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!

I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a good mystery. This book has it all and I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I stayed up all night to find out what happens. A real page turner.

Entertaining quick read, filled with suspense. Nice character development.

Forced to resign from her reporter job in Boston, Leah reacquaints herself with Emmy, an old friend. Both women need a new beginning, so decide to rent a home in a small Pennsylvania town. Now a high school teacher, Leah struggles to come to grips with what happened in Boston while trying to figure out how to start her life anew.

One day, Leah realizes she hasn’t seen Emmy in almost 5 days. When a young woman is found bludgeoned almost to death, Leah fears the worst and asks Kyle, a local detective, for help finding Emmy. When Emmy’s boyfriend is found murdered, clues seem to point towards Leah because no one can locate any evidence that Emmy actually existed. Each day that passes brings new fears to Leah’s life, and she will have to use every reporter skill she’s ever learned to get herself out of the hole into which someone seems to have wanted her to fall.

Billed as a sequel to “All the missing girls,” Miranda’s “The perfect stranger” seemed more as a standalone read to me. I didn’t find it to be as exciting, and it definitely wasn’t as suspenseful as “All the missing girls.”

I wasn’t a big fan, so will leave it up to you Adult readers to decide if you want to read it or not.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book came with huge anticipation, having enjoyed All the Missing Girls so much and I am pleased to say that whilst different, this is equally as good – phew! The characters are well developed and the plot twists so many times, that the reader’s attention is held right to the very end.
Leah has left her job as a journalist in Boston but we don’t find out exactly why for some time. Several plots unravel as the novel progresses and eventually tie together to give the whole picture. She is reunited with her old flat mate, Emmy after a chance meeting in a bar and the two plot to start afresh in a new place, a small town in Pennsylvania. Leah changes careers and becomes a high school teacher whilst Emmy works shifts doing what she can to cover the rent – the two literally only passing each other at home. When a woman is nearly murdered close to their house, Leah becomes suspicious of a fellow teacher who had shown her attention and who seems to be the focus of the investigation. Around the same time, she discovers that Emmy is missing and she has a hard time convincing the local police that she even exists as Leah soon realises she never really knew Emmy at all.
There is suspense by the bucketful and a touch of romance but essentially this is a psychological thriller with multiple layers and subplots and thanks to Miranda’s skill at storytelling is both compelling and believable. It is a real page turner with interesting characters, in fact all the ingredients for a good book!

This book, for me, is a perfect example of how the genre should be done. I know the phrase is overused but I couldn't put it down, everything else became a chore from the minute I started reading. The characters were well drawn and compelling, perfectly flawed and I just had to know how it would end. Tantalising hints on every page left me practically devouring chapter after chapter at every opportunity. Would I recommend? Most definitely. I'm off to look up Megan's other work.

I really liked Miranda's previous book All the Missing Girls so I was looking forward to reading this. Miranda is definitely a very smart writer in both books. I don't know how she keeps all her details and clues straight. I found this to be another strong book that kept you guessing and wondering what might happened. There were a few times I found it a touch too detailed/confusing and I don't necessarily feel that 100% of all the ends really got tied up to my satisfaction. However, as a whole I still enjoyed the book and would continue to read Miranda's books.

Wow! This book is a nail biter to the end. I loved this book!

I loved All the Missing Girls and enjoyed this book just as well. I went into it with no expectaitons and was not disappointed. The book is full of twist and turns which kept me eagerly reading. I was satisfied with this book not have a lot of predictable situations and pleased that I was unable to figure the puzzling story out. This book requires that the reader pay attention. The story involves a missing girl Leah, or did Leah ever really exist. I hope Megan will continue to write novels for adults as she had now made to to my best read books.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon abd Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The second novel in a mystery series that can be read as a stand-alone. This book includes some eerie settings and characters. I missed the first one, but if it was as suspenseful as this thriller, then I may go back and read it too. It kept me guessing til the end. The plot is interesting and there are plenty of twists throughout, even with how the reader feels about certain characters (it's written in a way that makes you question whether certain ones are what you thought they were in the beginning). A good mystery, especially for fans of the author's YA mysteries and those readers who enjoy NA thrillers.

Net Galley Feedback

I was blown away by the story structure of last year's All The Missing Girls, therefore, I was super happy when Simon & Schuster's Marketing Manager Nicole McArdle emailed me and asked if I wanted to read this book. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I was excited to read The Perfect Stranger and at the same time I was a little anxious. I wondered if the story would match up to my 2016 favourite. The stories are different. Yes they are mystery thrillers but the voice and told and storytelling techniques are so different that a comparison is unnecessary and useless.

The Perfect Stranger is good. Really good. Once I started reading I was hooked, I felt so connected to Leah and wanted to help her make better decisions. A brilliant mystery/thriller that hooks the reader and you will stay up all night to get to that amazingly satisfying ending.

I loved this book - a quick, thrilling read with slippery characters at every turn. I was a fan of Miranda's book All the Missing Girls as well but I think I liked this one more.

Free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

How well can you really know those closest to you when everyone in this rural Pennsylvania town seems to have a secret and can we trust our own memories of past events. That is what Megan Miranda has us pondering throughout The Perfect Stranger where not everyone is who they appear to be. A suspenseful read filled with twists right up until the last page that kept me guessing throughout the book.

When Leah left Boston for Pennsylvania she felt she could put her past behind her, but when her roommate/friend go missing everything changes. In her quest to find Emma she must look into her own past and question everything she thought she knew.

ARC provided by Netgalley for my honest review.

I found this book to be very fast paced. The main character, Leah Stevens, was complicated. There were many things going on in her life. This book asks the question, how well do you know the people in your life?. Loved it, would highly recommend.

See link to Goodreads review

What a great book with lots of unexpected turns. I was able to finish this book in 2 nights, once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.