This was a good read. As always the authors writing is good. I was able to get into the story fairly quick and the storyline kept my interest. There were a few surprises along the way. I love when I don’t guess the ending.

Pub date: 6/13/23
Genre: thriller
Quick summary: Restauranteur Lee is living on the streets after COVID, but when she saves wealthy Hazel from drowning, she starts to see new possibilities for the future. But is Hazel friend or foe?

I'm a big Robyn Harding fan, so I leapt at the chance to read this book. It's clear from the beginning that Hazel has secrets (she did try to commit suicide by drowning, so her life must be complicated). I enjoyed unraveling the mystery along with Lee, and Harding threw in some good twists. I stayed up a little too late to finish this one, and the ending certainly packed a punch. If you like cat and mouse games, this is the book for you.

Trigger warning: domestic violence.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this was the perfect domestic thriller! I really enjoyed it and it kept me turning the pages. CW: domestic violence

This was a fantastic thriller. This is the story of Lee and Hazel. Lee is homeless and has been living in her car since the pandemic destroyed her life's work in the resturant industry. She has made some poor decisions financially that have led her on the path she currently is on and has a complicated past. One morning she sees a woman attempting to drown herself and saves that woman. After saving Hazel, Lee and Hazel form a unique relationship. Hazel reveals the horrific abuse she is facing from her husband and Lee is detrmined to help her. This story is told in alternating point of view and the way that the author reveals some of the twists and turns were just fantastic. I look forward to reading more by this author and this probably is my favorite of her books to date . Thank you netgalley for this arc and exchange for my honest opinion

Oh my freaking god! What a ride and I was here for the whole thing. Lee. Hazel. Jesse. Even Benjamin! All solid and developed characters. All incredibly written. I was hooked instantly from the first page. I actually spent the whole time as I was reading this chatting with my friend about it and we would spend hours dissecting and trying to figure the next move out. Loved it! Loved how it was broken up into parts and also told through both Lee and Hazel’s POV. And I especially loved how you saw it from one POV in one part and then the next part was the exact same story line but from the other POV. Really made the story come together and just gave you those “WTF?!” moments. My only thing to nitpick, is that I wish we would have seen more Lee in her decision making and weren’t just shoved something at the end to cleanse the palette. Absolute stunner of a book and really helped me with getting back into the groove of reading.

This novel kept me turning the pages. It was pacy and well-plotted. At times I found it a little hard to follow, but overall an entertaining read.

𝔹𝕆𝕆𝕂 ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

How do I explain how twisty and amazing this book is without giving the whole thing away?! It starts off with a woman on the run from her past, homeless, living out of her car and fighting for her life. She had been parking her car in random parking lots at night with others who were also homeless until one night everything left is stolen from her. She travels to an affluent beachy neighborhood where she saves the rich drowning woman, Hazel (who didn’t want to be saved) but then begs for Lee’s help to escape… and this is where the story takes off.

It goes back and forth from the views of both women and each time you think you have it figured out - the author throws you for another loop. There wasn’t a single moment where I was bored and I gasped and had “whattttt?!” moments frequently!

Thank you so so much to @netgalley and @GrandCentralPub for the advanced copy! Book releases June 2023 #netgalley #FiveStarReads #bookstagram #BookRecs

And here we have another absolute winner from Robyn Harding! I love her books because they STAND OUT in the genre! This one was twisty, shocking, and truly bingeable. I highly recommend it (and truly, anything she writes).

So excited that Robyn Harding is back! Harding has not had a new release since 2021.I read this baby in 24 hours and well worth the wait!

A down on her luck woman , Lee, lost everything when her restaurant failed during the pandemic. Now she is going thru the worst of times and sleeping in her car. When Lee parks near the beach, the last thing she expects is to rescue a drowning woman from the ocean. She wakes one morning to the sobs of a young woman. Lee quickly rushes to save her from drowning in the ocean- Hazel.
But how could she know this selfless act would seriously alter the course of of her life?
Hazel has dark secrets of her own and poor Lee just dropped herself smack in the middle of the drama!

4.5 stars
My anticipation for The Drowning Woman was off the charts. I love Robyn Harding’s style. I find her novels to be both simple and complex. She’s an author I reread often and each time I find a new angle or lens to see the story and characters through.

The Drowning Woman is a brilliant read. The back and forth between Len and Hazel is incredible. Hazel kept me on my toes guessing. I devoured this novel in one sitting - foregoing responsibility for “just another chapter.”

Run, don’t walk. This one is a must read.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary advance reader copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

I read that this was a great book and it definitely delivered! Wow. What a thriller, with twists that literally made me gasp. I was talking to myself as I tried to sort out the story and get to the end game and it was such a satisfying ending. This book was a quick read because I couldn't put it down, I stayed up late to finish it.

Lee finds herself living out of her car after the pandemic closed her restaurant and made her lose everything, including her family's respect. On the run from debtors, taking cash jobs, grabbing showers at local gyms and moving around to stay safe is her new way of life. One such day she finds that she can hear a woman sobbing and she finds the woman trying to drown herself. Lee acts on impulse and saves the woman, Hazel. This act is not appreciated by the woman. She wanted to end it all, she doesn't want to go on any longer, her life is terrible.

Hazel is living a life that most would envy from the outside, but of course no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. Lee and Hazel quickly become unlikely friends and then Hazel asks Lee to help her get away from her abusive husband. Lee agrees, she feels like Hazel is her only friend, but is Hazel as good a friend as she thinks or is Lee going to discover that she cannot trust anyone.

Such a great book! Highly recommended.

The Drowning Woman - Robyn Harding

This is the first Robyn Harding book I've read, I was excited to read it after numerous glowing reviews and seeing it on some favourite books of the year lists.

The setup is fairly familiar, Hazel is the rich wife trapped in an abusive marriage, Lee is the down on her luck / living in her car stranger who befriends her. There's the controlling husband and a hunky gym instructor. Lee has her own worries but is determined to try and help Hazel escape.

You know someone's not telling the truth, someone's plotting something and there are going to be some big twists.

Robyn Harding's writing has a nice flow, and she sets up a complex plot with layers of twist upon twist very well. It stays clear and avoids confusion.

Honestly, I enjoyed the first half more, with the anticipation of which direction the twists were coming going to come from. There are lots of twists, but personally I would have liked more a bit more threat and tension.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing

The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding was a great read that I couldn’t put down because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. It is a story about friendship and betrayals, that had lots of twists that kept you wanting to keep reading. Thanks Netgalley for this Arc.

Lee Gulliver owns a high end restaurant in NYC when the pandemic hits and she finds herself losing everything. With no money and many unpaid debts, she goes on the run, ending up living in her car on the streets of Seattle. One night she parks in a secluded and hopefully safe spot by the beach to sleep. She awakens to the sound of someone distressed and crying and finds a woman walking into the ocean. Lee dives in and saves the woman (Hazel) from ending her life…only to find that she didn’t want to be saved. Hazel is married to a controlling and abusive man and was so miserable she wanted to die. The two women end up forging a bond and find they both benefit from this unlikely kinship. They confide in each other and become close to the point that one day Hazel asks for Lee’s help in planning an escape from her toxic marriage. Lee is hesitant to get involved but wants to help her new friend… but is Hazel really the woman Lee thinks she is? Can she trust her new friend? Something seems off and Lee finds she may have put herself in the middle of a very dangerous situation. This was my first novel by Harding and it was a wild ride. It was a fast paced read that ended with a quite unexpected twist. I gave this novel 4 stars.

Robyn Harding always tells a suspenseful story and she did it again with this book. Told between two storylines - we hear from Lee and Hazel. What follows is a tale of lies, secrecy and murder. No one is who they really say they are!

I loved hearing from both ladies perspective. It helped me to understand their level of desperation. I thought I knew one storyline but I had it all wrong.
If you like mystery and intrigue mixed with a character led storyline, you will love this book. 4.5 stars!

Ohhh! Tricky, Tricky!

The moment two strangers meet at the beach one morning, their lives change forever.

Lee Gulliver is having a pretty tough time. After having to leave her life and her dream job behind, Lee is struggling to make ends meet. She is now working as a waitress in a diner and living out of her car.

One morning while asleep in a secluded area near the beach, she hears something that changes everything, crying. Going to check it out, she spots a woman in the ocean, sobbing hysterically. Without thinking, Lee goes to save her, tying her to the other woman forever.

Little did she know, this woman did not want to be saved. Little did she know this heroic action was a huge mistake.

Hazel is a woman with an abundance of secrets. Secrets that she’s keeping from her abusive husband, and secrets she’s keeping from Lee, the woman who saved her from drowning in the ocean. Truth be told, she is not who she purports herself to be.

There are many lessons in this book, the first is that not everyone is who you think they are, and the second is that strong is what happens when you run out of weak.

This novel was one that requires you to suspend disbelief, which admittedly, I’m not that great at, however, I still enjoyed this, and was gripped by the pages. I remain a huge fan of Robyn Harding and can’t wait for her next novel.

A buddy read with Kaceey which we both enjoyed.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for the arc via NetGalley.

Thank you so much to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an advance read in exchange for this review.

Lee Gulliver is on the streets having run away from her debts after her restaurant fails. While on the beach, a woman runs into the ocean but doesn't come back up. Lee saves her, but she didn't want to be saved. Her husband is abusive and that was her way out. As the two get to know each other, they start to help each other. They have become friends, but have they really?

Well, this was a wild ride. I didn't see that coming. The plot twists were complex. I had no idea what was going to happen, and I had to finish it immediately. It wasn't perfect, but it was so good! I liked Lee as a character. She's tough. I wasn't so sure about others, but I think Harding wrote them that way as you aren't quite sure who to trust. This was such a great read!

4.5 stars

This was really good. I took an intentional break from it because reading it right before bed was proving to be a terrible idea. I waited until I had a (daylight hours) chunk of time to devour the rest of it. It was worth the wait.

I read a lot of psychological thrillers and I feel like several of them have had similar settings or plot points lately. In The Drowning Woman, a homeless woman rescues a stranger from drowning and gets sucked into her family drama. Haven't read that one before. It was fast-paced and original with well-developed characters. I loved Hazel and Lee. I liked their friendship and I loved that I never fully trusted anyone in this book. It made for a very suspenseful and satisfying read. Mark your calendars for June 13, 2023.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced reader's copy.

Count on Robyn Harding for nonstop surprises at every turn. Really enjoyed (as usual) this story...and sure didn't see the ending coming. Great character development (when you get hooked!). Can't wait for the next one!

OW- this is how a thriller needs to be done.

I went into this book totally blind- I am so glad I did because it takes you on such a wild ride. I love multiple povs in books but what I love even more is when you think you are only getting one characters point of view for the whole book and then you get sucker punched with a new character one. This happened in this one and I loved not knowing when one would end and the new would begin.

This book was very current, in that hardships that have arisen since the pandemic were part of the story, but they were done so well it wasn't hard or uncomfortable for me to read about, it was actually comforting at times.

Many thrillers make the female main characters seen simple minded or weak and this book did the opposite, it shows how strong the bond can be and the author did such a good job on all of the character development.

I found some of the storyline to be a bit farfetched at times but that is why I love the genre, to read about crazy stuff happening that is so far removed from my own reality.

Harding really knocked it out of the park with this one and this needs to be on everybody's summer radar next year.