Friends, Secrets, and maybe a Skeleton…. My favorite genre!

I love this book cover - it's gorgeous!

I was expecting a raunchy, fun girls’ trip to paradise. Maybe a midlife Girls Gone Wild. But, it was so much more than that. It is a study of complicated female friendships wrapped in mysteries and a missing person. I loved it.

You know that saying, “You can take the girl out of Kansas, but you can’t take Kansas out of the girl.”? This definitely applied to the characters in this book. Ashley, Natalie and Lauren were transported to Tulum, but brought all of their emotional baggage with them that has been building for years. They brought so many unresolved issues that they were reluctant to address.

At the start of their trip, they do what most women do – they mask their true feelings and pretend to have fun. They don’t confront the things that are bothering them, and glossed over emotional topics. But then - throw in alcohol, drugs, money, and a sexy local manwhore - and this idyllic vacation turns explosive as secrets and true feelings are brought to light.

Ashley is charismatic, alluring, beautiful, and charming. She is an expert manipulator and gets what she wants. She attracts people to her, and uses them to get what she wants. It’s hard to say no to a friend like Ashley. Many of us have an Ashley in our own lives, and will empathize with Natalie and Lauren and their relationship with Ashley.

Where is Ashley? Why did Natalie wake up on the beach, with no memory of the previous night’s events? Why is Lauren so grief-stricken? Slowly everything is uncovered in this suspenseful, gripping book. The ending wasn’t exactly satisfying, but it does give closure to all of the open plot lines.

This is a must-read about a girls’ trip gone wrong. It was sucks you in and makes you want to binge read it. It’s a nightmare that no one would want to experience. That’s why it makes for such a good read - you can travel to this exotic, lush locale, experience a girls trip gone wrong and return home unscathed. Highly recommend!

After reading The Good Widow I was excited to read Girls Night Out. The book kept my attention for the most part, other then when Ashley and Natalie were arguing about “Revlon” I thought “if they bring that up one more time”, I’m going to scream!! (I did actually scream once) but if you want a good beach read, you will like it. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Such a big thank you to Net Galley for allowing me early access to this book. I really enjoyed The Good Widow and was hopeful Girls’ Night Out could deliver in the same way. And oh did it! This book hooked me from the beginning and kept me guessing right until the end. I believed the friendships and relationships of the characters. Combine that with a mystery with an ending you won’t see coming and you’ve got a winner. Do yourself a favor and read this book!

I loved their first book, The Good Widow. With this one, I had a harder time liking any of the characters. I love the idea that we're all flawed, that friendships--particularly as we get older and when business and money are mixed in--grow more complicated. But it was difficult to empathize with any of the primary characters because they were, well, awful. Understandably so, as each as under an enormous amount of pressure in their personal lives and unable to discuss it with the other two. It was just difficult to find anyone to root for.

Apparently Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke are branching out to the thriller/mystery genre. Doesn't it feel like every book lately is in this genre? I didn't read their first offering, "The Good Widow" but can honestly say that if it set up like this book, I am going to pass on that one.

"Girls' Night Out" is about a group of friends (Ashley, Lauren, and Natalie) going to Tulum, Mexico in an effort to repair the fractured friendship between the three of them. There is tension between this group and it takes a long while before you find out why, I honestly thought the reveal to one of these plot-lines was just aggravating as can be. The character of Ashley disappears (not a spoiler, it's part of the synopsis) and then Lauren and Natalie try to figure out what happened to her. The back and forth between three characters showing them before Ashley's disappearance and after doesn't mesh well. The flow was really off for me while reading. The ending was so anti-climactic, I just didn't buy it at all.

The characters of Ashley and Natalie are not only long-term friends, they are business partners. Part of the tension between them is that they received an offer from Revlon to buy their company. Natalie wants to sell and Ashley doesn't want to. I was curious about why in the world they just didn't bring up Ashley buying Natalie's share out? I mean, it seemed the simplest solution and it was weird I didn't see anyone just saying that. That whole plot point was just to show how Ashley is selfish and doesn't care about other people.

Ashley and Lauren have tension for a very good reason. I don't want to spoil the whole thing, but I am sorry, I had zero sympathy for Lauren. What a piece of work. I wish that the authors had decided to just have her have some self awareness about things, but nope, we don't even get that in the end. Just her and her grudging forgiveness.

Lauren and Natalie's tension is mostly about wanting to be the center of Ashley's attention. At times I wondered how old these three women were (almost 40, with one of them being 40) and who does stuff like this. It was a contradiction I found throughout the book. They get angry at Ashley being self involved and managing to make people bend to her will. And then they would be jealous if she sought one of them out and not the other.

Ashley is the center of this story (for good or bad) and she was not that interesting. Sorry, I just was getting a whiff of poor little rich girl here until we get a random aside thrown out about her marriage. I really wanted all of these women to go into therapy and just cut each other off. They all were the definition of a toxic friendship.

The secondary characters were not developed that well. We know that the three women have husbands, but they might as well has been called husband #1, #2, and #3.

We had the character of Marco that was obviously a con-man. I don't get why the character of Ashley was even telling this guy all of her business. Her justification didn't make a lot of sense since as other characters said, what was the point of her hanging out with her friends if she was going to listen to some mystical crap from some random dude she met on a beach.

I think it would also have been better to set up the book prologue with the three women meeting in college. I just needed to see/believe that they were actually friends. The book jumps too quickly into Ashley's disappearance and then goes back to days before she went missing and then to days after they noticed she was missing. It was hard to keep things straight. The authors do set up each chapter heading with the character and they do let you know how many days has passed or not passed, but I still found it confusing. Maybe because we have characters referring to conversations that we didn't get to see.

I wish that we had more dialogue instead of people having inner dialogue with themselves . It also didn't help that sometimes in a paragraph you would have a character having a conversation with someone in the past (both Lauren and Natalie's passages did that) and it would take me a while to realize that I wasn't in the current timeline that I was reading something that had happened before.

The flow was off almost from the beginning. I think it's because of the before mentioned changing POVs with the different timelines.

The setting of Tulum, Mexico was obviously very well researched. I have actually stayed there and visited the same locations that these characters did (Chichen Itza) so reading about that made me happy. I think though that besides a few things here and there, once again we don't get to see the women enjoying things, we just jump around too much.

The ending was way too simple. I don't want to spoil, but I had a hard time with it. It felt like the two authors just gave up 3/4 of the way through.

Girls Night Out: What my nightmares are made of. Seriously, this book will keep you from ever drinking too much or touching anything that might possible lead to a blackout. What's scarier than waking up on the beach in Mexico with no memory of what happened the night before? Waking up on the beach in Mexico with no memory and NOT BEING ABLE TO LOCATE YOUR BEST FRIEND.

This book by Liz Fenton had me on the edge of my seat the entire way through. I do have a couple of complaints, however. I feel like this book could have been about 100 pages shorter. I feel like there were a lot of repetitive moments and there were a few situations that dragged on without much purpose that could have definitely been cut down. And secondly, holy teenage drama. There are A LOT of immature arguments that were difficult to get through. There's something very irritating about reading page after page of 40 year old women acting like a bunch of 14 year olds. BUT if you can get through those couple of flaws then you are sure to enjoy this whodunnit mystery. It's sure to be one of the best of the summer!

What a breath of fresh air! Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this early! I absolutely devoured this book from the first chapter. This book is based around a girls trip to Tulum, Mexico to mend friendships. Well something goes terribly wrong and Ashley goes missing. This is told from all three main characters points of view and what a wonderful job they did at that.
There is not a better word for this book other than SUSPENSE at its very best! Can we please appreciate how much work and detail was put into the setting and atmosphere of this book. I felt like I was on the beach with them. The authors did such a wonderful job at describing the locations the girls visited while also painting a beautiful picture of what this place is like.
It has been a long time since I felt so drawn to characters in a book. I actually teared up on some parts. Don't wait to read this! You don't want to miss it!! Also THAT ENDING!! I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did!

This was a suspenseful and crazy book about 3 women who's friendship has been in peril for the last year. Thinking a trip to Mexico would help heal the problems, Ashley organizes the trip. I couldn't put the book down. The authors did a great job at portraying the characters as ending was a surprise.

Three college friends, now approaching 40, take a girls trip to Tulum, Mexico. They've had some friendship issues, business problems, and personal tragedies and a jaunt to paradise with girlfriends seems like an ideal way to get back on track. Things don't go as planned, and one of the women goes missing.

This exciting, tense thriller goes back and forth in time and alternates between all of the womens' perspectives. The descriptions of friendship, especially the difficulties in a triad friendship are spot on. The mystical, beautiful location adds to the suspense of the book. Great suspense , read this in a day!

Horrible characters, especially Ashley who was exceptionally annoying. Plot was sooooooooo slow moving. I was skimming many chapters trying to get to SOME development of the plot but I would get through multiple chapters and the plot hadn’t advanced at all. Ashley still missing and no one knows anything and everyone is just talking about the same dumb things. Also there was way, way too much “lip curling” from Natalie.

I enjoyed this book, specifically the writing style and the plot itself. The characters were a little immature and their cattiness reminded me a bit of high school, not 40 year olds. But overall I thought it was an engrossing story that would make for a good beach read this summer.

First of all let me say READ THIS BOOK!

This is the first time I have read any books by Liz & Lisa so I didn't exactly know what to expect!
What I got was a first rate psycho-thriller set in the lush resort of Tulum, Mexico.

Three BFF who were losing their grip on their friendship travel to Mexico for some R&R and to get their friendship back on tract.

That is until one friend comes up missing after an evening of tropical cocktails. How did this happen? Where is she??

The story goes from present day to the past and I could not put this book down!

The story and the ending will keep you enthralled! Do yourself a favor and read this book and buy a spare copy for a friend.

I

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. A story of three women taking a trip to Tulum, Mexico to save their 20 year friendship. The characters give me a little "real housewives vibe," however I had to keep reading to see how this story was going to go. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fast paced read.

This is the second book I've read by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, and it did not disappoint. I couldn't stop reading until I got to the very end!

Ashley takes her estranged friends, Lauren and Natalie, to Talum, Mexico to try to salvage their friendship. She hasn't talked to Lauren in nearly a year due to the result of a tragic event. Ashley and Natalie are business partners, but their friendship has been strained when they both don't agree on an offer the business receives.

The trip starts out awkward, as Ashley instantly hopes some drinks and sun will instantly make the group realize how much they need each other...but that doesn't happen. Ashley ends up disappearing, and Lauren and Natalie have to piece together what might have happened to her. Did the stranger who had an attraction to Ashley and stayed by her side for most of the trip have something to do with her disappearance? Did Ashley decide to leave on her own? Did she get caught up in a violent tourist situation? The novel goes back and forth to the days leading up to her disappearance, and the days following.

I had a hard time putting this book down. The characters are incredibly drawn out, and I found myself loving and hating them at different points. The mystery of what happened to Ashley builds slowly almost from the get-go, and the authors did a wonderful job of building the suspense while also moving the characters stories and situations forward. I will definitely recommend this to those that like a good thriller, and I hope Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have more books on the way!

Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this wonderful book.

I enjoyed The Good Widow but this book, not so much. It was written well and I know others are and will love it. I just kind of found it too predictable. Can't say I liked out it all turned out. But again, this is just my opinion. I guess it just wasn't a book for me.

Thank you to netgalley for giving me an advanced reader copy! I always love and appreciate books by Lisa and Liz. This book tells the story from three different perspectives of three best friends, Ashley, Natalie and Lauren. The three of them have been friends for many years, but lately there has been some troubles in their friendships. Ashley has decided to plan a girls trip to Mexico to mend their friendship. Unfortunately the trip goes very badly, and the girls end up fighting even more in person. The morning they are to leave Mexico to fly back home, Natalie wakes up on the beach, wet, alone and with no memory of what happened the night before. Natalie finds Lauren and they find out that Ashley is missing, with no word of where she is. The book is heartbreaking but also a good reminder to keep your friendships close and remember to love and forgive your friends. Great job ladies. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC! I have loved everyone once of Liz and Lisa's books and this is no different.

Three friends head to Mexico to reconnect because things haven't been right with them. But, after a night out, Natalie wakes up on the beach in a wet dress with a memory gap, Ashley is no where to be found, and Lauren hasn't seen her.

As Natalie and Lauren search for Ashley, and Natalie tries to piece her memories together, we are taken on an adventure. No spoilers but I found several things surprising! I can't wait for to see what these authors come up with next!

Did you read The Good Widow? If you didn’t, you must! Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke wrote it and it was a great novel, now they have a new one called Girls Night Out and I am ridiculously excited.

I was immediately interested in this story based on the cover and the title of the book! What is happening here? Check out the premise:

For estranged friends Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren, it’s time to heal the old wounds between them. Where better to repair those severed ties than on a girls’ getaway to the beautiful paradise of Tulum, Mexico? But even after they’re reunited, no one is being completely honest about the past or the secrets they’re hiding. When Ashley disappears on their girls’ night out, Natalie and Lauren have to try to piece together their hazy memories to figure out what could have happened to her, while also reconciling their feelings of guilt over their last moments together.

Was Ashley with the man she’d met only days before? Did she pack up and leave? Was she kidnapped? Or worse—could Natalie or Lauren have snapped under the weight of her own lies?

As the clock ticks, hour by hour, Natalie and Lauren’s search rushes headlong into growing suspicion and dread. Maybe their secrets run deeper and more dangerous than one of them is willing—or too afraid—to admit.

Reading some early reviews, I see a lot of love from readers who scored advance copies and there are many solid five star reviews. I cannot wait to dig in!

Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren have been friends for 20 years, but have been drifting apart. Ashley decides to save their friendship by inviting them on a vacation to Mexico. But right from the beginning, we know that something has gone wrong. Natalie finds herself passed out on the beach, and Ashley has disappeared. What happened that night between these three friends? And where is Ashley?

I really enjoyed most of this book. We get flashbacks from the perspective of each woman, and find out about the circumstances pushing them apart. Naturally, there are secrets, loosened from nights of vacation drinking. There’s fighting and drama, and some hand wringing too. Some of it was repetitive, but then again these women feel like they’re in a loop. Do they make amends and go forward? Or do they go their separate ways?

Then ... things get weird. No spoilers, but there’s a bit of mysticism involved. The melodrama ratchets up, and the writing changes and becomes mawkish. I kept thinking “Why?”as I hurtled toward the ending. I was personally disappointed by how it ended, but hey, it may work for you.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for an arc.