3.5⭐️

“Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things”

This quote perfectly sums up the plot of this book! The reader truly gets to see the good and the bad, and it’s kind of up to them to decide if ultimately what’s bad is good, or if what’s bad is bad. Confused yet?

That leads me to my only issue with this book. For the first 1/4 of the book, I was left feeling pretty confused by what was happening. Maybe it was because there were so many POVs, but I really had to stop and think and try to connect the dots for the first little bit. Once all of the characters started interconnecting, I began to understand a lot better what was going on.

In true Alice Feeney fashion, the plot was twisty and surprising and a bit out of the ordinary. It was definitely a creative idea for a book, and I enjoyed reading it through.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a thriller which isn’t too dark, and enjoys playing detective.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Alice Feeney for this Audio Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I have to start this out by saying that Alice Feeney is one of my top favorite thriller authors so I'm so thankful to have been given the chance to review this book early! I had such high hopes for this book but unfortunately this just wasn't my favorite of hers...I enjoyed the plot and storyline but I felt this was more of a family drama vs a thriller, and I missed the more suspenseful/page turning elements that are in a few of her other books and while (in my opinion) she is still the Queen of crazy Twists, I did figure two of the major twists out very early on so that was a little disappointing... I thought the narrator did a fantastic job though and I loved the multiple POV's and timelines that Alice Feeney threw in there. Rock Paper Scissors is still my absolute favorite but I did enjoy this one and would say its a 3.5 star read for me :)

I will always love every book that Alice writes! Daisy Darker is one of my most favorite book of all times! I love how this story unfolds, through the points of view from 4 different women who have more in common than you think.

This really didn't do it for me. Not to be harsh, but I've heard really great things about Alice Feeney and this didn’t really align with what I have heard. This was my first experience with her writing, and honestly it felt a little lazy. I found this book chock full of platitudes and clichés passed off as profound observations.
And that’s not to mention the cheesy dialogue... What serious detective says the words "Hello, Suspect Number Three" when greeting a person of interest for the first time? That's some Clue-level silliness and I just couldn't take this seriously at all.
Beyond that, I found the plot to be rather basic and predictable. I guessed the twist ending around the 50% mark, and when the reveal finally came I was unsurprised to find myself unsurprised.

As far as the narration, I don’t have much to complain about. It was done well and I enjoyed the two narrator’s voices. They seemed to fit well with the subject matter and setting of the story. I think the only complaint that I have was that it was a little confusing in the beginning to keep characters straight because there are four main points of view—Clio, Patience, Frankie, and Edith—and only two narrators. If you miss one second of the narration at the beginning of the chapter, you will have no idea who is speaking based on the voice alone, so, every single chapter, you have to listen closely for the character announcement.

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron, and MacMillan Audio for the advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a crazy story that is suspenseful although not "hard to put down". I wouldn't say it had crazy twists but it had a lot of surprises and interesting plot points. I listened it on an aidiobook. Thank you NetGalley. Full of family drama. Characters are likable and that is great for this kind of story.

The world is full of people who are good at being bad and those who are bad at being good and sometimes bad things happen to good people who are forced to do bad. On Mother's Day twenty years ago during a lapse in concentration, a baby is taken. In the present day, it's another Mother's Day and Frankie is struggling, her child is missing and she's all alone in the world.
She doesn't trust people, she has no reason to, and thus she keeps her distance. Meanwhile, eighty year-old Edith, tricked into Windsor Care Home is plotting her escape, especially as she believes her friend May has been murdered. She has developed a strong bond with Patience who works at the Home as a general dogsbody. Despite being aware that Patience is not exactly truthful, Edith needs her help, especially as she and her daughter Clio are not speaking. Four women, two murders, three suspects and one victim.
Although this is a slow burner, domestic drama/thriller which initially takes a little while to get going as the four main characters and their relationships are established, I think this may be Alice Feeney's cleverest novel yet. This is by no means her darkest novel, but the premise is excellent as she explores the good/bad idea through an examination of motherhood, especially those struggling with situations such as postpartum depression. It is extremely thought-provoking and so perceptively observed with some sentences that really resonate and jump out at me, so I read them several times over. This is one Alice Feeney novel that deserves a re-read as I'm sure I'll have missed some clever nuances along the way. It also makes you reflect on your own experiences of motherhood.
Once each of the four characters threads start to connect so cleverly this is when the Queen of the Twisty twist revs up and gets going, delivering some real slam dunkers. She continues to surprise me right to the very end with one jaw dropping revelation - nicely played! Here we have characters who have much to conceal with secrets piling on secrets and how each links to the other is very well done. It's highly entertaining watching the truth wriggle it's way reluctantly to the surface and seeing how that all plays out.

A twisty family drama that had me guessing until the last few chapters!

Alice Feeney does it again with writing psychological thrillers that keep you turning the pages late into the night.

I loved how all of the characters were connected; including the secondary characters in this one.

“Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.”

It was a quick & engaging read. Definitely one to add to your TBR!

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillianaudio for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another Feeney Twisty Goodness!!I wish you all could see my notes for this one it looks like the GIF of the guy with the charts and graphs on the wall from Always Sunny.


I enjoyed every twist and every red herring in this one, Feeney really keeps the twists coming and I love that! I don't want to give anything away this is a family mystery as much as a murder mystery, and once you get the ladies straight as to who is who you'll enjoy the ride!

Narrated by Katherine Press & Stephanie Racine, both did a great job with accents and emotion!

Highly recommend this one! Feeney has become an auto buy!

4 stars

I received this book from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

This is one of those books where I need to make a chart to keep track of who is who and how they’re connected 😅😂

The narrators were great, but listening on audio seemed to make it even more confusing.

That being said, it was worth it! The constant twists and turns when the connections were fully revealed were *literally* jaw-dropping at times.

Patience is a virtue with this one. Get it? 😜

Happy Pub Day to @alicewriterland! I was granted an ALC of this book and happened to find it on an early release last week, so I was super stoked to dive in. I started it last night and finished this morning because it was just SO GOOD. It was my first by Alice Feeney and I absolutely can not wait to try more. It was one of those books that you have to play along and try to guess the details to tie all of the storylines together. But even if you guess something that is intended to be figured out, there’s still more to it that blows you away. There was multiple characters POV and it was so much fun trying to figure out the connections (I thought I did, I was wrong). I enjoy this so much and loved the backgrounds for the characters she gave us to really paint the picture we needed. It was a phenomenal, 5⭐️ for me.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow burn domestic thriller, but even so, it had these hooks that sucked me right in.
Not a dark thriller by any means, but such a good thought-provoking book. It had me guessing and really changing my mind the entire time.

Such clever twists with layers added that yes, it makes it a bit more complex, but it's one you have to let all the details unfold to get to the big wow factor at the end. Which was so good and mind-blowing.

Throughly enjoyed this and the audio that was narrated by Katharine Press and Stephanie Racine. They did a fantastic job portraying these characters.

Thank you, @netgalley @alicewriterland & @macmillan.audio for the Audio ARC and allowing me to read and give my honest review.

Wow, what a story. First of all, I love the character development and she made it very clear and easy to follow. I really like when the story takes off from the beginning. Very well written and the narration was smooth as well. I did enjoy the story and I can't wait to see what's next from her.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

We have the points of view of several females in Good Bad Girl. There's Patience who works in the care home and becomes friendly with Edith. Patience has very little since she ran away from home a year ago. She has been saving to go to art school. She also adopted Edith's dog and brings her to see her even though it is against the rules.

Edith was a store detective when she worked long years as a single mom. She was not the best parent, but she did have to work. She hates the care home and wants to go back to her home. Patience is one of the few who is actually nice to her.

Clio does not visit her mother as they do not get along. She did not want her mother to live with her and doesn't like her dog. She is struggling in her psychiatry practice and to pay for Edith's care. Her brother doesn't help. She is divorced.

Franky raised Patience until she ran away a year ago on her birthday when she wouldn't tell her who her father is. Franky was also adopted and had a harrowing childhood. She works as a librarian at a prison. She lives on a houseboat which came to her when her mother died.

These women all have a gray moral compass, not being completely honest or straightforward. They've all made some mistakes. I would never have guessed how twisty the situation would become. When the care home manager is murdered, they become suspects and things really go wild with old secrets threatened.

I enjoyed this story even though I found it hard at times to root for the women. I understood their issues and foibles. I did feel badly for some of their misconceptions and miscommunications that made their situations worse. The ending was superb.


Narration:
Stephanie Racine seems to narrate all the books I have read from this author. I think she does very well with the voices and the emotional tones. I don't have the knowledge to know if the dialects are accurate but they sounded good to me. Nearly all the points of view in the story are female, so that worked well. I listened at my usual 1.5x speed.

Alice Feeney does not miss at all when it comes to writing books that are intriguing, mysterious and leave you with your mouth hanging open. The use of multiple points of view and past and present are really what make this book so interesting. This book did start off slower than her other books, and at times had me questioning what the whole point was, but this book ended up proving me wrong.

The structure of this story was really different as the story worked backwards. I felt a bit confused some of the time but by the end I was good. I really liked the characters despite their awkwardness. No one was who they seemed to be but the mystery of the stolen baby kept my attention. I enjoyed that I didn’t see the twists coming so the unveiling was so much better.

The narrator was fabulous and the pace was perfect.

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for this audiobook copy. It was great!

Let me start this review by saying that I absolutely LOVED Rock Paper Scissors. It is my absolute favorite thriller to this day. I recommend it to everyone, so I was hoping this new book would give me all the same thrills I got from Rock Paper Scissors, especially since I DNF'ed Daisy Darker. Sadly, this one came nowhere near close.

I won't recap the book here, because you can get the synopsis from Goodreads, but I will tell you that I enjoyed that it was jam-packed with family drama. It kept the book interesting but what I didn't like was that I was able to see all the plot twists a mile away. I never fully guess who the culprit/culprits are in any type of thriller I read, so I was incredibly disappointed when I was able to figure them out. It made for an okay story, nothing that left me with my jaw open.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, narrated by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine, who did a great job. Thanks to their storytelling, I finished the book.

I am not fully giving up on Alice Feeney yet, but this one wasn't quite for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

Alice Feeney is back and better than ever with her newest novel Good Bad Girl. I have a been a big fan of the author ever since I read Sometimes I Lie. Her books never disappoint and that includes the latest one. I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook version and I loved it. The narration done by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine was fantastic. A huge thank you to Macmillan Audio, the author and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook version of the novel.

If you are looking for the author’s usual fast-paced psychological thriller you won’t find that with this book. Good Bad Girl is a slow-building, immersive mystery. The storyline is told from multiple perspectives and multiple timelines. The book deals with the mother-daughter relationship, postpartum depression, and murder.

When the story opens 20 years ago on Mother’s Day a baby has been stolen from a stroller in a grocery store. Fast-forward to the present day two murders have happened that are associated with that actual kidnapping, which is bringing up serious painful memories, and have unintentionally linked four women together.

There is 80 year old Edith who desperately wants to escape from the nursing home that her estranged daughter Clio has thrown her in.

Clio is trying to keep her life intact and find the funds to continue paying for her mother’s care.

18 year Patience works at the nursing home cleaning up all the worst messes that nobody else wants to do. She forms a bond with Edith, but is lying about everything.

Then there’s Frankie a prison librarian who is convinced that Clio knows where her runaway daughter is and shows up on her doorstep with not so good intentions.

Can any of these women be trusted? Each of them are harboring secrets. But if they want to know the truth, then they will have to solve the mystery of the two murders first. And then these women just might find out what happened to the baby that was kidnapped so long ago, to the mother who lost her and the connection that ties them together.

Good Bad Girl is a compelling, well plotted, engaging novel that slowly reveals its mystery and will keep you guessing throughout the story.

From the very first page, this gripping thriller had me hooked and kept me on the edge of my seat until the final, shocking twist. The author's skillful storytelling weaves a complex web of suspense, drawing readers into a world of uncertainty and intrigue. The character development is top-notch, with protagonists that feel real and relatable, and antagonists who send shivers down your spine. The pacing is masterful, seamlessly blending heart-pounding action with moments of quiet tension, making it nearly impossible to put down. The plot unfolds like a series of perfectly executed dominoes, each revelation more jaw-dropping than the last. Every chapter leaves you hungry for more, as you attempt to unravel the puzzle before the characters do. This is a thriller that doesn't just rely on shock value; it delves into the psychological depths of its characters, exploring their fears, desires, and secrets. The writing is sharp and evocative, painting a vivid picture of the story's setting and atmosphere. Without a doubt, this is a must-read for fans of the genre, an experience that will stay with you long after you've turned the final page. Prepare for sleepless nights and a lingering sense of unease – this is the mark of a truly exceptional thriller.

I keep hoping one of Feeney's books will be as good as SOMETIMES I LIE but this latest was a another dud for me.

I didn't like anything about it. I found it highly confusing and that ruined it completely for me.

I love this author and I’ve been looking forward to this book for months. I listened to the audiobook and the narrators were great. The book has tons of twists and going back and forth building the storyline. The characters were interesting and it was all around a solid read. Highly recommend!