This book was great. After starting a couple other books and not being able to continue because they wouldn't hold my interest, I began this one. It held my interest from the first chapter and was hard to put down. Lots of twists and turns throughout the book. I had no clue how it was going to end. Really loved it.. I hope Georgina Cross continues to write books like this.!

I loved the description of this and had to read it. Nail biting and full of twists and turns. Very readable and highly recommended

I really enjoyed reading this book. A fast paced thriller with unexpected twists and turns you will not see coming. Looking forward to read more books by this author!

It was a slow start but once it did it was full throttle and had your attention but then it slowed again for the last 1/4 of the book. Great storyline showing the ups and downs of second marriages. Lots going on and told from a lot of the characters perspectives. Love when a story is fed to you in this way as little by little you start to piece it together and make your own assumptions but never totally on the money. Got to a stage where I didn’t know who did what and I needed to know so had to keep turning those pages. Enjoyed it and would recommend but would have preferred a better outcome.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this ARC that was published on the 2nd of Sept.

What an amazing read! As a step-mother myself, anytime anything goes wrong, the step-mom is to blame.!
When Mia goes missing, her step-mom, Vanessa is to blame.

Let's begin with the house fire next door, then Vanessa looking for Mia, she notices that Mia is gone, nowhere to be found.. The cops are called and Vanessa is grilled and we are taken back in time through different POV's of how Tripp and Vanessa got together.
A true thriller and I really liked how the story came together. Wonderful read!

Well, this book was responsible for a few late nights for me! It’s impossible to put down, and difficult to forget.

What an amazing debut, I actually couldn’t believe that this was a debut novel.

I liked Vanessa as a character, even if I did feel that she was foolish to give up so much of her life for her stepdaughter, but she clearly had her best interests at heart. But at some stage in this complex plot, I even had her as a suspect in Mia’s disappearance.

The story is told from multiple points of view. This really adds to the intrigue in this multi layered plot. I particularly liked the way Mia herself was a narrator at times.

The plot blew me away, I didn’t know who to believe or what had happened. Once I got near the end I just had to keep reading late into the night to get to the end. There are several twists and turns that are literally jaw dropping.

A totally addictive and gripping read, absolutely superb psychological thriller. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

The house next door is burning down and Vanessa notices that her stepdaughter Mia is missing. Has she run away, been kidnapped or is she in the burning house...?
We begin with the disappearance of Mia and the immediate aftermath of the fire. Then we are taken back in time to the start of Vanessa's relationship to Tripp and see how their marriage developed. Finally we see what really happened on that day...
The plot is delivered through multiple narrative voices, mainly Vanessa, her neighbour Julia and Julia's mother Charlotte who has dementia, but also the lead detective and Mia in the final quarter of the book.
As we explored the background relationships, I felt a little angry at Tripp and Mia for taking advantage of Vanessa but understand the complexities of stepfamilies. Equally, I was frustrated with Vanessa for giving up everything for her stepdaughter, yet her compassion for trying to improve the life of a motherless girl is commendable.
The mix of family drama and psychological thriller kept my interest throughout the whole book. Love, grief and jealousy are key themes and all very human so we as readers can identify easily with the main characters.
I liked the way that all the strands were brought together and the disjointed timeline and narrative structure united. There are a limited number of characters in the book so a reduced number of suspects but I felt that the big reveal still had an element of surprise and kept me guessing.
The Stepdaughter is a debut novel from author Gergina Cross which is surprising as it has a confidence that I would associate with more experienced authors. I look forward to more books from this author soon :)

A stepmother has a tightrope to walk. She can never do enough it seems and in this case it was a case of doing a hell of a lot and then looking away for just a few minutes.

Mia is a very talented swimmer and her stepmother is a caring woman but Mia does not seem to appreciate all that she does. Recently Mia seems distracted and out of sorts and it is put down to teen angst. When Mia goes missing in a matter of a few minutes, Detectives in charge of the case look squarely at the stepmother. Unravelling the mystery of how a girl could go missing from her own backyard sets up a story that is plausible and at the same time unbelievable keeping you tense as you first suspect the stepmother, then the father, then the swimming coach and once all of them get eliminated the secrets the family is hiding slowly unravel to disclose the actual suspect and why they acted the way they do.

How a secret can impact on so many lives, the way they impact, the consequences of actions all spiral way out of control to sad results. Mia's body is eventually found and then it becomes not just kidnapping but a murder investigation.

The story is chilling and holds all the elements of a good mystery/thriller.

"The Stepdaughter" is a great debut novel from Georgina Cross. This book has all the fixings to be a nice soapy drama. Mystery to figure out? Check. Affairs? Check. Accusations Galore? Check. When Mia, a 13 year old girl, goes missing in the care of her stepmom Vanessa, the step mom is immediately the top suspect. While I was quick to decipher what I thought the resolution would be, I didn't mind in this case. The story was well-written. I enjoyed the writer's style and the fact that it was told in multiple perspectives. I will definitely be looking for more from Cross in the future.

I received an ARC of "The Stepdaughter" by Georgia Cross from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Stepdaughter is Georgina Cross' debut and it's a corker! This book has everything - secrets, lies, affairs and all set in a small enclave in Alabama. It is a whodunit as well as a howdunit. There are twists and turns all the way through saving the best for last.

Very easy to figure this out--from the first few pages. I skimmed the rest and didn't love it. Hopefully the author learns to make it less easy for readers to figure out the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of ‘The Stepdaughter’ by Georgina Cross in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

One day Vanessa goes outside to check on her thirteen year old stepdaughter Mia, but she is nowhere to be found. Mia, supposedly swimming laps in their pool has vanished without a trace.

Told from the point of view of Mia and Vanessa, we are taken on a ride through their relationship as stepmother and stepdaughter as well as other relationships a their lives.

I flew through this novel in one sitting. It is a real page turner and I loved the twists and turns. I especially enjoyed reading the view of Mia and what events led up to her disappearance.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the characters and attempting to solve the mystery.

I would rate this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars. I look forward to reading more from Georgina Cross in the future.

#thestepdaughter #georginacross #netgalleyreview #netgalleyreads #netgalleyreviewer this book just sucked me in. Books like this are hands down my absolute favorite ❤️ kudos to the author and also I may have silently screamed #plottwist when your (step) daughter goes missing whose to blame? The doting father? Or the step mother? You will have to read this one to find out. #bookstagram #booklover #bookbookbook #getitnot #treatyoself

A true suspense story, you know something is going to happen, you want to stop it, and realize like a storm coming off the water, you can do nothing but brace yourself for the outcome! An ingenuous first story from an excellent writer! I cannot wait until her next book.
I highly recommend! Thank you Netgalley #The Stepdaughter
carolintallahassee.com

Mia is a thirteen year old champion swimmer with the brightest future. Her stepmother, Vanessa’s world revolves around Mia and her demanding schedule. Longing to see approval in her stepdaughter’s eyes, Vanessa struggles to be the perfect stepmother. When Mia suddenly disappears, all eyes are on Vanessa. Did she intentionally harm Mia? What secrets is she hiding? While searching for the truth of Mia’s whereabouts secrets are revealed and lives are shattered. Jealousy and rage are a dangerous combination in this suspenseful whodunnit. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Vanessa is the second wife, so when her 13-year-old stepdaughter, Mia, disappears from their home, everyone, including her husband, thinks that she had something to do with it. Is Vanessa the stereotypical evil stepmother? What really happened to Mia that afternoon?

This book had me glued to my kindle two nights in a row. Full marks to the debut writer for an exciting and taut psychological thriller. The twists are many and really add to the story instead of simply drawing it out.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

The book was freaking fantastic!! A perfect psychological thriller which captured me by my eyeballs, forcing me to never blink lest I miss something.

Pinpricks of fear and apprehension coursed through me as the writing became suspenseful. Author Georgina Cross had taken the missing child arc and spun her magic by going in directions so wild that my heart couldn’t stop thumping hard. I loved it!!

Mia was missing. She was supposed to be swimming in the pool for her practice. A fire started next door and in the hullabaloo, she disappeared. A gate behind the back shed was found open with a foot print and drag marks.

Her father Tripp and stepmother Vanessa were heartbroken. Next door neighbor too who had lost everything in the fire. Then the secrets came out. Massive ones!! Whoosh!! And I forgot the world.

My first book by this talented author, I was completely immersed in the layers of the story. Missing child is my favorite arc, and this book gripped me from the beginning to end.

The characters slowly peeled away their masks as the pages turned. And I was horrified. Omg. You have to read this book. The writing kept me at the edge of my seat, teasing me with words I knew would lead me to the eye of the storm.

This was one whopper of a story. If more authors wrote books like this, I would be in literary bliss, never coming down from my book high. This was pure caffeine.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. Wow! I absolutely loved everything about this book. The suspense and all the twists to the very end!

This is story centres mainly around Vanessa and her step daughter Mia. It covers fraught stepmother/daughter relations, and how difficult it can be to win over your stepdaughter, even when you think you get on. Mia is a champion swimmer, but goes missing from the pool, and from then there are lots of twists and turns before we find out the truth

The chapters of this brilliant book alternated between our main character Vanessa, Julia (Vanessa's neighbour) Charlotte (Julia's mother) and Detective Blakley. Towards the end of the book there was chapters that were voiced from the perspective of missing thirteen year old Mia. All of the main characters had their own personal flaws and most of them were harbouring secrets.My favourite characters were Vanessa's best friend Janie, Officer Donahue and poor Charlotte who suffered from dementia and therefore struggled to recall if she had witnessed anything of importance on the day that Mia disappeared. Dementia is a terrifying affliction and something that I live in fear of as I get older and I thought the author's descriptions of Charlotte's confusion and foggy brain were very realistic and written with care and sensitivity. I had mixed feelings about Vanesssa but mainly I just wanted her to listen to Janie and realise that Tripp had married her for his own personal reasons and it had absolutely nothing to do with love. But as they say, love is blind and Tripp had her firmly wrapped around his charmimg, manipulative finger. I also had mixed feelings about Mia, I think a lot of readers would probably label her a brat but she was only a child and therefore could she really be expected to fully understand the repercussions of her actions. How much of her behaviour could be blamed on Tripp's daddy's little princess cant do no wrong attitude? Talking of Tripp, I thought he was a very unlikable character for various reasons.

Wow....just wow, this is one hell of a twisty thriller that is really well written, keeps the reader guessing and frantically turning the pages. I was so captivated by this incredible debut that I read the whole book in one sitting. I was surprised when I discovered that one of the characters had the same name as my dad. I can't wait to read more of this author's books. Worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.