This was a really. Interesting story and I absolutely loved the premise. However, I found it rather slow. Although it did pick up. Fascinating and gripping at times

3.5/5

This was a solid young adult thriller. I won't lie, I wasn't very enticed to read the first 60/70%, when I was reading it I was enjoying it, but when I'd put it down, there wasn't much enticing me to pick it back up. However, the final third is what brought this book up for me.

We follow Wren, a probation officer, who has to help Rob integrate back into society after he spent 3 years in prison for aggravated burglary, interspliced with Luke's story, Rob's younger brother, leading up to the burglary.
I think the main reason I struggled to find the motivation to continue was the characters, especially Wren. She is a typical thriller protagonist who puts her work above all else, including her 8 month pregnant partner. While this is explained in the finale, I think it still made Wren quite unlikable, as for me family should come above everything else. I did like Luke, and felt bad for him, especially as he's just a kid who ended up in a bad situation because of circumstances he couldn't control.

I definitely think this was a solid read, but I can't imagine it is one that will stick with me for long after reading it.

Past and present go well in this book its gritty and tense good thriller would recommend thanks for netgalley for the chance to read this

This review will go live at the link below on 10 August:
Hi and welcome to my review of A Ruined Girl!

After Lock Me In and Kate Simants short story in Afraid of the Light, I didn’t think twice about requesting A Ruined Girl on NetGalley. Still I found I was unprepared for what was to come…

Prologue
Trees. Night. Drizzle. A spade hitting the earth, again and again. A boy. A man. A girl. A pit.

Before
Luke is a teenager living in a children’s home. His mum has been institutionalised and he and his older brother Rob are at a loss. Through Luke’s eyes we get a glimpse of the care system, the people who work tirelessly and the ones who take advantage. Luke broke my heart as he struggles to make his mum happy, to make something of himself, to protect the girl he loves, Paige, who lives in the same home. But Luke is just a teenager and he can only do so much. The night everything comes to a head, Rob and Paige break into the house of her school counsellor. Rob is arrested, Paige is never seen again.

Now
Rob is out on probation and probation officer Wren Reynolds is in charge of Rob’s rehabilitation. Within the scope of the Community Atonement Programme, they visit victims and acquaintances, so Rob can atone for his past mistakes. But there is more to it than that. They both have an agenda. And they might not even be the only ones who have an agenda. As Wren becomes more and more obsessed with finding out what happened to Paige, she puts her own life on hold and in doing so, her own relationship in jeopardy.

Alternating between before and now, A Ruined Girl gripped me and didn’t let me go to the point where I was thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. Nothing seemed to make sense. Who were there on that fateful night in the prologue? What was the point of the burglary? Where is Luke now? What is Rob hiding? Why is Wren so obsessed? So many questions and Ms Simants made me wait an awfully long time for the answers! Some secrets I saw unravel and I realised before their reveal, others had me gasping when they came to light.

In the race to the finale, I fully grasped how much I cared about these characters, my heart was in my throat the entire time, and the highly satisfying conclusion had me in bits. All the suspense and all the feels, what a brilliant book, highly recommended!

A Ruined Girl is out in eBook and hardcover on 27 August. You can pre-order here.

Huge thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a slow burning thriller but a very, very easy read and it didn’t take me long to get through it at all. Following a really interesting and mysterious prologue, there are 2 timelines to follow, the past from the POV of Luke (a young boy in a care home) and the present from the POV of Wren (a probation officer),

I honestly couldn’t get along with the characters, the plot kept me engaged but I just didn’t like them. I found Wren annoying and unprofessional, as with any crime thriller, the character prioritises their work over family but she was just not a good person in my opinion.
I also found Luke to me a nightmare and despite his good intentions, I didn’t like him one bit.

The plot was really engaging, kept me on my toes despite the speed. I did guess a key point very early on but there was a lot more that I didn’t guess but which in my opinion, were more minor in the storyline.

So all things considered this was a pretty good book BUT I did guess a major plot line and that’s subsequently dragged my rating down. I don’t like to be able to guess a plot line, I want it to be so woven into the story that I can’t figure it out and all my guesses are wrong. Likewise, I really like character driven novels so when I can’t connect with them, it’s harder to enjoy it.

I did think that it wrapped up really nicely and definitely enjoyed it, well worth a read and hopefully, not as easily figured out as it was for me!

Thank you to Serpents Tail/Viper Books and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Years ago Paige and Rob committed a burglary for which Rob went to prison but Paige disappeared. Never seen again.

Rob is out of prison and with the help of the probation officer, Wren, he sets about his rehabilitation making right the wrongs and trying to help Wren find out what happened to Paige.

This was a gripping read and I enjoyed the characters and the way in which it was written. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this story and was very surprised, I found it slow to start with but the more I kept reading the more I got sucked into the story, I don’t want to take a chance on talking about the storyline incase I give anything away but I will say I was pleasantly surprised.

The book was initially very slow, however the more I read the more I got into it. It is thriller mixed with mystery.

This is a novel about a mystery and that's why I am not gonna tell a lot about its plot, because even saying that there is a twist can be a spoiler. All I can say that this novel may surprise you and I urge you to give it a chance and read it from start to finish even if it doesn't grab you from the start. It's getting better with pages.

There are a few flaws that I found about this book, but writing about them would be a spoiler also, so I'll leave it. I can recommend this book for fans of a genre and I am giving it strong 4 stars.

I found this to be a strange book,I liked the fact that it had someone who worked in the Probationary service as the main character,it made a change.The only problem for me was I didn't really take to any of the characters so I didn't really care what happened to them. I wanted to like the book more than I did, just because it was original.I found it to be too slow going for my taste,and kept waiting for more to happen.Other more patient readers than me may like the pace of the book, and I hope they do,just not a great read for me.

I struggled to get into this one to start with. The first 60% of the book was pretty slow and at times I thought I was going to mark it as DNF.
But eventually the story picked up and I'm glad I stuck with it.
Not the best book I've read but certainly not the worst.

Firstly a big thank you to viper for approving my request to read on netgalley. Viper have released some amazing books especially as its in its early days.

This is a gritty read with a then and now alternate timelines.

Plotted well and intriguing storyline that is unpredictable and exciting.

We all have a past but these characters need to make peace with their past to move on.

Compelling and gripping.

Published 27th August

A Ruined Girl.

Lots of difficult subjects are raised in this story and it really shows how difficult life is. Twisty and explosive!
I wouldn’t rate this with the best I’ve read this year but it has its moments! Beginning is a little tough but stick with it!

Wren is an ex probation officer involved in a new rehabilitation programme CAP where ex prisoners meet victims.
Good description and storyline on care homes, life for ex prisoners when they are released- difficult subjects.
Wren meets Rob in the CAP. He and his friend Paige rob James Yardley’s house - her counsellor - traumatising him and his wife. Paige is in the same care home as Robert’s brother Luke.
Rob gets sent to jail but Paige disappears. Wren wants to find out what happened during and after the robbery and also find Paige.
The story flips quickly between ‘then and now’ so the reader has to play close attention to keep on top of all the twists and turns.
Struggled a bit at the start of the book but got drawn into the storyline and enjoyed the book.
A bit different from the norm, interesting if not likeable characters.

A good read, but I was getting confused by the characters! The writing was excellent and the books had lots of twists. Overall a good book.

This is a fantastic psychological drama that I could not put down. I was drawn in from the very start, and read the entire book within a few hours.

I found the story to be unpredictable, with many twists along the way.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.

Three years ago 18 year old Rob Ashworth and Paige Garrett committed a strange robbery at counsellor James Yardley’s house. Rob was sent to prison. Paige disappeared from the care home where she had been living and where Rob’s brother Luke was also a resident. Rob was due to be released early on a Community Atonement Programme overseen by probation officer Wren Reynolds. Wren was supposed to take Rob to visit those affected by his crime and apologise but she began to go way being her remit and delve into the past especially Paige’s disappearance. Why? The story was told in and round the time of the robbery by Luke and in the present by Wren.

I admit it took me a little while to connect with the storyline but once I did I couldn’t put it down. It’s hard to work out exactly what drew me in and absorbed my attention but I think it was the puzzle of Wren’s probing. She was not acting as she should, she was not giving her partner Suzy the attention she deserved and she crossed lines and that intrigued me. The characters although not all likeable or remotely trustworthy were very well portrayed and easily pictured. I liked Paige, despite her many issues and Luke really cared about her and that was heartwarming. As the plot developed the storytelling became more taut, the suspense grew, tension built and a very twisty psychological thriller developed. You realised the further you got into the book that there was more than one ‘ruined girl’ which I really liked. The care home was central to a lot of the plot and that was very well depicted with some staff who cared, some who just saw their job as a pay cheque and the kids doing their best to survive.

Overall, this was a well written novel with a good plot, plenty of twists and turns, some I predicted and some I most certainly didn’t.

With thanks to NetGalley and Serpents Tale/Profile Books/Viper for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Enjoying this book, Kate Simnants’ is one to watch, loved this book. Wren is a super protagonist. Felt the heartbreak through the book. There were a few plot holes but I can overlook them. Wren Reynolds is a probationary officer helping to reintegrate criminals into society but she’s a maverick and it’s interesting how it all plays out and ties together.

This book is every bit as gripping and unputdownable as described. I haven’t been able to put this one down, it’s had me hooked and desperate to know what happened! I cannot say anything negative about this one.
I highly recommend checking this one out. It’s available August 27th. A huge thank you to @viper.books for the advanced copy.
A definite five star read.

Rob and Paige broke into James Yardley's house. When the police were called, they ran away in different directions. And that was the last time anyone ever saw Paige...
3 years later, Rob is released from prison early, on the condition of completing a special rehabilitation program that means he has to face and apologize to everybody who was affected by his crime.
But Wren, his probation officer, has her own reason for wanting him to be assigned to her, and it has nothing to do with helping him apologize to the victims.

The story alternates between Wren's present point of view and that of Rob's brother Luke's recap of the past.
It was a good enjoyable read, but I found it difficult to get into it, which might have been caused by my inability to connect with any of the characters.
The secrets were revealed steadily and kept my interest. The story picked up towards the end, having me race through the rest of the book.
However, the twist failed to shock me as my suspicions turned out to be right, and the final conclusion was something I had a hunch would happen.
Overall, it was an entertaining read, and I recommend you give it a go.