Another great mystery/suspense from Ruth Ware. The It Girl keeps you guessing and questioning the veracity of the narrator and her group of friends. While there are some flaws with development, it is an edge of your seat quick read.

"The It Girl" was not my most favorite of Ruth Ware's novels, I still prefer her earlier ones. This was a quick read, but found myself skimming a lot as I really didn't get all that invested into the characters or the story line.

The It Girl was a very fast paced read. The book takes place at university. Hannah is just a regular girl that comes from a family with no money. Her new roommate is April, a well to do girl who has it all. Through April, Hannah meets Ryan, Will, Emily and Hugh. They become fast friends in such a short time. Even though Hannah has a crush on Will she keeps it to herself since April and him are dating. Hannah has her suspicions that April is not being totally honest with Will and is seeing someone else behind his back. Hannah is also having run in’s with the creepy porter John Neville. He has reported it to the higher ups with Emily’s help but nothing happens because Hannah doesn’t want to cause trouble. When Hannah sees Neville running from their dorm room she is in a panic. Upon entering the room Hannah finds April dead. Hugh is with her and performs CPR to no avail. Neville is the only suspect besides Will, who was out of town when the murder happened. Fast forward 10 years, Neville has died in prison still claiming he is innocent. Hannah’s world has been turner upside down from the shock of it. Now it’s time for Hannah to revisit the past with the help of November Rain, April’s younger sister Just like Hannah all the possible suspects came and gone. It was down to the final 2 that could be the possible killer. Will, Hannah’s husband or Hugh, Will’s boyhood best friend. You’ll have to read it to find out who the real killer is and why? Do you really know your spouse?

I wanted to love this book because I love Ruth Ware, but I just couldn't. The book was not captivating and the overused euphemisms of Will making Hannah's heart clench, or stopping her heart were too much. I understand that Ware was using Hannah's pregnancy as a descriptive piece of her writing, referring to the unborn child shivering with a chill or trembling with fear, but that was also too much. Still, I am looking forward to Ruth Ware's next novel and hoping that it will once again be a five star read.

-Thriller
-Multiple Timeline
Did they really have April's killer in jail?
Did they arrest the wrong person?
Did one of the groups have something to do with her murder?

Grippy and compelling twisty thriller!
Ruth Ware does it again!

This was an entertaining read although I wouldn’t say it was the best I’ve read by the author. I don’t always like alternating chapters from different points in time but it worked here. Hannah is roommates with the rich, privileged and deeply unlikable (at least to me) April and they become part of a tight circle of friends. After April is tragically murdered Hannah abandons her degree and later marries Will, who was part of the group and April’s ex-boyfriend. Their attempt to lead a quiet life in Edinburgh is shattered when the man who was found guilty of April’s murder dies himself and there are claims that he was innocent all along. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story but for me the ending wasn’t a complete shocker. Parts of the story dragged on too long and others were unbelievable but even so it was still enjoyable.

Ruth Ware’s The It Girl is one of her best psychological thrillers yet due to its strong setting, long list of suspects and many twists. Hannah Jones meets her roommate, “it” girl April Clarke-Cliveden at Oxford. The two become best friends and have a group of friends that include Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily. April winds up dead by the end of the first school year. Ten years later, Hannah and Will are married and expecting their first child together. John Neville, the former Oxford porter convicted of killing April, dies in prison, and a journalist presents Hannah with new evidence that suggests Neville may have been innocent all along, leaving April’s killer still on the loose. Hannah begins to doubt, too, that Neville killed April and she feels horrible that she may have wronged an innocent man. She begins to do some digging of her own by reconnecting with her old friends and believes that one of them may have killed April instead.

I enjoyed how this book was told in alternating chapters of the past and present. April really was an “it” girl with her sophistication, beauty, charisma and intelligence, but she made a few enemies and Hannah discovers some of April’s secrets in the present. There were a lot of red herrings in the novel. Once I thought I knew who the killer was, there was another twist and another suspect presented him or herself. I felt like any of the characters could have killed April; each one had a plausible motive. I was really satisfied with who the murderer was finally revealed to be. I was also surprised by the reason this character killed April and by how the murder was executed. I also enjoyed the college setting and the descriptions of Oxford. I could imagine myself there, based on how Ware set the atmosphere in this book. I felt like I was in college again, reliving some of my friendships, my studies and extracurricular activities. Ware really does an excellent job of making the reader feel like he or she is right there on campus alongside April, Hannah and their group of friends. The only complaint I had with this novel was how weak or just plain stupid Hannah was at times; her character felt like such a victim.

I like Ruth Ware's books, but this one just did not work for me. I came back to it 4 times before I could get into it enough to finish it. It was entertaining, but it just dragged on too long. The blood pressure parts of her pregnancy added nothing to the story but took up a lot of space. By the last 15%, I was skimming to get to the end.

My library will buy it, but I cannot recommend to anyone.

THE IT GIRL (2021)
By Ruth Ware
Scout Press (Simon & Schuster) 389 pages.
★★★★

Do you prefer drama or melodrama? If you don’t care, The It Girl is a murder mystery you will enjoy. Few modern authors can spin a tale as well as Ruth Ware. At her best, readers scarcely notice when Ware transgresses the drama/melodrama border; when the storyline is weak—think The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016)—we do. Luckily, The It Girl falls into the first category.

The term “It Girl” originated in the film industry. Evelyn Nesbit (1885-1967) is considered the first Hollywood It Girl, though the most famous was 1920s starlet Clara Bow. It Girl conjures an ingénue who is sexually alluring and draws a crowd. That’s April Clarke-Cliveden in a nutshell in this 21st century story set at Oxford University’s Pelham College. April seemingly has it all going on; she’s filthy rich, smart, beautiful, and a good actress. Never mind that she’s also pampered, privileged, vain, drinks too much, and is occasionally cruel.

Against usual odds, her assigned first-year roomie at Pelham College is Hannah Jones, a rare working-class Oxfordian whose background necessitated working at a supermarket before coming to university. Against even greater odds, April becomes Hannah’s best friend and Hannah need not worry about pocket change any more; April thinks nothing of lending or giving Hannah designer frocks and shoes worth a small fortune. April becomes Hannah’s entrée into social circles she’d never crack on her own. Not surprisingly, many of them are men, especially medical student Hugh Bland, economy undergrad Ryan Coates, and hunky Will de Chastaigne, allegedly April’s boyfriend, though she’s so flirtatious that her sexual mores are hazy.

Ware applies a “Before” and “After” structure for much of the book, the “Before” largely confined to a single year at Oxford (2012) and “After” a decade later. The Oxford sections are light on serious studies and heavy on pub-crawls, pushing boundaries, and Hannah’s transformation from a mousy frump to a vivacious wit and intellect. It is also fraught with encounters with an older porter, John Neville, who is too familiar and has a creepy tendency of appearing in inappropriate places. But the only known strain in Hannah and April’s friendship is frisson between Hannah and Will. The Oxford experience collapses when April is strangled in her room and Neville is arrested for her murder, partly on Hannah’s testimony that he was the only person leaving the building after she discovered April’s body.

In the “After” sections, Hannah and Will are married, living in Edinburgh, and expecting a baby. Will is a reluctant accountant; Hannah works in a bookstore, having left Oxford without her degree after April’s death. (She was too shattered by April’s death.) A big reason for moving to Scotland was to escape the endless hounding of journalists seeking her take on the death of the It Girl. Hannah’s been working on trauma recovery and is doing okay—though she occasionally thinks she has “seen” April¬¬-–until the cycle starts anew upon Neville’s death in prison. To his dying day, Neville proclaimed his innocence and Ryan, who had been a journalist before he had a stroke, thinks Neville might have been wronged. Ryan’s newshound friend Geraint discovered that none of Neville’s DNA was found on April’s body and there were other inconsistencies that cast doubt on the verdict.

A heavily pregnant Hannah travels back to Oxford to reopen a sealed can of worms, not that raging hormones, high blood pressure, and old wounds make for logical thinking. At around this juncture, Ware switches to a “Before” and “Before” format in which hours and days are in play, not a decade. Hannah discovers many things about her old friends, a mentor, and April that further muddle her perceptions. The novel concludes with a beat-the-clock chase and confrontation. If you ponder the latter too much, you might perceive that Ware careens into melodrama. Ditto the introduction of one of April’s family members who is more convenient than believable.

And yet… The It Girl is a classic page-turner that most readers will zip through in a sitting or two. Even when the plot turns obvious, Ware twists matters just enough to keep those pages turning. This novel is too new to have “Soon to be a Motion Picture” emblazoned on its cover, but I suspect it’s just a matter of time.

Rob Weir

I have had trouble recently losing interest in slow burn thrillers, but this one pulled me out of that slump. The It Girl was paced well and had enough red herrings to keep my attention. I would definitely recommend to fans of the genre and author.

Hannah Jones is a student at Oxford University's Pelham College. She is assigned to room with April Clarke-Cliveden, a spoiled upper-crust deb type who loves pulling pranks on those she's upset with. We find out at the start that April was killed at school.

The "Before" and "After" chapters moved the storyline along - Before started us out with the growth of the friendship, development of relationships along the way, and the struggle Hannah had with John Neville, a porter at the college who came off a bit creepy. "After", we find Hannah several years later, happily expecting, and married to April's boyfriend, Will.

The clues that were laid out along the way heavily indicated that the end may end up predictable - it's always the husband, right? In the changing timeline, however, the issue that came up most was the struggle to adjust and survive beyond the tragedy of finding one's best friend dead, enduring the trials and the constant meddling of journalists, paparazzi, and random people. The affects this stress had on Hannah's physical and mental state seemed to be the worst parts of it all.

The It Girl was entertaining and a page-turner but it doesn't touch In A Dark, Dark Wood or The Turn of The Key. I liked the structure of the novel - alternating chapters from before and after the murder. I also found the ending clever but I think this will be a book I will struggle to remember in a few months. This is a great book to bring on a trip and then leave at your destination because you will never re-read it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ruth Ware did it again! This book was amazing. I have read all of her novels, but this one knocks it out of the park. Hannah's best friend was murdered while they were in college. She thought she knew who did it, but does she really? Pick up this book when it comes out! You won't regret it.

Ruth Ware does it again!! She does not disappoint with her latest novel! This story will keep you on the edge of your seat and you'll find it hard to put it down once you pick it up! Highly recommend!!

The It Girl
By Ruth Ware

This is definitely a book you should add to your summer reading list. I thoroughly enjoyed the story with its many escapades and would love for a sequel!

April Clarke-Cliveden was the “It Girl”, who was killed at Oxford University 10 years ago. Now, her best friend Hannah begins a journey that brings suspense, love, and unexpected danger into her life. You see, when April died, her killer was sentenced and the college friend group seemed to all move on with their lives. John Neville had stolen April’s life and he paid for it by being sentenced to jail. However, Neville suddenly dies in jail, and Hannah is faced with thoughts that perhaps he did not commit the murder of her best friend? After all, he always proclaimed his innocence and his lawyer was in the process of preparing for another appeal of his jail sentence when he died. Enter Geraint Williams, a reporter who happens to be an acquaintance of one of Hannah and April’s Oxford University friends. His foray into Hannah’s life reintroduces her deeply hidden thoughts, that maybe she helped send an innocent man to jail.

When the story starts, Hannah is a typical college freshman, ashamed of her family background and still wondering how she made it to Oxford. The book is written with each chapter titled Before or After correlated to the time of April’s murder. It helps make the story flow and sets the ambiance to a rolling mysterious ride. When reading the “After” chapters, I was always longing for the “Before” chapters to put things in perspective.

The storyline continues to highlight each of Hannah and April’s friends and contacts, as the characters develop, in synch with the development of the storyline. Ten years later, things have changed drastically for some and not so much for others. What secrets do they carry with them from their Oxford days? Is the real killer one of April’s friends or lovers? The ending really threw me for a loop! Read it, you won’t be sorry.

Loved this (after all it was a Ruth Ware book). Well paced, well-written. A surprise ending. What more could you ask for? Five stars!

Evocative of Daphne Du Maurier, The It Girl is filled with twists and turns and red herrings galore. Ware is skilled in creating memorable characters in the rather confining settings of a residential Oxford College “staircase” and a very limited group of locations in Edinburgh. But her forte is plotting, which again is the major strength of this novel. The action moves forward steadily, in chapters that alternate between the past and the present, and ultimately raises questions about who one can trust even among their most intimate friends. The It Girl is a splendid read.

When a new Ruth Ware book comes out set aside a day just to read because invariably when you start one of her books you won’t put it down as she is the queen of twisted suspense.

Ruth Ware does it again!! the It Girl is her newest novel Hannah is pregnant with her first child with her husband Will. When the convicted killer of her best friend dies in prison Hannah is contacted by a reporter that brings new evidence to light that maybe things weren’t quite what they seemed. Telling the story from before the murder and after the reader is taken on a wild ride of suspicion and intrigue. For any fans of a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat definitely check this book out

Excellent thriller. Ruth Ware delivers another twisty plot filled with suspense. However, I did have trouble with the basic premise...a woman who is five months pregnant with her first child investigating the murder of her long-dead college roommate. If you can get past that, then The It Girl is hard to put down.

Hannah and April are roommates at Oxford. April is rich, gorgeous, confident and entitled; just your basic mean girl, but middle-class Hannah is pretty awe-struck. They immediately gather a friend group of Ryan, Hugh, Emily and Will. Then one day it all goes horribly wrong and April is murdered. Ten years later, the man convicted of the crime dies in prison, but a reporter contacts Hannah with what seems like new evidence that the man was innocent. Hannah feels compelled to investigate to determine what really happened (this is where the reader must suspend disbelief).

The chapters alternate between Hannah's time at Oxford leading up to April's death and the present day in Edinburgh. April is such a horrible person that it is hard to work up much sympathy for her. I had an inkling of the real villain, but Ware does a good job with red herrings. Not a masterpiece but a solid mystery/thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC.