Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

Great story by Rosalind Noonan. Really fabulous story, that kept me turning the pages!! A thrilling plot, and characters.

This book was a quick moving thriller tale with well written characters and a followable plot. The story kept me interested thoughout.. I recommend it!

I was excited to read this book given the plot description, but it did not align with my personal preference. It didn't hold my attention which was disappointing.

I was in a sorority in college, and I was even in one in Oregon (like the book depicts, but the college and sorority in the book are completely fictional), but mine never had such drama (or death, eep!). This was the next book in a string of psychological suspense novels I read in the past couple of weeks.

About the Book:
Emma Danelski joined Theta Pi sorority at Merriweather University as a way to find her tribe and make friends. She connects well with a small group of people, but there is an elite group whose actions and ideals don’t mesh with Emma’s. One of her sorority sisters apparently commits suicide under suspicious conditions. Was it really suicide, or was it murder? Emma knows more about the girl’s life than most people, and more than she lets on to even the close friends around her, but is everything she thinks she knows about her the truth? As the pressure mounts with the investigation, Emma must decide where to draw the line about keeping secrets in order to protect herself and others that she loves.

My Thoughts:
It’s difficult to give an accurate plot summary of the book without giving any spoilers! As the book progresses, there are many twists and turns that reveal secrets hidden and then brought to light, and to describe them in a review would be to spoil the enjoyment of the story and the journey it will take you on as a reader. There were some things I figured out pretty early, but a couple of great twists that were complete surprises, particularly toward the end.

There’s a slight bit of confusion with the timeline at first. The book starts out with a harrowing incident, although it takes quite a few chapters to figure out how that fits into the overall story arc. Don’t let that initial incident convince you that you know what is going on though, because I guarantee you that you don’t have the whole picture! There is also one plot point towards the end that points a finger toward Emma’s guilt and it is never explained, it’s almost like the entire thing is forgotten once more dramatic things happen. Another thing I didn’t care for was that some big issues were brought up–particularly racism/class-ism issues, and they weren’t thoroughly explored. This could have made this book astoundingly meaningful, but it just brushes over these deep topics in favor of the thrills. Despite those shortcomings, this is a solid thriller that will keep you guessing.

I did really enjoy the storyline, the plot moves rapidly and isn’t easy to figure out. The sorority setting is fun and wow, the things these girls are hiding! There is a large cast of characters, but they have fairly distinct personalities, so keeping them separate isn’t a big problem and actually adds to the puzzle because you just don’t know who is good, bad, or just hiding something embarrassing. It was refreshing that the character of the professor wasn’t sleazy or inappropriate and was actually working to help students, which is more like real life and unlike how professors are typically portrayed in books.

Bottom Line:
Despite a few shortfalls, Pretty, Nasty, Lovely is a decent, entertaining thriller that is worth reading for its surprising twists and turns.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I was so excited to jump into this when I was approved for a review copy. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the characters and I became bored around the 30% mark. If I didn't have to review this book, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

This book kept me guessing right from the start. A baby is born and someone disposes of it, however, you don't know who it is. You know that it happens in a sorority house, but not if it's in the past or something that is yet to come.

Little pieces of the puzzle are given to us throughout the book. However, I could not complete it myself until the character spoke up about what happened. And, it's not what you think. Well, maybe not, it certainly wasn't what I thought.

A book that I could put down and did. It has your usual characters in a sorority house. Some friendly, some not and some horrible. However, I think the ending more than made up for some of the extra wording I had to plow through to get to the finale.

I found this book to be a good read, although sometimes some of the unnecessary additions bogged me down a little.

Thanks to Kensington Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This book is the perfect fall guilty pleasure - a beautiful college campus plagued by secrets, death and drama, all of it surrounding a campus sorority. Plus, that cover is gorgeous, right?!

The story starts with Emma being told to get rid of the body of a stillborn baby born in the sorority house. Then, one of her sisters, Lydia Dakos, commits suicide. It’s almost too much for Emma to bear until it all gets worse: the police seem focused on Emma’s relationship with the dead sister, and Emma’s finding out that Lydia was a lot more complex than anyone realized. The result is one month that will change one campus forever.

I loved how atmospheric and ominous this novel was. It made it perfect for a good, spooky pre-Halloween thriller. The whole time you just feel like you’re walking on a beautiful, fall foliage-covered college campus that is holding dark secrets.

And there are some dark things in this book. These girls are in college, but damn, they have the evil of some seasoned monsters. It’s interesting because it creates an atmosphere of distrust and mystery.

I still had some questions after the book ended, which is why I gave it four stars, not five. Some of the revelations came pretty fast-and-furious toward the end, so maybe I just missed something.

But overall, I really enjoyed this book. Anyone who enjoys a good, dark thriller will find this one enjoyable.

This was a quick little read. Emma grew up missing a sense of family after her sister and mother were killed in a car accident. So she took a year off after high school to save the money needed to pay for pledging a sorority. Sit back and absorb that. It was so important to her that she pushed back her education and career to pledge a sorority. Bonkers.

So she's joined a sorority, and she feels a strong sense of sisterhood, but I don't really know why. The older girls are hot messes and not nice to her to boot.

There are flashbacks to a dead baby in a laundry basket. And a sorority sister who jumps off a bridge -or did she?

I enjoyed the book, don't get me wrong. But it could have been even better. The professor and the dean were cardboard characters that didn't really add to the story.

Some things were brought up that caught my interest, but never really explained or explored further. Did Emma's sister purposefully try to kill her family? The second baby that was found in the gorge was a brief mention without any follow up. These are kind of big plot twists to just mention then drop.

I'll look for her next book, there's a lot of talent there, just needs a little better execution.

I could not wait to begin reading this book. The synopsis had me so excited. I settled in ready to enjoy this book, I was a little disappointed. The book was not as good as the synopsis lead one to believe. Sorority sisters, mean siprited and just nasty but very one dimensional. A few areas n the book could have done with a bit more explaining of the scenario. Also, the book at times seemed to jump quite a bit. Is it enough to hold your attention? Yes, because you will want to know the secret and the outcome. But for me, it just was an ok read for me. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

This is my first novel by Rosalind Noonan and I would give it 2.5 stars. The concept of this novel grabbed my attention right away, university life focusing on a sorority and promising secrets and scandal. The novel opens in Emma's first person POV on Halloween night where there has been a stillborn baby born in the Sorority house and the characters are discussing getting rid of said baby. Then the next chapter opens with two new characters told in third person who witness someone jumping off a bridge. The formatting of this book drove me crazy, it was a mixture of first person POV and third person POV and sometimes it would change in the middle of a chapter. At times throughout the novel the actual timeline was not clear. I found this confusing and frustrating however at the end everything did come together nicely. I did not enjoy any of the characters in this book however I was still invested in wanting to know what happened. This book was not for me but I do think other readers may still enjoy this as it touches on bullying, mental illness and university politics.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

** spoiler alert ** 3.5 stars

I enjoyed it. I figured many things out quite early, but I wasn't bothered by that. The dynamic of the characters and their weaved relationships kept me intrigued. I like how the author had side stories for some of the characters. Dr. Finn, Tori, the skater, Graham, the roma chick name starts with D and Emma herself. These are just notes. I know a bit about Greek Life, but am always willing to read about or watch all the scandals.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington for the opportunity to read, rate and review this book.

The whole pretty-sorority-with-nasty-personality has been done so many times, but I still enjoyed it in this book. While the mystery is fascinating, I feel like the story is all over the place. The romances feel unecessary, same goes with the suicide task force. I feel like more stories could be developed around the sorority house secrets if we neglect earlier elements. I also feel like the ending was too easy and totally predictable.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy of Pretty, Nasty, Lovely that I read and reviewed.
I really had mixed feelings about this book. I just could not connect with it. I don't know if it was too "young" for me to really enjoy the subject and the characters. I felt the target audience should be older younger adults instead of adult women, maybe it is just me.
Overall, the book was just not in my wheelhouse so it was just not something that excited me and that is why I am giving it three out of five stars.

I suspect that this will generate strong feelings on those who either love or hate sororities because it really does focus on a lot of negatives. That said, it's a well plotted suspense novel with at least one likable character in Emily. Emily has choices to make- and you might not agree with some or all of them- about what secrets to keep and which to share. Did Lydia commit suicide? No spoilers but while this is the catalyst for the novel, it's of less interest than how these women interact with each other (and no surprise, it isn't nicely.). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I couldn't finish this one, sadly. The premise is good and I was intrigued, but as things started going along it got a bit jumbled and hard to follow. I couldn't like any character or get invested in them or the plot enough to care what happened.

The story starts off in the Theta Pi sorority house and a baby has been born. Except then you realize that the baby isn't alive and these girls are going to get rid of it.


Next chapter opens with one of the sisters committing suicide off a bridge at the college. That sorority house is full of girls with secrets.
Lydia is the girl who has died and it comes out that her stories of her rich upbringing are not exactly the truth. These chicks wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them so that kinda works for the story.
I like some juicy secrets so I'm still in the book at this point.



Then my attention started to wander because of several reasons:
There were several things that were NOT well researched (if at all) the randomness of them just jarred me from enjoying the story.
The story seemed all over the place. Flash backs placed at odd times, multiple viewpoints and a disjointed timeline. (I sounded fancy explaining that didn't I??)
Then the characters..I LOVE some mean ass characters but they have to be deliciously bad. Not card board cutouts that I kept picturing as Bella in that silly movie where she couldn't move her face.


The only reason I'm not one starring the critter is because I did want to keep reading it to see how it turned out. (That pissed me off also.)

I had the opportunity to experience two different kinds of sororities in college. The first one I joined had the pretty outward image but once you got involved I quickly learned that beauty truly was only skin deep. We luckily didn’t have anyone commit suicide but I also didn’t stick around long enough to be part of any other felony like behavior which turned out to be a good thing because they ended up getting into TONS of trouble during my time at the university. The second one, and where I met my true lifelong sisters who are still involved in my life today, was the complete opposite and were exactly what sorority life claims it wants to be about. Based on my experiences Noonan did a fairly good job of creating a realistic portrayal of the dark side of ‘some’ Greek life.

Speaking of dark side…

This novel is rough, not like bad writing rough, more like at times I felt like I needed a mental shower rough because she really goes for the jugular and she starts in chapter one where no punches are held back.
Despite that there is something addicting about needing to know how this is all going to play and where Noonan is taking you. The pace runs fast which is a good thing because the characters don’t feel fully developed and the story feels like at times she wrote it on notecards tossed them in the air then just put the story in order of what card she caught first then next and so on.

Normally with all the issues I would be severely irritated to have spent my time on this BUT the suspense, twists and back half of the book make up for the pitfalls. She is handling a highly sensitive issue of suicide particularly on the college campus level which has become more prevalent or at least a spotlight is being shown on it more today than in years past. I was happy with how she handled those rougher aspects of the story as it was done respectfully and like she was trying to call attention to this growing problem.

It’s not a perfect book but it is one worth your time.

Emma Danelski was very hopeful when she pledged Theta Pi at Merriwether University thinking this would bring friendship, fun, and popularity to her college years. However, Emma found herself in the midst of a horrible secret that she has no choice but to keep amidst the petty rules, bullying, and manipulation she had come to face at the sorority.

But then even more terrible news hits the sisterhood when one of their own commits suicide by jumping from a local bridge. The investigation seems to surround Emma as she finds herself wondering just what had happened to her sorority sister. Now Emma needs to decide what secrets are worth keeping and to what limits will she go to protect hers.

Pretty, Nasty, Lovely by Rosalind Noonan is one of those books that despite it’s flaws it still kept my attention and kept the pages turning to find out just what would end up happening in the story. I would warn though that the beginning to this one was quite disturbing as there are hints to a murdered baby but the reader is not given the details to the event until much later on in the book.

Between the shock of the start of the book and then the upcoming suicide the plot was what pushed the book all throughout. The characters didn’t seem to be very well developed at times as the book jumps from one event to another. I thought to myself several times I would have liked a bit more development and flow to the action but in the end I would rate this one at 3.5 stars as I did become completely hooked in knowing the outcome.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

An edge of your seat thriller that will keep you guessing. Readers will be drawn in from the very first page and left breathless at the end. Lies, betrayal, and mystery surrounds the death of a sorority girl and a college campus is in turmoil. What happens when the people who you thought you could trust- professors, administrators, sorority sisters- aren't as trustworthy as you thought? Readers will be swept up. Definitely recommend.