A little slow to start but at the midpoint this one shot off like a bullet. Quite a few plot twists and a whopper of an ending that I didn’t see coming at all!!

This was an awesome twisty book.

Ambrosia, a girl who struggled to fit in during college is headed back to her reunion with more than a few secrets.

I do not want to give anything away, but I felt the author really nailed how finding yourself in college, especially when you struggle with self esteem is, and how sometimes the way you perceive situations is much different than they are.

I really, really enjoyed the writing and the twists.

OK, so I loved this book. I didn't expect to and I didn't particularly want to (hello unlikeable characters!) but it was so well crafted and plotted that it was impossible to criticize or put down. The ending blew me away and I am almost NEVER surprised at the end of a book, and I just really enjoyed every delicious page of this well-crafted, intriguing novel. Would absolutely recommend to people who prefer a variety of genres- thriller, women's fiction, contemporary fiction, etc.

WOW, What did I just read?!!??!? I was hooked from page 1. Anyone who goes away to college meets all kinds of people. You have your sorority type girls, you have your shy girls, wallflowers, jocks, bullies etc.

Amb, one of the main characters has her 10 year college reunion coming up and she does not want to go. She wants to leave the past in the past. Her husband catches wind of the invitation wants to go and meet her friends of the past and see what she was like 10 years ago. Amb starts receiving anonymous stating "We need to talk about that night"

Amb reluctantly goes to the reunion. Turns out her former best friend Sully is receiving the same notes. Sully was one of those girls you wanted to impress. You wanted to be her friend, but how far would you go to do that? I had somewhat of a college flashback as some of the characters reminded me of a few of the girls in this book.

Some girls just aren't as they seem!

This was a chilling novel that I could not put down. I can't wait to read more from the author. This was incredible for a debut novel. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of The Girls Are All So Nice Here.

Ambrosia is matched with a roommate during her freshman year at Wesleyan University. She doesn’t want to be like her high school self and becomes wrapped up in partying and sex. She and her roommate get on well until Ambrosia begins flirtatiously emailing with her roommate’s brother. Murder, suspense, and mayhem are all wrapped up in this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Girls are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn.

Ambrosia (Amb) has just started college and is anxious to meet friends and start her college experience. But even though her roommate Flora is kind, giving, and ready to befriend Amb, Amb is way more interested in pairing up with Sully. But being friends with Sully comes at a steep cost. It means partying relentlessly, stealing boyfriends, and being cruel to anyone that even glances at them the wrong way, including Flora.

So when Amb meets a man that she's immediately smitten with, it's devastating to discover that he's taken. However, with Sully's help, perhaps she can find a way to get what she wants.

Okay, I had a lot of fun with this book, I can't lie. But it's also kind of terrible! The characters are borderline cartoon characters, with dichotomous angels/devils. Amb is a certified mean girl, and while even "bad protagonists" have qualities that make you root for them, nope! I want Amb to get everything she has coming. So that was an interesting spin that I don't experience often. It was totally campy and unbelievable, but that was also what made it a party to read.

This cover caught my attention immediately, and when I read the blurb, I had high hopes for a taut psychological suspense, and boy, did this book deliver.

In her freshman year at Wesleyan, Amb is trying to figure out who she is in a sea of girls who seem to know exactly who they are. The breakup with her boyfriend still stinging, she doesn't see herself sharing much in common with her roommate, Flora (and Flora's perfect relationship with her Dartmouth-boyfriend, Kevin) and through a series of risky dares, she becomes closer with Sloan. One night changes the course of her life forever, and as the tenth anniversary of graduation approaches, Amb receives an ominous note, forcing her to return to her old stomping grounds and face the consequences of what she did that night.

I can't even hide it. I loved this book.

It's not because I loved the MC--I actually found Amb to be pretty shitty in her behaviors, both past and present. But, her raw honesty was endearing and gave her an edgy vulnerability. Yes, she made some poor choices. She was selfish and brutal and hurt people on purpose--but who hasn't made similar mistakes at that age? Young, hurt, and confused--Flynn did an excellent job of finding a balance between despicable and relatable, and because of that, I couldn't get enough of her voice. Having gone to a small college with similar groups melding together and unsure of my own place, I saw a lot of my own college experience, from the toxic relationships to the cattiness, the distrust and the confusion, but Flynn expertly weaves the mystery into a ticking time bomb of revelations.

The flashbacks were the epitome of psychological suspense. Sloan and Amb's relationship reminded me a lot of The Craft, that twisted love/hate dynamic, manipulative and pointed. I will say that I wasn't surprised at how they fed off each other, but I devoured this in a single sitting because I had to know what happened.

The present timeline set the stage for more of a classic mystery, and I spent most of those moments trying to piece together the puzzle. I had this one pegged pretty early on, but there are so much beautiful doubt, that it was fun getting to see how everything unraveled.

Overall, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a taut, smart, gripping psychological suspense that bleeds nostalgia and secrets. I look forward to more from Flynn, as this will definitely be a 2021 must read. Out in March, add it to your TBR now. You'll thank me later.

Big thanks to Simon and Schuster for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

This is the first book I have read by Laurie Elizabeth Fynn and what can I say? I love the way the book was written in the first person and then the now and then view. I was intrigued throughout wondering what Amb did in college and why so many years later it would be affecting her at the college reunion. The characters were well liked. I kept thinking I knew what would be happening but every time I thought I knew what would be the ending I was thrown for another loop. The ending just blew me away.
Thank you to #Netgalley, #simonandshuster, #laurieelizabethflyn for the opportunity to read this great book and be introduced to this author.

Laura Elizabeth Flynn digs deep into the world of teenage girls and their insecurities in this coming of age thriller. Just how far will girls go to not feel lonely, invisible and unpopular?

A 10 year college reunion brings up all the secrets that Ambrosia "Amb" Wellington has worked so hard to bury. Secrets of an awful past that only Amb and her former "mean girl" best friend know about. At first Amb knows that there is no way she'd return to the scene of her dark college years. But when someone starts leaving notes for Amb, practically begging her to come to the reunion, she know that she needs to attend. Someone knows something from that night. But who? And why are they just bringing it up now?

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a riveting read that hooked me right from the beginning. It's twists and turns were a thrilling and suspenseful game that kept me guessing until the very end. Its alternating POV was well thought out by the author in order to tie up all of its details neatly in the end. A must-read book that you will not want to put down!

Really well written and interesting book - for anyone that remembers their freshman year of college, and trying to find oneself, you will relate to it - good surprise ending, really enjoyed this book!

This book is perfect for all of the now grown up fans of “Pretty Little Liars”!

The way this story alternates between Amb’s past & present with taunting e-mails thrown in makes it an amazingly fast read and it keeps you guessing until the end. Parts of the end were predictable, but it had pieces that surprised me.

The only criticism I have of the book is that the story is a little bit over-sexualized and extreme. I certainly knew plenty of slutty people in college, and I certainly knew plenty of mean girls in college, but the overly dramatic, incredibly sexually aggressive characters border on unrealistic to me.

Dark, twisted, genius thriller which examines social relations between teenage girls and ways in which conflicts may turn into a deadly obsession. 5 star.

Attention: it is not just another fast-paced, exciting thriller. It is a fast-paced, exciting thriller which delves deep into the compelxity of teenage girls' friendships, jealously, bullying, insecurities and ambitions. Flynn wrote a sharp, poignant thriller about very real societal problems young women inevitably face.

I read The Girls Are All So Nice Here glued to my Kindle. Megan Miranda and Samantha Downing, some of my favorite authors, recommended it for a reason. It is about a ten-year college reunion of Abrosia and Sully, two former best friends who did something really bad way back when. And at the runion, they unexpectedly receive messages which make it clear that someone wants to know the truth about what happened- and it's going going to be pretty.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is absolutely shocking and dark, and what's the best part about this thriller is that it reads so realitically.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Your first year of college, you're bound to meet certain types of women: the queen bee, the sweet and wholesome girl your mom would love, the gossip, the small-town girl, and the one that would eat you alive and never think twice. The Girls Are All So Nice Here drives home just how important it is to align yourself with the right ones. If you don't? The toxic traits your new friends embody might rub off on you. That, or maybe your company will make you realize that you were one of the mean girls all along. Or at least, that's what happened when Ambrosia Wellington went off to Wesleyan University. After pledging her allegiance to a charismatic theater major with a dark streak, she found out exactly what she was capable of. (Here's a hint: it wasn't good. Not good at all.)

Ten years after graduation, Amb has tried to recreate herself. She has a mostly happy life in New York, where she's snagged a job in PR and a husband five years her junior. She doesn't ever let her husband or her new circle of friends get a glimpse of the girl she was before because she knows that would be enough to make her lose it all. When her ten-year reunion rolls around and her husband is eager to see her old stomping grounds, it quickly becomes evident that this PR queen's years of spin are soon to be out of her control.

This novel has so many elements I love that I was sure I was setting myself up for disappointment. Campus novels and books about toxic female friendships are my catnip. I've read so many of both that it's nearly impossible for me to find something new and fresh. Flynn absolutely nailed it on all fronts. Everything about the execution of this book from the atmosphere to the dialogue (and the perfect ending) gets a stamp of approval from me and five glowing stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

"The Girls Are All So Nice Here" by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn was similar to the movie Mean Girls but much darker and meaner. For me, the book started off slow and took me a while to get into it. There was a lot of backstory into the girls at Wesleyan, and I had a hard time following who each girl was. Towards the middle to the end of the book, the pace of the story was quicker and tenser and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened at the end. Spoiler alert - most of the girls in the book aren't nice at all! I like how twisted the story was and I give it 4 stars for good story with a slow beginning.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 4.5/5 stars

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a dark, sharp thriller with an excellent plot and truly disturbing characters. The plot is basically Mean Girls meets I Know What You Did Last Summer and it lives up to that mashup.

Told in alternating Then and Now chapters, The Girls Are All So Nice Here centers around three girls - Ambrosia, Flora, and Sully. The Then chapters are of their freshman year at Wesleyan University, where one night changes their entire lives. The Now chapters are 10 years later as they attend their class reunion. Ambrosia does not want to go to the reunion, especially after she receives a note talking about that fateful night. As we slowly find out exactly what happened 10 years ago, Ambrosia tries desperately to find out who is sending her notes and what the mystery person wants from her.

This book has a last line that made me literally shudder. The characters are so complex and twisted and while you don’t necessarily like them, you understand why they are the way that they are. As the tension escalates in both timelines, you can’t stop turning the pages so you can finally find out what happened on the night that changed everything. Laurie Elizabeth Flynn truly delivers on the ending, making this one of my favorite thrillers of the year.

Overall, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a dark, tense thriller with well-written characters and a killer ending. Pick up a copy of this book when it releases on 3/9/2021!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such a great read! I loved the way it was told with what was happening then and what was happening now. This book sucked me in from the beginning and made me feel uncomfortable at times which I loved.

Mean Gitl, the college edition. Great characters and dialogue.. i did figure some of it out but really enjoyed it and that didn't spool story.
Looking forward to reading more by this author

I'm always interested in these types of books -- good girls gone bad, etc etc. The description did not disappoint. The characters were relatable and the writing flowed through with each twist. It is written in two timetables - one at college and one in present day, which gives you two different perspectives. I kind of guessed the ending, but otherwise it was a solid read!

This book brought me back to my college years, when I was trying to find out who I was. The length could’ve been shortened a little in my opinion and I was disappointed that Ambrosia didn’t get justice, but not all good books have a happy ending. This book was anything but predictable! I loved it so much.

Two friends that went to university together will have a chance to see each other at the ten year reunion..
Neither of them really want to go. A mysterious e-mail summons them. They will have to face their past. They were mean girls, not caring who they hurt or why. Roommates were included in the girl's meanness. Revisiting the place were mean fun turned into suicide or murder will not be fun. Now it's time to face the music. What goes around comes around in this tense, twisted story!