4.5 Kept me intrigued. Told in BEFORE and AFTER the death of fellow Oxford classmate April Clarke-Clivedon. Longer than the books I’ve been reading lately, because I feel like I didn’t put this one down but I took longer to read it than I have been. Will keep you guessing till the very end.

First off, I have never read any other books by Ruth Ware. I do, however like thrillers and academic settings. When the setting is Oxford, well I decided to take a chance and request The It Girl. It took me a bit to get into it as I didn't connect with the characters for awhile. It also took awhile to get used to the before the murder chapters and the after the murder chapters. As a locked room mystery with good suspense it kept me engaged and changing my mind with every red herring presented. I did like the conclusion. My one quibble? It could have done with some editing for length. There were bits that could have been trimmed without any loss of tension and story.
Overall I did enjoy it but I'm not certain I will rush to read another of her books. My thanks to the publisher Gallery/Scout Press and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I've read reviews about this author (and this book) that there are too many words and unnecessary details. I agree that Ruth Ware includes a ton of background information and details, but that is part of what I love about her books. She includes a great deal of information that allows us as readers to play detective and determine what is related to the mystery at hand and what is a red herring. I don't find the amount of detail to be frustrating. Instead, I look forward to weeding through the information presented to try to "figure out" where the book is going, know that some of it has been placed to intentionally throw us off.

This book contained dual timelines: Before and After. Both were told from a singular POV about the same murder and the same friend group from college. I liked that this was a single POV and thought the dual timelines were a great way to keep us interested as readers while still only writing from a singular perspective.

I've never fully "solved" a Ruth Ware book -- this one included. I find her stories to be clever and there is always one more twist than I expected.

Overall, if you like Ruth Ware, pick this book up! OR - if you're looking for a new thriller where you can play detective while reading, this will be a great choice for you. Happy reading!

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC of this book!

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TW: The main character is pregnant and I can imagine some of the subject matter could be triggering for folks who have dealt with tricky pregnancies or stressful/harmful situations while pregnant.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware is a very highly recommended, outstanding psychological mystery/thriller that begs you to consider how much can you trust others as well as yourself?

Hannah Jones’s Oxford University roommate, April Clarke-Cliveden, has it all. April is beautiful, wealthy, and sophisticated. She is the ultimate "It" girl, so Hannah is thrilled when the two immediately become best friends. Hannah becomes part of a close group of friends including April, Emily, Ryan, Hugh, and Will. What she could never portend is that April would be dead before the end of the year. This event changed the entire course of Hannah's life.

Ten years later, Hannah and Will are married, living in Edinburgh, and expecting their first child. The man who was convicted of killing April, Oxford Porter John Neville, has just died in prison. His death brings the trauma a decade earlier to the forefront again along with reporters and media contacting Hannah. When one young journalist who is a friend of Ryan presents some new evidence that suggests Neville might have been innocent, Hannah, whose testimony sent Neville to prison, begins to question what she believed to be true about April's murder.

The plot unfolds through Hannah's point-of-view in alternating "before" and "after" chapters. The "before" chapters follow Hannah's arrival at Oxford, her socializing with her friends, and memories of Oxford leading up to April's murder. We meet the group of friends, see their personalities, and observe their interactions with each other through Hannah's eyes. "After" chapters follow Hannah in the present day, her life with Will, her pregnancy, and the growing doubts concerning what she thought was true. She becomes obsessed with trying to uncover what really happened to April.

The It Girl is very well-written, intriguing, captivating, and utterly compelling. I was engaged from beginning to end in this even paced novel. Ware provides details that bring to life the characters and settings. The alternating timelines work remarkably well in the narrative and help to gradually create even more suspense and tension. Every one is a suspect at one time or another as Hannah tries to figure out what happened and if her observations were accurate. I was engrossed right up to the denouement, which was a shocking surprise.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Gallery/Scout Press.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Mystery/Thriller
Pub date: 7/12/22

We’ve all known an “It Girl”. The one who seems to sail through life with all the looks/brains/money needed for success. If we’re being honest, we’ve all probably hated an It Girl for those same reasons.

Hated enough to murder? Hopefully not. But that doesn’t make April Clarke-Cliveden, the eponymous victim of Ruth Ware’s newest novel, any less dead.

The narrative alternates between the “Before” and “After” of April’s demise, as experienced by her roommate bestie, Hannah. Along with their fellow Oxonian mates, April and Hannah enjoy the hell out of their first year of university. Right up until Hannah discovers April’s body at the end of term, signaling an abrupt end to the Before.

The After concentrates on the new life Hannah has constructed 10 years down the line, blissful until the man convicted of April’s death dies in prison. Questions arise that threaten Hannah’s mental and physical health, along with that of the child she is carrying. Which happens to be fathered by Will, April’s boyfriend in the Before.

This fast-paced thriller is filled with things that make you go hmmm, to quote C & C Music Factory. Everyone is potentially unreliable, not just the narrator. Motives abound and red herrings swim freely through the story. The best moments center around the camaraderie of college friends. Whether navigating relationships or taking the piss, the author captures the interplay with narturalistic dialogue that connects the reader to the characters.

“It” may be for you if:
- you like your thrillers with more brain matter than blood spatter
- you fantasized about attending Oxford
- switching timelines keeps your attention engaged
- you’re a fan of dark academia a la The Maidens and The Secret History

I liked this one more than her other books (not to say I don't enjoy her other books). I thought she did a good job explaining why the main character was so determined to find out the truth. I had an inkling that the real murderer was who they were, but then second guessed myself many times. I thought the plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested, but seemed plausible at the same time.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. I liked the characters and felt they all could have been guilty of the crime. The IT girl at Oxford who has everything going for her- money, brains, beauty and great “friends” who wouldn’t love that.

Although half way through I felt like it was dragging a little. I got to the point that I just wanted it to end.

And then it did and I wished that it didn’t end so quickly. I felt like we needed more information at the end as to the why. I realize as readers we got the why but in one page. Take a little out of the middle and add it to the end.

Overall I did enjoy the book and will recommend it to thriller lovers. Ruth Ware does it again. 🙌

Another solid thriller from Ruth Ware!

Although aspects of this story have been seen many times before in other books, e.g. the death of an "it girl", murder at a university, a convicted killer proclaiming innocence, etc., I still found Ware's story entertaining, if somewhat unoriginal. The mystery kept me guessing and several times I thought I had it all figured out, but ended up being surprised by the reveal, although the middle did lag a bit. Overall, I'd say this is a solid 3 stars.

Ruth aware never disappoints—by the end of this book I had accused nearly every character or April’s murder. The last quarter of the book was a wild ride and full of twists. Wild make a great—dark movie!

Truly enjoyed this book from cover to cover. The author has an incredible way of telling stories through characters. I found myself staying awake longer each night just so that I could read.

The It Girl is written in a before/after format centering around the murder of our main character's college roommate. I liked the format because it truly kept me guessing until the very end.

HOWEVER....

It was like 100 pages too long and just draggggggged in the middle. Plus the ending just kind of left me unsure of the plausibility of it all.

It had a ton of promise but sadly just fell flat for me.

2.5/5⭐️

While I appreciated the twists and turns, the plot seemed predictable especially towards the end. There seemed to be a lot of fluff in the beginning and middle of the book that wasn’t needed and could’ve been cut for a shorter more concise book.

OMG!!! I had heard a lot about this book, just as I've heard a lot about the author. I have been wanting to read her books for some time and now, thanks to NetGalley, I've been able to get the chance to read this one! WOW!!! To say I was blown away is putting it mildly, wow, what a rollercoaster ride it was. Just when I thought I knew whodunit, nope, I was wrong, again. I never saw the ending coming, it was a total surprise!!!! Wish I could have given it more than 5 stars. For all of you that have been Ruth Ware fans for years, I know you will enjoy this one as much as I did. For all others who have yet to read one of her books, I highly recommend!!! I'm looking forward to reading more from this talented author!!!

Welcome back Ruth Ware! I've read every single one of her books, and in the beginning, I loved them so much. As she released more and more books, they all felt too similar and stale. This is her first book that really deviated from her typical plot line of "being stuck somewhere mystery killer". First, I have to say it was so refreshing for her to write a murder mystery with a fresh new plot line. Second, I had no idea who the killer was until the bitter end. Thank you for going back to the days of In a Dark, Dark Wood!

The It Girl is a murder mystery that takes place in Oxford where two freshman with very different backgrounds become roommates and ultimately, best friends. April is the "It Girl" who is beautiful, exciting, and wealthy and Hannah is a quiet girl from a different socioeconomic sphere. The girls and their friends form a tight circle that is sometimes disrupted by April's love for practical, and sometimes vicious, jokes. It is all fun and games until Hannah finds April dead in her dorm room. April was believed to be murdered by one of the college porters who was stalking Hannah and was seen exiting the dorms before her body was found.

Years go by and Hannah is contacted by a reporter who's information chances everything. Was the porter really the killer? Or was it someone closer than she thinks?

April had it all and her Oxford roommate, Hannah, and their group of friends were pulled in by April and her looks and money. 10 years after April’s murder, questions are coming up again about whether or not they arrested the correct man and Hannah is forced to revisit a horrible time in her life.

Written in a way that is different from the other Ruth Ware books that I’ve read, this one is looking at something in the past rather than at the current time. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t one of my favorites of hers. I would still recommend this to anyone who likes dark, psychological thrillers.

Thank you @netgalley and @gallerybooks for selecting me to read this ARC of “The It Girl”.

#netgalley
#scoutpress
#gallerybooks
#readmorebooks
#readmorebooksbywomen
#mybookishlife

Synopsis: When April Coutts-Cliveden, The IT girl, is paired up to be roommates with Hannah Jones at Oxford, the pair quickly become friends. The two develop a group with four other friends, Will, Ryan, Hugh, and Emily, who do most things together. April is clearly the ringleader of the group, the one everyone is expected to follow until she ends up dead in her and Hannah's dorm room. Ten years later, Hannah and Will are married, they are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, John Neville, has died in prison. When a journalist comes knocking following the death of Neville, he starts raising points that Neville may have been innocent and has everyone questioning who the real killer may be.

Thoughts: I was highly looking forward to reading Ruth Ware's newest novel. It did fall a little flat for me. I had a hard time getting through the book and it could've been about 50 pages shorter. A lot of Hannah's inner dialogue was repetitive. The story was told between the Before and After, neither of which had me completely enthralled in the story. I did enjoy how Ware was able to get me to raise suspicion about each character. The killer wasn't overtly obvious. I do recommend this book to fellow thriller readers and look forward to reading future Ruth Ware novels.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy of the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Hannah meets April her first day of college at Oxford, she's immediately taken by her magnetic personality and beauty. Hannah joins April's group of friends and it doesn't take long for her to notice that some of them may not love April as much as she thinks. One night, Hannah goes back to her room to find April dead.

Ten years later, Hannah still thinks about April every day and questions all of the decisions that were made after Aprils death. When the man who was charged with killing April dies, Hannah decides that she needs to find out exactly what happened that night.

The It Girl had great pacing and I got sucked in immediately. You know that April has been murdered from the start, so it's fun to take note of each characters actions throughout the book to try to guess how it happened. The ending was just a bit too dramatic to me, but that didn't take away from how much fun I had reading it. This is the perfect thriller if you want to devour a book in one sitting.

This might be my new favorite Ruth Ware. I love a book set at a university and I love a mystery involving a group of friends so this one ticked all the boxes for me. April is a magnetic "it" girl and immediately pulls her roommate Hannah into her orbit. When April is tragically murdered, an employee of the school is convicted based on Hannah's testimony of what she saw that day. In the aftermath of the employee's death in jail questions start arising about his guilt. I really enjoyed all the twists and turns and was never quite sure who to believe was innocent. This is such an atmospheric and fun read, I loved it.

Thank you to Ruth Ware, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware is classic RW—fully-fleshed characters, chilling plot, twists you don't see coming, and an ending that blows you away. Love the cover, love the premise, love the story! From beginning to end, this book is amazing! Highly recommend!!!

April is the “it” girl at Pelham College, Oxford. She is wealthy, smart, attractive, talented. Hannah, her roommate, and she quickly become close friends. When April is found murdered in her room, Hannah’s statement to police helps put someone behind bars. Ten years later, that person dies in prison, still claiming his innocence. When a journalist reaches out to Hannah, now married to April’s college boyfriend, she questions whether someone else was the guilty party and sets out to answer some nagging questions.

Told in two timelines, before (the first year at Pelham for April, Hannah and a close group of friends) and after, 10 years later, it is cleverly plotted with good character development. However, it took too long to develop the after story. The before story where all the characters are introduced was well crafted. However, the after dragged on, especially all of Hannah’s ruminations.

Still, it was an engrossing, worthwhile read for those who enjoy psychological thrillers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallerybooks for the DRC.