Any time you get a group of friends with a long history together for a girls weekend, you just know there's some kind of drama that's going to happen. Especially when the narrator is apprehensive about going in the first place. **rubs hands and grabs popcorn**



If you're a fan of locked-in mysteries, this will be a fun read for you. None of these characters are particularly likable. Sadie is a highly successful woman who seems to have it all but also seems to want to control and manipulate everything in her path. Amy is bipolar and is dependent on Sadie to both of their detriment. June is our main characters and whose only POV we see this story through. Eve is her best friend who convinces her to come on the trip and then there is Kimiko, their token biracial friend who is also a pot head working in a dispensary and has a son in juvie.



What was great about this read is how quickly it was to fly through in its moderate pacing. Gehrman does a fantastic job of keeping you on your toes. Each person has a reason, each person is complicated and when you add a daughter, a husband and a man who works the land also included in this weekend... now we are looking at EVERYONE. However, there is also still only a limited number of suspects so at the end of the day, we're not completely surprised when the reveal does come. The epilogue also was a bit too neatly tied up for my particular taste.



Overall I had a fun time with this read. As my second Gehrman read, my first being Watch Me (which I would highly recommend), I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for her next release. While I did have some issue with this particular read (token POC character and mental health issues), Gehrman is clearly talented and will continue to stay on my radar.

Sadie, Amy, June, Em, and Kimiko were all good friends in college and called themselves the Fearless Five. Sadie is a famous and wealthy author with a large estate in Puget Sound. She contacts her old friends and invites them to a Fearless Five Reunion. It will also be a baby shower for Amy, Sadie’s cousin, who lives with her. The other gals accept, but June is not sure she wants to attend. She is a professor of English and has just broken up with her boyfriend. In addition, back in college, she had had a crush on the man Sadie married. She finally relents and agrees to attend.

Kimiko wants to do a lot of drinking but Amy can’t as she’s pregnant, and Sadie limits herself. They enjoy Sadie’s beautiful home, enjoy some nice dinners, and do some kayaking. One morning, June wakes up with a terrible hangover and finds the rest of the gals are in the same shape. But Sadie is missing and there is blood on the wall. What happened last night? Is Sadie injured? If so, where is she?

These women are friends?? They seem to hate one another and I cannot believe how much they drink. Is a girls weekend just an excuse for a drink fest? Good grief. The characters all needed a swift kick. However, I am giving this book 4 stars because it seems to come under the heading: You just can’t make this stuff up! (Of course, someone did.)

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Five college friends, most not very excited about it, have a reunion to celebrate the pregnancy of one of their group. It is an uncomfortable situation made worse by the anonymity among the women. But, that doesn't mean they won't stand together when one of them goes missing and the other four are suspects. Or will it? And was it even one of them? The twists among the friends and the peripheral characters makes for a story that is hard to figure out ahead of time resulting in an engaging read that will keep you up turning pages.

I enjoyed this book and read part and used the audiobook for part. The story was good but somewhat predictable.
The story is based on a group of college friends who were very tight in school and have drifted apart over the following years. The protagonist, June Moody, initially hesitates to attend due to her difficult relationship with the friend who is hosting the event. The host is Sadie, who has always been June's nemesis. They both were in love with the same guy during college with June initially having a relationship with him but rejects him and he marries Sadie. June decides to attend and things are awkward from the beginning.
During the weekend, a murder occurs and the remaining women were left to try to figure out who to trust and who may have done it. Meanwhile, they don't know if they can trust each other.
There are lots of things to like about this book. The interaction between characters, backstories and then the murder are all interesting aspects of the story. The audiobook was well done with a terrific narrator who added a lot to the story and pacing. My criticism was the fact that there wasn't much about this that was new to this sort of story.
Quick and decent story. Worth a read if you like who-done-it type stories with unreliable characters.
#TheGirlsWeekend #Netgalley #CrookedLaneBooks

I would recommend this book to readers that enjoy a friend group getting together for a weekend, only to find their baggage, personal issues, and secrets come to light. There was tension and good suspense at some points, along with twists, but it felt average for me overall.

A weekend away at a famous author and lifestyle guru’s Architectural Digest worthy home in the Pacific Northwest. And it will feature what she knows will be an Instagramable baby shower! Best of all, it will be a college reunion with her four best friends. Still, June Moody does not want to go. At the last minute, she changes her mind. She shouldn’t have.

Sadie MacTavish is the author of a young adult fantasy series and June’s former rival. She has the perfect career that college professor June had wanted and is married to June’s former lover Ethan. The shower is for her cousin Amy and she has invited June, Em and Kimiko to the celebration weekend. The first night is a wild one. Not only does Ethan invite June to a midnight rendezvous but the women spend hours drinking and reminiscing only to wake up to discover that Sadie is missing and that no one can remember what happened the night before.

This is a locked room mystery at its best. The only people on the property are June, Amy, Em, Kimiko, Ethan, Ethan and Sadie’s teenage daughter Dakota and Leo, the gardener. Where is Sadie? Who has a reason to want Sadie to disappear? How well does June know her friends? In one short weekend, many private lives and secrets are revealed. This is a quick, fast-paced thriller and definitely deserves 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Jodi Gehrman for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

College friends... a reunion ... a former love. ... a hunky gardener... drug induced memory loss.. a missing hostess ...

This book was ok, but to be perfectly honest, nothing too special. I feel like there have been so many thrillers with a similar format - old friends ... a reunion ... big secrets .... someone dies...

The main character, June, also seems very typical of these types of novels - very insecure and unhappy with everything that she has and has accomplished and striving for what her frenemy has ... 🤷‍♀️

So. This was an intriguing little thriller that was definitely a page turner. But in the terms of ~thrillers, this one was just okay? None of the twists were particularly shocking (plus the ending felt more like a lifetime movie) and I finished feeling a little underwhelmed.

It didn't help that literally none of the characters were likable. Everyone was flat out annoying which always irks me. It definitely helps my enjoyment if I can find at least one character to root for. But everyone in this book was just as unlikable as the next.

This book, I don't know, it also seemed like it was trying a little too hard to be like other, super popular things? It was definitely the answer to if the Hangover had been a thriller. But then other elements seemed like it was trying to be Gone Girl? I wish this had just been its own thing and not tried so hard to ride on the coat tails of other popular things.

So it was okay and it was a good little thriller if you're looking for a beach read. But it's definitely not mind blowing, like some of the other thrillers I've read lately. So recommended if you're looking for a quick thriller break in between reading other things.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This kept me interested from start to finish. I suspected each of the characters in turn depending on where in the story I was and was surprised at the outcome at the end. A worthwhile read. I'll be looking out for more by this author.

June has just been dumped by her boyfriend by text when an old college friends invites her to her estate to reunite the 'fearless five' for a baby shower for one of the five. Sadie has everything in life June has ever wanted, professional success, a beautiful daughter, and a handsome husband. The husband though is a man Jude and Sadie completed over in college. He proposed to June who ' wasn't ready yet' (but not really over him) and turned him down so he went and married Sadie. June and Sadie are frenemies at best, if it wasn't for Em, June's bestie, June never would have accepted the invitation. Then there's Kimiko who own runs a dispensary and Amy, Sadie's bipolar cousin who the shower is for who got pregnant after a one night stand. Throw in the husband, daughter and groundskeeper to complete the cast.
After a night of partying the girls wake up with no memories of the night before while finding blood on the wall and floor and Sadie missing. The accusations fly and old resentments raise their ugly heads to turn this fun weekend into a nightmare.
In this whodonit every member of the cast has their reasons for wanting the self absorbed control freak Sadie gone. Narrated throughout by June, this one was able to keep me engaged from start to finish. Well written and suspenseful, I suspected each of the characters at one point or another. While it didn't have that shocker 'gotcha' moment I still really enjoyed the reveal and conclusion to the story and can recommend it to those looking for a quick 'beach read'.
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June Moody has been dumped by her boyfriend and is licking her wounds when best friend Em persuades her to go to a girls reunion organised by Sadie MacTavish, a successful author. June is an English professor, also a writer but without the commercial success enjoyed by Sadie. Sadie always seems to be one up on June so it takes some persuading by Em to get June to attend when she is feeling less than her best. To further complicate matters, Sadie is married to Ethan who once asked June to marry him but June turned him down wanting to travel instead. Will June still find Ethan attractive after all these years? In addition are KImiko who owns a cannabis store and Amy, Sadie's cousin who also lives on the estate.

On the first night after a heavy drinking session, the women wake up to find Sadie missing as well as much of their memories of the previous evening. It soon becomes obvious that someone is lying but who? There are many twists and turns in this book which was too over the top for my liking being a bit like an episode of some kind of reality show with a cast of characters acting badly and without common sense. But it was engaging enough to keep me reading to the end.

This story is told from June’s point of view.
June gets an invitation to a baby shower with four old college friends Sadie, Kimi, Em and Amy. The girls have not been in contact for years so when this invitation arrives June is not looking forward to attending it.
They all arrive and go along with the games Sadie has organised.
They all get up the following morning but Sadie is missing no one can remember what happened and there is a blood smear on the wall.
They all have secrets which they want keeping secret
Thanks NetGalley

The plot for this one sounded like a great read to me, as did the promise of it being filled with mystery, twists and suspense, which I love. However, I was left disappointed and unfortunately was unable to finish this one right to the end as I just couldn't get invested in the somewhat dull characters or the overall story and writing pace.

Everyone hated Sadie for a different reason but everyone agreed to come to her mansion for a baby shower she's throwing for Amy. Sadie's a successful author who seems to have it all but she also lords it over her friends who met in college. June, Kumiko, Em, Amy- each of them has a secret. June is in love with Sadie's husband Ethan and that makes her the big suspect when after a night of drinking, they wake up and find Sadie gone and blood everywhere. This is a locked house mystery. Who roofied them and why? Where is Sadie? And what about Sadie's daughter Dakota? No spoilers from me! I liked the these characters were more diverse , with more diverse problems, than we usually see in this type of novel and think Gehrman did a good job with the tension. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This one would make a good movie.

This was a good thriller. The only downside was that some parts I could see coming and I did guess a few of the twists. It still kept me entertained and I enjoy the domestic thrillers.

Entertaining! This book had an Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None" meets The Hangover movie feel to it. So you are dying to get away and spend some time with your girlfriends. After a rough start to the get together, the evening isn't anymore promising. You all wake up wondering what happened the night before; you remember very little. Everyone starts trying to piece together what they remember and then you all realize one of the girls is gone, and there is blood all over. The "who done it" officially begins! Where is Sadie? What happened to everyone? Were we drugged?
This book is a fun and easy read. All you need is a comfy seat and some free time to enjoy. I will say the one thing I didn't care for was that many of the characters were annoying. I wanted to reach in the book and slap them for things they said and did. But I also think that means they played their part well. I'm use to reading intense horror and thrillers and yet I still enjoyed this novel. I recommend it to anyone looking for a lighter mystery and an escape from reality.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my review. I look forward to many new reads.

An absorbing thriller set in the span of just a few days. Five college girlfriends reunite for a girls weekend at the home of the most successful of all of them after years of keeping barely in touch. Their relationships are complicated and things get even crazier after they all wake up one morning to a destroyed house, bloodstains, a missing hostess, and zero memories of the night before! If the movies the Hangover and Knives Out had a baby, that would be this book. The best of lowbrow entertainment mixed with a whodunnit.

This story has an interesting plot, but it wasn’t as convincing as I had hoped. I didn’t really care for the characters that much. I found too many inconsistencies and unbelievable plot lines throughout the story. I did enjoy the surprise ending, however.

This was an ok read for me,I found all the characters hard to like and preferred the beginning to the actual reunion when ai felt it went downhill a bit ,the twist was no surprise tbh

The use of the R-word is a big NO for me. Within the first chapter the insult F*cktard is used a couple times and so I won’t read beyond chapter one and let me tell you why...

The R word is hurtful, and it is offensive. Word choices matter and can hurt people, especially people with disabilities or a family with a special needs child. Eliminating the use of the R-word in all forms is a step toward respect for all. There are other choices and words that could have been used to insult a guy who broke up with someone via text message.

I guess I’ll never know what happened during the girls weekend.

NEXT.