*3.5 stars*

Like so many other readers, I was completely mesmerized by Megan Miranda’s story told in reverse, All the Missing Girls. So imagine my excitement at the mere thought of a follow-up, let alone actually holding it in my hands.

I know it’s unrealistic to expect an author that hits one out of the park to repeat that same performance the next time they’re up at bat, but sometimes that doesn’t stop this crazy mind of mine from wanting to experience that same level of book nirvana. This time, I tried my best to be realistic. I consciously checked my hopes at the door and went in with an open mind.

With a dreary and borderline depressing undertone, Megan Miranda weaves a tale with an enviable level of intrigue and a cast of characters on a seemingly downward spiral of madness. There were so many times I felt like I had no idea who to trust. Likable for the most part, but definitely untrustworthy . . . right?

A small town in western Pennsylvania has turned into a cesspool of people looking for a fresh start. Men and women, from different walks of life, looking to leave behind their mistakes and troubled pasts for a new existence. A former reporter, turned high-school teacher, Leah’s just looking to blend into the background. Two dead bodies and her missing roommate, Emmy, have the reverse effect though. Searching for answers forces her to unravel Emmy’s past and in turn, her own . . . or is it just her mind that’s unraveling?

As a suspense reader, I absolutely loved the way the author baited me along with little snippets of memories and sly little tricks to conceal the truth. That need-to-know desperation and constant questioning she managed to drum up, kept me turning the pages . . . for the majority of the book, at least. My attention started to wane a bit in the back half of the story, if I'm being totally honest. What at first was exciting and mysterious, took on a little bit of a stale note. It took a little longer than necessary to see who was really behind the mask.

It became pretty apparent to me, as the ending loomed, there was only one of two ways the story could go — veer into crazy territory, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, or take the easy way out.

In my opinion, the author played it a little bit safe. The conclusion felt too simple for all of the buildup. I wanted more of an explanation. More of a confrontation. Something more jarring. What happened to the bold ending the storyline promised? To a scrutinizing eye, do all of the pieces really fit together?

Megan Miranda's latest release, The Perfect Stranger, will make for an excellent beach read this summer. While it doesn't have the punch of All The Missing Girls, I was still caught up in the story and characters, especially in the second half of the novel. This is a slower-paced thriller, which isn't for everyone, but really hooked me by the halfway point. I love the quiet, sleepy Pennsylvanian town that Megan created, especially since I grew up in Pennsylvania!

There are quite a few mini-mysteries going on in this novel: what exactly happened in Leah's past, and the strange mystery surrounding Emmy being the two biggest. While I figured out certain aspects fairly early on, other parts of the mystery definitely caught me off guard twoards the end!

Leah is an interesting character, albeit occasionally annoying, and you really get to know her as the plot progresses. She's a strong woman that doesn't give up, and the whole storyline brings up some interesting questions. Does the end justify the means? Can you ever really "start over" somewhere new, in a new life? Kyle, the police officer assigned to Emmy's missing persons case, is one of the weak links in the story. He seemed to be written to be a likable, good guy....but I wasn't a fan. I do wish his character had been flushed out a bit more. And then there is Emmy, always in the background, a big question mark that is slowly unraveled.

My absolutely favorite part of The Perfect Stranger was the last chapter! I won't say anything to spoil the ending, but it was definitely a perfect way to end the book.

If you like mysteries/thrillers that take place in quiet, sleepy communities that hide their secrets well, you'll probably enjoy The Perfect Stranger.

This was not as good as Megan Miranda's last book but was a good read. I quickly became invested in the characters but wanted there to be some more depth in the storyline. Overall a good read.

The Perfect Stranger is the second and latest adult book by Megan Miranda. Excellent story. Ms Miranda keeps the reader guessing throughout, wondering about "our" heroine. Lots of twists. Looking forward to the next offering from Ms Miranda. I was given an early copy to review.

I give this book 5/5 stars! I loved it. While I enjoyed All the Missing Girls, I liked this one a lot more! Megan Miranda delivers a great psychological thriller that kept me looking over my shoulder. She did a great job building the characters and the mystery around Emmy and all of the events happening.

We follow Leah and Emmy. Two roommates that leave Boston to have a clean start in rural Pennsylvania. Leah because of a failed career and restraining order, and Emmy to get out of a bad relationship. When a woman, who looks almost exactly like Leah, is murdered close to their home, there are a lot of questions that come up. Is it the coworker that was stalking Leah? Then shortly after, Emmy goes missing. So Leah is on a mission to find her roommate. During the investigation, she learns that everything she knew about her roommate was false and made up - from her job to her name. Investigators can't help but wonder, did Emmy Grey ever even exist?

The setting for the book really helped me get that paranoid feeling. They live in a secluded area, in the middle of the woods. I live on 36 acres of woods. So that really helped grow the suspense and paranoia. Is someone watching her? The characters were well developed and Miranda did a great job with the mystery around Emmy. I loved the ending as well! It was a quick read and very enjoyable. It wasn't heavy on the police procedure either; just some of the investigation was included, but it focused more on Leah.

I definitely recommend this book to those who loved All the Missing Girls! Or if you love suspense and psychological thrillers.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

"As long as you end at the truth, all's fair."
Deeply seated, disturbing and nefarious, the ones you think you know to your soul could be the ones wearing the invisible mask. How can you uproot your life, live with someone and be vulnerable to them for years, without knowing anything about them at all? Be careful who you give yourself away to, because naïveté comes with the perfect set up, the perfect alibi, the perfect mark.
Miranda weaves a wickedly good tale of intrigue, suspense and mystery, that leaves you trying to figure out all the threads, but not being completely successful. Miranda ties it up by the end, and leaves you shaking your head and saying "Wow, just wow."

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. I read All the Missing Girls, and loved it. This is a solid followup by Miranda.
The main character, Leah, takes the reader on a journey of her recent past. There are hints that she left her last job and life and she is running from something. The "something" is slowly revealed as characters from the past and Leah's current life are introduced.
There are many characters in this novel and you have to pay attention on how each impacts Leah's current life and her past. You have to pay attention closely or you lose the connection to the plot line. I had to go back a few times and re-read on a few of these character plot lines.
All in all, a good novel and followup. Recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this novel.

I liked the story progression, all the twists and turns made for an exciting read. I loved the characters & was looking forward as I read to learn more about them. Emmy had so many layers to her, and Leah found out more and more through the investigation to a surprising ending. I will definitely read another book by this author.

This book is very suspenseful and a quick read! I am a big fan of All the Missing Girls, and while this wasn't quite as good, I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. Without giving away any spoilers, I would say that my main complaint was the end seemed a little quick and could have been developed further.

How do you review a story that is so shrouded in secrecy, its own heroine doesn’t know what’s going on?

Leah Stevens is a journalist running away from the backlash resulting from one of her stories. Emmy Gray is running away too…from a failed relationship. The two women, who had roomed together briefly during Leah’s college days, have now reconnected and, seeking a new start, have moved to a house in rural Pennsylvania.
When there is an assault at a nearby lake and Emmy suddenly disappears, Leah calls in the police - - in this instance a handsome officer named Kyle Donovan and together they begin looking into Emmy’s life. The question that moves front and center and calls Leah’s credibility into question is “does Emmy really exist or is she just a figment of Leah’s imagination”?

There are a myriad of clues that the strong, determined Leah must follow in this complex narrative that takes an incisive look at the nature of friendship, the importance of memory and the power of manipulation.

Actually, 3-1/2 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is Megan Miranda’s second book, and although it is billed as #2 of All the Missing Girls, it is not part of a series and both are stand-alone books. I enjoyed All The Missing Girls, and The Perfect Stranger was also an enjoyable read.

Journalist/reporter Leah Stevens runs into an old friend at an opportune time. Leah’s life is in turmoil as she has been forced to resign her position at a newspaper, her reputation as a journalist has taken a big hit, and she has a restraining order against her. When Leah meets up with her old roommate, Emmy, who has just left a failed relationship with her fiancee, both leave Boston looking for a fresh start in Pennsylvania. Things start out well, but soon Emmy disappears without a trace. Or did she even exist?

This was a suspenseful read with quite a few subplots and twists. We follow Leah’s attempt to find out what happened to Emmy, all the while trying to keep her own past secret. The story takes off in directions you don’t see coming and keep you guessing, although it does bog down in some parts. The ending was a bit unsatisfying as it felt totally out of character for Leah (I can’t explain further without giving some things away!). But then I thought perhaps it was the central theme and questions of the plot that was most important, not the ending. How well do we really know anyone? How far do you go for a friend? How do you know who to trust? Can the truth have different perspectives? Overall, this was a good book with a lot going on, but it was all pulled together nicely.

The author's previous book was one of my favorite titles last year and "The Perfect Stranger" will be one of the go-to titles I recommend to patrons this summer!

A well written and interesting story of a young woman/ She leaves her life as a journalist behind to start a new life in a new town as a school teacher. Soon after her arrival her enigmatic roommate who moved with her disappears. Then a woman is found battered almost to death with suspicion focused a on a male colleague who had been pestering her. Gradually she finds that she is in a tangled web of lies, miss information and murder that somehow seems to involve her as a suspect. As she fearfully goes about her everyday life she comes to realise that she herself will have to find a way out to survive. This provides an insight into the labyrinth of thought and convoluted decision making process that is characteristic of the female mind on how they resolve problems. The reading of which could be quite enlightening for a mere male. Old hands of course have given up trying to understand women and just hang in there for the ride.

I discovered Megan Miranda with All The Missing Girls, that I devoured. So when I saw that she had another book coming out, I asked for it on NetGalley. This story is something. It's so twisted that every time you think you got it figured out, well... you don't. Sometimes I wondered where the author was going, the story seemed to go anywhere at the same time, I was lost. But in the end, everything come into place and... it's something. Such a good book!

While I found this book to be slow-moving at first, once the pieces all started coming together I could not put it down. Leah Stevens, a former journalist turned teacher, moves to a small town to start over. But she doesn't do it alone. An old friend with a skeptical past, Emmy, joins her. In this story Miranda weaves a tale of deceit, mystery, suspense, and self-doubt when Leah begins to question just who Emmy really is and what secrets she is hiding as well. Four star read for me.

I was really excited to read The Perfect Stranger, I’m a total psychological thriller addict! Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed. The main character (Leah) is really frustrating and naïve – I did not find myself rooting for her as I usually do the heroine of a book. The romantic connection Leah makes (I won’t say who, as to not include spoilers) is completely predictable. Leah is constantly withholding information and putting herself in danger to try to solve the mystery; nothing new or exciting there. Overall this book was an underwhelming 3.5

Full disclosure: I haven’t read All the Missing Girls but am still open to giving it a chance.

In the masterful follow-up to the runaway hit All the Missing Girls, a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all.

Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.

Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

Everyone in this rural Pennsylvanian town has something to hide—including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own?

Although The Perfect Stranger is billed as All the Missing Girls #2, the two books are actually not at all related. Both are great in their own ways, but do not expect a sequel out of The Perfect Stranger.

In The Perfect Stranger, we follow Leah, a journalist turned teacher running away from her past in a small town where nobody goes unnoticed... except, it seems, her roommate Emmy.

When Emmy unexpectedly goes missing, Leah is unable to find anyone to vouch for her roommate’s existence at all. As she battles the demons of her past and attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to her roommate, she realizes that she may be in danger as well. Leah must fight the clock to clear her name and save her roommate, and herself, before it is too late. But nothing is as it seems, and in a world where you cannot be sure your roommate exists, who can you trust?

The Perfect Stranger had me hooked within a few chapters, and fans of All the Missing Girls will definitely want to pre-order Megan Miranda’s next best-seller. Thriller fans will not be disappointed as readers are kept guessing with each twist and turn until even you won’t know which way is up.
**Disclaimer** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After Leah Stevens career is ruined after an explosive article that forces her to resign and leave Boston she encounters a long lost friend who is also looking to get away from her problems.

After months of living together in the rural woods of Pennsylvania Leah’s roommate Emmy goes missing. Ontop of that she’s dealing with a stalker who is emailing her and calling her for the past few months, and when Emmy goes missing all her problems come together for an explosive conclusion.

Who really is Emmy, how much does Leah really know about her? Why was a woman who looks remarkably like Leah attacked and left for dead not far from her home.

When the police stop believing Leah and wonder if Emmy is a figment of her imagination she begins to investigate on her own, cracking both cases wide open.

An edge of your seat thriller will have you closing your blinds at night and double locking your doors.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to review this!
4⭐️’s

"The Perfect Stranger" by Megan Miranda was the first book that I've read by this author and all I can say is wow! This is a compulsively entertaining book that grabbed me from the start and kept me enthralled until the end. "You can't escape the truth. It finds you eventually." This observation is made by the main protagonist of the book, Leah Stevens. Throughout this story, Leah searches for the truth but it constantly evades her. After leaving Boston, Leah moves to a rural town in western Pennsylvania to live with her old roommate, Emmy Grey. Stevens was a journalist with a prominent Boston newspaper but is forced to resign from her job because of a story she wrote without a substantiated witness.

Leah changes careers and becomes a high school English teacher. She tries to start a new life, but trouble lurks around the corner. Instead of living an idyllic life in the country, Leah finds herself immersed in the disappearance of her housemate and a murder investigation. As the story progresses, more layers are uncovered to expose Leah's past and how it ties in with her present. Her search for the truth ultimately leads her to question her past relationship with her friend Emmy Grey.

Megan Miranda does an excellent job at building suspense. There are many layers to this story which are unraveled at a dizzying rate. I couldn't get through the pages fast enough. Leah is eventually forced to confront her demons from the past so she can make sense of the present. Along the way, she finds clues that she eventually has to piece together.

I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a fast-paced story to sweep you away. Many thanks to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for a copy of this book in exchanged for an unbiased review. (less)

This story was anti climactic. Too confusing to start putting pieces together until the end and then presented very unimpressively.