5/5 stars, WOW
this book was so good.. It was about old friends having a reunion trip after not seeing eachother for awhile and trust me it was one they wont forget i could not put this book down every chapter was so good and the characters were so good.. The main character was one of my favorite characters that ive read in a long time. She was great.
It touched on so many different things and a few secrets and it had some scandal however i was expecting more secrets but this book was amazing.
I look foward to reading more from this author.
Also i kept wanting to know who was guilty and i had my prediction from the start and it turns out i was right however this book was so good and if you like books that are about a few friends going through some stuff and a messy weekend read this book asap!

This books starts strong. I was impressed when I began reading it. But the story quickly became predictable. The suspense was lost and I was not as interested as I had been in the beginning.

I still think it’s a good read, but I hope to see more from this author that sustains suspense and has a strong, twisted end.

I like the concept of a female cast with history between them. It added a lot of layers to the story (some which I wish were gone into a bit more) and I think having a lot of varying personalities kept the story moving at a fast pace. I will say the book did lull a bit towards the middle with the "collective amnesia" and it was a bit frustrating as a reader to muddle through a bunch of "I don't know" and "I don't remember" for a large chunk of the book. The ending did surprise me, but I wish there was more to it to wrap up loose ends. I also would've liked to hear at least parts of the story from Ethan's perspective and I feel like some opportunities were lost there.

Always a fan of a good girls reunion premise, I was really interested to start this book with the added mystery/suspense element.

It's a quick read, and I mostly enjoyed the 2nd half, but I think I would have abandoned the book before that point if I hadn't received this ARC from NetGalley and owed them a review.

I couldn't find anything to like about the characters, and beyond not understanding why they would even want to get together for a girls weekend (since they seemed to really dislike each other even in college), there were so many problems with the details of "the morning after" that I got hung up on and frustrated with. For example, if the girls suspected they had been drugged with the alcohol that Kimiko brought, why didn't they explain why pregnant Amy had "snuck" a drink until more than a day later as the story unfolded? And why were the girls so quick to dip into the same bottle the very next day? I also couldn't buy into why these women thought it was a good idea to withhold the information that they suspected they had been drugged from the police. Maybe if the characters had been in their early 20's when they would have had less life experience I could have believed they could be so foolish.

I suspected early on who the culprit was because I thought that character would have been pushing the police harder to find Sadie unless guilty herself...oops, spoiler!

I try to be more generous with my "stars" because it was an overall entertaining read, but unfortunately the inconsistencies surrounding Sadie's disappearance and the supposed "drugging" of her friends left me really annoyed and I had a hard time pushing past it.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gerhman was a study in female relationships and the cost of secret rivalries and triangulations in a close-knit group.

The beginning certainly hooked me with old college friends meeting up to celebrate a new baby, a weekend in a mansion in the PNW with a famous woman named Sadie who clearly was the ‘frenemy.’

In any group of women I’ve ever been in a swan emerges. Someone who seems to get everything they want with a snap of their fingers. I related deeply to this situation, as I am a split between Kimiko’s rebellion and June’s vulnerability, not Sadie’s iron will and the pretty princess aspect, but I know her well and avoid whenever possible.

The mystery begins about 35% in and I already knew from the blurb that something bad was about to happen. There was plenty of set up and connections made to keep me wondering who was behind the bizarre events.

Ethan comes off as handsome and slightly mysterious initially, but it’s clear that he likes to play with fire and is selfish and immature.

Leo as the mystery man was a welcome addition, as I wondered a few times what his real role was on the MacTavish estate and if he was someone’s sidepiece?

When someone goes missing, there was a slow down in the pacing when June began constantly mulling over whom, what and where. It cranked things down for me and the story felt less realistic, as I can’t imagine anyone having logical, and well drawn out conclusions after what happens.

That complaint aside, I was compelled to know who dun it at the end. I had my money on someone, but I was wrong and was very glad that I kept reading.

As a reader, I would qualify this novel as more of a mystery and women’s fiction than a thriller, as it delved more into relationships and feelings than a typical thriller does. This is a positive thing and I would like to see more of this in similar books in the future. I will certainly be reading more of Ms. Gerhman’s work, as it felt very relatable to me.

My appreciation to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning of this book was amazing. I was extremely engrossed in the story and the writing was full of suspense. Towards the middle of the book I started noticing that the story became predictable and I was able to figure out what would eventually happen in the end.

I wish the ending could have been thought out a little more. All in all the book was fairly good.

Sadie is the quintessential mean girl.
What seem like nice gestures from her are anything but. She controls and dominates everyone from friends to family to staff and expect them all to bend to her every ridiculous command.
So when Sadie goes missing and there's signs of foul play, it's no surprise. Everybody present had a motive to do her harm, but which one decided to take it that far?

It took awhile for this story to really go anywhere and even then it seemed to drag on.
This was (supposed to be) a classic whodunit tale. There were so many characters and therefore a lot of suspects, however, the conclusion was glaringly obvious early on.
Sorry to say I just didn't find myself enjoying or investing in the writing style, the storytelling, or the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchanged for an honest review.

These characters are super unlikable. I had serious problems with many of them. Yet I kept reading. I thought that the plot was kind of thin, yet I kept reading. I kept waiting for the book to get better for me and it really didn't, if I'm being completely honest. I feel like this book had a ton of potential, but for me, it really just kind of fell flat.

I wanted to like it more, but I just really didn't. I finished it though so there's that. I just thought it could be a lot better.

We all have that girl from high school that we think got everything we ever wanted. The perfect job, the amazing husband, the big house. For June Moody that girl was Sadie. They were friends in college where June thought she had all the time in the world to write the great American novel. Ten or so years later she hasn't done that. Instead her friend Sadie from college wrote this amazing young adult book that launched into a blockbuster hit movie. Not to mention Sadie married Ethan, a man June was in love with, but turned down because she didn't want to be tied down. Now Sadie has invited everyone to her house for a Girls Weekend and June is drug along, despite her jealousy of Sadie making her not want to. But one morning they wake up and Sadie has vanished and there is blood in the hallway. With no memory of what happened the night before they must try to piece together what happened to her. And it appears June isn't the only one that would have reason to hurt Sadie.



I was really looking forward to this book. Alexa Donne said great things about it on her channel when she read it. And I did like somethings about it. I really liked the representation of Young Adult in an adult book. I went away with wanting to actually read Dakota's Garden. I liked the friendship between June and Em. I liked June overall, except for when it came to Ethan. And for the most part, the writing was good and the flow was decent.


There are several things that bothered me about this book. Ethan being the first thing. I didn't like his character and I didn't understand why these girls like him so much. I didn't like several of the characters, but that didn't ruin the book for me. What ruined it was knowing exactly who did this and why before Sadie even went missing. This book was incredibly predictable for me. For someone who loves mystery and thriller as much as I do, I knew exactly what happened when this character started talking and the things that they said. I wish it would have been dialed back a bit, because if it had been and I couldn't have guessed, it would have been an amazing twist.


I gave this book 2\5 stars. Where there were somethings I liked about the book, the predictability wasn't something I could get past.

While this DEFINITELY wasn't a book you could stop reading (what's next?! what's happening?!) and there was a very satisfying amount of catty behavior, many of the post-possible-crime actions didn't ring true. Really, the women all just claimed "memory loss" and never once sat down to reconstruct what few memories they did have? And pretty much every male was lusting after the main character? Still, those points aside, it was quite an enjoyable read.

OMG YES!!!! Literally the perfect girls weekend novel fo read. With it being very creepy at the same time... I will honestly say I did not see the ending coming. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but dang! Y’all need to read this one ASAP.

Solid feedback but not over the top - didn't wow me like I had hoped. It wasn't anything different in the thriller genre but still worth reading for a good thriller book-craving. The characters were a bit flat IMO.

The story line is what made me want to request this book. This author is new to me. This is a story of old college friends that haven't been all together in a few years. June has always felt that Sadie had everything. That is the start. Then we throw in secrets, old flames and too much drinking. I found the book to be slow at times. I didn't fully engage with alot of the characters.

A really interesting premise with strong characterisation and plot line.
There are some really quirky passages and one liners in it that had me chuckling and whilst I found I didn't like any of the main women, I could at least empathize with them.
Started really positively, ended in a very satisfying conclusion, the middle didn't work for me but I can see it going down really well as a whole.

I've been really into thrillers lately and nothing is worse than being really excited for a good twist and being let down. That was definitely not the case with The Girls Weekend. I loved it!

When June decides to reunite with her college friends after 10 years, emotions are running high and I felt that radiate from the pages. June's discomfort with Sadie's glamorous successful life suddenly takes a difficult turn when the old friends wake up with no memory of the previous night, to find Sadie missing.

As each of the characters have a potential reason for harming Sadie, their collective amnesia makes this story a true mystery for the reader. I found myself guessing the twist multiple times throughout the book, and I was wrong each time.

I did have some slight issues with the story, such as some unrealistic parts (living in a crime scene?) and unlikeable characters (Kimi) but overall I did really enjoy reading this book and would highly recommend it to any thriller/mystery lovers.

The premise of The Girls Weekend pulled me in immediately. The protagonist, June, is summoned to her college frenemy's secluded estate in Washington's San Juan Islands, for a weekend-long baby shower for another of their clique's members. The Fearless Five, made up of June, Sadie (the frenemy and hostess), Em, Kimiko, and Amy (the pregnant one, and Sadie's troubled cousin), have fallen out of touch in the years since they ruled their college together. June and Sadie have always been competitive—both are writers, and both were grappling for the affections of the same man. Sadie married that man, and her estate, nestled between forest and the waters of Deception Pass, was paid for by the massively-successful middle grade fantasy series she wrote shortly after college. June, meanwhile, teaches at a community college, has written one out-of-print novel, and has just been dumped by her boyfriend over the phone. Resentment abounds, not just between June and Sadie, but also between Sadie and each other member of the Five. Everyone has a reason to be frustrated with Sadie. Everyone has a secret. So when the women wake up on their second morning at Sadie's estate missing their memories of the night before, a compelling, tangled plot spills out. A fast-paced thriller, fueled by realistically-complex female friendships.

I received a copy of The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman from Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

4 stars! The premise of this book is in the title. Classified as a mystery/thriller-without spoilers- this book was very well written. The characters weren't very likable at first but they somewhat grow on you, but I suppose that was the point. I would absolutely recommend this fast-paced thriller!

I was so excited to start The Girls Weekend. The plot sounded really great and I’ve been super into suspense books lately. However, I felt extremely disappointed with this book. I still really liked the overall plot but there was multiple times that the writing was tone deaf.
The first thing that hit me really wrong was the main character, June, and her careless comparison of hate stalking someone’s Instagram to a person who self harms. June was also incredibly immature and spent so much of her time complaining about her life and how Sadie seemed to have it all, just based on her social media. Not an uncommon way of thinking in today’s culture but also not a compelling story line in a book with full grown adult characters.
I didn’t mind the pace of the plot. It was a little slow, the action didn’t start until 30% into the book, but I didn’t feel like it was being dragged out. I do wish there was more background on the characters, I was especially interested in knowing more about Kimi but we knew very little about her or Amy or Em.
The second tone deaf issue I noticed was when the only person of color in the book brings up how cops make her uncomfortable and another character says “Really? You’re going there?”. It was convenient that the author has a POC token character, because that’s all she seemed to be, but also, very poor choice on the author’s part to include a white character disregarding a real and legitimate concern for POC in the real world. Shortly after that, there was a brief degradation of #MeToo, which was completely unnecessary and did nothing for the plot or characters.
I also hated how mental illness was consistently downplayed and was used as a reason that someone might be a murderer. One of the worst lines in this book was, “Amy went through a cutter phase in college.” Again, so tone deaf. Self harm isn’t a phase. It’s serious and not something to dismiss as a phase. And of course, mental health issues always equal being a murderer in all the character’s eyes. That was a consistent theme throughout the book and I found it to be a disgusting, outdated, tone deaf stereotype.
The plot twist was decent but I wasn’t shocked and it didn’t spur any emotion out of me.
Overall, the potential of the plot was ruined for me by all the tone deaf stereotypes and careless disregard for serious issues in the real world.

Gehrman’s new novel is an interesting mystery, thriller female perspective book with some flaws mostly winning formula that keeps the reader interested in the final half.

The Girl’s Weekend characters are all very interesting and they are basically what hinges the story together. The five friends have a checker history with each other as far as their personal relationships within them. Sadie, it seems to be the string puller with the others falling in line except for June who is in her own personal baggage, lack of a writing career and successful relationship. After around 15 years, Sadie decides that it is time to get the old team back together and they grudgingly ascend on to Sadie’s mansion and grounds bringing along stored up bitterness.

The characters are well drawn and are very likable. Em and June, we spend the most time with and even though there is some personality stereotyping found within the characters, for the most part they stand on their own. As the story is in the first person narrative, June is very balanced and likeable which is not an easy feat. The author knows this character and all and it would have been easy to have her being annoying and whining but this is refrained from making this character a winning shining example how first person narrative is to be handled (something Stephanie Meyer could have learned with her Twilight series).

The plot is very effective and readable though there is an underlying blame culture that permeates through the pages concerning the character of Sadie that often works well but there are a few story threads you have to wonder if this should be a thing, for the example the lending of money by Sadie to another character and Sadie wanting it repaid. Not sure if this is an efficient enough reason within the plot, maybe something a bit more sinister would have suited the plot better. The plot keeps the reader invested although it does take more than a third of the novel to get to this. We do have a lot of jealousy to wade through and this leaves a slightly sour taste considering that Sadie worked hard for what she accomplished and it was not inherited or given to her by marriage. It would seem that Sadie should be admired for these aspects and identified for this. Sadie’s personality leaves something to be desired and does give the rest of the group ample ammunition for their untoward feelings for her though.

Overall, this is a good little mystery thriller that keeps the reader invested. I enjoyed the different characters interaction and plot though I did slightly work out the whodunit aspect a little early but the reasoning still left me surprised. The love interest side of it kind of works but could do without as we have a woman’s story that needs a man or relationship to keep her successful which work ok but could have been left out considering the speedy conclusion we get at the end. I think people will enjoy the overall flow, mystery and characters and for the most part besides a few niggling aspects, I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to most people.

The story had a very slow start to it. I had trouble connecting to the characters and buying in to their stories. After Sadie went missing, the story definitely starting picking up and I started enjoying it more. The end was a nice twist!