I really enjoyed this book! It kept me guessing until the end. The characters were well developed and it read this within a couple of days because I wanted to see what happened! I would recommend this to friends for sure. Thank you for letting me read it!

I enjoyed this book although I was not totally convinced that the 'willo the wisp' character would exist in this day and age. It was a necessarily confusing plot that become unraveled slowly. I did not understand the logic of the character and because of this I did not believe in her.

Her first book was my favorite book of 2016. Did this one compare???? Pretty close let me tell ya. This story is so twisty and fiendishly plotted,it really genuinely messes with your head.When I finished reading it I was totally blown away and confused. (but in a good way)

Meh.
All the Missing Girls proved Megan Miranda was a brilliant writer, but Perfect Stranger felt undeveloped and forced. The pieces were all there; inspiring characters, an intriguing plot, well developed voice, but the parts simply didn't come together to make a cohesive whole.... It was like making a cake and forgetting the eggs. I will continue to watch this author because I bejeebees she had the talent to write another spectacular novel. This one just wasn't it.

I'm going to need to start this review off by telling you that I read this book this morning while I was in church. Now, I'm not normally one to slack off on my churchin', but Megan had me hooked and I needed to know the things!

I was a huge, huge fan of All the Missing Girls, and was really excited to get this one through NetGalley. Leah Stevens is starting over. After being pushed out of her last job for writing an article that ended in disaster she moved to a small Pennsylvania town with a roommate she hadn't seen in eight years.

From my perspective, Leah is kind of a loner. She's got some demons to live with but she's also got a lot of goodness in her. She wants to see the best in others, which is probably a huge flaw in her character. Leah trusts Emmy enough to leave her life behind and not to ask any questions about, well, anything. Okay, maybe Leah is kind of blind to people around her sometimes.

When Emmy disappears, things get weirder. A girl in town has been assaulted, Leah is being stalked by someone, and Emmy is gone, so enter Kyle Donovan. Kyle is also trying to make a name for himself as a detective and the lead on a case that now involves Leah. Things definitely get heated between them, but while Kyle tries to keep things professional Leah begins an investigation of her own.

This story definitely kept me guessing that's for damn sure. I wanted to know what was going on inside Leah's head and I kept wondering if she had secrets to tell, as Kyle wondered the same thing. I liked the rollercoaster of their relationship and just the cleverness of Leah. She'd lost everything and was on the verge of having everything taken from her and she fought for what she wanted. I loved that. Leah didn't back down from anything and, in the end, everyone got what they deserved.

Megan Miranda is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for an advance copy of The Perfect Stranger in exchange for am honest review. I read All the Missing Girls first thinking it was the first in a series. Wrong. Two stand alone books. I loved All the Missing Girls. The reverse plot was wonderfully suspenseful and creative. So, back to this review. I was disappointed in the plot that was convoluted and at times a confusing read. The character development was not strong enough to pull me through the pages and I felt the ending was forced. I will stick with the author and continue to read and recommend her books.

I just loved this book! It's very well plotted and intriguing. It is written from an interesting concept, in reverse chronological order - just like her previous book ' All the Missing Girls'.
The main character, Leah is endearing in that she's very humaine and real. Her only fault was being ambitious, but also too trusting and having her own problems. The book is well written. The language is clear and convincing. You can relate to the main character and you move along in the flow of the story.
There were enough suspense to keep the book afloat and bravo for the ending! I did not see that coming!
I would highly recommend this book! Definitely 5 stars. Thank you to the author, Megan Miranda and the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and not forgetting Nicole McArdle for letting me read this book in advance.

I enjoyed All The Missing Girls and was looking forward to reading this book as well. I enjoyed the other book better. This book seemed to be trying too hard to be twisty and surprising and it kind of lost me. I'm surprised by all the 4+ star reviews. I actually went away on vacation for a week and didn't pick the book up once.

Leah Stevens and her friend Emmy move from Boston to Pennsylvania in order to start fresh. They were formerly friends in college who reconnected and both need a new start. Leah is a journalist who is trying to get away from her former life, and Emmy is getting out of a rough relationship. They aren't in Pennsylvania for very long before a girl who resembles Leah turns up beaten close to their home, and Emmy disappears shortly thereafter. When Leah reports Emmy missing she begins to realize that she never really knew Emmy at all and isn't even sure that's her real name. She begins to piece together what happened to the beaten girl and sees that she may be involved in something when she had no idea.

I'm tired just writing the summary of the story. It seemed all over the place for me and really lost my interest. I didn't even cover the dead body that was found in the lake or Leah's nosy students who try to be mysterious but can't really pull it off. This book just didn't do it for me.

The Perfect Stranger is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing! I loved the plot and the storyline was really well developed. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars was because I was really hoping for the ending I kept thinking was coming! I'm not going to give any spoilers, but the way it ends up is satisfying. It's just not as much of a twist as I wanted. The characters in the book are great. I especially love the way some of the characters become stronger and more complex during the book. If you love thrillers, you need to read this! I'm looking forward to seeing what other people think of the ending.

I can’t wait to start The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. I devoured her first novel, All The Missing Girls, and have a feeling I will zip through this one too. Here’s the premise:

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?

I won't put the story in my own words but will tell how it affected me. This was the first book I have read by Megan and very much was able to set the scenes in my mind with her descriptions without being overly wordy. The book kept my interest from beginning to end. I liked that it was written from Leah and she was telling the story. I felt as if I was riding on her shoulder throughout and there were times I wanted to scream out 'don't do that' of 'get away from there'. I felt as if she and I were in the middle of a sailor know trying to work our way out and every time one side of the knot loosened the other side tightened up. When I finished the book I sat and thought about it for awhile thinking about the ending and what might of happened. At first I was a bit upset that it was somewhat open ended but after thought, liked they way it was.
Thank you for allowing me to read on NetGalley.

Megan Miranda’s The Perfect Stranger is billed as being a sequel to her highly successful All The Missing Girls – although as far as I can tell, there are no common characters or plot threads, unless one counts the fact that one of the characters in The Perfect Stranger is a “missing girl”! So if, like me, you haven’t read the earlier book, you won’t have any problems getting into this one, as it’s a standalone, and is a thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing read that asks some interesting questions. How well we can ever know another person? How honest and accurate are our self-perceptions? Just how far would you go for a friend who’d done a lot for you?

Leah Stevens worked as a journalist in Boston until a story blew up in her face. She had been investigating the deaths – seemingly suicides - of four young college students which she was convinced were murders, but when she refused to reveal a key source, she was slapped with a restraining order and the paper threatened with a lawsuit. Betrayed – it was her boyfriend who tipped off their editor – with no job and nowhere to go, Leah is relieved when she runs into Emmy Grey, someone she’d lived with shortly after leaving college some eight years ago.

Over several drinks at Emmy’s place, Leah gathers that her friend has just come out of a bad relationship and is keen to get out of Boston, too, so they stick a pin in a map and settle on Western Pennsylvania as the place they can both make a fresh start. Leah gets a job as a school teacher (and I have to say, the author’s comments about various aspects of the profession struck a real chord with me!) while Emmy drifts about, cleaning houses, working at a local motel… and because their schedules are so different, with Emmy often coming home as Leah is going out, they rarely see each other. Even so, however, Leah gets the impression that all is not well with her friend; she’s tense and on edge and it’s like she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Because their schedules are so different, it takes Leah a few days to realise that Emmy hasn’t been home for some time. The post-it notes stuck on the wall reminding her the rent is due and various phone messages from Emmy’s boyfriend have fallen down rather than been removed, and Leah begins to worry for her friend’s safety. But if she files a missing persons’ report, it will lead to questions about Leah’s own situation, and those are questions she is not willing to answer. When a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to her is attacked on the other side of the lake from where Leah lives and a fellow member of staff at the school is the prime suspect, she is forced to accept that she can no longer distance herself and fly under the radar if she is to find out what happened to her friend.

Leah opens up to Kyle Donovan, the handsome young detective assigned to the assault case, telling him about Emmy and her fear that something has happened to her. But as the investigation proceeds it becomes apparent that even though Leah had believed herself to be very close to Emmy, she really didn’t know her at all, and worse, the police are starting to believe that she doesn’t actually exist. Leah knows that once her past is revealed, and it’s known that she is suspected of having invented a source, that belief is only going to be reinforced; yet Leah can’t give up. She’s got to prove that Emmy is real and then find out what has happened to her in order to prove her credibility and clear her own name. And in doing so, she starts to question her own long-held certainties about herself, her drive to seek the truth, her belief in her ability to read people and get them to open up to her… and to realise that she has been a victim of her own hubris.

Megan Miranda does a terrific job in this book of creating and maintaining an atmosphere of menace and uncertainty. She skilfully drip-feeds the truth about Leah’s situation, hinting at what she’s running from and slowly fitting the pieces of the puzzle together – although it’s not until well into the story that we finally discover the nature of the terrifying events that set her on the path she’s now travelling. And there’s also the fact that Leah is somewhat of an unreliable narrator, something the author plays with so cleverly that there are times the reader even questions the fact of Emmy’s existence, wondering if the police are right and she’s just a figment of Leah’s obviously active imagination.

On the negative side, however, there are times when there is perhaps just a little too much going on, there are a few plot-threads that are not suitably resolved, and a couple of large inconsistencies that really had me scratching my head – and not in a good way. The mystery is full of satisfying twists and turns, with a few suitably gobsmacking moments of realisation along the way, but the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. Things end well for Leah and Kyle, but it’s all a little low-key, so while I was pleased that everything was nicely tied up, I’d expected something a little… well, more.

With all that said, however, I enjoyed The Perfect Stranger enough to recommend it to fans of strongly written, atmospheric mysteries. It caught my interest early and kept me turning the pages, so I’m definitely interested in reading more by this author.

reviewed by AAR's Caz

The first thing my mother said was: “I don’t remember any Emmy.” As if this were the most important fact.


Leah Stevens was a journalist, but she pushed too hard for the truth that ended in tragedy, one that made her suspect. Filled with shame, guilt and failure she flees Boston, bumping into her old college friend Emmy Grey who is escaping her own personal disaster (a rotten relationship). The answer is to head to Pennsylvania together for a fresh start, a much more quiet setting where Leah can take up teaching. Naturally, her mother sees this as a huge step backwards in her road to success. Why teaching? Why there? Lurking through the story is an incident that led Leah to her current hiding place, hiding from life, memories, her future. Then a woman is attacked, one who resembles her roommate Emmy- when Emmy fails to come home, Leah knows something is dreadfully wrong. Terrified for herself and desperate to find her friend before it’s too late, she begins to uncover the mystery.

In walks Kyle Donovan, a police officer working the case as it grows stranger still. Emmy hasn’t just gone missing, she has disappeared into thin air, as if she never existed at all. Leah begins to doubt Emmy was ever real, pushing her to confront someone from her past, someone she is better off staying away from. Has she lost her mind? Is Emmy someone she conjured into existence? How can someone vanish so completely that they leave no crumbs behind? There aren’t even pictures! Maybe Leah has lost her mind! We don’t know anymore than she does. The reader comes to doubt her recollections. Just what did she do in the past, was she wrong? Is she a liar? Just who is the victim? Is someone after her?There has to be a truth to dig up, someone must have seen something? As she pieces her life together, and dissects her time with Emmy she begins to realize things are not solid, that she is to blame but why?

I thought this story was going somewhere else, so it was a nice surprise I guessed wrong. I was tricked, which I like in a mystery/thriller because I hate when I guess everything straight off. I doubted the ending, thinking most of us would react differently. As Leah’s past surfaced, I didn’t trust her nor the way she couldn’t remember straight- I think this is the best part of the novel- that self-doubting demon in all of us. The fear we have betrayed ourselves, either by confusion or delusions. What can we do when no one can back up our truth? Confirm what is real?

This was good, there are some strange characters even at her school. I kept thinking I knew what happened and pegging ‘who done it’ but nope. In All The Missing Girls, I didn’t guess what was going on either so I have to give Megan Miranda credit, it isn’t easy to mislead most avid readers. What bigger stranger exists than ourselves?

Publication Date: May 16, 2017

Simon & Schuster

There's just something about Megan Miranda's writing that suits me perfectly. This is the second book of hers that I've read and thought it was outstanding. I've heard people compare her to Gillian Flynn but I actually think her books are more suspenseful. This book leaves you questioning "fate" when just the right person shows up out of the blue. READ IT NOW!

my review: https://youtu.be/Al-lfMjFQW0?t=13m53s

First I would like to thank Megan Miranda for another edge of my seat story with so many twists and unexpected turns! In addition I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this thrilling novel in exchange for my honest review.
Leah Stevens needs to dissapear, start over, she happens to run into an old roommate from college, who, it just so happens needs to get away also.....too good to be true? From this point in the story forward Megan Miranda does a spectacular job of weaving in parts of Leah's past and present life along with glimmers of Emmy....The Perfect Stranger. Awesome read, I really enjoyed it, I can't wait to see what Megan Miranda has for us next!

Leah Stevens is running. She really needs to leave Boston, so when she learns that her old college friend, Emmy Grey, needs a roommate, she is eager to live with her in her isolated cabin near the woods. Emmy, too, wishes to start a new life, having just left a troubled relationship. The women decide to start over together, Leah as a high school teacher, and Emmy as an employee in a hotel.

When a stranger who looks like Leah is found murdered and Emmy’s new boyfriend is found at the bottom of the lake, Emmy goes missing, Leah reports her missing roommate to the police, but they can find no record of an Emmy Grey. It’s as if she had never existed. This is when Leah’s investigative skills kick in, and she begins her own investigation.

This book is filled with twists and turns! Along with the realistic characters, they make this a book that is nearly impossible to put down.

Leah Stevens is reinventing herself. She used to be a big-city journalist, but she did something, for her own reasons, that many considered unethical. What she printed caused someone else to make an even more devastating choice, and she had to leave the profession. In the midst of all her drama, she runs into her old roommate Emmy, who suggests they get out of town and make a fresh start together. She begins a job teaching at the local high school, and settles into her routine. She and Emmy lead very separate lives, but after a few days of not seeing her, she begins to worry.

There's a lot going on in this tiny town. Another girl has been found beaten almost to death, and a coach at Leah's school is the police's prime suspect. He's been sending Leah creepy emails and calling her cell at odd hours, so immediately she's involved. When she reports her roomie missing to the cute local cop, the mystery of who Emmy is and what she has done is deepened, enough that some people doubt she even exists.

As a teacher-librarian, I like that Miranda was able to create a teacher character who actually lives in a real teacher world. She addressed the fact that Leah had to get her certification, could only leave the building on her conference period, etc. She must have teachers in her life, because it's a profession that's often misrepresented in literature and on television. She's also great at pushing and driving a tense plot. She does a nice job at creating a "page-turner" by withholding just enough information to keep readers engaged.

What she doesn't do so well is tie everything together. There are so many small mysteries twisting and turning in this book, and I don't feel that any of them are resolved very well. So many of the plot lines that seemed really important in the beginning, turn out to be nothing. Also, the ultimate resolution to both major mysteries is completely unbelievable.

The writing is also not that engaging. I'll say the same thing I said about All the Missing Girls. With the quality of the thrillers that are out there now, these books just aren't standouts. When compared to new titles like Under the Harrow and The Girl Before, where writing is just as great as the story, there's just no comparison. The plots are fun, but the prose is lacking.

Megan Miranda is an author to savor and has my highest recommendation for those seeking thrillers/mysteries. All the Missing Girls was probably one of my favorite and certainly narratively original novels from 2016, and now with The Perfect Stranger, she once again hit it out of the park for me.

This is the type of book that keeps you hanging on every line; Miranda's phrasing and descriptions are nothing short of delicious. It's impossible to stop at the end of any one chapter, as each ending immediately entices you into beginning the next.

And the characters! These are terrific, flawed, morally ambiguous people who practically jump from the page. I can't say enough good things about this author or her books; the only justice I can do is to whole-hardheartedly recommend picking up her novels and devouring them. They're worth it!