Cover Image: The French Girl

The French Girl

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A fast paced story of 5 college friends whose past comes back to haunt them. Ten years ago, the friends spent a week in France, marred only by their changing relationships as they prepare to move forward with their adult lives. Now a girl's body has been found and the friends were the last to have seen her alive. This is an interesting whodunnit (and why) that is perfect for a weekend read.

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It seems whenever a group of Brits go to France on vacation there is always a murder. Here the storyline is repeated when a French inspector comes back years later when the body of Severine, their victim, is found. So, who is the culprit...of course it's one of the group (I won't spoil with more information).

The heroine, Kate, is nearly murdered by the same baddie who killed Severine. Kate develops new feelings for another group member. The reader is given a short sense of closure when Kate fills us in on her life after this experience and the murder are finally put to rest.

I found the book very predictable and a bit hard to take seriously, but a perfectly readable British mystery.

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<i>The French Girl</i> tells the story of a group of people, ten years from their encounter with Severine, the French girl next door and her disappearance. There are so many elements in this one that none of them gets the time to stand out.

- It has "ghosts from the past". Literally?
- A lot of work related material that don't contribute anything major to the story. I could literally skip an entire page(s) and and not miss a thing.
- Severine's disappearance and possible killers. But the ending is a huge let down.
- Kate, our main character who is a legal headhunter and your usual narrator, unreliable and frustrating, is an emotional mess due to something that happened so long ago, it shouldn't be interfering with everything she does to this day.
- A ten year old time jump that didn't fit with the character's personalities.

Reading the blurb my biggest issue was the ten year jump the story did, I'm not a huge time jump fan and when I read a book with such a huge jump, I need the characters to be visibly changed. Despite that, I liked the blurb enough to ignore it and hope that the time jump would be justified. It isn't. If there wasn't a specific mention of a time frame or if the time jump was 2-5 years, I would have liked the story more. It's hard to believe that some characters behave the way they do, and think the stuff they do, ten years later.

The story includes a lot of flashbacks as well, written into the story in such a way that makes it hard to tell what's going on in the beginning. For example, from the first chapter Kate has a conversation with someone about Severine and immediately her mind jumps to specific moments which can be a little confusing if it happens all the time.

What I really liked about the story were the characters as friends though, which is why I mentioned that the story didn't know what it wanted to be. Was the friendship/reunion the main theme? Was it Severine? Was it Kate? Was it Kate's work? What was the thing that had to stand out?

It was a little bit of everything and <b>it was super slow despite the low page count and I was more interested in their dynamics as friends than the actual "murder"</b>, I was waiting for the mystery or the suspense and definitely the thrilling part to come but by the end of it I could hardly recall important stuff and I'd skipped others.

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While the book had many different elements, it was a confusing start and slow moving throughout. The characters were well defined with their own unique personalities. The ending was a bit disappointing and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. Felt that some of the off color language could have been left out. All in all a good read.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

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I am a real sucker for novels where an event in the past suddenly resurfaces and interferes with the lives of the book's characters. In this one, 6 university friends had a tumultuous vacation in France where they variously hooked up and broke up with each other and sometimes with Severine, the young French woman living next door. Returning to England, with friendships irrevocably changed, the friends learn that Severine has disappeared.
A decade later, her body is found and French police believe that the friends were the last to see her alive and one of them is likely responsible for her death.

Kate, the narrator, is one of those problematic characters. Like the narrators in The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Girl on the Train, she's an emotional mess. She's still to move on from the relationship that ended on that weekend in France and her new business is in trouble. To add to her stress, she's the prime suspect in the murder and she's started seeing ghosts.

I didn't find that the other characters were especially well fleshed out.

This book will appeal to the readers of Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins.

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Thanks so much to Netgalley for providing an E-ARC of this book! I really enjoyed that this book took place in London, it was very atmospheric! The characters each had very distinct personalities which was one of my favorite aspects. However, I was confused at the beginning of this book. It kind of dragged on a bit, and took awhile to really get going. This is not the book for you if you can't get into slow books, because this is definitely one of those. It was enjoyable enough, I probably wouldn't purchase it though.

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I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Lexie Elliott, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

THE FRENCH GIRL is Lexie Elliott's psychological suspense debut, delving into the dark side of friendship. Six university students spend a week together in a French farmhouse, where they meet Severine, the girl next door. Severine was an unwelcome newcomer for Kate Channing, and after an altercation, one that could never be forgiven, Severine was never seen again. The novel picks up a decade later, when the case of Severine's disappearance is reopened after her body is discovered in a well behind the old farmhouse. The six formerly close friends reunite for questioning, and Kate, who's working hard to avoid suspicion, stands to lose everything she's worked so hard for.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I would be surprised if Hollywood didn't swoop this up to become the next book-to-film adaptation. In Elliott's debut, themes are effortlessly weaved throughout, including friendship, loyalty, and deception. I enjoyed the shifting dynamic between the tight-knit group of university friends. The suspense and mystery was built up nicely throughout the story line, and I found the ending realistic and satisfying.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller with a strong, likeable female lead.

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A terrific end-of-summer read. At first I was a bit annoyed at the appearance of the ghost of the dead French girl, Severine. She only appears to Kate Channing, one of the college friends who summered at a French farmhouse ten years ago. Now the friends are grown up and leading professional lives. A French detective arrives in England to reopen the case of Severine's disappearance and possible murder. And Severine, lythe and lovely and enigmatic in life, appears to Kate at the most inopportune moments. As I said, annoying. As the mystery unfolds, however, the dead Severine's purpose becomes clear. And, I've got to tell you, I didn't see it coming. Well done, Ms. Elliott.

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