This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Sarah Naughton delivers a story that is gripping, and you will not be able to put down this story for wanting to figure out the mystery before the protagonist.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

Great book, love this author and how they can keep my attention to the end! The plot is well developed, characters are believable and they obviously paid attention to detail to make the story worth your time to read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this piece of escapism and my time out from a hectic world. The story grabs you from the outset and pulls you in and the storytelling really made it worth reading. Characterisation was on point and I know I will be looking out for new publications from this author or similar in the future. A recommended read.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. OK book told with multiple perspectives. It was sort of difficult to keep from getting confused as you read this book. Wasn’t one of my favorites.

This is a very twisty thriller that has an ominous air that just permeates the story! I love it when you think you have a book all figured out and you end up being so, so wrong. I would not only recommend this novel to my friends, I will snap up anything this writer creates in the future!

A good twisty thriller that kept me guessing for a long time. I will look for more from this author for sure!

This was DNF for me. I didn't like the writing, it was very slow-paced and I got bored.
Thanks to Sarah Naughton, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced digital copy in exchange an honest review.

I think the place where a mystery/thriller novel finds its rating is in its ending. No matter how good it has been for that first 80%, the last few pages can ruin absolutely everything that the book has built towards - the tension, the character development, the intrigue... *poof*. Gone in an instant.
A majority of The Girlfriend placed in firmly in the category of a decent thriller - it didn’t completely blow me away, but the pacing and the story was intriguing and original enough that it could’ve achieved a far greater position if Sarah J. Naughton would have nailed the ending. The author created enough mystery around the awake characters, and enough love and empathy towards its unconscious one, that I was actually quite enjoying myself overall.
Sure, there were issues, like in most books of the genre - the three main point of view characters, Mags, Mira and Jody, were quite flat and unsteadily leaned towards becoming two-dimensional stereotypes (which can be successful depending on the skill of the writer but, with such lines as, “I’d want a girl [if I was pregnant]. I’m a feminist”, it more often than not rather clumsily missed the mark); and weirdly, the need of Mags to point out both the exact nationality (which would be near impossible for an actual human being) of the people she walked past and how ugly they were, which I felt was just a bit unnecessary. Especially in relation to the fact that she and her brother were supposedly absolutely model-esque and drop dead gorgeous; honestly, if Naughton is to be believed, they are the only good-looking people in that borough of London.
Maybe it was done to create realism, I don’t know, but honestly it felt judgy and more than a little fatphobic.
I sound as though I didn’t like most of it, I promise that I did.
I feel that maybe, I have been left a little bitter by the ludicrous ending (which I can’t tell you about in any way, shape or form because that would be a massive spoiler alert), but isn’t that the way with these books? I didn’t particularly like the ending of The Shining, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t wholly adore the book because, with a book like that, it doesn’t rely entirely on its ending.
The Girlfriend does, and that’s why it’s only getting two-stars.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC of this book. After reading Tattletale previously, I knew what to expect from this prolific author, and was not disappointed. Riveting, thrilling from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

My 3* review for The Girlfriend by Sarah J. Naughton. The front cover of the book gives you snippets of "The perfect, brother, the perfect fiance and the perfect revenge?" Then the back cover hits you with "Only a Liar knows the Truth". And the title of the book doesn't give much away either.

The book begins with a Before Chapter, then an After Chapter and then the book continues with each of the 42 short chapters written by different people varying from Abe, who apparently tried to commit suicide and is now in a critical condition in hospital, his fiance Jody who considered him to be the most perfect boyfriend, his long lost sister Mags who returns home to London from America after his death, and a neighbour Mira. I found this and the timeline changes quite confusing at first, and in fact I re-read the Before and After chapters a few times during the book just to see where they fit it. So for me, the story was very confusing until at least half way through the book, however, it did add to the mystery and intrigue of what actually happened that night when Abe died and also in the months leading up to it.

I did not like Mags, the lawyer from America who thought she could work the case for the British Police, and the palpable tension between her and Jody added another dimension to the story as they both tried to outdo each other with how much they knew and cared for Abe, but of course you are aware all the way through the book that people are lying. As anyone who regularly reads psychological thrillers knows, there is no such thing as the truth, only the stories we choose to tell to ourselves and ultimately to others to convince them of Our truth. Mags decides to stay in Abe's flat for a few weeks while he is in hospital, and gradually pieces together the details of Abe's life, but the pieces don't quite seem to fit.

The book has very dark undertones to it and there are graphic descriptions and some references to some parental abuse, gay sex, rape, so be warned that in places this book makes very uncomfortable reading, however, it is an essential part to both the backstory and what actually happened to Abe and so the Author can be forgiven for it, in my opinion. It helped to make you feel and understand the heartbreak, sadness and motivations behind the behaviours of the characters and exactly what made them the people they are today and why they acted as they did.

The ending was a good conclusion to the story and in fact I had no idea which way the Author was going to take us, which is always a bonus for me. When I started it, I was struggling to work out who was who, who was lying and what was going on both at the present time and historically and I must admit to getting so confused it spoiled it a bit for me. I know it needs to drip feed you to not give too much away, but i needed a bit of guidance in places, sorry.

Note: I received a free copy of The Girlfriend from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review some time in late 2017 and I finally got around to reading it and reviewing it. (I really need to start keeping more up to date on these NetGalley books which is why I haven't really requested any this year. Maybe some time I'll be more timely.)

Most of the time the books I read or request for review are Young Adult novels, usually more fantasy or science fiction than anything else. But sometimes I just want a nice, good mystery and lately YA mysteries haven't turned out to well for me. So that's why I requested The Girlfriend because it sounded like an interesting mystery/thriller. 

The Girlfriend opens up with a person discovering that someone she loves has fallen down the stairs of a building and that his blood is spreading out over the floor. The opening has a sinister feel to it and we don't actually find out any of the names of the people involved. Not yet.

And then we go forward a little bit to one of the POV characters, Mags. Mags is a tough, no nonsense lawyer who is traveling back to Britain from America because she received a call that her brother Abe, who she hasn't talked to in years, has suffered a nasty fall and is in a coma. And even though they haven't spoken in years he has named her his next of kin. 

When Mags arrives at Abe's hotel room she finds his fiance Jody crying at his bedside and has half a mind just to leave her brother in Jody's care. But then Mags starts to get curious about Jody's story of the night of the accident and she starts to do a little digging. 

This leads her into a series of revelations about Mags, Jody, and Abe's pasts and what led up to Abe's fall. And it was a pretty interesting twisty ride though a couple of the revelations weren't actually all that surprising, at least not to me. But enough of them were an actual surprised that I didn't feel cheated. 

The ending though...it bothered me a bit. Not to be too spoilery but during the book a couple of crimes are committed and it seems as though the perpetrator is going to get away with it (he actually did in a past crime) and so other characters frame him for something he actually didn't do. I understand that sometimes it's hard to get justice for certain crimes but that just didn't set well with me. 

But overall I enjoyed the mystery and thought this was a fast read because I actually wanted to know what was going on. Plus it didn't fall into the trap of a lot of gritty mysteries where I end up not caring because all of the characters were despicable. These characters were rough around the edges and kind of horrible but not complete trash so that part at least seemed very realistic.

I don't know why I took a long time in getting round to reading this book. This was a fast-paced thriller, with lots of twists and turns. One of those ones that are hard to put down.

This book was a DNF for me. I appreciate being given the opportunity to read this book, but I just could not get into it no matter how many times I tried picking it up. For me it just didn’t live up to the exciting description that enticed me initially. I had a lot of trouble sorting out the various characters and keeping up with what was going on. Psychological thrillers are usually my favorite to read, but unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. It may have gotten better after the first half, but I couldn’t parse through it any longer.

There were several points where I could not figure out where this story was going. There are flashbacks periodically but you're not sure which character is having the flashback. Deliberately. At points it was confusing as hell, but once all the pieces fell together I enjoyed most of the plot lines. There were a great many twists in the books and, sadly, I saw most of them coming from quite a ways away. That doesn't always ruin a book and it didn't ruin it here but it would have been nice to be surprised by a few things.

Wow. Okay, let me catch my breath. I just finished this book moments ago and I have a lot of thoughts but I can't seem to wrangle them. The Girlfriend, by Sarah Naughton, is a very unique thriller told from multiple perspectives. I transitioned between a 3.5-star and a 4-star rating throughout the book and ultimately decided to go with a 4-star.

The writing style was likable for the most part; nice short chapters, mystery and fluid prose. I liked one of the main characters, Mags, a lot and found I related to her the most. The other main character, Jody, was less likable and less relatable to me personally but I think she was developed well by the author. Jody was an unreliable narrator (VERY) with a traumatic past who clearly struggles with mental illness throughout the course of the book. Having never experienced the types of mental struggles and stressors that Jody was experiencing personally, it is hard for me to judge whether the mental illness rep was a proper characterization or not; I will leave that for others who know more about that topic to debate. In regards to Jody however, I was pleasantly surprised with the position she found herself in at the end of the story. I think as a story arc, hers was the most satisfying, definitely leaving off at a more promising place than she started in.

As far as negatives go, I only have a couple items: I was a little taken aback by a few sentences describing the size of side characters which after first noticing, then seemed to just pop up everywhere for me like a beacon. I am sure that the author was maybe just trying to show some sort of attitude of the characters thinking these things but it happened with multiple characters - for example, Mags thinking, "I never thought a fat woman could be so beautiful," (ugh) and later Jody thinking, "...panting, perhaps with the adrenaline rush of a narrow escape, or maybe just because he's fat." (ughh) This being said, if you are someone who may be sensitive to this type of sentiment being batted about in a story, you may want to stay clear. Furthermore, I would say trigger warnings for child abuse, sibling abuse, rape and sexual assault. My only other slight critique would be that personally I do not enjoy second person narratives.

Overall, I found this book to be exciting and engaging. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves thrillers and is looking for something with exciting twists and unpredictable turns. Thank you so much for providing me with a copy to review - I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to hearing what other readers think a well!

Mags is a corporate lawyer in Las Vegas. When her brother Abe is seriously injured in London she gets on a plane and returns to London, despite having not seen or spoken to him in years. She's girlfriend Jody lives in the same complex and is the one who found Abe bleeding out and called the ambulance. now Abe lies in a coma in hospital and Mags does not believe that he tried to kill himself as the police believe. She must learn about her brother and his life in order to find out what happened that night... and the more she learns the more she wants to find who tried to kill her brother.

TW: There are mentions of abuse in this story, so please be aware. It isn't described in too much detail but there is enough to make some readers uncomfortable.

This was an interesting novel, for sure. It just wasn't my favourite. 

I think that the story was unique in that it was told primarily from the perspective of 3 female characters. I liked that each one was different and had their own personality. I don't think I necessarily loved any of the characters but they added for an interesting element to the story.

I thought the story itself was interesting ... but it didn't hold my interest constantly. The author definitely tried to incorporate quite a few twists into the story - and they did. But it was a bit underwhelming in its delivery. Perhaps this was because once the twist was delivered, the author also spent some time explaining it, which lost the effect of showing the reader something new and it just felt like I was being told what was happening.

I also was surprised by the legal turn the story took. I wasn't expecting it, and I don't think it really worked for me. It ended up slowing down the pacing of the story, when I would have preferred for it to be fast.

Overall, this wasn't a bad thriller. It just wasn't the type of thriller I was looking for. While there were moments that were interesting, I started to lose my focus closer to the end. I would give this a 3/5 stars.

I really really wanted to like this book, but to be honest, I struggled with it, and it took me about a month to finish, which is really unusual for me. The premise is that Mags finds out that something happened to her brother who lives in another country, and he's in a coma. When she arrives, she meets his fiancée Jody, though she's never heard of her before. The police are convinced that it was a suicide attempt, but Mags isn't convinced.

I felt like the story was slow moving, which made it easy for me to put down and not want to continue reading, because there wasn't a huge mystery happening. When the reveals did come, I was left feeling a little underwhelmed, and was waiting for something else to happen.

All in all, I thought this one was just okay. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting, so I don't think I was the right reader for this one. If you like slow burning domestic suspense novels, without fast paced or action packed chapters, this may be more up your alley! Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for my copy of the book. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.