Thank you to Berkley Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Six young college students took a holiday to France. While there a local girl goes missing. Ten years later the friends learn the girl’s body is found. Was one of them responsible for her death? This book was a slow burn that needed a little more action for me to completely enjoy it.

The six friends are brought back together after a decade of becoming adults. The group dynamic is fragile. A lot of this story focused on how this group of old friends gets along – who slept with whom, both then and now? Who can get along long enough to get through dinner, and who can’t? Through all of the relationship dynamics there is a mystery at the forefront in everyone’s minds. What happened to Severine?

The pacing was too slow for me. There was a little action within the last couple of chapters but it was too little, too late. I needed more to happen early on. I was fairly please with the ending, and the writing was engaging enough. The story line seemed to have potential but was just a miss for me.

Stevie‘s review of The French Girl by Lexie Elliott
Women’s Crime Fiction published by Berkley 20 Feb 18

There’s a great public fascination with unsolved mysteries, which generally peaks whenever a new piece of evidence is uncovered, particularly if that evidence changes the investigation from one involving a missing person to a murder enquiry. While such news provokes excitement in uninvolved spectators, it can create far more ravaging emotions in those involved in the original case, no matter how innocent they might be. Any such crime has a victim and a perpetrator, and when both are part of the same social group, the repercussions are bound to affect all of their friends and families. So it is for Kate Channing and her erstwhile university friends ten years after they last went on holiday together – and ten years after the girl holidaying next door disappeared.


Despite the less than auspicious ending to the holiday, as well as the mysterious departure of Severine, the French girl of the novel’s title, Kate and her friends fell out over more personal matters as well – the friends have stayed in contact to a greater or lesser extent. The friend whose parents’ holiday home provided accommodation for the group is now deceased, but the others all find themselves back in London a decade on from their university graduation: just in time for the announcement that French police are investigating the discovery of a body believed to be that of Severine.

Kate, already under a great deal of stress due to starting up a new business, finds herself under pressure to reveal long-concealed secrets about why the group argued on the last day of their holiday. She imagines that Severine is following her to meetings with friends and business associates, and worries that one of her friends from the holiday is hiding a far greater secret: the details of how Severine died and why her death was concealed so completely.

I warmed to Kate quite easily; she’s a bit of an outsider, and was mainly part of the holiday group by virtue of her socially superior boyfriend at the time. Of the others, Kate’s two closest friends are also easy to like, while her ex-boyfriend, along with the other woman out of the group, are possibly the two I most wanted to see get their comeuppance. Kate’s a fighter. Even as it becomes apparent that certain of her former friends will do anything to prevent her revealing her secrets, she still does everything in her power to find justice for Severine and protect those who have stood by her. She also has integrity, refusing to transfer blame for past events onto the one member of the group unable to defend himself against false accusations – though also beyond the reach of the law – even if that means other group members may have to face the consequences of their youthful indiscretions.

An excellent first novel, and I’m very excited about what this author might have in store for us in the future.

Grade: A

Six college friends spending a holiday together in a French farmhouse should be idyllic....a lovely break from everything. But cracks have already started forming in their solid friendships....they have dallied in sexual relationships with each other, some have secrets, others are starting to look towards careers and "real'' life outside university. And then....Severine. The beautiful French girl staying in the house next door comes in and shatters them all apart. The cracks explode into fragments. Severine disappears. And is never seen again.

......until her body is found in the well behind the farmhouse 10 years after that fateful holiday in France.

That week in France, what it did to their lives, and what happened to the beautiful French girl all comes rushing in to their adult lives to tear things up all over again.

I found this story to be much more psychological than thriller. Human relationships, emotions, memories and long kept grudges and secrets can be quite complex. I think we all have one person in our young adult past that we would like to forget....or wish we could go back and make one different decision. One night. One bad decision. Lasting repercussions. Or maybe, like for main character Kate Channing, it's a string of bad decisions that she never really got over. Bad relationship choices, bad emotional responses....the last tantrum of childhood before really growing up.

But did any of them murder Severine and throw her body down a well??

I have mixed emotions about the ending of this story. I"m both satisfied and dissatisfied....possibly because it's entirely realistic. Nothing ever wraps itself up perfectly -- all wrongs righted, all mistakes atoned for, all problems solved -- by the last actions in a story. But some things can be fixed.....some things are brought out into the light.....and some things are best forgotten. It doesn't make realism any easier to take.....just take a swig of your drink after and wash it down with a sweet swish of adulthood and understanding. Sometimes you take what you can get......and walk away from the rest. Perfect.

The story is well-written. It moves a little slowly, but that's what makes the psychological power of this tale work its magic on readers. It gives each person time to think on their own past as they see Kate Channing's past and present come crashing together. It takes time for rumors to get started, time for old emotions to come bubbling to the surface, and it takes time for her to figure out what happened on a fateful night 10 years before.....who killed Severine? And why? And do you ever really know anybody? Really KNOW them.....or do you just get to see the parts of themselves they choose to share?

I loved the fact that Kate Channing sees the dead French girl nearly everywhere while she is trying to piece the facts together in her mind. She sees her as she was in life, and also sees her dead, white grinning skull. The vision never interacts with her, never speaks, never touches her....but she's always there. Dead Severine.In both her beauty and her ghastly final silence. Seeing the dead girl really added something to the story, and kept Kate focused on the fact that this was really about a girl that was murdered, and not entirely about her emotions about that week in France that broke up their friendships

All in all, a great book! Very enjoyable. More psych than thriller/suspense for me.....but to others it might feel differently. Just the fact that it pulled up old emotions in me from my own college days means that it's quite an effective story. No dead bodies in my college past.....but a lot of little barbs remain in the recesses of my brain. Lost friendships. Lies that destroyed relationships. The first "real'' breakup. And those I said goodbye to at graduation and never saw again. Bad decisions. Regrets. What ifs. Everyone has them. Kate Channing's just happen to blossom into a murder investigation.

Great story!! Loved it!

**I voluntarily read ad advanced readers copy of this book from Berkley Publishing via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

It‘s been ten years since their legendary summer holidays in France. Now, the six friends reunite in London. They have all pursued their careers, found new partners and almost forgot what happened on their last day in France that summer. The French girl who spent a lot of time with them went missing, already back then a murder investigation was set up by the French authorities, yet, without success. But now, her body has been found, buried in a well on the premises and she obviously did not fall into it by accident. Kate does not have a clue what might have happened, she only remembers her quarrel with her then boyfriend Seb. But now things are different and soon, Kate finds herself prime suspect in a murder case.

Lexie Elliott tells the strange murder case only from one point of view, Kate’s, which adds a lot to the suspense of the novel. Kate is telling her story, we, as the reader, only know what she knows, we only get her thoughts and thus are limited in getting the whole picture. Additionally, during the course of the story, you start doubting your narrator - is Kate reliable or is she lying to us and leading us to false clues? I liked this play with uncertainty and the fact that only bits and pieces of the whole story are revealed.

The strongest aspect of the novel are the characters. First of all, Kate who is quite lively drawn, second and even more interesting is Caro whom you cannot trust which is obvious right from the start. But also the other characters are suspicious, Kate’s friend Lara and her affair with the French investigator or Tony who is making advances towards Kate. The story itself, however, does not advance at a high pace, at times you wait impatiently for something to happen. The fact of only giving one perspective, on the one hand, adds to the suspense, on the other, it temps to skip pages you to learn what actually happened because the information you get is quite limited. The end and the solution was not really convincing for me, for me, the motive was too weak to justify such an act.

Sadly The French Girl didn't work for me. I loved the marketing for this one, I loved the premise, but the book just fell flat. I found the plot to be painfully slow and I never became invested in the characters or the story. There's no major twist, no in your face thriller aspect... I just could not get in to it. As you read you will probably determine who the killer is fairly early on and once you get to the end you will find that you were correct. I like to be surprised and caught off guard so I think this was just a case of book/reader mismatch. If you like a slower paced mystery without any shocking thriller elements or twists, this may be the book for you. Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. 2.5/3 stars

3.5*
This is not a book that’s going to grab you in the first page...or even the first chapter for that matter. It’s a slow burn that builds in intensity as the storyline progresses. Before long you will be hooked and anxious to see how it all plays out!

Then: Ten years ago - there were six friends enjoying a much needed break from their studies at Oxford, choosing to vacation at a quaint farmhouse in France.
By the end of their holiday someone is missing.

Now: Ten years later, the remaining group of five have re-convened. This, after learning the remains of their missing friend Severine have been found in the bottom of a well in France...at the farmhouse.

The investigation is now reopened....

Kate is trying her best to move forward and put the past behind her. To forget what happened all those years ago. Only Severine won’t let her. Severine? Kate is haunted by the ghost of her dearest friend showing up at any given moment. These were my favorite parts of the book - when Severine would appear.

This is not a book that “wowed” me, but I did get drawn in and ultimately enjoyed it. I was hoping for a little more from the ending (just my twisted thinking) but overall it came together.

If you’re looking for a light, easy thriller then this might be the perfect read for you!

As always a fantastic traveling sister read!:)

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group and Lexie Elliott for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

For this review and our full Traveling Sister Review please visit Brenda and Norma’s fabulous blog:
http://www.twogirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com

In The French Girl , the ghost of a long-dead girl haunts Kate Channing, from whose point of view the story is told. I was suspicious of Kate Channing as the narrator; as possibly intended, I was convinced that she was responsible for Severine’s disappearance that summer ten years ago in France. Her jealousy and insecurity is apparent. She is part of a group of college chums, but she feels she is a fifth wheel. Her feelings are partially due to her less auspicious upbringing (relative to her posh friends) and partially due to everyone else’s relationships. Ultimately, she feels she is “less” –less beautiful, less successful, less popular, and less posh.

As the French police put pressure on the group, Severine’s “presence” in Claire’s life increases. Both the police and the enigmatic specter of Severine force Claire to rethink the sequence of events that summer and in doing so, she questions the motives of each friend and the possibility of their involvement in the girl’s death.

This thriller was nearly perfect for me. The steady pace allowed for the increasing tension to become palpable as doubt is cast upon all six of the friends. Ms. Elliott’s character development is excellent. There were three small plot points with which I struggled. Tom’s out-of-character reaction to a present-day encounter with a somewhat inebriated Claire seems only to be in place so the reader questions Tom as a possible suspect. Claire’s blindness to the obvious around her—both present day and in the past (no spoilers, so I won’t elaborate) are amazing given her obvious intelligence. Lastly, the implied paranormal interference at the story’s culmination detracted from the story…unless, the interference was merely a delusion of Claire’s. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Elliott’s thriller, but the ending was a bit dissatisfying. The epilogue to The French Girl made up for it though.

Don’t let the word girl in the title fool you into thinking this is another “Gone Girl” or “Girl on the Train”. That word and the genre are the only two things in common. Ms. Elliott’s The French Girl is a fantastic debut novel and an excellent mystery/thriller.

4.5 stars

More than half into the story, I realized that nothing in this story will properly connect, the characters are a mess and the investigation doesn't go anywhere. The writing has potential but this story simply didn't win me at all.

Thank you for providing me with the ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review, and thank you to Lexie Elliott for breaking my run of unfinished books! I absolutely could not put this down. The plot is well thought out and each character is well-rounded. It really did leave me guessing who did it. I also enjoyed the fact that Severine, the departed, was a character in her own right as a spector watching events unfold. The web of relationships among the friends was interesting, evolving, and really did feel plausible, as did the events that unfolded. Although thrillers aren't typically my go-to genre, I do enjoy an occasional one and found The French Girl to be wholly engaging and so well-written (my usual gripe with thrillers). Excellent book. I will definitely recommend this to my thriller and crime readers!

Six university students from Oxford share a house in France for the perfect summer getaway. During their stay Severine, a young French girl living next door joins their group. Her presence is not entirely welcomed by all and when she turns up missing they deny any involvement and return to their lives. Ten tears later a discovery leads to the case of Severine's disappearance to be reopened and the friends must now face the possibility that one of them is responsible for the crime.
This was not the mystery/ thriller I was expecting. It was more of an in depth character study with an extremely slow burn till about 90% through when the pace picked up to the end. It was pretty easy to figure out who the guilty party but what boggled my mind was Kate Channing's, the main character and narrator, Swiss cheese mind. Her memories of the getaway and everyday events made me wonder how she could run a small company. Overall it was a good book that kept me interested enough to finish.

I had high expectations for Lexie Elliott's The French Girl. It's a British thriller about a group of long-time friends, each of whom is struggling to piece together the truth about a terrible tragedy that occurred ten years before. I love novels with characters who prove difficult to trust, so this one looked like just my kind of book, and, for the most part, it proved to be exactly what I was looking for.

Kate Channing has worked hard to put all the mistakes of her university days behind her. She's struggling to start a business of her own, and there is absolutely no room for the ghosts of her past in the orderly life she's created for herself. Unfortunately, some secrets refuse to remain buried, and a phone call from a friend she hasn't heard from in years forces Kate to relive the events she's sworn to forget.

Ten years earlier, Kate and five of her friends spent a week in the south of France, exactly the vacation six hard-working university students needed before diving back into the rigors of student life. True, the six of them didn't always get along. Loyalties constantly shifted, and there were a few times during the trip when Kate regretted agreeing to go. And then, Severine, the beautiful girl next door arrived on the scene, and everything became even more complicated. By the time Kate and her friends leave to go back to university, Severine is dead, and no one is confessing to the crime.

Kate is stunned when Tom, one of the men who was also on the trip, calls to tell her that Severine's body has been found at the bottom of a well near the house they rented all those years ago, and tells her that a police officer is coming to England for the express purpose of interviewing their entire group. Kate knows she has nothing to hide, but what about the rest of her friends? Could one of them have really pushed Severine to her death and successfully covered up the crime for the past ten years? The idea sounds ludicrous, and yet Kate can't quite manage to totally dismiss it. How much does she really know about the people she hung out with back then, and how far will the guilty party go to keep his or her part in the crime hidden?

As the investigation into Severine's death is reopened, tensions around Kate and her companions rise to a fever pitch, and it soon becomes obvious that someone is trying hard to frame Kate for Severine's murder, a fact Kate has a hard time believing at first. But as evidence begins to pile up against her, Kate is forced to re-examine everything she thinks she knows about herself and those who seem intent on bringing her down.

The French Girl is a difficult book to review without giving too much away. It's fast-paced with a few really great twists thrown in. The characters are very complicated, and I found most of them difficult to warm up to for various reasons. Even Kate, the person we're supposed to be cheering on, has quite a few characteristics that rubbed me the wrong way, but Ms. Elliott does a great job of making everyone feel very real. Their flaws made me see them as actual human beings, rather than two-dimensional beings on the page. Sure, I would have preferred they not be quite so morally questionable, but one can't have everything, I suppose.

I expected the author to rely heavily on flashbacks to better illuminate the events that took place in France, but she actually uses them very little. We see both the past and the present exclusively through Kate's lens, and I was surprised by just how well this worked. Kate's memories of the night Severine was killed are pretty murky, so the reader is never quite sure how reliable her version of events actually is.

A few things about the big reveal feel a little forced however, almost as though the author is trying too hard to line things up a certain way and had to make a few questionable decisions in order to make things happen the way she wanted them to. It's hard to say more without spoiling things, but it did put a bit of a damper on my overall enjoyment of the novel. Even so, The French Girl is a book I'm happy to recommend to fans of thrillers involving groups of friends who keep deadly secrets from one another.

Buy it at: A/BN/iB/K

Six British university friends spent a week at the vacation house in France. The house belonged to one of their families. Seb and Kate were a couple for some time before the vacation but broke up the night before returning to England. An alluring young French neighbor, Severine, spent the vacation with the English group. Then the group of 6 returned to England and learned soon thereafter that Severine was missing and presumed dead.

The police could find neither Severine nor proof that she was killed. Ten years elapsed and finally the body of Severine was discovered in a well that had been filled the day the group left. A French investigator, Alain Modan, was sent from France to interview the group. One member, Theo, was dead and the others, Caro, Tom, Seb, Kate and Lara, were all working in London. Modan interviewed each of the five survivors several times. All the evidence seemed to point to Kate, after it was discovered that her boyfriend Seb slept with Severine the night before Severine disappeared.

Kate, the owner of a fledging legal headhunting firm, tried to prove her innocence and find the truth while she continued to see the ghost of the dead girl everywhere she went.

This is a mystery that deals with class and privilege among British university students. I found it very interesting and read it quickly as I wanted to know who the real murderer was.

I really enjoyed this novel and loved the characterisation. The plot went at a smooth pace but wish it was a bit faster. I really liked the mystery and suspense but was able to figure out the mystery halfway through but still was a great book with riveting suspense.

I've been reading a lot of thrillers lately and they haven't been doing it for me. So I was so excited when I started The French Girl and it actually held my interest. I actually wanted to keep reading it!

The story is about a girl named Kate. She gets a call from her friend, Tom. Years ago they went away for a week with 4 other friends to a French farmhouse. The french girl next door, Severine, ends up missing on their last day. Now back to the present. The case has just been re-opened because Severine's body was found in the well behind the farmhouse they stayed at. Now Kate is forced to focus on the past when she's focusing on the present she's worked so hard to obtain.

I ended up enjoying the story a lot. It ended up being a bit slow paced. However the writing drew me in. I was dying to know what actually happened to Severine. I did have some guesses. Some of my guesses were right which I was proud of. However I was off about what actually happened the last night at the farmhouse.

I also really enjoyed all the characters in the story. Kate was the main character. She's honest and very hardworking. She recently opened up her own company. She she has to deal with that on top of being questioned for the murder. I really enjoyed her interacts with her friends. They're all trying to find out who did it. So they're always questioning each other. The main character finds it hard to trust them. Therefore you the reader find it hard to trust them as well. So the whole time I found myself suspecting one person then I wasn't sure and was suspecting another person. So it was fun seeing that play out.

Overall I found this to be an enjoyable book. Sure I found somethings predictable but I still enjoyed the story. I had my guesses and some were right. However I was completely off about what actually happened. So it was nice seeing that unfold. This is a Lexie Elliott's first book. I will be checking out from her in the future.

*Thank you so much Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this book for my honest opinion.*

The French Girl is the kind of mystery that is really engaging me right now- the kind that isn't relying on or promising sensational plot twists around every corner, but instead delivers a constant sense of tension and intrigue. Early in the story Kate, the main character, learns that there is new evidence in the disappearance of a young woman who she met briefly years before while vacationing in France with her friends. The police clearly think that at least one of the group was involved, and the guessing begins.

Throughout the story, readers get a sense of the complicated dynamics within this group of friends. The plot keeps readers guessing as to who knew what, and who has been keeping secrets, resulting in a fairly even pace throughout. I will say that the ending was fairly unsurprising (though I still felt satisfied by it), so readers who are expecting a big finish may be left wanting. Overall a solid mystery that I'll be recommending as a great vacation read.

Yep, another “girl” book. Flashbacks to a trip taken by a group of college students then flash forward to the present where a mystery presents itself. While not an “edge on your seat” thriller, it was entertaining and kept me interested.
Each of the characters represented a stereotype of characters, so it was pretty easy to follow.

This was definitely one of the better mysteries I've read in a while, with just a little touch of ghost story running through it. Really well done.

Kate Channing is a single 30-something woman who lives in London, an Oxford grad struggling to launch her own headhunter business. But readers soon learn she is not quite as alone as appearances suggest. A beautiful bikini-clad French girl visits her on a regular basis, turning up at all hours and locations, oblivious to social niceties.

The real problem is that the girl happens to be dead. And then there’s the fact that Severine has been a silent presence in Kate’s life for the past 10 years, ever since she took a week-long vacation in France with her Oxford friends. Is the 19-year-old girl a ghost? Or just an annoying guest in Kate’s memory palace, one that refuses to let her forget the vacation when she lost the man she loved? Of course, the sexy “mademoiselle next door” – as Severine liked to call herself – might mean something more. Something sinister that Kate refuses to acknowledge, even to herself.

Alain Modan, the French inspector who seeks Kate out after Severine’s body turns up on the farmhouse where she stayed, seems to think so. As for the five friends who stayed there with her, Kate's not so sure. Each may have had reasons for wanting Severine dead—or for helping to cover up what really happened the night before their departure.

As several reviewers have noted, there are more than a handful of “girl” books out there and I’ve read my share of them. In fact, when I started The French Girl I considered setting the novel aside, simply because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to give it a fair reading. I’m happy to say I didn’t shelve it, because in the end the book proved to be engaging and well written. The story is told from Kate’s first-person perspective, which stays mainly in the present but contains enough back story for readers to get a sense of the events surrounding Severine’s murder.

The French Girl isn’t a fast-paced thriller but it has a kind of subtlety that I don't come across all that often. At times the novel almost felt like something other than a mystery and, to my surprise, I enjoyed that. Elliott has a nice sense of characterization, even when it comes to peripheral characters. I especially liked how the dynamics between the friends shifted over time, as is so often the case in real life. Kate, Lara, Tom, Seb and Caro all live in London and are still in contact; the sixth guest at the farmhouse, Theo, died in combat, yet he too is an absent presence in the novel. This may be overstating it, but Severine's role as the “absent center” of the story may have been my favorite part of the book. Initially, I wanted to know more about her—craved flashbacks—but as the novel continued I found myself increasingly taken in by the haunting cameos.

That said, there were flaws in this book. The slow pacing won’t work for everyone and the mystery itself isn’t all that hard to figure out. For me, the epilogue is too pat, especially when it comes to Kate, but this may be because Elliott so aptly avoids the obvious in the rest of the novel. I would definitely read another book by Elliott, so I was pleased to learn she’s already at work on another novel. One final thought: as I read The French Girl I occasionally found myself thinking of Ruth Rendell’s debut novel, From Doon with Death. Aside from a rudimentary similarity between the plots (both center of decades-old relationships between school friends, both are set in England), something about the characterization seemed reminiscent of Rendell. Hopefully Elliott’s career will prove just as auspicious.

Much thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this story and there were a few twists, but not enough to give it more than a middling rating. I knew who did what, and why, from an early point in the story, and that was a little disappointing.

I did like the main characters and the pacing of the book. One thing that bugged me was the overuse of "nonplussed". No one is impressed with that word any more and I found it annoying .

My thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

With her debut thriller, The French Girl, Lexie Elliott has instantly established herself as a dynamic, unique voice in the thriller genre. After six university students spend a week vacationing in the French countryside, their lives are forever changed by Severine, a local girl. They won't know for a decade, however, precisely how or how much their lives were altered on that fateful day. Kate Channing's relationship with her boyfriend, Seb, ended and she went on to become a lawyer. She remained friendly with the other members of the group, but hasn't seen Seb in many years. She has just established her fledgling recruiting firm and everything is put at risk when Severine's body is discovered at the bottom of a well situated on the property and Kate finds herself suspected of murder. As she searches for the truth in order to set herself free, Elliott takes readers along, expertly dropping clues at perfectly-timed intervals that mean any of the friend, including the deceased Theo, potentially could have killed Severine. Naturally, over the course of a decade, lives and alliances change, loyalties shift, and the once young and carefree friends have reasons to ensure that they are not accused of the murder . . . but someone else is. The French Girl is an intriguing, frightening look at what happens when a cloud of suspicious engulfs one's life and duplicity motivates "friends" to take self-interested action. Can Kate uncover the truth in order to save herself?
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book!