The Wrong Girl

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. The term wrong girl could be Molly, a young girl who thinks she is really a child who has been missing for a number of years. Or it could be written about Molly's grandmother who was in love with a rock star in the 60s. It could even be a young girl who went missing in the 60s. This is a well written novel that takes you on a ride into the 60s including adoptions and signs of those social times. There were a few different stories within which kept me interested until the satisfying end.

Janice gave up her daughter for adoption years ago but when her brother dies she finds out her daughter has been living with her brother Dan.Her daughter Suzie has a daughter of her own now Molly but Molly is convinced she is Phoebe Piper a girl who disappeared a few years ago.
What a great read with all its twists and turns it has everything adoption madness and family secrets.
I look forward to reading more from this Author.

Molly a 10 year old girl starts to think she is Phoebe, a 3 year old girl who went missing on a family holiday 7 years before. Molly has a mum who drinks, is out a lot and doesn't spend much time with her. For reasons I never quite understood Molly thinks that she is Phoebe the missing girl and wants to be reunited with parents who will love her and spend time with her. Then suddenly Molly goes missing as well.

Janice the main character in the book gives up her baby Suzie for adoption when she was young and doesn't hear from her until Janice's brother Dan dies and Suzie and her daughter Molly, Janice's grand daughter, have been staying with Dan in what was once Janice's family home in a small English village.

Janice was a free loving hippy in her day and is now a single lonely middle aged woman, finally reunited with her birth daughter and grand daughter, but having to face the sad passing of her brother. There was a lot of reminiscing about Janice and Dan's youth, a famous band and other village misfits to keep the plot entertaining.

The writing was great and I liked that it was fast paced, many twists and turns and a lot of mystery and thought provoking to the story. But I also found the main story line a bit confusing at times, there were so many multi layers of things happening that it was hard to keep up and understand what was going on.

I recommend this book to fans of family drama with a mystery thriller mixed in.

An interesting psychological thriller. It was good, but I couldn't help feel a little disappointed.

Janice receives a phone call unexpectedly from her daughter Suzie who she gave up for adoption 40 years ago. The phone call brings her to her childhood home where she meets Suzie and Molly, Suzie's almost-neglected 10 year old daughter. Molly is convinced that she is in fact "Phoebe", a girl who was taken from her parents when she was 3 years old and looks strikingly similar. Molly has found proof that she is in fact Phoebe, so plans her next move to get away from her neglectful mother and into the arms of the parents who have been desperately searching for her for 7 years. Meanwhile Janice has to deal with the emotional turmoil of finally meeting her child and "grandchild" and the death of her brother. When Molly disappears secrets begin to surface.

The two main characters that the narration focuses on in this novel are Janice and Molly. I found it interesting to have two such different ages in the focus characters. It was done quite cleverly. The language and mannerisms between the two characters were extremely different and I thought that it was done very well.

I loved Janice's character. A wild young girl growing up in the age of Rock and Roll. Where free love was the way of life for the youth. Now an older woman with regrets and guilt. She was multidimensional and extremely likeable. "Conforming to nonconformity had, in many ways, been just as difficult as conforming to the old, repressive rules and however much everyone pretended otherwise, it had caused just as much heartache."

Molly was another good character. I loved her innocence and the way her mind worked and the conclusions that she made from different events throughout the novel. Her mother Suzie was well written, I really disliked her... In a good way! She had so much emotional baggage that she took out on her daughter. The secondary characters were all good also. They all had their demons...

Overall it was a good read.

However... I was disappointed with how slow moving I found this book. It wasn't until at least the 70% mark that it started to improve and had quite a good ending. But it couldn't completely make up for the slow start. In the first 70% there was a lot of emotional stuff, which was interesting in its own right, but it got really repetitive and I found myself struggling to get through it.

The last 30% however was excellent. It was exciting and held my interest - I breezed through it.

The only other problem I had with it was I felt it was just a bit all over the place with the primary mystery. It was a bit confusing to figure out exactly who was related to who, who knew who, and there was a lot of mention of characters that didn't have anything to do with the story, I felt it was slightly disjointed. However it got there in the end.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, it was a good read overall and a solid 3 stars.

Thanks to Hachette Australia via NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review