Member Reviews
I really enjoyed this book. For someone who doesn’t read many thrillers and is new to the genre, I found it very entertaining and thrilling. I really like The Who done it troupe and thought the twist was well done. All in all this was a fun fast pace read!
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Sunglasses raccoon living her best life under my money tree is ready for summer. She got a taste of it with the advanced copy of this #thriller coming in June - THE GIRLS WEEKEND. What happens when a weekend away with your college frenemies ends with someone disappearing? I thought this had good plot but struggled to connect with the characters. If you are plot focused reader this will probably work well for you. I received an advanced copy from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
GoodReads:
The technical plot pieces of a good thriller were all there, but I just didn't care about any of the characters that much, making it hard for me to be intrigued on their behalf. They didn't seem to have much of a bond, and I just didn't feel like I knew any of them that well or got to know most of them better over the course of the book. The ending was twisty but it left me feeling meh.
As an aside, I'm not sure why the character who is half Japanese and half Italian wore cornrows and taught her white friend how to braid them?
*I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*
When June’s best friend convinces her to come on a girls weekend with their group of college friends that they haven’t seen in some time, she is hesitant because the getaway is being held at her old nemesis Sadie’s house. Sadie with the perfect life, the career that June wanted, and the husband who used to be June’s boyfriend..
Their first night there quickly becomes a party with shots, secrets, and blood flying everywhere.
In the morning when they realize their host of all people has gone missing, no one remembers anything from the previous nights festivities, and it we find out quickly that everyone had something against her; including her own husband, daughter and live-in landscaper.
This was a fast, fun, easy mystery to read with tons of possibilities! I liked the setting and the characters, but I was up and down with it at times. Overall, I would say a solid read!
Thank you to NetGalley, Jody Gehrman and Crooked Lane books for this ARC!
I was REALLY intrigued by the premise of this one and it started off on a good note, but I quickly became bored honestly. I also didn’t love the MC. As much as I love flawed characters, June just didn’t make sense to me.
I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t end up DNFing this, but I guess it turned out to be a solid enough mystery. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Very good, tightly woven thriller. Unlike a recent "girls getaway" novel that I had to abandon, this one held me in its grip. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their backstories. Nothing was too far-fetched and I was almost immediately drawn in to the drama. Comparing it to an Agatha Christie mystery is a bit of a stretch but I think this one will resonate with many mystery/thriller fans. Hadn't heard of Jody Gehrman before but will certainly trust her with more of my book picks. Nice, easy style of writing. Thank you Netgalley/Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy of this one. Much appreciated!
This one really kept me reading once it got going. Everyone can relate to feeling some sense of jealousy over someone that seems to have EVERYTHING, and that is the premise of this story through the lens of June and her jealousy of college friend, Sadie.
The murder mystery aspect of Girls’ Weekend keeps you guessing until almost the very end and the complex relationships between this group of friends is an intricate story in and of itself.
The Girls Weekend was a fast paced thriller about a group of friends that haven't seen each other since college. There were many twists and turns throughout the novel. This will definitely be a good book to enjoy while on vacation. Thank you NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this before it is published!
I truly enjoyed this book. It’s not my typical read but I would recommend it to others. I enjoyed the story and the writing.
I really enjoyed this book. Thrillers/suspense are my favorite. Loved all of the different characters and their backgrounds. I was hooked from the beginning and had to know where it was going and who did it. I felt that once we got to the end, it was wrapped up a little too quickly but I still enjoyed how it all played out.
Very much enjoyed this story. I like the backstories of the friends. Good blend between character development and thrilling plot.
The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman was a thriller - I note that to begin as I'm not reading thrillers as much as usual, so it's just worth noting for that reason. This one is about a group of college friends who decide to finally reunite after not having been together for years for a baby shower/girls' weekend. As you can imagine given the genre, there's some ish between them. One of the primary underlying grudges is between June, a community college professor, and Sadie, a famous author who is hosting the weekend. June was once romantically involved with June's husband prior to him dating Sadie. So, the group gets back together, and secrets start to resurface. Within the group of five, there are secrets between pairs, and they start to become revealed to others in the group, and that makes people feel a certain kind of way. Then, Sadie turns up missing, and all the fingers start getting pointed. Things are especially complicated because none of the women remember the night Sadie vanished. This is a thriller that kept me turning the pages as I there was all the drama and deception, and I wanted to know who was responsible. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this June 2020 planned release.
This book was a difficult one for me to finish. The premise sounded so intriguing to me, but there were so many tropes that I found myself rolling my eyes a lot. Honestly, if it hadn't been an ARC, I probably would have abandoned it at about 15%.
I found all of the characters annoying and I didn't really care what happened to them. The cast of characters felt like the author was just ticking boxes. Unlucky in love middle-aged woman? Check. Minority? Check. Debonaire heartbreaker? Check. Rough-around-the-edges loner? Check. Troubled Teen? Check. Despite an apparent attempt to have strong female characters, they were all so whiny and immature. That made it difficult not to feel annoyed with them through most of the book. The "let's all get together and get wasted all weekend" setting was lame. Then, whenever they didn't know what to do about an awful situation, their solution was to drink themselves to oblivion again.
The plot left a lot to be desired as well. I knew whodunnit (albeit not how) as soon as that character was introduced. There was nothing gripping that kept me wanting to read, no real twists or turns that weren't glaringly obvious. I did push through because I wanted to find out how it all wrapped up. At times, the writing felt so overdone like there was just a word count to fill. The premise was definitely intriguing, I just wished it had been a short story instead of 300+ pages.
I love books like this. The closed room thrillers. Even though I was pretty sure of the who and why close to the beginning of the book, I still enjoyed reading it. I do wish there were a little something else...maybe more characters or something out to help with the surprise at the end. But overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
The Girls Weekend was a little slow at the beginning, kept getting more and more interesting until the end. A murder mystery in the classic tradition that seems to be coming back in fashion, we have the closed environment and cast of suspects that just tells you that one of then did it. But was there even a murder? June Moody is close to forty and has nothing to show for it. Out of her group of college friends, Sadie was the clear winner. She's rich, has a hunky hubby and a beautiful daughter. She also has a sprawling estate in Washington State and a lot of people would like to see her disappear. June is jealous and only agrees to visit because her latest relationship has just imploded. When Sadie disappears after a night she can't remember, June even questions her own involvement. She tries to figure out whodunit just so that she can prove to herself that it wasn't her. The characters are compelling and distinctive enough and I truly had no idea what had happened. I must say that I didn't completely buy the big reveal, but it was still mostly an engrossing read.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Crooked Lane Books!
As a person who spends WAY TOO much time reading Mystery/Thrillers, I was quite looking forward to reading this upon receiving the ARC.
The Girls Weekend started very slow for me but once the story got going, I found myself absolutely gripped! I can just picture this book as a TV series or a movie. It has that touch of drama and mystery that keeps you hooked.
I'm usually pretty good at guessing the end of mysteries, but I was stumped till the end in this one. There are just so many motives and means, combined with a complete lack of alibis that really keeps you turning the pages!
It was an enjoyable book. The suspence wasnt as great as I had hoped, but still a nice read.
The concept isn't very new. Something terrible happens and one of the people around did it, but who? It had a nice twist at the end, but not enough to give it 4 stars
The Girls Weekend was basically the locked room version of The Hangover. It was a combination of a wild drunken night that no one can remember and a girl’s getaway at their friend’s mansion. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced review copy.
I loved the concept of this book. It was a new twist on a classic whodunit plot. A group of five friends get together for a girls weekend after not being in touch for many years. They all have reasons to resent the host, who is rich and controlling. After a drunken night where no one can remember what happened, the host is missing and there are bloodstains on the stairs. The girls each have their own motives and back stories which keeps you guessing what really went on that night.
I liked the way the author kept the reader guessing throughout the book. There were many unique characters who each had their own personal stories. I was able to connect with this book right away and read through it quickly. I found it very interesting and the main character was easy to connect with. I felt that the middle did lag and it lost some of my attention, and the ending wasn’t the huge shock I hoped it would be. Regardless, I liked this book a lot and give it 4-stars.
I give this 3.5/5 stars. The Girls Weekend is a fast-paced thriller with an entertaining storyline focused on five women with complicated friendships who are coming together after years spent apart. The friend hosting the weekend is a wildly successful children's author and perhaps the richest of the friend group, a woman named Sadie whose marriage is perhaps not quite what it appears (and with a man who was once linked to one of the other friends in the group). The story unfolds by detailing scandalous interpersonal conflicts and highlighting some of the toxic traits of each women as well as the negative aspects of the friendships they share. The author does a great job of outlining the different possible motives for each person who is a suspect, and keeps the reader guessing. I found the story to be not wildly unrealistic as many thrillers tend to be, and it had a satisfying ending. I enjoyed this book and would read another by this author again!
This is the type of book you want to read when you don't find out whodunnit until the very end! I absolutely loved this book and stayed up until the wee hours to find out who the killer was. A group of friends get together for a weekend. Some of the women haven't seen each other in many years. Not all of the women get along as well as they used to when they were younger. After one drunken night, they discover that one of the women is missing, there is blood on the wall. All of the secrets and clues are slowly coming to the surface and you don't know who the killer is until the end. Everyone is a suspect! I would highly recommend this book!
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Solid story with great twists. Really liked the dynamic of the girls. Kept me engaged and entertained. Thank you publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange of an honest review