As indicated in the opening line, messy situations tend to start with a group text. That group text is the invitation for a girls weekend to a group of college friends. I found myself quickly caught up in the drama between these friends and their many secrets. Jody Gehrman nails the dynamics of friendships among a group of women, especially those that were college friends.

Then one of the friends disappears and another friend is believed to be responsible. The twists and turns of what really happened that night and who was responsible for the disappearance keep you engaged til the end. It was a fun, quick read that I couldn't put down.

I received a free copy of The Girls Weekend from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley!
From the first chapter I couldn’t put this down! I quickly found myself interested in these characters. Five college best friends come together for a fun weekend to celebrate ones pregnancy. But after a night of fun partying and drinking, they wake up to the house a mess and don’t remember anything. Were they drugged? And if so, by whom? Also, one character is missing. The character who seems to have pissed off each of the other characters in one way or another so everyone is a suspect or hiding something. This was a quick read for me, twisty and fun, and I enjoyed it a lot! There were secrets galore! Would definitely read more from this author in the future.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Girls who have been together since school plan a weekend at Stacy's beautiful home. Her husband chooses to sleep at the beach house and allow the girls the house to themselves.
But as sometimes happens each girl comes with issues from their past and their relationship with each other.
And then the night they party and wake up feeling drugged and not being able to remember the night - they find blood on the wall and Sadie missing,
Where is Sadie? What happened that night? Why does everyone seem to be a suspect?

I’ve been in a reading slump and this was the perfect book to pull me out! I loved the eclectic cast of characters, the setting, and the mystery. A great read!

I love, love, love a closed room mystery and I enjoyed the writing, dialogue and characterizations in this book but I fear it needed a few more characters in order to successfully pull of a surprise ending.

I suspected early the "who" and "why" but it was still a very enjoyable read and I still recommend strongly.

Thank you to Jody Gerham, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very quick paced thriller! Though I found it to be tropey and very predictable, it was still good and held my attention.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman—Meeting up with your college best friends after 17 years isn’t all Instagram worthy chat sessions with lattes and laughs for June. After all, the girls weekend is taking place at Sadie’s house—no wait—estate complete with mansion and a couple of guest houses on the beach. And Sadie? That’s June’s arch nemeses, the one who married the love of June’s life, became a hugely successful writer overnight while June has struggled to get any of her writing published, and is living the life June should have had. Sadie has it all. She invites their old crew, the Fearless Five, to come to her estate for a fun weekend. June doesn’t want to go, but when her boyfriend suddenly dumps her for a younger girl, she decides a girls weekend is just what she needs, even if it means facing Sadie. She can leave the past in the past, right? Too bad Sadie can’t. She is still the controlling alpha-female she was in school. Everyone is a puppet in her play. After a wild night of partying, everyone wakes up with spotty memories, their hostess is gone, and there is blood, a lot of blood. Great read with a nice twist. Read this in one sitting. #TheGirlsWeekend #JodyGehrman #NetGalley

I couldn't get into this at all. I anticipated this to be an easy read that I would really enjoy but I didn't connect with any characters or the story line

Enjoyed the plot and the characters...but overdramatic at times. A good beach read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48237843

I enjoyed this book - a good whodunnit mystery. Old college friends get together for a long overdue girls' weekend hosted by uber successful control-freak Saide. The next morning Sadie is no where to be found, leaving her cell phone and what looks like a bloodstain. Her friends don't remember anything and suspect they've been drugged. Each one has reason to resent Sadie - so who did it? This one kept me guessing until the reveal. The ending was satisfying.

I'd like to give this book 3 1/2 stars because I liked the main character, June. That's important because it takes awhile to set up this plot and her likeability is what kept me wanting to read. June doesn't really want to go to a reunion called by her old college friend Sadie. In the ten years since their graduation, Sadie has become a wealthy children's author and has married the man June cared for, while June, though having written a book, is not successful and just was dumped by her last boyfriend. I think many of us can identify with these insecurities.
Things are uneasy, but really don't get going until nearly a third of the way in..Then the book really does become a page turner as June fights to regain lost memories and works through different possible scenarios. Has a crime actually been committed? Who kissed her? What happened? The actual solution doesn't feel like a huge twist, but this was an entertaining enough weekend read.

THE GIRLS WEEKEND is an entertaining thriller about a group of old college friends who meet up years later for a baby shower reunion weekend. When one of the women goes missing, the rest of them try to figure out what happened to her and if one of them are responsible.

Author Jody Gehrman does a great job writing compelling characters and making their stories interesting. I flew through this fast-paced book and was intrigued throughout. I will say the ending didn’t blow me away, even if it is appalling to fathom. Still, an entertaining read and now I have a new author to add to my list.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Jody Gehrman, and NetGalley for an ARC.

WOW, just WOW. I could not put this book down. The premise, 5 college friends re uniting for a girl's weekend captured my attention and kept from start to finish. The descriptions of the characters, the house, the grounds was so well done that I could picture it all while I was reading. The animosity. jealousy, pain, came through so vividly. It went in a direction that I never would have guessed. Great twist.

Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

June’s boyfriend leaves her for another woman and informs her via text that he is in Amsterdam with the woman. This causes June to attend a girls weekend with old college friends that she had previously had no plans to attend. June and her best friend Emily meet 2 other college friends at the home of their wealthy and successful friend Sadie, in Washington. Sadie lives with her husband and 17 year old daughter in what appears to be a perfect life. During the girls weekend, Sadie goes missing, none of the other women can remember the previous nights events, and the search for answers begins.

Everyone in this book had a bone to pick with Sadie so the murdered could have been literally anyone of them and I would have believed it. When the culprit was revealed, I hadn’t figured out and it was totally plausible. Overall a good quick read.

Why can't they remember? Where is Sadie? Did she plan this and leave on her own? Is she dead?
A text from Sadie MacTavish for a reunion at her house. Five girls who attended college together and one fixing to have a baby.
"Don't old friends owe it to each other to answer the call of the tribal drums?"
June, at the last minute decides to go with Em. Her boyfriend sends her a text breaking up with her from Amsterdam where he has suddenly gone with another girl.
This book will keep you turning the pages until the end.
"We were caught in that magical golden bubble between childhood and adulthood- We knew secrets about one another weighty as grenades."

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

What a “guilty pleasure” of a read! A fun who dunnit that made me miss my college years a little, and my group of “girls” I have lost touch with, a lot. The main character did a lot of detective questioning, but her prose was imaginative. Her mind worked like a modern day “Agatha Christie.” I enjoyed the book and finished it in a day.

An interesting concept of four college friends gathering again.. One reluctantly. It's a bit leading towards the conclusion, but a fun read.

A fast-paced, engaging read. In some cases, this book's premise could seem outlandish; however, in Gehrman's hands, it feels completely plausible. A group of 5 college friends reunite after almost 20 years to celebrate one of the women's pregnancy. But the catch: one of the friends has made it big--like, J K Rowling big. And while it is a convenient setting for a novel like this, it's also something that can--and does--happen to some people, right? The regular kid who grows up to be a famous gazillionaire? This book explores the complicated dynamics that take place when something like this happens.

Of course, it's more than a sociological study; it's a great closed door mystery as well. Someone ends up missing, likely dead, during the girls' weekend on the wealthy friend's estate. The more you find out about the victim, the more you find motivations for those around her to want her dead. There are a number of red herrings to sort through until you finally figure out the actual culprit.

This was a real page-turner, and I enjoyed reading it. I also look forward to reading other titles from this author.

I read this in one day, it was so good. Even though parts were slow and I skimmed them ( I regretted this later!) the story was intriguing and I never knew what to believe. The ending was unpredictable and satisfying. Worth a read!

Jody Gehrman serves up a closed room thriller much like some of her contemporaries; "The Hunting Party" by Lucy Foley and "An Unwanted Guest" by Shari Lepena are the first two that come to mind. What starts as a girl's trip that promises to bring a quartet of bff's together for the first time in over a decade quickly devolves into an outpouring of raw emotions, pent up anger rushing to the surface, and violence beyond comprehension.
Gehrman has a strong structure in place. There are four strong, independent and unique ladies at the center of the story. Our pov character is just coming out of a break-up and needs some time away from real life, but she's also a bit tentative to throw in for the retreat. She has a bit of a hot/cold rivalry with their host and is aware of the potential for drama - after all, her college flame is now married to their hostess. What could go wrong? The answer is a whole lot. And quickly. There in lies my only major issue with the book; every thing happens so quickly. Before we've gotten to know all four characters and what made them such great friends we are thrown into the mystery and things spiral more and more out of control from there. The writing is crisp and keeps moving forward, but there's no much paranoia and panicked theorizing that most of the book feels like a fever dream from the mind of our protagonist. There are some misses as things get wrapped up rather quickly, but I admire the author for taking the swings. I'd rather read this than something something moving at a snail's pace and with plain jane characters who are afraid to say what they mean!