I enjoyed this book but it wasn’t my favorite. The subtitle says this is a gripping thriller but I didn’t get that. It was an enjoyable read but I found it to be quite predictable. When Kirsty’s best friend Lisa goes missing as a child, Kirsty implicates Lisa’s family’s renter as the killer. He goes to jail and Kirsty is left wondering if he truly was at fault. Even though I found the story to be a little predictable, like many thrillers lately, I did enjoy the psychic aspect to the story. Overall, this was a decent read and pretty quick to get through. I didn’t find myself picking it up as often, but still enjoyable.

Thanks to #netgalley for the advance copy!

- [ ] Two Little Girls is a gripping thriller that gathers momentum and keeps you hooked to the end. Starting in 1985, Kirsty and Lisa are best friends until Lisa Cook disappears. Kirsty is traumatise and gives evidence that puts the Cook’s lodger behind bars but what if Kirsty made a mistake? Moving on to present day Kirsty moves back to he home town and is determined to fins out the truth. A great read that I can highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

It is 1985 and best friends forever Kirsty and Lisa have an argument in the park. Kirsty walks off and Lisa is never seen again. The laws have now changed when interviewing minors and others of different ethnic groups. Thank god, back then miscarriages of justice were a lot higher than they are now. I read this book in one sitting, I really had to know. So many secrets, lies and so much guilt. Oh did I mention a really evil person. This book was not what I was expecting and I mean that in a good way. It had me tapping my kindle faster and faster I had to know the truth. When it was revealed I was speechless and definitely not who I was expecting. A real page turner and a little gem of a read. I will definitely be reading more of this authors work. So highly recommended and an easy five stars. I LOVED IT!!!!!!
I would like to thank the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Two Little Girls is a great suspense novel with wonderful characters. It had some great twists and wonderful writing.

March 1984. Ten-year-old Lisa Cook disappears without a trace, and the last known person to see her alive is her Best Friend Forever, Kirsty Cooper.

When the police bring Kirsty in to question her about the last time she saw Lisa – walking home from school through the park by the canal, where they ere explicitly forbidden rom going by Kirsty’s mother – it’s clear to Kirsty that they already have their minds made up on who the perpetrator is. Toqueer Al-Balushi is a lodger staying with Lisa’s family from Oman while he attends school in England. Lisa has told Kirsty that “Tokki” has promised to marry her and bring her back to Oman with him so she can be a princess, painting a picture that any young girl would fall prey to. When Kirsty reveals this tidbit of information to the police, that seems to seal the deal on Tokki’s guilt. Police tell Kirsty that two girls have come forward stating they saw Tokki in the park that night around the time Lisa disappeared, and that they were sure that Kirsty would have seen him too before she left Lisa alone.

Knowing in her gut that she hadn’t seen Tokki, she agrees that she had seen him anyway. After all, she was only ten, and if two older girls had seen him, then surely he had been there. Right?

Without a solid alibi for the time of Lisa’s disappearance Tokki is arrested and charged with murder. Thinking that would be the end of it and she could put Lisa’s mysterious disappearance behind her, Kirsty returns to school, and is quickly proven wrong. After endless months of torment from Lisa’s distraught and mentally unstable brother Bryan, Kirsty’s mother decides enough is enough, and moves Kirsty and her younger sister to a new place where they can start fresh, where everyone in town won’t look at Kirsty like it’s her fault Lisa disappeared.

As she grew to adulthood, Lisa’s disappearance never really left Kirsty’s mind, and she began digging into it on her own, and with the help of internet sleuths, she became more and more convinced that she hadn’t seen Tokki in the park that afternoon, and that he really hadn’t killed Lisa. Her now-husband, Lee, is convinced that she’s just feeling guilty over hacing left Lisa alone in the park and every time she brings it up, he becomes irrationally annoyed with her preoccupation with the case. It quickly becomes evident to the reader that Lee knows more than he lets Kirsty know. But what that is, is unclear.

Years after escaping her hometown, Kirsty is forced to return to assist her sister through a difficult pregnancy, and face her worst nightmares.

Enter Angela Bright and her mother Sylvia McKnight, both with the gift of tarot reading, and Angela with the gift of communicating with the dead. After an unnerving first interaction with Angela, Kirsty is increasingly on edge as the events surrounding Lisa’s disappearance become more and more murky. Will Kirsty find out what really happened to Lisa or will she become a victim of a town that’s determined to chew her up and spit her out again?

Two Little Girls is a gripping story, with several twists. Usually I’m pretty good at guessing where thrillers like this are going before they get there, but this one surprised me. Vick did a great job keeping me guessing and I really enjoyed the journey as Kirsty tried to put her friend to rest and to get closure for herself.

I felt that Kirsty was a relatable character, in the way she blamed herself for situations that were far beyond her control, and who constantly seemed to be second guessing events that had occurred years before. I often find myself doing this, and it was refreshing to find a character as flawed as Kirsty clearly was, one who had a past that severely affected her into adulthood. Often we find characters whose stories allude to traumatic pasts and these characters are developed into either strong, resilient types, or they are written as severely damaged because of their experiences. Kirsty is neither. She’s damaged but she’s still soft, she still feels and still allows her emotions to guide her. She trusts and she cares for others, despite having suffered at the hands of cruel schoolchildren. She is strong, but not overtly so. She’s unlike most characters I’ve read, and in this type of story, it worked.

I felt like Vick could have developed Angela’s character a bit more, but her importance isn’t as apparent until further into the book, so I understand why she was a little glazed over and presented the way she was. The lack of development early on really didn’t take away from the story though, as a lot of her true character shone through in the last quarter of the book, and she really wasn’t the rude, aloof woman Kirsty originally thought her to be. I actually ended up feeling quite a bit of empathy for Angela by the end of the book.

Two Little Girls was a good read and if you’re looking for a twisting plot, I’d highly recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley/Bookouture for granting me an ARC of Two Little Girls by Frances Vick. The synopsis intrigued me enough to request it. Two friends, 30 years ago, already know they will be friends for life. Until one goes missing and the other is left to put whatever pieces she can find back together to make sense of it. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Lisa and Kirsty and their friendship when they were younger. It fell apart for me in the middle third of the book. Characters and family members were a jumbled mess of motivations, relationships, idiosyncrasies. I didn't care about any of them because they were all so dysfunctional and unlikeable. Really unlikeable. Ordinarily I may have given up on it. But the redeeming quality is the ending. The author brought things together. In some ways, she may have stretched reality a bit but in the end it was satisfying.

An unusual thriller with a great many surprises. Who is telling the truth about Lisa's disappearance? Good main characters.

This book was amazing. Told from the Kirsty's point of view as first a child and then an adult, as she tries to get to the heart of the mystery of what happened to her best friend. She carries a lot of guilt with her, as they had a fight walking home from school that day, and she left Lisa in the park alone. Because of a terribly inept and prejudiced police force, she is coerced into blaming a foreigner that lodged with Lisa's family, and who confesses at first, due to his inability to understand most English and because of an issue with his student visa. As Kirsty grows up she soon realizes how shoddy the investigation was and an innocent man could most certainly be spending his life in prison. Now 30 years later, she moves back home to take care of her pregnant sister Vic and starts delving into the past to discover the truth. There are many little twists and turns along the way leading to a truly inspired ending.

I was drawn in right from the start, as the tone captures the mind of 10 year old girls perfectly. Lisa, the constant exaggerator and liar, Kirsty, her faithful shadow. The author has a way of capitalizing certain phrases that are intimidating or powerful to a little girl and it help emphasize how seriously Kirsty takes everything she hears as a child. Although I was surprised that the author continues this as Kirsty grows older, but I found I didn't mind, as it makes the writing stand out. I found myself turning page after page - I just had to know what happened to Lisa! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and can't wait to read more of this author's work.

This books story was told very well. The characters were well thought out and believable. The plot was solid and suspenseful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This was a dark and gritty novel that seemed to lead you down one path and then take an abrupt plot twist that you dont see coming. It was a great read, it lost one star from me as i feel the pace could have been slightly faster and the book slightly shorted but over all i recommend this book it you like suspenseful novels.

Ten year old Lisa Cook is known to tell a lot of lies - the more far-fetched, the better. For her long-suffering best friend Kirsty, it’s all a bit wearing. When Lisa disappears from a local park, the police - and the public - are all too ready to point an accusing finger at Toqueer Al-Balushi, a lodger in the family home. Nobody doubts his guilt - he’s a Suspicious Foreigner, after all - and, thanks in part to stories previously told by the imaginative Lisa, it’s not hard to secure a murder conviction, despite Lisa’s body never being found and “Tokki” protesting his innocence. As an adult, Kirsty has never really come to terms with Lisa’s disappearance and has never been easy in her mind about Tokki’s conviction and her own part in it.

I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I expected to, especially the first half. We see the events leading up to, and the horrible aftermath of, Lisa’s disappearance in the 1980s, before moving on to Kirsty’s life as an adult. I was thoroughly engrossed in all this, which almost had the feel of a family drama at times, exploring Kirsty’s relationships with husband Lee and younger sister Vic and her professional life as a social worker, but things take an unexpected turn when TV psychic Angela Bright comes on the scene...

Kirsty’s job as a hospital social worker was quite realistically portrayed and - having done a similar job myself - I enjoyed this aspect of the story. All the characters were really well drawn (Peg and her giant family were highlights) and though the “twist” was fairly well signposted it didn’t detract from my enjoyment... though things did start to get far fetched towards the end. The ending, however, was satisfying.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review - I enjoyed it a lot.

This is a great character driven  book, written by an author who obviously understands children and what causes them to become the adults we interact with every day. Central to this is Kirsty, a kind and caring social worker scarred by a childhood experience she has blamed herself for ever since.

As the parent of children the same age as Kirsy and Lisa the memories stirred by the scenes set in their childhood added a depth and realism not always found in this type of book. The present day Kirsty is the main reason this book works so well. She is sympathetically written and her quest is such that you want her to discover the secrets of the past not only to prove you, the reader, worked it out first, but also so she finds the answers for herself.

There are a great many twists and turns in this story but never once was I confused as to what was happening or to whom. I found myself ahead of the game a couple of times when I felt the next 'reveal' was signposted a little too well but they were equalled out by a similar number of 'oh' moments which surprised me. There was also an emphasis on tarot cards and spiritualism which may put some people off.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good psychological story where you want the best outcome for everyone and are satisfied at that end.  This is the final book in a series of four but it is the unnamed location which is the constant and can definitely be read as a stand alone.

**This ebook ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion

This author is new to me, so I went in with no expectations and was pleasantly satisfied! I read a LOT of thrillers and mysteries so the plot twists were not *too* difficult to discern; however, the journey to the end was entertaining and well-written. I stayed engaged with most of the characters, even the ones I didn't particularly care for, and the dialogue was smooth and conversational and kept my attention.
I'd recommend this book and definitely be willing to read other works by the same author.

Two Little Girls took the reader on a twisted journey between past and present. Kirsty experienced a catastrophe when she was very young that ultimately caused her family to leave their small town. Now, an adult, Kirsty has found her way back towards that small town where chance and coincidence start helping her solve the tragedy that drove her away so many years ago.
The title alone made this book unique, because it is hard to distinguish exactly what "two little girls" it was referring too. Initially I thought it had to be between Kirsty and Lisa, however I think it could have applied to Kirsty and her sister Vic and later on to a few other characters. This is a must read because it keeps you guessing and just when you think you have it all figured out, another layer unfolds and you realize you were wrong.

Brilliant read with plenty of twists I had no idea how this book was going to go. I’d recommend this to anyone.

Where do I begin! Two Little Girls is a very gripping, dark and twisty book!
I loved the plot and characters in this one. While being a work of fiction, this book does throw in quite a few thought-provoking anecdotes based on current/recent events. This is why I found the book to be so engaging. The topic of Psychic Science & tarot reading also were a few factors that drew me in. Besides this, the obvious plus point was the superb storyline. I surely am looking forward to reading more books by Frances Vick.
Thank you Netgalley, Bookouture and Frances Vick for an arc.

This is a thrilling journey with enough twists thrown in to keep you turning the pages. With the manipulation of childhood memories at the core, the author crafts a diabolical tale that will fully engage the reader.

A gripping and intense read. I was very excited to start this one since the blurb had fascinated me.

It was an easy book to read, the characters were interesting and I wanted to know more about them, the more the story went on.
I would recommend this book to my friends!

I was interested when I read the synopsis of this book. However once I began reading it, I just could not get involved in the story. It's sprouted as a gripping psychological thriller, but not for me. I couldn't become interested in any of the characters. I do enjoy delicious thrillers, but this book just wasn't it for me.

I really enjoyed this book, although it had a bit of a slow start I was soon hooked and couldn’t put it down. It kept me guessing and I thought the ending was very well written, I shall be recommending this book.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.