LOVELY GIRLS
BY: MARGOT HUNT

I couldn't have been more excited to notice that my most FAVORITE thriller writer Margo Hunt had a new book available, called "LOVELY GIRLS." The Title is sort of ironic since besides the main protagonist named Alex and her mother Kate--the three main girls' featured and their mothers' are the meanest characters that I have encountered in a thriller in my memory. I absolutely LOVED this thriller as I knew I would. Nobody creates suspense that engages that I have read in the thriller genre like Margot Hunt. For all Net Galley members at this time this is a "Read Now".

I read and reviewed Ms. Hunt's former book called, "For Better and Worse," several years ago and that one has remained one of my FAVORITE of all time thrillers that I have never FORGOTTEN and one that I am always recommending. This one has to be EQUALLY FANTASTIC. I don't usually like thrillers featuring High School Seniors, but this one totally rocks. Besides, there are enough adult characters to quench my thirst for realistic adult content. This book has both STUNNING character development and a BRILLIANT plot. Both are needed to impress me so much as this did.

You are going to love the mother named Kate and her fragile and traumatized daughter Alex who have just moved to Shoreham, Florida from New York to get a fresh start. Alex was driving the car that killed her father in an accident. Alex is a tennis player who right off the bat gets bullied by a trio of three popular but horrible girls who are the daughters of her mother's three new friends. It is not a spoiler to say in the very beginning two women discover a dead girl while walking on the beach.

Kate can't believe her great luck in meeting three friends who are mothers' of the three girls' who are bullying her daughter, Alex. Alex video tapes a working diary as a means to cope with missing her father. Before starting her Senior year in her new school she makes the mistake of video taping these three girls' and it all goes down hill for her from there. Kate doesn't know the extent that her daughter is being the target of such malicious behavior from the daughters' of her three new friends'. She does get warned by her next door neighbor that one of the mothers' is bad news, but she doesn't want to believe it because they seem so nice to her.

This is definitely going to give me a serious book hangover because I enjoyed this one so much. I am also along with this one highly, highly recommending this Author's book that I mentioned above called, "For Better and Worse," which I will leave a link to my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... I just discovered two other novels by this same excellent Author, that I can't believe that I missed. I am thrilled to have two other chilling reading experiences. Five Sparkling Stars! Wow just Wow!

A Huge Thank you to Net Galley, Margot Hunt and Thomas & Mercer for your generosity of providing me with my glorious ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. I am under no obligation to leave a positive review--it's just my enthusiasm for others to discover this talented Author's work. All opinions are my own.

#LovelyGirls #MargotHunt #Thomas&Mercer #NetGalley

Newly widowed Kate and her daughter Alex move to Shoreham, Florida for a fresh start in life. Shortly after their move, Alex starts her final year of highschool and is looking forward to joining their tennis team. While Kate seems to be bonding with the other girls' moms, Alex is immediately targeted by the clique of mean girls on that team. What starts as bullying soon turns deadly in this high drama novel.

This was like Mean Girls to the extreme, minus the comedy. The girls in this novel were ruthless to say the least and I found myself appalled by their actions and the sad part is, most of the things in this do actually happen. This was a quick, enjoyable read. However, I found Alex to be a little too naive. There were also times the solution would be blatantly obvious and she would choose the complete opposite. I found it a little aggravating but besides that, I enjoyed this one. Three stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Thomas & Mercer and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Mean girls don't go away, they often have daughters they teach to do the same. A novel taking you through the pitfalls of the loss of a husband/father. Uprooting your life and relocating, high school cliques, bullying, the mothers that accompany all of it.

Lovely Girls is about anything but lovely girls. The story of a mother, Kate, and daughter Alex, who are trying to start over in an coastal Florida town after the death of Alex’s father. But, they immediately get caught up in cliques, mind games…and murder!
Alex is a great tennis player and tries out for her new schools team while her mom befriends a trio of women whose daughters also play on the tennis team. The girls are mean girls and so are their moms but Kate doesn’t see that at first!
Alex even makes a video diary to highlight the bullying she claims to be facing with the tennis girls but it takes some convincing even of her own mom!
This was a decent read- nothing blew me out of the water or really kept me intrigued. It was a fast and short read.
I enjoyed the video entries in Alex’s chapters that were creatively typed out but other then that this was a pretty simple story. The twists weren’t really shocking me up but I read a lot of thrillers so it’s hard to really blow me away.

Kate and her daughter Alex have recently moved to a nice Florida suburb after the death of Kate’s husband and Alex’s father, Ed. All Kate wants is a fresh start for both of them. Alex is a great tennis player and plans on joining the school tennis team but she is immediately hated by the 3 mean girls, Daphne, Shae, and Callie, after a misunderstanding. Kate immediately finds a group of women that she feels she can become friends with, who also just happen to be the 3 mean girls mothers. Kate receives a warning by her neighbor to stay away from them as nothing good can happen, but ignores it because they’ve all been nice and welcoming to her. But when Alex becomes the target of their bullying, Kate thinks she might’ve been wrong about everything.


When I first started reading this book I was a bit put off of Alex’s chapters and didn’t really like how it was just the video diaries but it honestly really grew on me! I got through this book pretty fast and really enjoyed everything about it. I thought the book itself was really suspenseful and I just wanted to finish it to find out what really happened.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles. I really not the opportunity!

I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

These girls are far from lovely but that’s half the fun. This is a fly by the seat of your pants thriller more psychological in nature. I was absolutely engrossed and couldn’t wait to find out what happened.

Kate Turner and her daughter, Alex, are looking for a fresh start in the town of Shoreham, Florida. Kate finds it easy to make friends, but their daughters, the same age as Alex, cannot stand the girl. Alex even makes a video diary to highlight the bullying she claims to be facing, and while Kate believes her daughter is crying wolf, she soon begins to trust her own judgement. Other neighbors and friends warn Kate that the women she has surrounded herself with are not to be trusted, and she begins to wonder if she has placed herself, and her daughter, in danger

This book was very different and I really enjoyed reading it. It hooked me from the first page and kept me hooked.