Good Bad Girl has all the hallmarks of a classic Alice Feeney thriller - family dysfunction, unreliable narrator(s), and a pretty good twist at the end!

The plot was actually a bit unusual at first because it takes quite a while to figure out how the characters’ lives intersect. The characters were well developed and I found myself guessing how elements of the plot were related to the Mother’s Day story shared in the beginning of the book.

While it’s not overly suspenseful and I didn’t find myself on the edge of my seat, this was an enjoyable read and actually provides quite a discourse on mother/daughter relationships. I enjoyed the audiobook but will say that the two narrators have very similar voices so if I wasn’t paying close attention when listening it was tough to tell when the POV switched.

I do LOVE the cover of this book - it’s really striking and reminds me of dark, rainy days.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of Good Bad Girl!

I was beyond thrilled for the chance to read another Alice Feeney book. I have absolutely loved the ones I read previously. I must say on some levels I was disappointed in this one. It starts out, well, confusing. That did improve as time went on but I think it kept me from being invested in any of the characters through much of the book.

I did like how it all played out in the end and then it made much more sense to me. The characters were quirky to say the least and I LOVE a good quirky character.

I fully admit that much of my lack of connection to the book is probably due to my own mind space and not the fault of the author or book. I think it was the wrong time for me to read this one. I am confident I would have liked it much more at a different time.

I listened to the audio version and enjoyed the narrator and how the book was read.

Thanks to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc.

This is a mystery with 4 characters at the center that you follow and who are all connected in multiple ways. It took me a bit to keep straight who was who and how they were connected to the next character, but also the mystery is focusing on their connections and the reveals make it even more confusing, yet I didn't mind. The other main focus of the book is mother-daughter relationships which was really interesting, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of it at points. That being said this is my favorite Alice Feeney I've read (I say as I've only read one other).

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Edith was tricked into giving up her legal rights and was forced into a care home for the elderly. She has made very few friends there, but one of them is Patience, a young girl who works for the care home. But Patience hasn’t been honest with Edith about many things, and it’s only a matter of time before those secrets force their way into the light.

This work is told from the POV of four characters, all women, all of whom have complicated relationships with their mothers. This theme was probably my favorite part of the work, and I especially liked its exploration in Clio’s and Edith’s POVs. I did enjoy how all the seemingly unconnected stories started coming together towards the middle of the read, especially since I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. I also liked how well the author incorporated small lines that were ambiguous or slightly misleading, so it made it difficult to know exactly how folks were connected.

Often at end of someone’s POV there would be something along the lines of “If only they knew how bad I really was” or something like that. I did find that it got a little repetitive and that it didn’t really build suspense. I know that the author couldn’t reveal those secrets too soon or it would have ruined the journey, but the constant references to them made me want the characters to hurry up and spit out their secrets or at least stop referencing them so often without providing more context. I honestly wanted a bit more from the care home mystery/subplot and think making it a heftier part of the story would have resulted in a more impactful read.

Publishers are going to give readers trust issues with this mislabeling of books as thrillers. This is a good slightly suspenseful mystery that begins slowly and is focused on the characters and involves a lot of domestic drama; do not read this expecting a thriller. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This whole book was a rollercoaster of a read. There was so many ups and downs, twists and turns, it was crazy. I had figured out some of the twists about halfway through the book as the storylines started coming closer and closer together, but there were still some shock factors at the end of the book that had my jaw on the floor. In typical Alice Feeney, queen of twists, fashion, she had me hooked until the very end. I was so enthralled with these women in this book, I loved learning about them and their pasts, I wanted to find out what happened and I was on the edge of my seat hoping all would turn out okay for them. I am so amazed at how Alice Feeney is able to write the plot from so broad and mysterious, to so revealing and shocking. She will never fail to amaze me. I have to read more by Alice Feeney, I am so thankful I got the chance to listen to this ahead of release. Highly recommend to Alice Feeney fans, women's mystery fans, and thriller fans everywhere.

Alice Feeney never disappoints when it comes to deliciously twisty thrillers and she really delivers with her latest, Good Bad Girl!

The story revolves around several women. First, there's Frankie, a prison librarian and who is distraught because her teen daughter has gone missing. Then there's Edith, an 80-year old whose children tricked her into moving into a care home, and Patience, a young woman who works at the care home, and who Edith convinces to help her escape since she hates it there. Lastly, there's Clio, who is Edith's daughter and a psychologist. Edith clearly can’t stand Clio.

What drives the plot of the story are two events from two Mother's Days 20 years apart. The first Mother's Day features an infant that was stolen from a shopping cart in a grocery store, while the second one features a murder at the care home.

How are these two seemingly unrelated events connected and how are these women connected to one another and to those two events?

I will say up front that this is a slow burn mystery. It took me some time to really settle in and watch all of the seemingly unrelated pieces start to piece themselves together. What Feeney does so incredibly well though is that her characters are so well developed and multi-dimensional that you become wholly invested in learning everything about them. These characters, as the title implies, are basically good but flawed people. They're dealing with fractured relationships and all of them are keeping secrets. That level of character development, combined with a riveting mystery had me more than willing to patiently follow the clues wherever they led me.

I don't want to say anything else for fear of spoilers, so I'll just say that while it may be a slow burn, the payoff is so worth the wait. I didn't see any of the twists coming and was enthralled until the very end.

I listened to the audio ALC from @macmillan.audio & @netgalley & it was fantastic. The narrators, Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine did a wonderful job bringing all of these characters to life.

4 1/2 STARS

Three suspects, two bodies, one woman in the pink house.
Good Bad Girl follows Cleo, Patience, Edith, and Frankie. Four women who seem to think they have nothing in common, but as they are each investigated as suspects in the murder of Edith’s care home manager, secrets come to light, and no one is who they seem to be.
I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook, although it was a little slow at times. I found myself being more drawn into the plot, and trying to figure out who murdered Joy, and why Frankie left the old, crumpled £10 note on Cleo’s wall. Why did Frankie’s daughter run away? Whose secret was Patience keeping? Whose blood was on the brass statue that Edith hid in the church? Why did Frankie find the woman in the pink house?
Telling each chapter from alternating viewpoints kept the reader (listener) guessing, and as the storylines came together, I was definitely surprised by the ending. Definitely recommend!

𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘺, 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵-𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳!

I love when a story takes me by surprise and this one sure did. It was dark, disturbing, twisty and so clever, only Fenney can develop these kind of messed up characters and complex plots that keep you guessing until the end.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this complimentary audiobook.

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗱 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹 by Alice Feeney releases today August 29, 2023.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

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.