This might be my favorite Ruth Ware to date. The story toggles back and forth between two time periods, present day and ten years in the past when the characters are in their first year at Oxford Pelham. Our narrator and main character Hannah tells the reader about her roommate and best friend April and their friend group from college, Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily. We quickly learn that by the end of the second term, April was brutally murdered. In the present, we learn that her murderer, John Neville, a school porter, who was tried and convicted on evidence provided by Hannah, has just died in prison, still proclaiming his innocence. Hannah, now married to Will and expecting her first child, becomes obsessed with connecting with her old friends and asking what they remember about that night and slowly loses her certainty that she was right about the evidence she provided ten years ago.

Things I liked:
The atmosphere was so dark and twisty; LOVE a good British dark academia thriller. The cast of characters was fun and worked well together. I didn't guess the end immediately (though I did guess it pretty quickly).

Things I didn't like:
I felt like there was more than a whiff of victim blaming, even though April is far from a likeable character. Also, as mentioned, I did find the end fairly guessable. But really, the atmosphere was so enjoyable I'll overlook the predictability.

Would definitely recommend to any thriller fan.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The It Girl, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Ruth Ware, comes out on July 12, 2022. Galley Books provided me an early copy in exchange for this review.

We read Ware's Turn of the Key for our book club at the library last year. I had chosen that one because it was a contemporary thriller. Having enjoyed it, seeing this upcoming release quickly garnered my interest.

Ware has a knack of putting twists in her tales, something fairly common with the thriller/mystery genre. What I like about her work in particular is that she is very good at leaving breadcrumbs throughout the story so that when the revelation finally comes it is not out of leftfield. She clearly worked to get a conclusion that is logical and satisfying.

The book is written in a flip-flopping style of before and after. The before, told in past tense, sets up the backstory; the after, told in present tense, deals with the fallout. It is an effective narrative style that works well for this kind of tale. I particularly enjoyed the before chapters as they dealt with the characters as university students at Oxford.

I can see The It Girl turning up on a lot of summer and fall reading lists.

April Clarke-Cliveden is the “it” girl. She is beautiful, smart, charming when she wants to be, and funny. April meets Hannah Jones when they are paired up as roommates during their first year at Oxford and they become quick friends. However, before their freshman year is over, April is murdered and Hannah’s eye witness testimony puts an Oxford porter behind bars. Fast forward a decade and a report is trying to get in touch with Hannah about April’s murder. The reporter voices questions about the porter’s innocence, which plunges Hannah back into turmoil once again. Was Hannah right and the arrested the right person, or is he really innocent?

Hannah tells her story in dual timelines, reliving her first experiences at Oxford and the friend group she and April surround themselves with and the turmoil she finds herself in a decade later. This is a slow burn and I thought I knew who did it from very early on, but I was very wrong and shocked by the ending! I recommend this novel.

I love Ruth Ware stories! When Hannah goes to college, she meets her roommate, April. Together they form a group of devoted friends…Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily. The story goes back to school and events leading up to a murder. The creepy guy at school is seen by Hannah coming down from the room where Hannah and Hugh find April dead on the floor. Now years later the man convicted has died , professing his innocence til the end. Hannah has nagging doubts regarding the innocence and a young journalist is now looking into the case and asking questions. A very interesting path to follow as Hannah starts to suspect all her friends.

Another great thriller from Ruth Ware! I especially loved the settings of Oxford & Edinburgh. It made me long for a trip across the pond. I loved the characters, though sometimes it was hard to relate to April. This book had me guessing who, how, & why all the way to the end. Thanks NetGalley for an advanced copy!!

Guys I'll be honest, I have wanted to read a Ware book for years, but honestly I've never gotten around to it, so thankful I finally did it! From the start this book reeled me in, so interesting with twists and turns that will.kepp you guessing. I had an idea who did it at the beginning of the book, thought it was someone else in the middle, thought I knew exactly who it was at the end and then bam she threw us for a loop again!

Thank you to netgalley for letting me read this ARC and to Ruth Ware for writing such ana amazing book. I don't usually give five stars two books but this one was just so well written and compelling.

4.5/5 stars (rounded up to 5)

Thank you NetGalley and Scout Press Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Ruth Ware will forever be an auto buy author for me! When she came out with her rating scale of her books by how scary they were and this was was not listed as scary as some of her others ones, I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this one.

But she proved me wrong once again. Even though it’s not as scary as some of her other books, she is still an amazing author in her own right and knows how to spin a tale that will keep you engaged throughout the entire book. I love how intense her writing is and how you get so invested in the characters. You just wanted to know what is going to happen or what did happen. There is so much suspense that while it may not be “scary” your heart is still racing the entire time because of the suspense and that atmosphere. Overall, I will always recommend a Ruth Ware book because her writing is just amazing!

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (read_betweenthecovers) in the near future!

The setting for this book is a character in its own right. I loved the atmosphere and the red herrings as I tried to figure out whodunnit. Another strong showing by Ms. Ware and fans won't me disappointed!

Loved this one! Ruth Ware is a must=read author for me, and this is my favorite novel of hers I've read in quite some time. The twists and turns kept me guessing and I was genuinely surprised by the ending - which is always fun when you read a lot of thrillers! This was fast paced and well written - would definitely recommend to fellow Ruth Ware fans and anyone who enjoys a good thriller!

I like Ruth Ware, she's usually an auto-read author for me, because I can't get enough fast-paced, twisty thrillers and she's good for them! While I liked this one fine, it didn't feel nearly fast-paced or twisty enough for my usual tastes. It felt REALLY long compared to her past works and that didn't really work in its favor.

Obviously I understand the point of a red herring in fiction, but it felt like there were just way too many of them in this one. Every time a new option was suddenly brought up and investigated it just felt like being on one of those really jerky wooden rollercoasters.

It also didn't help that I wasn't really invested in any of the characters at all. None of them felt particularly compelling, and I don't usually expect a LOT in plot-driven stories, but I just found that I didn't really care much about the characters or what happened to them.

So overall, this was fine. I liked it. It'll make a good airport or beach read!

Ruth Ware. Everyone has been telling me to read her books and I’ve finally gotten to experience it! The It Girl was an intense story about a beautiful rich girl April who is found murdered in her dorm room. The story is told from her roommate Hannah’s perspective. April is the first person Hannah meets at Oxford. She’s drawn to her personality and lifestyle because it’s so different from her own. April introduces her to a group of people whom become their inner circle. Hannah loves April what is your best friend but April is also mean and callous and everybody knows it. Then one day at the end of their first year at Oxford April is found dead in their dorm room by Hannah. Aprils murder case hinges on Hannah’s testimony.
The story is told from before and after, two different timelines, the murder. We see what it has done to all those involved back in those days at Oxford. Wonderful case of who done it and who do we trust but also is my memory correct? Highly recommend the suspenseful tale.

I've enjoyed Ware's books in the past, but this one missed the mark for me. To start with, the pace was too slow for the genre. I was able to guess the culprit early on, which made it hard to care about what happened. The tension I've found in earlier books was lacking in this one. There was a lot of repetition, and it could've benefitted from a tighter edit. I did enjoy the setting and dual timeline, and the character development was solid. While this was a miss, I'm still likely to check out future books.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this early read!

I was excited to read the new book by Ruth Ware, due in July. This one is told in a Before and After format, alternating between the two time periods.

Before: Hannah Jones arrives at college, nervous and excited to start a new life. The first person she meets is her glamorous roommate April Clarke-Cliveden. She is quickly pulled into April’s circle of friends – Will, Hugh, Emily and Ryan – and she soon doesn’t remember a time they weren’t all friends. And while she may have a huge crush on Will, he is off-limits as April’s on again-off again boyfriend. By the end of the year, though, April will be dead – murdered in their room – and Hannah will leave Oxford behind forever.

After: Ten years later, Hannah and Will are married and expecting their first child. They have put the past behind them, or so they thought. John Neville, the man convicted of killing April has died in prison and a reporter reaches out to Hannah with new information, convinced that he was actually innocent. Hannah is drawn in, as she feels like Neville was in jail based on her testimony of seeing him leave their building just moments before they discovered April. She sets out to find the truth, despite Will’s reluctance. What if one of their group has been hiding something all these years?

I like that Ruth Ware keeps taking a genre and making it her own. She did it with the gothic (The Death of Mrs. Westaway) and the locked room mystery (One By One) and now she’s done it again with the campus lit. The tale is well-told and there is lots of suspense. The plot is well-done – I figured it about two sentences before Hannah did. If you like campus lit, if you liked The Maidens by Alex Michaelides or The Secret Place by Tana French, then get on the list for The It Girl today.

This suspenseful twisty tale takes place on an old, historic academic campus, and Oxford, at that. Steeped in tradition and full of dark stairways and corners, it is the perfect atmospheric locale for a murder mystery. The story unfolds in multiple points-of-view as readers try to piece together what actually happened when Hannah's roommate, April, the It Girl, was murdered in their dorm room 10 years ago. Now, Hannah is married to her college crush, Will, and has a child on the way. It soon becomes apparent to Hannah, however, that the man she thought she saw leaving her dorm room that night and who she blamed for the murder, may not be the one who committed the crime. And, even worse for Hannah, she has no idea who she can trust now. Can she even trust her own husband, Will, who dated April until she was murdered? Great writing and very suspenseful.

Not my favorite Ruth Ware story, unfortunately. Very similar to another campus novel from a couple years ago where one of main characters is murdered and those living in the “current” timeline are keeping secrets. Writing structure was concise and the story did move along well.

Academia, murder, university nostalgia, bookstores, Ruth Ware-yes! All of these topics screamed "read me ASAP". Luckily I received an ARC and could do just that.

This has a different feel than some of Ware's other novels. It's still atmospheric, but a more modern twist that I preferred to some of her other works.

It focuses on Hannah's Oxford roommate, April, being brutally murdered right before Hannah walks in the door of their dorm room. It takes place, though, after this fact and after the court's decision on who was the murderer.

I enjoyed the characters, the red herrings, and the setting. I breezed through this book because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. When this happens, I find it hard to give it less than 5 stars because it's pretty rare for me to fully get immersed in a book.

Told in what’s become a typical Ruth Ware trope, this story takes us back and forth in the timeline of our main character whos still struggling with the long time ago Murder of her best school friend and as current events unfold, so do long hidden secrets.

This was not one of my favorites of Ware’s largely because so many of the characters were hard to root for. Even our main character left little to get behind, especially how heavily it’s played out that she listed over then married her now dead best friend’s boyfriend in college. As usual you can trust no one, and nothing is as it seems, but I just didn’t care enough about anyone to really feel catapulted through the story. Not her best.

Hannah’s dream was to attend Oxford and her acceptance heralds a brand new life away from the confines of her small town. Her roommate April is a beautiful, rich, entitled party girl-the quintessential “It Girl.” Despite their differences, they become best friends and celebrate their new-found independence.

When Hannah comes home one night to find April’s dead body, her murder changes the trajectory of Hannah’s life. She abandons Oxford and tries to cope with the PTSD and the ensuing fall-out from the courtroom trial.

A decade later, Hannah is still haunted by the events of her college years-and the persistent suspicion that she may have got it all wrong in her evidence that convicted the socially awkward college porter of April’s murder.

As Hannah begins to look into the past, she begins to find clues that point towards their close-knot circle of college friends…could one of them truly be a murderer, responsible for April’s death?

This is my first Ruth Ware book and I thought it was an overall twisty and engaging thriller that kept me guessing until the very end. I definitely recommend this title and look forward to exploring this author’s backlist of books.

Mysteries set in academia are always enticing, and Rith Ware's THE IT GIRL is no exception. Teasingly suspenseful and twisty, this is a read-long-after-the-light-should-be-turned out treat. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Scout Press and to Netgalley for the opportunity and pleasure of an early read.

Readers looking for a page-turning thriller will love the latest from Ruth Ware. Hannah Jones meets April Clarke-Cliveden on their first day at Oxford. By September, April is dead, and former Oxford porter John Neville is convicted of the grizzly crime. Fast-forward 10 years and John dies in prison. Hannah, now pregnant and married, discovers that John may not have been guilty after all, but trying to discover the truth puts everything at risk. This one kept me guessing until the end, and couldn't put it down!