So this book was quite the conundrum. I highly disliked the characters but I couldn't put it down as I got toward the end. There was nothing remotely redeeming about the main characters, but the storyline kind of helped that. The back & forth between Now & Then was seamlessly executed & flowed well. There were definitely surprises along the way. I just really disliked the characters. If you're looking for an intriguing thriller with hard to like protagonists, then this book might be for you.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Ambrosia Wellington and Sloan Sullivan, two former best friends, return to their college Alma mater for their 10 year reunion after receiving threatening messages. Someone knows their secrets. How? What exactly happened that night? Who is sending the notes and why?

To be honest, I was hesitant to request this book, as I tend to stay away from YA thrillers. Seeing that this is Fynn’s first adult thriller, I wasn’t sure it would turn the corner in its maturity. Well, I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised at the complexity of its adult themes and her brilliant execution. Flynn masterfully gives the reader a peak into the mind of an insecure college student, switching from past to present time in order to depict the growth or lack thereof in Ambrosia. She deals with serious themes of peer pressure and suicide and how characters’ actions or inactions can effect the outcome of tragic events. The plot is absolutely perfectly paced and executed. This would have been 5 stars for me, but part of the ending lacked a believability that the rest of the story contained. I am now really looking forward to reading more of Flynn’s adult thrillers!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC of The Girls are So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars

Sorry, this was a real dud for me. Books that center around Mean Girls should also have some redeeming characters or make those characters diabolically fun or at least understandable. This was just mean girls and more mean girls and then some victims and then modern mean girlhood and lots of sex and drama and then you find out what's going on. I really need more to keep me reading. I know this was a big hit with many others though, so clearly it will be enjoyed by man others.

This one was a tough read. A lot of unexpected triggers here. I also found it unbelievable in a way that I couldn't enjoy. I truly cannot imagine people acting this way in real life. Almost all of the characters were unlikable (which I realized was the point) and without enough development. I also found the writing confusing in a few places as well. IA few times characters were referred to by name and I had to return to an earlier part of the book to try and figure out who it was, this happened 3-4 times (there was also one place where I couldn't find an explanation of who a character was).

Coming from several literary fiction novels, I was in the mood for a thriller – Thank you! to @simonandschuster for the e-ARC of The Girls Are All So Nice Here 📖 which will hit bookstores on 9 March 2021.

Part college years memory, part her life in the present, the story is being told by Ambrosia. Very soon into the book we learn that she has received an invitation to a college reunion party which she does not want to attend. At all, actually - because her college years were marked with a friendship that had an incredibly manipulative effect on her.

My curiosity was going at 100% - I needed to find out what had happened in her college years, which tragic event had led to the situation she would find herself in now. This urgency had me read the first quarter in just one sitting. What really fascinated me, though, was how Laurie Elizabeth Flynn manages to make the inner shock last. Once finished with the novel, I noticed how terrible it can be when you land in a dangerous friend’s hands – a person who you feel you have to impress.

Even though it is a thriller book with a plot that sucked me in, totally, it is also a sad and dark book – one that has me thinking a lot about young girls in their twenties, insecure, trying to make new friends, hoping to find the right kind of guy.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here
by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
My Rating: 4 1/4 🌟 out of 5
Recommended to thriller lovers who like to dig a bit deeper into the topic of college friendships and the dangers of manipulative personalities.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn Review
Publishing March 9, 2021 from Simon & Shuster. Thanks to @simonandshuster and @netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“devotion and fear aren’t the same thing.”

it’s really easy to get caught up in other people. it’s easy to find a clique where you lose parts of yourself by trying to fit in with others. especially in high school and college. you just want to be seen. you just want to be something to someone.

this was illustrated very well in this novel, which centers on an obsessive friendship and what happens when things go too far. in alternating timelines, we see how quickly ambrosia gets sucked into the world of sully her first year of college. and then we see how events come back to bite them at their ten year reunion.

this was a slow burn and there’s a lot that could be spoiled, so i don’t want to say much. i was just completely invested in the relationships made in this book and all the things they led to. yes, it was slow burn, but it was anything but slow.

while i highly recommend this thriller, please check the trigger warnings below before choosing to read. there were several graphic scenes.

i’m sad that this book isn’t out yet because i know i’ll just have to wait longer to see what laurie elizabeth flynn comes up with next! she definitely has a lock on toxic female friendships and female stereotypes, though. i also reviewed all eyes on her (ya) and it floored me!

this is laurie elizabeth flynn’s debut adult novel.

tw: sexual content (lots but not TOO graphic), drug use, alcohol use, manipulation, rape, bullying, death, slut shaming, trauma, depression, toxic relationships, suicide ‼️ (which is very graphic!), depression, murder

This Perfect thriller was completely twisted and had me guessing until the very end! Bullying taken way too far.

Review - The Girls Are All So Nice Here
By Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Do not let the title fool you... these girls are NOT nice at all! In fact, they give a whole new meaning to the term “mean girls”. This psychological thriller captured my attention right from the start. This dark & twisted story is about three college girls each with something the other wanted & the unbelievable lengths they go to get what they think they are entitled to.
The storyline goes back and forth from their freshman year at Wesleyan to their 10 year reunion. The author does an amazing job on the character portrayals exposing the toxic relationship between Amb & Sully and the brutal things they did to get what they wanted. Each with insecurities and desperate to “fit in” they continue on this obsessive quest until they take it too far. Their cat & mouse games with poor Flora as their prey spirals beyond imagination.
There are lots of twists & turns along the way and while you do not know exactly what happened during freshman year bits and pieces are slowly revealed. Thus making it clear why Amb does not want to go to her reunion and why “someone” is summoning her and Sully to fess up to what really happened that fateful night. To sum it up... I couldn’t put it down. The ending was shocking & I didn’t see it coming.
I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy psychological thrillers.
Thank you NetGalley & Simon & Shuster for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley
#SimonandShuster
#laurieelizabethynn
#thegirlsareallsonicehere

If you’re a fan of Mean Girls with a dark and sultry twist, this book is for you!
Trigger warning: rape, bullying, drugs
————————————————————————
When Ambrosia Wellington is invited back to her college campus for a 10 year reunion, she’s hesitant to accept the invitation. Secrets and stories from her past start coming to light, and she’s not sure she’s ready to face it. As a freshman, Amb was craving a fresh start after high school. Between her new roommate, and the girls on her hall, she had plenty of choices when it came to making new friends. But when her hallmate, Sloane, really got a hold of her, there was no turning back. Eventually her building would be deemed “Dorm Doom”, for good reason. The things that happened during Amb’s freshman are truly unthinkable, but as she revisits campus, she has to face the truth.

The book is peppered with a lot of drama, cringe-worthy bullying, and a lot of naive party girl banter. It was definitely a slow burn, and I felt the ending was a bit rushed. The characters were not likeable (for good reason), and I struggled to find meaningful connections. I was hooked by the “whodunnit” vibes, but could have done with less bullying and drama. I felt like a lot of the scenarios seemed a bit unrealistic to me, as well.

Overall, the book nailed the “mean girl” vibes! It’s certainly dark and twisted, too.

So, while I enjoyed this book, I wasn't blown away by it. The writing was good and the story engaging, but I felt it was a little predictable and generic. That being said I would recommend this to other people.

I absolutely love stories about all-consuming or toxic friendships between young women. Situations where they push one another to do awful things. Does that make the characters unlikeable? Sure, but I find them to be super compelling.

The plot here of a woman being mysteriously summoned back to her 10 year college reunion by someone who wants revenge for something she did in the past really appealed to me. The book was told in alternating “Then” and “Now” chapters. Both timelines were fascinating. It was fun watching the growth of this toxic friendship in the past and trying to figure out what actually happened back in the day.

I will say that there are a few plot reveals that were a little bit obvious. But that didn’t impact my overall enjoyment since I was way more focused on the characters and all the twisted dynamics between them. But overall this book was exactly the dark, twisted mean girl type of story that I love reading.

A novel doesn’t need likable characters to be good and sometimes it’s not easy to connect with even the most virtuous of heroes but, when you’re biting your nails hoping that a monster gets away with the most horrific act, you know that the author is talented. When she starts college, Ambrosia has a choice, she can make friends with her nice roommate or she can get sucked into mean girl Sully’s orbit. Watching her make one bad decision after another is excruciating but it’s also impossible to look away. The chapters alternate between the “then,” when Amb was in college, and “now,” the 10th anniversary reunion that sees her, now a successful married woman, return to the ghosts she left behind. The rest of the characters are seen through Amb’s eyes and it’s amazing how other people’s behavior can be misconstrued so wildly. Some of the twists were more unpredictable than others, but the plot was so well-paced that it was impossible to put down. A seriously addictive but twisted read.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Simon & Schuster!

The title The Girls Are All So Nice Here is intentionally ironic, as the girls in this story are anything but nice. Sectioned into "now" and "then" chapters, the story now is a college reunion, and the story then is what happened freshman year. I liked how the "now" sections all began with an email about the reunion. Overall, I did not care for this book. I found the main characters one dimensional and uninteresting. Ambrosia was pathetic, and Sully was wholly unlikable. Their behavior was morally reprehensible. The loose thread of revenge was easy enough to figure out. The epilogue was the best part of the entire book. Nothing went deep enough; this is a superficial, under-developed Mean Girls to the extreme story, and I didn't enjoy reading it.

I give it one star because I finished it, and another star because the writing was technically and stylistically competent. I hope your results vary if you give this one a try.

The publisher said this would be a wild ride and it was! Despite the title, these characters are not nice girls. They're vicious, especially Sully who is like an even more wicked Regina George on drugs. The girls weren't likable but I couldn't stop reading about the effed up things they did. We don't know right away what they did, you just know that it was BAD. The Easter egg clues kept me hooked and guessing. The anticipation was half the fun of this one. I did eventually see some good character development in Amb... but has she really learned from her mean girl past? We flash between college and the 10 year reunion getting more inside scoop into the toxic friendships, poor decision making and dark crazy obsessions that this story entails. And if the lead up wasn't crazy enough, the ending surprised me. Highly recommend this juicy twisted revenge thriller. Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a story that takes your college mean girls to the next level. And maybe even a few levels after that. 😱

Ambrosia Wellington heads off to Wesleyan hoping to reinvent herself and get noticed by making friends with the popular crowd and joining the theater program. When she struggles initially to fit in, she sets out to befriend the notoriously magnetic Sloane “Sully” Sullivan and she gets a bit more than she bargained for.

Things don’t exactly turn out as she had hoped for during her college years and she works hard to separate herself from that life after graduation. 10 years later, she’s invited to her college reunion. Attached to the invite is a handwritten note saying, “We need to talk about what we did that night.”

Told in alternating chapters taking place during freshman year and 10 years later surrounding the reunion, I enjoyed seeing the story slowly coming together over the course of the book. While the beginning took a bit to set up, once the pieces start falling into place the pace picks up dramatically and I was left guessing what had happened and who to trust (non-spoiler alert - no one - trust no one - ever).

The whole cast of characters is pretty unlikable - as to be expected - but even as removed as I am from my college years, it was quite easy to picture those girls and fall back into the emotion of being a new adult. That being said, I’m incredibly thankful that those school days are long behind me 😂

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, bullying and the varied, related potential outcomes of trauma.

Thank you NetGalley, Simon and Schuster and the author for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Laurie Elizabeth Flynn for the advanced copy of “The Girls Are All So Nice Here” in return for my honest review. This book is available for purchase on March 9, 2021!

Ambrosia is a college freshman hoping to make the most of a new school by completely changing who she was in high school. Early on she learns that it isn’t as easy to fit in as she hoped it would be and quickly becomes resentful of others who seem to have a firm grasp on who they are. Much to her sweet roommate Flora’s chagrin, Amb ends up befriending Sully, another freshman who is known for being wild. Sully leads Amb down a dangerous path and when it ends with a fatal mistake, that error follows them around for the rest of their lives. Cut to ten years later at their college reunion, people still think the worst of Amb and Sully - but someone knows their secret and Amb and Sully spend the entire reunion weekend trying to save themselves from the past.

This was a great read - one of those “I can’t put it down” type of books. I will say, I really was not a fan of the main character (past or present) and did not find that the author wrote her to be likeable at all. There are some twists and turns in the book that keep you hooked and wondering who the culprit really is. The ending was definitely a shock - so if you’re wanting a suspenseful thriller with a surprise ending, this is the read for you!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Having read other reviews, I really looked forward to enjoying this book. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. The story alternated between college life and the 10-year reunion. The characters were flat and the descriptions of sex, drugs, and wild parties were repetitive. While I'm not bothered by any of these topics, there needed to be more "story" to hold events and relationships together. There was enough "teen angst" to fill a shelf of YA books. The ending was somewhat predictable.

Word of Warning: Do not start reading this book at 10:00 at night. You’ll get no sleep. You’ll just read until you’re done and then toss and turn because you cannot stop thinking about it. Trust me, I know.

I was hooked from the Dedication page: “For every girl who got what she wanted at a cost she couldn’t afford.” From there on, I just kept reading.

The Plot: Ambrosia receives an invitation to her college reunion, but she really doesn’t want to go (I wouldn’t either if I had done the things she’s done. Eek!). Then she receives a letter saying, “You need to come. We need to talk about what we did that night.” Oh, boy!! Yeah, she and her old buddy, Sully, certainly did some stuff. Did they ever!!! Now, of course, someone knows and wants to set the record straight.

This book’s greatest strength is in its characterization. I swear to you that you will actively loathe Ambrosia and Sully. They are, literally, the worst. As our main character, Ambrosia will reluctantly garner some sympathy from you, even though you really won’t want to give it to her. She’ll leave you juggling all your emotions as you try to figure out how you should handle her.

The book starts off on a tense foot, and the tension mounts with each passing chapter. Lies and manipulations are unrelenting. Alternating perspectives of the past and the present eventually culminate and explode in a final act that will leave you absolutely tongue-tied and breathless.

Grab it quickly. Enjoy.

This book was a wild ride! It had many trigger warnings, so do not go into this book blind. Check out The Story Graph for TW.

Woah, woah, woah. This book left me reeling! The ending is something else and it made reading this such an interesting experience. Flynn did an amazing job with this book.