Having it all isn’t what it appears to be. A group of old school friends get together at one woman’s estate - a large mansion with beach houses - for a weekend of reminiscing, drinking and partying. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually. it doesn’t help that the narrator is quite jealous of the owner’s success. The homeowner goes missing, and none of the women can remember what happened the day after. Were they drugged, and why? While I didn’t relate with any of the women, including the narrator, it was an engaging read, fleshed out with well developed characters. I didn’t figure it completely out until 3/4 way through the story. This would make a good beach read. I read it in two sittings, and it held my attention. This is a mystery thriller with some gruesome moments, If you want a fast and thrilling read, you will enjoy this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

June Moody's life has not gone the way she thought it would. Hoping to be the next great American author, she is actually a professor at a community college. When her boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her for a younger European, she agrees to go to attend a girls weekend with her 3 closet college friends.
She has doubts because it's being hosted by Sadie, who it appears has everything June thinks she should have. Even the hot professor they both obsessed over in college.
Sadie HAS made it as an author of very popular children's books, and has an amazing house on the sound near Seattle.
But things are not always as they seem, and Sadie's life is being held together but an unraveling thread.
When Sadie disappears the first night, June is the prime suspect, and she has to prove she didn't do it before it's too late.
I had a hard time getting into this book. June was a character I really couldn't get into, she's so whiny, and so much of the story is just too unbelievable.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

I enjoyed this book and thought it was a good, fast paced suspense/thriller. I enjoyed most of the characters and I enjoyed the twist and turns that the book had to offer. I really enjoyed the ending because I didn't see it coming which it always a nice surprise.

Did you ever have that one friend who has it all - money, the big beautiful house on the beach, the novel series you dreamed of writing, the bright, beautiful teenage daughter and the hot Scottish husband?

Sadie has the dream life, that June always wanted. When June is invited for a Girls Weekend at her old friend Sadie’s beautiful home June is reluctant to go until her best friend remaining of the group, Em talks her into it.

They arrive to this beautiful home and reunite with the rest of the “fab five from college,” only for one of them to wind up missing, the remaining girls having amnesia, and blood in the stairwell.

When everyone becomes suspicious of everyone, dark secrets come out, friends turn against friends and the beautiful life of Sadie reveals it isn’t at all as beautiful as it seems.

I loved this book, the suspense, the entangled friendships with dark secrets, and the hard lesson that what you see plastered all over social media to the world, isn’t always how someone’s life truly is. Most people have demons haunting them and these ladies certainly have several.

Thank you @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks for the free ARC for my honest review. I give this book 4-4.5 🌟

Publishing date of this book is June 2020.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for a chance to read this title before publication in June.

June Moody (didn’t like the name and kept thinking it was “Judy Moody"), a community college professor is invited to one of her college friend’s home to celebrate the baby another friend is about to have. At first, because of grudges and other negative experiences surrounding different girls in the group, she doesn’t plan to go. Then her boyfriend dumps her and moves in with his new love in Amsterdam. June thinks the getaway will keep her mind off him and it truly does.

Because I live in Washington State and love it here, the setting made this book rock for me. Gehrman used the right names for places and has a real knack for accurate description.

This was a murder mystery where everyone on the property and others had motive and were under suspicion. When the girls at the reunion all wake up with no memory of the night before, the fun has just begun.

I loved the plot and didn’t guess who did the killing until quite a ways into the book. The author left good clues, kept the action moving and spread shadows over everyone. Way to go Jody Gehrman. I hope you’re hard at work on your next thriller.

The plot of The Girls Weekend drew me in right away, estranged friends get together for a girls weekend and one of them ends up dead? Yes, please. Unfortunately, the novel fell a little flat for me. First of all, I generally like reading about damaged main characters that I dislike, in this case, I could not connect to June Moody on any level, and I was really sick of the story playing out from her perspective. I think I would have liked this book a lot better if each chapter focused on a different character's point of view. It got repetitive trying to find out who killed one of the women, but only hearing about it from one character's point of view. Overall it was a well-written thriller, but it missed the mark for me, personally.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

This was pretty much a easy read for me and I almost feel like I've read it before.
5 college friends and its been 20 years since they have been together. One weekend they get together to celebrate a life event and people go missing.

It was a easy read and it was quick. While I was invested, I wasn't on the edge of my seat with the book. There wasn't any twists. All of this happens pretty much during one evening and of course drinking is involved.

2 1/2 stars. The book had an intense Ruth Ware vibe. The Girls Weekend was a good beach read, but just that. It didn’t blow me away, but I really liked that all the characters were well developed and fleshed out.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman is a fast-paced, atmospheric whodunit that will keep you entertained and guessing up until the very end.

June Moody, along with her friend Em, is invited to attend a girls weekend at the impressive home of college friend Sadie, who is now a hugely successful author. Also residing at the home and in attendance are Sadie's pregnant cousin, her teenage daughter, and Sadie's husband, a former flame of June's. Tensions are running high from the outset, and long held resentments between the group soon come bubbling to the surface. Anxieties continue to mount, culminating when the party's host, Sadie, is discovered to be missing, leaving behind only a bloodsoaked stairwell. Frustrating the local police, none of the guests can remember the events of the previous night, and relationships reach their breaking point as the shadow of suspicion falls upon them all.

This is a fun, quick read that will keep you engaged and searching for motives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.

When June goes to reunite with her college friends for a girls' weekend, everything seems nostalgic and good until their friend Sadie goes missing. Overnight, seemingly, all the friends are suspected of foul play. Nobody has any recollection of where Sadie could be or what happened. I was so invested in the beginning. I was intrigued by the character development and how the story seemed to be coming together. Unfortunately, somewhere around midway, I started losing interest and I will be honest when I say I did not finish this book. The story started to sound more like a young adult book than an adult thriller. I think many people will really love this book. It just didn't work for me. Thank you so much, NetGalley for the ARC of The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman. I love thrillers and was intrigued by the description of this book as well as the gorgeous cover.

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!