Three friends go on relaxing getaway to reconnect. The women are 40(ish) and have been friends since college. They have been through a lot together, but recently the friendship has been strained. Thinking a girls' trip, with plenty of sun and booze, will fix everything, they head to Tulum, Mexico. While they reconnect and relax, things don't really go as planned, especially when one of the friends is missing the last morning in Mexico.

The friends, Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren, each have personal issues happening in their lives. Unfortunately, those issues have affected their friendship. Ashley and Natalie have a business together, and that has created tension between the two of them. Lauren lost her husband the previous year, and, soon after, had a falling out with Ashley and Natalie. Between work, marriage, and life in general, the friends haven't been as close as they once were, and haven't exactly been honest with one another about their lives.

This story is told through alternating viewpoints - Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren. The book starts with Natalie waking up after their last girls' night out in Tulum and realizing Ashley is missing. The night before is a haze, but Natalie and Lauren have a hard time believing Ashley would leave and not let them know where she was. As the story unfolds, we learn more about each of the women, their past, their present, and what happened on their girls' night out.

Friendship and secrets. A fast-paced, suspenseful, and compelling novel. Best read while sipping a mojito on the beach.

I received an eARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren head to Tulum, Mexico, to have some bonding time and reconnect. Things have been strained between them since the death of Lauren’s husband a year earlier – she hasn’t spoken to either of them even though they are all longtime best friends. Ashley and Natalie are business partners, but that relationship is taking its toll; when they get a buyout offer Nat wants to take it but Ashley doesn’t. Amid this turmoil that ladies land in Tulum, but when things should be getting better they just get worse. Girl’s Night Out is told in alternating timelines between their last day in Mexico, when Natalie wakes up and finds that Ashley is missing, and when they first landed and the events leading up to her disappearance. I like the effect, as the tension keeps building until you find out what happened to Ashley. She spent more time flirting with a handsome stranger than hanging out with her girlfriends, Natalie can’t remember what happened the night before, and Lauren is acting suspiciously … but where is Ashley? Liz and Lisa will take you on a wild ride once again with plenty of unexpected twists and turns.

**Thank you to Net Galley for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my unbiased review.**

In this book, 3 longtime friends take a trip to Mexico with the hopes of repairing their damaged friendships. When one friend winds up missing (not a spoiler, in the opening pages), they have to analyze their past to try to figure out what happened.

I wanted to love this book, but I didn't. The women were very hard to connect with and their personalities and relationship just didn't seem realistic. They were all selfish.

**Spoiler Below**
One woman blames her friend for her husbands death. He was abusive and after feeling pressure from her friend to leave him, he has a heart attack when she announces to him she's leaving. She spends the entire book blaming her friend for his untimely death. I couldn't get past this very unrealistic plot point. The book was full of situations such as this that just weren't believable. The book goes round and round hashing and rehashing their arguments and it just got redundant. I kept reading wanting to find out what happened to Ashley, but the ending was very anti-climatic.

Wow! This was an innocent girls' night out that went totally wrong! Three good friends take a trip to get away and reconnect with each other again. Things have not been good between the three for awhile. A trip to a beautiful place in Mexico will fix all that, right? Wrong!

Ashley disappears during their girls' night out and Natalie or Lauren have no idea where she might be, or who she might be with. As they try to put the pieces together, we learn about the rifts between the three friends as they start uncovering the lies of their lives. They realize they have to put their difference aside to make sure Ashley is safe.

Girls' Night Out was a story that grabbed me from the start, because the reader knows from the get-go that something has happened to one of the girls. That was a good ploy on the authors'parts—so many questions needed to be answered right from the start. The story then goes from the present to the past, alternating between the two, as parts of the story are revealed like clues to solve the mystery and to explain the women's past relationships.

This book was a pager-turner that kept me guessing until the very end. I was as concerned about Ashley as her two friends were. Liz and Lisa definitely have another hit on their hands.

I'm continually amazed at the ability of two people to write such fascinating novels together so seamlessly that the reader doesn't realize that there are two 'voices' contributing to the story. Great job, gals!!

One word -- Amazing!! Three women -- three friends and a vacation to Mexico!! Liz and Lisa have done it again!! They've written a book millions of women are going to want to read!!! It's a page turner from the first chapter to the last!!

As a long time fan of Lisa and Liz, I can confidently say this is them at their absolute best. I began this book and immediately was drawn in to the point that I ignored my family for 24 hours so that I could finish. The characters feel real and their problem is one I can assume a lot of business partners deal with. This book tests the lines of friendships and is a perfect example of why you have to speak up for yourself and not let someone else talk for you. Oh, and the ending? Wow.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this one. It is not one to be missed!!

‪Girls’ Night Out by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke is truly a chilling
‪suspense. One that will have you second guessing who your friends really are.‬
‪Sending a great big THANKS ❤️today to both Net Galley and Lake Union Publication for my advanced e-copy for my honest review. They know what I like. I highly recommend adding this newest thriller to you summer TBR list.
#lakeunionpublishing #summermustreads #girlsnightout #thriller 🏖🙌🏼📖🐡🌊🍾🥂

This was a very easy and fast-paced read..Perfect for the beach or poolside.
While I enjoyed the multiple POV's and twist at the end, I also found the arguments between the women repetitive. There were even moments where I found the conversations between characters boring.

I couldn't say no to the Girls' Night Out by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke since I enjoyed so very much the Year We Turned Forty. Sadly, I can't say the same thing about this novel.

Where to begin?

Well, I couldn't sympathize with any of the three women. The reason why their friendship was so dysfunctional was that they truly weren't real friends to each other. As women in their forties, their behavior was selfish, petty and childish. Talk about a letdown!

What's the story about?

Three women who have been friends since college go on a vacation to Tulum, Mexico in order to reconnect. Ashley is the one who invites both. A year ago, Ashley and Lauren had a falling out and Ashley thinks this vacation can repair their friendship.

Looking from the outside, Ashley's life is perfect. She lives in a huge home, has a great husband and two beautiful daughters. Her company is a success and recently Revlon has offered to buy it from her. She's a go-getter. People gravitate towards her. It has always been this way and the other two women resent her for it. Yet, Ashley is keeping secrets from her two best friends.

Lauren has had a tough year. After her fight with Ashley, her life has been full of dark times. There are several things she won't admit about herself. When she's invited to Mexico, she's ambivalent about her decision to go. She wants to forgive and forget what tore their friendship apart but she also wants to punish Ashley at the same time.

Natalie is Ashley's business partner. She came up with the idea of the BlowBrush. Yet, it was Ashley who did all the marketing. Ashley was the one who made their company BloMe a success. Natalie holds a grudge about it even though her family has benefitted from all of their success. Natalie wants to sell the company to Revlon. She won't confide in Ashley why she wants to sell it but she accepts the invitation in hopes to convince Ashley to sell.

Why didn't this book work for me?

I was disappointed with the main reason Lauren was mad at Ashley. It made no sense to me. If anything, she should've been grateful. She needed to put the blame on the right person, not project it.

Natalie was anything but sweet. She has resented Ashley for all these years. She was always fighting for Ashley's attention and didn't want Lauren to have it.

Ashley was supposed to be the worst of the three but if anything she has been there for both of them when they needed it, although she could be very manipulative, self-centered and narcissistic.

The ending was a fiasco. After all the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Ashley, it felt like a copout.

Girls' Night Out is told from three points of view and with scenes from a few days before and after Ashley's disappearance.

I didn't enjoy it but it doesn't mean you won't. Take this review as my opinion. Believe this, no one is more upset this didn't work for me than this reader.

Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for my early copy of the Girls' Night Out in exchange for an honest review.

Cliffhanger: No

2/5 Fangs

Three best friends travel to Mexico trying to salvage their friendships that are on the edge of breaking. Each women carrying their own bundle of secrets. Natalie and Ashley own a business together with an offer from Revlon to buy their technology. Natalie is all in to sell, due to financial issues her husband has kept buried them with, Ashley wants nothing to do with selling. She wants to remain distracted by work as her marriage is deteriorating before her eyes. Lauren holds a grudge with Ashley and blames her for her husbands death about a year prior.

As they attempt to mend these fences Ashley befriends a local Marco who acts as their tour guide during their vacation. He has also developed an infatuation with Ashley. On the final night of their vacation everything erupts and the next morning Ashely is missing and Natalie has no memory of much of the previous night.

Will they be able to find out what happened to Ashley? Did she leave with Marco who is also mysteriously gone, or has something awful happened.

My first reaction when I finished this was WOW. This was a roller coaster ride of a story, with three friends who are hoping to repair a friendship that has splintered over the years. Unfortunately, things don’t go anywhere near as planned, as so many secrets and resentments have built up over the years. And, just when they thought things couldn’t get worse, they do. Ashley disappears and memories are fuzzy. The twists and turns, told from each characters point of view, combined with the alternating timeline, kept me on my toes.
When three get together, it seems someone is always left out or unsure of their place, and that is definitely true in this book. There is so much here to like, and, even more, to make you think. When and author (or authors) write characters that evoke strong emotions, you know they and their stories are well-written.
The authors are new to me, and I am anxious to read more!

I promise you, you will not want to take a trip to a Mexico anytime soon after reading this novel.
What was supposed to be a trip to reunite and hopefully bury the past for three best friends ends up with arguments and one friend missing. Lauren, Ashley, and Natalie all take a trip to Mexico, each of them carrying their own secrets and resentments. When Ashley suddenly disappears one night and Natalie has no memory of said night they must compile their hazy memories to find their friend. Add in a guy local to Mexico that befriended Ashley and has a history of trying to get women to take off with him the mystery grows.
This was a very very excellent book that I could not put down. Thank you so much to Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a copy for review.

This was a bit of a disappointment for me. A middling 3 stars because I'm feeling generous. Also, it may be that I have mixed feelings about the ending but those feelings are much more positive than those I had while reading the first half. I'll begin with the things I liked. I quite enjoyed the setting (so wonderfully described) and the setup. I seem to have landed in a patch of books lately where women in their latter 30s and early 40s have unravelled and gone completely out of pocket with disastrous results. The results here are no less disastrous but it wasn't an enjoyable ride along for me. I admit that I never dialled in on the three women (Ashley, Natalie & Lauren). It wasn't even that I didn't like them but I found them too juvenile and petty to care about them. A fate worse than character dislike for this reader. I understand how we can all regress with friendships but something was missing for me with these women. They didn't just argue, they went round in the same circles more than I cared to read about (a third of this could have been taken out & the thrust of the conflict wouldn't have been lost).

The first half of the book was very slow but this did eventually get off the ground. If I'm honest, the best part of this for me was the back 25%. The mystery is tied up neatly enough and while there's a closing of the case there's a final twist that makes that null though unknown by anyone alive. I don't know if this was better with that bit or best left without it.

I'm neutral on recommending this one. I'm sure these characters will strike a better note with an audience who has more patience for them than I did.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for this ARC.

An unexpected mystery and girly-friendship story, all wrapped into one. I really enjoyed this book which kept me captivated and guessing the outcome. Well told story of old friends, with unresolved conflicts, attempting to re-establish their bonds on a women's trip - gone bad. A true page turner. Thank you NetGalley and Ninja's for the early reader edition. All opinions are my own.

(4.5) Holy margaritas, Batman! Taco 'bout a great book! The setting takes place in Tulum, Mexico, and, yes, there are tacos and lots of margaritas involved as well as some suspense, complex characters, friend drama, and twists and surprises that will keep you reading all night long. I loved how the story flipped back and forth from the night of the mysterious disappearance of Ashley, to the days before it happened with alternating point of views from each of the characters. I could not put this book down, and that ending absolutely blew my away. I think this is Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke's best book yet. Well done, ladies!

So this story is about a trio of friends, Natalie, Ashley, and Lauren, who go way back to the carefree days of college. But over time, they've had their differences and disagreements. Ashley invited Natalie and Lauren to go on a relaxing trip to Mexico to rekindle their friendship. But, from the second they met at the airport terminal they felt the tension between them.
From page one Liz and Lisa create a whirlwind of events that eventually lead to Ashley's disappearance. After days of drinking, partying, and making friends with a young man named Marco (who oddly never likes his pic taken and introduces himself as Marco "Smith"), Natalie wakes up on the beach with no recollection of how she got there or where Ashley is!
So, the majority of this fast paced thriller, everyone is trying to find Ashley. Did Marco have something to do with her disappearance? Did she leave on her own free will? Do her friends Lauren and Natalie have something to do with this mysterious disappearance? Everyone seems to have a reason to benefit from Ashley not being around! Everyone seems guilty! Holy plot twist ending! Awesome!
I reached to the end to find out what happened and in my page turning fury, I quickly finished this 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book in less than 2 days! Highly highly recommend! We loved "The Good Widow" so we had high expectations for this one! Thank you to Lisa and Liz and Lake Union Publishers for sending us an ARC of this book!

3,5 stars from me.
This is a difficult one to review...It took me almost one month to finish is....

I was excited to get this novel, My expectations for this book were far too high. :(

It started slowly but picked up mid way. It's not that I didn't enjoy The Wife Between Us. It's a confident, suspenseful novel that has some intriguing surprises along the way. It's a novel that the less you know going in, the odds are better you'll enjoy it more. This just wasn't for me. :(

Not bad, but not great, my opinion anyway.



**Thanks to Lake Union Publishing, and to NetGalley for an opportunity to read this book.

WOW, a very well written story of 3 friends and the suspense between them. Set in Mexico 🇲🇽 and told a lot of details of that country. I enjoyed the trial and tithe friends and to endure and of course there is conflict among them too. 4 thumbs up 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

I loved the air of intrigue in the book, the search for Ashley kept me at the edge of my seat. The characters and their flaws were realistic. In a group of three friends, one always feels left out, if you have ever been in a such a group you can relate easily to the characters. I don't know if I have a favorite character. Ashley was little bossy, even though it was hard to like her i still wanted to know what happened to her. Lauren was still recovering from Geoff 's death,but she still was not able to forgive Ashley. Natalie  was finding hard to find a work life balance, I could feel her frustration through the book. The ending was a tad disappointing as I was expecting a twist.

4 suspenseful stars to Girls’ Night Out!

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke are lifelong best friends who co-author books. I read and enjoyed two of them, and I have anticipated Girls’ Night Out since they posted on Facebook about their girls’ trip to Tulum, Mexico when they were in the writing process. Follow them on Facebook if you have not already. They are so fun! The setting in Tulum piqued my interest because I traveled there years ago, and I remember its immense beauty well.

Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren were best friends for over twenty years, but lately they have not spoken. They determine it is time to mend fences and, to do that, they travel to Tulum, Mexico. When one friend (Ashley) disappears on the trip, Natalie and Lauren try to figure out where she is, but their memories are not clear because there was plenty of drinking on girls’ night. They are not sure if she left, or if she could have been kidnapped. They really have no idea. Natalie and Lauren search for Ashley, but as they do, dangerous secrets come to a head.

Liz and Lisa are skilled in writing about friendship. I think their own friendship adds to the authenticity in their writing. Each of the friends has a role to play in the triad. With a group of three, someone is always left out, and my mom has always said a group of three friends would never get along. (She was always right about that by the way).

While Girls’ Night Out is most definitely an intriguing, twisty thriller and kept me guessing, there are also themes of friendship and forgiveness and the secrets we hold back from the ones we love and trust most. Will these friends and their friendship survive the trip to Tulum?