The Perfect Stranger is a great follow up to Megan Miranda's book, All the Missing Girls. To compare the two would be completely wrong because they are two completely different books with two different plots. The only thing that remains the same is Ms. Miranda's writing which is nothing less than superb.

In The Perfect Stranger we have our main protagonist, Leah. She needs to escape her old life and fast. People she loved and trusted turned on her, her work turned their backs on her, she has nothing left to do but get the hell out of dodge.

Emmy has been in and out of her life for years but that doesn't matter. True friends don't need to be in each other's lives everyday to pick up where they left off. When Leah needs to leave, Emmy needs to escape and what's better than a small mountain town in Pennsylvania.

What Leah thought was the truth isn't. When everything around her starts to crumble, will she come out alive or end up a victim?

The Perfect Stranger is full of suspense, surprises, twists and bends that will leave you guessing right up until the very end. When you think you have everything figured out, think again.

Leah Stevens is forced to leave her investigative reporting job in Boston and find an obscure teaching position in Pennsylvania after printing an article with allegations towards a professor she is unable/unwilling to corroborate. She is sharing a house with a former roommate, Emmy, who has returned to the States after many years in the Peace Corps. Leah is struggling in her first teaching job, concerned about a school coach who keeps drunk dialing her late at night and who may be peeking through her windows. She also has a strange feeling that her roomie has disappeared. When a woman who closely resembles Leah is brutally attacked near the school where she teaches, the local police are concerned that Leah herself may be in danger.

It's a daunting task trying to repeat the success of Miranda's best selling novel All the Missing Children. The Perfect Stranger, unlike its predecessor, is written in chronological order. This doesn't improve the reader's ability to wade through the clues and mysteries surrounding the main players. There are some basic questions to answer and scenarios to resolve. What happened to Leah to end her journalistic career and drive her out of Boston? Does the mysterious Emily even exist? Can someone live so far off the grid that even the local police cannot track her? Who is stalking Leah and to what end?

Miranda takes her time rolling out the unhappy life of Leah Stevens. Some books feel dark and ominous. I found The Perfect Stranger to be dark and depressing. There are times when an author can be too clever, too concealing of the truth and too willing to stretch the reader's patience and credibility before all is revealed. Told in first person, we are limited to Leah's perspective of events present and past. This perspective stunts development of the secondary characters turning them into little more than red herrings on the page. Considering Leah was a journalist in Boston, she has very poor recall of day to day events surrounding her life with Emily. Throw that doubt of her mental stability at the reader and it puts all events involving Leah into question. It’s a clever plot device to keep the reader off balance. When stretched out over an entire novel, a novel which moves at a glacial pace, it loses its charm.

3 stars

ARC received with thanks from publisher via NetGalley for review.

The Perfect Stranger was not a very good book. The main character was fairly unlikeable and so wishy washy all the time. I felt like Megan Miranda was trying too hard to make them all seem culpable. Instead they all seemed nutso. I will not post my review but I will not be recommending this one to anyone.

I received a copy of The Perfect Stranger through NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and to Megan Miranda for the opportunity.

I LOVED this book. I didn’t want to put it down. The characters are complex, and the plot has so many twists and turns. The writing is very vivid and descriptive, and there is a lot of suspense and strong character development. The reader also feels like s/he is right there alongside the main character, Leah Stevens, as she is experiencing each situation and uncovering more information.

Even Leah’s house ends up being a central part of the plot. At first it seems that Leah feels comfortable and safe in her home and enjoys all of its features, including the location near the lake, the view from the sliding glass door and the animals that live under her porch. As the book progresses and the plot builds, the house turns into something menacing as Leah pieces together what happened to her roommate, Emmy, and realizes she is being stalked. The stalker aspect had me on edge, too!

The only drawback is that there is not closure to all of the storylines in the book. The reader has to come to his/her own conclusions to some of the open questions.

READ THIS BOOK. I highly recommend it. I’m a big fan of suspenseful thrillers but this one definitely stands out. It blew me away. I was still thinking about the book for a long time after I finished. It’s very different than All The Missing Girls and I liked it even better.

This is my first NetGalley ARC and I’m so pleased to be writing this review.

"You can't escape the truth. It finds you eventually."

The follow-up to Megan Miranda's highly acclaimed book "All the Missing Girls" is a very interesting read. The characters are well developed, especially the main character Leah. Reflections throughout the book help shape her story nicely. The other main character, Emmy, is also well developed through Leah's broken memories of her.

As the plot unfolds, a bizarre set of circumstances leads you to wonder if you're reading about a story that the main character has made up. Maybe a figment of her imagination. Maybe an alternate reality she has created to cope with some of her own problems. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Creepy events keep happening that are more than mere coincidence. Pay attention to the story or you'll miss the subtle foreshadowing throughout.

All along the way Miranda gives you little bites of information that force you to push forward and continue reading well into the night. She has a way with descriptive language and dialogue that slowly ratchets up the tension page by page. The sordid details from Leah's past and present constantly work against her at every turn in the case, and the tension ratchets up another notch as she dives into her past on her own to discover the truth. Everything comes crashing down on Leah towards the end of the book as she tries desperately to fit the pieces together. The conclusion is not really unexpected, but I appreciate how Miranda ties up all the loose ends nicely.

I recommend this book to fans of mysteries and thrillers. It was a good fast paced read. I received this as a free ARC from Simon & Schuster on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Most of the time when an author has a spectacular debut there is insane pressure for the next book they put out. While, sometimes unfair, most people end up disappointed in the next novel.

I will admit I am normally one of those people but this was not the case with The Perfect Stranger. I may be the minority in that but I really felt as though this could almost surpass All The Missing Girls. If the order of release was reversed I 100% believe this book would have a higher rating.

This is a great thriller and it keeps you guessing throughout. Miranda is such skilled story teller that every time you think you have someone or something figured out she masterfully flips the tables on you.

For me the highlight of the whole story is really how it tackles friendship and what you would do for the people you know and love. She brings up the saying of would you help bury the body or turn the person in, and while we all have our own opinions of ourselves, this story helps tackle what some might do it when actually faced with that option.

Loved this book! Pacing was excellent, just enough twists and turns to keep me up all night but not so many that I was rolling my eyes at the improbability of any of it. Great read, will definitely recommend!

Thank you to netgalley for this free edition of The Perfect Stranger.

Wow what a ride. This book has a lot of twists and turns and really keeps you guessing

I would say it's full of suspense and a real page turner!

Creepy to think people steal others identities and what they think they can get away with.

Highly recommended!

Enjoyed her other book and enjoyed this one more. Kept me guessing throughout the book! A little more time on character development would have added to the book but overall an intriguing and interesting read.

After reading All the Missing Girls, I couldn't wait to get into this one. This is about a former journalist named Leah who becomes involved in an investigation into an assault case. She is also looking into her missing roommate, who doesn't appear to actually exist. It is one of the most captivating stories I've read. Highly recommended this book. I think Megan Miranda is my new favorite author.

Another excellent page-turner from Megan Miranda! Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the preview copy.

Leah, a disgraced journalist, and her friend Emmy move to an isolated house in the woods of Pennsylvania, each running from less than ideal circumstances. Leah has taken a high school teaching job, and she is paranoid that her students will find out why she left her newspaper position in Boston. On the way to school one morning, Leah discovers that a young woman who looks eerily like herself has been badly beaten and left to die. The journalist in her can't resist investigating this crime, and the suspense gets even thicker when her roommate, Emmy, disappears. Leah tries to help the police solve both cases without revealing her own background, but soon the police start to wonder if Emmy ever existed. A fantastic read with lots of twists! Highly recommended for fans of psychological suspense.

Hands down, this is an awesome book and I couldn’t put it down because I needed to know what was going to happen. It is a tale that is woven and overpowered by secrets and lies, and is likely to have readers pulling at their hair and yelling WHAT. THE. F#@K. Seriously. This book is downright devious! But also so engrossing that readers will read it from beginning to end without looking up from the pages -that’s what I did-. With that being said, I am so glad that I read this one before reading the authors previous novel – All the Missing Girls – because I have heard that this one isn’t necessarily as good as that one. So, seeing that I really enjoyed this one I know for a fact that I can go into to All the Missing Girls and find more greatness! SQUEE!

Without giving the plot away, this book is about lies, secrets, and a little bit or murder thrown in to keep readers on their toes. The characters come off as slightly unreliable though (well, in some aspects) because readers may have a hard time figuring out if things are REAL or a figment of an overactive imagination. On the other hand, the characters seem quite real and honest. It’s just mind boggling I suppose and very hard to explain without giving away important plot points and details. I did like them all for the story though and found them to be very fitting.

The only negative aspect of this book (and this is just personal preference and nothing more) is that there is so much going on within the story that it becomes a little hard to follow. For example, within the story there is mention of suicides and a murderer (yes, the author has valid points here and they fit well into the overall story), but it has almost nothing to do with the “problem” at hand. Even more, there are other things going on within the story (without having a lot to do with the “problem” again) that are sort of left unresolved at the end. Unfortunately, I can’t go into details further than this because it will spoil the book. But my point is, there is a LOT going on within the story and it can easily become confusing to some readers. That’s the only drawback I found while reading.

Other than this, the book is great! I would definitely recommend it to fans of Megan Miranda and those who love a good mystery.

Investigative journalist Leah Stevens has submitted a story about four young women, all students at the same college, who had committed suicide, and the implications she makes about one of their professors could easily be construed as libel. The newspaper insists that she quit, and Leah finds herself sitting in a bar, alone and unemployed. She is surprised to see Emmy, a former roommate, leaving the bar, and the two women begin catching up on the past eight years. Emmy is also at loose ends; she is in hiding from an abusive relationship and suggests they both leave Boston for a small town in western Pennsylvania, where Leah can teach and Emmy can start her life over again.

They settle into a furnished cabin, and into a daily routine with Leah working days and Emmy working nights. There are unsettling phone calls with only breathing on the line, strange emails that imply Leah is being watched, and the persistent advances of the high school basketball coach all keep Leah on edge. Emmy’s disappearance has Leah back in journalist mode, determined to find out what has happened to her, and she is forced to realize she doesn’t really know Emmy at all.

Wow. Just…wow. Leah was so fragile underneath her professional exterior, and I had to applaud her for continuing to move forward. Emmy’s resourcefulness absolutely fascinated me, and her ability to be what the other person needed at any given time really served her well. This was my first experience with Megan Miranda’s work, and I am in awe. The plot twists and attention to detail caught my attention from the beginning, and I am hooked. I admit it. Now I need to read All the Missing Girls. Right now.

Leah Stevens has just moved to a cabin in the woods near a sparse community in rural Pennsylvania. She leaves her job as a journalist in Boston under a dark cloud of libel and questionable mental stability. But she feels sure she did the right thing and plans to pick up on her journalistic skills in her new surroundings. In the meantime, she takes a job in a teaching position.
Leah’s roommate Emmy is the quiet elusive type, bragging about how she never leaves a trail behind her and travels lightly. She disappears the same day a woman is found unconscious by the lake, and Leah can’t help but think Emmy is also in trouble. She works with the handsome police investigator, Kyle and as most plots go, she beds him. Repeatedly.
The book starts off really well. I want to figure out Leah and her friend Emmy. Something is just not quite right. Is Emmy a friend or a lover? Does Emmy even actually exist? But about 2/3’s of the way through, some ends begin to come apart and there are more unanswered questions than spellbinding mysteries. It started off with all the required traits but ended too loosely. I imagine people who like quick and simple mysteries may enjoy this book. I don’t dislike it by any means; it just didn’t follow thru on the intrigue.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for making it available.)

Leah Stevens is a journalist. She lives in Boston. She writes a story that gets her into quite a lot of trouble. She is fired, her boyfriend dumps her, and there is talk of a civil suit. She needs to leave town and start over. She runs into her old friend Emmy Grey and they decide to live together in Pennsylvania. Leah gets a teaching job and she and Emmy settle into their new lives. Then a woman who looks just like Leah is assaulted down by the lake and left for dead and then Emmy disappears. Leah must work with the police to try and figure what is going on. Leah and police detective Kyle Donovan start seeing each other. But as clues surface about Emmy, will Kyle believe her or will he think she is making up a story similar to Boston? So many twists and turns and a book you can't put down until you finish reading it! The Perfect Stranger is a thrilling, page turning, keeps you guessing until the end book! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an ARC of this book for an honest review.

THE PERFECT STRANGER BY MEGAN MIRANDA

This follow up to the first book "All the Missing Girls" was a much anticipated book that I have been Looking forward to reading. Sadly, this one didn't live up to all its hype. The reason is because the conclusion of the book was just too long and dragged out. I really am disappointed because the first book was so good. This needed some serious editing out the second half of the book.

Leah is set up by her friend Emmy who steals her identity. Basically that's it. Leah used to work for a news paper in Boston. Because of her reporting about her friend's husband causing suicides she runs away with Emmy to Pennsylvania. Emmy disappears without a trace. The remainder of the book is Leah trying to find Emmy. The story could have more to the plot and the character's could have been better developed. Emmy isn't developed at all.

I know Author's put a lot of labor into writing a book. I am sorry this one was so simplistic and rushed.

Thank you to Net Galley, Megan Miranda and Simon & Schuster for my digital Copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Unfortunately this was not as good as her last book. I could not relate to the main character and I felt this book just dragged and took to long to get to the end. The main character Leah is lost as she doesn't know what she wants with her life anymore. Things end bad in Boston and thinking an old friend has come to help her, she moves. Her life spirals more out of control once she moves and her old friend goes missing. The real question through this whole book is who is Emmy and is she real. By the end you find out who Emmy really is but really I didn't care then or earlier in the book. I really loved All the Missing Girls and was really disappointed with this book.


*Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this for my honest opinion*

I received a copy of The Perfect Stranger through NetGalley for an honest review. Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for the opportunity.

I absolutely loved Megan Miranda's last book All the Missing Girls so I had very high hopes for this one. All the Missing Girls was so unique and at the top of my favorites list for 2016. I was not at all disappointed with The Perfect Stranger. This book is great!

How well can you ever really know another person? This becomes a question of life and death when Leah Stevens, a disgraced reporter, leaves Boston, seemingly on a whim, with long-lost friend Emmy Grey and takes on a teaching position at a high school in western Pennsylvania. Miranda does a great job of uncovering the true and very dark story one tiny piece at a time through many different characters.

I was left guessing with every turn of the page. The characters are not the normal thriller type characters who you dislike. You felt for Leah and you were rooting for her to figure out what on earth was going on! The Perfect Stranger will definitely keep you guessing until the end.. A must read for all Megan Miranda fans!

Thank you so much NetGalley for the ARC of this book. Thank you Simon & Schuster.

Megan Miranda does this again! This is a follow up to All the Missing Girls.

Leah Stevens needs to get away from the city. She reconnects with an old friend and moves to a rural town to become a teacher. There's an eerie crime committed where the victim resembles Leah, and at the same time, her roommate disappears. Leah, using her journalist instincts, begins to dig deeper. Everyone in the town has something to hide. Leah starts to uncover secrets about Emmy and wonders if she is who she has claimed to be.
What I loved about this book was how the mystery was subtle, yet it still left me on the age of my seat. That's not easy to do. It was not overpowering like some suspenseful novels can be and this had me hooked.

I looked back at my review for All the Missing Girls, and I liked this book so much more. Let yourself soak into the story and don't force it. The mystery will come along.

I thoroughly enjoyed Megan Miranda's newest twisty turny new psychological thriller, in fact, I liked it more than the first. There were times I was so confused that I had to go back and re-read portions of this book. Amazingly, it didn't deter or take away from my enjoyment of the novel. It was like piecing together a puzzle right along with our protagonist, Leah Stevens.
Leah can't seem to find a place where trouble doesn't follow her. She has run away from a sticky situation in Boston as her life as a journalist comes to a disheartening end. Leah tries to pick up the pieces in a new town by starting a new life with an old friend, and beginning a new career. But, trouble isn't far behind, and once again Leah's life takes a terrible turn.
Who can she trust when she can't even trust yourself? Who can she run to when she is not even sure of her own memories? Who will believe her when she is not even sure she believes herself? Will her skills as a journalist help her uncover the truth(s) or will they end up shunning her from yet another community and career? Or, will the truth unveiled be the end of the road for Leah?
Great read with a satisfying ending.
Definitely recommended.