Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC of the Girl From Widow Hills. This is the fourth book I have read from Megan Miranda with All the Missing Girls being my favorite by far until now! The Girl from Widow Hills revolves around Olivia AKA Arden Maynor. When Arden was little she survived what most belived to be a miracle. She was swept away by floodwaters while sleepwalking and miraculously survived for three days. The days and years following her rescue were difficult as Arden remembered nothing and was constantly in the public eye. Her mother cashed in on the event by publishing a book. Flash forward twenty years, Arden has changed her name to Olivia and seems to live a "normal" life until she begins sleepwalking again and discovers a dead body in her yard. The dead person is deeply tied to Arden's rescue 20 years earlier. Has her past come back to haunt her? Will she remember what really happened 20 years earlier? Does she want to remember? This book will take the reader on Olivia's wild ride to finally uncover the truth. Remember, sometimes the truth is best left buried! Strong 5/5 stars. I adored this book!

Megan Miranda does it again, I flew through this book! If you are itching for a good thriller, this will hit the spot. Instantly, I was hooked and felt connected to the characters. This is the story of a woman who had a traumatic episode happen in her past. She has spent her entire life trying to escape the attention that the event brought. Finally when she feels as though she can breathe and settle into life, some things from the past start to turn up around her. Down until the last few pages, I genuinely did not know how it would end. This is one I will be recommending.

Wow!! A total mind twister!!

I love Megan Miranda’s writing, she gets us in and then digs deeper until the truth is bleeding out for all to see. Her books are hard to put down and can easily keep you up, way past your bedtime.

This is the story of Arden and her past, her traumatic past and what stretches out in front of her currently. This is the story of how kids are easily susceptible to memory lapses after experiencing trauma, or how sometimes they can come up with a totally different excuse for said trauma than what really happened. Really wonderful character development and the story will blow your mind!

This is the fourth book from her that I’ve completely enjoyed. I have more of hers on my to be read list and I highly recommend her books, to anyone looking for a psychological escape from reality.

Thanks again to Megan, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy!

This is my second Miranda book and I’ve decided they fall into the subsection of the mystery genre that just doesn’t hold my interest.

While the premise of a sleepwalking child getting swept away was interesting, I also had a hard time buying that anyone would care about it 20 years later. I also never connected with Olivia/Arden so it was hard for me to care what was happening.

There was thankfully a twist at the end but the way it was executed made it fall a bit flat for me as well.

Unfortunately I was just bored by the majority of the story. It was a light mystery that you could skim through and not miss anything important. 2.8⭐️

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda is a very highly recommended, outstanding novel of psychological suspense. This one is a winner!

Everyone knows the story of "the girl from Widow Hills." Arden Maynor was six years old when she became that girl, the girl from Widow Hills, Kentucky, the one who made national news during the search for her and her rescue. Arden was swept away into the storm drains when she was sleepwalking during a storm. The search lasted three days. Against all odds, she was found, alive, clinging to a storm drain. Fame and media attention followed. Everyone was focused on her, including fans and stalkers. Her mother wrote a book about the incident. Every year, when the anniversary date came up, the fervor began again. Her mother benefited financially from the interest and took advantage of it. As soon as she could, Arden legally changed her name to Olivia (Liv) Meyer so she could escape the public attention and live a private life.

Now she lives in Central Valley, N.C. and has a good job as a hospital administrator, but the twentieth anniversary of her rescue is approaching, which means the media will renew their interest in Arden. Her estranged mother passed away six months earlier, so they won't be able to contact her for an interview. Even though she feels like she has hidden her past, Olivia begins to feel like she's being watched and when a stranger approaches her outside the store, she starts to become alarmed. Then one night she is jolted away by a ringing phone. She discovers she is outside, and stumbles over a dead body. She doesn't remember killing the man and has no idea who he was - until his name is revealed to her by the police. The man was involved with her rescue when she was six. Who killed him? How did he find her?

Olivia is a well-developed character. You will want to support her and hope for the best. She is an unreliable narrator, as she admits to the reader to not remembering what happened the night the body was found and she had been sleepwalking a night before. The thing is, you will be on her side. You'll be rooting for her, hoping for the best, wanting to assist her in finding out what really happened. You might even tell her aloud to be more suspicious of that person, or to be cautious there, Olivia.

The plot of The Girl from Widow Hills immediately grabbed my attention. This is a well-written, excellent, well-paced whodunit. I was totally engrossed in this first-rate novel of psychological suspense from beginning to end. The tension keeps mounting incrementally as Olivia is investigated, and begins to investigate on her own. Olivia narrates the novel, but Miranda cleverly uses media transcripts, newspaper reports, book excerpts, and voicemails from the past up to the present to add a depth to the narrative. I smugly thought I had everything figured out several times, but then was blown out of the water by the twisty, shocking ending. Well done, Megan Miranda! Miranda is fast becoming one of my favorite go-to novelists for a guaranteed winner.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Miranda, and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book!

The Girl From Widow Hills is the first book that I have read by author Megan Miranda. I have seen so many of her other books floating around on Bookstagram so I had to check out her latest book, which publishes on June 23rd, 2020! This book introduces Olivia Maynor, she works in a hospital. She has friends but for the most part, she lives alone and keeps to herself. She has a reason, she is keeping a secret that she does not want anyone finding out. She is also known as Arden Olivia Maynor. When she was 6 years-old she vanished, only to be found 3 days later in a storm drain. Her story took the country by storm. She was stalked and constantly under scrutiny. So she forged a new identity. One night she wakes up after sleepwalking, to find herself tripping over a dead body. She has no defensive wounds, so she couldn’t have possibly killed him? Only her past can give her the answers she is searching for…

I love thrillers. But it is difficult to find one that I truly love. Because I have read so many it is difficult to not be able to predict the storyline. In this book, I loved the characters and I LOVE how it is only from Olivia’s point-of-view, except for the few flashbacks. Most thrillers nowadays have multiple points-of-view and the story gets muddled trying to tie everything together. But this novel focuses on Olivia and her perspective. I love Olivia. I understood her reasoning for keeping to herself and her fierce dedication to survival. In fact, I enjoyed all the characters in this story. I thought they all played a significant role throughout and played off of each other really well.

However, the story was so slow. Besides finding the dead body and the ending, not a whole lot happens. I don’t want to give too much information because the ending actually surprised me. It had a very gutsy ending and I was shocked—which is not easy to do. However, there were too many moments that could have been wrapped up a bit quicker to keep the pace moving. While reading this book I was in a FitBit competition and read this book while I walked around the house. If I wasn’t walking and reading I may have been tempted to fall asleep.

Like I said before, there are a lot of aspects that I did enjoy about this book, enough to make me eager to pick up another one of her books! Which one should I read next? Anyway, this book gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.

This thriller was so original that I never knew what to expect! A girl was swept away in a rainstorm while sleepwalking as a child, and after becoming a national news story, she was famous for her tragedy. As a young adult, that girl has now changed her name and slipped off the radar. But she finds a dead body in her yard and is quickly thrust back into the public eye. Who can she trust? What is the truth? This story had me suspecting every single character and played out in a way that made sense but that I did not see coming.

The Girl from Widow Hills is a suspense thriller from Megan Miranda. I have never read this author before, but I will definitely be adding her backlist to my TBR. I really liked the premise, probably because I was a sleepwalker as a child. This was a page turner for me and kept me guessing until the very end. Definitely recommend for fans of the suspense thriller genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I kind of went in blind with this one. I had read The Last House Guest and figured I'd try this one. I'm so glad I did.

I felt something was going to come out the entire time I was reading. I really enjoyed all the small details in this book. I feel they really played a huge role in this book. You start to believe one thing and then the author causes doubt and you believe something else. Perfect for this genre.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance copy! I was super excited to see that Megan Miranda was coming out with a new book, although I was a little jaded in my anticipation because in my mind, none of her books measured up to All the Missing Girls. Nevertheless, I looked forward to reading her style of narrative again. I was surprisingly very pleased with this one. All of the twists and turns had me constantly guessing, and for once, I did not expect how it turned out at all. Not to mention, it's the first time I have read a book in just three days in a long time.

The shining aspect of this one was by far the character depth and complexity. It acknowledges that everyone has a past that they either revel in or hide from. There's a potential in each of us for good and the unthinkable. Do we ever really know our own capabilities? Throughout the plot, I found myself questioning the pasts of characters and their potentials. But, when we get down to it, we can apply that to ourselves too... which makes this seemingly smooth and easy read a deep, dark, and thought-provoking impact.

I was very excited to read other positive reviews of this book, and the premise intrigued me. In the first few chapters, it gave me a vibe of the girl from the headlines trying to escape her past from Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places mixed with the apathetic, mysterious, and unrelatable main character of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. The more I read however, the comparisons to these two books that I loved held less and less true, because this book simply did not capture my attention at all. I didn’t care about the characters, even our protagonist Liv/Arden, and the strange attempt at a mysterious atmospheric thriller ended up feeling hollow and detached. The end does tie up nicely but I found myself bored through most of the book, rushing to finish.

The story starts out slowly, but about a quarter of the way in it hits full force and never lets up. I love Megan Miranda do much, and I thought this was going to be a “meh” book for her— but boy was I wrong. I couldn’t figure out where she was going with this, but I definitely was not disappointed! She delivers— best mystery/thriller in a while!

This is the first book I’ve read by Megan Miranda (although I own a few others and just haven’t gotten to them yet) and I really, really liked it! The premise of this book is that, as a child, Arden was sleepwalking outside when she was swept away by a large rain and ended up in a storm drain for 3 days until she was rescued. She starts to question what actually happened when strange things begin to happen to her and it’s hard for her to remember things.
I liked this book because I had no idea what was going to happen next. Every time I thought I figured out what was happening, something new happened that proved me wrong. The pages kept turning and this was a great and suspenseful read. I look forward to reading her other books!
Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of #thegirlfromwidowhills

Wow Megan Miranda never fails with her writing! Her stories are so intricately laced with suspense and depth. I love her writing style. Every time I read her books I am reminded of Sharp Objects- Gillian Flynn...which to me is no greater feat. I mean what kind of person thinks of these absurd, astonishing, revolting, yet so intriguing story lines??? Someone who has me hooked that's for sure! I will always buy every Megan Miranda book. End of story! :)

This was my first time reading a Megan Miranda book. Everytime I had mentioned to my thriller loving friends that I had never read anything by her yet, they gave me “the look.” After requesting this one to review, I can say that I am truly a fan. This book gave me many twists and an ending I did not see coming. That is an accomplishment because most of the time I do. To say that most of the time you don’t know what is going on is a good thing, since Arden has periods of blank memories where she was sleepwalking. It’s disorienting to the reader as much as to the main character. Highly recommend if you are a fan of thriller books at all.

You can see my video review here:
https://youtu.be/mlE4rFKZQfs

I loved the storyline of this book! I thought that it was so unique and interesting and I really enjoyed all the characters. The story didn’t take that long to start picking up momentum, and as you start to get more familiar with the characters, you realize that everybody has their own secrets. I loved the ending of this book & it actually really surprised me. Even when you thought it was all done & over, something else happens.

When she was just 6-years old, Arden Maynor became a national news story because of something shocking and terrifying that happened to her. One night, in the midst of a sleepwalking episode, she exited her house during a terrible storm and subsequently got swept away into her hometown storm drain system.

Her mother reports her missing when she is not in her bed early the next morning. Hearing of the missing girl, the entire town of Widow Hills, and even neighboring towns, mobilize to search for her. Three days later, a man helping with the search discovers her grasping a grate at the top of a storm drain. Unable to pry open the grate lid, he holds her tight until a final rescue plan can be implemented.

It's an unbelievable story that unsurprisingly took the media by storm. How could a little girl possibly survive in a water-logged drainage system for three days on her own!?

Riding on the wings of such attention, Arden's mother takes full advantage and publishes a book telling her story. Along with the generosity of strangers and paid speaking events, the book royalties allow the Maynors a fairly stable income. But Arden disagrees with her mother a hundred percent on how she wants her life to go. She wants to be as far from the spotlight as possible.

She hates the pressure, people thinking they know her, her life story, acting like she owes them something. She just wants to move on with her life and forget that horrible night altogether. As soon as she can, Arden changes her name to Olivia, goes to college and breaks away from her mother for good. Frankly, the woman is toxic and being as far away from her as possible, does wonders for Olivia's own mental health and wellness.

The bulk of the narrative takes place as the 20th-anniversary of that fateful night approaches. In addition to the present-day narrative, mixed media sources are interspersed throughout that shine further light on the incident that changed Olivia's life forever. These include 9-1-1 call transcripts, police and media interviews, as well as excerpts from her mother's book.

As the anniversary gets closer, Olivia discovers she is sleepwalking again and begins to feel paranoid that she is being watched. She confides in her protective next-door neighbor and even a close friend after her hand is forced. Are the reporters back at it again, looking for another story, or is something more sinister going on? When a man ends up dead in her yard, Olivia guesses the latter.

This was a fun story. Such a quick read, I just wanted to know what was happening. The suspense was killing me, I just wanted Olivia to be okay! There were some great red herrings, excellent plot twists and steady, exciting pacing. I loved the use of the mixed media; such a clever way to piece together the story.

This was my first novel by Megan Miranda and I really vibed well with her writing style. I will absolutely be picking up more of her work soon. Thank you so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate it and know a lot of readers are going to really enjoy this!

The Girl from Widow Hills intrigued me from the moment I heard about it. I have purchased three of Megan Miranda’s previous titles and enjoyed most of them. I was intrigued by the synopsis of The Girl from Widow Hills. I am sure that I’m aging myself but it immediately brought to mind the story of Jessica McClure from the 80s. At 18 months old, Jessica fell down a well at a relatives house and was trapped there for days. America watched the search and rescue on television like it was primetime programming. I had never given much thought to what the aftermath was like for the child, her family, or the town.

The Girl from Widow Hills introduces us to Arden Olivia Maynor, the woman that survived three days trapped in a storm drain following a sleep walking incident at just 6 years old. Arden has trauma induced amnesia and remembers little of what actually happened to her. Unfortunately, the notoriety thrust upon Arden and her mother after her rescue was staggering. By the time we meet Arden, as an adult, she goes by Olivia or Liv. She is as far from Widow Hills, KY as she can get. She has a job she enjoys, owns her home, has friends to hang out with and no one knows about her past. OR SO SHE THINKS.

Over the years, Liv was estranged from her mother. There was a windfall of money after the rescue from paid television interviews and the book her mother wrote about the ordeal. Liv felt that her mother cared more about profiting from the story than she did about Liv herself. Prior to Arden disappearing, her mom didn’t work regularly and many people followed the story and questioned the way the family profited from what happened.

Nearing the 20th anniversary of her rescue, Liv arrives home to find a package that is actually her mother’s belongings. It seems her mother passed away and Liv had no idea. Not long after, a stranger in a coffeeshop recognizes her and calls her Arden. These combined events make Liv flash back to her childhood, her rescue and Widow Hills. She starts sleep walking for the first time in years. Eventually finding herself outside in the middle of the night. She’s standing over a body, covered in blood, and has no idea how she got there or who the dead man is. When Liv realizes the dead man is the person that rescued her all those years ago, she must accept that her past has caught up with her.

Liv is forced to face her past, fess up to her friends about who she really is and figure out what really happened the night she went missing in Widow Hills. How does her rescue relate to the dead man in her yard and who killed him? Was it Arden? The police are investigating but Liv doesn’t trust them to get it right. She starts searching for her own answers as to what really happened to her in Widow Hills and how that night is still haunting her present.

What I liked:
I enjoyed this storyline very much. What does life look like when you’ve survived a terrible ordeal? Especially for a child that grows up with it over their head. Miranda is a skilled writer, she creates atmosphere that kinda gets under your skin. She also peppered the story with red herrings. I literally suspected the entire cast of characters at one point or another!

I liked Liv, she was flawed but in the same ways we all are. I related to her, she wanted to see the best in her friends, she was lonely because of her circumstances, but she recognized not connecting because she had secrets. I also kept questioning whether she was a reliable narrator. Do I trust her, or don’t I?

I enjoyed the pacing of the novel, there was a good amount of tension leading up to the big twist. The author did a great job of building the suspense and tension. I found it so smoothly done, I didn’t recognize how creeped out I really was until I heard a loud noise, or a door open.

The big plot twist, I didn’t guess until right before it happened, but remained intrigued by the details of it all. There were some other twists sprinkled in there that I did figure out and some I didn’t.

What I didn’t like:
Having worked in medical facilities the descriptions of the hospital were off in my opinion. Access to meds, patient rooms, and some placements of offices, just didn’t seem well thought out.

I was also annoyed with Liv’s male relationships throughout the book. I felt that she wasn’t wary enough, too trusting and demure and I SCREAMED at her to get a backbone.
I did feel that some of the secondary characters could have been more fleshed out, the importance of their roles felt somewhat skimmed over. That could also be because most of the story was Liv’s perspective only.

There are interview transcripts, and other documents related to search and rescue of Arden sprinkled throughout the book. I am usually a huge fan of mixed media but wondered if these were used as effectively as those I have seen in other books.


The storyline fascinates, the twist is a bombshell, and overall it’s a well done thriller that I think most will enjoy.

4 stars, thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Miranda comes back with a more mature writing about the survivor of a national interest story, but also the victim from all that fame.

Arden, who now goes by Olivia, has been working in a faraway hospital just to be extra safe no one will find her. But all of a sudden she gets a box with her estranged mother's last possessions and the news that now she is dead. That is the pivot of it all coming back, the next night she starts sleepwalking and the other she wakes up to a literal dead body right in front of her. As the police seems to suspect her, and she can't even remember if she has an alibi, her past becomes very present.

I'd say this is a 3+ book, because I did enjoy the read. It just lacked more excitement, which not even the big reveals saved. Olivia, the main character, is actually very boring and she did make an effort to become so, with the intention people wouldn't notice her. But a lot of strange things start happening to her, so many years after her disappearance incident as a child. Those things... well the discovery of the bodies and of the skeletons in everyone's closets, those were exciting but punctual thrills. In general, it wasn't a book that made turn pages, but it was definitely one I wanted to know the ending.

I can't say I liked the other characters either. Even after finishing and not caring for anyone in special—maybe the only one that took my liking, actually, was the defunct—, I still felt we hadn't known any of them well enough. The detective seems super cool, for example, but there isn't much more than an impression. Even Bennett, Olivia's best friend, was very very flat ultimately.

The conclusion was what I wondered it could be, but I had so many other hypotheses, it was great finding out, so I can't say I was bored. As I've even mentioned already, I did reach the end to know what it was, so I'd call the answer logical rather than evident. Could be better, but it was far from bad.

I know I kept listing the negatives, but I did enjoy this book. It was just more of a lukewarm read. The writer did everything right but lacked the oomph element we like in all the good thrillers.

I recommend it to anyone interested in thrillers, Megan Miranda is an excellent writer and this is not just another thriller following a fad. But if you still don't know her, I'd begin from All the Missing Girls, which is still the superior book.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Megan Miranda for the opportunity to read and review her latest thriller - another 5 star read from this must-read author.

When Arden was 6 years old, she was sleepwalking and got swept away by a flash flood into a storm sewer and was lost for 3 days. The media circus ensued when she was found by a passerby, so much so that her mom moved her to Ohio where she changed her name to Olivia and tried to start fresh. Twenty years later and now living in the woods of North Carolina, Olivia is surprised to receive a box of her estranged mom's belongings and to learn of her death. Now Olivia is sleepwalking again and comes across the dead body of someone from her past in her yard. Is Olivia being watched again?

This is a slow-moving book that builds to a fabulous ending. The book is told from Olivia's viewpoint but has alternating chapters of press from the incident so long ago. I never could figure out who I thought was the villain in the story; Miranda's writing will have you questioning everyone. A gripping tale of media's portrayal of events, victims' rights to privacy, and childhood trauma. Fabulous read!