This was truly a book I could not put down. I stayed up way too late several days bc of that! The author did a good job with character development and really piques the readers interest in the story and who doesn't love a great twist?! As soon as I finished this book, I immediately picked up the authors other book and will be a fan for life. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

My thoughts: This was the first book I've read by Megan Miranda...but it surely won't be my last. I have her other book, All the Missing Girls, but never got around to reading it...and all I can say now is that I will definitely be picking it up as soon as I get a chance.

I really enjoyed this book - it kept me on my toes, guessing as to what was really going on. I found myself constantly wondering whether what Leah was telling us was real or whether she was making it all up. I was also confused...I didn't know if what was happening was really happening to Leah, if it was Leah's mind playing tricks on her or if it was someone else doing it to her. Is she reliable or is she just crazy?

The writing kept me wanting to keep going - I had to know how this would all play out. It was twisted and every time I thought I had come up with a viable guess, something new would pop up to throw that out the window. There's something so simple about this book, yet it keeps you on edge - quite a brilliant feat to this psychological thriller! I definitely found myself flipping the pages at top speed to figure out what would come next - it's tense, taut and kept me on edge until the very end.

This was such a great story and now I definitely need to find the time to pick up All the Missing Girls pronto, especially if it's anything like this one! Megan Miranda is definitely going on my must-read list...is she on yours?

This is not one for me, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

It was very slow paced, slapdash at times and I found myself skim reading to try and keep myself interested and involved.

After becoming too personally involved in a story and making a decision that costs her a job, journalist Leah Stevens feels the need to get out of Boston. One night she runs into old friend Emmy Grey at a bar and they decide to set out together for rural Pennsylvania for dual fresh starts.

Leah gets a job as a teacher and the two settle into an old house outside town. Leah isn't always sure what Emmy is up to as their paths don't cross too often at home. Emmy appears busy with several odd jobs and a new man. One morning a woman is attacked near the house and a co-worker of Leah's, with whom she has a less-than-friendly history, is investigated as the potential attacker. Leah also becomes worried about Emmy, who she realizes she hasn't seen in several days. As Leah gets drawn into (and involves herself in) both resulting investigations, it becomes clear her assessment of those closest to her has missed the mark.

There is a lot to like here. Miranda does a super job with character, no small feat when the reader has to spend most of a book inside one character's head. Leah doesn't become over-wrought and secondary characters are given multiple layers through her POV. Leah's past is used as the perfect tool to give her insertion into the multi-fronted investigation more credibility. Despite a multitude of plot arcs and visits to past timelines for history and relationship details, the story keeps its keel and doesn't get confusing or bogged down. I'm rarely a fan of law enforcement/witness relationships and that held true here, but I do give Miranda credit for the way she carried the arc out. Overall, a solid and engaging read, and I'll definitely go back and read Miranda's debut, All The Missing Girls, about which I've heard great things.

I had hoped to enjoy this book.
But there was a disconnect between the story and myself.
I can't put my finger on what it was exactly.
I hope to try again in the future to read this story and author!

You better hang on for this roller coaster ride!! There is a lot going on in this book and a lot of characters. Be sure to pay attention to their stories so you can enjoy the ending. The story flowed well and I finished it quickly. Looking forward to Miranda's next story!

I have not read All the Missing Girls yet, so having nothing to compare this to, maybe that's why I loved this so much...I doubt it though, this was a great story, and it sucked me in from the beginning.

This one of those books where the character development was super important, and she does it in a way where it's not overbearing or boring. It's split up throughout the book, so you get bits and pieces just at the right times.

I kept thinking that maybe Leah was imagining everything, but then how boring would that be? I was second guessing myself with my feelings towards Emmy and Leah throughout the entire book...I never knew whose side I was on, or if I could really trust Leah's version of the story. In my opinion, that's one of the best parts of a mystery/thriller.

The ending did not disappoint, and either did the creepy and uneasy tone throughout the entire book. I love how everything was tied up and the couple of twists in the last few chapters. All I know is that I would never stay in that house....and now I'll be shutting my curtains all the time.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery/thriller.

And of course, a special 'Thank You' to NetGalley and the Publisher for my kindle copy.

I'm not sure I loved this as much as All the Missing Girls, but Miranda definitely has suspense/thriller chops. The Perfect Stranger kept me guessing for much of the story, although I would have loved to see some threads woven throughout the entire story (rather than introduced closer to the end).

very well written!! Totally my kind of read! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.. I will definitely pass this on and get my friends to read it!!!

Leah is a journalist who quits her job and moves to a small town to become a teacher along with her mysterious friend Emmy. While Emmy takes up odd jobs , she is very mysterious with very little information about her. Leah is too busy burying old secrets to notice until one day Emmy goes missing. Another dead woman turns up looking just like Leah, who is supposedly murdered by the man who stalks Leah. Was Leah the original target ? Where is Emmy? When the police get involved she realizes how little she knows of her missing friend. While the police are baffled if Emmy existed at all , each person comes with their own secrets... This is my second book by the Author and I almost enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. Though I took days off between reading it, the story stayed with me due to all the mysterious elements it came with. The character development is brilliant and the plot itself is a smart one !! The flow of the story to the development of each character, the book has many interesting things to offer!
There are varied characters, each with their own set of secrets and each embroiled in the story directly or indirectly making for an interesting mix of characters and plot lines.
Overall, it was a great read and I for one am surely looking forward to the next thriller by the Author.

I liked The Perfect Stranger, but not nearly as much as ATMG. It's about two girls who move into together and then one of the girls goes missing. It's good, but not all that great. I never really connected with the main character. I did love the cop! The relationship between him and the main character was what saved the story for me!

This book kept me up all night! I just had to see how it was going to end and I sure didn't have it figured out. It is a wonderful story. The characters are so real you feel as if you know them. There are so many twists and turns. It all begins when Leah Stevens loses her job and then meets up with Emmy Grey in a bar. Since they already know each other they decide to move from Boston to rural Pennsylvania to start all over. Once there things start to go wrong and Leah finds that she is unsure that she knows who Emmy really is and then Emmy goes missing and at the same time another girl was killed that looks like Leah. After Leah reports to the police that her roommate is missing they become suspicious of her. I don't want to give anything away but this doesn' t end the way you will think it does. All I can say is "Great Read".

Like most of the reviews I have read I was a little disappointed reading this after loving All The Missing Girls. Don't get me wrong, this was still a good read and I really give this a 3.5, but Goodreads doesn't let us give half star ratings, wish they did though! Maybe someday!

Anyways I won't compare the two books, as many reviews have already done that. Instead I will let you know what I liked about the book. Megan Miranda does a great job creating her main characters, and this story is no different. We have Leah Stevens, our failed journalist that has moved to a small town in rural Pennsylvania for a fresh start only to have her world flipped upside down when her best friend and roommate Emmy goes missing.

You add the charisma of Kyle Donovan the local cop that she not only hooks up with, but then has to face in an official capacity while they search for Emmy. Everyone starts questioning whether Emmy even existed, or if it's simply Leah's cry for attention. I'm not about to give that part away, so I guess if you really want to know you're going to need to read the book!

There is an awful lot of drama that seems to follow Leah throughout the book, making you wonder is she crazy, attention hungry, or whether or not someone has it in for her. I found that it helped keep the pace of the book up, but at times was a bit too much to swallow.

Overall, I do recommend reading this book. But if you have read All The Missing Girls make sure that you realize that is a very different format and storyline. I am still look forward to reading more Megan Miranda novels in the future! She is a great read, I have just been spoiled lately!

As I read this book, my thoughts flipped back and forth—first believing one thing, and then moments later, something else. After awhile, I just really wanted to peek at the end and find out what was really going on. But I didn’t. Instead, I found myself glued to this book, unable to think of much else until I got to the end.

The author so fully fleshes out the main character—through her actions and thoughts, that I felt as if I knew what made her tick. There are quite a number of surprises throughout and more than one mystery. By the end of the book, everything is neatly wrapped up, and what’s more, believably so.

This is definitely an author to keep an eye one.

Meet Leah Stevens. She’s run away from a terrible mistake she made as a reporter in Boston to start over as a teacher in a small Pennsylvania town. Leah is renting a house with her old friend Emmy. Emmy too was looking for a fresh start, having recently broken up with her boyfriend. Leah hadn’t seen Emmy in years, but ran into her in Boston right when she needed to get out of town.

As the novel begins, a woman who looks like Leah is found almost dead at the lake near the house Leah is renting in western Pennsylvania. Leah has been getting threatening phone calls and emails. She thinks someone is watching her house. And she hasn’t seen Emmy in several days. In fact, it seems that no one in the town has seen Emmy. Ever. There’s no evidence that Emmy even exists.

The story weaves back and forth between the past and the present, slowly revealing both Emmy and Leah’s friendship and Leah’s reasons for leaving Boston as Leah searches for clues to Emmy’s current whereabouts. It was hard to determine if Leah’s recollections could be trusted, or if she was an unreliable narrator.

Now I should probably state that I haven’t (yet) read Ms. Miranda’s All the Missing Girls, so I went into this novel with no expectations. (My understanding is that All the Missing Girls is told backwards, so it is very unlike other suspense novels. It’s definitely on my list.) The Perfect Stranger was a page turner, but definitely in a more traditional telling, and Ms. Miranda had me guessing from beginning to end. There were so many questions. Was Emmy real, or some figment of Leah’s imagination? Who was harassing Leah? Was any of this tied to the woman found at the lake? And why exactly had Leah left her life in Boston so quickly?

The Perfect Stranger is a fun, suspenseful read, full of twists and turns along the way. I was sure I had the answers, but in the end, it turned out I was wrong.

Leah Stevens was on the fast track to be a great journalist, but a story that went terribly wrong has cost her her career and her reputation. And now she'll do anything to get away and escape the judgmental eyes of her former colleagues. A fortunate run in with an old roommate offers the perfect opportunity: Emmy Grey is moving the Pennsylvania and wants Leah to room with her. Emmy had come to Leah's rescue once before, and Leah is all too willing to let her do it again, taking her up on the offer immediately.

Leah gets a job as a teacher, much to her mother's disappointment, and things are going fairly well until Emmy disappears. Their paths crossed less and less the longer they lived together, but the discovery of a body nearby - one that bears a marked resemblance to Leah - has Leah worried. As the days pass with no sign of Emmy, Leah finally brings the subject to the police. Of course Emmy is an adult and they aren't one bit concerned - until they find out Emmy Grey doesn't exist.

Worried for her friend and unable to resist the need to make use of her journalistic skills, Leah becomes determined to find out what's happened. But as clues about Emmy and her guarded past begin to reveal themselves, Leah has to admit that she knows nothing about her longtime friend and roommate.

Reading slumps are no fun, but finding a book that manages to get through even in the worst of slumps is always a great thing. That's what Megan Miranda's latest was for me, a book that caught and held my attention through a slump that still has yet to fully pass.

It succeeds in large part because of the numerous questions that begin to pop up as the book rolls along. First, what did Leah do that cost her her job? It's a big deal, something she keeps close and doesn't tell anyone in her new life. Even the reader doesn't find out until a good way into the story.

Then there's the question about Emmy - what happened to her and what's she been up to.

And the murdered woman who looks like Leah.

And the teacher accused of the murder, who's been harassing Leah.

And the notes Leah has been receiving that make it sound as though someone's been keeping a very close eye on her.

So many questions! All of them perfectly placed and timed to keep the book going at an almost breakneck pace. But they could have been, and are in lots of cases, a make or break situation for a book like this. Fortunately, The Perfect Stranger is a "make" rather than a "break." There were no massive jumps in logic and (for me) no need to stretch or suspend my disbelief to the point of almost breaking in order to continue with the story. All of the questions fit together logically and cohesively and, the best part, wrap up nice and neat (but not too nice and neat) by the time the story rolls to its final stop.

The Perfect Stranger came to me at a time when I really needed to just lose myself in a good story and gave me exactly that and more. It was great fun, full of suspense, and perfect for anyone suffering from a wretched reading slump!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Perfect Stranger has all the suspense and mystery of All the Missing Girls.

I'd like to give this 4 starts but something just stopped me from it. Though it was a great read that had me hooked, I think my expectations were pretty high up there along with "All the Missing Girls" it was bizarre and suspenseful enough to keep me Intrigued, but there were times it was a bit choppy and jumped around too much. It's like it really had a good goal as far as an ending but it fell short. Overall, id still recommend this book! I bet he audio is fab.

The Perfect Stranger is a wonderful mystery with vivid, authentic characters. Miranda does a great job of giving enough details to keep the reader intrigued, but not so many that the story becomes predictable. Highly recommend

*3.5 stars. Another good page-turner, perfect for summer reading.

Leah Stevens finds herself forced out of her job as an investigative reporter for a Boston newspaper after making a fatal career mistake and now wishes to make a fresh start as a teacher. She has also by chance reconnected with an old friend named Emmie who wants to leave town to get away from a failed relationship. Emmie supposedly throws a dart at the US map and picks a small town in western Pennsylvania for their move.

Leah rents a house and lands a job at the high school while studying for teacher certification. Emmie supposedly works for a hotel on the night shift so they don't often see each other. So it takes a while for Leah to realize it has been a few days since she's seen the other woman. In the mean time, a woman who looks a lot like Leah has been attacked by the nearby lake--was Leah the intended victim? An anonymous tip names a coach at the school, a man who has been stalking Leah.

Worried about her roommate, Leah reports Emmie's disappearance to the police but can provide few details about the woman's life or past. She doesn't even have a photo and even her name seems to be fake. So who was this woman? Does Leah really know her at all? ? Leah is forced to do some investigating on her own to come up with answers. I enjoyed all the twists and turns and the satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.