This is a good psychological thriller that kept me on my toes throughout the entire book. This is the story of 3 girls that become 1 dead and 2 girls that must keep a deadly secret. Will the remaining 2 be able to keep their secret? Read this bad boy to find out!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for this advanced readers copy.

The Orchid Girls by Lesley Sanderson is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis:
Charlotte and Belinda used to bully Molly in grade school, until one day when their bullying went a little far. As teenagers, Charlotte meets up with Molly and her friend Grace, and it seems all is forgiven, and they become The Orchid Girls, each donning a tattoo of the flower on her inner wrist. But their relationship is full of teenage angst, jealousy and hormones. When Charlotte goes missing, only Molly and Grace know what happened.

Fourteen years passed. Molly has never forgotten Grace, even though they lost touch after Charlotte disappeared. She finally finds her, and craves the relationship they once had. Molly is down on her luck, an alcoholic with a girlfriend who only comes calling when she is bored with her real girlfriend. Molly is going to win Grace back.

Grace is an Internet success, posting pictures of healthy food that she creates, and she is about to publish her first cookbook. Her husband Richard is running for politics, hoping to be the next Mayor of London. They are both endeavoring to create the perfect life, intent on showing the world only perfection. Grace has changed her name and hidden her past. Not even Richard knows where she really came from.

When Molly finds her, Grace freaks. She wants nothing to do with Molly, and wants the past to stay buried, and their teenage romance to remain hidden. But Molly’s love for her has never died, and she is sure that she can convince Grace to ditch Richard and resume their relationship. She is going to get sober and make sure that happens.

When a young girl goes missing in Richard’s constituency, it brings back the memories of another time. Both Molly and Grace are haunted by the secret that they have kept. But now a reporter is sniffing around, and Molly’s sobriety is making her re-think the past.


My Opinions:
This was a good book. It is about friendship, about young love, about how attitudes between same-sex couples continue to evolve. It is also the story of secrets, and lies, and the affect they have years later.

The story is told from different perspectives, including Molly, Grace, and from their old journals. This makes the reader see the different points of view quite clearly.

Unfortunately, I felt the book moved very slowly to start, and I didn’t really like the characters. Eventually things grew more engaging, and the pace picked up.

As her first psychological thriller, this book was good, and I’m looking forward to what Lesley Sanderson shows us next.

3.5 stars

An intriguing novel however I never was to sure about this novel. The story was well written but am still trying to figure out what I read.

This book started very slowly and I just couldn't get into the story and so gave up on it . Sorry, it's not for me

Another well written thriller which will definitely grab your attention. It might feel that it drags a bit at the beginning but once it takes of you won't be able to do anything else than to turn page after page. Strong characters and good plot!

The Orchid Girls
by Lesley Sanderson
Bookouture
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 13 Nov 2018
I am reviewing a copy of The Orchid Girls through Bookouture and Netgalley:
Grace, Charolette and Molly called themselves The Orchid Girls.
One of the girls is dead, another in love, and another a liar.
It was on a jagged Dorset Cliff one day that the three friends became two but no one aside from the two know what happened to the third girl.
Somewhere though is a photograph that is waiting to reveal the secret that one of the Orchid Girls wants to keep hidden.
I give The Orchid Girls four out of five stars!
Happy Reading!

The Orchid Girls tells us the story of Molly and Grace, two women who, as teenagers, were caught up in the disappearance and death of their friend, Charlotte. Years on, Grace, now a highly successful “clean eating” social media star and married to a politician, is desperate to escape the past and distance herself from anything and anyone related to it. Molly, however, clings to the hope that one day Grace will want to be in her life again and it seems she will stop at nothing to achieve this.

This is a story of obsessive love and friendship and how far some will go to achieve what they yearn for. It is also a story of guilt and deceit and how events from the past can affect us forever if we cannot shed them.

Well written, with an almost claustrophobic sense of foreboding throughout, The Orchid Girls builds towards a tense crescendo that wasn’t unexpected to me, but might be for some readers, and is nonetheless the end to a well thought out and clever plot. I will most certainly look out for further novels from this writer.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of #TheOrchidGirls in exchange for an honest review.

#TheOrchidGirls is a brilliant psychological thriller that kept me gripped from start to finish.

Molly and Grace were 15 when they made a vow to never reveal what had happened when their friend went missing and turned up dead. Sensationally acquitted of murder, only they know the truth.

Now, Molly is an alcoholic, and Grace a successful food blogger married to to the next London mayor. Molly wants to reconnect, but Grace wants to keep the past hidden. What is the truth about the Orchid Girls?

This book keeps you guessing, and is written in the present tense with extracts from the girls’ diaries at age 15.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for my advance copy in return for an unbiased review.

The Orchid Girls is a well-written psychological thriller by a new author, about enduring obsessive love and the damage done by terrible secrets. It’s written mostly in first person present, which I normally don’t like but is actually necessary here, with some diary entries and newspaper reports.

Summer 2002, a small beachside Dorset town, and three fairly awful teenage girls are mired in lust, jealousy, resentment and frustration, but then one of them dies in suspicious circumstances and the other two are separated by their families. Fourteen years later, Grace has successfully reinvented herself as a stylish food blogger and married a rising politician, Richard, while Molly is a barely functioning alcoholic with a married girlfriend, still yearning for her formative relationship.

When another young girl goes missing in Richard’s constituency, under similar circumstances, Molly loses control and begins to stalk Grace, determined to reestablish their love affair. Grace, trapped by her perfect online image as the ‘Queen of Clean Eating’ and terrified that her past will be revealed to inquisitive journalists, is torn between her future and her past, but what really happened to Charlotte?

While I agree with others that this dragged a bit as two very unlikeable women agonise about their problems, refusing to tell their supposed loved ones anything, and use orthorexia and alcohol to suppress their misery, the mystery was well done and I didn’t predict how it would turn out.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Orchid Girls is available now.

I was in the mood for a mystery novel, and I love ones set where the book has them at a younger age and often has flashbacks of life in the past and present. Years ago when the main characters were 13/14 - three left that day, and only two returned home. Molly, Grace, and Charlotte all went to hang out, and just Molly and Grace returned home. The next day, Charlotte was found dead, and there wasn't enough evidence to accuse Molly and Grace of Charlotte's murder. Molly and Grace who were inseparable were then split up after the incident, and we learn years later that Grace was shipped off to her aunt's in Paris while Molly stayed behind. Fast forward years later, another girl has gone missing, and the girl is the spitting image to Charlotte. This act causes a chain reaction in the book between the characters as Molly seeks Grace out. Grace has tried to move on and is now married to a Politician whereas Molly's life has not turned out as excellent and she flips from relationship to relationship and has no stability. When the girls get together eventually, we learn that they had a close relationship that reminded me a bit of the Heavenly Creatures murder with Honoria Parker and Juliet Hulme that happened in NZ. During the book too, Grace reaches out to her father and learns that he had hidden secrets from that time and now with the recent missing girl it has caused all those memories to be dredged back up. We learn that Grace's husband's family also have a connection to the latest missing girl. With years of built up secrets and hidden truths? Will Molly and Grace ever be able to learn what happened to Charlotte and find the current missing girl?
Find out in this Brit Lit Mystery "The Orchid Girls."

A brilliant debut novel from Lesley Sanderson. Grace is a celebrity, a successful food blogger and is married to a well known politician. Her world starts crashing down when her past comes back to haunt her. Fifteen years earlier Grace and her friend Molly were arrested and charged with the murder of another teenage girl Charlotte as they were seen talking to her just before her death. They were known as the ‘Orchid Girls’ due to a tattoo they had. They were found not guilty due to lack of evidence. Grace then left England and went to live in France and has had no contact with Molly. Molly is now an alcoholic, still struggling wit( the death of Charlotte and obsessed with finding Grace. When she does track her down Grace doesn’t want reminding of the past as there are so many lies and secrets that have been hidden for so long that may threaten her existing life. The Orchid Girls is a gripping, enthralling psychological thriller and I loved it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

They called them The Orchid Girls.

Molly,Charlotte and Grace.

One of them is in love.

One of them is a liar.

One of them is dead.

One day - three became two. Two who swore an oath never to tell anyone what happened on that summers day on the cliff overlooking the sea.

But how far is one of them prepared to go to protect herself and stop the truth from being uncovered?

This is a compelling tale of secrets,lies,manipulation,obsession,first love,addiction,denial,friendships and relashionships. It's told in chapters that mainly alternate between the points of view of the adult versions of two of the girls. One has changed her name,is a food blogger,has just had a book published and is married to a MP who is in the running to be the next Mayor Of London. The other is struggling to hold down a job,lives in a dingy flat and is a alcoholic due to her guilt over what happened all those years ago. Interspersed throughout the book is extracts from the three girls diaries that gave the reader an insight into their lives,interactions and thoughts before,during and after that terrible summer's day. There is also newspaper articles about the disappearances of two teenage girls,one case set in the past and one in the present both of which bore striking similarities to each other. My favourite character was Ellis,the other main characters were not very likeable and didn't have any redeemable qualities. The author's descriptions of the alcoholic character`s daily battle to not have a drink were realistic. Both the main female characters refusal to accept the truth about certain things in both their lives was frustrating but perfect examples of how people both in fiction and in reality refuse to accept what is right in front of their own eyes.

This is a well written,gripping psychological thriller that had me hooked in and totally enthralled from the very first page. The author keeps the reader guessing and speculating about the shocking truth of what happened on that summers day until not far from the end of the book.Amazing book,highly recommended and I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

A good psychological thriller. A story of three girls who spent a summer together. Only two remain at the end. The story is set in present day with diary entries and flashbacks to that summer sixteen years ago. Molly and Grace have been estranged since and come together as someone else is taking an interest in this old case. Both girls have moved on in very different directions. A really gripping read with loss, love, friendship, betrayal and secrets. A few good twists along the way. I enjoyed this debut.

This book had Friendship, Forbidden Love , Obsession and Murder! Three girls a secret so explosive it leads to the death of one of them. Two of the girls were acquitted of premeditated murder after the trial but they never spoke or saw each other again. Flash forward to sixteen years later life has moved on and one of the girls has changed her name , moved away to Dorset and her husband is about to become governor and she’s developed a successful food blogger business, while the other is a drunk barely getting by. The lies and guilt kept them apart but now everyone is going to know who they are and what secrets they buried in their past when a journalist decides to write an expose of the case. This book was full of psychological drama focusing on female relationships and sexuality and how far will one person go to keep the truth hidden, especially when they went to such great lengths to reinvent herself. This was the authors debut book she really dived deep into what the characters were feeling and the emotion aspects of certain areas. I enjoyed the past diary entries and that helped with understanding the characters. Thank you netgalley and bookouture for the ebook ARC.

Overall, enjoyable but I think it lacked pace at times. I also didn't particularly warm to or relate to any of the characters. I enjoyed the flashbacks to the past with journal style entries which added a different slant to the writing. No massive twist but overall worth a read.

From the onset of this story, I was pulled straight into the gripping plot with such a dramatic force and unable to come up for air until the final word. I loved the intense mood and the lingering feeling of suspense that stayed with me throughout the entire journey through this book.

The plot was masterfully created and kept me in an endless dilemma of guessing and unanswered questions. The web of twists and turns were exceptionally clever and well thought out and just when I was sure I had the conclusion all figured out the plot turned on its head in a delicious and thrilling way.

Grace and Molly were well thought out characters who shaped and moulded as the story played out which added to the thrilling effects. I won't go into depth regarding their character profile as I don't want to drop any hints or spoilers but Lesley Sanderson certainly knows how to create compelling characters.

The Orchid Girls is a gripping story to entice your imagination and take you on a thrilling ride. I loved every second of the book and my heart is still racing having just finished the final page and picked up my pen to begin this review. I urge everyone to go out and grab your nearest copy of this delicious book and start reading as this is a story not to be missed.

Friendship. Forbidden love. Obsession. Murder.

Three girls and a secret so explosive that it leads to the death of one of them. Two of the girls were acquitted of premeditated murder but never spoke again. Sixteen years later...life has gone on and one of the girls has changed her name, moved away from Dorset and has married and developed a successful food blogger business while the other is living in drunken squalor. Lies and guilt have kept them apart but now all is about to come out as a journalist is doing an expose of the case. NO SPOILERS.

This is a psychological drama focusing on female relationships and sexuality. What lengths will one go through to keep truth hidden especially after completely reinventing oneself. This is a debut novel and though it bogs down quite a bit with lots of internal angsting and little action it was entertaining and I'd definitely be interesting in reading more by this author. Although I didn't care for any of the characters in this messy tale, and though I didn't find any unanticipated twist in the story, the narrative shifts in point of view and the diary entries provided good development to the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.

I found The Orchid Girls to be an okay psychological thriller, though it dragged on a bit. Three teenage girls are hanging out for the summer in Dorset, yet one day one of the girls. Charlotte, doesn't return home. Her friends, Grace and Molly, claim they left her in town, though this is clearly untrue. Other than that they're saying nothing. Fast forward 16 years and we find Grace is a successful social media star, with her husband running for Mayor of London, whereas Molly is a lonely alcoholic. Yet the two women find their lives drawn together again, with the past threatening to catch up with them. What happened on the cliff? What really happened to Charlotte?
The going in this book was so slow, it really missed out on creating a chilling atmosphere. Where suspense should have been building, I found my interest waning. This book is about 100 pages too long. It's a passable book, and lovers of the genre will probably like it, even if it is a bit transparent at the end.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grace is married to Richard, a candidate for London mayor. Her food blog is extremely successful and her gluten free cookbook is about to be released. Everything in her life is seemingly perfect.

Then a call from Molly, who Grace hasn’t seen since they were 14, shakes up her world. What does Molly want? Does she want to bring up that past that they swore never to speak about?

Molly is an alcoholic and her girlfriend is in a relationship with another women. Finding Grace seems like the world is finally righting itself after the death of their friend, Charlotte Greene. Molly is hurt that Grace never responded to the letters she sent her over the years. She is still in love with Grace and wants to take up where they left off all those years ago.

I found this book easy to read even though it jumped from person to person and present to past. The characters were not particularly likeable but were developed over time. The only negative was that the characters took too much time to get where they were going.

Several red herrings led to a satisfying conclusion. I would not say that this is “a completely gripping psychological thriller” but did enjoy the mystery.


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very well-written psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat as it races to a stunning climax.

Grace is at the beginning of a brand new chapter in her life. She is the queen of clean eating with thousands of fan followers on social media. Her husband, Richard, is the favored candidate for the post of mayor, and together, they are the hottest new power couple in London. Things had never looked better, but as always, fame has a price. Molly is back, raising difficult questions and bringing with her lots of unwanted memories. Also, the recent disappearance of a schoolgirl in Richard’s constituency bears too many similarities to what happened to Charlotte years ago, reigniting the public’s interest in the Orchid Girls.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.