I love a twisty, old money story. Throwing a reality tv star into the mix was fun, and I loved how the story progressed and the ending was great.

This novel got crazier with each turn of the page! Maya was on a popular reality show and now she is married to Colin Sterling. Colin is wealthy and they have a daughter named Becca. Colin's cousin Arianna is found dead. Who is killed her and why? Everyone in the story is unlikable to some extent, except for Becca. The Sterling family does weird rituals and traditions, everyone is not so nice to Maya.

Nothing really happens in the beginning of the book as the story builds. After that, everything happens. There are lots of twists and turns in the last third of the story. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat! It is a drama of rich people that is told in two POV.

Shocking, Mystery-Thriller, and Dark! 3.5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy! This book will be released 2/11/25.

I had to gather my thoughts before I wrote this review. I really wanted to love this book. It had so much potential and it really drew me in at the beginning. There were twists, turns and shocks just like any good thriller. This book however could have 100 pages shaved off and still get to the point. It just dragged on and on and it was things that weren't even important. Also, I understand there were nannies, etc. but it bugged me to death that Maya never had her kid with her. It was like the kid was an afterthought and not even important to the story in the grand scheme of things. The ending was lackluster and somewhat disappointing.

2.75 stars rounded to 3.

A pretty decent read, it had lots of twists and kept me engaged. I didn't really connect with any of the characters but maybe that's to be expected and they are definitely intriguing either way and to be fair I did actually quite like Maya

Old Money meets Reality TV

Maya finds herself embroiled in her husband's extremely rich family after a cousin's death. Her reputation as a reality tv star doesn't sit well with the family and she wonders if she'll ever be considered a "Sterling."

This was juicy and fun! There's always another secret hiding in the walls of the Sterling manor and I loved following this plot. An extremely compelling cast of characters in a locked room scenario. Overall a great mystery thriller novel!

comparing this to succession and saltburn is wiiiiiild. while there are a FEW aspects in this book that touch upon themes in both those, it's not nearly enough to be blurbed as such. here you have the typical story of an outsider, maya, marrying into an upper echelon family, the sterlings, and mysteriously being named the heir to inherit the entire family fortune after the previous heiress dies.

the writing was super clunky. there was a lot of telling and not showing which, in a mystery/thriller, basically negates those aspects of the book. the first few chapters were filled with nothing but paragraphs of info dumping (and before any of you say a single thing, YES I READ PARAGRAPHS). i understand that was necessary to set up the world/characters, but it made it hard for me to get into the story. the pacing was very slow - we hardly got anything worthy of note to do with the actual plot until about 30-40% in. the middle was filled with repetitive scenes of the wealthy family making the new wife feel like the gum on the bottom of their shoes. like we GET IT. she's "never be a sterling". ugh.

the last third of the story was when things finally started to pick up. right as i was finally getting into it, the plot twists that were revealed felt...boring? lackluster? it wasn't anything i didn't kind of guess was going to happen. i wasn't truly shocked by it. and then immediately after the big reveal, we cut straight to the epilogue. now that actually was a surprise because i didn't expect such an abrupt ending. it also felt a bit unsatisfying. i wanted more closure with the endings of certain characters because the set up was there for a bigger conclusion and we got none of it.

this story takes place in 2004 and i do have to hand it to the author - she did capture what the world and culture was like during that time perfectly.

overall, there wasn't anything about this book that really stood out. nothing that i haven't already read before.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. I tried to get into this one, but it was so slow and every single character was unlikable, so it was a bit of a slog. I think this is mostly an editing issue. We could have had 30% less of Maya wandering hallways in the Sterling castle and that would have done wonders for the pacing of the book. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to recommend this one.

good mystery about a family and a murder. Miss mayhem is trying to solve the case and dealing with family issues. loved colin and their family. Loved that the mystery was solved.

Why did Ariana name Maya as her heir? That's the question that sets off this tale of a wholly dysfunctional family. Maya is the real outsider-an American who married into the incredibly wealthy Sterling family. She's not very likable but neither is anyone else. Who killed Ariana? How can Maya keep herself and her child safe? Secrets and lies about. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is set on a completely implausible premise (anyone with these holdings would have a significantly more layered will among other things) but it's an entertaining read.

3 out of 5 Stars!

Maya Miller has just accomplished the American dream. Well, to some. Maya Miller, a former reality TV star, just married into a rich family. But not just any rich family, but the globally famous Sterling family. Just after getting married, the unthinkable happened. A Sterling is found dead, the heiress to the family’s immense fortune, Arianna. When it is exposed that Maya is the next heiress, all eyes are on her. Did she murder Arianna so she could have all the fortune for herself? So far, she is the prime suspect.

I LOVE debut novels, so when I saw “A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin on NetGalley, I was quick to request it! Plus, with a synopsis like that, I was hooked prior to even reading it. This book started off gaining my attention, with the storyline building up to the big moment of Maya finding out she is the heiress. But after that moment, the book kinda fell flat for me. Overall, I thought this book was very theatrical with most twists I unfortunately saw coming.

Maya, our main character, was not my favorite. She seemed hypocritical when saying how powerful she was, but then failed to show it. She also kept hinting at her past and her dad, so I was waiting for something crazy to happen. But, nothing ever came to fruition.

One thing I really liked about this book was the change of perspective. Throughout the novel, there will be a chapter told by another character. I don’t want to say who, as it would give away some of the storyline, but it did keep the book going for me. I will admit, it was confusing at first to understand what the person was saying, but it did make sense later for me in the book.

Unfortunately, I guessed most of the twists throughout this book. Which was a huge bummer, as I love a good jaw-dropping moment. For me, they seemed a little obvious, which is a shame, because I think the book could have gone multiple ways and surprised the reader more. The twists I didn’t figure out, didn’t have me gasping for air. I was like, oh, yeah I can see why that would be that person.

“A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin is out February 11th, 2025!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark, Anna Sophia McLoughlin, and Netgally for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This one was not for me, it was slow and meandering and I was never invested in the story or the characters. There were also too many characters to keep track of and I found myself confused. I also found it to be predictable and not very exciting. Meh.

Reading the synopsis of the book, what's not to love? Succession meets Saltburn? A murder in a high-up, wealthy family that's too big and rich to touch? A girl--Maya "Miss Mayhem" Miller, former reality TV star-turned-sudden heiress of the entire Sterling fortune--tries to find out what really happened to the murdered heiress whom she's never met before? All of those things seem right up my alley, yet I felt like there was much left to be desired.

I feel like absolutely nothing and everything happened at the same time while reading this. This was honestly a drag to get through and finish. The pacing felt off at times. A lot of the book felt like a repeat of the same events: Maya going around trying to find out more about Arianna, the recently-dead heiress, Maya getting caught by one of her in-laws, her in-laws shame her and making shady comments about how she'll nEvEr Be a StErLiNg and how she didn't grow up in wealth, Maya going off to look for more clues around the house, rinse and repeat. The writing also felt somewhat choppy at times but this is a debut novel so I'll give the author some grace on that.

I felt like the last 25-30% of the story was when things started to pick up and feel like a thriller. There were lots of twists and turns in the last third or so of the story, but I did see a lot of the plot twists coming ahead of time which affected my enjoyment of the book overall. Sure, the book did keep me on the edge of my seat but it was mainly because the characters made me so uncomfortable and not because of the plot.

Everyone in the story is unlikeable to some extent, except for Becca, Maya's infant daughter. The Sterlings made me uncomfortable with their weird rituals and traditions and the way they treated Maya like the scum of the earth. (The pickaxe you see on the front cover? There's a reason behind that, and all I'll say is that it's some nasty, nasty work.) I can see where the Succession vibes come in with the family trying to fight over the inheritance and trying to get Maya to give it back to them, but based on what I know about Saltburn it doesn't really feel that way to me. Even Maya was unlikeable. I found myself rooting for her to get to the bottom of the mystery towards the end, but once we started learning more about her past and her history with some of the Sterling family members, I immediately knocked out 2 stars from my rating.

I think part of the reason why I didn't like any of the characters was because there were so many to keep track of, and none were prominently featured and in the spotlight except for Marcus, Gigi, Julian, and Helen. Even Colin, Maya's husband, felt more like a side character than a main one, and he's MAYA'S HUSBAND! His cousin, little sister, aunt, and uncle were more featured in the story, and because of that, a lot of the characters fell flat and felt one-dimensional. I wish there was some sort of family tree in the beginning of the story to keep track of who's who. I was almost tempted to do it myself at some points.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that the ending felt very...abrupt. I remember reading the very last chapter and next thing I know, it's the epilogue and it's set a week or two into the future? I wanted to find out more about what happened immediately after that chapter ended because way too much happened in the last couple of chapters to just not finish the story and round out the plot. It didn't feel complete.

The 2 aspects I gave 2 stars to this book for: the upper-class/top 1% of the 1% vibes and the chapters we got to see from Arianna's POV. I love a good story that takes place in an uber-wealthy family and we get a peek into their lives and what sort of drama they're trying to stir up, but I enjoyed hearing from Arianna's diary entries and what her life was like before the main story starts. I honestly wish we had more chapters from her POV because it was so interesting to read. The gaslighting and brainwashing she had from her family was starting to gaslight ME, to be quite honest.

Overall, if you're not a big thriller reader I feel like you might enjoy this one more than me because you probably wouldn't be able to guess where the plot is going. I've read my fair share of thrillers so a lot of the plot and tropes felt predictable. I enjoyed the upper-class/luxury vibes the Sterlings gave and Arianna's POV and that was pretty much it.

Please note that this ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure where to start with this one. Ultimately, I liked (but didn’t love) this book. The premise was definitely interesting- it very much reminded me of the show Succession on HBO. As popular as the “rich messed up family” plot line is, the author still does a great job of portraying Maya and the Sterlings. Some of it still felt a bit underdeveloped. I think we could’ve gotten more of Gigi (she wasn’t super relevant but I did find her intriguing) and Maya’s dad (not directly impactful to the plot but good background). The twist at the end was not shocking but it definitely worked.

Upon finishing this, I feel like she could find a way to make a sequel. The Sterling’s are messed up enough for more stories :)

3.5 rounded up.

Overall the story was good. I love a good "rich people problems" story and this one has some super interesting characters that were fun to get to know. Unfortunately the characters weren't used to their full potential and 99% of the story was predictable so it ruined the "mystery/thriller" genre tag that comes with it.
Former reality tv bad girl marries the richest and most eligible bachelor on the market. On the flight home from their honeymoon, there is news the current heiress was found dead and the entire family is being sequestered at the family home in England during the investigation. Who did it? Who inherits the family fortune next? How deep do the secrets go?

thank you to the publishers and netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

i was really excited about this one, and there are aspects that worked for me. setting the story in 2004 was a smart move and gave the author a lot more room to sidestep modern conveniences like smart phones that would've rendered the story impossible. i also liked maya as a character and rooted for her to come out on top.

but it wasn't perfect. as with many thrillers, so much of the action is packed into the last 10-15% and the ending feels rushed. there were also some plot holes or plot points that were just way too convenient - thinking specifically about "caro"/arianna somehow being able to pose as a doctor at the mental facility without any money or credentials. that puts it at about a 3.5 for me. still entertaining, though!

Maya, a former reality tv star has married the world’s most eligible bachelor, a Sterling. His family and the world call her a gold digger. When a Sterling cousin is found murdered, it’s revealed the fortune was left to Maya, who has never met the cousin.

The pacing with this one was a bit slow for me at parts, but when it picked up, it really picked up. If you like wealthy dysfunctional families with secrets to be revealed, give this one a try. Honestly I picked it up because I saw the main character was a reality tv character and I love that trope, but that was the past and not much in the current storyline.

“Memory is a house fire, one I shall never leave.”

A Girl Like Us comes out 2/11.

Yes! Finally, a solid 5-star book this year! This one had me hooked with its rags-to-riches MC, who married into an uptight, ultra-rich and mega powerful family with lots of salacious secrets and hidden agenda. The fast-paced setting of this locked room thriller kept me glued to the pages. I loved the feisty and realistic Maya Miller — she’s the kind of badass MC that you love to root for. She’s not perfect but she knows how to get what she wants and she isn’t afraid to fight dirty. I love the whole story, especially the plot twist! It’s the kind of thriller that you wish will be made into a movie. So happy I got to read the arc —-thanks @bookmarked for my early copy.

From the start, A Girl Like Us has a great premise. Newlywed Maya is with her millionaire husband when one of his family is murdered. They immediately jet to England to circle up the wagons with the rest of the family. Is someone in the family the murdered? And what really happened 20 years ago? Maya is set on figuring out both of these questions, but it means ruffling a few feathers.

Overall I liked Maya as a character and was interested in her background. The setting of Silver House was great and wish the house was explored more. I also love that this takes place in 2004. It has a nostalgic feel, and also makes you remember how much simpler life was before the rise of smart phones and constant media access.

That being said, the surprise twists are pretty easy to solve early in the story and were pretty unbelievable. I also understand why baby Becca was a character, but where was she the entire time? It seemed like Becca was only included as a prop for Maya. There were only a couple scenes of Maya and Becca interacting and those were the only ones that even mentioned a baby. Didn’t love that.

A Girl Like Us is a fun read that is easy to digest. It’s a tale of wealth and privilege and shows just how much those can corrupt you. Thank you to Anna Sophia McLoughlin, NetGalley, and the publisher for this ARC.

O M G imagine some stranger just gives you all their money and you become suspect number one in her murder investigation!! All the secrets that get uncovered and the twist at the end had me invested from cover to cover

this just keeps getting crazier and crazier. the twists get very peculiar by the end but in general they work well. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.