I loved this book. I could see this all playing out in my head. The synopsis gives you just enough information to get you hooked without giving too much. I did not want to put this down. I highly recommend this book.

What do do? What do do? This is my fourth Minka Kent novel (all of which I've enjoyed), but I'm very unsure what to rate The Stillwater Girls.

Why?

While it's a fun read, I didn't find it to be particularly gripping. I mean, yes, I did read it in about 4 hours, spread over 2 days. But that was more because it's a fairly short book than because it was so engrossing I couldn't put it down.

I think my biggest complaint is the plot itself...it just never quite came together for me. Told from dual perspectives, those of Nicolette and Wren, parts of this novel felt incredibly implausible. I wish I could say more, but there is simply so little to the story line, almost any thoughts I could share would include spoilers. The conclusion was predictable--and a little dry. With so few characters, it's difficult for an author to create red herrings. And without red herrings, the "twist" becomes obvious fairly early on.

Bottom line, if you've read Ms. Kent's other books, I'd still recommend reading this one...it's worthy of your time, but not as twisty or intriguing as The Perfect Roommate or The Thinnest Air.

If you aren't fortunate enough to have read a Minka Kent novel thus far, consider yourself lucky. She's a very talented author. My recommendation, however, would be to pick up a copy of one her earlier novels to enjoy the full scope of her creativity and mad writing skills.

Sidenote: Can we take a minute to talk about that book cover though? I love it! It's such a beautiful fit for the story under the covers.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced reader's copy, in exchange for my honest review.

Publication date: 4/9/19
Published to NetGalley: 2/8/19

This wholly original story idea is close to brilliant. It’s part mystery, part thriller, and part family drama. To say that I devoured this book would be an understatement. The crisp prose propels the reader through every twist and turn.

Thank you to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer and author Minka Kent for the digital ARC in return for my unbiased review

Here the blurb as they write it better than I do! :-)

Two sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.

Ignorant of civilisation and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York. When the youngest grows gravely ill, their mother leaves with the child to get help from a nearby town. And they never return.

As months pass, hope vanishes. Supplies are low. Livestock are dying. A brutal winter is bearing down. Then comes the stranger. He claims to be looking for the girls’ mother, and he’s not leaving without them.

To escape, Wren and her sister must break the rule they’ve grown up with: never go beyond the forest.

Past the thicket of dread, they come upon a house on the other side of the pines. This is where Wren and Sage must confront something more chilling than the unknowable. They’ll discover what’s been hidden from them, what they’re running from, and the secrets that have left them in the dark their entire lives.

I started this book intrigued by the blurb and excited as the book pulled me in and i started with that desperate need to find out what was going to happen, i thought it was going to be one of the books i read in a day i get so hooked but it stopped! the second half felt slower and the twist and ending not the pay off i had expected? i still very much enjoyed the read but i thought the end would be more? it has made me seek ot more works by the author though.

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Another great one by Minka Kent! I have been a fan since her debut "The Memory Watcher." This was a well written, engaging read!

Wren completely pulled me in from the very beginning. Wren and Sage are two sisters living on their own in a remote cabin in the woods! Does that pull you in or what ?! Their mother has left with their little sister Evie and hasn't returned. The character development in this book was fantastic. We are now introduced to Nicolette who has her own issues. She cannot have a baby due to an emergency hysterectomy, has dreams of an empty baby stroller and a husband who is hiding things from her. Interwoven chapters of Wren and Nicolette had me tearing through the pages!

I am not sure if there is a sequel but I would definitely be reading it if there were, I want to hear more about Wren! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait for Minka's next one!

A big thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!

I'm sitting here trying to decide how to start this review and all I can think of is "why"?

Everything was going fine. I was actually loving this book, the mystery had me rapt, I had to know what was going on. It was killing me! You know those kind of stories, right? Completely and utterly absorbed in this book.

And then I turned to page 203....

...the final reveal was so far beyond absurd my eyes rolled completely into the back of my head leaving me unable to read the final pages.

In fact, my eyes are still staring at my bloody brain and I'm writing this review on keyboard memory alone.

I may never be able to see again. Thanks a lot Minka Kent.



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

For some reason I’ve always been very attracted to stories involving people living in seclusion, away from the world, with no knowledge of the world, etc. Something about that level of disconnectedness in our increasingly connected world is fascinating. Some of those lives are chosen voluntarily, off grid pioneers and so on and some are cruelly bestowed upon others by various psychos. The Stillwater Girls never had a choice. All they knew was their cabin in the woods and their Mama. When their Mama leaves and doesn’t return when she said she would, they are left alone and scared with rapidly dwindling provisions. And then a strange man shows up, his intentions unclear and now it’s time for the girls to be very brave, even if it means leaving all they know behind and venturing into the world they believe (courtesy of Mama) to be a frightening dystopic nightmare. And that portion of the story is great. But, sorry, yeah, there’s a but…because this is a modern female thriller, it has a formula to follow and the formula demands split narratives. And so the other side of the book belongs to Nic, a woman in her 30s, who has too much money, too much time and too perfect of a spouse. Until she finds some evidence that Brant might be lying to her. Up to now Nic’s greatest woe has been childlessness, apparently the only thing her trust fund can’t buy is a baby, but she was considering fostering. Nic’s of the popular (ludicrous really) mentality that only having a child can make a real family. Nic’s also prone to some dark moods, but other than that she’s a pretty stable character, a model wife, in fact. So the story alternates between Nic’s marital struggles and Girls’s survival ones (and guess which ones are more compelling) until the two narratives inevitably as these things go collide into one. From there on it just plays out to its inevitable and overly lachrymose (think women’s fiction) conclusion. This is my first time reading the author and the writing’s actually pretty good, if too heavy on sentimentality at times, but the plotting left a lot to be desired. Maybe I’m just getting too good at figuring these things out from reading so many thrillers, but no, I suspect it’s this book, it was entirely too predictable, you can work out if not all than certainly most plot twists easily and way in advance. Which is sort of a no no for a suspense thriller. And for all its complex psychological dynamics, it really wasn’t psychologically developed all that much. Nic’s past (once revealed) just seems unlikely and the girls had a suspiciously, nay, unbelievably easy time adjusting to the real world considering their ages and what they’ve been through. So yeah, best to read this one without overthinking it. But it was very quick read and it did entertain and even engage at times, so yeah. Decent read. Thanks Netgalley.

This is the first book that I've read by Minka Kent, but definitely not the last. I absolutely loved this book. It's told from two perspectives throughout, that of Wren and of Nicolette. Nicolette is a photographers wife, who finds reason to doubt her husband's fidelity. As you're reading the beginning, it's hard to know why and how these characters relate to each other. You become invested in both of the characters and their struggles, before finding that answer. The book has a lot of twists, and I don't want to give any spoilers. I'd recommend this book to readers who love suspense.

I've liked 2 of this author's previous books but I couldn't connect with it. I started skimming just to see if I guessed the end and I mostly did. Maybe I am just not the right reader for this novel.

The Stillwater Girls is a clever and entertaining read that kept my attention from beginning to end. Having never read the authors novels before I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found myself really enjoying the story. While I wish the ending was a bit more twisted, the book works in other ways. I look forward to reading more of the author novels in the future.

This was a hard book to put down. The “told from alternating viewpoints” trope has been getting really overdone, but The Stillwater Girls did it a way that felt seamless. There were no jarring moments where I had to reorient myself at the start of each chapter and no annoying overlap of the same piece of plot told by different characters. Each character also told the part of the story she told to add insight where it was needed (as opposed to being written that way just to stick to a popular format). The story moved along at a perfect pace - just enough pause to let me embrace the characters, but moving forward in a way that kept me turning the page to find out what happened next. The characters were easy to care for and it was a nice change of pace for a mystery to focus more on healing and hope than on the bad things that happen. I would recommend this one to readers who love their mysteries with some heart!

The Stillwater Girls was my first novel by Minka Kent, but it certainly won't be my last. Fast-paced, riveting, and suspenseful, this book starts out with a bang when we are introduced to Wren and Sage, the Stillwater Girls. The girls have been living in a remote cabin off the grid in the rural town of Stillwater, NY. Together with their mom and younger sister, Evie, the girls have created a peaceful, albeit unusual, lifestyle. Until the day their mom leaves with their younger sister and never returns. Wren and Sage are left to fend for themselves in the cabin, until the day a man arrives. Why is he there? What are his intentions? Will the girls be able to escape from this sinister stranger?

Nicolette and Brant are a young couple living in suburban Stillwater. Brant is hiding a secret from Nicolette, a secret that could threaten to tear apart their marriage and everything they have believed in. While Nicolette desperately tries to figure out what secrets lie within Brant, the doorbell rings. And she comes face to face with the Stillwater Girls.

Nicolette takes in the girls and offers them support, all the while trying to figure out how these unexpected visitors might tie in with the secret that Brant is holding close to his chest. What connection could there possibly be between an affluent couple in the suburbs, and the young ladies from the backwoods? As Nicolette uncovers the truth, she opens a Pandora's Box of her own past, revealing secrets and deceit that might best remain hidden.

Great book! The first three-fourths of the book had me completely hooked. I honestly had no idea the direction in which the book was heading. However, I was slightly disappointed in the last portion. I felt that we didn't have adequate understanding into some of the characters' motives, and that left me feeling unsettled. Also, the resolution was a bit too contrived for me. While I would not characterize this book as a thriller, there were definitely elements of suspense that had me wondering what the heck was really going on. I am curious to read the rest of Ms. Kent's books to see how they measure up. Definitely recommend for a quick and easy read!

A mom and her daughters are living off the grid, and the girls are warned to never leave the forest. When the mother and youngest daughter leave, sisters Wren and Sage are left to fend for themselves. When mom and daughter fail to return, times become more desperate as supplies are gone, and they must venture beyond their boundaries. Their story then merges with another and the author makes her magic happen.

Told from two different perspectives throughout. The first pov is from Wren, a young girl that lives in the woods in a cabin. Her whole life she's been told that the world is a dangerous place and to never leave the cabin. The second pov is from Nicolette whose greatest desire is to be a mother. Before their world's collide I found Nicolette's pov slow and rehashing her she worries over and over. Once everything started to fall into place I couldn't put the book down. I never had the plot all figured out. There were my suspicions but the author still threw a curve ball. Overall creepy enjoyable read. The ending did come together rather quickly I was hoping for more time spent between the family. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I went into this with fairly low expectations because I haven't read anything by the author before and given the synopsis I thought there was potential for the story to easily veer into hot mess territory. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be a pretty entertaining read. This is not some literary masterpiece (not trying to be snarky, the vast majority of books do not fall into the masterpiece category) but in terms of holding my interest, I was left feeling very satisfied and look forward to checking out other books by the author.

Sisters Wren and Sage have been living in a cabin with their younger sister, Evie, and their mother. The girls are completely isolated from society and are told to never leave the forest. When Evie becomes deathly ill, the mom leaves with her to get medical attention in a nearby town. The problem is they never come back and Wren and Sage are left wondering what they should do in order to survive.

I liked how the story switched back and forth between two characters and I think that's partly why the story had such a good pace and turned out to be a fairly quick read. I'll admit I did kinda side-eye the big surprise or twist in the book but honestly I was having such a fun time reading the story up until that point that I decided to just go with it and not analyze it to death. When I picked up this book, all I wanted was something that would hold my interest and keep my mind off real-life stuff for awhile, and thankfully it successfully accomplished those goals.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

I literally stayed up all night to finish this one! Wow.... I love this novel. The story was so different and unlike any other thrillers I have read before. Minka Kent did a fantastic job on this one. Go out and read it!

In a cabin deep in the woods, Wren and Sage and Evie have all been raised by their mother, who has told them that the outside world is desperate and dangerous. But when evie gets sick, Mama leaves with her to get help and never returns. Meanwhile, photographer Brant and his wife, Nicolette, have a troubled marriage exacerbated by Nicolette's strong desire for a child. Brant and Nicolette live at the edge of the forest and when Wren and Sage are forced to leave the cabin, they meet Nicolette and a mystery more than a decade old starts to unravel. Good characters - the plot was pretty unrealisitic but I stayed engaged and enjoyed the book.

I truly loved this book! Relished every page and hated for it to end. Minka Kent did a marvelous job of describing girls that came from a primitive background with no electricity as contrasted with Nicollette's world where money makes everything easy and convenient. Would love to see a sequel!

I really, really loved this book! Actually, it just might be one of new favorites! I have read a couple of Minka Kent's other books and i enjoyed them, but this one was a little different, though in a good way. I would definitely recommend it to other readers.
#TheStillwaterGirls #NetGalley

This book has predictable bits that are easily guessed early on. But that's ok, because.....
This book has bits that you will never guess and will make your head spin.

This book gets 5 glorious stars from me, for the beautiful writing and the surprising surprises.
And that cover! <3