Member Reviews
I loved this book! The suspense really kept me on edge. I like the curve balls it threw at you. The ending made me so happy!
I find this book a difficult one to review. I didn't particularly enjoy it as I didn't connect with any of the characters and although I didn't work out who the murderer was, I also found it a bit difficult to care.
I'm not sure where the disconnect was because the book itself is well-written but I never looked forward to picking it up. Others may enjoy it because it's an interesting premise, it just didn't hit the mark for me unfortunately.
Atmospheric, Suspenseful Mystery.....
Atmospheric, suspenseful mystery - of the long tried and tested locked room variety. A girls weekend away, a reunion of college friends, an exotic location combined with secrets, grudges, sins and sinners make for an engaging, edge of seat read. Characters are well drawn and mostly wholly unlikeable adding well to the storyline. Will leave you asking how well you know your so called friends....
I’d like to thank Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this novel pre-publication and to welcome my feedback. It is the first book I had read by Jodi Gehman.
I was prompted to read this book by other good reviews, and I was not disappointed. The formula (five old friends getting together at a reunion and the host goes missing) is not particularly original - other recent publications have tackled a similar theme - and yet it was well handled in this book. All five women had distinct personalities and each had their foibles. The opening few pages of the book are written in a very self-conscious style but once the author settles into the story and June, from whose perspective the book is written, arrives at the reunion location the story - and the writing style - settles into its rhythm and improves exponentially. As you might expect, everyone ends up being a suspect, holding various grudges from the past and/or present which are slowly revealed as the book progresses and they all have very good grounds to have been the baddie! None of the characters are particularly likeable but I think that’s probably the point! There are a number of red herrings but it was a good read in that until the denouement frankly it could’ve been any of them and the story could have gone either way. So the guilty party wasn't exactly a surprise... there was no twist in the tale as such though the story was no worse for that.
I would recommend this well-paced book as a good mystery read particularly if this is your genre, also suitable for young adults (there was nothing particularly raunchy in it!). I would read more by this writer.
I'm a huge fan of a closed room mystery, so I really enjoyed this book. The author did an excellent job with her characterizations and the dialogue between them. I enjoyed her writing style but I wish she had included several more characters into the storyline, as I felt that it would have been a better way to pull off her ending.
I was able to determine the who and why about halfway through the novel and still managed to enjoy the read. I definitely recommend the book.
I would like to thank the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
What a fun, twisted story! I loved the mash-up of romance, girls-weekend, whodunnit mystery, heal from past relationships vibes! I think this would be a really great book club read. It’s fast-paced, great from the first paragraph, highly enjoyable book.
I enjoyed this novel and will read more of Jody Gehrman's work. June Moody is reluctantly going to meet up with her college friends after being dumped by her current fling. She is going to the house of Sadie McTavish, a woman who has continuously competed and won against June, from their career to Sadie's luxurious life to Sadie's husband, a man who proposed to June first. The women wake up one morning to Sadie being missing, and they have no knowledge of the night before, but there is blood all over the house. I would recommend this novel to someone who likes mysteries, but I do think some of the twists are obvious if you are an avid thriller reader.
Solid novel, well written and good pace. I figured out the mystery pretty easily but overall enjoyed this book.
The Girls Weekend written by Jody Gehrman has an interesting plot - college friends reunite for a long weekend when Sadie MacTavish, a wealthy author, invites four friends to her sprawling estate for a long weekend and baby shower. June Moody dated Sadie's husband before Sadie did and has unresolved feelings toward him. After a night of drinking, the friends awake to find Sadie missing. No one has any memory of what happened during the night. As they try to solve the mystery of what happened to Sadie, everyone is a suspect, and secrets are revealed. Sadly, it is very difficult to like June. She comes across as whiny and unable to move on from the past. As more emerges about her college relationship, I could not figure out why, almost twenty years later, she is still hung up on her college boyfriend. The book feels very disjointed and, as much as I love thrillers, I would likely not have finished it had I been on a trip with few other options.
This book was the perfect weekend read. The synopsis sounded very interesting, and I'm always up for a Gone Girl type of book (also referenced in the story), and this book did not disappoint at all.
June is invited to a girls-only weekend with her college friends, most of whom she hasn't seen in a decade. She hesitates because of a longstanding rivalry with Sadie, the pushy, beautiful, famous member of the group. June changes her mind after she's dumped via text by her boyfriend and the story takes off from there, rolling nonstop. It's easy to see right off the bat why June has always had an issue with Sadie, who is controlling, condescending, and petty. She seems to have it all, but does she really? When Sadie disappears, everyone is a suspect, and the book left me guessing until the end. Each chapter pointed me toward a different suspect and I loved being on my toes the entire time. I will definitely be checking out other books by this author.
The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman was a fun and enjoyable read whilst getting ready to travel. It only took me just over two hours to finish the novel. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and look forward to what else Jody Gehrman has to offer in the future.
The Girls Weekend has everything that i enjoy in a good thriller, complicated characters, old romances and a reunion. When June gets an invite to a baby shower by her old college friends she doesn't want to go, knowing that it is taking place at her ex-best friends mansion. Who she believes has the life that June should have lived. The perfect house, the perfect writing career, the perfect husband, the perfect daughter, money and fame. Why would she want to go back to the woman who she had such a bittersweet rivalry with until Sadie seemingly won? After Sadie tragically goes missing, who do you trust in a house full of people you no longer know?
The anger and bitterness between each of the characters seemed real and well thought out. I spent half of the book not knowing who to believe and the final twist was unexpected.
A solid 4/5 star read.
Hangover meets Knives Out waltzes with “And Then There Were None” vibes!
A great summary of vacation book: Best 5 friends’ reunion at least likeable but wealthier one’s estate in the San Juan Islands. But the least likeable a.k.a. control freak bitch disappears.
Her 17 year daughter of the least likeable and now missing, probably murdered friend, is more annoying than her mother (yes she reminds us of Rosemary’s baby: we haven’t seen her/his image and Polanski’s movie but as you think about the father with horns and long tail, you may imagine what kind of child, she will become!) and the desperate father hits on main heroine June!
I didn’t introduce you those five women (once upon a time living dangerously, thick as thieves but right now every of them are facing their troubled adulthood!)
June, community college English professor, indie author (her book is not shelved anymore), dumped by a text comes from bastard boyfriend who runs with his half aged girlfriend to Amsterdam. Now she needs to accept her ex best friend and old nemesis Sadie’s invitation. The very same woman who got married her love of her life after she rejected his marriage proposal (same man hitting on her throughout their holiday gathering!)
Sadie seems like have-it-all: June’s ex-lover Ethan as charming husband, a beautiful (also Chucky’s bride)daughter Dakota (reminded me of Dakota Johnson who gets aggressive when she finds out her mother Melanie rejects to watch her amazing performance at FSOG), a mansion, a rising career at the literature industry. Of course June is jealous about her.
June’s bestie Em is also having her dream career and a great relationship, cool, casual, loyal but she keeps a big secret from her past only Sadie knows.
Amy is suffering from bi-polar, related with Sadie who takes care of her and also controlling her life, is pregnant (that’s why they gathered for her baby shower!) but she keeps baby’s father as secret.
And Kimiko (Japanese Italian) works in her dispenser, raising her problematic son, a little aggressive, mostly stoned with weed or drunk because of too many gin tonics, one of the volatile and unpredictable characters.
So those girls get drunk and afterwards they don’t remember anything. Somebody roofied them. And Sadie is nowhere to be seen. There is blood on the walls. So what the hell happened that night? Who has been drugged them? Nope, not Zach Galifianakis!
June is prime suspect because she secretly met with Sadie’s husband. She hates the guts of Sadie. Em hates her because Sadie will spill the beans about her big secret. Amy hates her because Sadie will take her baby and raise the baby as hers. Kimiko hates her because of common financial issues. Ethan hates her they had problematic marriage and Dakota hates her because she already casted as Anastasia Steel but her mother wants to end her acting career (Ha ha! I tested you to make sure you’re still reading. Nope: her mother pushes her go to Yale but she wants to be actress and get her education at UCLA)So everyone can be murderer and everyone has motive. So who did it?
What I hate about the book: Too many annoying characters and predictable conclusion.
What I like about the book: It was fun when all those crazy women got tense and started to fight with each other. It was like regular episode of Bachelor. I got my popcorn accompanied with Cabernet when I was reading those parts and laughed so hard. I wish they start to fist fight or pull each other’s hair (I know I’m so bad!)
The fast pacing, claustrophobic one place mystery with high tension picked my interest and I never got bored till the end. It was easy, entertaining, riveting page-turner.
I went back and forth between three and four stars but I guess it was better than most of my mediocre books-let’s meet in the middle and call them Switzerland books- so I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to 4!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this entertaining ARC in exchange my honest review.
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this ARC of The Girls weekend. I very much enjoyed this book, could not put it down. I will watch for more books by Jody Gehrman. The story line kept my attention and moved along at a good pace. This was a good suspense novel. Characters were well introduced and easy to follow.
Just a quick overview, this story was about five girlfriends who haven't seen each other in over 10 years. They are invited for a get together for a long weekend reunion and to celebrate one of the girls, Amy, who is about 8 months pregnant June is the main character and she and Em take off in their car to meet up with 3 other girls at Sadie's home. Sadie is an accomplished writer who is married to an old boyfriend of June's. June is leery of going as it may dredge up old feelings towards not only Sadie but her husband. The first couple of days together we learn more about the five friends and before we know it, there is the disappearance of Sadie that now needs to be solved. June does a good job along side Em trying to figure who did what and why all the while trying to regain some memory lapse from the previous evening due to what they think was drug induced. Read this book to find out who did what!!
Overall a great read and i really enjoyed this book.
I enjoyed the "Clue" like mystery of the Girl's Weekend. The premise is five college friends connect to celebrate the pregnancy of one of the five. Old habits die hard and the fun girls weekend quickly takes a turn for the worse. After a night of celebrating, one woman goes missing and the other four are left to put the pieces back together. I didn't find this book incredibly suspenseful, but it was entertaining. I thought some of the word choices of the author were in poor taste and did not speak to cultural understanding very well.
This was definitely a fun thriller read! Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for sending this my way early to read and review :)
If you like Ruth Ware, I think you'd love this one! The plot focuses around five college friends all together for a reunion---but when they wake up on Day 2, one of them has disappeared. There's blood on the stairs and the house is a mess. Even worse, no one can remember what happened the night prior, and they all think they were drugged.
As tensions grow high, everyone becomes a suspect. What happened to Sadie? Who can they trust? How well do they REALLY know each other? There are so many twists and turns in this book, it will completely leave you guessing until the very last page!
I recommend this to all my new-er thriller lovers out there :)
This was my first read by this author and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Five college friends reuniting for a girls weekend to celebrate one's pregnancy. Waking up on the second morning to find their hostess missing and an entire evening pretty much erased from the remaining four's memories. As the story progresses, we find that each one has reasons to want her out of the picture.
Definitely a page turner with lots of twists and turns along the way.
I tried to get into this read but for some reason it just missed the mark. I don't know if it was the main characters or if it just wasn't the right time for me to read it. I am sure that some may really enjoy the mystery, but for me it feel short.
I loved the set up for this story - friends reuniting at their much more successful and famous friend's mega mansion in an isolated locale. And then that much more successful and famous friend goes missing. Only nobody can remember what happened the night she vanished.
I adored the setting and descriptions were fantastic. I felt like I could clearly picture everything in my mind.
The dynamics among the women felt very authentic and it was fun to see jealousies and old feuds come to life. I felt like the author showed us a side of the characters people don't want to admit they relate to but is actually ultra-relatable. I also found everyone's secrets and lies to be very well-revealed and made the book a fast read I didn't want to put down.
While I did basically guess what had happened almost immediately after the missing woman vanished, it was still a super fun ride to reach a satisfying conclusion.
Imagine getting together for a girls weekend with your old college buddies... and then one of them goes missing. What would you do? I’d imagine your reaction might be quite different than what you read in this book by Jody Gehrman. At first the premise had my attention, but the characters aren’t very likeable — but they’re also not fun to hate either. I almost gave up this book many times, and probably should have. It simply fell flat.
Easy read a good choice for those who enjoy a whodunnit themed book.
The story is based upon a group of friends who met in college 15+ years before meeting up for a weekend together. All live idyllic lives- at least that’s what they try to portray. The reality is as in everyday life everyone does not have a perfect life.
One of the friends goes missing- they realise this after a heavy night drinking and finding blood stains on walls and the house in disarray. No one can remember what happened.....or so they say.