I wanted to love this but didn't even finish it completely. It felt too messy and unbelievable, and I just didn't love the writing style.

I wasn’t able to finish this book. Because of this, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or on Goodreads/Amazon. I also didn’t mark it DNF.

A great story about Lane Roanoke and her journey after her mother’s suicide. The plot was quick and exciting and kept me guessing the whole time. A fun read!

Note: clearing old books from before 2019

Did not have time to read this book - still on my TBR. Thank you for the opportunity and my apologies for not getting to it.

It was pretty good. I do like a twisty novel and this one for sure had quite a few. Would I recommend it to schools? Perhaps.

This was story had a mysterious atmosphere. I'm not sure if I would categorize this as a thriller, but it has some aspects of questionable psychological dealings. I would recommend this to folks who enjoy dark academia vibes in their stories.

Thriller books have been one of my favorites for quite a while now. Sadly, I do not get around reading them as often as I would like to. But now, after reading The Roanoke Girls, I think maybe it is even better this way, because if other thrillers are just as good as this one I would not know what to do with myself.
It is been a while since I have read a book which affected me so much. Usually, these kind of stories are intersting to read, but they do not leave anything valuable in my mind. However, this book is absolutely different and it is hard to understand why. Maybe it is just because I feel very related to teenage Lane at some aspects.

From the very beginning I felt that this story is going to be exceptional and it deffinitely has to do a lot with writing style of Amy Engel. She made me believe in every single word. And also when one of the girls, at the end of the first chapter, said "Roanoke girls never last long around here...In the end, we either run or we die" I knew that this story is going to be a huge adventure.

The book is written in two different time perspectives, in some chapters events are happening while Lane and Allegra are still teenage girls, and in others events are happening eleven years later. In my opinion, it really benefited this story because it helped to understand how characters were feeling or why did they do certain things. The story itself revolves around several topics including relationships within dysfunctional families, escaping, or at least making peace with the past. I do not want to talk about a plot, because, in my opinion, it is better to read this book without knowing a lot about it and to discover all secrets by yourself.

Even though the book was extremely gripping but I almost feel bad for enjoying it as much as I did, because some of the things which occurs in the book in real life would be absolutely sickening. But they are excactly what made this book so intriguing.

I am glad I have discovered Amy Engel, because this book kept me on the edge of my seat and now I am looking forward to reading her other works. Deffinitely recommend The Roanoke Girls to every thriller fan.

A twisty family saga that will have you turning the pages and wanting to know more about these characters. From the first page you will be hooked!!

This is one of those rare books where you think you know what's happening one minute only to learn the next that you had no idea what the actual eff was going on. Definitely recommend for fans of twisty mysteries and thrillers.

This book is SUPER disturbing in so many ways. But I also found I couldn't put it down. This family story has some mystery, some great characters, and some ickiness that I don't get over for a long while.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

So this was a #FuturisticFriday pick of mine back in 2017. I remember being intrigued by the premise and the cover.

Then… Twitter ruined it for me before I could read it.

I honestly forget which of my blog friends posted about THE SECRET but I decided to hold off reading it. Then a few days ago, I was looking through my Kindle and was like… “Hmm, why have I not read you yet?”

It took me about 5 pages to remember THE SECRET, but I was intrigued (not by THE SECRET) but how it was going to be handled and what the heck happened to Allegra.

So…. THE SECRET. Unless it’s Lane talking about it- it’s not over the top being revealed or extremely descriptive. Yes, it’s a main focus of the book and it does give me an icky feeling- but the pieces of what happened to Roanoke girls kept me flipping pages. And I needed to see if my suspicions were correct about some things.

What I liked:

The cover.

How the story was set up between current, past and the chapters from each Roanoke girl.



Bottom line: This book is dark and disturbing and may cause you to throw it up against a wall. I still liked it, but be prepared to go to DARK places when reading it.

Wonderful characterization and a hook that kept me interested. The pacing felt a little off to me, but I still enjoyed this one.

This just wasn’t a compelling thriller for me. It felt predictable and the predatory/ incest/ pedophile element felt like an attempt to riff off of VC Andrews but it didn’t offer the strongest thread since it felt forced and overdone

Wow. Just wow. I honestly don't even know where to begin with this book. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy it but I didn't expect it to be AS amazing as it is. The Roanoke Girls was like a mixture of Flowers In The Attic and Sharp Objects but with it's own twist. That dark, gritty, hidden familial story being told and unearthed by a less than perfect female lead is something that I really enjoy as it seems to be more thrilling and relatable. I truly enjoy this book and I can't wait to read more of the author's work.

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t feel any suspense after the first few chapters. I found it quite easy to put the pieces together and figure out the main plot point. I know one of the twists was revealed around halfway through, so that wasn’t the main shock. It supposed to come later when you find out the truth of why her cousin went missing, but I felt like so many hints were dropped throughout that I wasn’t at all surprised even though I hadn’t exactly predicted the ending.

Of course, all of the twists were disgusting. Lane’s role in the book is to discover the horrifying truth of her family, and when she puts the pieces together to decide how she wants to deal with the truth — by embracing or condemning her grandparents.

Overall, this wasn’t a super exciting thriller fir me, and I was hoping for more considering I don’t read them often. I’d be interested to hear how anyone else has reacted to this story, so let me know in the comments!

This book is both shocking and deeply troubling - and I couldn't put it down. I guessed many of the twists long before they were revealed and yet the sheer extent still gripped me like nothing else. Must read.

This book was great, but extremely hard to get through. There were a lot of moments where I thought about putting this book down because it was so dark. However, I pushed through and I'm glad I did. I think it was a fast-paced novel and I think that people would give it a chance knowing about the focus.

An engaging book about a dysfunctional family and the dynamics of abuse. A well-handled fictional account of an uncomfortable and abhorrent subject and the relationships surrounding such events. Great book but I do not consider it a thriller or mystery, definitely not an edge-of-your-seat reading experience.

Enthralling and disturbing. Similar to being unable to look away from a train wreck or automobile pileup, putting this book down was difficult to do. The reader is drawn into the Roanokes' twisted world and, as much as one might want to look away, it's too difficult to do so until all of the mysteries and back stories are resolved.

Though I liked the book, I made the decision at the time I finished not to review it on my site. Maybe in the future I will include it in a book list post or another article.