David and Caroline Connolly and their children, Holly and Robbie are a perfectly normal family. That is, until a past relationship of David's comes back to haunt them. A young girl enters David's university office and says, "I think you might be my father." As David tries to accommodate his family and do the right thing for his (possible) daughter, lives are upended and nothing will ever be the same.

Very good family psychological thriller. Highly recommended!

This was an uncensored read about family dynamics and what happens when your world gets shaken. I liked this book for the deep character development. I was never sure if I liked the narrator or not and that was one reason why I tore through this book. I love to read stories that keep me guessing and this a perfect example of that.

David, his wife Caroline and their two children soon have their lives turned upside when Zoe enters David’s office to rattle off that she might be his daughter.

Several twists and turns occur and Zoe is not this sweet, innocent child a reader might see from he start. Zoe has a darker side and infiltrates this family from the get go.

This book was a great read and captivating.

Genre: (General Fiction) Adult
Pub. Date: Feb. 6, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

This book is marketed as General Fiction, but I feel it is a Psychological Thriller, as it appears to be with all books that have the word “girl” in the title. The reader will meet a family consisting of husband, wife and two children, a 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. I liked the fact that the author did not present this Irish family as perfect. Both parents have secrets from one another. They certainly have their troubles, but the parents work hard on making their marriage work for they do love one another and want the best for their children. The father is a college professor. In his first-year class, a 19-year-old female student informs him that he is her father from a relationship he had before he married. The reader already knows that this girl’s mother is the true love of his life.

He embraces the girl into his world right away. He is rather naïve in thinking he can integrate this daughter into his established family with as much ease as he has. As the reader expects, almost immediately problems arise. The novel is narrated by the husband and wife. As the title indicates, this girl is an unknown variable in their lives. She has more of her own secrets than this family ever had. She “seems” to take pleasure in causing conflict, usually ending with the females in the family seeing her as a narcissistic person enjoying the drama she creates. While the males, feel she is a troubled person who needs their support. I imagine that this book is advertised as General Fiction since it reads like a family drama and a character study. Grant you, an easy character study that is a quick read: a beach book that will probably become a movie.

Half-way through the tale, due to the stressors, all family members begin to crumble. Both parents have major setbacks in their careers as well as in their personal lives. The son is acting out in school, while the 11-year-old daughter has become withdrawn. But it is during a family vacation in France that all hell breaks loose. I would ruin the story for you if I explain why. The previous twists in the book were predictable, easy to find since the family dynamics became rather warped. However, the twist on the last page of the novel did surprise me. It actually left me wanting to know more, wondering what will happen now, which says to me “Unknown” is a decent read after all.

Meh, I found this to be boring and quite long winded.

Thank You NetGalley & everyone involved for letting me fall in love with this book.

Holy Moly this one sucked me right in. I did not put this book down, finishing this one in a day. All the secrets, lies, deceit, and love combined for an edge of your seat thriller that will keep you guessing till the very last page.

'I think you might be my father . . .'

When student Zoe Barry walks into Professor David Connolly's office and says these words, he is left with confusion and a little fear. The fear of how is his family going to react and the confusion of how is this possible? Your left wondering is Zoe really his daughter or does she have some ulterior motive?

This novel is mainly told in the perspective of David and David's wife, Caroline. You get to know the struggle Caroline faces with a stranger coming into her and her children's life and essentially taking over, leaving Caroline basically helpless. David is so infactuated with Zoe he does not even see what is really going on. As for the children, Robbie is equally infactuated with Zoe while Holly cannot stand her. I loved having the story told in this way because you can get a real sense of how and why they feel the way they do.I felt sorry for Caroline and most of the story i could not stand David. I kept getting sooo frustrated for Caroline, i wanted to jump into the book and shake David silly. This definitely brought to light a very real question-
Who should come first: your wife or someone who might be your daughter?

I have never read anything by either of the authors from this pen name, but I plan to read more by them. I highly recommend this book if your looking for a psychological thriller.

The writing style was way too didactic and explanatory. I didn't finish this one.

This book definitely pulls you through the ringer until the very end. The vibes you feel begin with typical story of a perfect family that becomes full of dysfunction once a mystery girl comes into their lives. Then you think, will the relationship flourish or crash and burn? The book gradually gets darker and you realize it's much more than a father meeting his long lost daughter and you throw the cliche out the window. I found the characters to be interesting and gradually develop strong points of view in their respectfully structured chapters. I appreciated the out of the box imagination of Karen Perry. I was shocked and surprised in the end,

Girl Unknown is a creepy read. A girl shows up claiming to be the main character's daughter, but she's really the devil incarnate. His marriage disintegrates, careers are jeopardized, and his children suffer. A psychological mystery, full of twists, and a dramatic crescendo.

'But that was when I first felt her shadow falling over me. The first time I felt the ripples of a new presence within my home, like a dye entering water, already changing it’s chemisty.'

This is gorgeously written, it somehow manages to encompass how every one is changed by Zoë Barry crashing into Professor David Connolly’s life, claiming to be his daughter. It is not just a game of is she or isn’t she his daughter, it’s a reminder of the deep love he was once consumned by for her mother Linda, a name that burns his wife today. Surely he doesn’t still love her, afterall it’s Caroline who shares his life and that of their beloved children. Can he contain this knowledge until he knows for sure? A daughter! It’s about the existing children and how it could change the very dynamics of their place, the eldest no longer so. The daughter no longer his lone female child. Caroline catches him at his omission, is it a lie when you’re just trying to feel your way to the truth before devastating your family?

Caroline knows what Linda was to David, letting her in will unleash the past and cause rifts in their marriage but just how strong are they to begin with? Just what do you do when doing the right thing exposes your children to danger? What to do when your wife feels stripped of your love, robbed of all the truths she is no longer sure of? Soon, they begin keeping things from each other, looking into Zoë leads to discoveries about instability, but does that mean she can’t be trusted? David is letting the past seduce him, remembering just how alive Linda made him feel, a much less stable love than what he has with Caroline, who feels the distance opening between them. Who wonders how she measures up and is terrified she already knows.

Caroline has made her own mistakes in the marriage, but she is still punishing herself, and maybe this shame makes her susceptible to the manipulation of what is begining to feel like an interloper. Or maybe she is just paranoid, threatened by Zoë’s presence, blooming like a new passion in David, diluting the strength of love that should be reserved for she and their children. Where do the children, Robbie and Holly, rate in this revelation? Both react differently to Zoë, and there will be consequences- maybe fatal ones.

Reader, do you trust Zoë? What of the innocence of children? Do you place your faith in the bonds of marriage? Can a family simply expand to let someone in that may well have been robbed of a father all this time? I really enjoyed this thriller, it overthrew me and I honestly usually figure everything out long before I made sense of this one. What is disturbing is the quiet threat of such a situation. Throw monsters at us, killers, but it’s the possibilities of life altering moments that are far more terrifying than anything monstrous. What’s more disturbing than people who threaten the very life, the precious family you have created?

We soak in thoughts, fears, and hopes of both husband and wife. “All those years spent thinking about Linda, wondering what she might have been like, trying to imagine her- now I felt as if I had finally met her. And I didn’t like her. She unnerved me.” And David, “Such a death is like a sudden pull in the heart, a brief awakening, and the realization that the lost lover’s life had continued all that time you were apart.” But what will Caroline’s resentment and the giddiness of David’s ‘awakening’ cost the entire family?

I think it’s time to check out more under this pen name. Written by authors, Paul Perry and Karen Gillece, this is a smoothly written read and I never would have imagined two people wrote it together. Yes, read it!

Publication Date: February 6, 2018

Henry Holt & Company

Really enjoyed this story! Well written! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

Right of the bat, the premise and feel of Girl Unknown reminded me of a Lifetime movie...which is a compliment because I am all about those movies. I loved the alternating POV between David and Caroline and how we saw such different reactions to the same events and encounters. This style really showed the state of their marriage and furthered the story along nicely Personally, I really loved and felt for Caroline. I didn't not like David...but from the beginning I was not rooting for him as much and his actions bothered me. (Though I understand his want and need to have this long-lost daughter be inserted into his family.) From the synopsis, I was expecting more of a thriller, but it ended up being more of a domestic story with tension and an eerie feel. I think that's the best way to describe the book: eerie. I enjoyed the writer's style and format and the story was definitely psychological suspenseful (but in an eerie...not an edge of your seat thrilling way). The book is dark but in such a realistic way.

Unlike several reviewers, I absolutely loved this gem of a novel! Told from alternating points of view, the book centers on the lives of David and Caroline whose marriage is already on shaky ground from past mistakes. So when one of David's young freshman college students reveals she is his daughter from a previous relationship, he realizes he must try to help her become part of the family when she admits her mother is dead. But as Zoe begins to ingratiate herself into their family unit, Caroline becomes suspicious and their two children have differing reactions as well. Straining an already rocky relationship, is Zoe really who she says she is, or is there more to the sometimes shy, waif-like young woman? I loved the nuanced and poignant writing as it speaks to all marriages with fault lines, secrets, and unspoken emotions and conversations that never seem to happen or leave one partner feeling hurt or betrayed. I felt fully invested in both characters and loved the twist I didn't see coming. An emotional roller-coaster of a novel!

Girl Unknown is a story about a young girl who attends a college because she knows her biological father works there. She goes to his office and tells him she is his daughter and of course he doesn't believe her. They decide to get a DNA test done and it comes back that she is in fact his daughter........Or is she??
The story of this book is basically how an 18-19 year old can come into a family she has just met and cause havoc in their lives.
I feel the author could have done so much more for this book. The story line was there but it just lacked in suspense.

It seems that there is a common problem in novels, the arrival of the previously unknown child who reveals her/his presence and causes total chaos....GIRL UNKNOWN follows that plot to a tee. So, the child in this scenario is Zoe who presents herself to her father and reveals she is his child with his dead ex-lover. With today’s scientific advances, she proves her case with DNA evidence. . In this case she causes a great deal of guilt and manages to spread her toxins to the entire family and family friends.

Hardest hit is Caroline who sees her world and marriage dissolve as Zoe destroys her husband and children. Ah, but there is a good ending when the evil Zoe is killed, and then a shock when the murderer is discovered....no, I’m not going to be a spoiler.

This is simply too predictable to make it a great read. Perry is a good writer and should be able to write something more original in the future.

Boring and seriously not worth my time. Felt like I was trudging thru mud to get thru it.

Girl Unknown is a novel with a familiar theme. Girl shows up and tells a man she has never met that she is his daughter. Everyone’s life changes. If you are expecting a psychological thriller then you have the wrong book. The story is told in alternating perspectives between David (the husband) and Caroline (the wife). This seemed to cause a lot of overlapping and repetition. It read a bit too much like a made for TV movie. I found the story to be fairly predictable (until the end) and it seemed to lag a bit here and there. I liked the fact that there was no wrong or right (good or bad) character. Each was flawed in his or her own right, some more so than others. The downside of this was that none of the characters really made an impact on me. I found it difficult to really care about any of them. This was not a bad tale by far but I expected an intensity to build as the story developed. It was a disappointment to see it remain at fairly even level up until the end. Was Zoe evil or just a troubled kid? I would have liked to see the Zoe character a bit more developed. My original intention was to give this book 2 stars because it was “ok”. It wasn’t original or particularly memorable but it also wasn’t bad. I was pleasantly surprised by a twist at the end which gives me cause to bump my rating up to a 3 star.