Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

I really had a hard time with this book. I wanted to like it, I really did, but the way it was written, I felt the main character too naïve and she seemed to be younger than she was supposed to be by way of her writings. I will say I really like the story line, just not the way it was given to us.

I finished the book, but only because I thought it might get better and I cannot leave a book unread. The author did a lovely job in the descriptions and the story line was good, with lots of promise, I will check out her next novel for sure. Not bad for a debut.

Slow to start and with a storyline that failed to engage me, I nonetheless think this first -time author shows promise and I would be happy to review future novels by her.

I started to read this book several times over, and could not get into it. I read about 10% of the book before giving up on it. I did not like the writing style.

The details hardly matter, once your story is complete. all those memories turn blurry at the edges, and that anger and panic and guilt wears away to something softer.

Julie Portland is haunted by her past and the death of her best friend Reba. Reba was everything that Julie was not and in Julie's mind Reba was saint where Julie was the sinner. Julie and Reba became friends when Julie's parents were killed in auto accident and she came to live with her aunt and her cousin Taylor. Reba and her family lived next door and they became fast and best friends. Each girl looking to the other as someone they needed. Julie lived care free and Reba stuck to the rules. It all changed when she met August. August became the forbidden fruit in Reba's life and the catalyst of her own identity crisis.

A thriller of the triangle kind when 10 years later, August appears at Julie's door in New York urging her to come back home in Mississippi to find the answers to Reba's death. In finding the answers, they discovered a Reba that they both did not recognize. Will the love they had for Reba be able to survive in spite of what was discovered? Will justice be served in knowing how and why Reba died?

This was a conflicted read. It started out strong until you discovered what kind of characters were developed in this love triangle. Julie not fitting in the community and finding purity in her friend Reba. The expectations were great and because of those expectations, Julie was very hypocritical to her friend. Reba who always went with the flow, discovered her own desires that led to deceit and ultimately losing who she really was. August in my mind was not impressive but had his own agenda. Toby who was played as the villain may have been the victim of his making.

The narration was mixed as it went from present to past. August and Julie went back to Mississpi to find Reba's diary hoping to find answers. The diary told Reba's story. This is one of those that there were things that I liked about and things that I did not. There is some language and the painful narration of Reba sexual encounters. Painful in that she was lost and needy and using sex as weapon. The novel deals with racism and a friend that was lost forever.

A Special Thank You to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I just finished reading Secrets of Southern Girls and this is honersly the best debut novel that I have read in a very long time. The author has a gift when it comes to writing beautiful descriptive prose. The characters are so real I felt as if I knew them. Julie who lives in New York is a single parent raising her daughter. She lives everyday with guilt over killing her best friend, Reba, when she was a teenager back in Lawrence, Mississippi, her home town. Reba's boyfriend Austin contacts her and wants her to go back to Mississippi with him to find a diary Reba supposedly was going to give him the night she died. Her death was ruled a suicide so Austin doesn' know about Julie's part in it. Julie reluctantly agrees to go and the trip is extremely enlightening and very emotional for both of them. The author ended the book in a way that she could pick up the story in a second one. I hope this happens as I would love to read more from her. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes a suspense novel.

I was looking forward to reading this, as I generally love books set in the south. However, it was pretty disappointing and I ended up skimming through the last 70%. SECRETS OF SOUTHERN GIRLS is fine, but not great. The plot, dialogue, and formatting (diary entries and present day) felt very contrived and unrealistic. It's too bad, because the story has real potential. Harrigan is clearly a good writer, so I'm hopeful that her next book will be stronger!

Secrets of Southern Girls was an enjoyable story. It leads the reader down a meandering path that you travel, not knowing where it's going to end.

The town described is typical of a small MS rural town during the time period of the story. Actually, there are still small towns just like it scattered all across the South. The characters could easily have been some of my friends from school. The town, the characters, the hot – humid MS weather, the mischief the characters got in to …... brought back my own teenage memories.

However, it was a very SLOW book. Perhaps the author intended the story to develop in a slow “southern” pace? I found the extremely slow pace a bit anoying. I found it difficult to maintain interest in the story and put the book down for days at a time.

Overall, it was a good book, full of a kind of slow southern charm and mystery.

Thank you to the auther and netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review will be posted on amazon, goodreads, netgalley and moonshineartblogspot

Brilliant book ! Hands down, one of the best I have read in awhile. I started it at 2pm on and Saturday and finished it by Sunday morning.

Thanks to NETGALLEY and HALEY HARRIGAN , Sourcebooks for allowing me to read and give an honest review.
Imagine spending your adult life thinking you killed your best friend, Julie thinks that’s exactly what happened to her, she has no memory of what happened to her best friend, Reba. Julie and Reba are best friends, best friends with huge secrets, throw in August and Toby and there are more secrets. Small town, small minded people-sweet innocent girl and wild child, a shady cousin, bitter
parents-all lead up to a great story!
The story alternates between the present and the past, present is Julie, the past is told through Reba’s diary, the imagines from the diary put the reader right in the story. The author did a great job introducing you to all the characters in the story, you may not like all of them, but you will begin to understand them.
If you like complex characters, secrets, an age old mystery, family drama, you will love this novel.
I loved the ending, it is full of hope and new beginnings.

This is a book is a very good debut novel. The plot was intriguing, although I always felt that Julie, in her heart that she was responsible for Reba's death. I like the way the book was written, with it alternating between past and present, it gives the reader a greater understanding of the characters and their decisions, and how time has changed them. A great thriller from start to finish.

The beginning of the book was filled with promise and I became completely immersed in the story. Unfortunately, the charm began to wear off when after several days of reading, the book didn't seem to be going anywhere. Since I requested a copy, I stuck with it hoping something would start to happen soon to free me from the boredom I was beginning to feel. After the halfway point, the book began to take off, and at last! I wasn't left completely in the dark anymore.

There were, for me, some puzzling aspects: why was August so determined to find that diary after ten years had gone by? Maybe one or two, but ten? There is a major difference between someone who is 17 and that same person when they are 27. Most people have high school relationships, but realize as the years go by that we have changed and things would not be the same. (there are exceptions) The other thing that really bothered me were the diary entries. They started before Reba got the diary, and while it was explained that she wrote them all in one evening--I doubt she would have included so much detail. I also don't think the writing holds true for a girl of that age.

On the plus side, I am sure Haley Harrigan is off to a very successful start to what may well be a flourishing career. She has a nice touch for bringing settings and characters to life. I hope to see more books by her in the future.

Warning: Lots of sexual content and cursing.

I was given an ARC of this book for an honest review from Netgalley. I found this book to be a fast read, perfect for the beach. The story of two friends, one who harbored big secrets from another, was intriguing. Unfortunately I didn't really care for the main characters of this book though. While I found Reba's story to be interesting, I felt that we never received any information to explain why she took the actions she did. Although that may have been the author's intent because the character was a teenager and didn't really know herself at all. I found Jules to be a bit of a narcissist although by the end of the story, I felt she had changed her ways.

This book is about a girl trying to keep a secret that happened when she was young living in a small town. There is also racism in this book. I found the beginning rather slow going, like it took forever to get to where things started moving at a decent pace. Julie killed her friend Reba and gets away with it.....until Reba's first love shows up on Julie's steps years later wanting her to help him find Reba's diary. Julie doesn't want her secrets exposed from Reba's diary. Does Julie really get away with killing her friend? Read the book to find out. I received a copy of this book from Net Galley for the purpose of allowing me to write an honest review. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

This is one book that I am indifferent to write a review about. The author's writing is good but the story is not compelling. Worse, I did not have any feelings for the main characters other than pity and dislike. The book revolves around the death of 17 year old Reba which had occurred ten years earlier. Julie, Reba's best friend, is the main character and is very hard to fathom. I don't feel like I know her and would not care to know her in real life. The other characters are just as self absorbed and shallow. Julie, also known as "Jules" when she was growing up, has the maturity of a 12 year old and her cousin Toby acts even more childishly. Another character named August is a boy that loved Reba as a teenager and is still obsessed with her death. He shows up in New York in the present day to recruit Julie to go back to the town where Reba died and investigate her supposed suicide. He is a one dimensional character for most of the book. I am sorry I could not recommend "Secrets of Southern Girls"-the premise could have made for a decent read but instead it had some odd twists that did not add to the meat of the plot and made it even more unbelievable.
Thank you to Netgalley for the chance to read this book and give an honest review.

Secrets of Southern Girls by Haley Harrigan is a layered and complex tragedy that uses the past and the present to tell its story. Julie and Reba were best friends growing up but one dark night leaves Reba dead and Julie to blame. Or so she thinks. When Reba’s old high school boyfriend comes looking for Julie and a diary no one knew about ten years later, Julie heads back to her hometown to discover what exactly happened that night and why. Using multiple points of view, including Reba’s, Harrigan digs deep into the lives of this group and slowly unravels the lies and secrets that surrounded them all. Harrigan’s debut is quite sturdy and her voice is sure of itself though I found some aspects of the dialogue dry and disconnected when she goes back into the past. The story’s flow isn’t consistent and stumbles as it flashes from the present to the past. Reba’s diary is used in the narrative to try to help us connect and sympathize with Reba and her choices but it does the exact opposite and Julie, while interesting, isn’t very likable and seems to suffer from a martyr complex. Secrets of Southern Girls has a lot of potential but didn’t deliver as expected for me.

Grade: C

A very well written book with a great plot and characters.

This book is quite an easy one to get into, filled with mysteries large and small that keep the reader enticed. Harrigan has a way of knowing what the reader wants and gives it to them.

The novel is set in two thrilling locations – the fast-paced New York City, and the much slower, sleepier small town of Lawrence Mill. Slow and sleepy, but also full of secrets, which is what the main character, Julie, is here to unravel.

Unfortunately, the novel is quite predictable at times. At least, I found that I could predict the bigger mysteries and things that would happen next. But perhaps that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in a world where people try too hard to produce something that will make a huge impact.

I would definitely recommend this novel for people who are looking for a comparatively light mystery to delve into.

I loved the title more than I loved the book. It happens that way sometimes, you know? There was definitely an extraneous part to this story. More than one perhaps.

Free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Not quite sure where to start with this book except for saying not to trust your first thoughts about it. While it took me a while to get into it, I eventually did and although it wasn’t what I was originally thinking it would be, I liked it. We meet Julie/Jules and August and what could be the toughest time for both of them. Julie, coming from a small town and wild teenage years, lives a controlled and sensible adult life as a single mum. August has been looking for Julie and they embark on what I would call a truth finding mission about the death of Reba, Julie’s best friend from childhood and August’s first and only love.

I didn’t really like Julie to begin with, I didn’t know where she was coming from but by the end of the book I liked her. I felt for her, having believed one thing only to find out she didn’t really know the whole truth.
August is a bit of a mystery still for me. He was a likeable bloke, sure, but he was just… I don’t know. I kept getting a sense of that he was stalking Julie more than what was actually let on if that’s making any sense? There seemed to be a hidden depth to him and it made me a little wary about him. There’s reasoning at the end of the book not to trust him, and it has left me with questions. Does he come clean? Does he stay quiet about his first motives?
We meet Toby a little way into the story after reading a bit about Reba, and while he’s a bit of a messed up man, I really felt for him. Even if his actions were not entirely honest or for the right reasons.
I can safely say I did not like Reba, not one tiny little bit. She was quick to judge Julie and her actions but then goes on to.. Well, I don’t want to give spoilers but allow me to say that she’s not as innocent as she first seems. She’s a liar, a cheat, and not what you think. It’s all about the first impressions again. Do no trust them.

The swapping between Julie, August, Reba and Toby’s individual stories was an excellent way to tell this story. I don’t think it would have worked any other way to be honest. You got the full picture with a whopping 360 view of it. The writing style kept me hooked, and I’m glad it did otherwise I think I would have have up before getting to 25%.

Overall, I give this book 3/5. The writing style and the characters are what made it that. I don’t think it would have got any better but I still liked it