Absolutely loved this book! It was just the right amount of spooky, and had me guessing until the end. Usually with thrillers, I’m not really pulled in until the “big twist” but I was really interested in learning about the characters and their personalities. I have read other novels with a similar storyline (friend from past invites woman to a wedding/baby shower, someone dies), but NONE have had such a great twist. I thought I had guessed the killer, but I was completely wrong. My review has already been posted (spoiler free) to goodreads!

Could not get into this one at all and ended up not finishing it. I found it was not well written & super predictable for a thriller.

I was expecting something gritty and salacious...what I got from The Girls Weekend was something quite different.

I'm so drawn to books like this one because I relate so deeply to the stage of life depicted...middle-age women spending time with old friends and reliving their youth. Unfortunately, this particular story didn't resonate at all. At it's heart, this is a 'locked-room mystery,' but there weren't enough characters to make it much of a mystery at all. I suspected the antagonist very early on, but kept thinking...that's way too simple. Surely I'm not right. I held out hope until the final pages.

👎 I was right. 👎

Beyond that, the dialogue was super cheesy. I kept expecting one of the women to break out with a raspy voice, impersonating Clint Eastwood saying, "Go ahead. Make my day."

I couldn't relate to any of the characters, all of whom were particularly unlikable and lacking in intelligence. Thankfully, the story did somehow manage to keep me turning pages, so for that reason, I'm going to call it average and slap on a 2.5 star rating.

Available August 11, 2020

**My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my review copy.**

Old friends get together for a (yes, you guessed it!) girl’s weekend. 5 friends and lots of past. I powered through this because it’s a fun and likeable easy read. Definitely one for the beach or the garden or just a settee afternoon. 4/5. I’ll be reading more by this author!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the plot and storyline in the book. I loved the characters in this story. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

Another “locked room” reunion of long-time friends with secrets from the past resurfacing thriller- if you write it, I will read it. This was pretty solid but not one of my favorites or that memorable. I couldn’t connect with the characters as much as I would like, but it kept my attention.

Thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and the author Jody Gehrman for an advanced digital review copy. This story will be published August 11, 2020.

A girls college reunion trip meets a thriller! Add in all the personal drama each character is going through and I think we’ve got the makings of a pretty excellent read! It has the nostalgia from their past combined with the chaos of their current lives and a nemesis added into the mix. This novel is fast-paced ansd definitely kept me on the edge of my toes! I will say I didn’t love every character, but to some extent I think that was entirely the point!

Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Lifelong friends get together for a weekend away to catch up with each other. Soon enough the weekend away starts turning into a nightmare and the people you thought were your lifelong friends are now people you are beginning to suspect you never really knew what they could be capable of. An atmospheric thriller that will leave you wondering just how well do you know the people who have been in your life the longest. A perfect weekend read with plot twists to keep you on your toes. #jodygehrman #thegirlsweekend #netgalley #goodreads #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookstagram #bookqueen #amazon#kindle #litsy #thriller

A girls college reunion trip where someone ends up missing and all the girls involved are going through their own stuff ??! Omg yes please. Although this premise has been done I’m always here for it over and over again . It barrels straight out of the gate and does lose a bit of steam - but I really enjoyed it. I will read 10,000 books with this who dun it premise!

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4 stars from me - thanks for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review !

This book started off pretty interesting. It was the story of women who went to college together, but lost touch over the 20 years since then. June is the main character who we learn most about throughout this novel. There are many different characters, but we see June and her old friend and famous author, Sadie, the most. When the group starts to party at Sadie's mansion, things get weird. No one can remember things from the night before, Sadie is missing, and there's a giant blood stain on the wall. No one can seem to remember what happened and there's suddenly a lot of questions surrounding this story.

A very important part of this story is that Sadie's husband, Ethan, is June's old crush. They met in the woods during this little getaway, so it's very easy and also explained in the synopsis that it could've been June that caused Sadie's disappearance. Jody Gehrman's writing was good to where you thought it was everyone at one point. However, I was able to guess who it was pretty early on.

I wasn't really able to connect with the characters. I didn't feel like there was really any growth or development. I'm someone who really enjoys seeing a difference in a character by the end, and I didn't feel as though there was any difference.

The thing I liked the most was the fact that the story could've actually been real. You hear about these types of stories on the news all of the time. Once you read this book, you'll understand what I mean by that. I don't want to give anything away. This book felt real. The characters felt real and so did the story. I could definitely see the way they spoke and the dialogue being real.

Overall, I liked this story, but I wish I was able to connect with the characters more. The writing was well-done and I would definitely give Jody Gehrman another try!

June reunites with four old college friends (Sadie, Amy, Kimi, and Em). They gather for a baby shower for Amy, hosted by Sadie at her estate in the San Juan Islands. Things are a bit shaky between the old friends when everyone arrives. After a night that no one remembers well, Sadie is missing and everyone is a suspect.

The characters are a group of women in their late thirties. They haven't been in close contact for years, but decide to reunite when one of them is expecting a baby. Told from June's point of view. She is not looking forward to the weekend. Sadie is an old frenemy, and is married to an ex-boyfriend of June's. Amy is Sadie's cousin, and the pregnant friend. She's also single and hasn't told the others who the father is. Em has a secret she doesn't want revealed. Kimi likes her drugs and booze. An eclectic group for sure.

Tension is high between the women. When they awaken to discover Sadie is missing, they aren't sure what happened or who could have been responsible. There are a few other characters on the island, but it makes for a small group of suspects in this locked-room type mystery.

This mystery isn't too difficult to solve, but it's still a fun read. Atmospheric and dramatic.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman was to follow a group of college friends who get together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a baby one is about to have. The issue was that none of them really get along as a whole anymore. A few get along, but all together… not a chance.

I had high hopes for this novel. I was expecting intrigue and a “Clue” like game of who did it. While I got the guessing game of who did it, the style of the book was not what I was expecting. While the story was good, some of the behavior was… strange. For people who were not likely to ALL be guilty, they all acted insanely guilty. They made poor decisions that I would like to believe most sane people wouldn’t make. It had a cheesy element to it.

That is not to say I didn’t like the story. The overall story was good and the ending was a bit of a twist. It took me a while to work out who was guilty and who wasn’t. I didn’t love most of the characters. I really only liked the main character June and even she annoyed me at times. I think this book had more potential that went unfulfilled, but I still enjoyed it.

I encourage everyone to pick up their own copy and make their own opinions. I do plan on picking up more from author Jody Gehrman in the future.

I loved this one. The old gang getting back together just brings back so many memories and makes me want to get together with my old pals. The news they wake up to is Crazy, it kept me on my toes from the beginning. The mystery from beginning to end was perfectly set up. Great writing and I’m definitely looking forward to more of jody’s work

I always like the storyline of frenemies reuniting and figuring out that yup, that barely disguised dislike is still there. And then something bad happens turning it into a whodunnit. So I was very intrigued by this book.
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I finished this book in a matter of hours so that tells you that this book was suspenseful. It takes place over what I *think* ended up being two days (sometimes I get a little lost). In my experience, books like that have potential to drag even though the suspense level is steady. While I didn’t get bored and the suspense was great, this book did drag in the middle. The big reveal was surprising but it was also underwhelming to me. After the big reveal, I felt like it dragged out again as the story wrapped up. Overall this is three stars for me.

3.5/5

June Moody has been avoiding the girls weekend reuniting with her college friends, but when her boyfriend breaks up with her and moves to Amsterdam....she’s got no choice but to go. The friends reunite at Sadie Mactavish’s mansion. But tensions bubble up almost immediately, and old secrets come to the surface. Then, Sadie disappears and everyone looks a little bit guilty.

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. Jody Gehrman sets the scene beautifully. This book is so atmospheric. Also, I will read anything set in the PNW. So the setting was automatically a win for me.

The story moves at a brisk pace, I never found myself bored. It was like if The Hangover (but like not funny) and In a Dark, Dark Wood has a baby...with some definite Agatha Christie vibes. Trapped on a closed estate, everyone’s got secrets, everyone’s a suspect. This just had a lot more drug use than your average Christie 😂...Lucy Foley might be a better comparison.

The ending was predictable. I saw it at the beginning. My biggest issue is that I’m SO OVER the whole: successful woman just HAS to be a narcissistic psychopath. I love a reunion story...but all these friendships seem to be toxic due to the Sadie character. Female relationships are sometimes hard, and I’m really craving books that uplift them, not tear them down with the same jealousy we’ve always been taught.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to more from Gehrman. This one comes out Aug 11 now, and it’s sure to be a summer hit. Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane books for my review copy.

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman is a quick read, despite the story being a slow burn. It does take a while to get to the main part of the story. I read this book in an evening and while I enjoyed it, I felt that I had read it all before. There were parts of the story that were glossed over and really should have had more depth.

5 friends from college reunite for a girls weekend. They have not seen an awful lot of each other recently there is definitely plenty of tension among them. It is a drama filled weekend with lot so of drinking and partying. But when they awaken from one of this nights of drinking one of them hasn’t gone missing and the others have very little memory of what happened. None of these women are very nice people and they all had their reasons for wanting this woman gone.

Thanks to Crooked Lane books and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read.

The Girls Weekend is a story of five girls friends reuniting after years about. They share a complicated history filled with secrets. There is plenty of drama that will have you guessing how this story will end .

3.75*
Attention ladies! It’s time for the old gang to reunite.
A weekend getaway to the sprawling estate belonging to one of the most successful in the bunch. Hmmmm, let me think…can’t imagine there would be hard feelings or jealousy! After all....they are all friends...right!?

After a sleeping off a night of hard partying they awaken to the disturbing news that one of their fellow merry-makers has disappeared. Was she murdered? Well, maybe that huge smear of blood on the wall is a subtle clue.

I was locked in from the start! The mystery was set up perfectly. And while it was a fun light mystery, I felt like I needed just a bit more....

I’ve enjoyed Jody Gehrman's books in the past and will definitely be watching for her next release.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC to read and review.

Expected date of publication: August 11, 2020

What a whirlwind. This was really a great book with lots of twists and turns, and the mystery of what happened on that fateful night at Sadie’s house made it impossible to put the book down. Five friends who’ve all grown a bit apart after college, some successful and some just middling along, deciding to meet up for a girls weekend only to have it go epically sideways. Old love mixed with new attraction...so perfectly written. Definitely enjoyed this one!

The Girls Weekend (unforgivable to have left off the apostrophe!) is a stand-alone thriller by a new author to me, but one who has written several other contemporary fiction novels. It was perhaps a mistake to read another Friends Reuniting Locked Room type mystery so soon after The Guest List, as this suffers by comparison, although I find it interesting that in that book I didn’t mind all the characters being awful, but here the unlikeability, especially of the narrator, did bug me.

June Moody, an English professor at a smalltown California community college, is shocked to receive an invitation from her old college frenemy Sadie, to a reunion weekend at her lavish Washington home. Now a hugely successful children’s author, and married to June’s former boyfriend, Sadie seems to have it all, and June refuses to go, until her boyfriend dumps her and her best friend Em persuades her that the trip to catch up with their other friends, crazy pregnant Amy and rebellious cannabis-seller Kimiko. After a drunken first night, they wake with sore heads and hazy memories to discover that Sadie is missing - and that they each have a motive to want her dead.

This is all told in first person present (yuck) from June’s point of view, so I was surprised that the author would make her so unpleasant. She’s prickly, resentful and jealous, quick to shame others, with some really dodgy ideas about mental illness, which she trivialises at every turn. Early on she condones a student who wants to write a bullying story about a classmate being a cannibal, without even changing the name, which June thinks is fine as the victim is popular and so somehow deserves it. She’s barely arrived at Sadie’s house when she’s agreeing to meet up with Ethan the husband after midnight.

The other friends aren’t much better - they get drunk and trash their so-called friend’s dressing room because someone spiked their drink and supposedly released their inhibitions. Decent people just wouldn’t do that. There’s a spoiled teenage daughter whose life has apparently been ruined by the series of books and movies about her namesake, her good looking older boyfriend and a mysterious gardener hiding a secret of his own. I try to avoid amnesia plot lines, as they’re just so annoyingly contrived but didn’t read the blurb carefully enough before requesting this. This hasn’t helped change my mind about them.

I was rather disappointed by the rather “meh - is that it?” ending. There weren’t enough suspects so when the perpetrator is finally revealed you’re not all that surprised - I was hoping for more of a twist. It’s all a bit convenient and everyone’s happy ending is nicely spelled out in the epilogue - surely that would throw in a last minute twist? Nah, she plays it straight.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC which allowed me to give an honest review. The Girls’ Weekend is published on August 11th.