Last year for Leslie’s Bookcase’s very first official book review I read All the Missing Girls: A Novel by Megan Miranda.

You may remember that I loved the book and recommended you clear your schedule and read this book immediately!

This year I had the opportunity – thanks to NetGalley – to download Miranda’s latest novel, The Perfect Stranger, in exchange for another honest review.

In this mystery/thriller, a failed journalist, Leah (though her failing is one a reader can sympathize with), runs into an old friend “Emmy” and decides to move away with her for a fresh start. When “Emmy” disappears soon after their move, Leah realizes that — on paper or the world wide web — the Emmy she knows doesn’t even exist. Leah’s credibility is once again at stake and she even becomes a suspect in Emmy’s disappearance. Thus Leah must work to uncover the truth herself.

The book kept my attention until the end and made me think about what footprints (electronic and otherwise) we leave behind in the course of a normal life. And how hard, or impossible, it would be not to do so.

I particularly enjoyed the journalism aspect of the story line. In fact my serendipitous discovery was a segment on the value of a “real newspaper” over clicking on electronic-based news stories. This snippet will likely be quoted in a post I am already planning on my love for the newspaper as it, sadly to me, faces its demise.

Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of “thrillers” mostly because I don’t enjoy getting scared, and I can’t relate to characters who, for example, take off to meet a creepy person by a dark lake without telling anyone where they are going.

But, for my friends who love thrillers and mysteries, I think you will enjoy this book. I can’t give it the “5 star enthusiasm” I gave All the Missing Girls but that’s such a hard act to follow especially because it had the added “gimmick that worked” of being written backwards. However, I found The Perfect Stranger to it to be a solid, entertaining read, and I recommend it for a travel or beach read that will keep you turning – or swiping – the pages.

I received a copy of The Perfect Stranger ebook through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Simon & Shuster and to Megan Miranda. I was looking forward to this book having read her first book All the Pretty Girls. I enjoyed this book but also found it a little more like most other suspense novels that I've read. I was glad she didn't write this one in reverse order, I'd rather read it in real time. I thought the ending was ok. I was really hoping for more of a "wow" moment but I would say this is a good second book for a really good writer.

What a ride your about to begin as you turn the first page of this suspenseful book, from the first to almost the last you will wonder what is going on.
Your long lost friend shows up just when you need her, and an offer to begin anew, and you accept, but before this book is finished I had to wonder if there was such a friend. Even when we travel in the shoes of Leah Stevens, Journalist turned teacher, and when she reports her roommate missing, there is no one there, or is there.
As we find out what brought her to rural Pennsylvania from Boston, and all that happened there, and now what, no record exists, no fingerprint trail, what is going on, and just when you think you know the answers, don’t be to sure.
I loved that there is a bit of romance for this tormented soul, but even this you have to wonder if it is really real.
A don’t miss journey that once you crack the first page your hooked on finding the answers, full of surprises.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Simon and Schuster, and was not required to give a positive review

Last year I was totally blown away by Megan Miranda’s All the Missing Girls; it was on my list of top ten favorite books of 2016! Imagine how excited I was when I started reading The Perfect Stranger.

I thought I would be completely enthralled just like when I read All the Missing Girls—I wasn’t quite as blown away even though The Perfect Stranger is a well-written, quick, suspenseful read with a twisting, exciting plot and some great characters. Although this book fell just a tad flat for me, I highly, highly recommend it and give it 4 stars because it’s still such an entertaining and a great read!

While I know it’s not realistic to expect an author’s next book to live up to the hype of their previous book, it’s still hard for the reader not to (unfairly) expect the exact compelling and enthralling read from before when a book is a stunning and almost perfect as All the Missing Girls.

With that said, The Perfect Stranger has so much to offer as a highly gratifying, thrilling read, and I think many people will enjoy it very much if they cast aside any preconceived expectations that The Perfect Stranger is the exact same read as All the Missing Girls and just read it for itself! Enjoy it for its gripping, suspenseful tension, great plot, and the cast of characters it offers.

Leah Stevens, a crime journalist, has just found herself in a really bad situation in Boston after one of her stories goes a little too far. Leah’s now facing a restraining order and threat of a libel lawsuit. Leah’s life is falling apart, and it’s best for her to get out of town and start over. During this time, Leah encounters Emmy, an old friend she lived with 8 years ago, in a bar. Emmy just broke up with a toxic boyfriend and wants to get out of town too. Together, the two old friends move to a small town in Western Pennsylvania and rent a small house.

It’s a fresh start for the two friends who rarely see each other since their schedules are opposite with Leah teaching at the local high school during the day and Emmy working odd jobs in the evening. Emmy has no cell phone, so Leah leaves her post-it notes as messages. After a while, Leah realizes there is a pile of messages Emmy hasn’t read in days, plus Leah hasn’t seen Emmy in days. Leah tries not to worry…

This is where the suspense and twist and turns begin in the book. On Leah’s way to work the next day, Leah encounters a police roadblock and realizes a woman has been attacked. Fearing that it is Emmy, Leah discovers that it’s a stranger. And one who looks almost exactly like Leah. Pretty creepy!

Of course, this makes the police want to talk to Leah, especially since a teacher from the school who was way too interested in Leah is the prime suspect in the attack. Leah hesitantly cooperates with the police and Detective Donovan; she doesn’t want to be involved because of the secrets she’s carrying.

In the end that doesn’t matter since Emmy appears to have disappeared, and Leah needs the police’s help finding her. Yet, as Leah looks for answers about her friend, it’s like Leah knows nothing about Emmy! Leah has no clue where Emmy works, and Leah has absolutely nothing to prove to the police that Emmy exists. The police are becoming very suspicious of Leah—is Emmy imaginary and if so, why? At this point, no one believes Leah and people around her are dying, so Leah must prove Emmy is real and clear her own name!

The plot is very twisty—the story was one big intricate web. I love that in a suspense story, and Miranda is an excellent writer, a master of her craft. I grew to really like Leah and especially liked the relationship she developed with Detective Donovan. The ending was rather anticlimactic, and I expected something bigger to happen, but that didn't take away from this being a wonderful read.

One thing about Miranda’s books is that she is an effortless writer and knows how to hook her reader in with her suspenseful plot and buildup of tension. You can almost see the story in your head as you read it, and I would actually love to see her books made into films! Megan Miranda will continue to be one of my favorite authors, and I can’t wait to read her next book!

I want to thank NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Megan Miranda for providing an advanced copy of The Perfect Stranger for me to read in exchange for my fair and honest review.

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda is a very highly recommended page-turner and I relished every one of those pages in this complex tale of suspense.

Leah Stevens was a journalist in Boston, but needed to resign from her job due to a story she wrote. Now she needs to find something new to do - in a hurry. By coincidence she runs into a roommate she had years ago during a time in her life when she also needed help in a hurry. Emmy was there eight years ago when they first met and helped Leah out before Emmy went overseas with the Peace Corp. It is a shocking surprise for Leah to run into Emmy now. The two immediately bond and take up where they left off. They decide to move together to a small town in Western Pennsylvania on a whim. Leah can get a position teaching at the high school and Emmy can find a job doing something.

Then a woman who closely resembles Leah is found seriously injured and Emmy has gone missing. Leah works with the police to try and help them while at the same time she tries to get them to look into the whereabouts of her missing friend. As both investigations continue it becomes increasingly clear that Leah really never knew Emmy well at all and the police are beginning to look at her as a suspect. Leah realizes that she needs to use her journalistic skills to uncover the truth about what happened and who Emmy really is.

Leah is a well-developed character and I began to like her more and more as the novel progressed and doubts began to develop. She becomes more spunky and begins to show more and more of her intelligence and intuition as she begins her own investigation while the police are more focused on investigating her.

The revelation of new information is wonderfully timed. It begs the question: How well do you really know other people? As Leah is desperately trying to find out what happened to her friend, you will begin to wonder if Emmy is even real and doubts about Leah's sanity will creep in. You only know Emmy through Leah, and Leah doesn't even reveal everything about her own life right away. The plot of The Perfect Stranger moves along at a gallop and never lets up. I enjoyed the fast-paced ride and twisty plot immensely. The writing is pitch-perfect in the suspenseful narrative.

I really enjoyed uncovering the twisty-layers of this swift-paced, agile novel of psychological suspense. It was a pleasure to read.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/05/the-perfect-stranger.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2001400965

The title of this book is absolutely, 100%, the perfect title. It sums up the entire novel, in three simple words. Do you ever really know someone? Friends, lovers, siblings. How much is hidden, how much can one person keep from someone in their lives?

The story is twisted, and at first it's hard to keep track of the threads. Leah Stevens has run away from the life she had in Boston as a journalist. She's moved to a small town where no one knows her, to become a teacher. She's the stranger in town, hiding the giant scandal she left behind.

With her comes her roommate Emmy, an enigma all her own. These two became friends and roommates after college, until Emmy went away to the Peace Corps. Years later they reconnected, after Emmy's had her own troubles that she needs to run from. Leave everything behind and just go.

And Emmy goes missing. And a woman who looks identical to Leah is murdered.

And Leah slowly starts to wonder, who is this stranger I thought was my friend?

This story is so good. It takes awhile to get a good rhythm going, and there are bits that I couldn't stand. (Romance is never something that won't make my eyeball twitch, in any genre.)

But you see, I am biased. Because I read All the Missing Girls. And that book is so amazing. The formatting, the pace. Everything about that book sucked me in. Megan Miranda had a LOT to live up to.

She did fantastic. But she set the bar really high for herself.

You may see where this is going, but I doubt it. The reveal is actually so simple, but not simple in the bad way. Organically simple, because everything makes sense. All the pieces click together, without any jarring, "Where the hell did that come from?"

So, so good.

A quote in the book from the main character Leah Stevens sums up this book. "I had believed everyone was something other than they were."I was still slightly confused as to who everyone was even after I finished the book. Leah Stevens was a reporter for the Boston Post who was forced to resign by something she reported that the paper thought was a lie. Was it?? We know some of the details but we don't really know exactly why she had to leave until later on in the book. She needs to leave Boston. She meets an old friend and roommate Emmy who convinces her by a toss of a dart to move to western Pennsylvania to start over. Leah gets a teaching certificate and takes a teaching job at a new high school. She and Emmy rent a rustic house by the lake. Sounds idyllic, right? A woman is attacked by the lake but who did it? Emmy disappears and so does a man she had been seeing. Leah thinks at first she just took off with him so she doesn't report it. Then when she does report it no trace of Emmy can be found and everything starts to point to Leah. How will Leah clear herself? Will her reporter's instincts help her? Who is Emmy? What is really going on?! I asked myself that last question several times, but everything comes together in the end. I think. This book is filled with twists and turns and makes you keep compulsively reading to try to figure it out.

Megan Miranda's The Perfect Stranger (Simon & Schuster, digital galley) is another of those twisty thrillers pivoting on questions of identity and appearances. Reporter Leah Stevens has to resign her newspaper job after her sources are questioned in a story about college suicides. She fortuitously runs into her former roommate, Emmy Grey, who suggests Leah accompany her to rural Pennsylvania for a fresh start as a high school teacher. Then a woman who resembles Leah is found bludgeoned at a nearby lake, and Emmy goes missing. Questioned by a police detective, Leah admits to being stalked by a fellow teacher and is drawn into the investigation, especially when she realizes how little she really knows of Emmy and how much of it is lies. Miranda, author of the very good All the Pretty Girls, gets a bit bogged down in Leah's back story and a few too many coincidences, but this is smartly written psychological suspense.
from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever

I really enjoyed Miranda's first thriller All the Missing Girls and wanted to read this one immediately when I saw it advertised. I think I enjoyed AtMG a bit more because of the original layout, but thought this was also a good read.

The description basically sums the book up as well as I could, and the plot twists and turns kept me glued to the pages. The ending did not disappoint, but I think maybe I was burnt out of this genre when I read it. It took me just a few days to devour this title. The unraveling of the characters, specifically Emmy and Leah's backgrounds and secrets kept me going. Ultimately, I would give this book a 3.5/5.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster/NetGalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

I was surprised by this book because the front cover did not match the style of book it was. It was a story with a mystery, suspension and criminal edge, not a chick lit which I felt the cover made it out as. Very good plot, something I have never read before. Look forward to reading more from this author,

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review and I do feel particularly bad that I couldn't advertise this book in all areas of the social medias like I usually do because I have a hard time reading this book. It doesn't hold my interest. I read 25% of this book and I don't get what's real and what's not. The suspense goes on forever about Emmy and her own secret of leaving the journalist's job and moving to out of nowhere. I need little hints of what's going on. I don't have so much patience to go on and on about herself and her imaginary Emmy or so it seems. My negative review will only be posted here via NetGalley. I'm not interested to read further. I love suspense, but suspense with little hints of what's truly happening. In this case, I don't know if she's hallucinating or what..

THe Perfect Stranger begins slow, but then builds momentum. The story finally moves along at a better pace, adding necessary pieces to the puzzle. It kept me guessing, and in the end the main character triumphs. The book is creepy and suspenseful.

Another mystery/thriller that I enjoyed a lot. II was very satisfied with the story. All that I always want to see in book, great plot, engaging and well-developed characters, twists, suspense and an unexpected ending. I totally recommend it.

Leah Stevens has to leave Boston and wants to start a new life as a teacher somewhere in Pennsylvania. Together with Emmy Grey, who already had been her roommate after college, the two women move to the small town which makes an idyllic impression. Yet, this idyll does not last long, soon after their arrival a girl is assaulted and Leah finds herself in the middle of the investigation around one of her colleagues. When Emmy does not show up for several days, she is just a bit concerned, but when the police find out that there is no person of the name Emmy Grey and when Leah realises that her friend did not leave any trace, she gets more and more scared.

I was really looking forward to reading this novel, but actually I am a bit disappointed. First of all, I could never really bond with the protagonist. Neither did I find Leah especially sympathetic nor did her behaviour make any sense to me. Had we known more about her, this might have been different, but equipping her with y mysterious past, too, did not really help to like her, because as a reader you always suspect her of false play and not of being the pitiable victim. For me, it was hard to believe that a clever investigative journalist can turn into a shallow, trustful teacher who only believes in the best of people. Moving in with somebody without knowing anything about that person is rather unlikely with such a past.

The plot itself had some suspense to offer, there were also some unexpected twists and turns, but here too, a lot was just too flat and unimaginative to convince me. The affair between Leah and Kyle, for example, who did not see it coming? Police rummaging the house just after a mysterious box with relevant information has been found hidden in the basement and secured from their eyes. These are mere props you can find in any second rate mystery novel.

All in all, it was ok, the knots were undone in the end.

I was given an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This novel follows Leah as she leaves her life and career behind in Boston due to a questionable situation and moves to a more rural Pennsylvania town with her old roommate Emmy. She and Emmy met when she was in a crisis situation eight years prior and they lived together for only 3 months before Emmy went off in the Peace Corps. And then at the most opportune moment, Emmy came back into Leah's life when she was again, in a crisis. They decide to move to this town that Emmy found by 'throwing a dart' and start fresh. Within a few months a girls body is found near the house and then Emmy is missing, could they be connected somehow?!

This novel was a good psychological thriller that certainly kept one guessing back and forth, even to the ending when you see Leah finally almost grow up. I appreciate the clues slowly unfolding but not giving too much away too fast, this book certainly kept me entertained and I was excited to go back and read it more. I much preferred the layout of this novel with a normal timeline through the novel, although the previous novel was unique, it was also extremely confusing. This is a good, quick and interesting thriller read. I would almost put this into the category of an 'airplane book,' those books you don't want to put down so they are perfect for the airplane! I very much enjoyed it and look forward to what the author has next!

THE PERFECT STRANGER is the follow-up to Megan Miranda’s debut novel, “All the Missing Girls, a story that was told in reverse. In The Perfect Stranger, a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all.

“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.”

Leah works with Kyle Donovan, a young police officer on the case, to try to find Emmy. Did she really know Emmy? Even the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey, and in doing so come to terms with her own shady past.

I have to admit that I had high hopes for this book, but in my opinion, it was not at all like All the Missing Girls. At the beginning, I had trouble connecting with the characters, even the main character, Leah and would have liked a more fleshed-out characterization to enrich the plot.

All in all, this was a quick read that was acceptable, but I was expecting so much more. While I definitely didn't like this one as much as All the Missing Girls, I still look forward to reading more from Megan Miranda.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for an ARC.

So the suspense of this book kept me on my toes I really wanted to know if Leah would uncover the truth about her roommate. She did but the ending I felt lacked the wow factor in it all. Maybe the author wanted to play it safe, but I wanted to know what truly would make Emmy Grey do what she did. It couldn't be just because of her knowing someone eight years ago no, to me it seemed more deeper than that.
In The Perfect Stranger Leah is starting over with her life because of what happened when she was a journalist. She still thinks about it though she is trying to move on. Everything seems to be going good for her as she is becoming a teacher until someone is found injured near her home not only that she is getting phone calls and emails. When her roommate goes missing Leah can't just let the cops do their job it could be too late. So Leah starts investigating and what she will uncover will be something that seems to have been in the works for a long time.
How you can trust anyone when the one person you thought you could trust is not who they truly are?
There was plenty of suspense there I just felt it lacked the big wow factor towards the end more like a safe ending. I felt that Leah could have demanded more answers from Emmy. As well as Kyle could have demanded more answers for Leah being as he is a police detective he seemed to be very forth coming with things going on with the case with Leah.

Megan Miranda continues to prove that she is quite adept at delivering exciting psychological thrillers with well-developed characters and well-thought out plots. In fact, the plot takes so many twists and turns that it was hard to keep up sometimes, but it was a thrill ride all the way! She had me questioning what I believe and what I really know, just as one of the main characters, Leah does.

Leah is a young journalist in Boston, who got carried away with one of her stories and is dismissed when the newspaper fear a libel lawsuit is coming as a result. She finds Emma, a friend from eight years ago, when Emma literally stumbles into her at a local bar. Emma has just had a bad breakup with her boyfriend, and during a vodka fueled night, the young women decide that they need a fresh start and they decide to go to western Pennsylvania together where no one knows either one of them. Leah takes a job in the local high-school, Emma works .... somewhere. They live together, and it is working well for them both, though they rarely see each other as they work different shifts.

When a young woman is found seriously assaulted and left for dead near their home, Leah becomes alarmed. The assaulted woman looks just like her! Was she the intended victim? She's been getting notes and phone calls from someone, but didn't take them seriously until the assault. Now she's scared. And where's Emma? Leah comes to realize that she hasn't seen her for days. She hadn't been worried because that's not really unusual for Emma, but the weeks stretch on, and the police come asking questions that Leah finds she can't answer. In fact, it seems, she can't even prove that Emma was even there at all; not only that, but she finds she can't prove that Emma even exists!! As Detective Kyle Donovan investigates the assault case and looks into Leah's stalker, things get murkier and murkier.

Towards the end of the book, Emma says " I had believed everyone was something other than they were.... I had cast my life and assigned the roles, manufacturing all of them into the people I wanted them to be." It's easy to believe that people are what and who we think they are. But that belief can be dangerous, as Megan Miranda proves. An exciting read!! I look forward to her next book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster for providing me with an e-ARC of this book!

I was so excited to read The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. As the sequel to a New York Times bestselling novel, this book aimed to do many things. It definitely had suspense and some surprises, but it seemed to drag at times and it lacked something to make it a great thriller. Leah Stevens is running from a shady past and moves to rural Pennsylvania with her friend Emmy. When Emmy disappears, the book seems to hint that maybe she never existed, but its hints about this seem a bit contrived. Overall, it was a good read, but not all that I expected. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Entertaining, page turning thriller about a woman who has fled her recent past and moved to small town western Pennsylvania, only to have a nearby woman turn up almost dead, and her roommate go missing. Multiple elements of the plot were kinda preposterous, but it was a suspenseful and fun book nonetheless.