I really liked All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda but I struggled through this book. It started off slow and stayed that way for a long time. But then at 80%, something shifted and a huge twist came into play that I did not see coming. A little after that ANOTHER BIG TWIST came out of nowhere and I had an a-ha moment!! Holy cow!!!! What an ending! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release in exchange for my honest review.

I really struggled to finish this book. They were a few time I wanted to just stop reading and call it quits. But I kept reading. The reason for a 3 stars was because it did not end the way I had thought it would. It ended up being an ok read for me.

Great psychological thriller and a unique story line. I love Megan Miranda books and this book delivered with suspense and intrigue. It took a little to get going, but once it did, I did not want to put it down. This will be a great summer read for those who love psychological thrillers. I rate it a solid four stars

I’ve been reading Megan Miranda for YEARS and her books just keep getting better and better! The Girl from Widow Hills may be my new favorite of hers, and honestly one of the few books I’ve been able to stay engaged in in the current quarantine stress fest. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and twists of this one, and definitely did not see the ending coming!

An original story line with a couple of unexpected twists. Trying to escape her notoriety a young woman has relocated and changed her name. She has spent most of her life as "the little girl who" and just wants to be left to live her life as a normal person. Circumstances place her in the middle of a murder investigation where the only clues to the present crime can be found in her life as that little girl who......

I absolutely loved The Last House Guest so I had very high hopes for The Girl from Widow Hills. It absolutely lived up! I was completely hooked from the minute this book started. No spoilers, but why is there a corpse at Arden's (AKA Olivia, but that's another story)'s feet? Read this book to find out!

Olivia was the girl from Widow Hills you read about, the girl you prayed for, the girl you knew as Arden. The girl forced to change her name to rebuild her life. Slowly, her past backing to haunt her and Olivia learns that what she thought happened might not be the true story of what occurred nearly two decades ago.
Suspenseful story that will remind some readers of Baby Jessica years ago.
"You become the stories you tell - I'd learned that much from my mother."
"The truest type of story is the kin you tell all alone, to yourself."

Easy book to recommend to readers looking for a suspense read with just the right amount of twists.

Possibly my favorite Megan Miranda to date.

Another great read by Megan Miranda! This was a good mystery story about Arden, who now goes by Olivia. She was at the center of a dramatic search and rescue twenty years ago and as the anniversary approaches, so does her anxiety and stress. This story kept my interest right from the start and it read quickly. I was hoping for a little bit more at the end or an epilogue because I wanted to know even more about the characters. I will continue to read all of Megan Miranda's books and I can't wait to read the next one! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ehhhhh. I enjoyed reading this book but a lot of things about it bothered me. First of all, the 2000 incident didn’t seem sensational enough to have caused such a fuss, let alone 20 years later. A kidnapping or serial theme might have made for a more believable story. Also, like in many thrillers, the ending/resolution happened too quickly relative to the rest of the story. The first 90% was a little slow, and in the remainder things went down so fast I could barely follow the chain of events. It was attention capturing and engaging, though. 3 stars.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Simon & Schuster, for my ARC! I am a huge Megan Miranda fan. There isn't one book by her I haven't enjoyed. This one was no exception. I liked that before every chapter, the author gives a glimpse into the protagonist's past life, with old interviews and news from what made the protagonist rather "hometown famous" as a child. I thought was a clever, unique way to weave the past into the story. The whole book I wondered "whodunnit" and the twists and turns made it so I couldn't stop reading. I highly reccommend!

The beginning of the book was a little slow. For 80% of the book you are bouncing around between 3 characters on who actually killed the man outside Olivia’s house, but the ending more then makes up for it. Did not see that twist coming!

After experiencing and surviving a terrifying childhood trauma, Arden Maynor has moved away from where she grew up, changed her name and done her best to forget and move on from her tragedy. That all changes one night when she stumbles over a corpse in her yard. Her relationship to the deceased becomes a key in solving the murder, as well as unleashing facts that bring into question what really happened to her when she was a child.

As with all of Miranda’s books, I devoured this. I was hooked from the start and by the end, I couldn’t stop reading until I figured out what happened. I found the plot to be intriguing and captivating. Miranda is excellent at creating a hook and slowly reeling the reader in for a heart pounding finale. Readers of Lisa Unger, Wendy Walker and Alafair Burke will relish this.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS
BY MEGAN MIRANDA

I absolutely loved Megan Miranda's first book called, "ALL OF THE MISSING GIRLS." I read that in 2016 and thought it was incredibly innovative and unforgettable. This latest novel called, "The Girl From Widow Hills," has been eagerly anticipated by me to read, so you can imagine how excited I was to read and review an ARC. I had been saving it like a special treat as a gift to myself and decided that I was torturing myself by reading other novels first. I liked the beginning and it was a fast read until about half way through and it started to lose its propulsive suspense. To be fair to the author sometimes they write such an outstanding first debut novel that high expectations for their future books could possibly set the standards for their future books to be just as high. When that doesn't happen whose fault is it the reader or the writer?

This is maybe unfair of me to expect the same mind blowing results as I read her latest work. I am the last person whom to place such high expectations each time. However, since I have read other author's work and loved everything they write for the most part I admit that although this one was still good and because the ending was fantastic that I still enjoyed it I would rate this a solid four stars. I was loving it and enjoyed it but was slightly disappointed that it wasn't as good all the way through as her first book. I think there are many good things about this one that I admired and I haven't yet read her third book but I am looking forward to it as it takes place in Maine, which borders my State and it is just a 25 minute car ride and I go there often.

This one held my attention and has an intriguing premise. I loved the protagonist named Olivia and thought the premise was clever. I wasn't really ever bored but it didn't keep building the suspense from the half way mark until the ending. I applaud the author for the way she surprised me in her final reveal of who the culprit was. I didn't even come close to guessing and had to go back and read the ending because I was so shocked and a little confused about how much culpability and just how much responsibility did the surprising character at the final reveal hold in all of the events that happened? It was a bit muddled about which character did what and how much. Although this isn't my favorite I think Megan Miranda fans will enjoy this and I do wish this book, Megan Miranda and the publisher, Simon & Schuster the best of luck and am grateful for having the chance to read an ARC.

Thank you to Net Galley, Megan Miranda and Simon & Schuster Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Publication Date: June 23, 2020

#TheGirlFromWidowHills #MeganMiranda #Simon&SchusterPublishing #NetGalley

I actually enjoyed this one!

3.75 stars

The Girl from Widow Hills is a psychological thriller about a girl who became a sensation when she went missing as a child. 20 years later, the events from the past have come back to haunt her, causing her to question all that she thought she knew.

Olivia has worked hard to bury her past, including changing her name, moving around, and isolating herself from others. When she was six years old, her story captivated the nation. She was the little girl who went missing during a terrible storm but was found clinging to a storm drain. She and her mother became famous, capitalizing on her experience, feeding her mother’s addiction. As hard as Olivia has worked to shed any association with her past, when she receives a box of her mother’s belongings, her past is reawakened, leading to murder, mayhem, and craziness, as Olivia begins sleepwalking and wakes up one night to find herself with a dead body.

Narrated by Olivia in the present, media transcripts, newspaper reports, book excerpts, voice mails, piece together a fragmented past. Olivia is an unreliable narrator, and there are a lot of holes in her story, some of which are left unresolved in the end.

After not loving Megan Miranda’s past two novels, I went into this one with low expectations. If I didn't like this book, I was going to be done reading books by MM. I was pleasantly surprised when I got hooked early on and found myself enjoying this! Similar to other MM novels, this one moves slowly, but at the same time, there’s enough intrigue surrounding Olivia’s past and current events to make it a page-turner. There are two major mysteries, one involving Olivia's past, the other in the present. Part of the mystery is easy to solve, while other elements threw me for a loop. Other parts were left unresolved, which might have been intentional, but I wanted answers! The ending was also a bit rushed. At the same time, the mysteries kept me riveted. Overall, The Girl from Widow Hills is a solid thriller, and I will definitely be reading Megan Miranda's next book!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book to be uneven in its pacing. It was slow for about the first third or so. The second third was phenomenal and I LOVED it. The very last part though.. well, I wasn't a fan. I didn't see the ending coming and I was not a fan of how Ms. Miranda wrapped it up. I'm all about a good plot twist but this one just did not work for me.

When Arden was six she survived a horrible ordeal. Sleepwalking in a storm she was discovered days later in a storm drain. Overnight, she and her mom became a media sensation although Arden doesn't remember any of it. It is twenty years later and although Arden has changed her name to Olivia and moved away from the small town, she still has nightmares and problems that aren't going away. Someone else has questions and is watching. Intense with a riveting ending, this is one thriller that you won't know who to trust. A made for tv movie just waiting! My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I'm an enormous Miranda fan but have to admit to heaving a big sigh once I realized that memory loss was going to be a driver in this mystery. I have fatigue from authors using this all-to-common device in this genre. However, given this wasn't the traditional drink/drug amnesia AND the amnesia wasn't used as cop-out from poor plotting, I got over my prejudice very quickly. I enjoyed the variety of characters and the exploration of their potential motives. I absolutely did not see the ending coming, even as a veteran of the genre.

I always read the newest Megan Miranda books, but they seem to fall a little flat for me. An interesting plot, but the writing does not keep me engaged and wanting to continue reading.

I have to admit this story didn’t capture my interest. I guess better stated, it was a rather slow mystery, but not a suspenseful, thriller. Though the majority of the mystery I had figured out before the end, there were still small things that needed sorting out. So, of course, I did need to continue reading to make sure my assumptions were correct and to untangle the things I hadn’t foreseen.

I always try to offer as much insight as I can as to why something doesn’t click for me. I think part of my disinterest came from a lack of character development. I just didn’t feel much toward Olivia. In fact, all of the characters felt flat and underdeveloped.

And as I mentioned earlier, the plot was just there. Though Olivia fretted somewhat over the thought that she might have killed the fellow that she tripped over, no one else acted overly concerned. It was just a mystery to be solved.

If you like a book that is full of mystery, but not overly suspenseful, this is still a book that you should consider.

What Concerned Me
Overall, it felt slow, somewhat far-fetched, and full of underdeveloped characters. And though I’m not usually good at figuring out endings, I had a good portion of this one solved and what wasn’t solved felt a bit silly and far-fetched.

What I Liked Most
The writing itself was just fine. And for those who like a surprise ending, this should make you happy.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC and the ability to post my thoughts.

The Girl from Widow Hills is Megan Miranda's latest upcoming thriller novel. This was my first dive into her work, and unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

So... unpopular opinion alert! While the writing itself wasn't necessarily bad in any way, I found it hard to care about the characters or even the outcome of the mystery. While this was a quick read, it just didn't have the emotionally-gripping effect I felt like it was trying so hard to achieve.

Twenty years ago, six year old Arden Maynor was swept away during a severe storm while supposedly sleepwalking. Understandably, her mother is utterly distraught and quickly the case received nationwide media coverage. Three days later, after a massive manhunt has formed, she is found with no memory whatsoever of the ordeal. What follows is years of media coverage and attention that Arden never asked for, and frankly was unable to handle, causing her to develop severe anxiety and trust issues.

Fast forward to the present, Arden has legally changed her name and is trying her best to live her life as Olivia, hidden away from the spotlight. She has an administrative job in a newer hospital in a new state, a couple of people she considers friends, and is doing her best to make a new life for herself. While life is becoming as close to normal as she could hope, Olivia begins to have issues sleeping and soon she is found sleepwalking for the first time since childhood, alone in her backyard by her neighbor. While this episode is disturbing enough to Olivia for her to seek out medical help, it is nothing compared to the next - when she awakes to find a dead body beside her with no idea how any of it came to be.

Okay, so... I have quite a few issues with this novel, but overall my biggest irritation was the constant anxiety of Olivia being hounded by the media.. and honestly the only thing I could think every time this was brought up was "Who Cares???" I found the idea to be a little absurd to be honest. I very clearly remember actual cases like these growing up, where a child goes missing and the entire nation is glued to the TV hoping for a positive update. But at no point do I feel like as a nation we have the attention span to continue caring after the story is concluded. So this entire subplot just felt weak to me.

I feel bad for saying this, and I truly enjoy many books where the narrator isn't the most likable character in the book, or sometimes even absolutely detestable... but I just didn't like Olivia. And I really felt like Megan Miranda wrote her in a way that she wanted the reader to like and care about her, and I just... couldn't. So many people have dealt with significant traumas in their lifetime, and I felt like a jerk just wishing the girl would suck it up and go to therapy, or get put on an anti anxiety medication...

In order to avoid any possible spoilers, all I will say is that I found certain plot twists to be either obvious, or too much of a twist to be believable.

So unfortunately, overall this one just didn't do it for me.
2.14/5 for me.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced reader's copy to read in exchange for my honest review.