Initial Thoughts
I enjoyed this book! It has been a while since I last picked up any of Alice Feeney's work so I decided that I should give this book a try. We get several different points of view to sort out but it didn't take long before I was completely hooked. Edith has been in a care home which is the last place she wants to be. The only thing that she looks forward to is the time that she spends with one of the staff, Patience. In addition to those two POVs, we also meet Clio (Edith's daughter) and Frankie who is looking for her own daughter. There were quite a few twists and turns worked into the story and while I did guess some of them there were enough surprises to hold my interest. I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narrators did a great job with the story.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Full review to be posted soon.

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

Going into this book, I thought I would be reading a thriller full of dark twists, but I would say this was more of a domestic family drama mystery with a little bit of suspense.

This book is about a baby who is stolen from a supermarket, a murder in a nursing home 20 years later, and four women who may be linked to both events.

It is a slow burn which didn’t really start to pick up until about more than half way through.

Told in multiple POV’s, which if I’m being honest, I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. At one point I got two of the characters mixed up, but I’m not sure if this was partly because I listened on audio.

I just felt quite confused and a bit lost while reading this and struggled to be fully invested, that I wasn’t blown away by the time we got to the final “twist”.

Sadly, this wasn’t my favourite of hers but I look forward to whatever she writes next !!

𝙍𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚: 𝘼𝙪𝙜𝙪𝙨𝙩 29𝙩𝙝

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for an advanced audio copy for an honest review

I LOVE Alice Feeney but this one was definitely not my favorite.

I struggled for the first probably 20% at least not knowing what was going on. And I had a very hard time on audio distinguishing which of the four women was who.

The premise was good. She had a good twist and the latter half of the book was much better for me. But still struggled a bit.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Good Bad Girl is one of the most confusing stories I have read in a while. The story was predictable until the end when the author had to throw in a twist that seemed forced.
I like a good thriller but I can say this one was not it. I will not recommend this book to anyone.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio copy of Good Bad Girl.

Twenty years ago, a baby was stolen from a shopping cart in a grocery store and was never found. Now, there has been a murder in the care home that 18-year old Patience works in. She has become very close with one of the residents of the care home, 80-year old Edith. who was unhappily left there by her daughter, Clio. Frankie works at a prison librarian but today is her last day. None of this seems related, but perhaps there's more to the story.

This audiobook hooked me from the prologue and kept my attention all throughout. It was really well done and once I got all the characters down in the beginning I had no problem keeping them all straight. I liked how well developed the characters were and how real they felt, as well as how the story and their connections came together in the end. The book didn't have me on the edge of my seat dying to know the ending, but it definitely kept me engaged and curious. Overall I enjoyed this one on audio and got through it fairly quickly!

I quite enjoyed Good Bad Girl. When I started it, it was like that movie Valentine’s Day or What To Expect When You’re Expecting, where there are SO many characters — but as the story went on, they were SUCH developed characters. Everyone had such different personalities and it really pulls you right into the story. Listening on audio was a challenge in the beginning, though, keeping all the characters/names straight, since I couldn’t turn back the page and reference a name (and it doesn’t help when a character changes her name!!)

Good Bad Girl was a story about complex mother-daughter relationships. It was done in a very unique way, and way to go with the ending, Alice Feeney! I’m usually not a fan of endings where everything is wrapped up in a big, shiny bow… but this one had the perfect amount of closure at the end - and I loved it.
All the pieces clicked together and I have nothing except for golf claps 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Also - I loved Frankie’s frantic, number-rambling. And the timeline jumps to the past.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me an audio ARC of the latest book by a favorite, Alice Feeney, and wonderfully narrated by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine - 5 stars!

On Mother's Day 20 years ago, a momentary lapse of attention caused Clio's baby girl to disappear and her life to implode. On Mother's Day in present time, a woman is murdered in a care home and the detective in charge has three suspects - Frankie, who works in a prison library; Patience, an aide at the care home; and Clio, whose mother, Edith, is a resident in the home. Is anyone telling the truth and how are all these people and crimes connected?

I absolutely adore Alice Feeney's writing style and twisty novels - I had a few gasps in this one that I just never saw coming. The story is told from these different POVs and timelines, but the chapters are short and I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook. The author brings all the characters to life and I felt for all of them. Besides being a twisty tale, I loved all the personal and family drama - who doesn't love a messy family? Another highly recommended book!

The reigning queen of psychological twisty thrillers, Alice Feeney, returns following Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors with her BEST YET, GOOD BAD GIRL— an intricately woven mystery of mothers and daughters, when a past abduction collides with the present in this riveting multi-level mindbending yet heartrendering gripping suspense.

Four women, three suspects, two murders, and one victim. DCI Charlotte Chapman is on the case.

Twenty years ago, on Mother's Day, a baby in a stroller was abducted in a grocery store. The mother is distracted while shopping; she discovers her six-month-old daughter is gone when she returns her attention to her baby carriage. The child was never found.

Twenty years later, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good-bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.

Frankie is a prison librarian struggling to deal with losing her eighteen-year-old daughter, Patience, who has run away. She makes an appointment to see a counselor called Clio.

Clio's mother, Edith, is unhappy having been moved into a care home. She wants to escape and move back into her house. She blames her daughter, Clio.

Patience works at the London nursing/care home. She has a special relationship with Edith and goes to the pound to get Edith's dog for her. Can she be trusted?

Everyone has a past. Everyone has secrets. Each is acting good and bad and you will sympathize with both sides. The gripping mystery—what do these women have in common?

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people.
Sometimes, good people have to do bad things.

How does this mystery connect these women, both mothers and daughters? Does history repeat itself or will love win out in the end?

What a book! Feeney has outdone herself —cleverly exploring the emotional, unique, complex relationships between mothers and daughters. A relationship that shapes lives.

GOOD BAD GIRL is well-written, fast-paced, engaging, smart, and intriguing, with characters that jump off the page with all the Feeney signature twists and turns. No one writes family and complex relationships better (whether good or bad).

Feeney fans will delight! Also, for fans of authors Sally Hepworth and Michael Robotham. It's an ideal book club pick for further discussions. Binge-worthy and movie-worthy, you will be on the edge of your seat to discover how this clever puzzle's pieces fit together.

I loved Edith with her spunk, humor, and drive. Just because she is old does not mean she is done with living.

AUDIOBOOK: I listened to the audiobook, which was SPECTACULAR! Narrators Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine gave an award-winning performance and perfect voices for all the women. I could not tear myself away.

Heart-stirring, emotional, and suspenseful —I highly recommend GOOD BAD GIRL.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio for a gifted ALC via NetGalley for my honest opinion. I also ordered the hardcover copy.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Aug 29, 2023
My Rating: 5 Stars
Aug 2023 Must-Read Books

“This book is 🔥🔥. The queen of twisty psychological thrillers does it again 🖤.
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A baby was kidnapped from a stroller in a supermarket twenty years ago. And now an employee of a nursing home has been murdered. But how are the crimes connected? Patience works at the nursing home and is planning to help eighty-year-old Edith escape. Edith resents her adult daughter, Clio, for tricking her into the nursing home. And Clio has her own reasons for refusing to speak to her mother. Frankie is a prison librarian who wants nothing more than to find her beloved long lost daughter. The four women are possible suspects in a murder, and it’s up to DCI Charlotte Chapman to uncover the truth.
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This book is told from the alternating perspectives of the four women. (Apologies to the people trying to sleep next to me on the plane while I gasped, “oh no!” listening to this book 😂.) There were so many beautiful quotes about books, love, and life in this one. And I did not guess the ending!
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Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review. The narration by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine was phenomenal.
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Good Bad Girl - Alice Feeney
4.75/5⭐️
Pub Date: 🎉8/29/23🎉
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“Not everyone is fortunate enough in life to be loved. It’s like winning a lottery. If you get those lucky numbers in life, it doesn’t matter where you bought the ticket.”**
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“A good book can be a light in the darkness. A good book can cure loneliness, change minds, or even change the world.”
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(** Quotes taken from audiobook ARC and may appear different in final product.)

3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4

I feel like I've had a seriously hard time being impressed my thrillers lately. It takes A LOT for me to be really wow-ed. Or to feel like one is going to be memorable. Ultimately, I enjoyed the process of reading Good Bad Girl and looked forward to listening to it each day to see where it would go. But I felt like the ending was a bit far-fetched and that the author was reaching a bit in order to tie the story together.

Though the narrator is great and I enjoyed listening, I do think I had a little trouble with the book on audio since there are several characters you're following. It took me a while to remember who each of them were and even deep into the book, I was getting them confused with each other. The book follows Edith, a woman in a nursing home; Patience, and employee in the nursing home; Clio, Edith's daughter who doesn't have much of a relationship with her; and Frankie, a prison librarian whose daughter has stopped talking to her.

The book starts with a kidnapping that happened in the past. And now there's been a murder at the nursing home Edith is at. How are these crimes connected and who's involved?

Like I said, I did enjoy following along with this book, but I wasn't a big fan of the ending. I think it's really hard for thriller authors these days to write a book that's going to engage a large audience, give them the awesome twists they're looking for (that they didn't see coming!), and feel believable and I do commend Alice Feeney for doing it better than most!

I was looking forward to Alice Feeney’s newest mystery/thriller since discovering her books earlier this year. Her other novels, His & Hers and Rock Paper Scissors, are 2 of my favorite thrillers thus far.

I was quite disappointed in her newest novel since I felt like it lacked both the mystery and thriller aspect that she has written so well with her past books. The story had started off so slow that it wasn’t until I was 60% through the audiobook that it started to become more interesting. Even after the pace had quickened, the twist (twists?) towards the end were lackluster.

Overall, this wouldn’t be the first Alice Feeney book that I would recommend and I truly don’t think I would ever recommend this book for readers who are looking for a good thriller.

I will still be looking forward to what future stories this author will write.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney was an electrifying story.
She isn’t called The Queen of Suspense for no reason!
A captivating slow-burn domestic suspense/family drama that draws you in almost immediately.
I love how Feeney puts such great detail in each chapter which makes the reading more thrilling and exciting.
I really liked all the characters. They were all well developed and you don’t know who to trust here.
An enthralling read that kept me on my toes with some amazing twists.
The narrators Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine rocked it!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is my third book read by this author and I find her thought processes hard to follow. I felt there were too many characters to flip back and forth between on a non-linear time line. The author always surprises me in the end and I never see the ending coming, but sometimes I’m too lost to even follow the plot. In this book I could not keep track of the different characters, so keep notes as you are reading. The author keep referring to a “paper cut” hanging on the wall, or whatever, and I have have no idea what a “paper cut” is as she is referring to it, because to me, a paper cut is an incision into the skin made by paper, but this description doesn’t fit the sentences it is used in, so it becomes frustrating because I can’t tell what the author is talking about, and this is used a lot!
Anyway, with the being the third book from this author that I’ve read, I’ve decided to give up reading any more books from her, they’re just too hard to follow and that makes them less enjoyable. I do not like to leave bad reviews because this is only my opinion, but I do know that a lot of my friends like Alice Feeney, as she strikes much debate, always.

Twenty years ago in a grocery store on Mother's Day, a frazzled mother turns away from her baby girl napping in her stroller to chat with a fellow customer. Mere minutes later, the mother's horrific screams ring throughout the store when she discovers her baby is missing. The police arrive to help, but their comments are laced with judgment and condemnation. As the days and weeks go by, it becomes painfully clear that her baby has vanished, seemingly without a trace.

In present day, a brutal murder takes place at a nursing home. Somehow, these two events twenty years apart are connected by the cast of characters we encounter. We meet Edith, a sharp, eighty year old woman who is deeply resentful of her estranged daughter Clio for placing her in the nursing home. Clio is a therapist laden with guilt for her decision but also struggling to cope with her own past trauma. Edith's health care aide, Patience is a young girl willing to help Edith escape the home but also harboring secrets of her own. Meanwhile, Frankie is a mother desperately searching for her missing eighteen year old daughter before something terrible happens to her.

Alice Feeney delivers her classic, creative twists several times over with her latest novel. It took me awhile to puzzle out the characters and their connections, but when it all came together it was immensely satisfying. The audio rendition of this novel was fantastic. The narrator added another dimension to this rich novel and her pitch and pacing lulled the reader/listener into the world of this thriller.

Alice Feeney is a master class in how to produce an engaging and smart thriller that resonates with readers on every level. Check out this one immediately!

After reading some of her previous books this was a little bit of a lit down for me personally.

The plot was very convoluted and the slow pace didn't help it either.

I would say it was an okay book and would recommend the audiobook.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub date: August 29th

Wow! I LOVED this story. It is a top-tier psychological thriller that will have your head spinning and your wheels turning.

It was a race to see if I could figure out how the narrators would all cross paths before it happened and I love that kind of story. It took me on a wild ride and I enjoyed every minute!

I listened to this via audiobook and loved the presentation. I had to pay close attention as each narrator was introduced and to follow the path it led me on - this one definitely requires your attention, so this format may be for an advanced audiobook reader. Otherwise, I’d stick with the physical copy!

Perfect for you if you like:
Multiple narrators + POVs
Guessing game to figure out the plot
Twisty twists!!!

4 stars

In the latest Alice Feeney novel, Good Bad Girl, three women and two crimes makes for one engaging and thrilling story!
The novel opens with every parent’s worst nightmare; a baby being taken in broad daylight, never to be seen again.
Flash forward two decades and we meet 80 year old Edith who hates being in a care home, blaming her daughter Clio for it. The only thing Edith doesn’t hate is Patience, one of the young, new care workers. But Patience is let go, accused of stealing, and shortly after, a care home worker is found murdered, Clio wonders just what kind of place she’s put her mother in but she knows she can’t care for her alone.

What do these women have in common? How do the crimes ft into their lives? Do their paths cross by chance or is one determined to right the wrongs of the past?

Alice Feeney will always be a must-read for me. While this seems like a side step from her usual writing style, it was delightful and thrilling. I highly recommend checking it out!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook ahead of its release in exchange for an honest review.

Good Bad Girl
Alice Fenney
4/5 ⭐

A baby, only six months old, was taken from her stroller in the middle of a grocery store. A woman is found dead in the elevator of a care home. These two crimes happened 20 years apart but the connection can be found with one girl.

Edith an eight-year-old woman hates the nursing home that her daughter, Clio, placed her in. Her only saving grace is the young girl, Patience who works there and befriended Edith. Edith trusts Patience and is planning her escape from the nursing home. Patience may seem like a good girl but she has a bad side, similar to her mother, Frankie.

Frankie learned the hard way to only count on herself. As a young mother, she tried to make good choices but sometimes that meant doing bad things. Working as a prison librarian, she provided for Patience and gave her everything she wanted. Well, everything but the truth!

Clio punishes herself and her mother since that awful day when her baby was taken. They barely talk so when Edith goes missing Clio is indifferent about her mother’s whereabouts. That is until a detective shows up at her door suspecting her of murder. These mothers and daughters unexpectedly come together to solve one mystery and end up solving two.

Good Bad Girl is a complicated web of mysteries. It is a mystery, within a mystery, within a mystery. The book is told from each of the four women’s point of view. I kept notes on the connection between the characters because I was getting confused. The first part of the book developed at a slower pace. About halfway through the book, it picked up and Alice Feeney did her thing with twist after twist. I did figure out the main twist before the characters which always leaves you feeling impartial.

Thank you to @Macmillan.Audio and @netgalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. All my opinions are my own.
Publication Date: August 29, 2023

This book is extremely confusing. Many different POVs. Even when you have all the characters lined out it really isn’t that “thrilling”. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and the narration was incredibly boring.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this ARC. Alice Feeney is one of my favorite thriller authors because she always tells such a suspenseful story with twists and turns.

I enjoyed this audio book, the characters and the overall plot. After reading two of her other popular books, this one fell a little flat for me. One of my favorite things about books written by Alice Feeney is the twist at the end. The mind blowing wow….& this one just didn’t hit me like they usually do. I knew what was coming, I figured out the characters and who they were prior to the end 🙈 that’s always such a bummer for me. Overall it was still a good book and I’m glad I got the chance to read it because I love Alice Feeney!

If you haven’t read any books by this author, I highly recommend Rock, Paper, Scissors, and His & Hers! Those two were INSANE and awesome.