Despite the hype it is not as good as Gone Girl or Girl on the Train, but still enjoyable with mystery, intrigue and of course crime.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.

I was dragged into this story by the blurb and the comparison to other "Girl" books recently. I know a lot of books get compared to best-selling titles...and normally I ignore that and make my own judgement, but I guess this time I was just weak...

The premise is there: a super-trendy apartment for lease - just obey a squillion rules. Add in a sexy landlord (try not to get involved) and a mystery surrounding the previous tenant, and this should have been a knock-it-out-of-the-park success.

In reality, what I took from this book was 50 Shades of Apartment-Living, with a poorly thought out mystery and a bit of tech-savvy stuff for those who like that. It was a book that tried too hard to be too many things. Either stick to the "rules and sexy landlord" story, or stick to the mystery. Combining them all together just really didn't work for me.


Paul
ARH

Total roller coaster of a read!! Fantastic story, characters and setting - this has it all!! I was gripped the whole way through! Well recommended :)

The Girl Before
by J. P. Delaney

Reviewed by Heath Henwood
www.books-reviewed.weebly.com

1 Star

Ever since ‘Fifty Shades’, or perhaps well before then, there has been a rash of books trying to imitate with a slight twist. ‘The Girl Before’, is just the latest one.

The idea behind the plot is actually good – the opportunity to live in the perfect house – but what are the catches.

This book fails to deliver though in delivering on the plot concept, and tends to get caught up in the sex (much more than is needed), rather than developing the characters and plot line.

The story follows two tenants of the house at different times. Emma the first tenant died mysteriously in the house, and Jane the current tenant is slowly unravelling the mystery. Enter into the story the handsome landlord Edward Monkton, who has more than a vested interest in the house and tenant.

Thus, the Skelton for an intriguing story is there. The delivery is not.

There are many other gaps in the plot, the thoughts behind the story, and why the female characters are painted as being so dumb. There are too many better books out there to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy in return for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

While I enjoyed this book I found it dragged in some places, and I did struggle to get though some of this. It was well written, and a unique premise.

One Folgate Street in London is a house like no other. It is a highly technology-advanced house with minimal furniture. The landlord and builder is a famous architect, Edward Monkford. But he won't rent the house to just anybody. Edward has strict conditions - most people fail at the application stage - the application form is excessively extensive - or they stumble at the interview which doesn't follow the normal rules of an interview. If you pass and choose to rent the house then you must follow over 200 rules. Theses aren't your normal rules either, they include - no clutter, no pictures, no plants and no books! You are regularly required to take online assessments and amenities are disabled until you do. But there are lots of things that are attractive to One Folgate, firstly it is very secure, it knows the exact water temperature for your shower and it provides a variety of mood lighting. The simplicity of the white house helps to declutter your life and just live with the basics without comproming the quality of your lifestyle.
Emma and her boyfriend, Simon are looking for a new place to live. After people broke into their apartment and held Emma at knife point she needs to live in a secure house and despite the rules, she's attracted to the house.
But that was 'then' and this is 'now'.
Jane is looking for a new place to live. She has suffered a devastating loss and wants to make a new start. But the more she learns about the house and it's previous tenants the more mysterious things get. Is she safe in the house? Why does Edward refuse to talk about the past​?
This book is a thrilling read. The more you read the more the house takes on a personality of it's own.

This is a fast paced thriller about two young woman Emma and Jane - the story is told in parallel chapters by Emma who tells her story from the past and by Jane who tells her story in the present.

Both Emma and Jane rent a modern minimalist house from a renowned and unusual architect who built the house. To live in the house they sign a contract, need to follow strict rules and are continually tested to see how living in the home affects them psychologically.

Between the two main characters Emma and Jane, the relationships they have with men and the unusual terms of agreement they have with the architect, this is an interesting and modern read that is hard to put down.

As with most thrillers there's death and mystery and I suspected almost all of the characters, it is really well written and the suspense is there until the very end.

Whilst some relate this book to The Girl On The Train I actually felt it was closer to 50 Shades Of Grey !

I recommend this book to thriller readers.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5

Jane moves into One Folgate Street, a minimalist, white box of a home. There are some drawbacks, from the vetting process to be allowed to live there to the hundreds of precise rules she must follow to recordings of her presence. But the rent is cheap and the house is a stunner, like living in a work of art. But soon she discovers a series of mysterious, tragic deaths linked to the house and it's moody, controlling architect, including Emma, who died there in suspicious circumstances, and Jane starts wondering if she's next…

J. P. Delaney's The Girl Before is slick. It is an addictive, compulsive read that spurs the reader on and on to explosive revelations and a tense, heart-stopping climax. I was very easily hooked from the first couple of chapters, snatching pockets of time to read a chapter whenever I could.

However, in its rush to the finale, I began to feel a certain sense of unease with the book. Sure, the men are pretty gross. The brooding male antihero and architect, Edward Monkford, conforms to type: abusive and controlling, but such a bad boy and so sexy. The women slaver over him, the men hate him. The one other male love interest, Simon, Emma's boyfriend, is the textbook definition of The Nice Guy – so understanding up until the point where his interests are threatened, then becomes petulant and sulking, playing the victim.

Nor did I enjoy the murky use of rape and false rape allegations for the sake of drama.

But the thing that really got me is the use of trickery. Delaney kept pulling the rug out from under me, reinventing the characters again and again to make for a series of shocking revelations. Sure, there's unreliable narrators, a technique that can be quite powerful in its own right – Gone Girl is probably the most famous recent example of a successful unreliable narrator – but in The Girl Before, it seems manufactured and poorly executed, as though Delaney's eye was more on shocking readers and using all the trendy tropes than on constructing a solid thriller.

To add further insult, the ending feels a little unsettled, in need of some clarification, or some pause just let to the reader absorb everything that's happened.

In conclusion, then, The Girl Before is a fast-paced, readable story, but had many elements that troubled me and a lot of sudden revelations that felt deceptive and unearned.

I enjoyed this book - I hesitated between 3 & 4 stars and ended up with a slight downgrade - the cowards 3.5 stars!

The two main female characters are interesting and complex with 'interesting reveals' along the way. There is an element of suspense, the writing is good and I felt engaged until the end. I did not think that the lead male was as compelling.

There are enough red herrings to keep you guessing and the story really revolves around several intense characters and their interactions.

My downgrade was based on finding the male architect too intense and unlikely and thought that fora highly monitored environment that a lot happened that was not recorded in any way. This made it feel implausible. Other aspects though largely made up for this flaw.

I recommend this book.

“The only person you can ever really change is yourself”

A gripping, psychological read — 4.5 stars

This book is like The Girl On The Train meets Big Brother with a great premise and lots of plot twists. It had me reading through the night because it’s just so fascinating and made me wanted to know more about the characters and their secrets. It’s a fast-paced, plot-driven, easy read. I loved how the story is set in a minimalist house designed by a mysterious man, the house itself designed to make the tenant improve their life by following a set of unrelenting rules, and allowing highly advanced technology to monitor the tenant’s mood and well-being. The story oscillates between the present day tenant Jane and Emma from the past, of how they lived in this magnificent but mysterious house… discovering its sinister past and what connects them to each other. This is definitely a great psychological thriller for readers who loved Gone Girl or The Girl On The Train and those who loves an unpredictable twist in the end.

– NJ

I found this to be a suspenseful page-turner. The characters were unique, strong and interesting, and the plot even more so. It was a (mostly) well-written thriller of a read that kept me guessing, however I didn't feel I could relate to the characters that well and did feel a little lost at times. The ending also left me unsatisfied. I would still recommend it though.

One Folgate Street is a house built by renowned architect Edward Monkton in extreme minimalist style. It is also a technological marvel with sensors and cameras that monitor your every move as well as recording your health data. The rent is very cheap. Why? Because to be considered you must agree to over 200 conditions to live in. These conditions basically ensure the house remains in a pristine minimalist state while you undergo constant surveillance.

This psychological thriller is told through the eyes of two of its tenants, Emma Matthews who originally lived, and died in the house and Jane Cavendish who is currently living it. Both women enter into the house while in vulnerable emotional states but for different reasons.

Right from the start you are drawn into this story which is full of unforeseen twists and turns to keep the reader intrigued. Unlike other books that claim to be psychological thrillers, this really is one and it's carried off with considerable intelligence and skill. I found myself continuing to think about it at length whenever I had to put it down.

I really loved it until the last few pages when I thought it lost the plot so to speak. It seemed to became a parody of itself and quite ridiculous which I found disappointing after the previous 99% of the story. But perhaps this was the author's intent? After all many of the books that have jumped on the bandwagon of Gone Girl by including Girl in the title have been rather ridiculous in my humble opinion. Apparently this book is by a well known crime author writing under a pseudonym. And the rights to the movie have been snapped up by Ron Howard. I look forward to reading more about this book once it is published.

I have just finished reading The Girl Before, and I've been struggling to come up with the words to describe this psychological thriller.
I'll begin with intriguing and creepy, but not all entirely in a good way...
The story centres around two main female characters; Emma and Jane, and reverts back and forth between 'then' (Emma's story) and 'now' (Jane's story).
Then: When we first meet Emma, she is dating a man named Simon, and they are looking for a new apartment to live in as they've been recently burgled and Emma doesn't feel safe in their current residence.
They are shown a building called One Folgate Street. It is a very minimalist, high tech place. The architect owner is a man by the name of Edward Monkford. It turns out that Edward has a series of questions and unusual terms that he uses to select the tenants, and makes it clear that no changes to the residence can be made in any way, shape, or form.
They move in, but there are a lot of issues that they face, and after some time, they part ways. Emma finds comfort in Edward, and they begin a relationship. But don't think for a second that it is an ordinary relationship..
Now: Jane is 34 years old, single, and recovering from having a stillbirth.
She moves in to One Folgate Street after being selected by Edward. One day, she notices that flowers are left on her doorstep frequently, and at first, she assumes that they are from Edward as a way to welcome her into the apartment.
But when she catches the flower bearer heading back to his car, she's shocked when he tells her that someone named Emma had been murdered in the apartment.
Jane is intrigued by this discovery, and she decides to try and uncover just what happened to the girl before her who'd lived at One Folgate Street.
I won't give away too much more, but I will say that Edward is a character I disliked instantly. He reminded me a lot of Christian Grey. Dominant, controlling, and just a big jerk.
The story has a lot going for it though. Its fast-paced, suspenseful, and definitely kept me turning the pages.
The chapters are super short, and I often struggled with keeping track of whether I was reading about Emma or Jane, as they are very similar. It threw me off quite a few times.
I didn't like many (if any) of the characters but that is what made me want to keep reading!
I've heard that The Girl Before is being made into a movie, so I'm curious to see how it is adapted for the screen..

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley.

It looks like other readers are divided about how they feel about this book, and a week after finishing it, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel, either. So I decided to just go back to how I felt about it while I was reading it. I was entertained by it and enjoyed the story. I thought it was better than average, but not great.

The alternating POVs of our two leading ladies had me a bit confused at times, especially as some of the events which occur in their lives are identical. Emma's chapters (she's the girl who came before) are told in the first person, and there are no speech punctuation marks used. This made it hard to tell between Emma's thoughts and what she actually said. This is most likely intentional on the part of the author (at least I hope it is) but it just made it harder for me to read and I didn't like it. I like punctuation. A lot of people obviously don't think it's necessary, but to me it makes things easier to read. The act of reading should not be the point of the book and it distracts from the content.

The mystery was plausible, if a bit improbable. I'm sure the lease the tenants of 1 Folgate Street are asked to sign must contravene an Act of Parliament designed to protect the rights of tenants. I also didn't find the story particularly thrilling. The final revelation of "whodunit" wasn't shocking and the climactic scene didn't really cause much tension and was over a little bit to quickly and neatly.

If you enjoyed "The Girl on the Train" you will probably like this one, but perhaps not as much. I give it 3.5 stars.

**3.5 stars**

One Folgate Street is unique but it's not the rental for everyone, items in the house are controlled with an app and a bracelet over the internet called with a program called 'The Housekeeper'. It's a program that also looks after your well being. With strict rules and a stringent application process it's a haven that some dream of.......
The story is told in alternate chapters of Emma, who moves in with her boyfriend Simon after she has been a victim of a brutal home invasion at their last property and Jane, the next tenant who is recovering from a traumatic experience. Jane learns that Emma has died in the house as did the wife and child of the enigmatic architect Edward, who is the designer the house and who also vets each prospective tenant. Jane becomes obsessed with unravelling how and why Emma died and as she does, many parallels of their new life become apparent.

I must admit when I started this book I really didn't know what to make of it, with a few scenes making me think it was an erotic thriller of sorts but this wasn't the case to be. It's a book full of narcissistic sociopaths and unreliable narrators, where no one is really who they seem. I would say that as well as a thriller, it also has a mystery element and this was the unravelling of Emma's life that Jane did, which I really enjoyed and certainly not what I expected.

I have read that this book has had the movie rights sold and I think it would transfer well to the big screen.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read and review.

Book blurb...

Everything that is yours, was once hers . . .

Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price?

For all fans of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN and GONE GIRL comes this spellbinding Hitchcockian thriller which takes psychological suspense to the next level.

Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules. After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there - and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before. As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma's past and Jane's present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.

My thoughts…

Gripping, a page turner, well paced, compelling—all these describe The Girl Before.

Totally addictive probably says it all. While I read this story, nothing else mattered in my day—not what came before, or what was to come after. I was as obsessed with this book—its premise (too real and too terrifying), its characters, and the extraordinary house.

Cleverly crafted, with the two female characters so entwined in each others lives, yet only one is alive in present day.

This story needs to be read, not described, so I shall say no more.

This was a really fast read for me, it hummed along! You have two parallel stories, both from the point of view of a different young woman. One has lost a baby at full term in a terrible birth story that I found very moving, the other has been badly mentally damaged by being the victim of a home invasion. They both at different times live in a house which is austere, minimalistic and which demands a great deal of sacrifice by those who live there. You must pass a complicated test, take regular re-testing and allow architecture students access to the house. There is a mystery surrounding the house, rumours that there was a terrible accident involving the architect’s wife and that she died on the premises. The architect is an enigma, compellingly attractive but also complicated and apparently very available! The house has secrets, the architect has secrets, everyone is unreliable, nobody can be trusted.

If you analysed this from a feminist perspective this is a book about abuse in lots of forms, it is a book full of characters who should have known better, who behave badly and who are a bit pathetic. I had annoyances in how the author portrayed the women, I looked up to see if this was written by a man or a woman, turns out this is a pseudonym for a man, colour me unsurprised! No woman would have written these women this way. But when you are reading it and you suspend your disbelief and cynical eye, it is a really good read. It is pacy and compelling. The movie rights have been sold and I can understand why. I’d go and see it.

Thanks to Netgalley for offering me this book

What an incredible twisty tale which I enjoyed immensely. I loved the format of the two girls now and before and I was actually on the edge of my seat till I found out who the murder actually was. I felt odd there was no punctuation. It added to the ambiance of the read I feel. I found the book to be interesting and well thought out and the more I read the more i was caught up in it all. The reason I give it five stars is because it's like nothing I've read before in terms of the format and it caught my attention very quickly. I felt quite emotional by the time I reached the end, like I know I'd read a darn good tale. Thank you!

Clean, attractive and affordable apartments in London are as difficult to find as hens' teeth. One Folgate Street is an exception - designed by Edward Monkford, an architect famous for minimalistic designs, it is brand new, modern and as secure as a fortress. However, it comes with a catch: a long list of strict rules and regulations prospective tenants have to agree to that would put most people off. No children, no pets, no books, no clutter, no rugs on the floor or personal furniture, just to name a few, with inspections carried out at the owner's whim to ensure compliance. Even the lighting, shower and internet services are controlled by an intricate electronic system rather than the tenant. Who could possibly ever agree to such ridiculous demands?

"No one who lives in this house should expect privacy. You signed that away, remember?"

For Emma ("then"), it seems a small price to pay for state of the art security that would help her feel safe again after a terrifying home invasion she endured in her old apartment. And for Jane ("now"), it would mean a clear break from her old life after the stillbirth of her baby daughter. Two women, two years apart, using One Folgate Street as a fresh start. Initially things are going well, until Jane realises that her predecessor has died in this very apartment. And that Emma's life had some creepy similarities to her own. Suddenly One Folgate Street no longer seems like a safe haven. The very features of the house that once seemed to make life easier, now seem limiting and controlling. In fact, at times the house feels downright threatening, withholding essentials like running water or power if Jane does not comply. As if it had a mind of its own. As if it knew exactly what Jane is up to.

"It’s like the house didn’t want Simon to come round for our talk and this is its way of punishing me. It’s a fortress, I’d said to Simon. But what if the house itself decides not to protect me? How safe am I really?"


Someone is watching, and waiting, and Jane is becoming more and more worried that Emma's death was not an accident.

"Someone has died in suspicious circumstances every time a Monkford Partnership building nears completion."


Can Jane work out what happened to Emma before the same fate lies in store for her?

The Girl Before contains (amongst other things) a fascinating premise: do we ever really know who has lived in our rental before us, what these walls have seen? Do we really want to know? With its slightly creepy setting of a house that seems like a living, breathing, menacing entity, the novel sets the scene for a taut, claustrophobic and original psychological thriller narrated by the voices of two different vulnerable women, who may or may not be reliable narrators. With several clever twists both in the "then" and the "now", there are a few slack-jawed moments until the reader realises that in this novel, you cannot trust anyone. In fact, as layer after layer is stripped away, and characters are laid bare in front of us, warts and all, we may question every assumption we have made. Even the house, which is as much of a living entity as the characters that inhabit it, is deceptive - safe haven or death trap? You will have to read on to find out. And as the author plays us just as the house plays its tenants, we know that nothing in this book will be straight forward.

I really enjoyed the different tactics the author employed to create tension - the tight and claustrophobic encounters with the house's electronic system, the little excerpts from the rental agreement at the end of chapters, the "then" and "now" approach. And whilst I did find the ending a little bit of an anti-climax, there is that little extra surprise at the end that seems to be the hallmark of Domestic Noir. All in all, a very clever psychological thriller, which will keep you guessing until the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.