I struggled. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to really like this book! I held onto this book to relish and reward myself. And maybe I expected too much? The characters never felt whole to me. As though they were all in draft form and never were fully flushed out. The plot was terrific, but execution was staggered and uneven. I never felt why Mariana was so focused on Edward Fosca being the bad guy. It never clicked for me. Did I miss something in the story? Was it just Mariana avoiding her own issues by obsessing? Or was that little spark that helps hook the reader missing? I think for me it was the last idea. Ultimately, it was a good book and I liked it. Sadly, I didn't love it or even really like it. I just liked it.

When Alex Michaelides' book, The Silent Patient burst on the scene, it was a jolt to the thriller genre. People gasping at the truly clever, surprising ending could be heard around the globe and the book dominated best-seller lists with over a million copies sold. The Maidens is his follow-up and although it does not pack the collective punch of The Silent Patient, it still is a worthy successor to his prior work.

Mariana is a group therapist, who is grieving the loss of her husband, Sebastian, who died by drowning on a vacation. Mariana is mired and stalled in her grief, though ironically still leading her group therapy sessions and trying to help her equally troubled clientele. She is shaken out of her paralysis when her beloved niece Zoe phones her from Cambridge University, fearful for her roommate Tara who has gone missing. When Mariana arrives, her worst fears are confirmed.. Tara has indeed been murdered in a cruel, sadistic, ritualistic manner. As Zoe and the Cambridge community reels from this tragedy, Mariana is determined to try to lend her psychotherapy skills to solve this troubling case.

Her suspicion is immediately cast on Edward Fosca, a charismatic American professor who leads a select, secret society of female students called The Maidens. Tara had been a member of the group and Mariana is certain that her death was no accident, but a planned sacrifice to appease the gods and the rites embedded in mythology that are threaded throughout the group. Mariana will stop at nothing to protect her niece and catch a killer.

But as Mariana races against time and struggles to find evidence to support her outrageous claims, more victims are claimed. Is Mariana's quest for vengeance misdirected? Can this serial killer be stopped? And will Mariana's precious grasp on sanity be sacrificed in the process?

Michaelides weaves a world of historical context and intrigue that initiates the reader into the secret society of The Maidens and the heart of the Cambridge University community. Short chapters keep a fast pace as the mystery continues to unspool and ultimately reveal itself as the reader sifts through the clues and the multiple red herrings.. It's a satisfying thriller with some surprises that should appease its audience.

Another amazing thriller from Alex Michaelides! Darkly atmospheric and well written. I liked the characters and the twists kept me guessing! I also enjoyed how he wove in a little of The Silent Patient in!

This book was an amazing read. It had me hooked from the first page. It had me guessing all the way to the end. The reveal at the end left me open mouthed and speechless. I did not see it coming at all. I highly recommend this book!

Mariana Andros is a psychotherapist suffering her own trauma and grief after losing her husband a year before. Her niece Zoe, raised by Sébastien and Mariana since she was a young child, is all she has left. So when Zoe calls her from Cambridge to tell her that her best friend was murdered, Mariana promises to be there for her. Zoe shares her fears with Mariana about her Greek tragedy professor Edward Fosca being the murderer but he has an alibi... his group of favored students, nicknamed the Maidens. Convinced of his guilt, Mariana uses her training as a therapist to try and prove it, often stepping on the toes of local law enforcement and putting herself in danger.
Pinning the murder on one man from the beginning makes it obvious that someone else is to blame and as the clues added up, I had my own theories. As the story twisted and turned and more bodies started piling up, I thought I had it all figured out. But the ending was a total surprise for me. I look forward to more thrillers by this author.
I received a free advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley and Celadon books. My review is given voluntarily.

I did not see that twist coming! This story is engaging and had me suspecting several different people up until the reveal.
I recommend to anyone who enjoys mystery/thrillers.

While I liked it, I wasn’t a huge fan of The Silent Patient, mostly because the best part is the twist and somehow listening to it, I figured it out pretty early on in the book. So why did I request an ARC of the second book to review? The description drew me in.

Recently widowed Mariana is a therapist that practices in group therapy. When her niece is distraught over the death of a close friend, she heads off to Saint Christopher’s College to comfort her. Filled with ghosts of her late husband, the location unnerves her.

There is a secretish society, a too involved professor and deaths stacking up. The book weaves the mythology of Persephone and Demeter into the tale. There is no shortage of suspects, even though Mariana has honed in on just one.

What sets this book apart from most of this summer’s mysteries, is it is a suspenseful book written in an artful way. I haven’t read The Secret History by Donna Tartt, but I’ve seen many comparisons to it. And the author was able to weave in some of his home country of Greece. And for those of you who’ve read The Silent Patient, there is a nice surprise.

For me it wasn’t a rip through the book in one sitting, but I read and listened to it over a period of time. It is more of a slow burn, than an edge of your seat thriller. And you might think you’ve figured it all out, but WOW, you will not see that ending coming.

If you like a slow moving mystery with an ending you’ll never see coming, then you’ll like this book.

What can I say? I enjoyed The Silent Patient enough to want to read this one.
And the cover totally sold it for me.

I went into this expecting to love the whole maiden theme but I was a little bored with it.

The mystery part of it was so good and I wish there were more of that sprinkled in because omg I couldn't trust nobody in this book and I was constantly thinking everybody was the killer. Ultimately I did sorta guess who the killer was in a roundabout way because they were a very fishy person but the reason why was outta left field.

I'll still check out a 3rd book by Alex just because I did enjoy the mystery.

It was an unfortunate kismet that this book was one more in a string of thrillers with whiny female protagonists, but here it is, and so explains my two-star rating.

Again, with the females with baggage, with the wool pulled over their eyes, with the toxic relationships and self-talk. Not to mention another mystery that is not her job to solve, yet she continues to take it upon herself to impede on an investigation, put herself in danger, and in the end up believing something that may or may not be true.

I was initially intrigued because of the academia setting with the possibility of a cult dynamic involving the “maidens”, but instead it was a slow unraveling of a mediocre mystery with agonizing and extraneous character development. The end reveal was unimaginative, almost trailing off into a cliffhanger that left me with zero desire to learn the conclusion.

An advanced copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. The opinions are my own.

Group therapist Mariana Andros is still mourning the death of her husband Sebastian when she receives a call from her niece Zoe, a student at Cambridge. Zoe’s best friend Tara was found stabbed to death. Shortly before her death, she came to Zoe in a panic. She admitted sleeping with Edward Foska, her Greek tragedy professor, and was afraid that he was going to kill her. From the moment that Mariana hears Zoe’s story and finally meets Foska, she is sure that he is guilty of the murder. He has already been questioned by the police, but he has an alibi and is no longer considered a suspect. His alibi was given by a group of his female students known as the Maidens. They are the children of wealth and privilege and hang on his every word. Mariana sees them under his influence and questions whether his alibi is as solid as he claims. Tara was one of the Maidens and a second member of the group is soon found murdered.

Among Tara’s possessions was a postcard with a quotation in Greek. The second victim was also in possession of a postcard and when Mariana also receives one she knows that she and Zoe are in danger. As Mariana continues to investigate Foska and the Maidens, Alex Michaelides alternates her discoveries with the murderer’s story of abandonment by his mother and abuse by his father. With references to Persephone, the goddess of death, and quotations from the ancient Greeks that demand sacrifices, Mariana’s obsession with Foska is understandable but it closes her mind to other possibilities. The revelation of the murderer provides a WOW moment that you will never see coming and shows why The Maidens is a guaranteed bestseller. I would like to thank NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing this book for my review.

I loved The Silent Patient and was so happy to get my hands on a copy of The Maidens! I enjoyed this book a lot, not as much as his first book, but it was still really good. Knowing how well Michaelides surprised me last time, I was suspicious of every single person mentioned. I figured out who but was surprised by why. I think lots of stuff could have been cut out but at the same time I understand why it’s there. Just don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give anything away. I think everyone should give it a chance!

Picked this book up because I enjoyed the author's debut novel "The Silent Patient". This book is not a psychological thriller, but more of a murder mystery.

Mariana is a group therapist, who has been grieving over her dead husband who died in a freak accident. One of her patients seems to be stalking her and she's been having trouble setting boundaries. Her niece calls her from Cambridge and says her best friend it missing, and Mariana goes to Cambridge to check on her niece. The missing girl is later found dead.

Professor Fosca, a Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge has a special group of students he called "The Maidens". When one of "the maidens" is murdered, Mariana becomes convince that Fosca killed her - but no one else believes her.

Occurrences in the story are linked to Persephone, the Greek goddess of the underworld and also new growth in spring. There are many allusions in the book to this myth. Beautiful, descriptive writing throughout the book. Red herrings abound and I could not pin down the murderer before it was revealed .

Thanks to Celadon Books through Netgalley for an advance copy.

I loved The Silent Patient so was looking forward to this book. The author had a hard act to follow and though I didn't like this book as much as his first, it's still a pretty enjoyable sophomore novel.

I wasn't crazy about Mariana - or any of the characters actually - though I did feel sorry for Mariana grieving the death of her husband. She didn't seem realistic as a psychotherapist though - but I chalked that up to her grieving state of mind.

The pacing of the book seemed rather slow and though I was intrigued enough to keep turning the pages, I wasn't as enthralled with it as I had been with The Silent Patient. (I enjoyed the references to characters from that book - - it made me want to go back and read it again)

There were LOTS of red herrings and I admit to suspecting practically everyone. I usually guess 'whodunnit' long before the reveal, but this ending came as a total shock. And it made me sad for Mariana.

Big thank you to @celadonbooks and @netgalley for my copy of this book for review!
Releasing 7/15!

I was very excited for The Maidens! Like pretty much all of bookstagram i loved The Silent Patient so I couldn’t wait for more stories from Michaelides

Thankfully I wasn’t let down!

Firstly I loved the writing style of this book. Sometimes a book just really flows and this one definitely did.

Also I love when a thriller has a deeper story behind it and I thought the way our main character grief was written was really relatable and real.

Once our Murders really get going the whole book felt so dark I didn’t trust any of the characters. Everyone was the killer 🤣
So I don’t want to say I guessed the ending, because I did not at all!
I was suspicious of everyone so The Who made sense but I was floored by the Why!

Super fun read! Definitely one thriller lovers should be watching for this summer!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read The Maidens

This was one of my anticipated reads for this year,

However, while I really enjoyed this author’s debut novel, The Silent Patient, this one fell a bit flat for me .

✔️ the best part of the book was the appearance of a character from the Silent Patient - unexpected, but enjoyable. It left me wanting to read that book again
✖️the first 26% of the book didn’t really even feel like a M/T but sappy woman’s fiction and not a good one at that l I was tempted to DNF it more than once
✖️it felt like every one in the book had “hidden anger “ issues and Mariana was “glad to get away from them “ 🤷‍♀️
✖️the ending just made on sense - seemed to be trying to be sensational- like the ending of The Silent Patient - but just kinda fell flat and came out of nowhere

Another page-turner from Michaelides!
This story is a dark academia, totally atmospheric story about the therapist who recently lost her partner when he died. They had been caring for a girl that was in need of parents as a small child and who is now at university at Cambridge. Their daughter, Zoe, was approached by a visiting professor who is from the USA. He has the unusual custom of choosing a group of girls at university that he considers the most impressive and talented and invites them to a secret group, The Maidens. They are all attractive and intelligent young women who have come from privileged backgrounds. Then the member closest to Zoe is missing and found dead. This starts Mariana’s attempts at solving the mystery of who was behind the murder.
The thriller nature of the story was great. If you have read his first novel, there is a lot of similarities here. This maybe due to how recently I read The Silent Patient.
My only critique is the ending is over-the-top in parts and then a let-down in other aspects.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.
#TheMaidens #Netgalley #CeladonBooks

This one definitely starts slow and builds throughout. I wish the main character had been less tunnel visioned but in the end the storyline was good. Definitely a mystery I won’t forget.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me preview the latest from Alex Michaelides. I wish I could say I loved this book as much as I loved The Silent Patient, but alas. The Maidens was a bit too heavy handed and predictable for me. I was never really able to lose myself into the story or to connect with any of the characters. All that said, I still tore through it in record time as Michaelides' writing is always propulsive. My unmet high expectations for this book are more the reason for the lower rating than the book itself.

Thank you Net Galley for the advanced reader copy of this thriller in exchange for an honest review. Having loved The Silent Patient, this was a must read for me. Michaelides once agin writes with an easy to read style with short chapters and a lot of twists that keep the reader wondering. I struggled with the multitude of characters and felt too many were introduced early and brought back up late in the book. I found myself needing to reread sections to try to decide how the characters might be involved in the murders. Even with that, a bit frustrating, flaw, I really enjoyed the book. The final disturbing twist was not anticipated at all and that is rare and very much appreciated. 4 stars for Michaelides second thrilling novel!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the sophomore book by Alex Michaelides, the author of one of my all-time favorites, The Silent Patient. That's a hard book to live up to but The Maidens is definitely a worthy contender - 4.5 stars!

Mariana is still grieving the sudden death of her husband, Sebastian, and working as a group therapist. She gets a frantic call from her niece, Zoe, a student at Cambridge University, saying that her friend is missing and she fears the worst. When Mariana arrives on campus, she learns that Zoe's fears came true. Trying to understand what happened, Mariana quickly suspects that the Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, is guilty. When another of Fosca's secret society of students, called The Maidens, is found dead, Mariana becomes obsessed with finding answers, threatening her reputation and possibly even her life.

This was another beautifully-written mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. I loved the atmospheric writing - you could picture the campus as well as the dark places visited - it all added to the mystery. I also loved that there were a few references to The Silent Patient as well. I can't wait to read more from this author!