Oh dear! I'm really sorry, but, this book is definitely NOT for me. I really dislike giving poor reviews, but, feel strongly that this book warrants my 1*.

The blurb was intriguing 'she was my best friend, so, why did I kiss her?' however, it doesn't read well at all. There is no real tension or suspense in the story and I found the writing style to be immature and difficult to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Aria forthe opportunity to preview this book in exchange for my honest review.

1*

Wow, I usually reserve that word for books that blow me away, however, this time it's the exact opposite. I'm sorry, but this is possibly the worst book I have ever read (and I get through a tonne of them). This is crime writer and finalist in the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition and The Daily Mail ‘Write a Best Seller’ Competition Susan Gee's debut novel, and although I had high hopes for it, it turned out to have more issues than a magazine! The only redeeming feature was the stunning cover art which tells you everything you need to know about the all important story.

For starters, the synopsis that drew me and a lot of others in is not accurate and could be labelled as misleading. How this book managed to get past the editors beats me! You would think someone would have noticed some of the errors, so the author has really missed a trick with extremely poor execution of her original idea. Now I hate criticising an author as much as the next reviewer as I know how much hard work goes into writing a book, but this was utterly shocking. There was a distict lack of depth to both the characters and the storyline, and the more it progressed the more absurd and ridiculous the situations became. This was a hard slog and I didn't enjoy it at all i'm afraid. Monotonous, dull, badly written and lacking in any sort of excitement that is required of books in this genre.

Many thanks to Aria for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Hayley Reynolds is a very twisted young woman and a psychopath.
Hayley killed her friend Kirsten.
Okay so now we know who the killer is and how she did it. You learn all this in the first chapter.
The rest of the book really just deals how the police are going to catch her and of course will she kill again.
I thought that I was in for a really good read, unfortunately I was wrong. As I got deeper into the story it seemed to have lost its way.
It was an okay read.
I would like to thank the author Susan Gee, Aria and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

A teenage psychopath... something different. This book was dark and twisted with so many nasty characters. At times I felt the story dragged on a bit too much but overall it was a great read.

17 year old Hayley Reynolds doesn't have a lot of love in her life. Her father left, her mother has a new boyfriend and doesn't have a lot of time for her. Her best friend Kirsten Green pushes her away and something snaps. Kirsten ends up in the river, dead and hidden. Police find her body and begin the investigation into her death. Hayley is manipulative and evil.

Thanks to Aria and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Not what u expected not as good as I hoped it would be. Read similar in the last. Good read but my blockbuster

This is a story about one very twisted, young woman, Hayley Reynolds. As mentioned in the blurb, she killed her friend, Kristen. That is where this story begins. It is narrated in such a way that the readers know about the crime and perpetrator so it was more about finding out whether the police will catch her and if she would commit more crimes.

Hayleys’ narrations were dark but interesting. I felt sorry for her a couple of times but was also scared of her. She is as twisted as villains come. On the other hand, DI Beverly Samuels is a likeable character. I enjoyed reading about her and I like the fact that she was committed to finding answers even when she everyone else seemed to have given up.

This story starts out with a bang. The murder scene set the tone for the mystery. However, the pace really slowed down after the first chapters. At some point, I felt it became repetitive and I started skipping paragraphs. Like the first chapters, the final ones were also exhilarating. They were fast, suspenseful and immersive.

Apart from the slow pace in the middle, I also struggled with some aspects of the story-line. Now, I do understand that things happen differently in different countries but there are some scenes that sounded a bit off to me. Bullying in college? Teasing someone because of a period stain, in college? Principal calling parents when students miss a class, in college? That was a bit confusing to me and at times, I felt like the characters were a bit younger than portrayed, like maybe in high school. It’s not a major issue though because as I said, it could be something that happens elsewhere or maybe used to happen in the 80s, which is the time period in which the story is set, so I can’t define it as implausible.

This was a creepy, disturbing read. The ending was chilling, thought-provoking and unpredictable. In the end, this book didn’t exactly meet my expectations but it was still a good read.

Thank you to Aria and Susan Gee for the opportunity to read and review this book. The book was intriguing but somewhat disturbing as you try and make out why a young teenager would take the lives of her friends. A hard to read book a times, that didn't always hold my attention. Another book that highlights how a fractured childhood can have severe ramifications

First off I absolutely adore the cover art. It’s just beautiful. Unfortunately, that is my favourite part of the book.

Kiss her Goodbye is written from the POV of Hayley and DI Beverley. Hayley decides that if she can’t have Kirsten then no one can so she murders her and leaves her body in the river. The blurb claims that Kirsten and Hayley were best friends but they barely knew each other so that was a bit of a plot hole.

This book is a boring repetitive read with unlovable characters. We’re supposed to feel for DI Beverley and her messed up past but I found her a tad annoying. It’s such a slow read. I also struggled to picture the girls as college kids because they were so immature. All in all, not a book I would recommend. It’s definitely not the dark psychological thriller it promises to be which is a shame

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Where to even start with this one...

This was just bad, like unbearably bad; however, the cover art is on point!

It is hard to provide a review without spoilers, but I'm going to try. So, with the claim "The most addictive thriller you'll read this year" I was expecting a lot, and it wasn't delivered.  I was not addicted.  I was not thrilled.  In actuality I fell asleep several times while attempting to read this, and I'm sure if it wasn't for the fact my child was at her father's house all weekend I would still be stuck in this one.

Kiss Her Goodbye alternates between the POVs of Hayley and DI Beverley Samuels.  Hayley is pretty much a loner in her college, and has a troubled home life.  DI Samuels is also dealing with some issues regarding her personal life which leads her decisions at work.  Kristen, Hayleys "friend," is bullied at college for having her period - yep I said bullied in college for having her period - which is what leads to her murder.

The murder and subsequent storyline is so implausible and poorly developed I thought my eyes were going to stay permanently rolled up into my skull.  For example, the college principal calls Hayley's mom when she is absent for class, but also shares cigarettes with Hayley outside of the college on a different occasion.  If this isn't a weird school admin/student relationship, no one blinks an eye at the fact the "English teacher" is giving female students rides home.  Now I am chalking this up to the events of the book taking place in the 80's but none of it added anything to the book besides additional eye rolls.  The second murder, arrest and verdict was laid out poorly.  The most suspense I experienced was waiting for Hayley to be caught, which didn't exactly happen. 

I will say Gee did a fantastic job at depicting sociopathic behavior in Hayley.  The book itself was just drawn out and irritating for my taste.

Kiss Her Goodbye by Susan Gee is a psychological thriller that encompasses two young women. One is Hayley Reynolds, a teenager who feels like an outcast at home as well as at school and Kirsten Greene who is Hayley’s best friend. That is until Kirsten goes missing. Step back a second to Hayley’s mother. She has a new man in her life. One who is kind and seems to be understanding. Little does he know he will play a big part in a murder trial. Hayley believes that her new friend Kirsten is her best friend. That Kirsten wants to die and stay young forever. When Hayley commits the murderous act and kills Kirsten she feels that her ghost is trying to get her attention. Hayley has what she needs to convince people that she had nothing to do with Kirsten’s murder. Or does she? This is not a cut and dry novel and at times can be a hard read but it does get better. I am not sure if this is the first book by Gee but I will say that it was worth the read all the way through. Once I was able to get through the start it picked up the pace and the ending was pretty much anticipated.

3 1/2 stars ⭐️ Out of 5 but will round up to 4

This book sounded great and chilling but unfortunately I just could not finish it so I DNF it at 50%.
It had premise just not executed well.

This was another one of those twisty kind of books which go deep into the mysteries of he human mind, which we cannot fathom anyway.

Hayley Reynokds is a disturbed teenager., but to the world she appears just slightly not right. Not a mass murderer or vicious in anyway. Hayley is not welcome amongst her peers and her mother is uncomfortable with her in her own home. You know right from the start that Hayley is cooking up something serious, something morbid.

Kirsten Green is a friend of Hayley's. Hayley considers her, her best friend. Then she goes missing. Hayley's mother has found happiness with a new lover who seems kind and considerate. Hayley does not like this. Something has to be done. A second girl goes missing and the det chives feel that they closing in on their suspect.

The two stories of the new man in her mother's life becomes entwined in the story of Hayley and how she maneuvers everyone, including the detectives on the case to believe a scenario which is manipulated and of her choosing and planning and so clever that no one including a jury has any hesitation in putting an innocent man away for life.

It blows Detective Samuels world(she is still recovering from a previous case wrongly handled) and I doubt she will ever believe in her skills again.

Very good edge of the seat writing.

This was an OK read for me. You know the killer straight away so there's no big reveal, and not strictly for me a psychological thriller, but it still kept me reading. An overall good debut.

Two girls have been drowned. Nobody know who or why.
Hayley collects things. She collects people. People she likes and people she hates. She does it for their own good.
From the first line of this book you are intrigued. Who would suspect a young girl like Hayley to do the crimes she's committed. I have a love/hate feeling for this book. In my opinion that's what makes it a sensational story. Definite must read!!

Wow what a book! I found this to be an incredibly gripping read from start to finish. Despite having lost access to my Kindle for a few weeks, I managed to pick up the book, find exactly where I left off and finished it off as if I never stopped.
I really felt empathy for Hayley, being misunderstood and really just looking for acceptance from her friends and family, which she never seemed to get. You can truly sympathise with her poor home life, I won't give too much away, but once Mike came into the picture after her Father, well that was unexpected.
The ending of the book too, I didn't expect the truth to come out, in that way at least anyway. Leaves the book open to a sequel, that's all I will say...
The story was unexpectedly set around my home town, which came to a complete surprise to me, which made me dive into the book even further. Recognising names of places, getting mental images of the book helped to set the scene perfectly.
The structure of the book was great too, I really like the way Susan has switched the perspective of the story between each character, it gave the story more impact I found, as a reader we knew more of the mystery than half of the characters, and I really found that refreshing.

Overall, i liked this book. It took me awhile to get through it but once i finished i liked it. I would probably recommend it to friends.

Firstly I would like to apologise because I hate to give bad feedback but to me this book was a mental battle to finish, I kept putting it down and thinking nope can’t finish it but to be fair to the author I would pick it back up again and I painstakingly got to the end, ok so there was a twist at the end that I didn’t foresee but didn’t get the OH WOW moment. I just wasn’t feeling this book and I love psychological thrillers.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Aria for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I thank Aria for this fantastic book recommendation. It's been a rollercoaster reading through this one, with so much thrills throughout the pages of the book!

Thank you net galley!!!

This is one of those page turning reads that makes you think. A suspense where you already know the killer...but read and read to see how far it will go, and how far the killer will go.

I honestly enjoyed this read!!!

Definitely will recommend

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher, and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.