This had everything I love about a good mean girl thriller--mind games, secrets, lies, insecurities making characters do the worst things, friendship manipulation, and so much more. I really enjoyed having the two different timelines between Amb's time in college and her current life where she is married living a quiet life. I still cannot decide if I like her or not...which is fine for me. I can always appreciate a well written anti-heroine. I would've LOVED Sully's point of view, I think that would've really set this book over the edge for me. There is so much more I want to say but I do not want to give anything away for anyone. I would definitely recommend this as a good campus mean girl suspense story, I bet it will be a fantastic audiobook as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC! So appreciated.

I loved this book. The college setting was a nice change from so many high school settings. This is definitely an adult book, with lots of adult themes and happenings, but I thought it more accurately reflected a college experience. The jumping between past and present worked well, as we really got to know these characters and see what they were going through. While I wouldn't call any of them particularly likeable, I did enjoy spending time with them. And the ending was a big surprise (and also worked super well!) Here's to more books like this!

This was a great psychological drama. As a freshman at Wesleyan University, Ambrosia (Amb) Wellington, trying to figure herself out and fit in, is drawn into the orbit of Sloane (Sully) Sullivan, who is wild, uninhibited, and able to persuade others to do what she wants. While she seems to be the "It" Girl, Sully is "lost" in her own way, using manipulation and cruelty to portray a sense of power and control. Among the targets of Sully's cruelty is Amb's roommate, Flora, who is the stereotypical "good girl." If she had allowed herself, Amb could have been good friends with Flora, who tried to be a good friend/roommate to Amb. However, Flora seemed to "perfect" and to "innocent/naïve", and ultimately, she had want Amb wanted, which Amb decided to try to take away from her. The cruelty of Amb and Sully had tragic consequences and irrevocably altered their friendship, such as it was, and their college experiences. Fourteen years later, it is the ten-year reunion of the graduating class. Amb has created a new life and is married to a good (but unambitious) guy. She has no interest in attending the reunion, but she keeps receiving e-mails and letters, including an invite with a message that "we" need to talk about what happened that night. The book alternates between the events of freshman year and events leading up to the reunion and the reunion itself. When Amb gets to the reunion and sees Sully, she learns that Sully did not send the note, having received an identical note, which she thought came from Amb.

The author does a masterful job of portraying the cruelty and manipulative behavior of Amb and Sully, as well as how actions or inaction by other students feed into Amb's insecurity and keep her under the influence of Sully and draw out her worst instincts. The revenge scheme, fourteen years in the making, is also masterfully done; a prime example of "gaslighting." Even when I figured out who was out for revenge, I was surprised at how far the person went to obtain revenge and "justice" for Flora.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

From beginning to end, this book was a wild ride. I could not put it down and just had to keep reading until the end. The plot drags you in with it's fast paced story telling. Mystery and suspense mixed with the characters that may not be what they seem will make it hard to not keep reading to see what happens next. Fantastic book that I highly recommend!

This book was absolutely incredible! I cannot say enough good things about it. I tore through it until the late hours of the night because I simply couldn't put it down. The writing is phenomenal and eloquent, and the plot is fast-paced and draws you in front the opening lines. The characters feel so real that you really feel like you're on that college campus with them. This is one of my new favorite books! Very well done!

I actually read this one in between meetings and stayed up late to finish it because I just had to know. For fans of Bad Mommy, Sometimes I Lie and Verity this is definitely a must read. Twisty, veering back between the past and present and unlikeable but magnetic characters. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC bc I'll get recommending this and looking for more books by this author.

An absolute mess. I'm even embarrassed to say I finished it. Everyone in this book was crazy, narcissistic and mean. It just went on and on and on. Wordy, meaningless characters and a plot that tries and fails. Absolutely do not recommend this one. Actually, I recommend you skip it

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before

This was was.delicious twisty book!
Ok so I loved everything about this book!
It was completely amazing.

Thanks NetGalley publisher and author for this copy.

Wow, this is a crazy suspenseful thriller. With a bit of an unreliable narrator, lots of suspicious characters, and tons of plot twists, this thriller doesn’t reveal what’s really going on until the very end. I loved the unpredictability of it, and honestly was shocked at the ending. Ambrosia was a main character hard to root for, but I still found myself pulling for her anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and eagerly await further work from this author.

The girls are not very nice here! They are horrible. Ambrosia Wellington, hero of our story, is grade A butthead. She plots and lies and treats everyone like garbage. She has a secret, something that happened when she was in college, and it involves her former best friend. I thought The Girls Are All So Nice Here was pretty entertaining, but about 50 pages too long. You will read that she has a secret, something that happened when she was in college, involving her best friend, approximately 400 times before you find out what the terrible secret is. Then once you find out what the secret is you're like yikes, that IS a terrible secret, and all these people are garbage and I hate it here. But still a fun read! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here, by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, is an unsettling, dual-timeline suspense novel. Ambrosia's keeping some secrets from her college years. Now, with her ten-year reunion looming, anonymous notes hint that someone knows what she and her friend did.

In their freshman year at Wesleyan, Sloane (who goes by Sully), says she gets bored easily. She embraces every kind of experimentation, and Amb is immediately drawn to her wild-girl ways. Amb's already hooked on their intense friendship when she starts to realize that Sully loves experimenting on other people and playing manipulative games.  I didn't buy this twisted-friendship dynamic in The Furies, but here it works. Sully's a Spence girl and Amb's from working-class New Jersey, which plays perfectly into the relationship.  Amb's already looking to build her college identity, and there's an unsettling mix of relatable freshman anxiety crossed with Amb's disturbing dependence on Sully's validation.  Throughout the novel, it's this mix of realistically relatable and darkly twisted that makes the story work.

When the invitation to their ten-year reunion arrives, Amb's married to a man a bit younger than she is, which adds to the feeling that her years at Wesleyan were sort of deleted from her adult life. She's pulled into the reunion, just like she was pulled into Sully's orbit, and at first I wasn't buying it. There were just so many chances for her to skip it or leave early or just not engage, but over the course of the book, it becomes clear that even as an adult, Ambrosia needs that external approval and she's still afraid to make waves or look weird. So, just roll with the whole but why would she go back there? to get to the twisty reveals about everything that really went on in their freshman year. Adult Ambrosia's still a good liar, and she's still worried that she won't look good in front of others, so she could still be manipulated by someone who knows that...

Most of the enjoyment in The Girls Are All So Nice Here is about discovering the twists and wondering who knows what, so I'm going to try to keep spoilers out.  The dual timelines takes us through teenage Ambrosia, falling into Sully's manipulation games in a twisted desire to be liked, and adult Ambrosia, trying to keep a lid on everything that's happened as someone seems to be manipulating her again.

Wow. This book was a wild ride! College mean girls, now back for their ten year reunion where someone wants to the past to finally catch up to them. I really enjoyed the alternating 'then' and 'now' structure this book is written in and the monstrous toxic friendships that Flynn has created! Basically all of the characters fit firmly into the 'love to hate' category. I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this book. This was a very entertaining book. I really enjoyed it. It was easy to read and even though it goes back and forth from the present tothe past, it was not confusing. There were several twists that kept you guessing right up until the end. I highly recommend this book! 4.5/5

A very solid adult fiction debut! I could not put it down and finished it in a day. So twisty and entertaining, while also dealing with some very realistic topics re: female friendships, particularly how the urge to be accepted and fit in can drive toxic behaviors.

I also really appreciated Flynn’s focus on the characters of Flora and Ella and how female cliques often shun or eschew the plain-seeming, genuinely nice girls. We should all be more appreciative of the genuinely good people we encounter on this planet. This book gave me a great little reminder of that.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for an advance copy!

Ambrosia "Amb" and Sully were best friends in college. Many years have gone by and Amb is now happily married. She receives an invitation to her class reunion and a very cryptic not from Sully that says "we need to talk about what we did".

Amb is very nervous about the reunion and doesn't want her husband to find out what happened back them and what kind of person she was.

Once she gets to the reunion with her husband in tow, she meets up with Sully and they figure out that they both received the same letter, but neither one sent them. Someone wants them to pay for what they did.

I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down! This story line has been done before, but not like this!!!! This book is very well written and really keeps you guessing til the end. All the tantalizing bits about what happened in college are perfect little teases without giving too much away too soon.

Do yourself a favor and read this book!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschuster for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I could not put this book down and spoiler alert these girls or should I say, grown women, are not nice in the slightest.

This gave me Mean Girl vibes but with an added thrill. You won’t know who to believe, what to think or who to trust. The main character wasn’t my favorite but didn’t stop me from enjoying this read.

I’ve seen some reviews saying they could see the twist coming but I could not at all. A brilliant debut novel that left me saying “wow!”

Mean Girls go to college...they become Defcon 5 terrible...they have to face it all at their 10 year reunion...and. the. wheels. fall. off. the. bus. No Regina George pun intented.

I honestly don't know how to do this book justice in a "review" meant for my friend on instagram. All I can say...I am not one for pre-orders, but do yourself a favor, head to your favorite bookseller and pre-order this gem STAT! March 9, 2021 will come fast and this is definitely something to look forward to!

Flynn crushed this so hard! It is told in a then and now which is equally thrilling and frustrating. RIGHT when a "then" section started to get really juicy...we were taken back to the now. I loved it all! There are definite triggers here, so reader beware about some bullying, mental health, self harm, but I could not recommend this more highly.

Thank you so much to @NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this incredible thriller in exchange for my honest review. Thank you @SimonBooks and @LaurieElizabethFlynn for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this early. This kickstarted my October thriller reading list...I pity the book that has to follow it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

103/100

I give this book 3..45 stars rounded to 3 stars. However, I really want to give it , but won't go against my grain to do it.. Although it had a lot of twists and just mean girls, which I usually like. . Like really mean. Ambrosiawas the type of girl who didn't really fit in anywhere in high school, having one close friend, Billie. However, they wind up going to different colleges and Ambrosia, (called Amb) desperate to make friends, had a sweet, smart dorm roommate in freshman year, that if she weren't so judgemental, and guarded, would've seen her roommate for who she was. A good friend. Except instead, she made friends with Sloane Sullivan (Sully), the meanest, game-playing girl instead. Not only was Sully mean, she's downright evil. But she was very popular, everyone was intrigued by her, but she got bored fast. Sully was a master manipulator who focused her attention on only one person at a time. She dressed different, wore a ton of makeup, knew all the good parties, and was undeniably promiscuous. Amb should've realized way before all the drama and snarky comments about everyone, including Amb that Sully was a bright red flag, waving in her face. Sully thought it was fun to bully people, sleep with a different guy every night and never look twice at them again.

I saw the end coming, but not nearly as far as it went. Sully was a psychopath and once disaster happened, she cut off Amb too. Sully was such a rotten person, she may be worse than my own sister, but they are equally vile and manipulative and mean, and Am b was just a pawn in a wicked game.

The story goes back and forth between then and now. Now being college reunion 10 years later. Amb, being married, did not want to attend, but her lovely 6 yrs younger husband did, even though she deleted all emails and threw away all mail invites, he still found out from the 2 girls and husbands they still hang out with that attended the college. It's not confusing at all, but it is entertaining. I read it in 4 hrs, so I obviously wanted to read it til the bitter end. If I ever ran into a Sully, I would've probably wanted to hang out with her, even though she can cut you out of her life as quickly as entering it, Sully really was attached to Amb, although she's quick to throw her under the bus, when the going gets rough, and rough it does. It ends in a nmurder, with mystery surrounding Amb and Sully, but even that was calculated and no mistake. But who did it? Which one of them or someone else?

I felt terrible for Amb's roommate. She was such a sweet person. Too bad Amb didn't realize that from the beginning. I know my review isn't the greatest, give me a break, I've been reading 4-5 hours straight since 4am. If you like stories about bullying, revenge, manipulating college girls, this book is definitely for you. I'm nervous I'm slipping back to psychological dramas/thrillers, which I'm tired of. These days, a book not only has to knock my socks off, but I have to be totally thrown back 10 feet out of my shoes to get 4 stars and a 5 star rating, has to be completely brilliant. Maybe I judge too harshly!!!

I thank Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this much hyped talked about book, publication date 3/21 for the ARC for my honest reason.

Trusting the wrong girls can kill.

This story is about girls who are tired of being hurt by guys. Girls who are tired of being hurt by other girls. Girls so insecure with themselves that they are willing to hurt other people...Even if those people are innocent.

This book left me feeling cold and sad inside because of its stark glimpse into the terrible things women are willing to do to each other in order to validate their own existence.

Thank you Laurie Elizabeth Flynn for the excellent storytelling. It gave me all the feels! And thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Advance Reader Copy of this great book. Couldn't put it down. Highly recommend you pick this one up when it's available.