I fell in love with this book! The murder mystery part of it was very well written, everything could have been something and I questioned every single clue provided. The thing that really got me was how well Jody captured reuniting with old 'friends' who once knew everything about you but life gets in the way and you simply grow apart. How those old personas can come back immediately when you are in that environment. Not only friendships but old loves as well. How we can look back at our young selves and see with clearer eyes which behaviours were toxic and how you can move on from past mistakes. How not growing out of those toxic behaviours can lead to something far more dangerous i.e. Sadie. It was simply very well written and I want to congratulate Jody on how great this story was with and without murder.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. I was super excited to read this, college friends reuniting for a girls weekend and something goes wrong, it’s right up my alley! I struggled to get to 20%. Then it grabbed my attention and I made it farther. But by 60% I was done. It was long and drawn out and I can’t even see why they were all friends. I ended up going to the last 10% to see what happened so I didn’t have to DNF.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman could best be described as a "fun read." The plot was twisty but not too far-fetched, the pace was fast but lucid, and the action never stalled. It's exactly what I welcome in my thrillers--succinct, punchy, with characters I don't despise. I recognized the girls Gehrman wrote--the overachiever, the party girl, the prissy privileged friend everyone secretly loves to hate. The murder was graphic, but the novel lent itself to a true "whodunnit" scenario. Though I guess the killer early on, I was eager to find out if I was right because of the slew of culprits the murderer could have been. I really enjoyed the outcome, and the book.

The Girls Weekend is a 2020 release by Jody Gehrman, a new author to me. I found the book on NetGalley and thought it would be a clever thriller to read this week. I enjoyed the book and ended up allotting 3.5 stars, as it was a good story but didn't fully pop or surprise me at any point. That said, I recommend it as a solid thriller and suspense novel for fans of this genre.

Five college friends lost touch over ~20 years. Some stayed close, others drifted... the missing years are a little murky. When one is pregnant, another throws a weekend bash to celebrate and reunite. During the course of the evening, secrets come out, blood appears on the wall, and people go missing. What happened that night? Someone drugged the others, or an outsider sneaked in and drugged the whole group. Toss in a husband, a daughter, a boyfriend, and a curious landscaper, you've got a cast of ~10 potential culprits, or is the missing woman faking her death?

The story is easy to read. The writing is good, and it kept me interested. I kept waiting for the major shocker, but it never quite came. I had expected some illicit relationship or secret popping up. Instead, we knew the basics, but figuring out how those played into someone's disappearance and/or death was the puzzle placed before us. I never really connected with any of the characters enough to wish they would be innocent. Our narrator, the main girl who never wanted to attend the event, is a bit wishy washy, and one of the other girls is so erratic, I couldn't understand why anyone would choose to befriend her. So... given all those things, I couldn't push it up to a 4 as a really great read.

I did like the setting and the dialog felt real. I would read another book by this author, as I think maybe this story was just a little underwhelming for me. The rest was all good.

Highly cliched writing. This was a disappointing read. The characters weren’t very appealing, so it was hard to get connected to, let alone thrilled, by it.

I really enjoyed this book! It has great characters, a good plot that's full of mystery and suspense. Fast paced, and a book you won't put down til the end. I would definitely recommend!

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review

I wanted to like this book more than I did, but the main character was very flawed and hard to connect with, and none of the other characters were too likable. It was a good binge-read and perfect for traveling, with some good twists and misleading plot points, but nothing stood out as amazing to me.

Thank you very much to Netgalley, and Crooked Lane Books for a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for the advance ecopy. A fast paced psychological thriller. Full of twists and suspense. Leaves you wanting to read it in one sitting. A real page turner! Highly recommend it.

The Girls Weekend is a taut and fast paced mystery! I am forever on the lookout for a mystery that will have me entrapped in the story and that's THIS book. WOW! What an excellent novel. I don't feel like a book has kept me on the edge of my seat like this one in a long time! Even more, I totally agree with the books description when it says that this book would be perfect for fans of Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley! Trust me, it is!

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

How well do you really know your friends?

The Girls Weekend follows the story of the reunion of the "Fab 5." A group of five girls, best friends from college, who reunite years later to celebrate the baby shower of one friend. June Moody, one of the Fab 5, is reluctant to go on the trip -- the host is her old frenemie, Sadie MacTavish, who is now a super successful children's author. Problem is, Sadie's husband is June's ex-boyfriend, who she may or may night still have feelings for. June winds up going, and the tension between all five women is palpable. After a wild night of drinking, the friends wake up to find the house in disarray, blood on the stairs, and Sadie is missing. None of the women remember anything, including what happened to Sadie. All of them begin to suspect each other and question how well they really know each other.

Wow. This book was the epitome of a page-turner. Jody Gehrman is able to capture the tension throughout the book perfectly -- I was on my seat the entire time I read, NEEDING to figure out what happened. A must read!

It's impossible to put this book down! College friends are reunited twenty years later, and one disappears. Take a waterfront estate, add unresolved feelings, secrets, and tension and you've got a great tale of suspense.

As indicated in the opening line, messy situations tend to start with a group text. That group text is the invitation for a girls weekend to a group of college friends. I found myself quickly caught up in the drama between these friends and their many secrets. Jody Gehrman nails the dynamics of friendships among a group of women, especially those that were college friends.

Then one of the friends disappears and another friend is believed to be responsible. The twists and turns of what really happened that night and who was responsible for the disappearance keep you engaged til the end. It was a fun, quick read that I couldn't put down.

I received a free copy of The Girls Weekend from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley!
From the first chapter I couldn’t put this down! I quickly found myself interested in these characters. Five college best friends come together for a fun weekend to celebrate ones pregnancy. But after a night of fun partying and drinking, they wake up to the house a mess and don’t remember anything. Were they drugged? And if so, by whom? Also, one character is missing. The character who seems to have pissed off each of the other characters in one way or another so everyone is a suspect or hiding something. This was a quick read for me, twisty and fun, and I enjoyed it a lot! There were secrets galore! Would definitely read more from this author in the future.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
Girls who have been together since school plan a weekend at Stacy's beautiful home. Her husband chooses to sleep at the beach house and allow the girls the house to themselves.
But as sometimes happens each girl comes with issues from their past and their relationship with each other.
And then the night they party and wake up feeling drugged and not being able to remember the night - they find blood on the wall and Sadie missing,
Where is Sadie? What happened that night? Why does everyone seem to be a suspect?

I’ve been in a reading slump and this was the perfect book to pull me out! I loved the eclectic cast of characters, the setting, and the mystery. A great read!

I love, love, love a closed room mystery and I enjoyed the writing, dialogue and characterizations in this book but I fear it needed a few more characters in order to successfully pull of a surprise ending.

I suspected early the "who" and "why" but it was still a very enjoyable read and I still recommend strongly.

Thank you to Jody Gerham, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very quick paced thriller! Though I found it to be tropey and very predictable, it was still good and held my attention.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman—Meeting up with your college best friends after 17 years isn’t all Instagram worthy chat sessions with lattes and laughs for June. After all, the girls weekend is taking place at Sadie’s house—no wait—estate complete with mansion and a couple of guest houses on the beach. And Sadie? That’s June’s arch nemeses, the one who married the love of June’s life, became a hugely successful writer overnight while June has struggled to get any of her writing published, and is living the life June should have had. Sadie has it all. She invites their old crew, the Fearless Five, to come to her estate for a fun weekend. June doesn’t want to go, but when her boyfriend suddenly dumps her for a younger girl, she decides a girls weekend is just what she needs, even if it means facing Sadie. She can leave the past in the past, right? Too bad Sadie can’t. She is still the controlling alpha-female she was in school. Everyone is a puppet in her play. After a wild night of partying, everyone wakes up with spotty memories, their hostess is gone, and there is blood, a lot of blood. Great read with a nice twist. Read this in one sitting. #TheGirlsWeekend #JodyGehrman #NetGalley

I couldn't get into this at all. I anticipated this to be an easy read that I would really enjoy but I didn't connect with any characters or the story line

Enjoyed the plot and the characters...but overdramatic at times. A good beach read.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48237843