Cover Image: The Girl You Want

The Girl You Want

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Member Reviews

I hate to be negative, but I feel the blurb was very misleading. I believe this book is not marketed to the right audience and hence will receive a lower star rating than it would get if advertised to a different market. The book did have a certain appeal and an interesting premise but content was unexpected.

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Review: This is an incredible dark tale with a hint of 50 shades about it. 

Two very strong characters meet and once they get their claws into you will be hooked until you close the book on the last page. We follow Isabel and Mathew who fall hard for each other but like to play games. Although there a dark moment there is relief in this story to. 

It is truly gripping with fascinating characters!

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I loved it!! Easy read, you can never guess what’s coming next! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started this book. It didn’t go the way I was thinking but that’s okay.

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Even though I disliked both protagonists in this chilling game playing thriller, I still kept turning the pages, carried on guessing what the endgame was and hated the controlling antagonist. The writing is good, and the characters are complex, the plot keeps it surprises even if they are not as earth-shattering as the blurb suggests.

Rather than a player, Isabel comes across as a victim. Abused at school and bullied, she doesn't tell and wants to be popular, so glosses over the abuse she suffers; if she doesn't think about it, it isn't real. Her New York life is a flop, in a dead-end job with the abuse she has already suffered she is perfect grooming material for Mathew and his boss.

Isabel and Matthew tell the story from alternative points of view, but who is honest and who is lying?
Based on control rather than love, the relationships are shallow and sinister. The ending is strange, in-keeping with the book's ethos. Questions remain, perhaps for a sequel?

I received a copy of this book from Harper Impulse via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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2 stars because it was okay. Truer words...

The premise is we have Isabel, who is a bored, actress without an acting job, that works in a mattress store. Enter Matthew, the handsome, devilishly charming rascal whom she meets online. From the beginning, Isabel knows that Matthew is certainly playing some sort of game with her. At some point I stopped feeling sorry for her and realizing that she is bringing it upon herself. She keeps going along with it all and she KNOWS he is using her.

It was a very unsettling novel. But it wasn't a thriller or a mystery just unsettling. It was okay. I am not sure if I would recommend it to any of my reader friends. I did enjoy the back and forth points of view. I always tend to feel like I get more of the story, even though I know that is not true.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for a copy of this book.

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Despite being warned about this - I still gave it a go! Big mistake! It was weak, drippy erotica at its worst - 50 shades of unoriginality!!

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If you like your thrillers hot, then this is for you.

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A good book with good characterisation, I would not say the most thrilling book of the year but I think was a good interesting book. A woman once not into relationship she falls hard for a man, at times you are thinking, stay away from him and others you want them to get it together.

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This book felt very long however it was interesting to see how Isabel develops theoughout the story. There were points where I felt really frustrated at what Isabel was putting herself through for Mathew. It's a modern twist on the cat and mouse story

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This was not for me , it wasn't really a thriller ,more erotic love story . Isabel the ' good girl ' was so weak and spineless I really didn't care what happened to her . Read to the end so I could review , but it really was a slog .

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This was not at all what I expected,Unfortunately I couldn't connect with the characters and I didn't enjoy the story at all.

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This book could have been better. It was pretty good and kept my attention but then it just seemed to go off the rails and I lost all interest.

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Isabel Archer is the typical girl from the Midwest. Having grown up only with her mother, she has high hopes and big plans for the time after school. She dreams of a career as an actress in New York, but soon finds herself rejected in every audition and due to lack of money selling mattresses. The only moment when she can still take over a role is when she dates men she finds on Tinder. When she meets Matthew, things change, she is immediately attracted by him and definitely wants more. Matthew, too, has some kind of liking for her, but first of all, his boss needs a woman to support him in the little jobs he does for him. Isabel could be the perfect partner for these strange little games. But soon not only Isabel has to asks herself who is playing games with whom.

Carrie Blake’s debut novel starts quite interestingly and I immediately could indulge in it. However, I quickly had the impression to find some kind of prop and cliché I had read many times before. Even though Isabel was described in the first chapters as a young, intelligent and aspiring woman, she then is reduced to the dumb girl waiting for the boy to call her. She loses all her independence and there is a huge lack of motivation for whatever. From the attractive woman she turns into a pretty facade with nothing behind it. Matthew however, is simply a handsome and ruthless man who is the marionette of his boss without any will of his own.

Thus, I was a bit disappointed in the two protagonists who tell the story alternatingly. The plot itself has variations of “How do I seduce her without having actual intercourse” which was a bit too much for my liking of a thriller. I missed the real thrill and suspense since most of what happens is quite foreseeable as it is based on just a few pieces of information.

All in all, I was quite deceived by it, since most of the plot seems to be a pretext for having the characters go to bed and it strongly reminded me of “50 Shades of Grey” in the setting and character make-up.

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This was a well-written book that caught my eye with the cover and description, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. If you like erotica then try this out but it was a little bit too 50 shades for me (although the story and writing style far surpass 50 shades) and I feel like the description of the book was a little misleading. I didn’t like the characters, (and I got the impression that I was meant to?) although I liked Matthew more than Isabel (the supposed ‘good girl’ with very little evidence that she was ever good/sensible).
This is a well-written erotic thriller that I would recommend to those who enjoy this genre.

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This story... the summary, it is all deceiving. The blurb made it sound like Isabel was this <i>Gone Girl</i> woman/character, but she really wasn't. She went out on a couple of dates and lied abouy who she was. That didn't make her conniving or anything remotely exciting.

Then she met Matthew who turned out to be playing her. Obviously, Isabel falls in love with him and I just got annoyed when she was sad or crying over him. Aren't you supposed to be this femme fatale that play with men? So much for that. She fell for him on the first date.

The plot seemed just be an excuse to engage in heavy foreplay. Did they ever actually have sex? I don't know. I do know he taunted her and fingered her. After 50% I realized this book was just some mild erotica.

The story is told from two points of view: Isabel and Mathew, and I liked that.

There was not much sense on what was going on other than a vague plot that pro ided different cheesy scenarios to almost have sex.

Who was playing whom? Definitely not Isabel. And where was the thriller here? I guess that was me deciding if I should finish the damn book.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

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I enjoyed this book. The ending was a bit wtf for me, but I enjoyed reading about the handsome, sexy Matthew, and the sexual relationship between him and Isabel. It's not really a romance novel. I'd say more erotica mystery.

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The Woman Before You is the first novel by Carrie Blake.
This is a wonderful 4 star Psychological Thriller that really hits you and gets your brain thinking all crazy scenarios.
Isabel and Matthew had a very unusual relationship one at times I felt very uncomfortable with.
Isabel was a very bright and intuitive young lady but all that went out the window when Matthew was around her.
Matthew was a handsome man who used his powers to get exactly what he wanted from Isabel.
Matthew was a great character and really brought out my emotions.
I wanted to like him but I just couldn't,there was always something stopping me from liking him.
This story definitely didn't disappoint me and I think you should buy it asap.
If you enjoy a novel that will keep you guessing and like the suspense and an intriguing storyline this book is for you.
I definitely can't wait to read more from this new author.
I'm voluntarily reviewing an advanced reader copy of this book given to me by Netgalley.

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First things first, this book is described as Dangerous Liaisons meets Maestra.

I did not like Maestra. I really do not like it. So seeing this book being compared to it, I already had my doubts if this was something I should even read.
I am glad I did. I really love good psychological thriller and this one delivers just that. I would recommend this book to my friends!

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The Woman Before you by author Carrie Blake is a great pyschological thriller! It's got the darkness, but light too! I love the roles the two main characters play.. It makes for a dark and gripping thriller to be in someone else thoughts/head! Loved this and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves an amazing psychological thriller!

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Word of warning, this book is reminiscent of 50 Shades of Grey, it’s an erotic thriller. One scene is so similar to that in 50 I was incredibly disappointed.

The descriptIon says Isabel goes on dates for months and changes into someone else each time to please the guy because she has a gift in reading other people, there’s only one date where this happens and it takes 3 paragraphs of the entire novel. She isn’t compassionate, or empathetic, her mom insists she isn’t a liar but she lies so much in this novel it’s ridiculous. Everything is a contradiction. I feel the author wanted to take so many routes and ended up forgetting who the character was supposed to be. She just came off as meek, careless, and pathetic. Her character is not lileable at all, she has zero redeeming qualities.

Matthew was also an unlikeable character and to be have honest the twist was so minute it didn’t make a difference in the story. Who lets a man treat her this way? He treated her like complete garbage and she just obsessed over him for hundreds of pages.

They are basically con artists in the story.

Bleh. I hate giving poor ratings but this book was not for me. If you like erotic thrillers give it a chance.

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