Thank you Headline and Netgalley.
This was a very thought provoking thriller which was a brilliant read and I really could not put this down - finished it in two evenings - had to have takeaway!
I would love to read more from this author.

“Good Girls Die Last” is a riveting thriller that delves into the complexities of womanhood in the modern world. The novel is set against the backdrop of a sweltering London heatwave, which serves as a metaphor for the pressure and intensity experienced by the main character, Em.

The story begins with Em reeling from a series of unfortunate events: a breakup, job loss, and eviction, all due to the deceitful actions of men in her life. Determined to attend her sister’s wedding and see her ailing mother, Em’s plans are thwarted by the city’s gridlock, caused by the heatwave and a lurking serial killer. As she navigates the chaos, Em encounters various men who embody the systemic issues that have long silenced women. Her defiance against these forces leads to dire consequences.
The book’s feminist undertones address themes of sexual harassment, discrimination, and the everyday microaggressions women endure. Good Girls Die Last” is a powerful and timely thriller that offers more than just suspense. It is a fearless exploration of the challenges women face.

A hell of a read! I just couldn't put it down. Such a unique premise for a book and an engaging lead character. I read it one sitting and am so excited to hopefully read more from the author.

Good Girls Die Last by Natali Simmonds is a thought-provoking thriller with a strong female lead. Em, the protagonist, is fed up with being mistreated by men and decides to take control of her life. The story is fast-paced and will keep you guessing, but some readers might find the content dark and disturbing.

If you're looking for a thriller that tackles tough issues and features a relatable heroine, then Good Girls Die Last might be worth checking out. However, be prepared for a story that doesn't shy away from difficult themes.

I DNF'd this book before I hardly got into it. The premise is SO promising and intriguing. However, there was a lot of raunchy unneeded plot elements that turned me off almost immediately.

After reading the reviews I was really looking forward to reading this book , however, I really struggled with it ! I just found I kept getting really frustrated with the main character when things kept going wrong. I seem to be in the minority as a lot of readers really enjoyed it .

This story is like nothing I've ever read before. It is quite simply the worst day ever for Em, a young girl with nowhere to turn. With every passing hour, things go from bad to worse and it is this constant drip-drip-drip of disaster that turns this into such an tense, uncomfortable, claustrophobic tale.

There are serious and current messages in the book as well - consent, metoo, homelessness and domestic violence to name a few.

All-in-all, a very thought-provoking book and I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thanks to the author, Headline, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book.

This was a feminist thriller at its finest! I was contacts you routing for the heroine that was absolutely mistreated by the men in her life but would not give up, even in the face of so much adversity. So good!

This book is refreshingly different to what's out at the moment. The book centers around a young lady called Em and talk about having bad luck!
Em's day starts with her hoping to secure her dream job at the company she has been temping at before flying home to Spain to attend her sisters wedding. Things go from.bad to worse for Em and she has to make her way to the airport on foot.
Meanwhile a serial killer is hunting the streets of London and no women is safe.
A good paced thriller with some bad ass female characters, I loved it!

Wow!! What a book!! This is one I’ve devoured in just hours. This is amazing!!

There are so many elements in this book to discuss and it’s quite hard without any spoilers. Simmonds has taken a relatively normal individual and shown exactly what happens when all the little things build up and you just snap.

Em is brilliant, we go through her journey with her and it’s a rollercoaster. Simmonds will definitely take you through a wave of emotions. There’s shock, anger frustration and so much to relate to within the pages.

This is a plot that is relatable and entirely realistic. Simmonds has nailed it, right down to the mixed opinions on Twitter conversations. This has been one of those books, I found impossible to put down.

Addictive and completely magnificent are just two ways to describe this gem. I have adored this book from beginning to end. This is one of those books that will captivate your attention and you cannot put it down. You become desperate to know what’s going to happen next.

I loved Em and Rose’s interactions. There have been so many moments of laughing out loud at their conversations. This is a brilliant friendship forming from their first meeting. I love the solidarity between them as they stick together.

I had no clue how this was going to play out and I’ve loved that. I definitely need more from this author. This is one that has converted me as a fan and left me wanting more.

This is a brilliant read and I have nothing negative I can say about this one.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was not a big fan of this main character. She just didn't connect with me which is fine.

The mystery felt a little easy to solve and not very complex.

Overall this murder mystery was not my favorite.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. WOW! Talk about a gripping fantastic book. Em was such a brillant main character. She was strong and bad ass. This keeps you on your toes and makes you want to keep reading! Highly recommend! 4.5 stars

Wow! I don't know if it's because I've read it in 40 degree heat but this book felt incendiary!

I've read it at the end of August and I still feel raw. In this book, we follow a young woman walking through the gridlocked streets of London in her attempt to reach the airport so she can fly home.

Her name is not important. She could be you, your sisters, your daughters, every woman out there could be her. Victim of big and small abuses (but is there such a thing as a small abuse?), silent witness to the abuses suffered by others... until she's silent no more.

She becomes an accidental heroine and, my God, you will want to take to the streets once you've finished that last sentence!

A brilliant read that was absolutely gripping from the get go and all the way throughout. Way more thought provoking and powerful than I expected. Absolutely fantastic

This book was described at Falling Down for the #MeToo generation. I think that's a great description.
Em is having a terrible day. She's been fired, let down, generally used and ignored and... she needs to get the airport for her sister's wedding. It's a boiling hot day in London and there's a transport strike on. The only way she can get to the airport is if she walks.

Everything that happens to Em is relatable - they are all things that happen to women on a daily basis. She's ostracised in her workplace because she was the victim of sexual harrasment from her boss. She's wearing uncomfortable shoes that aren't suited for walking six miles whilst dragging a case behind her. Her family have expectations of her. Random met catcall her. Her period starts. It's just one thing after another.

This book is an accumulation of just some of things that women have to deal with every day. Each individual things sounds trivial. 'Some guy groped you? Not a big deal, it was only a small thing etc...' and 'Don't make a fuss, you don't want to be THAT girl' or worse 'don't make a fuss, it'll only make it worse' (and the depressing thing is that it so often DOES make it worse). The trade off between safety and dignity is something women deal with every day.

Eventually, it all becomes too much and Em snaps. The consequences are devastating.

This is a great book. Angry, yes, but also riveting. It helps that I read it during an oppressive heat way. I could feel the soupy air of over-hot London as I read it. The story is tense.
I really liked how you could trace the journey across London in your mind as she went.

An excellent read.

Huge thank you to Headline publishing for sending me an e-ARC copy of this novel. I first saw this novel at Headline's Autumn Showcase which I was invited to, and this novel really caught my eye! I was intriuged by the setting of the novel and the oppressive description of the heat. The author really sold the novel to me and I was very interested to see what would happen.

This novel follows Em during an extraordinarily warm London summer. Her day starts terribly when she is let go by the PR firm she works for, and then sfinds out that she can't seem to get any transport to get to the airport to catch the flight to her sister's wedding. The tension is pervasive in this novel, from the very first page. I loved this element a lot. Having the unbearable heat, while feeling that Em is speeding towards disaster in some way is brilliantly done.

This is an interesting journey novel. Em goes on a physical journey when she walks to the airport from the centre of London, but also an emotional journey. The author plays with this trope well, making it obvious the journey we will be taken on, but also centering it on women and making the differences overt for us readers.

I don't read a lot of contemporary novels, especially adult ones, so this was a welcome pause in my normal reading. I also picked it up when I needed something to really draw me in, Good Girls Die Last did that perfectly. The setting is excellent, I really felt like I was there, and I definitely couldn't cope with the heat!!

I didn't like Em as a character very much, which I think may have been deliberate from the author. We feel sorry for Em but we also never completely sympathise with her. She is not perfect, and she makes some mistakes. She doesn't treat the other characters very well, and she frustrated me a lot!! But I thought she was the perfect main character for this novel, I think it was vital that we didn't love Em fully.

I did like the other characters that Em comes into contact with throughout her journey. The author has done a good job of fully fleshing out all the characters and making sure they have distinct identities in the novel.

Overall I enjoyed this novel. It was a fun and quick read that had a lot of life in it. I would recommend for a short and snappy thriller!

Em thought she had her life together, as she nears her 30th birthday. A good job, somewhere okay to live and a trip back home to Spain to celebrate her sister’s wedding.
Falling Down style, it all unravels pretty quickly as she loses her job, her place to stay and the increasing temperatures in London bring traffic across the city to a standstill.

She sets out to walk to the airport, hauling her suitcase the whole way.

Through her journey, she has time to reflect on the past, her regrets and sadness. We learn more about her - why she fled her hometown, her previous relationships and her hopes and dreams which haven’t been realised. She also meets people along the way - most of whom are set to stop her from reaching her destination, and with a couple of guardian angels in there. Oh, and there’s a serial killer in the mix too.

Literally everything goes wrong for Em, in a series of frustrating and destabilising bad luck mistakes and missteps. She leaves her phone charger in a place she can’t get it, her suitcase starts to break down, she loses and destroys clothes and everything else until she’s unrecognisable as her former self. THis is reflected in her mental health outlook too, where she’s decided, through her own thoughts and the serial killer, that she won’t lie down and take it anymore. She’s tired of hiding, tired of being called the wrong name because people can’t or won’t pronounce her real name. It’s not Em, by the way - that’s the name she gives herself so that it’s something that can be pronounced.

This is all told through a roughly 24 hour period, and this adds to the tension as it’s relentless. Em doesn’t get a break, a rest, until it’s all over, and we as readers are there with her.

I thought this was a compelling story, and while I got a bit frustrated with Em doing daft things which only hindered her further, I was rooting for her to get to her destination and find what she’s looking for. The abuse she receives from random men on the streets resonated with me, which I think will be sadly true for lots of women who read this. There’s a satisfaction in seeing a comeuppance of sorts in there. Em starts off being unseen and unheard, and ends in a very different place - there’s some triumph in that, and that’s enjoyable to read.

I’d recommend this for readers who like thrillers with a bit of crime in there too - not my usual genre but an easy to read story.

First up, this book is fantastic. It is a timely look at our society, violence against women, finding your inner strength and voice alongside the fear and rage felt by many women.

Em is having what can only be described as a seriously bad day. Every time I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. Whether it was losing her job, missing a flight, tube strikes or the sexist remarks, men pushing their weight around, not to mention the serial killer on the loose… it is a BAD day. Whilst this book doesn’t shy away from the negatives, there are still moments of kindness and certain characters who come to Em’s rescue.

I liked the inclusion of social media posting scattered throughout the novel too. It made it feel so real and of course added in the element of people sharing their online views about things - the good, the bad and the very ugly.

The writing is excellent. I could feel Em’s desperation in my own chest as she stumbled her way across London in the stifling heatwave. I felt her frustration at the little things and when she finally snapped, I got it. There is only so much one woman can take after all.

You can feel Em’s anger emanate through each page of this book. As the story develops things become increasingly tense, culminating in one of those WOW endings that has me wanting more!

Thank you to Headline, Natali Simmonds and NetGalley for my early review copy in exchange of a fair and honest review.

It took me a long time after reading to fully gather my thoughts on this book to be able to write a review. More than any book I've read in recent years, it took some processing once I was finished. I've read other books by this author so thought I knew what to expect, but this is a new genre for her and was a complete departure from what she's written before.

From start to finish, there's a tension to this novel, and this is not the 'comfortable' kind of tension you expect to get with your standard thriller. Nothing in this book is standard. There's a raw realness to the experiences of main character Em, especially for female readers, which makes it all too relatable. I found Em a little frustrating at first but once the novel got going and she came roaring out of her shell, with the encouragement of the fantastic Rose, I was behind her 100%.

This novel won't be everyone's cup of tea but I would strongly recommend that everyone at least give it a try.

This is a brilliant book from an author I'd not previously read anything by. I understand that this is her first foray into thrillers but my god, its good.
We follow Em through her day as she is continually shit on from a great height by......well, men. Some of the first parts of the book were just uncomfortable, nothing is going right for Em through no fault of her own; I almost couldn't bear to watch and had to have a break a few times. But, as all things that are continually put under pressure without a break, Em snaps and her feminine rage was almost tangible.
This book put me in a weird mood, I think I felt angry and wound up on Em's behalf and it left me with one of the strongest book hangovers I've had for a while. A highly recommended read.