Many thanks to C..J. Tudor, Random House, and Net Galley for providing me with a digital advance copy of this novel. Tudor has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I was so excited to read The Burning Girls! I very much enjoyed this novel, which felt like a cross between a creepy thriller and a cozy English mystery, all with a bit of Stephen King horror thrown in for good measure.. Highly recommend!

In The Burning Girls, you have Chapel Croft, a town that has a history involving burning twig dolls, church martyrs, and missing teenage girls. Reverend Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo are looking for a fresh start, but Chapel Croft is full of its own secrets.
In the last few years, I have become a fan of CJ Tudor’s work. She is not afraid to go dark for her endings, a trait I really admire. I was really excited to read her 2021 release! Lucky for me, she did not pull into a fifth book slump. The writing is stronger than previous books and the pacing was excellent too. What I most enjoyed about The Burning Girls is that the answers don’t appear out of thin air. There’s no crazy a-ha moment, just good storytelling. This is the perfect spooky thriller to keep readers up all night.

Thanks to Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC!

The following quote from the book blurb is the perfect indicator for how this book goes:

"500 years ago: eight martyrs were burnt to death
30 years ago: two teenagers vanished without trace
Two months ago: the vicar committed suicide

Welcome to Chapel Croft."

C.J. Tudor is one of my new favorite authors. I loved The Other People and was thrilled to receive an ARC of The Burning Girls. This book did not disappoint. It had a wonderfully eerie and gothic tone. There were definitely some creepy moments in the book which keep you tied into the story. Rev. Jack Brooks, along with daughter, Flo arrive in Chapel Croft. Rev. Brooks is looking for a fresh start after a difficult situation and Chapel Croft is without a vicar after the last one died. Its appears that this is a good solution for all parties involved. However, there is an air of mystery surrounding many of these events. Then throw in sightings of "burning girls" and you have possible supernatural events to toss into the plot.

I enjoyed this book immensely. For me, it was the complete package of a well-written novel that I would categorize as a paranormal mystery. If you like mysteries with a touch of supernatural creepiness, this book is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC. The burning girls were martyrs in the time of Bloody Mary and every year the village makes dolls to burn to remember that time. This time something else is afoot. The new Vicar and her daughter are immediately caught up in the village secrets.

The Burning Girls, by C.J. Tudor, is a legitimately creepy book. The haunting atmosphere is matched by equally unsettling action, strong and believable characters, and a plot that lands several solid twists and turns. The connection between three eras is a pretty typical framework for this kind of thriller, but it works better here than in many other books, and the narrative connections between the different tragedies that have occurred in this quiet country town are successful. All in all, a genuinely spooky read that straddles the line between thriller and horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the advance review copy!

This book was the perfect amounts of mystery, horror and thriller. It gave you enough action to be engaging while still having a surprising ending. CJ Tudor knocked this one out of the park

This thriller features a great main character in the village vicar sleuths. Surprises start with preconceived notions from the beginning and just keep coming. There's a lot going on here--some murder mysteries, folklore, bullying, parenting but Tudor pulls it all together by the end and it works . Well done.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I really liked this! I’ve read this author’s previous works and they have often been hit or miss but this was definitely a hit! I had inklings while reading but couldn’t quite put the pieces together which is something I feel like I haven’t found in a long time in a book. This was a page turner till the very end and gave me some actual scares. I highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book. It starts out as a slow burn but then it got really interesting. The author did a great job of putting all the different characters together so it wasn't difficult to keep them straight. There are quite a few twists but nothing too spectacular and they kept you reading trying to figure out how things will end. Overall it was a good read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

had a hard time getting into this book. Although I liked the main character, a female vicar whois smart and independent, the plot was kind of meandering to me. It didn’t help that I couldn’t keep the characters straight. The vicars’ names blended together for me and I couldn’t remember the difference between the two missing girls. The plot twist at the end redeemed the book somewhat, but I had to skim a bit to get there.

Despite a lot of potential, this book ultimately fell flat for me. The premise of the book was interesting enough: a vicar and her daughter move into a community marred by the tragic death of a clergyman and a macabre folk legend that seemingly haunts the local church. More thriller than horror, Jack and her daughter seek answers behind the mysteries surrounding the church, its clergy, and an unsolved mystery involving missing girls. I muscled through the lackluster writing style and a few characterization choices that I could've done without, but the real qualms I have with this novel involve its use of characters from disenfranchised communities (black, gay, mentally ill and physically disabled characters). It absolutely soured the entire novel for me. I’d like to think that we as a society has moved passed damaging stereotypes and horror tropes that malign people with disabilities, black people, and queer folk but this novel only seems to reinforce these problematic tropes rather than subvert or challenge them.

The Burning Girls was quite literally terrifying. I really enjoyed the author’s other book The Chalk Man and was expecting another twist and turn thriller. I think Tudor went beyond thriller into horror land. I really enjoyed how this was more on the horror side than thriller. In this book we follow Rev. Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo. They move to Chapel Croft because the small village is in need of a new vicar. On the first day of arrival, they find twig dolls which are made to commemorate the burning of two girls who were burned at the stake. A little weird start, but things start to get a darker and this small village isn’t as peaceful as it seems.

The legend goes if you start to see the burning girls which the villagers say still haunt the chapel, then something bad is going to happen to you. Flo starts to see the burning girls and things just get very scary. I have to say I wasn’t really connecting at the beginning and thought it was going a bit slow. I did find the atmosphere to be chilling, but I wasn’t yet hooked to the story. Once I had gotten in quite a way, things start to really pick up. I actually had a hard time reading this at night and was very surprised with all the twists that happened. I enjoyed the different perspectives we get throughout this book and I really enjoy the main character Jack. She is a vicar, but does have her vices and doesn’t claim to be perfect. I was actually shocked by the ending and was blown away. I think this might be my new favorite Tudor book.

After negative publicity, the diocese sends vicar Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo to a small village until things get better. Almost immediately, strange things start happening, spectral visions, odd things left at the doorstep or in the chapel. Jack learns that this village is full of secrets about martyrdom (6 people, including two young girls were burned ag the stake for their religious beliefs centuries before), and as it turns out, Jack has some secrets of her own.

This book was a real page turner! The pacing kept the suspense at a high level and the characters are developed really well throughout the course of the book. Tudor gives us just enough info about the characters to keep us turning the pages to find out more and what will happen next. The chapters are short, which I appreciate when I have limited reading time. It allows me to not stop in the middle of a chapter. The subplots were also enjoyable and added to the story. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good mystery!

Thank you to Random House, Ballantine Books, author C.J. Tudor, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had been SO excited about this book for a LONG time. The Chalk Man was one of my favorite books back in 2018. I received this book a couple of days before publication day and was thrilled to tear in as soon as possible. As much as I hate to say it, I DNF this at 40%. The flow was short, choppy and just left me confused. I kept re-reading what I had already read trying to discover what was going on. It seemed just a little bit ridiculous. I am all for some creepy, satanic plot, but I couldn't force myself to keep going with this one.

Thanks to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Reverend Jack Brooks and his daughter move to a small town where strange events are happening. When his daughter is visited by a ghost, he begins to question the towns history. This book kept me interested from the start.

4 Stars

C.J. Tudor has become a favorite author of mine when I'm in the mood for a creepy, unsettling read. Her debut "The Chalk Man" is still my absolute favorite so far, but this one settles in cozily at second place.

Female vicar Jack Brooks accepts a temporary post in Chapel Croft, a small, rural British farming town. Its claim to fame is a gruesome one. During the short reign of Catholic "Bloody Mary" (eldest daughter of King Henry VIII), there were burnings of religious heretics. Some of these were children- now memorialized as "The Burning Girls". A small monument was erected outside the chapel where little twig "girls" were sometimes left scattered at its base. A cemetery surrounded the church as well as its adjacent small cottage, new home for the vicar and her fifteen year old daughter Flo. It's said that the chapel is haunted by these girls, who were brutally dismembered prior to their burnings.

Jack and her daughter left their prior home in the city of Nottingham under a bit of scandal involving Jack's prior church. Teenage Flo was less than happy about leaving her friends and city life behind for the insular community of Chapel Croft. Jack is not only a vicar, but a Mom, and if it wasn't for the religious collar one wouldn't take her for a priest. In fact, one couple meeting with Jack regarding their upcoming nuptials complained that she might ruin the pictures! She had a penchant for smoking and a past with rough sleeping as a homeless teenager-until she found nurturing and support through the church. Now she feels like she's paying it forward in her own way.

There are terrifying ghostly sightings, an abandoned house of horror with demonic graffiti, local and distant murderous predators, and long held tragic secrets to unravel in Chapel Croft. I very much enjoyed the beginning of the story as Jack and her daughter were settling into a situation that was not ideal, but with the hope that they would triumph over adversity. As the story progressed things became increasingly sinister and unsafe, and the town's decades old mystery of two missing girls simmered slowly to its eventual resolution. I enjoyed the book overall, but became a little impatient towards the end. As always, I simply enjoy C.J. Tudor's writing style and will gravitate towards anything she writes in the future.

Well, this was an unexpectedly super fun read! I thought it was going to be very supernatural from the description and the first few pages, but the genre was more twisty-psycho-killer-murder mystery-thriller-ride.

And what a ride it is! I was pulled me in from the very beginning and didn’t have one boring page. It was difficult to put this book down because I wanted to know who did what throughout the whole thing.

I will say I suspected one or two guilty parties, but that didn’t even cover a tiny bit of this mystery, which just keeps getting bigger and bigger the further you get into the story.

And it’s like WHOA. The hits just keep coming and I am here for it!! I’m going to buy all the books by C. J. Tudor! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

My thoughts
Rating: 4
Would I recommend it ? Yes
Would I read anything else by this author? Yes, because she one of my 3 top women horror authors .
First of I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine , the author C.J. Tudor , and to NetGalley for letting me read and review it. Wow just like her other books this is spot on what you thing of when you read C.J.Tudor's books :
Nail bitingly , blood freezing, terrifyingly heart beat that has you setting on the edge of your set and jumping almost out of your skin because your so caught up in the story and not what's going on around you. Its creepy and twisted and makes you want to keep turn the pages and when your finished with it your at a standstill because you want more of her books but you have to wait because you've already read them all, like I have. IN fact she's the only horror author that I've done that with where I'm all caught up with her books. And her atmosphere of her books and this one as well always gives you goosebumps on your arms at least they do mine because you have no idea what is going to happening next or what is coming straight at you from the shadows, like I said this book has every thing in that you would want : a ghosts, a small town with a dark past and history, a disappearance, and even exorcisms. So what are you waiting for go pick it up .

This is a story about burning girls: some made of sticks, some made of secrets

I really enjoyed the aspects of this book that I liked, and really hated the aspects that I didn’t. The atmospheric backdrop and creepy religious elements were well done, and I felt unsettled for much of the reading experience. I was also surprised by some of the twists, and found that even the a couple that I predicted were well done and interesting. My star rating was knocked down by two elements that felt entirely unnecessary, one of which was a thread throughout and was ultimately pointless as far as I could tell? Overall an enjoyable read.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫/5

Thank you NetGalley, Random House, & Ballantine for this e-ARC. The Burning Girls is out now!

Ooo, this was my first outing with CJ Tudor, but it will not be the last! I really enjoyed this on the whole, as it had a lot of my favorite trope candy: is it a gha=gha-ghost? Small town secrets. Cult/religious element. All of these elements gelled together really well, and the result is a very satisfying page-turner of a mystery thriller. I didn't love the very last twist, but aside from that, this was really enjoyable for me