The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman is a closed room mystery that happens with a college friends reunion. I liked the idea of this book but I found the writing hard to enjoy and just not absorbing at all. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: The Girls Weekend
AUTHOR: Jody Gehrman
@jodygehrman
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books @crookedlanebooks
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐
Published: August 11, 2020
https://amzn.to/2YknNQ5

The Review
I was really looking forward to reading this book. The premise sounded very mysterious: women gather at an estate of their friends and one of them turns up missing, but they can’t remember anything. It’s very Hangover.

But a lot of this book fell flat for me. Although I felt like the writing was concise and descriptive, sometimes I found my mind wandering or I was skimming the pages, waiting for another piece of the puzzle to fall into place. Maybe it felt slightly repetitive in the way it was told.

However, what I will say about it is that the ending was plausible and I was slightly surprised by one part of it. If you like mysteries, give this one a shot and see if you agree with me.

You can see my video review here:
https://youtu.be/cmTrsZJn0LI

If you are looking for a light whodunit, you may like The Girls Weekend. The weekend starts off pretty well the way you would imagine - petty slights, snarky comments, jealousy, secrets - it's hard to figure out why these girls are still "friends." And when one of them ends up dead, it becomes clear that it is every man or woman for themselves.

Books resonate with me when I am able to place myself in the character's shoes. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify with a single character or their choices in this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

June reluctantly agrees for a girls weekend with her old collage friends. Friends she has mostly outgrown. She does not want to go to Sadies house. Sadie has everything, fame, fortune, a loving child and the man that both her and June pined over for years. But after a night of heavy drinking and no memories, Sadie is missing. There is blood splatter and signs pointing to a murder, but with no memories and everyone having a motive to kill Sadie, how do you determine who actually did it.

Fast paced and easy to read this book was a treat. June, along with the groups of girlfriends have their secrets and have their issues with oh so perfect Sadie. So with no memories it’s easy to imagine any of the guests as the criminal. It’s a who done it thriller with likeable characters. There’s enough doubt placed on each character that you don’t know who to trust.

Successful author, Sadie MacTavish, invites old college friend June Moody and her friend Em to a girls weekend at her impressive home in the San Juan Islands, Washington. June isn't terribly keen as Sadie's pregnant cousin, Amy, her teenage daughter, Dakota, and Sadie's husband, Ethan, a former flame of June's, will be around, but she grudgingly agrees to go. As the tension runs on high, resentments bubble to the surface, culminating in party host Sadie going missing. With the house in disarray and a bloodstained staircase, none of the guests can remember the events of the previous night, and so the shadow of suspicion falls upon them all.

The Girls Weekend incorporates themes of conflict, hate, jealousy, and complex friendships. In a first-person narrative, the reader is treated to a wonderfully oppressive fast paced thriller. Amongst the lies, suspicions, mystery, female feuding, and drama, lurks the weak, prickly, wishy-washy protagonist, June, although she grew on me as the story progressed. Jody Gehrman's introductions of the characters were brilliantly orchestrated and the way this group of women interacted with one another made this a fascinating tale. Each new twist built and challenged my previous knowledge, as it catapulted towards a creditworthy finale. A fulfilling, and very highly recommended, intense closed room mystery.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley, and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Five college girlfriends reunite for a weekend baby shower. In theory, what could be better than five friends gathering together, reconnecting and celebrating the upcoming birth of a friends baby. On paper, a great idea but underneath the surface lies secrets and jealously that has one friend, June Moody, not wanting to go but changes her mind when abruptly dumped by her current boyfriend.
Heck, what could be better than licking your wounds at your friend, Sadie McTavish's house. Famous author, Sadie is hosting the Girls Weekend to June, Em, Kimiko and Sadie's pregnant cousin Amy.
Of course you might not want to attend if your friend Sadie is now married to your former boyfriend, Ethan and now living the life you always envisioned. Add to the mix, a hunky gardener, a wild drug induced night of partying where the girls wake up with no memories, lots of blood and Sadie missing,
Accusations soon fly and a fun getaway weekend turns into a nightmare. Narrated throughout the book by June, the book is a quick read but lacking that "on the edge of your seat" type of suspense. Jody Gehrman's book, The Girls Weekend, is entertaining but not thrilling.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #TheGirlsWeekend

Five old college friends are getting together on summer break for a baby shower at a sprawling island estate of one of the friends (Sadie). Even before everyone is settled in old grudges and bad memories arise threatening to put a damper on the whole weekend. Sadie has always been manipulating and controlling and it appears her husband and seventeen year old daughter feel the same way as the girls do. The next morning will find Sadie missing with the house a complete mess and even blood on the wall and floor. Has Sadie cooked up another version of "Gone Girl" or did one of the friends past history raise its ugly head and finally put Sadie in her proper place?

What can I say but this was just another delicious locked room mystery that I couldn't tear my eyes away from.
Jody Gehrman has written a dramatic and fun story that I just didn't want to come to an end. The characters were realistic and somewhat relatable at times I felt as if I were watching a movie because the writing was so impressive. There were so many twists and turns that the story really kept me guessing. Don't expect a true to life dark crime book but just look forward to an entertaining getaway reading experience.

I want to thank the publisher "Crooked Lane Books" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone.

I highly recommend this exciting book and have given a rating of 4 Thrilling 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

I love books when old friends come together and old secrets surface. In this book, Sadie, is the "successful" woman in the group that made a ton of money. The other "old friends" in the group are jealous of Sadie. Then, Sadie disappears and blood is found on the wall of their retreat. I have to say that this was a very familiar storyline as I read so many thrillers with this concept. But, I really enjoyed the characters, and it was a decent thriller that took me away for a bit.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for this ARC

A girls' weekend sounds so innocent and fun. And maybe if it were for a group of women other than June, Em, Kiki, Amy, and Sadie, it might have been. But these women have a history... a long history. Being friends for over a decade means you know each other's personalities, strengths, and favorite things, but you also know each other's weaknesses, low points, and secrets. What starts off as an awkward, tense, forced celebration turns into something far more sinister when the women wake up with almost no memory of the night before and with one of them missing. Dark secrets, hurt feelings, and pathological behaviors will come to the surface as they try to piece together what happened and who's to blame. This is one girls' weekend that is going to be anything but fun...

Thoughts: This quick read will keep readers guessing and will make jaws drop. Perfect for the beach or by a cozy fire (bonus points for both!), Jody Gehrman pieces together an intriguing mystery with plenty of twisty plot points and some seriously messed up characters. Every person is flawed in this book (some much more than others), so it's hard to like any of them. But they all have a surprising amount of layers in this fast-moving plot, and mystery fans will enjoy not knowing who to trust as the story unfolds.

I was drawn in from the first page. The dynamic between the main characters was made more complex due to their shared history. The twists in the story were shocking in the most delightful of ways. This won't be my last book by this wonderful author!

Five old friends from college reunite for a weekend to celebrate a baby shower at the luxury home of Sadie a very successful writer.
June along with Em, Kimiko and Amy go to Sadie home which she shares with her husband Ethan and daughter Dakota. However, a lot has happened over the intervening years and are all the relationships as they seem.
Sadie goes missing. Is there someone among them hiding a secret and what has happened. No one can remember the events of the night before, leading them to believe they were drugged.
Is Sadie still alive and who is the culprit. A very easy and enjoyable read.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review.

I enjoyed this one! It was twisty and kept me entertained! I didn't care for all the characters, but I liked enough of them to power through the annoying parts.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Girls Weekend! Em, Kimiko, Sadie, Amy and our narrator, June, were the Fearless Five and best friends in college. But that was more than a decade ago. Sadie, who appears to have the perfect life, wants to get the old gang together to celebrate Amy with a baby shower. But June drags her feet at going. Sadie and June have some awkward history. However, when June’s boyfriend breaks up with her abruptly by text, she decides to attend after all. YOLO!

I enjoyed reading Girls Weekend. It’s a great beach read for mystery enthusiasts. The mystery itself was a bit too easy to solve for me. 3 stars!

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is about old college friends getting together for a weekend before one of the girls gives birth. There are many bottled up feelings in each one of the friends. When one of them turns up missing, all the feelings flow out and secrets are spilled. What happened to the missing friend and who may have done this?

This book was a quick read for me because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. There are many questions as to what exactly happened in the house and who was involved. Everyone is a suspect and the author did a great job of making sure of this. There were many twists and turns to keep me reading and was a whodunit until the end. I enjoyed reading this mystery. Thank you Net Galley for providing this book.

I had an opportunity to read and review this book for NetGalley.

In short, I gave this book 5 STARS and believe it is worthwile read for all us girls. It is especially useful for those of us who hold grudges and believe they’ve been done wrong somewhere by somewone who deserves payback… Think twice. Read this book…

We read for various reasons. What we get out of reading can be a lot of things. Some books speak to us. Some books teach us. Some books tell us off.

The Girls Weekend is one of those books. It tells you off. It tells you not to hold grudge. It tells you to let go. It tells you to look at things, situations and people from different angles… Did I mention, it tells you to let go?

If only… If only five college girlfriends let go of old grudges, hurts and snubbs. If only one of them… just went and lived her life without thinking ‘what if’… If only.

But life does happen when we are busy making other plans. Five old friends or rather frenemies get together for baby shower of one of them… or was it just a pretext to get them all together? Was it? It is for readers to find out.

Five women. Five stories. Five secrets. Five reasons to kill. Add an estranged husband, volatile hormone-crazed teenage daughter and you get a Molotov cocktail waiting to explode. And it does.

Who killed Sadie? Who killed perfect Sadie who had it all: fame, fortune, gorgeous husband and model-material daughter? I might be a lazy Sherlock but this story left me guessing till the very end.

At some point (given that I sided with June Moody from the very beginning) I even believed in the worst in people. As it happens I believed in the worst in the wrong people.

Amazingly suspenseful locked room mystery. A very beautiful, almost idylic setting, gorgeous people, and many weighty reasons to commit murder…

How long is a piece of string? How long can a person be pushed down, poked at, stolen from and cheated before they do something outrageous and let their frustration free? Just ponder this…

As I mentioned before, the story is so good it is worthwhile to read in one go, one night, one day at the summer house. Gives you different perspective on a lot of things…

The best and the scariest point about this book – it all seems real, tangible and doable. While reading this book I kept relating to the characters, seeing their stories through their eyes. The author has done an amazing job in creating such rich backstories to make characters so hazardous one could see anyone of them crossing the line of no return. Every single person in the story had such a huge grudge was pushed so hard and strangled almost to suffocation by this Sadie… And Sadie was suffocating herself and her family in her strive for perfection and ‘my way or highway’…

You have to read the book to understand what is possible, why and when…

Quotes:

‘That’s always been her gift: serving a cocktail of bossy and sweet into frosty matini glasses’.

‘Every now and then, though, it feels like we’re trying to rekindle our neglected friendships with an old ritual that’s lost its sparkle’.

‘Her blithe assumption that you’ll spring open like a jack-in-the-box the second she cranks your handle’.

‘Some liars are so expert they decieve themselves’ – Austin O’Malley

‘It’s a scene I’ve fantasized about for years. Yet, now that it’s happening, a part of me sits in the audience, watching the actors say their lines, analyzing the blocking. I can’t tell if this is defense mechanism or my intuition warning me to beware’.

‘By the end I am sweatin with jealousy’.

‘It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s just the truth’.

‘Welcome to Sadiesota. It’s a police state, but it’s a pretty one’.

‘That’s the problem with secrets. They buzz around inside the keeper like a hive of bees ready to sting’.

‘Our secrets have become commodities, traded on the black market like illegal weapons’.

‘The past tense is forensic. It’s all about blame’.

The Girls Weekend was a gripping who-dun-it that had me hooked from the start. I absolutely loved the dynamic between our group of friends. The setting was perfect – an island home behind locked gates.

Each of our friends were well written and had their own personalities… and motives. When Sadie turns up missing and no one can remember the events of the night before, we are left to piece the evening together through flashes of vague memories. Throughout the course of the story, there are so many little reveals that call into question the innocence of each character.

This is one of those books that is really difficult to put down. Each chapter leaves you wanting to know what happens next. While it may not have been the best mystery I’ve ever read, it was incredibly entertaining. There were a couple distinct moments where it clicked who the killer was, but there was still a bit of mystery to the actual reveal.

Everytime I thought I had it figured out I was wrong. Flawless writing and vivid characters dominate this story. The whodunit aspect kept me reading way past my bedtime. Happy reading!

Girls Weekend started out as a five-star book for me. I loved June's witty sarcasm. As the book progressed it because too "Nancy Drew" for me. Some silly far stretched theories. If you are a fan of Murder on the Orient Express, you will like this book.

This was a good read. I felt it was a little slow getting started, but I think that was me being impatient to get to the action. There has to be time setting stories like this up after all. It’s been years since a tight group of friends have seen each other so they decide to set a girls’ weekend. It will take place at Sadie’s huge estate. Sadie has it all. A successful career where she is basically famous and an awesome handsome husband. And money. All the friends have reason not to like each other. No one really likes Sadie, she’s so condescending. Fake on the outside. They are all rivals of something and envious of each other. Cat fight waiting to happen. June really doesn’t want to go. But her boyfriend breaks up with her at the last minute so she goes. She dreads seeing Sadie’s husband, whom she dated hot and heavy before he married Sadie. He always loved June and wanted to marry but June was young and wanted a career first. He isn’t the best of characters. Then down below the house lives the gardener that is mysterious. We have Sadie and Ethan’s daughter. And of course, June and her friends. I didn’t particularly like any of them lol. June was always a mopey poor me character, but I see why. Her friend Em was my favorite but she also had her cross to bear. I could’ve strangled Kimiko and slapped Amy. Idk which I disliked most between the last two. They all sort of “owe” Sadie something or Sadie knows their secrets. After a night of drinking, everyone wakes but no one remembers anything that happened during the night. There’s blood on the wall and Sadie is missing. The story did keep my attention and I liked it a lot. It would make a great movie and be cheap to make since it all occurs in the house or down the road from it. If you like drama, you will love this.

This seemed halfway between one of those a-woman-makes-a-series-of-bad-decision books and a good old fashioned who done it. June Moody didn't even want to go on the girls' weekend. She and the hostess haven't even spoken in a decade. Rivals from college, Sadie now has it all over June, including the writing career she always wanted and the husband who once proposed to June. Her friend Em and her life falling apart even more convince her to just go for it and spend time with her former group of best buds.

Getting there, you have to wonder why anyone came. Everyone has an issue with Sadie. Everyone has a reason to fight with her. So when she disappears, everyone has a reason to want her gone. So all of the characters pair up in every configuration, telling each other secrets until no one knows it all but everyone knows enough to suspect everyone else. Unfortunately, none of them can remember a thing.

Throughout, June makes decisions that made me want to yell out loud, "Seriously? Don't go down there." or other such exclamations. But the inner monologue of June as she creates an entirely new death scenario for her missing friend with every new secret uncovered or memory recovered is entertaining enough to forgive those silly moments.

I enjoyed this quick little book. Thanks to Jody Gehrman, Netgalley, and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this book.