This one really did not hit home for me.

The story begins with an overly sensationalized (and in my opinion inflated for the sake of the story) incident where a child was washed away in a flood and found 3 days later. Sure, these things happen, but I don’t believe she’d be nationally hunted for decades to come. I bet 70% of America wouldn’t recognize even Elizabeth Smart walking down the street less than 20 years later.

There are also major gaps with characters and plot development. More than once, I found it difficult to distinguish who crucial characters even were, since they were never introduced properly (mainly Elyse, but also Bennett). Then pivotal plot points would involve them while I struggled to remember who they even were. It also became obvious that the author was incorporating a wide variety of red herrings simply to keep the reader on their toes. It felt more like being tested than reading a good story.

It would be a one star, but moving to 2 since I don’t give 1 stars at all, and the ending was mildly clever. I was definitely disappointed. Thank you Simon and Schuster for the ARC.

This was an excellent novel that I had a great time reading. The characters were well drawn, and the storyline flowed seamlessly. Would like to read more books by the amazing Megan Miranda.

The Girl From Widow Hills is a thriller about a young woman named Arden who, as a child, was swept away by rain waters and found after three days in the drainage pipes underground. As an adult Arden has changed her name to Olivia and moved away from Widow Hills to try and leave her past behind her. All seems well until a body is found on the property line between her house and her neighbors.

While I enjoyed the story, I felt as though the build up to the big plot twist wasn’t enough. I felt thrown off when I got to the end and it just didn’t make sense. I can see how some people could look past the issues I had with the story, which I will keep to myself as they do contain spoilers. However, for me this missed the mark. It wasn’t a bad book by any means, I just didn’t connect with it.

I alway's enjoy Megan Miranda's books and jumped at the chance to read this one early. This one started a little slowly, but it didn't take long for me to become invested. Fun, twisty read.

The first half of the book was a bit tedious - repeating bits of background info and not really focusing on much action. Even when there is a murder, I had to wait quite a while to find out who the victim is. However, in the second half, the mystery picks up. There are a few revelations that made me rethink what I thought I knew about the characters, and a few action sequences that made me want to keep reading. However, overall, I didn’t love the book; it was just okay. The short flashbacks are overdone and I wasn’t surprised by the final twist.

The Girls from Widow Hills is slow for about the first half of the story. At that point, it finally started to pick up and hooked me. Honestly, the book could've been a little bit shorter and faster paced. Had it been, I would have given it five stars.

I have really enjoyed some of Miranda's previous books. This one I found to have some strong points but it started off very slowly. I think it was a little overly descriptive and I found myself wanting it to get to the juicier parts of the story. Towards the end I found the story to get really strong and I enjoyed it. Had it been faster paced in the beginning, I would have been able to rate the book higher.

Another atmospheric winner from Megan Miranda. None of her thrillers are ever straight-cut, and this one is true to form, more about character development and the inner life of the female protagonist and her ambivalence to moving the action forward. She feels very real and that propels the reader through the murk. Definitely grateful for this ARC.

*2.5 stars ✨

I usually like Megan Miranda’s adult mysteries, but this one didn’t do it for me. Olivia has shed her past since becoming the infamous “girl from widow hills”. Throughout the story you are shown glimpses from her past & you’re left wondering what’s real or not. She’s always had trouble sleepwalking and one night she wakes up over a dead body. Olivia tries to piece together what happened and if it has anything to do with her past. Shady people enter her life, bringing nothing but falsehoods with them. You don’t know who to trust and what will happen. The story was a good pace but the actual mystery was, well, blah/lame. Well written but definitely my least favorite from MM.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the opportunity to read #TheGirlFromWidowHills by Megan Miranda. This is my first book by her, but it won't be the last.
This book is a great thriller that kept me guessing. Just when I thought I knew what was happening things changed.
I don't like to give away anything about the book. But I will say, if you get the chance to read this book, you should.

Olivia has been able to reinvent herself since her tragic childhood accident. But when a familiar face comes out of the woodwork just before the 20th anniversary of her accident, she becomes a person of interest in a murder investigation. As she tries to fill in the blanks of her night, partnered with flashbacks, loss, and her real identity threatening to be released, she must get to the bottom of the murder while keeping all of her secrets intact. But she soon finds out, she’s not the only one with secrets.

I liked this book by Megan Miranda much better than her first one. The main characters, fraught by night terrors stemming from her childhood, wakes up to a body on her property and no idea who it is or how it go there. From then on, the twists and turn kept me flipping the pages frantically. I did not find the ending predictable or out of left field. The major twist at the end shocked me---I did not see it coming. Great book, thank you netgalley!

Oh these types of thrillers. Nearly impossible to avoid, but one can prescreen for quality. And with Megan Miranda, it’s a pretty safe bet the quality will be there. This is my third maybe read by the author and she has consistently been standout in the sea of homogenic similar. So what is it about her books that makes them different? Well, the writing, mainly. I mean, Miranda sticks with all the genre formulas, so you get your split narrative and your women in crisis and your plots twists, she just doesn’t it all really well and fits it all into a context of something dangerously close to a proper literary novel. So here you have a story of Arden, a young girl from a small town who undergoes one of those freak of nature storm disappearances that rivets the nation so and, once she is found 3 days later, becomes something of a symbol of positive motivational things. Eventually, public affection and attention turns ugly as these things are wont to do, so Arden changes her name, moves away and starts over. Now the 26 year old adult Olivia has a perfectly orderly attention free life, until one night, sleepwalking, she stumbles onto a corpse in her backyard, and not just a stranger either, but the very man who has rescued her two decades ago. Then his son turns up. Asking questions, Suddenly everyone’s asking questions and a meticulously crafted safe and quiet life Olivia has built for herself is no longer safe or quiet. In fact, there’s suspense at every corner. And just when you think it’s more or less sorted out, Megan Miranda delivers one final plot twist so brutal and nasty and messed up, it totally elevates the book from good to very good. If you’re a genre fan, you know the plot twist is coming, but it’s still really something. A doozy. A memorable doozy. So yeah, this was fun, a really fun read, as immersive as these things ought to be, helped in no small way by the fact that most of the narrative takes place in the present, interspersed with excerpts from Arden’s past in forms of interviews, newspaper articles, etc. And Arden/Olivia does well as a protagonist, nowhere near as annoying as some millennials can be, somewhat unreliable, just enough to be intriguing without being frustrating and tough enough to deal with all the crap life puts her through. I enjoyed this one and was thoroughly entertained. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda. Miranda brings to life the story lines for women of all ages. She is a very good story teller and draws you in to the plot.
In her latest, Miranda tells the story of a young woman with a strange past. She survived being out in the elements for several days, was rescued, and became a flavor of the week for some time. Her name is now Olivia, but she used to be Arden and for 20 years she's been running away from that child.
Olivia has a new life now, but her past is coming to get her and she can't run fast enough from it. Someone is watching her and she's getting more scared by the day. Because Olivia has secrets and she wants to keep them buried.
Good Read - I think too much detail n the writing made it hard to keep the focus. Although the details can be helpful, sometimes they are too much.
3 stars.

This was a fast-paced thriller about a woman who was swept away during a rain storm while sleepwalking when she was 6 years old. It took the community three days to find her clinging on to a storm drain. To escape the media attention, she eventually changes her name and moves away. She starts rebuilding her life but then as the 20 year anniversary of her rescue looms, people from her past start appearing in her new life. A gripping read.

Megan Miranda has done it again. As a big fan, she has never disappointed. Riveting, suspenseful thrillers. Couldn't out it down til the end. Highly recommend to other fans of Megan Miranda & even to those who haven't read her work yet.

I was really intrigued and excited to read this novel. Megan Miranda delivered a suspenseful page turner that had me guessing until the end. I didn’t completely love the ending and felt myself wanting more but this was still a good read overall. The Girl From Widow Hill has an eerie vibe throughout and is darker than some of Miranda’s more recent work. This novel was hard to put down and I wouldn’t suggest starting right before going to bed. It features Olivia/Arden who had gone missing for days as a child only to be found miraculously alive and clinging to a storm drain. She was the center of the news at the time and disappeared from the public as soon as possible. As the 20th anniversary approaches, Olivia knows it’s inevitable that people will begin to wonder about her again. She feels like she is being watched and begins sleepwalking again only to find the corpse of a man she knew from her previous life.

Thanks to Edelweiss + and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was able to read this book thanks to NetGalley. I am a huge fan of Megan Miranda and am thrilled to have been able to read and review this ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the storyline.
Olivia is a single women with a good job, friends, as well as a dark past. When she was a child she was a sleepwalker and she got swept away in a huge rainstorm and lost for several days. The fame and attention following the events did not treat her well so she changed her name and moved away. But the last continued to follow her when her rescuer ends up dead near her yard. This book kept me second guessing until the end and I will be recommending it to my friends and book clubs.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of The Girl from Widow Hills.

I was pleased when my request was approved because the premise sounded intriguing.

Two decades ago, Arden Maynor survived a traumatic event that made her infamous. But, fame and money wasn't what it was all cracked up to be.

Now, with a new life, name and career, all she wants to do is forget about her past and move forward with her life.

But, as we all know with these types of books, the past has a way of creeping up on you, whether you want it to or not.

The formulaic hallmarks of a mystery can be found here:

Arden is an unreliable narrator, plagued with sleepwalking episodes and a murky memory of the trauma she had survived in childhood.

An uncomfortable and uneasy relationship with her mother

Unreliable friendships or very little friends to call her own

The writing was good, as was the twist, though I guessed right but, the pacing dragged.

At times, the narrative was repetitive, as if the author had to fill up the pages with unnecessary detail to make her quota. For example, Arden constantly mention how she didn't remember anything, how her mother made money off the event, how the only things she did recall was dampness, gray, cold, etc.

Overall, this was a good read and I know most readers would enjoy it.

This book was a little hard for me to get into at first but once I did I couldn't wait to finish it. It is written well, with great detail. It is full of suspense and I loved the creepy feeling I had the whole time! I would definitely recommend!

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.