Published by Grand Central Publishing on June 13, 2023

Lee is homeless but she has romance on her mind when she meets a hunky guy who doesn’t immediately try to take advantage of her. Maybe focus on finding a place to live before you start dreaming about wedding bells but hey, that’s just me.

Lee owned a New York restaurant that was starting to be trendy before the pandemic shut it down. She couldn’t pay her bills so her gangster investor (strike 1) broke her finger and threatened to break the rest if he didn’t get his money back. She tried to blackmail her sister’s fiancé (strike 2) but only made an enemy out of her sister. To keep her fingers intact, she fled to the Pacific Northwest and is living in her car, working off the books as a waitress at a diner. The plot to this point is trite but just barely plausible. Unfortunately, plausible plotting is soon abandoned.

Lee is parked by the ocean when she sees a fully dressed woman walk into the water. Hazel is trying to drown herself as an alternative to living with an abusive husband. Lee rescues her. Hazel started out in a consensual dominant/submissive relationship (she envisioned a 50 Shades of Gray thing) with Benjamin, then moved to a consensual master/slave relationship (complete with a Total Power Exchange contract that no American court would enforce), but her consent and the limits she set eventually became unimportant. Hazel is a gold digger so, apart from sympathy for the abuse she endured, I found it difficult to care about her as a character.

After the rescue, Hazel asks Lee to teach her how to disappear from a threatening environment. Yet Lee fled impulsively, with no plan at all, and managed to get robbed when she parked in a bad neighborhood. She’s living in a car. Would Lee seriously believe that Hazel wants to emulate her?

A hot personal trainer named Jesse comes into the diner where Lee is working and asks her to have a drink with him. Lee seduces him on their third date and is thrilled to feel “seen” again, particularly after Hazel snubs her in public. She’s also thrilled to use Jesse’s shower and sleep in a real bed. After a good shag, she feels that she is “more than my mistakes.” It will be obvious to everyone but Lee that her self-congratulation is premature.

Hazel comes up with a sketchy plan to switch places with Lee (they miraculously look like twins after Lee gets her hair done) for a couple of hours, long enough for Hazel to thwart her husband’s surveillance and hop on a plane. I suspect that most readers will immediately think that entering Hazel’s home while pretending to be Hazel is both dangerous and stupid and that Hazel is playing Lee, but Hazel offers Lee a nice chunk of money to do it.

Both Hazel and Jesse send up a series of red flags but Lee is apparently too trusting to notice Hazel’s and too love struck to recognize Jesse’s. Lee sees the world from a naïve perspective that doesn’t match up with a homeless woman who fled from a gangster and encountered nothing but trouble thereafter. She eventually feels betrayed by two people she believed were “honest and decent.” I get it, but she only recently met both these people and had to ignore multiple warning signs to conclude that they were on her side. I find it hard to care about a character who is so remarkably dim.

I was prepared to write off The Drowning Woman as a waste of time until, soon after Lee enters Hazel’s home, the plot turns in a surprising direction. Unfortunately, Robyn Harding immediately kills the momentum by changing the point of view from Lee to Hazel and filling in Hazel’s backstory. Hazel, like Lee, fell head-over-heels in love, not with one man but with two. The women in this book think like characters in romance novels. Because they do not behave rationally, needless trouble ensues for everyone.

Hazel’s rewriting of Lee’s story from Hazel’s perspective brings us back to the surprising moment, which is no longer a surprise but is not yet explained. Point of view then shifts back to Lee, who would run like a rabbit if she had any sense, but that wouldn’t be much of a story. Lee decides to investigate a death for which she might be blamed, then discovers another fact (one unknown to Hazel) that places all the past events in another new light. Lee’s section ends with her discovery of yet another secret, but she doesn’t reveal it — even though she’s narrating events in the first person — because Harding wants to save it to set up the ending. Harding defeats the trust a first-person narrator should build with a reader by having her narrator describe her actions in real time while withholding her most important discovery at the moment she makes it.

Back to Hazel, who make a series of stupid decisions, including lying to the police. You’d think the wife of a criminal defense lawyer would know of her right to say, “I don’t want to answer questions about that topic.” Most of Hazel’s narrative is preposterous. Characters effortlessly hack telephones and obtain fake passports. The brief description of legal proceedings betrays an unfamiliarity with the law. The ending — well, pretty much the last half of the novel — is less than engaging. Multiple loose ends continue to dangle at the story’s end (e.g., how do police deduce from a jawbone that washed ashore that the victim was stabbed in the chest multiple times?). The novel’s first half at least generates mild suspense, but it fizzles out well before the end. An epilog delivers a feel-good resolution to the protagonists’ lives that feels forced.

Two unlikable protagonists stuck in an unbelievable plot compete to see which one will make the worst decisions. Some of the setup is interesting but the novel in its entirety doesn’t live up to its modestly promising start.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Holy crap! I did NOT see any of that coming!- Those were my exact thoughts upon finishing this book! I really enjoyed how the story was told through multiple characters points of views and I always love a good unreliable narrator! I don’t want to say too much to give anything away, but if you’re into psychological thrillers, definitely add this book to your list!

You know I’m not much of a thriller reader, so when I find one I like it’s a big win and 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡 by Robyn Harding was one such win. This is a psychological thriller told from the perspectives of two very different women. Lee is living on the streets of Seattle. Pre-COVID she owned her own bustling restaurant in New York, but the shut down and having borrowed money from the wrong person, led her to a secret life, living in her car. Hazel appears to have everything Lee doesn’t. She lives in a huge glass house in one of the waterfront enclaves of the city. She doesn’t need to worry about money or a roof over her head, but Hazel is miserable and desperate to escape her marriage.⁣
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After a near drowning, the two women form an unlikely friendship and a tenuous commitment to each other. That’s all you get because I don’t want to give away the story, but rest assured this story involves much more. There are bad guys, secrets, lies, everything you expect from a psychological thriller and it’s all delivered in a fast-paced, cat-and-mouse sort of way. Beware there are some seriously messed up characters, but they add a lot of flavor to this binge worthy book. I flew through it, rarely needing to suspend disbelief and that’s a winner for me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣
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Thanks to @grandcentralpub for an electronic copy of #TheDrowningWoman

Wow, wow, wow this book had so many twists and turns - I gasped once or twice when plot lines were revealed. This was a book I could not wait to pick up again just to find out what happened next. The author did an incredible job at giving backstory on all of the characters at the perfect times. My only complaint is that I felt the ending was a bit abrupt and I wanted so much more from each character. There were a few plots that could make for a great prequel or even a sequel. I look forward to reading more books by this author. Thank you to Robyn Harding, Grand Central Publishing and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

🌊Book Review🌊
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Summary: Lee Gulliver never thought she’d find herself living on the streets—no one ever does—but when her restaurant fails, and she falls deeper into debt, she leaves her old life behind with nothing but her clothes and her Toyota Corolla. In Seattle, she parks in a secluded spot by the beach to lay low and plan her next move—until early one morning, she sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. Lee hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. The drowning woman, Hazel, tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Lee has thwarted her one chance to escape her life.

Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her, until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems, and that Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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My thoughts: this was such a fun fast paced thriller! I loved Lee’s character, in some ways it almost reminded me of Gone Girl. It was almost 5 stars but there were a little too many unrealistic twists at the end, some that were just slightly too unbelievable. Robyn Harding is such a fantastic writer, one of my favorite thriller writers around since before I found Bookstagram 😂this one hooks you right from the first chapter and doesn’t let go until the very end. 🥰
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QOTD- who is one of your go to authors that you will always read what they write?!
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#thedrowningwoman #robynharding #bookreview #bookreviewer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksofig #booksofinsta #bibliophile #booknerd #bookworm #bookwormsunite #bookish #bookobsessed #bookaddict #bookaesthetic #thrillerbooks #thrillerbooksaddict #thrillerreads #readersofinstagram #readmorebooks #readersgonnarea

▫️REVIEW▫️

The Drowning Woman ~ Robyn Harding

•When Lee rescues a drowning woman, she has no idea that her life is about the change as a result. Living in her car trying to recover from financial failure, she bonds with this woman named Hazel who is facing a series of unfortunate circumstances herself. When Hazel asks Lee to help her disappear, a wild series of events takes place - including a dead body and a tangle of secrets.•

Loved this! I’ve been veering away from thrillers but this was just enough thrill with some salacious twists to keep me interested. I totally appreciated the juxtaposition of these two women - both desperate but with different ways of dealing. Perfect for summer - a wild ride filled with thrills!

A solid mystery that had me thinking I knew where it was going but was happy to find out I was wrong. Twisty and page turning and a very satisfying ending!

Robyn Harding does it again! This was such an entertaining book. It is filled with some great twists. I could not put this one down, it was simply addicting.

Honestly, The Drowning Woman was one of THE best thrillers I have read this year. Twist after twist and I was SO into it I lost sleep. Must Read!

I was definitely curious as to where this was going. Lee has had to resort to living in her car and saves Hazel from drowning. The two strike up a friendship when Hazel confides in Lee that she needs to escape from her life that looks incredible on the outside. While the twists were fine and sort of interesting, I had trouble suspending disbelief with Hazel's backstory.
Thank you so much to Grand Central Pub for the ARC of this one!

Thank you Grand Central Pub for my review copy.

The book did start off a little slow for me, but once it picked up I couldn’t stop reading!! The twists and turns took me by surprise and I loved the way it all ended.

I swear Robyn Harding just gets better and better with each book, and every single time I am sucked in, totally addicted to the plot, and glued to the book to devour it in one sitting. The Drowning Woman was no exception, and I am STILL reeling from the amount of twists and turns this story takes you on.

I love that Robyn always has a very specific and niche topic that anchors her books, and in this case the dynamic of a "Total Power Exchange" between a couple, rendering the wife abused and helpless and on the brink of taking her own life, until a homeless woman intervenes, striking up a bizarre friendship between the two.

I legitimately had no idea where this story would go (and obviously no spoilers), but needless to say I was continuously surprised about the turns the plot took just when I thought maybe I had an idea of what was going to play out. I was simultaneously deeply suspicious of the main characters while also rooting for them to get through their plan unscathed. The pacing is on point, and the chapters flew by, each unravelling more drama. The movement between POV from the two main characters was the perfect dynamic of revealing twists and sucking me right back in to trying to guess the whodunnit and why.

Honestly, this is just a really perfectly crafted thriller, and the EXACT kind of thriller we love for summer reading.

This is a must have for thriller lovers and domestic drama lovers alike. Don't let this one pass you by, it isn't a book buy you will regret!

Eek! Is what I have to say about "The Drowning Woman." The new release from Robyn Harding literally gave me nightmares it was so chilling. Two women with two completely different backgrounds cross paths & their lives are changed forever. Just when I thought I had things figured out, Harding introduced another twist I didn't see coming. Very imaginative & terrifying in spots, this thriller left me on the edge of my seat wondering how female protagonists Lee & Hazel were going to get out alive. Leave the lights on & curl up with this one for the ride of summer!

Ooh, this was definitely suspenseful.

I enjoyed our unconventional main character and found myself really worried for her!

As for our other characters, while I didn't love them, I loved to read them.

The plot is twisty without cheating and definitely amps up the intensity time and again.

Will definitely read the author again in the future!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of Robyn Harding's latest thriller - 5 stars - I couldn't put it down!

Lee is completely down on her luck. Her restaurant in NYC failed during Covid and she fled to CA to try and escape her debts. Now she's living in her car and just trying to exist. One night, while parked near the beach, she hears and sees a woman throw herself into the ocean and runs to save her. The woman, Hazel, is furious that Lee rescued her and tells Lee that her husband is abusive and she just wants to be gone. But the next morning Hazel appears at Lee's car and they begin a strange friendship. Then Hazel tells Lee she needs her help to disappear.

Wow - this was one twist after another and I had no clue where it would all end up! Which, of course, is the fun of Robyn Harding's thrillers. This was so well written and I could feel the tension from each of the women caused by the circumstances they were in. And the men - whew! Pick this one up for sure!

Another excellent psychological suspense novel from Robyn Harding!

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read “The Drowning” . I've enjoyed all of Robyn Harding's previous novels, but I'm pretty sure this is my favorite. A terrific read.

“It’s human nature to think it could never happen to you.”

Covid 19 took everything from thirty-four-year-old, Lee Gulliver....EVERYTHING. Her dreams were crushed. Now Lee is just trying to survive. She lives in her car, sleeping in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, ready to drive away at a moments notice.

“Desperate people will commit desperate acts.”

Lee doesn’t have contact with anyone from her former life. She feels like she’s burned every bridge behind her. But there’s someone who REALLY wants to find Lee. Someone who uses violence to solve problems.

Then one morning Lee wakes to hear a woman crying nearby. She tries to ignore the increasing sobs. Then she hears a splash. The woman is definitely not out for a morning swim in the frigid Pacific. Instinct kicks in and Lee jumps into the freezing cold water dragging the woman to the shore.

Lee has just saved this woman’s life. So why on earth is the woman so angry at her?

“There is no way that this woman, in her designer jogging suit and running shoes that
probably cost as much as my car, has a life worse than mine.”

The women share their stories and a friendship of sorts begins. Day by day their friendship grows. Then Hazel asks Lee for a favor.

Lee’s life is about to get even more complicated.

A highly intense story of friendship, secrets, betrayal, redemption and more.

This book took me on quite a ride. I was pulled in to the story right away. This author knows how to keep a readers attention. I could NOT put this book down. Non stop action with so many great twists and reveals.

The story alternates between Lee and Hazel’s points of view. I was invested in both and couldn't wait to read what was going to happen next. I was so positive that I knew what was going to happen but I was WAY off. Even if my guesses had been correct, I still would have enjoyed everything about the story.

I love the way Robyn Harding writes. Her stories are entertaining and easy to follow. A terrific combination of well developed, complex characters and a well written exciting plot. This only thing I'm disappointed about is that I will have to wait a while for her next novel!


I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

This story started out strong for me. I was totally invested in it. Lee Gulliver is living in her car, hiding from a man who will kill her if he finds her. She is working as a waitress in a sleazy diner just trying to make some money.

One day as Lee pulls over at a nicer beach side neighborhood for a little more safety, she sees a woman trying to drown herself. Lee races to save her and pulls her from the water. She doesn't think that she will see the woman, Hazel, again, but she does the next day. Soon the women form a friendship and come up with a plan to rescue Hazel from her domineering, controlling husband.

There is twist after twist in this story. A little too much. But, I still kept reading as I wanted to find out what would happen. There are some loose ends, though. What ever happened to the man Lee was hiding from? Also, the ending with Hazel and her husband is kind of ambiguous. We aren't really sure what happens.

I did enjoy having the two different points of view from Lee and Hazel, seeing their side of things.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

LOVED!!
Enjoyed the twist driven thriller, even with more than a few questionable and confusing moments! I normally don’t love a completely wrapped up ending this but this overall. A great read and a super enjoyable runaway thriller!!

Robyn Harding is back! I have been anxiously awaiting a new book from her because I love her writing. She is so great at domestic thrillers and suspense and this one delivered!

It was a fast paced, intense ride. I read it so fast because I needed to know what was going to happen. Loved the dual perspectives and the way the stories came together. There were a few good twists too! I was in the mood for a thriller and got exactly what I wanted here!

An excellent mystery/thriller that keeps you guessing until the end!!! Can’t really say too much about it because the story takes so many twists and turns that it would be easy to give spoilers. I will say…read this book and enjoy the ride!!!