We've all had those moments when trying to decide whether to attend a gathering, of old friends, relatives, even a church gathering. We are anxious and nervous but excited at the same time, wondering what could be the worst thing that could happen? Probably the worst thing would be a murder where you are the main suspect but have absolutely no memory of the night before. Welcome to The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman. A really good mystery with a solid backstory and characters that would set your teeth on edge if you knew them. The story takes place on an island where the access is limited, so the murderer has to be one of the group. That is the only real clue you get, the rest are part of the overall story so you must pay close attention. Good solid mystery that my book buddies are going to enjoy.

I have not read anything else by this author, but I will now. I found this book to be a perfect blend of suspense and mystery. I loved the author's descriptions of the scenery and setting. She used surprising similes that were ideal. The characters were believable, with none all good or all bad. The mystery surrounding Sadie's disappearance was complex enough to keep me guessing and surprising me by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The Girl’s Weekend
Jody Gehrman
Publish Date: June 9, 2020

This book had a lot going for it! I am always here for a locked room mystery. This one was a booze fueled, college friends reunited, fast paced thriller. At times the narrator June wasn’t my favorite. I did, however, enjoy her writer’s insight as she worked out the various scenarios going on around her.

June ends up the main suspect in her frenemy’s abduction/murder following a night of drinking with old friends. No one present in the house can remember what happened the night before. Were they all blackout drunk or did something else happen? June wonders if her years of jealousy ended in something violent.

I had a few suspects in mind as I read this one, some of the plot twists I expected. I think this is a perfect beach/vacation read.

I gave it 3 stars because it didn’t surprise me, I didn’t get attached or bond with any of the characters.

Thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for an advanced copy for my honest review.

The Girls Weekend, by Author Jody Gehrman,

This book takes place in the Pacific Northwest of Washington State - at  a sprawling estate in the San Juan Islands. This caught my attention right away, being that I live on the West coast of Canada, and love this beautiful natural area of the world.

It's a Girl's weekend story, with a group of 5 girlfriends connecting after many years

It kind of started off on a good note for me, but I became quickly bored with the storyline. It just did not capture my attention as the story progressed.

A fair read however, and one that will probably capture many readers

Thank You to NetGalley, Author Jody Gehrman, and Crooked Lane Books for my advanced copy to review

2.5 Stars for me

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman was a pretty solid mystery. Sadie McTavish is a wealthy, celebrated author of a series of books for young adults. She invites her college friends up to her mansion on the San Juan Islands for a girls weekend. They haven’t all been together for 15 years. June Moody, a writer of no fame and a college professor, is one of her friends. June is the main character. June and Sadie have a rough history. They both dated the man who Sadie is married to currently. June has always felt a sense of competition and resentment with Sadie. When all of the girls get there for the weekend old grudges and Issues come out. After a night of partying everyone wakes up and realizes Sadie is missing and no one remembers what happened night before. What follows is a locked room whodunit. I enjoyed that the story is told from the viewpoint of June. It added to the mystery of not knowing who did what. The suspense was kept up at a good pace. The ending felt a little bit rushed but did not take away from the story as a whole. I will definitely read other books by this author. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Reading the book description, I was really anticipating reading it. This is my favorite genre and I love twisty mysteries. Unfortunately, this fell a little flat. It was a good book but not a great one. The setting was great for me as I love the Pacific Northwest, with the Seattle area one of my favorite places to visit. I just thought the ending could have been better.

Five best friends reunite and their vacation turns into a crime scene.

A very good and edgy thriller, after 20 years 5 friends get together to reunite and celebrate one of the friends being pregnant. But secrets get revealed, blood is on the walls, and people start to go missing. Who could be the killer?

Thank you, NetGalley for my copy of this book. I would love to read another book by this author.

The last event June Moody wants to attend is a reunion with her four college friends at her longtime rival’s luxurious, island estate. Enduring an extra painful piece of literature would be preferable to a weekend spent with the group’s hostess, Sadie, and her husband — June’s former flame. However, a recent breakup sends the English professor scurrying for a place to hide.

The party kicks off with a rocky start when friendly greetings and reminiscing collide with unresolved issues and festering grudges. The weekend festivities take an unexpectedly dark turn when the friends wake up the following morning to find Sadie missing, the house in disarray, and blood staining the stairs. Exacerbating matters, each of them has motives to want the hostess gone from Amy who has lived most of her life trapped under Sadie’s thumb to June who agreed to a secret meeting with Sadie’s husband, Ethan, but none of them can remember the night before leaving them to wonder if they were drugged.

I love a good locked-room mystery, so I jumped at the opportunity to review Jody Gehrman’s The Girls Weekend. Unfortunately, I could not connect with the story or any of the characters. The heroine, appropriately named Moody, is extremely unlikable. She comes across as bitter, self-centered, entitled, and crude. For that matter, all the characters fit this description. For all of them being in their late thirty’s, they piled one bad and immature decision after another. Drudging through the little more than 300-page story proves challenging without a single sympathetic character.

While the five women have become estranged, they supposedly were close during their college years. However, their early friendship feels equally fake and non-existent. The glimpses we see of the past portray the girls more like leeches knit together by their mutual desire to extract what they want from each other instead of true friendship. I cannot say whether this is due to June being an unreliable narrator or the author’s inability to bring their friendship across the page. Either way, the effect remains the same. It places an unscalable wall between the reader and characters.

The setting, one of the story’s stronger components, still remained pretty average and doesn’t stick once the book is closed. Gehrman’s writing itself was decent. She just needed to give readers likeable characters they can rally behind and feel invested in.

The Girls Weekend follows June Moody as she reunites with her college friends for a weekend away after years apart. Personalities clash, jealousy surfaces, and some secrets can't stay hidden. An intriguing thriller that keeps your hooked until the very end.

This is my first mystery/thriller read this year. I don’t normally choose these types of books because I rarely find myself being surprised by the outcome in the plots.
Unfortunately this book was no different. But, I enjoyed it nonetheless and give is a 3.5.
It’s easy to read, the writing is done very well. It did keep me interested the entire time. I think I was just waiting for a big shift in the plot, but either way it was an enjoyable read.
I’d say it’s a perfect “starter” for this genre or for people who are easily spooked.

June was in love with Sadie’s husband but turned down his proposal. June has become increasingly jealous of Sadie’s successful life over the years and is hesitant to go to Sadie’s luxurious home for a girls weekend, but ultimately decides to go. Sadie is pretentious and condescending. She’s also a control freak. The weekend is going okay until the girls wake up with no recollection of the night before, but Sadie is missing and there’s blood at the stairs. This was a great whodunit with decent character development. This would have been a 5 star read for me, but the ending seemed a bit rushed and for me, was a disservice for the book. 4 stars for this enjoyable read that kept me guessing! Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Five friends from college get together for a girls weekend to have fun which goes awry. The characters are clearly delineated and their mentalities well portrayed. The human behaviour when pushed against a wall is very true and practical.The suspense is well maintained, but the police investigation is neglected especially for a high profile case. A good read.

June gets invited to her college friend/nemesis house for a girls weekend with their college friends. June was just dumped by her boyfriend via text and she feels her life is less thank Sadie's so does she even want to go? Their mutual friend talks June going and the fun starts immediately! Ethan, Sadie's husband, is June's ex-boyfriend. The girls drink and wake up the next morning and all have zero idea what happened the night before. Sadie is missing! Where is Sadie? That is the question the 4 remaining women are asking each other! So many secrets come out and it takes the reader on a wild ride! I decided finishing this book was more important than sleep but it was so well worth it! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review, thank you for that.
I enjoyed this book!!! The girl dynamics in particular is what kept me around and made this extremely enjoyable!, Jody German is a new author to me, but made me a fan! Structured well enough to keep me guessing and reading all in one sitting.
I definitely recommend this book.

I was so excited to read The Girls Weekend. The synopsis sounded suspenseful and mysterious. Unfortunately this book didn't live up to my expectations. The story is predictable and farfetched. What bothered me most was the lack in character development and character depth. The concept of the story was good and I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it just didn't work for me.

I'm a sucker for books like this—all the trappings of a classic (British-esque, snowy-esque) murder mystery but in a contemporary setting with solid writing and strong female characters. Since I do read a lot of stories that fall into this genre, needless to say, I come across a good deal of shlocky writing, books you can tell were just quick void-fillers for a publishing house. The Girls Weekend rose far above that. It had great character development and world-building, with enough twists and surprises to keep things moving along.

June Moody what do you expect with a name like that? Just what you expect a moody characters who doesn't that doesn't give readers what they expect or hope for.

The story is interesting enough to keep readers wondering what will happen next and other characters that are dynamic enough to keep the story flowing.

While the mystery is intriguing the June Moody is boring and lacks the emotions that will draw readers in.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Jody Gehrman The Girls Weekend.

Getting together with your friends from college sure sounds like a good time, right? Except when the friendship is a double-edged sword.

I'm always a fan of books where friends come together, friends who have secrets and may have old axes to grind. Such is the case with this novel, and as well explore the intricacies of these friendships we begin to see that not everything is as it seems.

And then one of the friends goes missing, any everyone left seems to have lost their memory. What the hell happened overnight, why is the house trashed, and where exactly is Sadie?

I definitely loved all the drama between the friends and although I didn't genuinely like any of them (they're like those girls in high school that never really grow up and they all continue to backstab each other while trying to keep each other close at the same time) my dislike of them didn't really influence how I felt about this book as a whole.

This book was just a tad slow but once it picked up I was totally along for the ride. And the end was satisfying.

Definitely a great read if you're trapped at home!

This novels is about a reunion of friends with a thriller and mystery surrounding them! All the girls have taken different paths and all come together. I could see the twist toward the end but enjoyed the read.

I really enjoyed this thriller. College friends reunite and a mystery unfolds when one disappears and a series of secrets and old grudges are revealed. An air of suspense was created from very early on but I must admit I did figure out quite early on who the culprit was. Never the less I did really enjoy this book and wasn't happy putting it down until I'd finished it. It was well written and kept me gripped. I'll certainly look out for more great writing from Jody Gehrman in the future.