Debut author!!

6 friends share an idyllic week together after finishing university in a French farmhouse.
Then the six of them leave for Britain.

Now, 10 years later, a phone call from an old friend brings it all back
with news that Severinne (neighbor) body has been found.

Flashbacks of that time begin to haunt her.
Memories are talked about, thought over and investigated
Some thoughts even become haunting

This is an intriguing novel.
I was so involved w/characters and story - I could not stop reading.

This stands out as a compelling and engaging story among others in its genre!

I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. While it technically falls into the psychological suspense/thriller territory, but it isn't quite as exciting or action packed as some of the other "Girl" books that have come before it. That being said, Kate was a fantastic protagonist: intelligent, witty, likable, and sharp as a tack. When I first read the description, I was afraid we'd get the POVs of each of the six friends, which I really don't enjoy because it can slow the pacing of the story. So, it was a nice surprise to find that the story was told solely through Kate's narration. It did lose some points on the absence of any major twist; however, I couldn't stop thinking about the characters after I'd finished the book. It is definitely a character- rather than action-driven psychological thriller, and you know what? It really worked! Overall, a fantastic debut from a new author. I look forward to reading Lexie Elliott's future novels!

Thank you to Elisha Katz at Penguin Random House for pre-approving me for this novel on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a nice surprise! Thank you for reaching out with the opportunity to preview this book. I really enjoyed it! Loved the writing style and the plot kept me reading through the night. Finished in one day. Look forward to more from this author!

"The French Girl" was actually a very entertaining read for me. The plot surrounds a group of friends who vacationed in France during their University years, during that vacation a next door neighbor- The French Girl went missing. Fast forward to 10 years later, there is a development in the case and new leads become available, now everyone is a suspect in the case of the "missing French Girl"

The writing really pulled me in and I loved the characters. I cant say it was absolutely mysterious or filled with twists and turns but it did the job of getting your heart racing and thinking which I like.
Overall, I would recommend this book for a great weekend week and I am looking forward to reading more from Lexie Elliott.

What a brilliant story! The character development and pacing are wonderful. I loved the way Kate would be mentally commenting while carrying on conversations. And the way Severine kept popping in. Great job Lexie Elliot. Please bring us another.

There is a lot of gray area in this book because you are never quite sure. There are people you like, some you despise, and others that you are not sure of at all, including the main character. Six university friends spend what should have been the perfect week at a house in France but by the time they leave to go home nothing is ever the same. Relationships are forever fractured, trust is broken and the seductive young mademoiselle next door has gone missing. A decade later the woman’s body is found on the property and a dogged French detective starts digging into their lives. Kate Channing finds herself not just haunted by the memories of that week but by the dead young French woman herself. This has movie script written all over it.

It has been a long time since I read a book late into the night and then got up early to continue reading it, but I could not put The French Girl down. It had just the right mixture of mystery and tension to keep the reader engrossed.

While this book does not arrive on shelves until February 2018, I was drawn to it as I’d recently read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware. After reading The French Girl by Lexie Elliott, dare I say I enjoyed it more so than Ruth Ware’s latest? While the plots remained relatively related: old friends re-unite as a murder investigation from a years old murder ignites, a murder in which they were closely tied, if not guilty of. Author, Lexie Elliott, did a more outstanding job capturing the reader in suspense. Rather than trying to guess “whodunit” I was enjoying the characters unravel.

As I compare this book to Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game, The French Girl provided more underlying love interests and romantic connections between the characters which only served to further capture the reader’s interests. Author, Lexie Elliott, sucks you in and holds on as she navigates the reader eloquently through the twisting connections of each of the book’s characters. In fact, this book allowed me to connect with SEVERAL characters at once, never feeling confused or scrambling to remember who was who.

Ten years ago, a group of friends spent a holiday at a friends house in France... After they left, it was discovered that the girl next door had gone missing. Now, her body has been found and the case has been reopened. No one seems to have a good memory of what happened on the last day. It becomes a story of what do we remember, who can we trust and how well do we really know ourselves and others. Great characters and pacing,I really enjoyed this novel..

It seems whenever a group of Brits go to France on vacation there is always a murder. Here the storyline is repeated when a French inspector comes back years later when the body of Severine, their victim, is found. So, who is the culprit...of course it's one of the group (I won't spoil with more information).

The heroine, Kate, is nearly murdered by the same baddie who killed Severine. Kate develops new feelings for another group member. The reader is given a short sense of closure when Kate fills us in on her life after this experience and the murder are finally put to rest.

I found the book very predictable and a bit hard to take seriously, but a perfectly readable British mystery.

<i>The French Girl</i> tells the story of a group of people, ten years from their encounter with Severine, the French girl next door and her disappearance. There are so many elements in this one that none of them gets the time to stand out.

- It has "ghosts from the past". Literally?
- A lot of work related material that don't contribute anything major to the story. I could literally skip an entire page(s) and and not miss a thing.
- Severine's disappearance and possible killers. But the ending is a huge let down.
- Kate, our main character who is a legal headhunter and your usual narrator, unreliable and frustrating, is an emotional mess due to something that happened so long ago, it shouldn't be interfering with everything she does to this day.
- A ten year old time jump that didn't fit with the character's personalities.

Reading the blurb my biggest issue was the ten year jump the story did, I'm not a huge time jump fan and when I read a book with such a huge jump, I need the characters to be visibly changed. Despite that, I liked the blurb enough to ignore it and hope that the time jump would be justified. It isn't. If there wasn't a specific mention of a time frame or if the time jump was 2-5 years, I would have liked the story more. It's hard to believe that some characters behave the way they do, and think the stuff they do, ten years later.

The story includes a lot of flashbacks as well, written into the story in such a way that makes it hard to tell what's going on in the beginning. For example, from the first chapter Kate has a conversation with someone about Severine and immediately her mind jumps to specific moments which can be a little confusing if it happens all the time.

What I really liked about the story were the characters as friends though, which is why I mentioned that the story didn't know what it wanted to be. Was the friendship/reunion the main theme? Was it Severine? Was it Kate? Was it Kate's work? What was the thing that had to stand out?

It was a little bit of everything and <b>it was super slow despite the low page count and I was more interested in their dynamics as friends than the actual "murder"</b>, I was waiting for the mystery or the suspense and definitely the thrilling part to come but by the end of it I could hardly recall important stuff and I'd skipped others.

While the book had many different elements, it was a confusing start and slow moving throughout. The characters were well defined with their own unique personalities. The ending was a bit disappointing and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. Felt that some of the off color language could have been left out. All in all a good read.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I am a real sucker for novels where an event in the past suddenly resurfaces and interferes with the lives of the book's characters. In this one, 6 university friends had a tumultuous vacation in France where they variously hooked up and broke up with each other and sometimes with Severine, the young French woman living next door. Returning to England, with friendships irrevocably changed, the friends learn that Severine has disappeared.
A decade later, her body is found and French police believe that the friends were the last to see her alive and one of them is likely responsible for her death.

Kate, the narrator, is one of those problematic characters. Like the narrators in The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Girl on the Train, she's an emotional mess. She's still to move on from the relationship that ended on that weekend in France and her new business is in trouble. To add to her stress, she's the prime suspect in the murder and she's started seeing ghosts.

I didn't find that the other characters were especially well fleshed out.

This book will appeal to the readers of Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins.

Thanks so much to Netgalley for providing an E-ARC of this book! I really enjoyed that this book took place in London, it was very atmospheric! The characters each had very distinct personalities which was one of my favorite aspects. However, I was confused at the beginning of this book. It kind of dragged on a bit, and took awhile to really get going. This is not the book for you if you can't get into slow books, because this is definitely one of those. It was enjoyable enough, I probably wouldn't purchase it though.

I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Lexie Elliott, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

THE FRENCH GIRL is Lexie Elliott's psychological suspense debut, delving into the dark side of friendship. Six university students spend a week together in a French farmhouse, where they meet Severine, the girl next door. Severine was an unwelcome newcomer for Kate Channing, and after an altercation, one that could never be forgiven, Severine was never seen again. The novel picks up a decade later, when the case of Severine's disappearance is reopened after her body is discovered in a well behind the old farmhouse. The six formerly close friends reunite for questioning, and Kate, who's working hard to avoid suspicion, stands to lose everything she's worked so hard for.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I would be surprised if Hollywood didn't swoop this up to become the next book-to-film adaptation. In Elliott's debut, themes are effortlessly weaved throughout, including friendship, loyalty, and deception. I enjoyed the shifting dynamic between the tight-knit group of university friends. The suspense and mystery was built up nicely throughout the story line, and I found the ending realistic and satisfying.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller with a strong, likeable female lead.

A terrific end-of-summer read. At first I was a bit annoyed at the appearance of the ghost of the dead French girl, Severine. She only appears to Kate Channing, one of the college friends who summered at a French farmhouse ten years ago. Now the friends are grown up and leading professional lives. A French detective arrives in England to reopen the case of Severine's disappearance and possible murder. And Severine, lythe and lovely and enigmatic in life, appears to Kate at the most inopportune moments. As I said, annoying. As the mystery unfolds, however, the dead Severine's purpose becomes clear. And, I've got to tell you, I didn't see it coming. Well done, Ms. Elliott.