Ok, it began with so many promises and later became a disappointment to me, Alice's obsession over Ruth's disappearance after so many years bothered me. Yes, so she saw someone looking like Ruth, but that does require going into a lengthy investigation especially when at that point she didn't know about the Ruth-George connections. And while at the end she was justified having suspicions about George, her snooping and constant attempts to access his locked shelves was beyond ridiculous to me.

The chapters related to the past were okay. But it was just a couple of girls wanting to be cool by impressing some jerks in their class. 'Date Rape' is a reality and in their desire to be desired, these girls ended up trusting the wrong people. I wish the end had some sort of justice for those incidents. But, unfortunately, it became more of a discussion between the victims. I would have liked to the perpetrators being crucified in court, in public. I would have liked to see him trying to wriggle out but being stuck permanently.

I felt a lot of things were left open ended. How was Dan's ending so mediocre ? What happened to Christie, did Goerge stop after college? Was it Ruth who sent the nunny ? So many questions.. I felt that the end could have been better.

Enjoyed this thriller and I couldn't wait to find out what had happened to Ruth. The changing narrative between the past (through Kat) and the present (through Alice and Naomi) helped to set the context and slowly reveal Ruth's life pre-disappearance. I was gripped to the end and am looking forward to reading from the author.

New author for me with this one so wasn’t sure what to expect, even though it was slow in places I still thought the novel was a good one. I liked the characters and it had plenty of twists to keep you turning the page, not a bad book to be fair and I’d read more by the same author.

Intriguing but slightly slow.....I kind of wanted to stop but I wanted to find out what happened....a slow story which builds into a quick ending. Then I wanted to know more!

This was not the page-turner I was expecting it to be. I was hoping for a great domestic thriller after reading the synopsis but it fell a little short for me. It was an overall okay read but at times I felt like the story was getting repetitive and I was reading the same thing over and over again. I was kind of hoping the story would lean more towards a thriller, but unfortunately it did not. It is not a bad story in any way, I was just expecting more from it.

This is a dark and twisty novel that kept me guessing. I didn't predict the ending, and I felt invested in the characters. I do have one downside to this novel though, and that is simply that it was incredibly difficult to keep track of who was who for a good chunk of the book. I found myself flicking back to the beginnings of chapters, and previous chapters to help me keep track of whose perspective I was reading from and who they were in relation to the other characters. Once past the confusion though, I found myself falling into the story more.

This was an interesting, enjoyable book about some pretty unlikable characters. It did seem to drag on a bit at times, but it always managed to regain speed. It wasn't my absolute favorite in this genre, but I did like it, and I will recommend it.

This was a good read, but I did get a bit confused with the past and future and the different characters but stuck with it and really enjoyed the story. Was not expecting the end twist and I think this was a good debut novel. Looking forward to reading more by Nicola Rayner.
Thank you netgalley and Avon.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for ah honest review. I really wanted to like this book but it just didn’t keep my attention like I hoped it would. The story seemed to drag on and on. The ending wasn’t great and I also didn’t find any of the characters to be particularly likeable.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

I love a good thriller, a good on the edge-of-your-seat thriller; this was not that book. I did like the way it was told, both present with George and his current wife, Alice and the past with George's ex, Ruth, who went missing. It was told from several different points of view and the characters were okay, but I just felt like the story was un-original and just didn't keep my interest.

"If you liked My Lovely Wife, you’ll love this."

Can we stop with these comparisons? These books are nothing alike. Not at all.

Alice is married to George who is a politician turned television personality. Charming and confident he seems to always attract the attention of women. He was known as quite the ladies man during his university days but he doesn't really like to discuss his past with his wife which leads her to believe that he's keeping secrets. Now that Alice finds herself pregnant she begins to wonder if the man she married is the man she thinks he is. She has always wondered about a young woman, Ruth, that went missing in their university days together. Now she's obsessed with finding out if her husband had a role in Ruth's disappearance.

We have multiple points of view that go back and forth in time that slowly reveal what happened on that terrible night.

One thing I find that I'm growing tired of are woman that can't seem to survive without a man. Even while at university Alice secretly wondered about George and his, let's say, extra-curricular activities and yet she went on to marry him and have his child. Why, oh, why would you do this?

Another character, Kat, who was Ruth's best friend back in the day is still hung up on her lost love from then. Like, really? Fifteen years later and you still haven't gotten over him?

This book is so hard for me to rate. On the one hand I did find the mystery of Ruth's disappearance strangely compelling and I wanted to know the who and the why. Yet at the same time the slow pace made this one easy to put down even though I wanted answers.

It's certainly a relevant topic with the #METOO movement in full stride and the writing was well done. Not bad for a debut novel. 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to like The Girl Before You. It’s billed as a psychological drama which is one of my favourite genres, but for me it was disappointing. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters and felt the whole book just lacked pace.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and the author for the chance to review.

Slow burner

This didn’t get going for quite some time and the alternating narrative was confusing at times, especially at the beginning.

When it does pick up it offers some decent twists. The writing and characters were good. There was a lot going on in this story. Some of which didn’t seem necessary or really add to the plot.

The ending? I’m a bit torn about that one. Decent, but a bit open ended which isn’t my favorite. It was interesting and I was curious how it would play out, overall entertaining.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Avon Books UK for a copy in exchange for a review.

I liked the structure of the novel with the story told through three key characters, each with a different POV. However, I struggled with the passages about St Anthony’s to distinguish between Alice, Naomi and Christie. I found they were clearly drawn in the present day passages but at university they seemed to merge together for me until well into the second half of the book.
The ending was a bit of a rushed disappointment. I thought that something a little less obvious could have been chosen to end the book.

I've been meaning to write the review for «The Girl Before You» by Nicola Raynor for a very long time. I read it back at the beginning of May, and have been trying to come up with some words to describe this book ever since.

The Observer compared this book to «The Girl On The Train» by Paula Hawkins but in my opinion, it didn’t live up to this comparison. It's definitely not The Girl On The Train and it's definitely not a book I will reread at any point.

The reason why it took me so long to finish this review was that I didn't have anything to say about this book, which is sad because I always try to find something to talk about in every single book I read.

The structure of the book takes us from the present time, where Alice is happily married to George and expecting their first child, back to college where George was enjoying the attention of every girl in college, slowly unraveling the story of Ruth’s disappearance.

It all begins with Alice seeing a woman on the train who looks very similar to red-haired Ruth, the girl she used to be friends with in college and who disappeared under very mysterious circumstances.

I really like the “now and then” writing style as well as the combination of present and past. This technique makes me very excited to find the truth, to find out who did what and how it actually all happened. I was so excited to see the twists, but I wasn’t satisfied when they actually happened.

My first complaint is that this story is very forgettable. It's been 3 months since I’ve read the book, and I don't even remember the twists anymore! When these are usually those elements that are very hard to forget- «The Girl on the Train», «Gone Girl» - I’ve read these books over 3 years ago and will forever remember how dumbstruck I was by some of the revelations of these stories!

Another miss for me was the poor characterization. I know that most of mysteries / thrillers are primarily plot-driven, but I still need at least one character to care about. In «The Girl Before You» I didn’t connect to any of them, I didn’t really what would happen to any of them. There was no risk element to keep me on the edge of my seat.

The characters were very stereotypical and bland - some popular guys, some popular girls and someone who inspired to be someone else.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad read, that’s why I gave it 3 stars. It just wasn’t anything special, it didn’t stand out from the bunch of other mysteries and thrillers, and I easily forgot it as soon as I finished the last chapter.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading.
Alice is married to George whom she has known since they met at University. When she becomes pregnant she starts thinking about George and his friend Dan and what they used to get up to in their younger years whilst at University. In particular what happened to Ruth the girl they knew before, he went out with Alice.
Alice meets up with Ruth’s sister and together they try to find out what happened. They uncover more than they had expected.
Highly recommended.

An intriguing start. Naomi watches her sister Ruth getting ready to go, out not knowing this may be the last time she will see her again.

The book is told from numerous people’s prospectives with different timelines. This can be either very confusing or very clever, but with this story it works perfectly.

Alice is married to George a television presenter who was formerly a politician, she has always known he was a ladies man and has often wondered about his previous relationships. They met at university where George was a
disliked by other students for his sense of entitlement and confident air.

Whilst on a train Alice thinks she sees Ruth, but Ruth went missing years before when they were at university and was presumed dead. Alice knows her husband knew Ruth but when asked he at first denies knowing her, then admits he did. Alice goes digging to find out more and as the story goes back in time secrets are revealed.

The time goes back to when Alice, George, Ruth and Kat were at university and leads up to the night that Ruth goes missing after attending a ball.

I couldn’t put this book down. I love books about friendships and secrets and this kept me guessing until the end.

3.5 stars
I wanted to like this book much but unfortunately, i just couldn't.
Something was missing in my opinion, not sure what but i just felt like the story wasn't the fast-paced thriller that i was expected and the story overall felt a bit odd to say at least.
I liked the idea of multiple pov because we can always find more and i think it adds to the characters to see what they think and how they see the events. Unfortunately, I couldn't relate to any character. It felt a bit forced everything. I understand that sometimes a pregnant woman can get obsessed with something and some may blame it on the hormones but the mysterious disappearance of her husband's ex and what we get to find about their past it felt a bit unnecessary. Maybe i just got the wrong idea of what i wanted from the book and what i got, but that it's all upon me.

While the pace was a bit slower than I expected, this was an entertaining mystery. I enjoyed the characters that we get to know as college students, as well as adults dealing with their pasts later in life.

This story is about Alice who is married to a famous politician called George. One day whilst coming home on a train she sees a red haired girl who she is convinced is a girl her and George knew from University, a girl who was presumed drowned although no body has been found. Alice becomes more and more convinced that her husband had something to do with her disappearance.

I was enjoying this book at first. In my opinion it had a really strong start. The story is told from several women’s POV in both the present day and the past. I quite honestly got to the stage were I got bored with the story. The same things seem to be repeated. I predicted the ending quite early on.