3.75 stars rounded up for Goodreads and Netgalley.
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Becca Walsh is a struggling writer hoping to be published and having a successful career as an author.
However, so far all she has is her writing group which meets once a week to share each other's stories. What separates Becca from these women though, is her tormenter, someone who knows about Becca's past and refuses to let her forget it. Things then take a drastic turn when someone is murdered in exactly the way Becca's latest story victim is murdered.
Who is responsible? Could it be one of the women in her writing group or someone even closer to her?

This book started really strong; fast paced and straight to the point. In the first 25% we get a good sense of who our MC is and her complex and tormented character. I love when characters have a layer of complexity to them. The suspense begins almost immediately raising many questions with little answers, capturing my attention and keeping me cemented into the pages of this story. There were so many times I thought I had it figured out but I boy was I wrong.
They were many revelations along the way and so many people to suspect as our antagonist, that I found myself even more engrossed and was so pumped for the big reveal at the end.

This is sadly where things fell down for me. The ending felt way too rushed and a little unbelievable. Though, I truly didn't suspect the antagonist's identity, it still didn't blow me away as much as I wanted it to.
After such a suspenseful build-up, I expect the plot twist to be more thrilling and jaw dropping. However, it was very mediocre and unfortunately lackluster. The last little twist felt like an unnecessary almost forgotten detail that the author forgot to include, deciding to just throw it in there at the last minute.
I felt like they were way too many loose ends that needed to be tied up at the end, resulting in my rating of 3.75 stars. Had the ending been better crafted, this would've easily been a 5-star read, easily!
Having said all that, it was still a very enjoyable, bingeable and unputdownable read with a solid plot, if not mediocre ending. I will definitely be exploring more of this author's work.
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Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and Miranda Smith for my eARC of this book. All opinions are 100% my own and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. Becca has a past that she doesn’t want to remember but someone in her life doesn’t let her forget. Becca’s dream is to become a writer and so to help her, she joins the Mystery Maidens but when the stories become to real, the past comes back to haunt her. This book is a slow burn in the beginning since we don’t learn much about Becca’s past until around halfway in the book. The author’s writing still makes it a good story and kept me wanting to be in it for the long haul. Once the halfway mark hits, we learn about what has impaired her life and until the end, the layers come off quickly with twists until the big finale at the end. The ending threw me through left field and that’s what I love when books make me question everything. I do look forward to reading more of Miranda’s books.

This thriller was so well thought out and the ending felt very satisfying. I would love to see this story turned into a movie!

It's been around a decade since Becca's friend and roommate, Layla, was murdered back in college outside of a bar. Becca has always felt so much guilt and shame for what happened, and wished more than anything, that she could have made her leave that night. Since Layla's death, Becca has received black heart's off and on, each of which, have ruined her life. Suddenly, the hearts return more and more often than before.

Becca is starting to question everyone in her life and solved the mystery of the black heart's once and for all.

This thriller had me constantly thinking and questioning each and every character. I didn't want to put it down and I flew through the last half of the book. I felt like I was being a detective along with Becca. I loved how the story concluded at the end and it'll stick with me. This story is in my top 5 of the year so far! Highly recommend reading this one.

The premise of this book really intrigued me. I really liked how there were clues and revelations sprinkled throughout. I was very curious to know how everything would play out. Things get intense towards the end and there are several twists that surprised me!

Thank you so much Bookouture and NetGalley for the arc!

First of all thank you Netgalley and the publishing house for giving me the opportunity to review this book before it's release.

I was very much interested in this book for the first 40%. After that it felt very dragged out and the ending felt very very flat for me.
I wanted to love it so much but it ended up being very usual for me.

The Writer by Miranda Smith focuses on Becca and her aspirations of becoming an author. Becca attends a writing group where they all share their stories. Becca is living with secrets from the past, but shortly after a new member joins the writing group Becca realizes the stories she has been writing start to become a reality.
This book felt like it started out as a slow burn for me but as the story progressed it had me guessing and kept me interested. A good plot twist at the end which I didn’t see coming!
Overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more from this author..
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for proving me an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc. The main character is in a writing club and suddenly crimes are happening........just like they wrote about. A woman hit by a car, tires slashed, even someone gets murdered. This one kept me guessing. The end was a shock!

This was actually an interesting thriller

Becca is a struggling writer and is working part time jobs to support herself. Every Thursday, Becca meets a group of other women who are also struggling writers. The group's name is Mystery Maidens where they share about the stories they wrote. Becca is also a college drop out and she is coming into terms with the murder of her college roommate Layla as Becca and her friend Crystal believed they are partly responsible for Layla's murder. Becca then started writing about Layla as a story and shared with the group. Then a few days later, a woman was murdered in the similar fashion as Layla. As Becca started investigating on her own, some of the stories that were shared within the group seem to come to reality. Someone slashed Becca's tires. Becca began to suspect that someone in the group might be responsible and might now Becca's secret.

The plot has a great premise. The idea of someone using the stories to commit crimes was an interesting premise. However, the book started out a little slow which initially made the book at the beginning slightly boring. However, towards the middle, the book did start to get more and more interesting. The twists and turns are there and the ending however was slightly expected--we know that it had to be someone from the group who was responsible for the murder. Nevertheless, I think this is a great thriller with a great premise and I give this book four stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Imagine being a thriller writer and as you are writing your latest book, someone is acting it out! Chilling!

Miranda Smith takes us right there in this clever plot with our main protagonist, Becca, attending a writing group to try to help her to break out of her current writer's block. When the coincidences stack up, along with the body count, Becca realises that the killer has to be one of the group. Having had a creepy and threatening stalker for years, leaving black hearts as their calling card, is her stalker and the writing group killer the same person?

There were plenty of red herrings throughout the story, which gave me that tense and frightening feeling of knowing that Becca wasn't able to trust anyone around her and every time she thought she knew what was happening and why, she would have another curveball thrown at her making her doubt everyone. It kept me guessing right up to the end - brilliant!

4 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Miranda Smith and Bookouture, for an ARC in return for an honest review.

The story focuses on Becca and friends that she has made since joining a group. They all have one interest in writing and getting books published. Here they share their latest ideas and get feedback on it. Becca has a has never told them that when she was younger her best friend was murdered. Her and another girl should have been watching out for her on a night out and they didn't so she has always felt guilty about what happened especially when she had dealings with the person who was arrested. and kept it quiet.
When another new girl joins the group and things that Becca writes start to happen in real life she suspects the new girl. In the end she can trust no one and realises someone knows that is coming to get her.
A brilliant book that I soon read. Highly recommend.

While Becca works as a waitress, she is also aiming to be an author. She's part of a small group of women who called themselves Msytery Maidens, who support one another in their writing journey.
Becca is haunted by a Black heart stalker and lately that she again receives one word message with 🖤. This black heart stalker had haunted her for ten years and cost her job and relationship, and Becca is now keen to find who's behind this using her piece of writing.
Incidents seem happening like the stories that the writing group is writing. Is any of the members of Mystery Maidens the culprit?
While Becca tries to pin who's the black heart stalker, she ends up being a suspect of a murder.

It's full of suspense whodunit thriller with multiple twists, and I love how the author threw each of the twists.

Initially, I wasn't sure how I felt about this book. It was a slow burn through the first half of the book and I kept thinking, "This isn't a 'totally unputdownable thriller that will have you glued to the pages'".

Miranda has a very solid writing style, and this book was well written. Her selective and carefully crafted drops of information are what made me continue reading, but I didn't feel super connected with the characters. The characters seemed a little boring to me, but the premise of the story was solid.

What I did enjoy about this book and what redeemed it for a 4-star versus a 3-star, was the reveal near the end, followed by another twist that made me gasp. I will say that it did slightly seem to come as more of a shock factor because there is no way you could piece it together throughout the story. Overall, I enjoyed this book but I do wish it had been true to keeping you glued to the pages.

Thank you to Bookouture for selecting me for yet another ARC review!

he Writer was such an entertaining read full of twists and turns! I was taken by surprise by the reveal of the killer!! This was my first Miranda Smith book and I’m excited to read more of her work.

Aspiring writer Becca has been struggling to get her big break. She meets with the Mystery Maidens, her writing group, to keep her failing dream alive. Suddenly their dark murderous stories are coming true. Someone is taking their stories and bringing them to life. Could this be connected to Becca’s secret from her past 10 years ago?

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to! When starting this book for some reason I didn’t think I was going to be that engaged. The joke was on me because I couldn’t put the book down and wanted to continue reading. I enjoyed how the book stayed a mystery to me until the end. I had suspected each of the characters to be the one who was messing with Becca. When we got to the end I did not expect at all who it was. My mind was made up and that’s who I thought was messing with her. Again, I was wrong! Then another plot twist right at the end! I wasn’t expecting that!
The storyline and the characters were well-developed. I enjoyed how we got to know all the characters and how detailed it was. I felt like that’s what drew me in the most, well besides the whole mystery! This was my first time reading a book from this author and I do have to say I can’t wait to read more! I am a fan of her writing!

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book and give my honest opinion. Thank you, Miranda Smith, for writing a well-developed book! I can’t wait to read more from you!

What would you do if the stories you wrote started coming true? Horror and thriller wrtiter Becca has had a hard time writing lately then all of a sudden she writes about about nightmare she had and the next thing she knows it happens. A girl near the college is found dead in a ditch just like in Becca story. However, it's not the first time this same thing has happened but no one knows why Becca wrote about it. The Mystery Maiden is a group of 4 women (Danielle, Victoria, and April) and one new comer (Marley)who get together once a month to discuss their new stories and help each other improve their work and get encouragement from one another. But Becca starts to realize that their thriller and horror stories are coming to life but she is the only one who seems to notice that this is happening. Is it a coincidence that all this started happening when Marley joined the group? Becca is in a time crunch to find out what is going on before someone else is killed or before she is!

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Bookouture for the book#TheWriter by #MirandaSmith. Becca is hiding from the past and the guilt of her best friends death. It’s been a decade and she still can’t move on, but has joined a writers group. Accidents start happening like the stories the group is writing and she is suspicious of them all. Does someone know her secret and are they trying to frame her for these murders? I could not put this book down, and I highly recommend it.

Becca wants to be a published writer. With one novel written, she has sent it to a few publishers and is waiting for any feedback. While working in a restaurant to make ends meet, she meets a group of writers that call themself the Mystery Maidens. Eagerly, she joins the group but is quickly frustrated when she realizes all the other writers seem to be making quicker progress than she is. But even worse than that, messages with creepy black hearts begin appearing again - it had been nearly a decade since they stopped. Someone knows Becca’s past, but why are they choosing now to confront her about it? As the fictional murders the women write about start happening in real life around her, Becca begins to wonder if someone in her writing group knows her secret.

I always love reading stories where the main character is a writer! I think it adds a unique layer of creativity to the story. This story took that to a whole new level - fictional murders coming to life, creepy anonymous messages - “The Writer” was everything I love in a psychological thriller. Though the pacing was a little bit slower than what I usually like, it was intriguing as Becca’s past slowly came to light. And I was NOT expecting things to take the direction they did at all! This was the first book I read by this writer but it won’t be the last :)

Thank you to Bookouture, and Miranda Smith for the ARC! “The Writer” will release April 15, 2024!

This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly :)

Wow! To say I didn’t see that coming was an understatement. If you are a fan of Freida McFadden, you will love this one! I was absolutely hooked in this who done it!

WOW!!! This was the easiest five stars I have given all year!!!

Following Becca, the main character who to be honest at first I didn’t really like so much, she seemed like a bitter budding writer, jealous and had no other life prospects going for her at all… paranoid because of something happened in the past.

Now, although most of that is in fact true, as the story progresses I started to warm up to her. Her secret, her past and the secretiveness of it helped to keep the suspense building as the pages turned.

The Writer holds one of the biggest mystery stories I have read in a long time, as always the amateur detective when reading, I didn’t even try to figure out who was behind it all… because I knew i just wouldn’t have been able to do it!!

This was an incredible book filled with plenty of twists and turns and is definitely not a book that should be missed off your TBR!!

Great book with an amazing twist. I really liked how well planned out the storyline was for the characters. It was thought out and carried over the whole of the book.