This twisted tale of Paloma and her childhood friend Lihini, is told through flashbacks and real time, alternating between San Francisco and Sri Lanka. Paloma tells her what should have been a heart warming success story of being adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage.. Rather we encounter a tale no less than a horror story. The orphan girl was 12 years old and moved to America to start a new life with her new parents. This most wonderful event was bitter sweet as it meant leaving behind her best friend.

Now with a new life in the land of opportunity, and the best of everything, she spent the next 18 years terrified of Mohini. Mohini was a being. One she thought she had actually and physically seen in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, Mohina was a terrifying presence. Her therapist had spent years telling her Mohini didn’t exist, rather she was just the result of an overactive mind.
Then Paloma discovers her roommate’s lifeless body in the kitchen of their apartment. This drama brings about Mohini’s reappearance. Unfortunately, Paloma’s reality is clouded by numerous bouts of drunkenness. On top, of all this, another person close to her disappears leaving Paloma wondering if Mohini is stalking her life. You see, she has a very deep and dark sinister secret that followed her and has haunted her for what she’d done 18 years ago in Sri Lanka. And... they say, Mohini never forgets.

The suspense in this tale was fast paced and, as Paloma remembered her years in the orphanage, the things that were now happening to her began to make sense of her past. The deep secret when finally unveiled, did give this reader quite a shock and satisfaction that I didn’t see it coming.

Read carefully as you don’t want to miss any detail. This new to me author, Jayatissa, has quite the cunning writing talent to lead her readers on. Yes, this one is a must read.

Thank you Amanda Jayatissa for this excellent book and thank you Netgally for granting me access to the ARC.

Highly recommended!

Welcome to the Sweet and Sour Cafe, located in the heart of Outlier Land! While reviews are just starting to come in for Amanda Jayatissa’s debut thriller, My Sweet Girl, anything less than a 5-star take on it is out of the norm. Why am I only at 3 stars then?

The Sweet

- The writing is brash, in-your-face, and unapologetic. Jayatissa has created a main character who’s first person perspective is unfiltered and fresh. You can tell from the very first sentence if it will work for you or not. “There’s a special place in hell for incompetent customer service agents, and it’s right between monsters who stick their bare feet up on airplane seats and mansplainers.”

- Chapters alternate between present-day San Francisco and Sri Lanka 20 years ago. I enjoyed learning a little about the latter location, since I don’t think I’ve read a book set there before.

- Jayatissa is from Sri Lanka herself, making this an #ownvoices story.

The Sour

- Paloma, the mc, is such an unreliable narrator that after awhile it was like listening to someone you know to be a habitual liar. What’s the point?

- Which lead me to getting a little bored and looking forward to getting to the ending.

- Which wrapped things up The Lamest Way Possible (see my Goodreads profile bio for definition/spoiler).

- Which revealed many twists, most that I had guessed.

- Which lead me to dreading and putting off writing this review, which is never a good sign.

But as I said, I’m the outlier, so read the praise for this novel before crossing it off your list! You just might find My Sweet Girl to be much sweeter than I did.

My thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advance copy to review. The expected US publication date is September 14th, 2021.

Through flashbacks and real time, Paloma tells her story of being adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage when she was 12 years old and moving to America with her new parents. Paloma had to leave her best friend behind but, even though she had a new life and the best of everything, she spent the next 18 years terrified of Mohini, who she had actually seen in Sri Lanka. Her therapist had spent years telling her Mohini didn’t exist but when Paloma discovers her roommate murdered in their kitchen, Mohini makes a reappearance. With reality clouded by numerous bouts of drunkenness, another person close to her disappears leaving Paloma wondering if Mohini was stalking her for what she’d done 18 years ago in Sri Lanka. Mohini never forgets.

The suspense in “My sweet girl” was fast paced and, as Paloma remembered her years in the orphanage, the things that were now happening to her began to meld with the past, leaving readers gasping in shock. I was so surprised when I finished that I immediately began to read the book all over again. I needed to see what I had missed and to see how cleverly Jayatissa had led me on. Bravo Amanda. Bravo!

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received an advance reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera, sera”

I guarantee you will have that earworm in your head while reading this.

I thought my future looked bright when I decided to read this, but it wasn’t mine to see, and whatever was, was.

Paloma grew up in a Sri Lankan orphanage. She was eventually adopted by the perfect Mr. and Mrs. from America, and looked forward to her new life in California.

18 years later, she’s struggling with funds since she’s not getting her parents’ money anymore. She has a roommate named Arun, who is living with her and paying cash ‘under the table’. Unfortunately for Paloma, Arun finds out her deepest and darkest secret, and blackmails her in return for his silence.

Before Paloma can pay him off, she finds his dead body in her apartment.

Before the police can come and investigate, his body and all evidence of death is gone.

Further events confirm that this ties back to Paloma and the orphanage in Sri Lanka, but she has no idea what people will do to expose her secret.

The story is told in alternating timelines between Sri Lanka and California...18 years back and forth. I usually love the separate timelines, but one reads like YA and moves extremely slow, and the present is entertaining...but also slow.

I think a lot of your enjoyment will be dependent on your feelings for the twist. I guessed it at one point, but then set it aside since that would’ve left too many plot holes in the story. Well, the twist I guessed was correct. And I was still left scratching my head a bit because I still had questions when all was said and done. I think satisfaction will also depend on how much you like Paloma. Abrasive and nasty? Or alone and misunderstood? I couldn’t fully buy into all of it.

Another problem for me was that I wasn’t sure what this story wanted to be. Is it a thriller? Is it a domestic drama? Is it paranormal? There was a lot going on...and yet it slow-crawled through the “increasing suspense” department.

Despite that, I was hooked and committed to see it through. Debut author Amanda Jayatissa knows how to write and move a story from beginning to middle to end.

While there are promising moments of suspense, I don’t think this reached its’ full potential. Plenty of readers have loved this book, so please check out other reviews. It could be a me thing.

2.5 stars

Thank you to Berkley for sending me a widget for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Available: 9/14/21.

Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com

The plot: How far will you go to keep a secret? Poloma was adopted from Sri Lanka as a teenager and has been keeping a secret ever since. After her roommate is murdered while blackmailing her, Poloma needs to get to the bottom of what's going on. This book was told in a flashback format between current day and 20 years ago. The nonlinear timeline added to the story (as the backstory is very important). Super surpise ending. Highly recommended.

How on earth am I supposed to review a book this incredible?

Amanda Jayatissa's MY SWEET GIRL is a dark, twisty thriller with more loops and curveballs than Space Mountain. This is everything a great book is supposed to be - it has heart and keeps you guessing on every page.

In MY SWEET GIRL, the main character (and author) hails from Sri Lanka, which makes the book out of the ordinary, but that's not what makes it unique. What is so unique about it is that the story is so exquisitely crafted and every time you think you know what's going to happen next, you don't. I'm one of those readers who overanalyzes books to try to figure out what's really going on, and I maybe caught 3 of the 10 or so biggest plot twists. It's not often that an author comes along that can bend reality on the pages of a book, and Jayatissa is one such author.

You're going to want everyone you know to get their own copy so you can discuss it late into the night without spoiling anything for anyone. Now I'm gonna go stare at a blank wall for a few hours while I think about how amazing this book is.

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa was so good, and full of twists that I didn’t see coming, I couldn’t put it down. Told in dual timelines - present day Paloma, who is haunted by her past and has some deep psychological issues, and twelve year old Paloma, living in a Sri Lankan orphanage for girls. There is no slow build to drama here, right away we’re introduced to Paloma, who is about to pay off her nosy roommate Arun, who has discovered her darkest secret and proceeds to blackmail her. From there the twists don’t stop as her past starts to catch up with her, even during her time at the orphanage I was holding my breath, not knowing what to expect. This was an unbelievable, faced paced thriller that had me captivated from the first page to the last.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for my advanced digital copy in exchange for review.

Love the twists and the narrative style of this book! I also love the peek into Sri Lankan culture. Aside from the suspenseful plot, it's also a very sharp, unflinching look at white saviorism, colorism, and racism. I loved it!

My Sweet Girl was AMAZING! I cannot remember the last book I devoured so quickly. Intense, smart, and beautifully written. A must buy for our library collection!

This was a perfect book. And I'm really struggling here because I cannot say why BECAUSE I'D GIVE AWAY SO MANY SPOILERS and I really want everyone who reads MY SWEET GIRL to experience it like a did and to have the amazing, mindblowing reading experience I had. So I'll just say: trust me, you'll want to devour this book the moment you start it and you will NOT guess the turns and twists it takes. So, since I cannot talk about the plot, a non exhaustive list of other things I loved:

- Paloma. The unlikable main character that I love to like.
- The dual timeline (the orphanage!!!)
- The relationship between Lihini and Paloma
- Mohini. This book is so genuinely tense and scary I LOVED IT!!!!
- The descriptions of what it means to be a brown person in the US
- Paloma's inner monologue. It can be so REAL and incisive!!
- THE ENDING.

Basically: READ THIS BOOK IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A GENUINELY HEART-STOPPING THRILLER IT'S AMAZING!!!!

This book blew my mind! I was immediately sucked in by the smart, sardonic and at times very funny voice of Paloma, as her life starts to fall apart. As a character she is complicated and messy, and straight away you start to question her reliability as a narrator, which makes for a dramatic and thrilling read from the very first page.

The chapters set in the children’s home 18 years previously are hugely evocative, and I loved the horror story element weaved in. I really empathised with 12-year-old Paloma, and her very real desire to be adopted before she gets sent to the terrifying sounding school for girls.

This book is beautifully written, and author Amanda Jayatissa has done an amazingly subtle and sophisticated job of weaving the two timelines together. She is a master at keeping the reader on their toes, always making you question what you’re reading. And the ending of the book is utterly jaw-dropping!

A girl gets adopted from an orphanage in Sri Lanka by an American couple. The story switches between just before the adoption at the orphanage and 18 years later in San Francisco. Interesting plot though I have to admit I guessed the ending. But well written, quite amusing at times and quite the page turner. A great debut by this author.

I did not expect how this book would suck me in and keep me thinking about it long after I finished it. What a brilliant, strange, eerie story, as you follow Paloma from her life in the orphanage in Sri Lanka to her present day life in San Francisco. An unreliable narrator who is not always likeable, there's something about her that draws you in and want to know what happened years ago, as well as what is going on in her present life. The ending and the twist - I had a feeling that something like that was going to happen, but it was so much more than I expected. The author masterfully winds intrigue, pyschological twists and mind-blowing events to bring you into Paloma's world, so that you find yourself rooting for Paloma, even as you kind of hate her a little. A definite must read for anyone who loves suspense and thriller, but also for anyone who just wants to be drawn into a fantastic read!

I stayed up most of the night reading this. What a spectacular book! Thrilling, chilling, and utterly mesmerising. Not only is Paloma an unreliable narrator but everyone else presents an ambiguous front too, creating an intricate and compelling mystery and a growing sense of dread. As I read, my mind was full of theories about what was happening, and I must confess I felt rather smug about it - but when I got to the reveal, I literally gasped out loud with surprise. The plot is genius, the writing gorgeous, and I only wish I could give it more than five stars.

Oh my...oh...my...oh....my...argh! This...is...freaking...fantastic...
I proudly announce the best of the best debut of the year!

This is smart! This is cunning! So twisty, so mind bending, so deliciously dark, vicious, outstandingly unputdownable!

There are too many jaw dropping twists! I guessed the big one in the middle of the book! But the ending...oh that freaking, WTH ending is truly unexpected punch on my face! My spider senses could never ever caught it! I’m still soooo shocked!

I’m still smiling! The author fooled me twice and shame on me!!!

The story is divided between two time lines and two countries : 18 years ago at Sri Lankan orphanage and present time/ San Francisco-CA

We’re introduced to Paloma who has been adopted by her American parents from her Sri Lankan orphanage when she’s 14! If she hasn’t been saved by them ,next year she may have sent to St. Margaret’s to endure the tortures of Sister Cynthia who knew how to create pain with her cane just like other 15 years old orphans !

But thankfully Evans family took her under their wing and gave her an opportunity to start over at the US with welcoming her with open arms.

But now she’s in her early thirties, suffering from psychological problems, selling her dirty pantries on the internet for balancing her finances, mixing drinks with drugs, having blackouts and the worst part is she has been keeping a big secret for years which is already found out her roommate Arun who already started blackmailing her!

The same day she is adamant to confront him she finds him dead at his room lying in a blood bath. As soon as she sees his body, she freaks out, dashing out from her apartment. Then she passes out at the stairwell. When the police officers come to search her place the corpse of Arun is nowhere to be seen. What the actually heck? Did she see another hallucination again?
At CCTV records, they haven’t found something suspicious.

The officers advise her to stay at somewhere else for a while if she feels she’s in danger so she moves to her parents’ house temporarily but her mind keeps playing games with her or someone is already targeted her to mess with her blurry mind! Who knows? When you deal with unreliable narrator you never know who you’re gonna believe.

Especially a narrator is so agitated, negative, seeing the worst of people, acting too bitchy around anyone who wants to help her or befriend her. She’s so self destructive and when we read the flashback parts at Sri Lanka, we think we may make sense why she is turned into a person she is now. But from the beginning we know she might have done something so terrible which make her suffer from guilt feelings for years and we flip the pages so fast to find out!

What can I say? Our past always has a way of catching up to us. Whatever will be, will be.

But I’m telling you my friends, pay attention what you’re reading and be ready to get shocked! This is freaking best, fresh, extraordinary thing I’ve lately read! I’m one hundred percent recommend this amazing book! Absolutely this is the best debut of the year!

I’m giving my highly earned, surprising, unexpected, riveting, cunning, wow just wow, five gazillion stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing For sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…

WoW what a delicious read! This will grab you and won't let go! You will not want to put this book down! I sure didn't! Amanda sure knows how to write and capture the readers attention!
I devoured this thriller and loved every second of it!

Wow. This book had me hooked from the opening line. Paloma is one of the most interesting, voicey, and intense characters I’ve ever read. Being inside her head for this twisted was a trip- in all the best ways. The dual timeline also added a rich layer of storytelling in between. This book was SO creepy, suspenseful, and smart. It will keep you guessing until the very end. I can’t wait to read more from this talented author!

An unreliable narrator has never been this fun! MY SWEET GIRL is equal parts witty, chilling, and hypnotic, and it includes some of the creepiest lines and images I’ve ever read. By expertly pulling the strings of this riveting story, Amanda Jayatissa will have you thinking you know the answers to the book’s layers of mysteries—until she upends every expectation with a series of shocking reveals.

This book is one heck of a thriller. Bath paced, multiple interesting plots and dynamic characters. I literally couldn’t put it down I highly recommend this for any reader.