Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding introduces us to a Frances, an insecure housewife who is hiding a dark secret from her past. Frances' son attends a prestigious private school where she clearly does not fit in due to her son's behaviors, her socioeconomic status, and slightly overweight, unkempt appearance. In walks, Kate, an overconfident housewife who is from the upper class, but doesn't necessarily follow their norms. The two find solace in each other as do their children. However, sometimes relationships and individuals aren't always who and what they seem.

This is the first book I have read by Robyn Harding, but it certainly will not be the last. I read Her Pretty Face in under 24 hours. I simply couldn't put it down. Thank you NetGalley for the arc of this book. It did not disappoint!

Well-written characters that capture some of the stereotypes in society. Rollercoaster ride of emotions and on the edge of your seat suspense makes you not want to put the book down. Definitely thought-provoking on thinking about whether this is something that actually happens and exactly what the "real" story is. Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

This book is told from three different perspectives: Frances, Daisy (Kate’s daughter) and DJ, though his importance to the story isn’t immediately known. Each perspective is its own thing, very distinct. I really enjoyed that Harding chose to not do a perspective from Kate and chose a different member of her family to help keep the story going. DJ’s perspective was probably my favorite, surprisingly enough. His is in the past and talks a lot about a murder and the trial. Making the connection to the present isn’t too far-fetched, but it can still be a fun guessing game.

Harding does an amazing job at making characters that you feel something toward — whether that be positive or negative. These are not flat, boring characters: These characters jump off the page.

Good plot? Check! Interesting characters? Check! Well written? Check!

Overall, I found this to be an interesting novel and would definitely recommend it to fans of the domestic thriller genre.

The cover of this book was the first thing that caught my attention and made me want to read it. I like to look for books that have interesting and eye catching covers because I feel that it might be a good book. Something that can catch my eye is worth trying out in my opinion. This book had so many twists and turns it kept me guessing throughout the whole book. Once I thought I had it figured out, it threw another loop. This was a really good that was able to keep my attention the whole time while reading. This was a great book!

Frances Metcalf is a woman whose full-time job is taking care of her son, diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. Feeling out of place, surrounded by Seattle's Microsoft millionaires and other parents who've made their money in tech, Frances tries to make it through interactions with fellow private school parents by imagining ways she'd murder them. That is, until she finds a lifeline in Kate: a woman who is slim, tall, beautiful, and confident. In other words, Kate is everything Frances wishes she could be. So when Kate becomes her best friend, Frances is over the moon. Finally, she's not alone. Finally, she has someone else in her life besides her husband and son. 

The more time Frances spends with Kate, the more she becomes enamored by her. Kate's personality emboldened Frances and motivated her to make changes in her life she hadn't been willing to do before. Suddenly, going to Curves is starting to work for Frances. Her house is cleaner, more organized. And her usually hard-to-deal-with son is having fun, becoming independent, and making friends at his private school. 

But there are cracks in this picture-perfect family. After an evening spent with Kate and her husband, Frances notices how Kate ignores her daughter, 14-year-old Daisy. It's assumed that, while her brother will stay home, Daisy will not be around when the Metcalfs come over for dinner. Kate doesn't even ask Daisy where she's going or when she'll be home -- a warning flag for over-protective Frances. Didn't Kate care about her daughter?

With chapters flashing back to the murder of a missing teenager, and the trial that follows, Harding builds tension as we try and figure out how this murder is connected to Frances or Kate. Frances feels guilty about something terrible and has fantasies about murdering stuck-up prep school parents --- but are these just fantasies? And Kate, with all of her charm, makes it clear that she doesn't want to talk about who or where she was before her family moved to Seattle. 

I don't know if it was the mystery surrounding the flashback chapters that drew me into this book, or how easy it was to identify with Frances and her insecurities. Her self-isolation, her humiliation of not having a "perfect" child, the self-blame for her son's actions, her insecurity about her body --- these are all pieces of a flawed person, but a real person. Kate is larger than life, the bright star in a dark sky, and the type of friend that seems too good to be true. 

The two of them together create an explosion that rocks the foundation of their families, their lives, and exposes secrets they both wish had never been discovered. Secrets that made Her Pretty Face impossible for me to put down.

The first thing that drew me in to this book was the cover. It was a pleasant surprise that a majority of the book was based in the area I live and work in. I always enjoy a story where I can picture the exact location - but the detailed writing here could make that happen even if I didn’t live here.

I thought I had the twist figured out early on, but I ended up a bit surprised in the end.

I enjoyed this quick read, and would love to read more from this author!

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A woman thinks she’s found the ticket to the social scene at her son’s private school when one of the “cool” moms befriends her. One of the two women is hiding an enormous secret, however, and the other will need to deal with the fallout from the secret when it comes to light. Author Robyn Harding brings back the familiar themes of longing for social inclusion and incredulous antics by young people in her new novel Her Pretty Face.

Frances Metcalfe knows she has a problem with her weight. She knows she’s not the most put-together person. She even knows that other moms at her son’s elite private school shun her for these facts. Frances feels their slight and can’t ignore it. The only defense she has comes in the form of Kate Randolph.

The picture of the perfect woman, Kate has a handsome husband and a spotless house. Frances knows Kate could be friends with anyone, and she also knows the other moms have been scratching their heads trying to figure out what Kate sees in her. The obvious draw, of course, is that their sons are in the same grade. But Kate is calm and collected, a designer pair of shoes, while Frances is dowdy and plump, a nondescript pair of sneakers. On the surface they have nothing in common, but Kate chose her and that’s good enough for Frances.

The friendship motivates Frances to start eating healthy, to exercise, to pick up around the house more. She tries to keep her husband and her son happy, despite the secret that hangs over her head every single day. She’s never told anyone her secret, but as she and Kate get closer Frances thinks maybe Kate would understand. Kate, however, has a secret too, and when Frances finds it out she struggles to maintain objectivity. In same ways, they’ve both committed terrible acts. Maybe their friendship makes sense because they’re more alike than Frances would like to admit.

Author Robyn Harding brings back familiar themes of social inclusion and exclusion in Her Pretty Face. The novel proceeds with various points of view: Frances, Kate’s daughter, Daisy, and a mysterious character named DJ whose identity doesn’t get revealed until the end. Frances is clearly the protagonist of this story, however, and Harding does an excellent job of showing her ambivalence when she discovers Kate’s secret.

The other points of view come across as red herrings to the greater mystery, and readers may find themselves needing to exercise their patience while Harding weaves all the random threads together. Also, in reality, the book doesn’t contain a great deal of forward movement. Frances spends most of the book grateful for Kate’s presence in her life and wringing her hands at her exclusion from the school’s upper social circles. Her secret, too, functions as a red herring designed to throw readers off the track of the identity of a murderer.

Kate’s extreme indifference to Daisy comes across as a little jarring, even with the tidy explanation offered at the end for it. Harding could have spent a little more time sharing the psychological mindset of the characters. Also, curiously, she chooses not to share Kate’s point of view, which is a pity. As the story unfolds, readers will realize that maybe Kate’s point of view would have been the most fascinating of all.

Anyone looking for an easy read that will surprise you in spots will enjoy Her Pretty Face. I recommend readers Borrow the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Here is my review:

Frances Metcalfe is a lonely woman. Her son, Marcus, suffers from several not-well identified illnesses, but some of them are just made worse by her constant hovering. She can't help herself. She has nothing else in her life. Overweight and slovenly, she has a loving and attentive husband, but she also has a dark secret from her past. She is afraid her son's problems are her punishment and her care for him her only way to atone. As a result of her son's acting out when provoked at his fancy private school, they are both shunned and Frances is even more lonely. Then, unexpectedly, Kate, another parent from Marcus' class, stands up for them both and befriends Frances!

But Kate is not really what she seems to be and when Frances finds out what HER dark secret is, everything falls apart.

Following the story of these women's friendship, intertwined with an unspeakable crime committed years ago, is an engrossing read. It keeps you guessing almost to the end. I was not a big fan of the mysterious man in Kate's daughter's life, but his identity did add a little mystery.

This book was a little confusing at first because it has threee different narrators discussing “before” and “then” stories. When the book started, we didn’t even know how one of the characters was connected. All we knew was that one of the two private school mom’s was hiding a secret. She was a murderer. The book keeps you guessing as it unravels both of the women’s dark pasts. I almost gave up on this book because I found the time hopping and narrator swithcing confusing. I’m glad I stuck with it because I truest enjoyed this book. It was a very different concept which made it an engaging read.

good domestic thriller, twists and turns weren't super innovative but there was enough here that I stayed into it.

3.75 stars
Plain/chubby Frances is befriended by beautiful/chic Kate, both mothers of "loner" sons in a private pricey school. Frances welcomes the friendship and the fact that the boys each now have a friend. Is Kate really her friend, though? How well does one really know another? There’s just something off about Kate. They each have their own story, a lot of it disturbing. Both Kate and Frances have secrets. The story of their friendship is intriguing and keeps you vested in the characters and what is real, and what may not be. There are some seriously tense moments and I thought the author executed them well, keeping me glued to the pages longer than I intended to be.

This character driven psychological plot is written from several points of view. It starts off with a little bit about each character’s point of view, but I didn’t see the connection to each other for the main plot until about halfway into the novel. Part of it takes place in the Pacific Northwest and the other part of the story in Arizona. Never having read this author before, I think she crafted the merging stories well, pulling me into it for the second half, even though I found the read depressing at times, it did satisfy my curiosity and brought this reader to a satisfactory conclusion.

The author has several other novels and a following. This will no doubt satisfy her many fans. I did enjoy the read and recommend it to fans of domestic fiction and psychological suspense. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. Release date July 10, 2018. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2440773917

I had really high expectations for this book but for me it fell a little flat.  I just kept waiting for a plot twist that would shock me but nothing was surprising. The book was an interesting look into the psychology of a killer but I was honestly bored reading it. The whole book is based on trying to figure out which woman has a dark past. This made the book very character driven and while that’s nice it left quite a lot to be desired. There wasn’t enough depth to keep it interesting. Overall not a bad book, but I wouldn’t pay for it.

I was convinced I knew Frances’s secret but was proven wrong. I was convinced I knew Kate’s character but was proven wrong. I was convinced I knew who David was but was proven wrong. I was convinced that Daisy was going to be next but was proven wrong. This was a masterfully woven tale.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free e-copy of Her Pretty Face by Netgalley and the publisher, Gallery/Scout Press. All opinions expressed below are my own.

Synopsis:
Her Pretty Face centers around struggling Frances Metcalfe, a stay-at-home mom with a difficult son. She thinks things will take a turn for the better when her son is accepted to an elite private school. Unfortunately, he does not fit in. In fact, he is quickly ostracized and so is Frances by all of the pretty and popular moms. That is, until she becomes BFF with the new mom, Kate Randolph. Kate is gorgeous, rich, and always knows what to say -- everything Frances wants to be. However, maybe Kate is too good to be true?!

Review:
I really enjoyed Her Pretty Face. This was the first novel I read by Robyn Harding and it did not disappoint. I'm even more excited to go back and try to read her publication from last year, The Party. During the introduction into Her Pretty Face, we quickly learn that both Frances and Kate have something dark from their past, but we aren't quite sure what happened to them. Robyn Harding does an excellent job of slowly revealing the character's pasts so that the reader slowly becomes aware of the full situation.

Her Pretty Face does an excellent job of mixing a drama with a bit of suspense. On one hand, you have the private school mommy drama. Frances is trying so hard to be the cool mom and you just want her to have a bit of success. On the other hand, we know there was a dark and sinister event in both Frances and Kate's past, so there is a constant bit of suspense that works its way into the story and slowly unfolds. I enjoyed reading this novel and felt the suspense made me want to continuously push forward to find out what happened/would happen.

Her Pretty Face easily earns 4 stars from me. I enjoyed it and think it would be great for readers who enjoy the writing of Liane Moriarty. Her Pretty Face is well written and a compulsive read. I highly recommend it!

Told from the viewpoint of three characters this suspenseful story was a page turner. I thought I had it figured out early but I was so wrong. A good book club read. I look forward to more from Robyn Harding.

Frances does not fit in with the other moms at the private school that her son Marcus attends. Frances is insecure even though she is married to a very handsome man. Then she meets Kate who is beautiful and has a son Casey who befriends Marcus and Frances and Kate become good friends. But each is carrying an awful secret from their past and slowly we learn the awful and disturbing truths.
This book should have been great, but I found the characters to be rather bland and the storyline just did not keep me enthralled.

Harding's novel presents a plot that is mysterious as it is riveting. Portraying the best of both the unreliable narrator, two characters which we deeply mistrust and a gut-twisting finale, Her Pretty Face is definitely one of this year's noteworthy thrillers and a must on your TBR.

Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding was sent to me for an honest review.
An excellently written psychological thrillers that entertwines the characters and the lies ,deciet, murder and dysfunctions of seemingly normal friends Frances and Kate. Frances is a plump not so attractive house wife of a drop dead gorgeous hunk. she has no selfesttem. Her son Marcus has adhd and a defiance disorder that occupies all her time.
Kate is a super gorgeous, tall , and model like with enough confidence for both of them. Her husband is a much older man that Kate worships. Kate also has a son Casey that soon befriends Marcus.Kate also has a teen daughter Daisy who is headed for trouble. The two women become close as they bond over thier dislike for the other Moms at the school. Opposites attarct?? Not sure
The two families become best of friends , like family doing everything they can together.
Both women have deep dark secrets they are hiding. One is not even who she claims to be.
As some of the truths are uncovered things begin to spiral. and so do some do some of the charaters.
Absolutey a must read for psychological thriller lovers. I couldn't put this one down.

Great for fans of Megan Abbott and Liane Moriarty. Would make for an interesting book club pick.
This made for a great summer read.

New friends, new school, new life, looks can be deceiving in the new novel by Robyn Harding. Her Pretty Face is a thriller that will pull you in, wrap you up like a snake and destroy the feeling of security that you have about the people in your life. This unputdownable tale is perfect for the summer, it's a must read!

Frances' son is her everything, he has some behavioral issues, so she always has to stay on top of what he's doing at home and at school, and when he eventually gets into trouble, Frances feels like the outsider at the prestigious school her son attends. That is until she meets Kate, another mom to a boy in the same grade as her son, she's cool, relaxed, and doesn't have that air of "I'm too good for you" like the other mom's do. Soon, the two become best friends.

As the story unfolds, the chapters flip back and forth between a few different perspectives. First, it's Frances, and then a man who is interested in getting to know Kate's teenaged daughter, Daisy,  except he's older and a little bit creepy. Lastly, there's the brother of a girl who was murdered in the early 90's. Why is he significant? One of the moms is the murderer, and she's free to live the life that his sister deserved. 

Each chapter brings out more lies, more ways that either woman has been deceitful in her past, but will this one secret destroy the friendship forever? I honestly get goosebumps just thinking about this book again, it was so delicious! This is the second Robyn Harding book that I've read, the first being The Party. Both of these books I thoroughly enjoyed, I cannot wait to read more from this author, she is full of surprises, and hopefully she has lots and lots of storytelling to do in the future! I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.