Daisy had witnessed an explosion at her father's work. He worked at a chemical plant. She witnessed a young girl die. But in the news report, there is no mention of the girl Daisy has seen. No one believes her. They deny that a girl was there.

Daisy now lies with her partner, Anderson. She recieves an invite to her friend, Stella's wedding. But Daisy does not want to go back to her hometown. She hasn't been back home for years. She reluctantly agrees to return for the wedding where old wounds are opened up.

The story flips back and forth from past to present. The tension builds throughout. I felt this was more a family drama than a thriller. I did feel sorry for Daisy when nobody believed her. The plotline was interesting. Daisy has to face her fears if she ever wants to find out what actually happened that night. A well written book with a good twist at the end.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Kelly Heard for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Daisy receives a wedding invitation from her childhood best friend, Stella, who she hasn't seen or talked to in years. Stella still lives in their hometown ... a place that Daisy never wants to remember.

As a teenager, she saw a factory burned to the ground. As her father worked there, she worried and got a little closer to the fire than she should have. Why don't people believe what she sees? Why do they call her "fire girl"? Why wouldn't her best friends back her up?

Why has Stella reached out to her after all these years?

The book goes back and forth between 'then' and 'now' told exclusively from Daisy's point of view. This was a gripping tale of friendship, first loves, betrayal and trust. Well written, the characters are deftly drawn and immediately draw the reader into their lives.

Many thanks to the author / Bookouture / Netgalley for the digital copy of this mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Reading this novel felt like entering an alternate universe where the characters felt ethereal, the tone strange and unsettling.
The Girl I Thought you Knew introduces us to Daisy and Anderson, living in Santa Fe. Automatically their relationship is portrayed with Anderson as saviour and protector whilst Daisy is this fragile unstable creature in need of protecting. When a wedding invitation arrives from Daisy’s once best friend Stella, her past is once more at the forefront of her mind. Would a trip back to her hometown of Zion unravel Daisy and bring buried secrets alive, shattering her carefully constructed new life? It’s like there is an invisible thread pulling Daisy back to a place that’s always haunted her and so she makes a decision to attend the wedding not quite realising the hold Zion has over her ,with memories of a lost love, a lost friendship and total estrangement from her parents.
This is quite a creepy novel in the sense that Daisy seems to have been treated extremely unfairly. When there is a fire at the chemical plant she lives nearby and she witnesses a girl trapped and left for dead, no one will believe her, least of all her father who works at the plant. She’s quickly ostracised by friends, with her parents sending her away to boarding school. Only Jesse, her first love, doesn’t think Daisy was imagining or hallucinating this event but it’s not enough to convince the townspeople that Daisy is a sane credible witness.
I can’t pinpoint why but I found it difficult to become engaged with the storyline. The relationship between Anderson and Daisy isn’t explored in great depth although you do get the sense it isn’t a healthy one and they have experienced difficulties in starting a family which of course is sad. I later understood that perhaps the author is trying to reflect Daisy’s own parents troubled relationship and prove that Daisy is simply making the same mistakes her mother has. Unfortunately it didn’t make me like Daisy’s character any better and I found her annoying at times. I never felt I could get a real grasp of her character, or indeed any of the others, they all felt ghost like. I thought perhaps the storyline was going to take a positive turn in the direction of Stella and Daisy coming together to bring past injustices to light and hold Zion chemical plant to account a bit like real life Erin Brockovich characters!! This didn’t really happen; I felt the storyline drifted and meandered along to a conclusion which mostly makes sense. Overall I think the author has captured well the unfair treatment of Daisy and how keen this small town has been keen to keep the past buried but I didn’t feel like there were any life shattering revelations which you might have expected. This novel is quite a sombre read and Daisy’s relationship with her mother Ellen feels very much devoid of love, which is heartbreaking. So too is the loss of her best friend’s loyalty making Daisy a vulnerable, fragile individual which carries over into adulthood.
Perhaps not quite the gripping read I was hoping for but mine is only one opinion! Mood can often influence views and in these troubling times maybe I’ve allowed my own angst to influence my thoughts. I would still be interested to read other titles by this author and my thanks as always go to the publisher Bookouture and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Daisy witnesses an explosion at the chemical plant where her father works. She sees a young girl die. That night the news reports that 4 men died and mentions nothing of the girl Daisy saw. Everyone else denies that there ever was a girl. No one believes her. Not even her parents. Pretty much the whole town treats her like she is crazy.

Years later, Daisy is living far away with her boyfriend Anderson, trying desperately to put the past behind her. Then she receives an invitation to Stella's wedding. She has not been home in years or spoken to anyone from her life back then. When Daisy returns, old wounds reopen. Did she see what she believes or was it a hallucination caused by chemicals in the air?

This had the grounds to be a fantastic thriller. It is more of a drama blended with a bit of an Erin Brockovich mystery. Although, I figured most of it out well before the end.

I would have liked a lot more tension and danger in the figuring of everything out. That being said, I did enjoy the drama and the story as a whole and would not have liked to lose any of the existing content. I just would have liked more of a thriller element.

I really enjoyed the majority of the characters and the diversity of relationships covered. I would have preferred a less tidy conclusion between Daisy and a high-school bully. That felt far too simple.

The twist at the end was unforeseen. However, it was hardly a 'Wow!' moment. I was more like, 'Oh, Ok - that happened'.

Although I have highlighted areas I was less than thrilled by, It is important to state that I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. The story really is quite good. I think I would suggest it to a YA audience or people who want a quick, easy read that's not hard to follow. I read this pretty quickly and it would be a great book for people who can only steal 5 minutes here or there to read. You could easily do that here and not lose track. This is really well written and beautifully descriptive, with forgiveness being the ultimate goal.

Overall this is a good read. It is slow in places and not totally believable. I was surprised by the ending but I cannot work out why the truth was hidden for years.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Girl I Thought I Knew’ by Kelly Heard in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The Chemical Plant in Daisy’s home town of Zion explodes and when she goes searching for her father she comes across a young girl injured in the wreckage who looks similar to herself. Daisy reports what she saw to a police officer who’s not interested as no female body was reported as found and the enquiry is closed. Now, fifteen years later, Daisy’s been invited to her childhood best friend Stella’s wedding. She doesn’t want to go as it would mean returning to her parents’ home and the scene of the accident but she knows she must as she still needs answers to the mystery of the girl.

‘The Girl I Thought I Knew’ had a well-written plot and I quite liked the characters and the small town feel but at times I thought the story was a bit far-fetched. As I continued to read I got involved in what was happening to Daisy and although the majority of it was interesting the middle section was fairly slow and drawn-out. When I reached the last page the ending, though slightly rushed, was unexpected and took me by surprise. This novel wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be but it was okay.

This book is a compelling read. However the characters were hard for me to relate to and they were not very likable. The storyline was good until the last of the book. The ending left some a lot of unanswered questions. I also found that the middle of the book was somewhat redundant and slow moving. All in all it was still a interesting story in spite of the parts I wasn't so crazy about

Thanks Net Galley for allowing me to read this arc for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy of The Girl I Thought I Knew.
The story follows Daisy who out of the blue got a wedding invitation from her former best friend from high school. Daisy left her hometown seventeen years ago after seeing a girl who looked like her die in a fire, but no one believed her, not even her parents or her best friend. Would you go back to a place where everyone thinks you made everything up? Where everyone thought you were crazy?
Opinion: Really enjoyed reading this story. The plot was intriguing, and the character development was well done. However, it was not as “page-turner” as I expected it to be. The plot twist however was brilliant! It was well worth the wait.

this story is just brilliant very much enjoyed Daisy lives with her partner Anderson .she gets an invite to a friends wedding Stella . but Daisy does not ever want to go back to her home town as there a past she does not want to go back to but she does decide to go .Stella hurt Daisy so much something happened in that town and her parents never want her to go back this book is about trust .friendship .and secret s and i cried at the end i so recommend this book

This was a compelling page turner. It was an intense read and I was kept gripped by this tense, atmospheric read..

This is my first read by this author, I cannot wait to read more. A huge thank you to Bookouture for introducing me to this author. This has been a gripping and addictive read which has been a delight to both read and review.
This is a tale with many themes entwined in the pages and one which is guaranteed to keep the reader engaged. I highly recommend this absolutely beautiful read, it is definitely up there with one of the best I've read.
Kelly Heard managed to pull me in from the very beginning and I loved every single second. The characters are likeable and this was a gripping and easy read which I haven't been able to put down.

Daisy left her hometown with her head hanging in shame, determined never to go back, However, she feels that she should honor her former friend's invitation to her wedding. Stella is getting married and has included Daisy to be among her guests. Daisy shows up, seated as far back as possible. When Stella cannot go through the ceremony, she asks for Daisy, and, laced with trepidation, Daisy agrees to talk to Stella.

Daisy hadn't planned on staying in town long, but due to circumstances that are part of her troubled past, she now scrambles for a place to stay. Meanwhile, Stella is not the only one Daisy has to face after years later. Former friends are part and parcel to that fact. Meanwhile, as things turned out, Stella had a very good reason for not going through with the wedding, and this impacts some secrets to Daisy's past.

The more secretes are revealed from Daisy's past, for a while it felt like I was reading a domestic thriller. There was a lot of digging into the past and secrets were exposed. The book switched from past to present as Daisy's story was told.

This well-written and well-developed book by Kelly Heard kept my attention throughout. I felt like I was with Daisy as she opened each box until she was able to fully reconcile her past with hopes of having a much happier future.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest review.

What do you do when you are convinced about something and nobody believes you? You were sure you could count on your best friend, someone you even called your bloodsister, but the hurt you felt when she let you down was terrible.

What do you do when you have one other person left, who told you time and time again he would be there for you wherever and whenever, but seems to have forgotten about his promise?

When everyone calls you a liar and nobody has your back, there is only one thing left to do ... You run.

And now, years later, you still can't let go of the past, because you know what you saw was real. Maybe it's time to get to the bottom of it all.

The author alternates the past and the present in order to explain what Daisy went through and how she is trying to get to the truth. 

A moving story about a young girl who tried to persuade the whole town about her right, being ridiculed for it and the consequences it entailed. 4 stars.

Thank you, Kelly Heard and Bookouture

Thank you to Kelly Heard, Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped I would. Daisy's character was well-written, but I found it hard to actually care about what happened to her. The ending was very anti-climatic, and felt kind of rushed.

A terrific read an emotional moving novel.This author writes beautiful literary fiction.A book about secrets a book that drew me right in.#netgalley #bookouture

This book has so many layers of nuance and strong characters with complicated relationships. Daisy is deeply damaged from a tragic even when she was a child and has been fleeing from the shadow of that her entire life. Firmly ensconced with Anderson who rescued her many years before she spends much time never looking back. When a shocking wedding invitation arrives from a former friend turned betrayer Daisy has her life upended. She will have to discover how sometimes you have to face your demons to make them disappear. An enthrall story about life and its complications.

Quite a different story. Years ago when Daisy was a teen she saw a girl dying in a fire, but nobody in her town believed her, including her parents. She was sent away, her best friend and budding love betrayed her. Alone, she survived. Now she was back home for the best friend's wedding. And the secrets were back with her.

With such a premise, the book could have been a great thriller. This was more of a family drama along with insecurity and small town misgivings. My second book by author Kelly Heard, I followed the main character Daisy's life keenly. I could feel her pain and frustration when nobody believed her. At one point, she was really alone. I was really sad and angry, especially with her boyfriend.

Courage was found within the words and inside Daisy. I liked how she stood up for what she had seen, and things got sorted out as they tend to in books. The whole plot had a lot of nuances and weird characters, quite apt for a small town. The author depitected the scenes authentically. But something felt missing, the logic and plot arcs felt incomplete or maybe I just didn't understand Daisy's ways.

Forgiveness was the underlying theme which was weaved in well, but I didn't think I would be quite as unforgiving as Daisy. The mystery of the dying girl, reality or hallucination, was well played. I kept trying to guess what it could be. Luckily one of my weird, off the wall guesses came to be true, the other was shocking.

Overall, a fun read.

Daisy ran away from her small town years ago and started a new life. She is done with the secrets and whispers of her past that she never found answers for. Then she receives a wedding invitation from Stella her childhood best friend and makes the decision to go back and attend. She wants to know why Stella betrayed her and what the secrets really are from back then. Where they really in her head or did they actually happen? She knows she saw a dead girl that looked just like her years ago but everyone says she didn't. Stella turned her back on her life everyone else. Why?

This was a decently written book and moved pretty quickly. It had a few twists and turns and if you are looking for a quick read this is probably one for you.

An excellent drama and mystery in one, beautifully written and An in-depth memoir, beautifully written and heartfelt. The writer did a wonderful job depicting the participants. Highly Recommended

<b> A teaser: </b> The Girl I Thought I Knew is a well written, beautiful and heart wrenching story about how damaging secrets can be... With themes like trust and forgiveness interwoven between the fast paced novel, author Kelly Heard does a great job of creating a character that feels like someone I know. Daisy goes back home whit her boyfriend, Anderson to attend a wedding. With curiosity and dread, Daisy shows up for the wedding in her home town after a long time away. Stella, once her closest best friend...is the bride and had sent her the invite. But Stella decides she can't marry her dream come true groom until she gets to the bottom of a big secret that he is keeping her. Then Stella runs from her own wedding and has Daisy join her.

<b> What I like: </b> From the beginning, I sense that Daisy is layered- a woman who has many secrets and many ways of dealing with those secrets. She has been hurt so much and betrayal marks her memories. Once, she spoke up about something or someone she saw and has paid a steep price for it. I like the way that Kelly Heard flips back and forth between past and present in third person. I also enjoy the way the tension builds and builds, so that Daisy has to face her fears and uncover the truth! (no spoilers!) I really enjoyed this novel and would recommend it! :)

Thank you to NetGalley, author Kelly Heard and publisher Bookouture for this temporary digital advance reader copy for me to read and enjoy!

#TheGirlIThoughtIKnew #NetGalley