Great read! Looking forward to reading more from this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

I really enjoyed reading this book. The author's writing style was enjoyable and the characters well described. I personally felt that it was more of a family drama than a psychological thriller. The author's plot offered plenty of surprises to keep the reader's interest and make them wanting more. This is an excellent beach read.

I would like to thank Karen Perry, Henry Holt & Company and nNetgalley for opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book. The writing style was enjoyable. In my opinion, it was more of a family drama than a psychological thriller. But it has plenty of surprises to keep your interest. A great beach read.

Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Girl Unknown. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Girl Unknown was a little too predictable for my tastes, despite a brief surprise at the conclusion.
David and Caroline Connolly have suffered some pitfalls in their marriage, but are finally back on track. With the normal stress of having two kids and an ailing mother, David hopes that an important promotion at work will give him a well needed boost. When a student drops a bombshell that has the power to derail both his private and professional life, will the choices that David and Caroline make destroy all that they have worked to gain?

Deception and lies are the norm in Girl Unknown, making it impossible for readers to form a connection with any of the characters. The multiple perspective format fractured the story, never allowing the reader to settle into the plot. It was unrealistic that Zoe was able to weasel her way into the family the way that she did. Despite being suspicious, both David and Caroline made choices that were contrary to what real life people would make. I just did not believe the story and did not feel sympathy for any of the characters. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend Girl Unknown to other readers.

Very fast paced and very intriguing. I enjoyed how it kept me hooked and it was an original story. Nowadays so many books read the same. Highly recommend. Very touching novel

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A gritty, tense family drama with suspense threaded throughout.

GIRL UNKNOWN at its core is a family drama. It plays with complicated relationships that families have as well as the concept of fidelity. At many points in the book, because of the dual perspectives, you get to be inside the characters' heads. This is where the reader learns most of the background of David and Caroline Connolly. It is where the emotions and grit of the story take shape.

David and Caroline Connolly may seem like a picture of perfection, but underneath the surface there is a tremendous amount of emotion surrounding a betrayal on both parts. Then, you add to the mix David's daughter whom no one knew anything about...especially David. She is the wild card that seems to have her own agenda. Not to give anything away, but the manner in which Zoe manipulates everyone is perfectly wicked.

The book has all shock and salacious fun of a Lifetime Movie, but still manages be grounded. It is through the layers of deceit, the twists in the plot, and the depth of the characters that the author gives us such a suspenseful and slightly disturbing read.

Review posted on Goodreads! Thank you for the opportunity to do a book tour.

This was hard to get into and hard to follow, ultimately I didn't finish it.

Let me start by saying that this book has a very slow burn. Usually, I would have given up on a book in which the plot moves do slowly, but I could sense that the relationships between the characters were the main attraction here and what needed to be watched more than plot development. But if you're expecting a lot of things to happen, this is not the book for you.

David and Caroline's marriage was probably not hanging on by much anyway, by the time Zoe came into their lives. Zoe claims to be David's daughter from a previous relationship, and Caroline, who has always known that Zoe's mother was the real love of David's life, is rocked to see such a reminder of his past back in their lives in the present. Add to this the fact of the children David and Caroline have and their not taking too kindly to this wisp of a girl, and the whole book simmers like a pot about to boil over.

From the first meeting between David and Zoe, I could tell something was up with here. It's hard to believe David couldn't see through her, but in my opinion he wanted that connection to his past so badly, he chose to see what he wanted to see when it came to Zoe. Zoe is not a good person and that is confirmed by multiple people throughout the novel, but she has a way with men and can usually get them to see her innocent persona when she needs them to.

As a woman I couldn't help but feel for Caroline, though she was not entirely innocent through this story. She strayed from David, but who among us wouldn't be hurt upon learning our spouse only married us as a second option? I don't know if I ever really felt any love between the couple.

I would say the main problem I had with Girl Unknown is that only Caroline seemed to be able to see through Zoe's flaky shield. She couldn't get David to believe her, even when blatantly mistreated by Zoe, and this just put the nails in the coffin of their marriage. Zoe was able to way too easily manipulate so many people.

The final chapters of this book are amazing. They tell what unfolds from a distant third person point of view, and it's chilling to see. I was not expecting anything that happened, and I was left in shock for the last few pages. Girl Unknown is a dreary but highly entertaining read that those who enjoy tales of family intricacies will love.

David and Caroline Connolly are trying hard to put their life back together. At least, that's what it looks like from the outside. Following Caroline's public affair with another man at the school her children attend, Caroline and David are doing their best to keep moving forward. And David is close to having everything he's always dreamed of: a tenured professor position at a university in Dublin. But when a student shows up at his office claiming to be his daughter, the ice the Connolly family is walking on begins to crack. 

Karen Perry (a pen name for Karen Gillece and Paul Perry) weaves together a disturbing tale told from alternating perspectives. From David's point of view, we see his struggle with the memories his daughter's sudden appearance in his life brings back. From Caroline's, a woman made out to be jealous of her husband's relationship with his newly found daughter. Her gut instinct tells her that there's more to this girl's story than what she's telling, but David won't listen. Not even when the lies Zoe, his daughter, have told begin to unravel. 

What Perry has created in Girl Unknown isn't so much a suspenseful tale, but an examination of the fragility of one family's connection to each other. Where Caroline's betrayal--her affair--is out in the open and decidedly bad, other moments between the Connolly family members will make the reader begin to question their own definition of what constitutes a betrayal. Where some connections break and bend under the stress of Zoe's appearance, others strengthen, as this cast of characters races towards a dark, explosive ending. With its unlikeable characters and dark twists, fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train will enjoy this slow-building suspense.

Girl Unknown A Novel by Karen Perry published by Henry Holt & Company. An arc of this novel was given to me through Netgalley for my honest review thank you to all parties for the opportunity. It is very unique in a number of ways. The first is that Karen Perry is actually a pen name for two writers collaborating on this book. This is the first book, to the best of my knowledge, that I've read penned by two authors and it definitely worked here, you could not tell who wrote which part of the story and it made it easy to read and a real page turner.
I have to be honest when I picked this up I wasn’t sure what to expect. I loved the way the authors split the chapters up between Caroline and David I feel both perspectives help to round out the story giving the reader an insight to what is going on. What I like to call Zoe Barry is a bombshell on a family who was coasting through life happily. Everything is fine until “She” arrives, and while at first, I felt horrible for her, toward the end chapters I was convinced she needed more help than anyone can give her. Is she his daughter, is she a stranger or is she just the killer? As far as books go I found this nicely paced with characters well-crafted and an ending that you will either see coming a mile away or not figure it out until the last page. 4 Unbelievable Unknown Stars from me.

Girl Unknown is a tense family drama that explores how one person can explode the lives of happy family. Do you want to enter the world of a family on the verge of explosion? Then pick up a copy of Girl Unknown today!

Thank you to Henry Holt & Co for providing me with a free finished copy of this book for review purposes and for inviting me along for the blog tour. All opinions below are my own.

Girl Unknown was not my typical read. While I enjoy a range of genres, I tend to pick up quick suspense, lighter fantasy, literary fiction or science fiction. I went into this novel thinking it was a psychological thriller and kept finding myself waiting for a twist...that just didn't' happen. What was I missing? To properly enjoy this novel, you need to go in thinking that it will be more of a family drama with a few twists towards the end. This will save you the questioning that plagued me for a large portion of the text.

Genre aside, Girl Unknown is a pretty interesting read. I just recently left my position as a faculty member at a large university (although in the United States), so I found it interesting to see David's work struggles play out. There is definitely a unique set of stressors when working in academia. I think that the authors did a great job portraying this job position, although the granted days off and leave of absences would have been unlikely in the United States.

The characters were a bit difficult for me to handle. David was extremely naive for much of the novel. I find it hard to believe that someone would be so trusting in today's society. While I appreciated that Caroline seemed to be finding her place in the world, she rarely stood up for herself and came across as a weak or submissive wife. It is difficult for me when I don't actually LIKE many of the characters in a novel. That being said, the characters had an overall "real" feeling to them. No character was truly good or bad - all were flawed. And, at some level, aren't we all?

Overall, the reason that I have difficulty rating the book much higher is that David and Caroline were written to be such self-involved parents who expected their kids to do fine on their own. Their parenting style and how they let everything in their life tear at their family, affecting their children, all while not noticing any big problems, was bothersome.

I definitely applaud the authors for writing a tense family drama that throws several twists right at the end. Personally, I would have loved some earlier twists or less foreshadowing in order to enjoy this a bit more. I think many readers will enjoy the writing style and the chance to escape to Ireland for the duration of the novel.

Meet David Connolly. A married, father of two, university lecturer working at the University of Dublin. He seems a man you'd want to befriend. His only worries are the decline in his mother's mental state, and whether he should go for promotion at work.

Meet Caroline Connolly. Wife of David, she has just recently returned to the workforce after spending years at home being a full-time mother. Life is hectic, but good.

The Connolly's marriage of seventeen years is fragile. A few years ago, Caroline had overheard her husband talking to his best friend after having had a few too many drinks. She heard him say that Linda (a former girlfriend) was the 'love of his life'. Never able to completely forget his words, Caroline had a brief, unconsummated affair with a parent from her son's school. David has forgiven her, but they have not completely recaptured their previous ease with one another. Doubt and suspicion are rampant.

Then, one day after his lecture on Irish history, a student approaches David saying "I think you might be my father". Zoë Barry is her name. Her story shocks and astounds David, yet there is that element of plausibility that he cannot ignore. She says her mother was Linda Barry (whom David loved when he was a university student himself). Her statement will forever change the Connolly family dynamic.

After a DNA test, David makes overtures to Zoë. He invites her for Sunday lunch to meet the family. As the months pass, she becomes a frequent visitor. Though Robbie, the Connolly's teenage son seems okay with her, Caroline and eleven-year-old Holly are not. Caroline doesn't trust Zoë. The reader gets a sense of pervading dread. What havoc will Zoë wreck upon this family? For Zoë is not what she seems at first. On the surface, and in front of David, the waif-like Zoë is polite and charming. In front of Caroline she is taciturn and hostile. The reader realizes that she is manipulative, capricious, and cunning.

"The first time I felt the ripples of a new presence within my home, like a dye entering water, already changing the chemistry."

When Zoë doesn't turn up for Christmas dinner, the Connolly's find out that she has tried to commit suicide. When David visits her in hospital he invites her to live in their home... It is then that the reader feels unnerved, alarmed, waiting to see how Zoë will further rend the family apart. You know it is coming... just not how, and when... You just know it will be insidious and corrosive.

"It's a funny thing - trust. It was like someone had taken a hammer to that block of trust and began pounding at it, causing cracks to run through it like veins."

With events reaching a crescendo, the final chapters hold plot twists that will please the most devout of thriller fans.

This is a story of guilt, forgiveness, regret, betrayal and manipulative behavior. Expertly written to evoke a sense of deep unease in the reader, the authors have created a subtle tension that pervades the entire novel. A domestic thriller that I highly recommend.

One thing's for sure. I will be looking out for other books authored by this writing team.

Less a thriller than an examination of three characters. It's told in two different voices- the husband David and the wife Caroline. These two find themselves confronted with Zoe, who claims to be David's long lost daughter. The story felt predictable and while others have praised the prose, some of this was over written for me. There are some gems in here but in this day of DNA, it's hard to maintain an assertion about parentage for long. And, leaving aside DNA, the internet is a wonderful thing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Big thanks to the publisher and author for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest review!

Going into GIRL UNKNOWN I had no idea this was by an author duo! Like I've said before, I always am curious to see how these types of books play out - it amazes me that multiple people can write together and how seamlessly they can do it!

When freshman Zoe Barry approaches her professor, David Connolly, she tells him that he might be her father. Understandably this comes as a shock not only to David but also to his wife, Caroline. As Zoe becomes more entangled in their lives, Caroline is determined to find out what Zoe's motives are. Some of her stories aren't lining up and Caroline needs to know if she truly is David's daughter. Not only are their lives and way of life at risk, but now their children are exposed to Zoe. Does she have ulterior motives?

I will say that this is more of a character driven novel as opposed to a thriller. Which I do enjoy! Just know going into it that you'll dive more into the characters and have a lighter side to the thriller genre. The overall tone of the novel stays very dreary and almost hopeless. I did like the development of the characters and seeing how David and Caroline's lives are being changed because of Zoe's presence and manipulation.

Overall, if you're looking for something more on the lighter side of the thriller genre, then I think you'll enjoy this read! I really liked the ending, and I can definitely see it being shocking to some!

I give this one 3.5/5 stars! (rounded up for rating)

"What had happened to the teenager who had appeared nervously at my door, picking at her cuffs, frightened half to death at the bomb she was about to drop? Somehow, she had been replaced by this cool, bloodless creature with her dead gaze, her cruel words spoken with velvet softness. And the thing that was most confusing, the thing I couldn't make out, was which one was the real Zoe and which the fake?"

Fraught with tension and vividly told, Girl Unknown is an in depth character study of the Connolly family and what happens to them when they open their home to a young woman who claims to be David's daughter from a decades old love affair. The story is told from each family member's point of view which is one of my very favorite types of narrative. The authors did an incredible job of writing the shifting perspectives in such a way that one minute I would be empathizing with Caroline and the next minute I would be yelling at David and his often ridiculous choices. Zoe is welcomed in to the Connolly home with minimal transition, and as one would expect, this rocks the worlds of Holly and Robbie (the Connolly children).

Robbie is struggling with anger issues and having problems at school. It broke my heart when he would try to talk to his dad about the things that bothered him only to be brushed off. Seeing things through Robbie'e eyes was incredibly sad... his Dad was too wrapped up with his "new" child, his career and his strained marriage to really hear the things that Robbie was trying to tell him. And then there was Holly -- quiet, observant, and extremely distrusting of Zoe and her story. I did find it odd that David never really questioned Zoe or her motives, and basically welcomed her with open arms in to his home without consulting his wife or thinking about the long term impact that this would have on everyone. He was very selfish and often times naive, and I did not really care for his character. I thought the authors did an excellent job showing how people can become so self absorbed that they are completely oblivious to the destruction that is happening around them. While I would not classify this book as a thriller, I will say the final pages shocked me, so kudos to the authors on that twist at the end.

If you are looking for a manipulative, psychological study filled with family drama then this is the book for you. Many thanks to Henry Holt and Company for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 3.5 stars.

Favorite Quotes:

There is an energy on campus during those first weeks of the new semester that is like nothing else. The air is charged with the frisson of possibility. A cheerful busyness takes hold, giving a new life and sheen to every faded surface, every jaded room… I felt it too— the beat of possibility, the urge to get a head start on the year. After seventeen years working at this university, I was still not immune to the buoyant lift of first-term energy.

We never had children because I didn’t want them. Any child I had with you might be born with a dorsal fin and several rows of teeth.

Mum had stepped toward the bed and was standing with one hand upon it, quietly contemplating it, when it occurred to me that the previous inhabitant had probably died in this room, in that very bed Mum was touching. And in all likelihood, my mother would die here too. A strange vertiginous thought. I felt like someone had punched me with it. I couldn’t escape the feeling that by moving her into this room I was somehow hastening her doom.

That night in the cold darkness at the top of the stairs, overhearing the conversation, that was the moment when things began to unravel for me… A pinched, mean voice inside me whispered: If you are not the love of his life, then what makes you so sure he is yours? … Like a stone dislodged deep inside me, I felt the structure of my being start to crumble.

She had the cool beauty of a glassy lake on a cold day— you wanted to stare at it, to take it all in, though you wouldn’t want to touch it. A coldness that seemed biting.

My Review:

Girl Unknown was a gripping and enthralling read that steadily built and maintained an intriguing and inescapable level of tension and suspense as well as an unmistakable sense of impending doom from the very first word of the bewitching prologue to its devastating conclusion. I gasped in disbelief, cringed, flinched, held my breath, clenched my fist, and even growled in frustration at the annoyingly dense David, yet I was mesmerized by the storyline, transfixed by the narrative, embedded and engaged with the characters, and physically unable or unwilling to put my Kindle down any longer than necessary. The characters were as hypnotically intriguing as they were repellent and fractured. I loathed/loved/despised/pitied them in equal measure. Adulting did not happen yesterday. The storyline was cleverly well-crafted, alluring, and maddeningly fascinating while the writing was keenly honed, insightfully observant, well detailed, emotive, and infuriatingly well-paced. I must stalk these talented wordsmiths at every opportunity!

Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. You suddenly learn one day that you're a father....what happens to your current family, how does it change your life? This book was well done, and felt real. I enjoyed it, and I think other readers will as well.

Meh. This book was yet another "suspense" novel that was really just family drama, which is fine by me except for the fact that I couldn't care less about a single person in this family, so I didn't really care if the appearance of Zoe wrecked their lives. Not much happens for most of the book, and then the ending is just revelation after over-the top revelation. Sort of like too little too late, except this was really just too much too late. Pass.

Author Interview with Karen Perry coming to my blog on January 19, 2018!
http://outofthebex.com

There are few things I enjoy more than reading a psychological thriller novel and being surprised in the last few pages. Girl Unknown delivers a punchy, unexpected twist just paragraphs from the novel’s timely end—an immensely satisfying proposition for my fellow suspense/thriller addicts. To our benefit, Girl Unknown offers plenty more than just a well-delivered close.

The authors, Karen Perry is a co-author team based in Dublin, crafted their characters with notable intention. Each member of the family has a history, habits, and perspectives that lend structure to the overall narrative. This technique allowed for an interesting play with the unique reactions that occur between different personas which seemed to mirror well the dynamic of a real family.

It’s clear from the beginning that something may be off about the waiflike girl who strides into David’s office in Chapter 1. It's the small seed of foreboding planted within beautifully moody sentences which makes the plot so beguiling. A psychological thriller can sometimes be more suspenseful when you have an inkling of what might happen. Suddenly you want nothing more than to watch it unfold.

Above all, Girl Unknown is a study in the art of manipulation. An investigation of the startling effect one personality can have on an entire household. If the Connolly family is a shell with a few cracks, Girl Unknown is the hammer and she’s coming in swinging. As the pages continue, each chapter shifting between Caroline’s and David’s perspectives, we begin to see how this strange girl’s behavior changes based on the person she’s with. Tension builds as if the Connolly’s are standing on a track, a dark train is coming, and you want to yell for them to get out of the way. But as I haven’t found a way to transport myself into a book just yet, I had to make do with turning the pages as quickly as possible to see what might happen.

What would I change?
I’m sure a few readers will find it difficult to accept some of David’s choices. At times he comes off as almost naive. However, I found that this aspect of his personality tied in perfectly with what we come to know about him and the history of his marriage. While some readers have said his reactions to certain situations are questionable, I disagree and argue that this is one of the more realistic aspects of his character.

Bottom Line
Part suspense, part domestic noir, Girl Unknown offers an illuminating search into the darker side of human fallibility, moody characters you’ll want to unearth, plus a tense plot with a final twist you won’t see coming.