Six friends vacation at a farmhouse in France. Their neighbor Severine disappears. They were all questioned as they were the last people to see her before she vanished. A decade later, the unsolved case has new evidence and the friends are put back in the spotlight of the investigation as they were the last to see her alive.

The story is slow to start and easy to put put down.

If Agatha Christie were still alive, she would blurb this book. A fun modern take on the country house cozy.

This book is such a slow burn and it really took a long time to pick up. It also feels more like a love story than a mystery. Things can get repetitive and boring at times. I was a bit disappointed that there's not much stuff about Severine, the French girl. Things are quite predictable but I must say it is well-written that I stick to it until the end.

A slowly paced mind-messing thriller this novel kept me engrossed for the subtle details placed sporadically throughout the novel. There was no big reveal and no moment of climax but I still found myself determined to seek the truth.

The idyllic scene that these friends found themselves in in France a decade prior was obviously filled with secrets and sexual activity. Swapping of partners, slow burning interest and sometimes even love threw chaos into this group and a decade later the truth starts to emerge when an accidental death of a local girl becomes murder and not an accidental death.

The friends are forced into a scenario they had all hoped to avoid and are now looking at each other with suspicion. The characters were all very interesting and melded well into a group though I was also impressed with the author's ability to give them each a solid foundation as well.

As I mentioned before though this novel moves slowly, very slowly, and there were times when I may even have been a bit bored. In actual fact though, this may have made the novel more fascinating as it gave time to give each person a daily existence and developed character for each. Kate was the main character so she obviously got more air time but I didn't find the others lacking. Each additional scene and dropped snippet of information was valuable.


A great first novel and an author I have ear marked- waiting for her next book!


Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for our review copy. All opinions are our own.

Let me just start off by saying I devoured this book. It was definitely one of the best books I’ve read all the year.
This suspenseful mystery is told from the point of view of Kate, 1 of 6 friends that spent a fun week full of partying, swimming and drugs in France 10 years ago. In present day, the remains of a body are found in a well. The remains of a French girl they befriended that week. They are the last to see her alive. This story tells the investigation of Severine; a young girl who was murdered, and Kate must come to terms that one of her best friends did it. Yet, the French police somehow have her as their prime suspect.

I don’t want to spoil too much of this book, because the best part was not knowing what comes next. I couldn’t put this book down. It kept me up all night, reading chapter after chapter because each one just leaves you hanging. The writing style was great, and the story flowed flawlessy.

This story is full of friendship, suspense, betrayal, love, and murder. There is even a touch of the paranormal, which somehow fits in nice n’ snug.

I would recommend this book to anyone, even those who don’t typically read thrillers or mysteries would enjoy The French Girl.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing read from beginning to end! The characters were well written, the details of the story were flowing and I stayed up all night reading it from beginning to end.
I have recommended this book to many friends and family through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

This was a good read. The story was more than a murder mystery, it was a look at friendships and how they evolve over the years. 6 friends from Oxford University spend a week lazing in a French farmhouse drinking and exploring the countryside. Severine lived next door and disappeared while the students were there. 10 years later her body is found in the well of the farmhouse and are now being questioned again by the police. With one of the friends dead the other 5 must relive that frivolous week and hope it doesn't destroy the lives they have built. I like Kate and the life she is now living. She was on the fringe of the group 10 years ago but now seems to be the core holding them together. A very enjoyable mystery that plays out very well.

A local girl goes missing at the same time that six young Oxford grads are there on holiday. What seems like coincidence is revealed to be more closely connected to their visitir when a French investigator re-opens the case ten years later.

I liked this book. It was a little predictable though. I really wasn't surprised by the ending. That doesn't mean it's not worth reading, it just doesn't really have a twist. I kept waiting for one. I thought for sure Lexie Elliott was leading us down a path to make a sudden turn, but she never did. The French Girl ended about how I thought it was going to.

The book follows Kate Channing who was one of six college friends who stayed at a house in the French countryside one summer. While they were there the neighbor girl, Severine, went missing. Severine had grown up with Theo whose parents owned the house they were staying in. She had been hanging out with them at the pool each day until on their last day she was just gone.

Kate believed that Severine had gotten on a bus that morning to avoid her boyfriend, so Kate hadn't given the case any thought. Kate dropped two of the friends off at the airport and then the rest loaded up in Kate's car and she drove them home. Kate really hadn't looked back on what happened until Severine's body was found in the well on the property they were staying at and a French investigator, Alain Modan, shows up to ask questions.

Suddenly Kate is running her brand new business that isn't doing too well and she's being investigated for a murder. In the ten years Theo has passed away and Kate hasn't seen her ex-boyfriend who broke her heart. Now the five remaining friends are thrust back together for the investigation.

"I have little patience today. I can feel it inside me; there's a recklessness bubbling up around the malignant tumor of worry about my business, a recklessness that's pushing me to want to cut through bullshit, to tell and hear it straight, to face the worst and know what I'm up against right now. Alain Modan is probably the last person I should be talking to in this mental condition, but I am here and so is he; we have our coffees and we've covered the pleasantries - with no mention of Lara - so now we begin."

Kate had always assumed no one in her group of friends had harmed Severine, but now she is questioning that. Kate soon learns that her ex-boyfriend was sleeping with Severine. Even though Kate had no idea it makes her look like the jealous girlfriend who killed the girl her boyfriend was cheating on her with.

This plot becomes believable when suddenly Kate starts seeing the ghost of Severine. Severine can be found lounging in the same room giving Kate one of her unimpressed French stares. I thought at this point that Kate was losing her mind and was probably a murderer. It's usually not great when characters start seeing and then talking to dead people.

The investigation continues and the deeper it gets the more Kate believes that her friends killed Severine. At this point the book picks up speed and Kate almost loses her life. It really gets good here and I think is the part that makes the book worth reading!

The French Girl
By
Lexie Elliot



What it's all about...

Ten years ago six friends went on a vacation in France. While there they met a French girl...Severine...who died and was never found...until ten years later when her bones were found in the bottom of a well. A French detective has reopened the case and is in London to interview everyone again. Remember...this is ten years later...careers are being established, relationships have changed and memories are a bit shaky.

Why I wanted to read it...

This book was interesting from the start. Kate seems to be the focus of this book...her budding career is in question and this detective seems to be relentless.

What made me truly enjoy this book...

There were so many different scenarios as to what happened to Severine. When the truth finally surfaces...it’s almost as though nothing can be done about it. But then life changes for everyone...some for good reasons...some for quite the opposite reasons.

Why you should read it, too...

Readers who love intriguing mysteries should enjoy this book. It had great flawed characters and lots of complicated relationships.

I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it.

Like "I Know What You Did Last Summer" for adults. Kate is trying her best to forget the disastrous summer she spent abroad with her friends, and she's actually been pretty successful. But now that summer is coming back to haunt her -- literally. The beautiful French girl who stayed next door turned up missing at the end of the trip, and ten years later her body has been found. The discovery of her bones seems to have released a ghost too. Kate starts to see Severine everywhere, and the silent, scornful ghost pushes her to face the memories of that ill-fated trip in order to find out which of her friends is a murderer.

DNF'd at 1/4 of the way through, the book is just garbage, it moves too slow and it's completely predictable. If you're into this kind of thing then that's great but I can't even be bothered to waste my time reading another word about past and present petty feuds.


**** I recieved a galley of this from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.****

This was just another typical mystery. I didn’t find anything special or entriguing about it.

I struggled with this book at first. I'd read a few pages; put it down; read another book; read a few more pages of this book; put it down again.... I probably started this one 5 times before I actually really started to get into it. While I did eventually enjoy it, I felt it just moved a little slow for my taste. I was expecting MORE. That isn't to say it wasn't entertaining or well written- it was. You just have to be prepared for a slow burn, and I wasn't. Still give it 3.5 stars, because the payoff was eventually worth what I considered at times to be tedious reading.

Ten years ago, Kate Channing went with a group of friends to a French farmhouse for a week. Next door, there was a mysterious girl named Severine. Thanks to Severine, their lives were never the same. After their trip, Severine disappeared. Now, all these years later, her body is discovered in a well near the farmhouse.

To this day Kate is haunted by Severine, but she keeps busy trying to keep her legal headhunting firm afloat. When a French investigator shows up on her doorstep in London, she’s reminded of that horrible week in France ten years ago. Thinking the whole incident is part of her past, she’s taken aback that the investigator wants to bring it all up again. She fears this could hurt her company.

This started off a bit slow for me, but it picked up speed rapidly and I couldn’t put it down. It’s a riveting, gripping novel filled with secrets, mystery and betrayal. Everything to keep readers on their toes. The author gives many possibilities of where this story can go. It’s intriguing to figure out this puzzle along the way. I wanted to know exactly how all these characters fit together and exactly what happened all those years ago.

It’s hard to believe this is the author’s debut novel. She seems like a pro already. I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Reminds me of the well-written mysteries that Tana French pens.
Set in England, this murder mystery has a strong, smart, believable female protagonist that struggles with the class structure at The University of Oxford, and the friendships she formed there. Loyalty, jealousy, and career issues between the six friends complicate the murder investigation of a nineteen-year-old french girl found ten years after her disappearance at a French country house. Perfect to read on a vacation, or over a long weekend.

The French Girl is a slow burner. Be aware of that when you start reading it. Sometimes it is almost a bit dragging. The things concerning Kate’s job are somehow irrelevant to the story. But at the same time they fill out the lives of the characters and make them so lifelike. Something in the book caught my attention the whole time. The dynamics within the circle of friends is interesting. I also liked that the story was told only from one point of view, Kate's. The story would be perfect for two narrative levels, today and the past. But the author does without it and there are no direct flashbacks but only Kate's memories. I thought that was pleasant, because the narration on second time levels is a bit overused lately.

The story is told quickly. 6 friends spent a holiday in France 10 years ago. The enigmatic neighbor, Serverine, disappeared at the same time as they left. Now her body has appeared on the property and a French policeman is traveling to London to interrogate the friends again. Kate's life gets completely out of balance. The relationship between friends also changes.

Despite some lengths, I found the book very entertaining. The characters are very lifelike and all the details make them very real. I felt well entertained. I can understand when other readers find the book boring. But for me it had something that kept my interest alive. The end is a bit unusual and maybe a bit unsatisfactory. Meanwhile, one expects almost naturally a spectacular twist or a showdown. But the author also refrains from this and I also found that to be pleasantly different. The French Girl does not differ at first glance from other books, but in such trifles it shows that it is different, something special.

Years ago, friends were together abroad for a summer in France. A girl who lived nearby, Severine, disappeared. Now her remains have been found and an investigation begins that brings these five "friends" back together. The story is told from the perspective of Kate, who sees Severine's ghost in various places. Everyone is a suspect, and Kate barely escapes with her life. This is an engrossing page turner for sure.

Six friends celebrate their graduation from Oxford University at a farmhouse in France. The last night of their alcohol-fueled party turns disastrous after an uninvited nineteen-year-old neighbor goes missing from the house. The female, named Severine, had driven a wedge between the friends with her sexy looks and flirty disposition. The women felt threatened by the younger woman while the men returned her attention. After an investigation, it is not clear if anyone at the farmhouse had anything to do with her disappearance.

Ten years later, Severine’s body is found in a well outside of the farmhouse. Each of the friends is questioned by a French detective. Kate Channing is not concerned with the investigation but begins to unravel after repeated interrogations. Accusations and frictions slowly grow as each group member reveals what they remember from that night.

The French Girl is a debut novel by Lexie Elliott. I enjoyed this book and was quickly pulled into the story after reading the first chapter. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

An addictive mystery about a group of friends who are suspected of murdering a neighbor on holiday. I loved the mix of the mysteries within the relationships of the friends, and the mystery of the murder. Well done.