I ended up DNFing this book about 25% of the way in. I feel bad because I've ever DNF'd a netgalley before but I was so bored. I didn't want to pick it up, and when I did, I never felt invested in the characters or the story. 2 stars.

The Girl Before You is an intriguing mystery-thriller utilising a combined multi-narrator and dual-timeline structure. For an author to use either of these mechanisms is a challenging enterprise, but both together is a tricky venture indeed. For the most part, I felt that Nicola Rayner achieved the objective, maintaining the narrative flow and the pace of the story despite the different perspectives and frequent flashback scenes.

The story opens with a prologue in which two sisters are preparing together for a ball celebrating the end of the academic year. Heavy with foreshadowing, Naomi relates the last time she saw her elder sister, Ruth, headed off to the ball wearing an emerald dress and red "Dorothy" shoes. They're in the university town of St. Anthony's - a fictional location that the author explains is an amalgamation based on St. Andrews, Durham and Alnmouth.

The narrative then jumps forward to 2016, fifteen years since the night of the ball. Successful family lawyer Alice Bell is on a train from Edinburgh, returning home to London after a conference, when a glance at a fellow passenger prompts a startling sense of déjà vu. Alice is unable to catch her, but feels sure that she's a woman Alice knew at university, a woman who disappeared, presumed drowned. That woman's name was Ruth Walker.

The remainder of the story unfolds from three alternating perspectives; that of Alice, whose rather odious politician-turned-television presenter husband, George, was once romantically involved with Ruth; Naomi, Ruth's younger sister, who remains haunted by Ruth's unexplained disappearance; and Kat, who was at one time Ruth's closest friend at St. Anthony's. Ruth could conceivably be regarded as "the girl before" each of them - she dated George before Alice met him, she preceded Naomi both in birth order and to St. Anthony's, and she created resentment in her friendship with Kat by choosing to start a relationship with Richard, the fellow student that Kat was - and remains - fixated upon.

While both Alice and Naomi's stories are set in the novel's present, albeit with frequent reminiscence of the events leading up to Ruth's disappearance, for the bulk of the book Kat's story is told as it unfolds between 1999 and 2001. We catch up with a more mature Kat towards the story's conclusion. Initially, Alice and Naomi reflect upon Ruth's fate separately from each other, but they are drawn together by circumstances arising as the story unfolds. Both are at a similar stage in their first pregnancy, which, for different reasons, has made the search for the truth regarding what happened to Ruth particularly important for both of them.

I felt that Nicola Rayner accurately captured the sense of tangible potential, personal angst and social consciousness that characterises the university (college) years for many of us. Paradoxically, we're at our physical peak whilst also battling self-consciousness, we're excited to test the boundaries but need to be wary of those whose motives are anything but honourable, our futures are literally in our hands, yet many of the choices we have to make are daunting.

Nicola Rayner explores themes including female friendship and solidarity, sexuality and power dynamics, romantic obsession and the agony of unrequited love, misogyny and date-rape culture, impending parenthood, and trust within marital relationships. While I felt that the plot was intriguing and well-constructed, I occasionally felt that the pace slackened during the middle of the book, and that the somewhat jarring conclusion left me with many unanswered questions.

The Girl Before You is an impressive debut for Nicola Rayner, and a good read. I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy academic settings and split-timeframe narratives.

My thanks to the author, Nicola Rayner, publisher HarperCollins Australia / Avon Books, and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title. I can only apologise that it's taken me so long to get to it.

Reading a book with multiple pov’s, is probably one of my favorite ways an author writes their book. Which is one of then reasons why I really liked this book. On a search to find her sister, Ruth, Naomi uncovers some secrets of her best friend past. Alice, her bff, find out how her husband is connected to the disappearance of Ruth. I won’t write any spoilers but it tied nicely together and is one of my well liked books that I recommend to others.

This was a slow and steady read, but worth the time and effort. It was an entertaining read, and recommended for anyone who likes something easy to clean the palate.

A successful lawyer, Alice Reynolds is happily married to George, her college boyfriend, who was formerly in politics and is now a TV presenter.

Naomi Walker’s life was affected by the tragedy of losing her sister, Ruth Walker, in a case of accidental drowning. Her body was never recovered, and the family has yet to receive closure. Now Naomi is expecting a baby with her partner, Carla.

On a train journey, Alice sees a girl who reminds her of Ruth, a girl who died while she was in college. A girl who had been George's girlfriend before her. And then she remembers that things had been uneasy between Ruth and George, but she had no idea why. When Alice, who defends victims of domestic violence in divorce suits, becomes pregnant, she feels compelled to learn more about what happened to Ruth.

Meanwhile, there is someone who is pushing for the truth to come out. Someone who sends Naomi Ruth’s stuffed doll. George is receiving postcards marked St Anthony with the words, St Anthony, St Anthony, give what I’ve lost back to me.

Alice wonders if her husband is as innocent of the crime as he claims or if he had something to do with it.



I liked the style of writing. It is very reminiscential, and it is through this that we become aware that Ruth began a sexual relationship with George, despite being warned about his bad reputation.



The book is written from the perspectives of three women who had a connection with Ruth. These women include Ruth’s younger sister, Naomi (1st person present tense POV), Alice, who had an affair with George, Ruth’s former boyfriend, and married him, and Kat, Ruth’s closest friend in college. Alice’s and Kat’s accounts are in the 3rd person; Alice’s account is a mix between then and now, while Kat’s account goes on from Oct 1999 to June 2001. The three viewpoints coalesce to tell us the truth about what happened to Ruth.

George is a very distasteful person, judging from the information we piece together about him.

Bit by bit, the truth was revealed, and we come to know the characters better. But there are just too many characters and too much random stuff that keeps happening, influencing and affecting the characters. It would have been better if a major chunk of the irrelevant stuff were cut down.

The pace was very slow, but luckily I was patient. The writing was lovely, very nuanced in places and that made me want to read on.

Life works like water, in currents, with things tugged away from us and other things returned.

A fear that felt like a trapdoor giving way beneath my feet.

There is a moment… when something stops being a source of pleasure and becomes a source of pain. It is so precise, so exact, it could be plotted on a graph.

Living. It all comes down to a series of choices and at the time you don’t even know ou are making them, or that they will stay with you forever, that you can never go back to the time before you made them.

The thing about hope… you have to manage it. Otherwise it takes over, like water. It might keep you afloat for a while, but eventually it’ll rush away like the tide, leaving you stranded.



The theme plays out through love and obsession and unhappy and broken hearts. Sex plays a big part. All the women, Ruth, Alice and Kat are sexually active, even willing. And yet all three of them are taken advantage of, and have their hearts broken. They suffer rejection, hurt and pain.

The subject is distressing. It all seems unconnected at first, but then the links become evident. I felt a sense of relief as things began to fall into place.

The overwhelming impression is of students wasting the most precious years of their lives in rampant drinking, substance abuse and sexual activity. How men have no trouble sleeping around, while their reputations glow brighter, but a woman is immediately painted a slut.

Slow burn, not linear time. This story is about women who want to have a good time and men that mistreat them. Entertaining but nothing new it Jeep me interested enough to continue reading and the ending I can't Say that I was totally satisfy with it. Overall easy read and interesting

This was a DNF for me. I was not as interested in reading as I would have liked to be. I did try a couple of times to get through it but I was not successful.

I found all the different perspectives very confusing. It was really not needed. Would not recommend this author.

Typical mystery thriller. This book felt very similar to other mystery thriller books I've read. Very meh.

Thanks #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. This book drew me in from the beginning and even though I was at first a bit confused by the multiple people's perspectives, that is more on me than a reflection of the book itself, I couldn't put it down once I had all of the characters sorted out in my head. It's filled with twists and peoples secrets all deliciously woven together. #nicolarayner #thegirlbeforyou #netgalley #tea_sipping_bookworm #goodreads #amazon #kindle #bookqueen #greatreads #bookstagram #thriller #litsy #plottwists

She was his, she was perfect then she was gone. I did enjoy the story although it was a bit of a slow starter. Some of the characters I truely loved and some I was like what the.

Alice has always been haunted by the women from her husbands past. As a politician and now a TV personality, George Bells reputation as a ladies man precedes him. But when Alice falls pregnant, her unease becomes an obsession.

This book was not really for me...it was slow and never caught for me. I could not finish this one. I gave up around 50%.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book for my honest opinion.

I loved the college life description in this one. I enjoyed the premise of the women’s determination to seek the truth. I enjoyed that the plot went into the past then back to the present. I just wish it had an ending answer.

I found this book a little slow and the plot highly predictable, the ending was also unsurprising. I did like the potential of this book, but to me, it lacked gumption.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review. Enjoyed this book. Love the writing angle whereby the story was told from different perspectives. Will definitely watch out for this author.

This book is told from multiple perspectives and from multiple timelines. If you can keep these aspects straight in your head you are in for a solid story about friendships and secrets. Thankyou to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

I wasn't as into this book as I was expecting. I wasn't as into the characters as I was expecting. The storyline just didn't capture me. If you are into thrillers definitely check it out, it may engage you.

The Girl Before You moves back and forth through time and perspective. Between 1999-2001 and the present and between the stories of Naomi, Kat, and Alice. All of them have a connection to Ruth and all want to know what happened to her.

The story was good. It was one of those tales that hint more and more at a single thing until finally revealing it. The story of what happened to Ruth, and for that matter Kat, Naomi, and Alice are fairly familiar to women, especially in college. Nothing ground breaking. Just an interesting little story.

While I wanted to love this book, I just couldn't find myself getting drawn in. The plot was interesting, but the characters were not, to the point that they were often frustrating in ways they acted against their own best interest or happiness. I loved the set up-switching between perspectives and timelines-but the pace of the book was so slow that it was hard to finish. Good for a debut novel, but not one I would recommend personally when there are so many better paced novels with characters you'll actually care about or at least like.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins for an ARC of this book.

I wanted to like this book and gave it my best, but l just couldn’t get into the story. It was a slow-pace and unfortunately just couldn’t get “hooked” on it.