Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. This is my second book by Feeney, and once again, I was not disappointed. The story is twisty and kept me interested. Feeney's ability to craft unpredictable twists is on full display here, and the ending, while surprising, is incredibly satisfying. If you're a fan of suspenseful narratives that constantly keep you guessing, Beautiful Ugly is definitely worth the read.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

When Grady Green calls his wife to share news about the success of his latest novel, everything goes wrong. While on the phone, she tells him she sees a woman in the road. She stops. She checks it out. She disappears.

A year later, Grady is barely functioning. He’s lost everything - his wife, his house, his writing mojo. His agent makes him an offer: head to a remote island off the coast of Scotland, stay at a friend’s cabin, and try to write. It’s the only thing he has left, the only thing that could pull him out of his depression and financial ruin, his writing.

How can he refuse?

But when he arrives on the island, he quickly finds things aren’t as they seem. People are friendly, but it feels weird. He’s having trouble sleeping, but it feels weird. He thinks he sees his wife, but it feels…wait, what?

It’s wild, twisty ride with some absolutely unexpected turns. I did pick up on one oddity, but I had no idea how it would play out. It’s slow and wandering - mirroring Grady on the island - but that final twist? Wow.

The audio is fantastic and I liked the addition of the sounds of the sea and the music.

While this is not my normal genre, I do love thrillers when I read them! Thanks to @netgalley and @macmillanaudio for the ALC. this one comes out January 13, 2025.

Fans of thrillers will not be disappointed with this psychological thriller which follows a writer's attempt to deal with the disappearance of his wife one year ago. Readers are taken to a unique Scottish island where the writer learns "it's only once something is taken from you that you appreciate what you had".

As someone who normally struggles to stay focused on audiobooks, the narrator did a great job keeping me locked in, and the addition of some sound effects like the ocean sounds or crackle of the walkie talkie just added to the overall mood of the story.

I really didn't want to walk away from this book as there were twist after twist (which I thought I had figured out but hasn't!).

I am an avid reader of Alice Feeney and I read everything she puts out. I think this might be my favorite one yet. It was very dark and a little creepy, there were unreliable narrator(s), and the ending was *chefs kiss*.

I also got some Midsommar vibes with the secluded village and they were always talking about “community”. Everything is about the community.

Grady Green, our main character, played a good clueless, unreliable narrator. I don’t usually like men as protagonists, especially if I’m listening to the audiobook (male voice actors aren’t my favorite) but Richard Armitage has a very nice voice. Grady was also a little slow on the uptake, I was figuring things out before him. More than once, I was like “don’t you write books?! You can’t be this daft.”

I definitely recommend this one and thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC!

An eerie settings- mysterious remote Scottish island with no phone or internet service and no way back to the mainland. Beautiful Ugly hooked me from the start!
Grady, an author who's wife, Abby has disappeared.. After a year Grady ventures to the island to try to start writing again. Once he arrives strange things start to happen and he finds there is no communication with the outside world and seemingly no way to leave the island.
What happened to Abby? Is Grady loosing his mind due to grief and lack of sleep? What's going on with the island locals? Who are these people and why is this place so strange?
Alice Feeney is the queen of domestic thrillers! I really enjoyed the multiple twists, dual POVs and the suspicious community environment.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillion Audio.

I was intrigued enough to keep reading/listening but it didn’t hold the thrill I was expecting. Overall, not a bad book- it kept me entertained but it wasn’t the high thrill I was hoping for. This was another domestic drama by Alice Feeney.

One year after writer Grady Green’s wife vanishes, he is offered an opportunity to stay on the remote island of Amberly off the Scottish coast to try to write his next novel. soon after arriving Grady thinks he keeps seeing his wife around the island. But he might just be imagining things. He also isn’t sure he can totally trust the residents of Amberly either…

Alice Feeney is queen of twists you never see coming! And Beautiful Ugly holds up in that fashion. Feeney’s latest is set on an isolated island off the Scottish coast and it is eerie, atmospheric and ominous throughout the entire book. The detail that went into the location of the story made it feel as if you were really living on the island.

This is told in dual pov and alternating timelines. And one thing I love about Feeney is her ability to make you think one thing while reading and totally give you whiplash by the end. The way Feeney is able to intertwine both points of view by the end is *chefs kiss*

This book is told primarily through Grady’s perspective, which I thought was a nice change from the usual woman’s perspective of Feeney’s other books. This perspective really plays into the whole story, which I hadn’t realized until it was a point of the plot mentioned at the end.

Last, the characters in this one. Each character was so unique and suspicious and added their own element to the story. They were likable and unlikable at the same time for me.

The audio for this one was absolutely amazing with sounds effects that add to it. Highly recommend this version if you’re able to listen!

Thank you @netgalley & @macmillanaudio for the gifted ALC!

This was a decent mystery. I enjoyed it being told from a male’s POV, which seems a little rare these days. I also liked the setting – isolated, insular islands where everyone knows everything that happens makes for an intriguing read. While I did enjoy the twist towards the end and felt that it was utilized quite well, overall I felt like the second half was somewhat boring. There’s also a lot of repetition, especially surrounding how the narrator’s feel, which adds to the overall dullness of the read.

I listened to the audiobook version of this work. While I enjoyed the narrators, I disliked the sound effects that were included throughout. For example, pretty much anytime the narrator mentioned a walkie talkie it a short static noise would play. I didn’t find this immersive and didn’t prefer it, but it may not bother other readers.

While this was an okay mystery, it was quite slow and I wouldn’t call it thrilling. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work, which will be published 14 January 2025. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

✨ALC Review✨

Suuuch a good thriller. I was gripped from the get-go and having Richard Armitage give voice to it made it even better.

Grady Green is a successful writer with the life he’s always wanted: a job getting to do his favorite thing, a beautiful, intelligent wife, a faithful dog companion, and a quiet home by the sea.

On the best day of his life when he officially gets the news that he’s a NYT bestselling author, his wife goes missing. This begins his downward trajectory. He can’t write anymore.

His agent, Kitty Goldman, has inherited a cabin on a remote Scottish island from one of her former authors and offers it to Grady as a quiet place to write again.

Grady, with no other options, agrees and rounds up his dog, Columbo, and off they go.

Things are odd from the get-go. No one seems to want to “visitors” on the small island of 25 residents. And he keeps “seeing” his missing wife and the red coat she was wearing when she disappeared.

Is Grady just deep in the throes of grief and hallucinating? Does someone on the island know what happened to Abby? Can he write another bestseller?

So many questions. And you’ll get the answers to everything.

This is a real atmospheric thriller and I was enthralled. I only stopped listening to sleep and then when right back to it immediately.

I received the ALC via #netgalley and @Macmillan.Audio. All thoughts are mine alone.

#thrillers #thrillerbooks #mysterybooks #mystery #contemporaryfiction #contemporarymystery #audiobooks #narrators #bookrecs #bookreview #bookstagram

I found this book to be ok, it started off very interesting and then it fell off for me in the middle and then started to pick back up towards the end with revealing the plot twist.

4.5 ⭐️
You can always count on Alice Feeney to bring you the creepy WTF moments and I love it! This book was very close to perfect for me, the twist was twisting for sure! I audibly said WTF like 3 times! lol. The deduction for 1/2 ⭐️ was only because the buildup through the middle of the book was such a slow burn! Otherwise a great read! We love Alice Feeney around here and this book is right on par for her!

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audio: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grady is on the phone with his wife when she goes missing. Abby stops the car on her way home for work to a woman lying in the road. Her husband begs her not to get out of the car but all the sudden the line goes dead. She’s disappeared and now he’s struggling to write and losing all he’s worked for. His agent, Abby’s godmother, offers him the chance to write at her inherited cabin on an island. But everywhere he looks he thinks he’s seen his missing wife. The island is also not what it appears and he is starting to question it all.
I love Alice Feeney’s twists! And this was another great twist. But I struggled a lot through this book, but more to personal preferences. The trope of this one was not my favorite, Im just not a fan of the psychological aspect of the mind tricks and sanity versus alcohol aspect. Other than that it was very well written and the audio narrator did great!

I have mixed feelings about this one. There was a ton of characters, I didn’t really love the premise and storyline and in the end it was definitely weird and creepy….just not my fav of hers.

Author Grady Green is having the Best Day of His Life! Unfortunately, it also turns into the Worst Day of His Life right after…

He’s on the phone with his wife as she’s driving home. He just got the news. His latest book has hit the Bestseller List!!
He hears her jam on the brakes…There’s a body on the road. He urges her to NOT get out of the car, but of course she doesn’t listen…
And then, there’s nothing…

He rushes to the scene to find her car, bag, phone…but no Abby….

He goes into a downward spiral from here, and finds he cannot write. (Or do much of anything it seems…)
His agent offers him a cabin in a remote area of Scotland. He’s about to decline, but realizes he has NOTHING left to give, or lose …and so he agrees.

This is when the story takes on a whole new persona…

It’s a VERY SMALL town…. Everyone knows everyone else… and their business.

You have to take a ferry to get there. No cars. No cell service on the island…

And so the shenanigans begin…

And Grady starts to see things that CANNOT be real. He sees his wife Abby… over and over again.

What a complete mind boggle this is! Just when you think you MAY have a grasp on what happened, you find out… Nope. That’s not it!

Oh, and there’s a dog! 🐶 ❤️ 🐕

4 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 for me, happily rounded up to 5!

#BeautifulUgly by #AliceFeeney and narrated beautifully by #RichardArmitage.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for an ARC of the Audiobook
. ***** PLEASE NOTE THE RELEASE DATE IS 1/14/25 *****
So about a month away! Please look 👀 for it then!

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3.5 stars rounded up.

This book was fun and interesting to read all the way to the end when it gets weird and unbelievable and then the very end which is even weirder and hard to understand.

But aside from that, it's super fast paced and all you're trying to understand the whole time is what happened, who took Grady's wife? What's up with the island he's visiting? Is that his wife? What do all the people seem to know besides the reader?

It's creepy but not too much, it's intense but not too much, the characters are unlikeable but not too much (until the end) so you just keep turning those pages (or listening in my case) just to find out what is going on.

The audio narration was excellent and kept me on my toes the whole time. I loved the sound effects too!

with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Yesssssss!!! Just finished “Beautiful Ugly” and my mind is BLOWN! Alice Feeney hit a home run with this one! <3

It is no secret that I’m a huge FEENatic at this point. I will pre-order anything she writes without question. However, #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio were kind enough to let me listen to this on audio early in exchange for an honest review.

I am so glad that I listened to this one on audio. The narrators were brilliant and they completely enhanced my reading experience. When I started listening to Alice Feeney’s work, I even changed my Amazon Alexa to a British accent :)

The Amberly island setting was stunning—dark, mysterious, and somehow alive with the power of feminine persuasion. That energy was palpable, and it weighed on me while I read, almost like the island itself was a character. My emotions were heavy, but in the best possible way.

Here’s the thing: I never trusted any of these characters. Not one. And honestly, that’s what made the reading experience so unforgettable. I was constantly questioning everyone and everything, which forced me to process the story in so many unique ways.

Alice Feeney never misses, and this book was no exception. She’s one of my absolute favorites for a reason. If you haven’t read it yet, do yourself a favor and dive in! You’ll love every twisted minute.

I haven't read Alice Feeney in awhile, but now I have to go back and see what I've missed! This intriguing story had me hooked from the start. The description of the island where this takes place was so well done but not overdone. The narration made it all the better, as i love accents, and it added authenticity to the story.

Thank you netgalley for the prerelease ebook!

We listen and we don’t judge….

“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦.”

This book was wild! I’ve only read one other Alice Feeney book but this makes me want to read more.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦.”

A year after the disappearance of his wife, Grady, a now struggling author gets a chance to write in a secluded cabin on the Scottish Amberly Isle. Only when he arrives, he swears he keeps seeing his missing wife and the town folk are acting strange. Is it all in his head or is something more sinister at play here?

Atmospheric, mysterious, eerie, dual POV. This was a dark and twisted tale of marriage, revenge, and the secrets people keep. This book keeps you guessing. 👀👀

Mostly told from Grady’s POV in the present with Abby’s POV from mostly the past. I loved Abby’s POV. Her character background was deep and each time we heard from her we learned a little bit more. Alice gave us crumbles. Bits of pieces of this puzzle. A very enticing read. It’s a slow burn mystery unraveling at a snails pace but it was still such an enjoyable read. Dramatic. Suspenseful not in a scary sense but what’s going to happen next. Multiple times I thought to myself “no way!” She ends her chapters which the perfect one liners that leave you wanting more every damn time so while it’s not a fast-paced, action packed read it’s fully binge-able.

This was a fantastic story because there multiple mysteries to uncover along with two narrations that lead to conflicting behavior between the two. The unreliable narration develops slowly and is done in such a clever way.

The audio which was fantastic. I often struggle when narrators with accents but these two I had no issues with. Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton both portrayed the characters and emotions so well and the added intermittent sound effects heightened the atmosphere of the whole story I think. The sound effects are not consistent like in a graphic audio but in between chapters and the occasional ring or so or for instance how they sound talking through a walkie-talkie or phone.

The twists just kept coming! 65% in and my jaw dropped. Just standing there looking into oblivion like “did that just happen?!” The story is a bit improbable, more so as the book progresses, but it was still a highly enjoyable read.

Such.👏🏻 A.👏🏻 Great.👏🏻 Book! 👏🏻

This book had the twists and turns that you would expect from an Alice Feeney novel. Listening to it an audiobook had me questioning the narrator's voice as it related to the characters but I feel they added to the story. It definitely picked up in the second half of the novel and I became more engrossed in the character development. I felt that the first half had Grady repeatedly say "I'm so tired" and "I miss my wife" so much that the redundancy became distracting. But once the story began to evolve I became more engaged.

This was the first book that I’ve read by this author. I will definitely read her back list. This book has a huge twist at the end. I definitely didn’t see it coming. I will definitely suggest this book to my mystery thriller customers.