I love Alice Feeney so I was very excited for this one! The narration on this audio is fantastic, and the sound effects add to the creepy factor. I did not see the way the twist was going to go, though there were some things that had me thinking suspiciously. What I didn't enjoy was the "smash the patriarchy" that felt forced and awkward - I'm just not into that in a book. The ending was absolutely wild and had me wanting more.

I highly recommend listening to this book. The male/female narration is amazing and the sound effects add atmosphere. I normally listen while I drive for work but I found myself listening on my headphones throughout my whole day.
I don’t really even know how to explain how twisted this book gets. You think you know but honestly…..you have no clue. Nothing is what you think it is…..in the best possible way. A solid 4.5/5 stars for me!
I received an ALC of this title , all opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book!! I’ve been a fan of most of her books and was so excited to read this one!

The way this book sucked me in from the very beginning. The way I was just unselected the entire time the story was being told. I knew the plot twist was going to be a doozy! She did not disappoint! I definitely didn’t see that coming!

I’ve really been enjoying the books that are about authors lately. I felt like this one was done excellently. I was engaged the entire time and LOVED how this one ended. So crazy.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the MMC, I just felt like something was off with him. But Feeney also made me feel bad for the guy. He was given a crappy plate in life, and he wasn’t coping well.

I was fortunate enough to get the audio arc. The narrators did so well showing emotion and fear from the characters. There was also background sounds that really made the story come to life for me. I loved it!

I highly recommend putting this book on your TBR! It was a fast paced thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. There are two POVs and two different timelines to follow along. It was easy to differentiate and such an enjoyable story.

Thank you to Flatiron books and Netgally for the audio arc!

Quotes:

“Truth is stranger than fiction and it tends to hurt more too.”

“Nobody really knows anything. The only certainty in life is uncertainty. We’re all just a bad roll of the dice away to being right back at the bottom of the ladder we spent our whole lives climbing.”

“Life is beautiful ugly.”

WOW! What a roller-coaster this was!

Grady Green is an author who just found out from his publisher that his book was a New York Times best seller. As he is talking on the phone to his wife telling her the good news, she tells him that she sees a woman laying on the road. She, Abby, tells him that she is going to check on the woman and he pleaded with her not to. She goes and checks anyway while he remains on the phone…..and she never comes back.

A year passes, Abby was still missing, and Grady is beside himself. He hasn’t written, cannot sleep, and has financially lost everything. His publisher, who happens to be his wife’s godmother, presents an opportunity to him to live on an island with all expenses paid to hopefully give him the perfect setting to get back into writing.

The island is beautiful and very private……no phone or ferry service to the mainland and the locals only communicate via walkie talkies. Strange things begin to occur, and Grady is not sure if it is real or from lack of sleep, alcohol use, and/or grief. And so the twists and turns begin.

The audio added sounds such as waves, crackling from walkie talkies, phone ringing, etc which allowed me to truly immerse myself in the story. Although I highly enjoyed this story, some parts seemed repetitive which is the only reason why it was not a 5 star for me.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for selecting me for the Advance Audio Copy via NetGalley!

I listened to the audiobook version of Beautiful Ugly, and I loved it. The story was interesting enough to keep me engaged all the way through. However, the best part was the male narrator and the added sound effects. The production was much better than most audiobooks. Highly recommend!

First I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an ARC of this book! I was very invested in this mystery the whole way through. Unreliable narrator is not always my favorite trope but it works here perfectly. I normally listen to audio books on my daily dog walks and I found myself not being able to stop well past them each day. I was eager to find out what happened in the end from the very start

I will say I found the ending a note or two off- there was a lot to tie up and I am not sure if it all fit perfectly. However, that being said it was a great listen and not even close to disappointing. 10/10 original and I really enjoyed it.

This was a good book! I loved the way it was written. I loved the dual point of view. I also loved how the storyline went back and forth from past to present. The ending… OMG! Straight cold chills. I definitely recommend this book. I enjoyed the narrator in the audio version.

Huge thanks to netgalley & the publisher for this ARC!
🎱
I didn’t see the 🌪️ twist coming😳
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
I Very much enjoyed the 🌲 island atmosphere, the main character, & that ending!!!
I loved both narrators voices!
And the sounds effects were great too!
This was an awesome audio book! 🎧
Set to publish 1/14/25.

REVIEW: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Wow! This was such a unique thriller. It was so unpredictable and had plenty of twists and turns.

Grady Green is an author who is married to Abby, a journalist. Abby calls her husband on her way home to see someone out on the road. Even after Grady’s pleas not to go out on the road, Abby goes to help. Then she disappears. Grady can’t write a year later, so his agent suggests that he go to a cabin she has on an isolated island in Scotland. Grady decides to go, but when he gets there, he notices some strange things about the residents and sees Abby everywhere.

Beautiful Ugly was quite the ride of a book! The setting is just as much of a character as Grady and Abby. The remote Scottish island brings a creepy and suspicious vibe. There were so many twists and turns that I never knew what was happening in the best way. With multiple points of view throughout the story, it is hard to figure out who you can trust. I won’t say much else because I don’t want to spoil anything.

Beautiful Ugly was great as an audiobook. The male and female narrators were animated, giving the characters so much personality. The audiobook even had sound effects, which made everything more engaging and spooky.

I wasn’t a big fan of a few things in Beautiful Ugly. Many moments were pretty slow, and it felt like nothing happened. There were also a lot of problems and plot points going on simultaneously, which made it feel like too much. Lastly, parts of the ending weren’t entirely believable, bringing the story down slightly.

Overall, Beautiful Ugly was a great suspenseful read where you don’t know what will happen next!

Thank you, Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, for the free advanced copy for my honest review!

The gasp I gusped! This is the book to look out for in 2025!

There was not a single moment in time that I had any idea where this book was going, in the best possible way.

The story starts off with Grady, a writer who has lost his spark the day his wife goes missing. Her disappearance sets the book off in an eerie tone that gradually increases throughout the novel as you follow him to a desolate cabin on a remote island at the suggestion of his agent. Things go awry for Grady when he begins to see his presumed to be dead wife everywhere on the island and he begins to suspect that things are not as they seem with the island or with the people on it.

I was so completely attracted to this book which is not a feeling I have ever experienced. But the storytelling was so sexy and magnetic that I could not peel myself away. There is a constant tension as you follow Grady and the constant feeling of something brewing. It always seemed that he was on the precipice of figuring out the truth of what was happening to him. It was so well done that at times I felt that I was going mad myself!

There are so many plot twists that you truly never see coming. At times something happens and you know that it will be a part of the twist, but I promise you have no idea how it will tie in!

But this isn't just about a mystery- no. This book includes very powerful themes about sacrifice, about marriage, about the strength and resilience of women. You will leave this one contemplating so much about who you are(especially as a woman) and asking yourself what you are willing to live without.

However, the ending chapters are filled with large exposition that take away from the allure and magnetism of the story. I think the attempt was to wrap the plot neatly, but it was too tight. There were small plot holes that we never see resolved and a few plots are overly explained to the point of redundancy and robotism. Less woven threads and overall simplification could make this a lot cleaner of a story. I could do without the plot of the children..

All in all, it is definitely worth a read or listen. I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook, the narrator knew exactly how to deliver every line so that the story really drew you in.

I received an arc of the audiobook via netgalley for review. All opinions are my own.

3 1/2 stars This was an audiobook and the narrators were fantastic. The story kept me engaged and guessing until the end. I enjoyed it and would recommend it! Thank you to NetGalley for a copy.

3.5 stars!! thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

i was really excited going into this and i wasn’t disappointed. i think this is my favorite alice feeney novel i’ve read so far. i loved how atmospheric it was in regard to the setting of the isolated scottish island because the author did really well in emphasizing the remoteness of the island and its inhabitants. this emphasis truly enhanced my enjoyment of the book and even though i had my suspicions as to where the mystery/reveals were headed, i still found myself impressed with some of the twists and all the elements combined within the story.

the audiobook was so fun to listen to due to the added sound effects and a special shoutout to richard armitage’s voice because i fell in love with how he sounds his narration was genuinely so good!! overall, both narrators did such a great job that if i were solely rating the narration it would be 5/5!

i couldn’t put this down because i wanted to know what was really going on and i honestly had not experienced that from reading an alice feeney book until this one. i would definitely recommend to any alice feeney fans or mystery-thriller readers.

Before I even start talking about the plot, I just want to make the point that this has to be my absolute favorite Alice Feeney book cover. Just stunning.

Beautiful Ugly follows Grady Green, a writer whose wife disappeared a year before the events of the book and has not been seen or heard from since. At the suggestion of his agent, Grady travels to the remote island of Amberly with the hope of clearing his mind enough to begin writing again. The island's residents seem kind, if a bit wary of an outsider, but Grady is having a hard time forgetting his missing wife when he seems to be seeing her everywhere on the island.

The rest of this review will be discussing the plot of the book with some potential spoilers. Please stop here if you do want to go into this book with a fresh perspective.

While I am a massive fan of Alice Fenney's works, this was not my favorite of her books. My biggest issue is that it just felt like there were too many balls in the air to keep track of. In the book we have:

- Grady's missing wife, Abby
- The island residents acting suspicious
- The guy who washes up dead on the shore of the island
- The author that previously stayed in the writing cabin

For a bit, I'll be honest and say that I wasn't entirely sure what the big mystery was supposed to be. Was it Abby's disappearance? The weird circumstances surrounding the previous writer? These all seemed like compelling mysteries on their own, but it was just kind of a lot when they were all thrown together. Things got muddled.

The pacing of this was a lot slower than a lot of other Alice Feeney books, which isn't a bad thing on its face. It's definitely a slow burn and reminded me more of A Slow Fire Burning than Daisy Darker. I can absolutely get into a slow burn, and if you enjoy them, this definitely has the eerie atmosphere and creeping sense of dread that you expect from a book like this.

After all that waiting, though, I found the ending to be a but lackluster. The twists were fairly satisfying, but they were revealed via a very long exposition dump. I guess that is technically how a lot of twists are revealed - through explanation - but this one felt way too long.

The audio of this book was truly exceptional and may go down as one of the best narrations I've heard this year. Richard Armitage could narrate the soundtrack of my life if he wanted to, and the added sound effects really brought this story to a new level. The crackling radio sounds made me jump on multiple occasions, even when I was expecting them.

The heart of this story is interesting and great for the rainy, gloomy time of year we're all in. There were some great points brought up about marriage and how, sometimes, couples who promised each other "forever" may be better served apart. This is still a perfectly good thriller that I would recommend to those that are fans of other books by this author.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC audiobook for review. I have read multiple Alice Feeney books and this may tied for my favorite! Author Grady Green’s wife, Abby, went missing a year ago. He is lost without her. He can’t seem to focus and write and he misses her like crazy. No one’s how his wife went missing and there’s been no sign of her. His publisher sends him to a remote Scottish island to grieve and in hopes of finding a way to find the inspiration to write again. On the ferry ride to the island, Grady sees a woman who looks like his missing wife. But it can’t be, right? When Grady questions someone when he gets in town, he is told it’s a woman by a different name. Grady continues to feel haunted by his missing wife as he settles into living on the island. This book drew me in at once and I definitely did not see that twist coming ending…. Alice Feeney will continue to be on my must read thriller list!!

3.5/4*
I like the writing and pace. I’d read more books by this author.
It has a bit of a mashed-up version of the shining vibes, not totally but it reminded me of that with a unique spin. It’s a far-fetched premise but still an enjoyable read.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of the audio version.

Ummm wow, she has done it again.

We meet Grady a best selling author his dream comes true, he’s on the phone with his wife Abby when he finally gets notified but his best night turns in to his worst night. His wife goes missing, fast forward to a year later Grady after losing everything, gets the opportunity to go to amberly island in the Scottish highlands to write a book and turn his life around. After he arrives to the ferry he see Abby, his runs after her but it ends up being someone else. When he arrives to the island where no one is allowed to be on but the people who live there, he granted entrance because of the cabin he is staying in. When he enters the cabin who is was own to another famous author he find a book and Grady decided to make it his own. However as this is going on the whole town knows who he is, and what he is there for. However Grady sees his wife everywhere and things start getting super strange and he can’t explain it. He is warn to leave but can’t.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC Audio, I couldn’t stop I think I listen to this in a day, she always has twist I can’t figure out and I adore it! Why you still reading go get it and see for yourself!!!

It appears that I'm in the minority here, but I did not enjoy this book (which is really disappointing because I loved Rock, Paper, Scissors and was really excited about this one!)

The prologue was captivating. The next 60% of the book was BORING. God, I did not care about Grady's writer's block at all. The next 20% was interesting. However, the twists in the last 20% were awful and I lost my interest again.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. The audiobook narration was excellent!

I felt a lot of gone girl vibes from this book as well as vibes from her previous book his/hers. It was really interesting but just felt “done” before from her and other authors. I was hoping the ending or plot twist would be unique but the twist was SO far fetched it dramatically changed the rating of the book from a 4 star- good and enjoyable but also not unique… to almost 2.5-3 stars. Overall I loved the audio for this and would recommend it to others!

Gosh I love Alice Feeney! Especially on audio! This one had me doubting ever character and wondering what in the hell was going on. The twist at the end was out of left field and I never saw it coming! PSA for dog lovers: the dog doesn’t die.

Holy guacamole! Haha
This one was wild! Buckle in babes, because it is a doozy of a plot twist. It does slow down in some places but stick with it because it is absolutely amazing. I was grinning like a madman when it was all revealed. Brilliant!
The narrator’s, Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton were amazing!! Together they brought this world to life. Just amazing.