my focus off The Big Twist I was (mistakenly) waiting for. I think if you go into this just expecting what the synopsis tells you, you will find this a well done mystery.

I thought Leah was a pretty compelling character. Though the story is told from her 1st person POV, I never really felt like I could get a handle on her. Is she telling the truth? Is she just super paranoid? Is she secretly a sociopath? Is she in danger. Is she the danger? I still don’t know if I can say she was a likable character, but I don’t think that’s the point. The other characters were interesting, but I don’t feel like we got to know any of them well enough to really care about them one way or the other. I thought the relationship between Leah and Kyle was kind of messed up, but I can also see why it would work.

Overall, The Perfect Stranger was a good mystery, but I was left a little disappointed that it wasn’t as suspenseful or shocking as I was expecting. The mystery of Leah trying to figure out the truth about Emmy and the murders was well done, but there were some other side plots that I felt there were loose ends on. I found the ending a little anti-climactic, as well, and would have appreciated an epilogue. I do think fans of character-driven mysteries would really enjoy it, though, as long as that’s what they are expecting.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

This was a great thriller! With every turn of the page you will come up with a new idea of what’s going on but you will be wrong…again. Leah is a great but unreliable main character with plenty of flaws of her own to keep you wondering. Emmy is the perfect is-she-or-isn’t-she-the-villain that you suspect but then don’t. There are a few subplots and secondary characters that all support the mysteries involved in the book but to me the flow of the book was a bit off.
There are a lot of twists and turns and at times, I was confused. All of Leah’s inner dialogue and self-analyzing about her ultimate search for truth got to be a little tedious at times. This is especially true when it was purposely vague…this happened a lot and was a little annoying. I really enjoyed the story but felt that all the storylines were not pulled together in a very cohesive way and that the ending was anticlimactic. 3.5/5 stars

Leah Stevens leaves Boston to live with Emma in Pennsylvania. She is a teacher who finds a woman who resembles her has been found dead by the lake near her home. At the same time, she can't seem to get in touch with her roommate, Emmy. As the death of the woman found and the disappearance of Emma beings to correlate, Leah needs to determine if she will cooperate with the police or keep her mouth shut so her own sordid path doesn't catch up with her. How much can she keep hidden before it messes with her sanity? While the investigation continues she begins to wonder if Emma actually exists or if she's just a figment of her imagination.

A wonderful unreliable narrator of a novel. Shown through Leah's world only, we can only wonder if she's completely out of sorts or if what she believes to be true is actually what is happening. I wondered a multitude of times if she was just completely insane or if someone was just screwing with her over and over again. This is what kept me turning page after page after page. While atmospherically it was fantastic, I was a little underwhelmed with the ending. There were so many avenues it could have gone in that I was anxious to see where it would end. This is definitely a good sign of the writing by the author. What.Is.Going.ON?! A book I would definitely recommend. I just wanted a tiny bit more from the characters that led up to the ending. Get in. Get your Miranda rights. ;)

After finishing All the Missing Girls, I wasn't sure that Megan Miranda could top herself. I was so, so wrong. The Perfect Stranger spoke to me on several levels. The main character, Leah, is a teacher, as am I. This book so wonderfully illustrates the double lives that teachers play--one at school, one outside. While my life isn't quite as intense as Leah's, it's not often you find a writer that can so easily write the different roles we play. That alone made me love this book.

Moving from that, the compassion Megan helps us feel for these totally unlovable characters is remarkable. Several times through the story I found myself at odds with my feelings--why am I sympathizing with this person who has done such terrible things? I couldn't help it!

I would recommend this book to anyone in need a of good mind-twisting-crime-who dun it!

Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.

Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

My Thoughts: The Perfect Stranger was one of those books that had me taking voluminous notes, not sure which details I uncovered that would help me later, as it was clear from the start that many secrets and lies would shake out as we followed the various threads to the end.

First, I was intrigued by the character of Emmy Grey, who may have been someone else entirely. Or perhaps she only existed in the mind of Leah Stevens, through whose eyes we saw most of the events of the story. After all, she leaves no evidence of her existence behind when she goes. Everything is in someone else’s name: in Leah’s name.

How did the attack of a woman who resembled Leah connect to Emmy Grey or even to Leah?

Finding out more kept me reading, and even as each twist and turn led me to still another theory, I knew that the identity of Emmy Grey would be at the heart of it all. Themes of trust were also at the center of the mystery. Who could Leah trust, from her old lover in Boston to Emmy herself?

And what about Detective Kyle Donovan, who seems so forthcoming in the beginning, and then shuts down? Will he finally trust Leah enough to help her?

Twisted threads take us back and forth, with bits and pieces revealed until a startling connection leads us to the very beginning and to the moment of truth. To the place where we finally discover who Emmy is…and to the secrets she had hoped to outrun. 5 stars.***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

I really enjoy Megan Miranda's suspense novels. All the Missing Girls is excellent, and this followup is very good as well.

Journalist Leah Stevens is in trouble. She has been served with a restraining order and is facing a possible lawsuit. She becomes reacquainted with a former roommate she hasn't seen in eight years, Emmy Gray, and together they decide to move to Pennsylvania to get a new start. Not long after arriving in Pennsylvania, a woman resembling Leah is assaulted, and Emmy disappears a few days later. As police investigate Emmy's disappearance, they struggle to find even the most minor information about Emmy. It begins to appear that Emmy Gray might never have existed. In order to clear herself, Leah must find out the truth about Emmy and come to terms with her past.

What a good novel! Read carefully and don't miss the clues along the way. Megan Miranda is truly a gifted writer.

A thrilling read that will keep readers guessing who done it.

Ever since I finished reading All The Missing Girls last year I've been an instant fan of Megan Miranda's writing style. She was on my list of favorite 2016 discoveries and you might already guess I added her newest thriller The Perfect Stranger to my list of most anticipated 2017 releases as soon as I heard about it. And even though I normally read my ARCs closer to the publish date, I just couldn't resist temptation when I got my copy. I read The Perfect Stranger for the first time back in January and it ended up being my very first 5 star read of 2017. Because even though my expectations were set high after her thriller debut last year, Megan Miranda managed to outdo herself with her newest story. Well written, fast-paced, lots of plot twists, suspense, interesting characters... In short an excellent psychological thriller! I decided to wait with my review and reread The Perfect Stranger closer to the publish date, and I have to say I enjoyed the story just as much the second time around. I found myself hooked right from the first page and she is without doubt one of my new favorite authors of the genre. The way the author is able to build suspense, add plot twists and slowly reveal more about the characters is simply impressive. It's unreliable characters at its best and it took me a long time to figure out what was the truth behind it all as everyone seemed to be having something to hide. There's no 'backwards' plot this time for those who didn't enjoy that aspect of All The Missing Girls, so if you like the genre there really is no excuse to not grab a copy of The Perfect Stranger. Trust me, you won't regret it!

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

First, All the Missing Girls was an absolute amazing book in my mind - I loved how the plot developed backwards in time. So while I probably didn't love this one quite as much, this was a great read - Miranda's writing is just suburb.

Leah, a journalist with a Boston newspaper, is forced to quit her job. When an old roommate, Emmy, offers her a chance for a clean start as a teacher in Western Pennsylvania, she picks up and moves to a remote cabin in the woods. When Emmy goes missing, Leah discovers that she knows very little of anything of her old friend.

The author is so skilled at giving us possibly unreliable narrators in situations that feel so real and scary. Another winner!

This was an amazingly twisted, paranoid read and I devoured it in one sitting. Miranda keeps you guessing all throughout the story. Has Leah had a psychotic break with reality? Are her delusions fact based or all in her head? There were so many twists and turns in this novel it was hard to keep up. All the stars for Megan Miranda. I will happily read whatever you write! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed Miranda's previous book All the Missing Girls and was really looking forward to her follow-up. I have to say I didn't enjoy this one quite as much, perhaps due to the shifts in time. Some of the revelations felt a bit too contrived.. I did like the characters and , enjoyed might not be the perfect word, perhaps was intrigued to be in their company for a few hours.

I have to admit, I wasn't as entranced with this book , as I was All the Missing Girls, and in fact I put it down twice, as it is so much slower than other books I've been reading, before finally making headway with it and getting into the story. It is more of a slow-burn of a thriller, versus a catch you by the seat of your pants one. But once the set up is complete, THEN the story really takes off and you're rapidly turning the pages, to see which ending the author will give you (as they are readily apparent by the middle of the book). If you have not read the previous book, then this would be a great book for Spring Break, to finish while the kids are out playing, and you have the time it needs! If you have read the previous book, this is still a worthwhile read, but it just isn't the same, 'have you running to tell everyone you know about it' escape as the previous book, so do be warned!

A well-written thriller, but perhaps a bit too much going on for me, and I didn't feel everything quite came together at the end. I liked the unreliable narrator though!

Leah thought that she knew everything about her friend Emmi. They both desperately needed a fresh start and chose a small town to do so. Suddenly a young woman is found assaulted and the woman looks remarkably like Leah. Added to that Emmi has not been home in days and Leah suspects foul play. With the help of a newly transferred detective she uncovers much more than she bargained for.

I absolutely loved this book! The story is scarily plausible and kept me at the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. It was so suspenseful that it had me intrigued and I was drawn in from the very beginning. This is an amazing novel that every mystery lover will enjoy.

Miranda is a fantastic, top-notch writer! I devoured The Perfect Stranger in two days – it would have been one, but I had to go to work. Miranda knows how to keep readers engaged from the beginning to the end. Her plot is constantly moving and at lighting speed (so pay attention). Miranda is also masterful at providing the right amount of details – nothing less, nothing more. Her characters are well developed and as a reader you get to know them quite well. The Perfect Stranger is full of layers that will keep you intrigued, guessing and doubting your assumptions. Like most readers, I absolutely loved her first (adult) novel, All the Missing Girls. If you have not read this masterpiece (written cleverly in reverse), I don’t know what you are waiting for! Megan, I am so happy you decided to write for adults – I just hate I now have to wait a while for a new book. :-(