This debut-thriller by Catherine Dang was a page-turner from beginning to end and reminds me of the popular "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" series. The ending felt a little chaotic and maybe a bit far-fetched, but I still couldn't put it down and ended up finishing it during a break at work because I couldn't wait until the end of the day. I think this is only the beginning of great things to come for this debut author!

"Ivy League Mary" finds herself back at home and living with her father after an incident at college. She gets a job at a grocery story and finds herself face-to-face with friends and neighbors that she has known her whole life and everyone wonders why she's back in town. A few weeks after Mary returns to Liberty Lake, Olivia Willand, a rising social media star from their hometown, goes missing and everyone becomes obsessed, including Mary. When another missing persons case is brought to light, Mary is convinced they are connected, even if the police don't and she will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it.

If you're looking for a thriller that you won't be able to put down, add this one to your list. It truly had me hooked from page 1!

Mary, Ivy League Mary, is back home and hiding the truth from everyone. With a job at the grocery store, a friendship with a fellow unsuccessful, and a disappointed father, Mary feels like she's at the lowest, but then an old friend goes missing. Mary turns into a sleuth, but she doesn't trust herself and she doesn't trust anyone around her. As she digs into the missing girl she realizes that she's just as likely as anyone to be the next victim.

I found myself really enjoying the pacing of Nice Girls, Catherine Dang knows how to keep a story fraught with tension, I just didn't feel like the story was as fully fleshed out as it could have been. What initially felt like a story about class, race, and political attention quickly turned into just a story about a girl with depressive issues seeking just about anywhere to succeed. Her self-centered nature and desperate desire for acceptance soon took over everything. There's little background or detail to all of Mary's suspects, just feelings and vibes. The ending was rushed, there's so much that I felt could have been done with it. I know I'm no author myself, but this ending had none of the tension nor details that the previous 75% of the book had. I needed that to continue, it would've taken this book into instant success.

I devoured this book, it's certainly a quick, packed read and I think other readers might just love it.

The cover hints at what's to come in Catherine Dang's dark, tense, and compelling debut: neon pink text over a remote cabin location. the bright text at odds with the eerie, almost sinister location. This is perfect, because Dang's novel doesn't have any nice girls in it (that's the point). Featuring one of the most fully-realized narrators that comes to mind in recent memory, this debut might wobble a little bit near the dismount, but it manages to stick the landing. A thriller that will keep readers guessing until the end, Dang manages to explore the intersection of race and class while also skewering the concept of "savior syndrome." There are no nice girls here, but there are also no good choices. The result is a memorable and smart thriller that I won't soon forget. An author to watch.

As generic of a debut thriller as any could be. Predictable narrative with hints of white savior stereotypes. Mary Sue narrator is actually named Mary. But she has a dark, violent secret—(she justifiably slapped a mean girl once! What a misunderstood, flawed, nuanced female lead.) Laughably inconsequential character development sandwiched by obvious true-crime-podcast armchair detective work, I could hardly hang on til the end. But I did, because I’m a glutton for punishment and thought there might be a twist ending that would make the 11 hour audiobook worth it!

I was wrong.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley

Mary used to be a nice girl and was doing what was expected of her until she got kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won't tell anyone why. So, she goes back home and ends up working in the local grocery store. Shortly after her return a social media star girl goes missing. Mary knows that the personality of this gal is not what everyone thinks it is. As the town is searching for her, Mary wonders if this could be linked to another missing teen that happened previously.

I enjoyed this story and it kept me reading it. Good characters and good suspense. I will look for other books from this author!

I love small town mysteries and this one did not disappoint. I had my eyes on a certain someone throughout the story as the whodunit and was right! But what really intrigued me was the why, which was perfectly explained. A word of caution, there are moments of nauseating violence that were cringeworthy, but overall, a really enjoyable story and the perfect one for those looking to don their detective caps and get to work.

Solid debut novel. I’m a sucker for a female driven mystery novel and this kept me on the edge of my seat.

The protagonist’s consuming angst over past high school slights made me feel old and I didn’t find her likable or sympathetic. Luckily I don’t find that necessary to enjoy a book.

I was really excited about this one because I love a good thriller. Unfortunately I found myself pretty bored with it and just ready for it to be over. Not a bad book, but also not one that I couldn’t put down. Average at best.

Ivy League Mary gets kicked out of Cornell and is forced to move home to Liberty Lake, Minnesota. Back in Liberty Lake, Mary’s ex best friend, the popular Olivia Willand, has gone missing along with another girl named DeMaria. As Mary begins to investigate the disappearance of the two girls, she discovers secrets that threaten to destroy the town and everything she knows to be true. I was given this book as an ARC and was immediately drawn to it because it’s the author’s debut novel and it’s set in MINNESOTA (my home state!). It was addicting and dark and offered a fresh take on the “girl goes missing” genre. I will always read a book set in Minnesota so I am definitely bias but I enjoyed Nice Girls and am excited to see the next novel from Catherine Dang! (4 Stars!)

This book kept me interested but I found the ending disappointing and confusing. I loved the authors style of writing but hated every character. I guess you were supposed to but it just felt like there was a dark cloud over the entire book. I would try another by this author.

Nice Girls by Catherine Dang is the author’s first novel and I will be back for more! Mary is a college senior at Cornell, The first person in her town to ever get into an Ivy League school. The whole town has nicknamed her Ivy League Mary. She gets into trouble at the very beginning of the book and gets kicked out. Her dad has to come get her and move her home and she is very embarrassed. Her dad is very disappointed and upset with her.
After moving home and getting a job, Olivia, a former friend of Mary’s and a current social influencer on Instagram, goes missing. The whole town is up in arms looking for her. Meanwhile nobody’s paying attention to the case of DeMaria, who went missing months before. She was a young, single, black mother and nobody seems to care. Mary takes it upon herself to start investigating both cases. What she finds will rock this town and turn it upside down.
I very much enjoyed this book. The character of Mary is somewhat unlikable, but in a way that makes me like her even more. I like characters that have flaws and are real. The author nicely captures the feeling of being 22 and back in your hometown. I remember having this feeling when I was that age and came back from college. It’s an awkward time where you run into people you used to know and maybe used to not like. The plot was very original in my opinion. I could not wait to find out what happened to the two missing young women and what was going to happen to Mary.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

A worthy read with the potential of a 5 star. Some of the book is a tight murder mystery involving two seemingly unrelated young women’s deaths. The tie in works but is not written in such a matter that really doesn’t make the reader really care. The ending falls flat although it is tied up. I would like to read more from this author as this is a good debut.
#williammorris #catherinedang #netgalley

This was my first listen on Net Galley. I totally enjoyed the book. Mary is nice girl. She revisits her younger years and starts to explore why two girls disappeared and if they were kidnapped, or run always, etc. The book engages your attention, and keeps your attention until the end. I did feel a little bit like I had heard this before, but overall it was a good book.
Net Galley granted me a first read for an honest opinion.

Oh, Ivy League Mary. I felt for her….to a point. Halfway into Nice Girls, my exasperation with her motivations (or lack thereof) for her actions was off the charts. Did I finish this? Of course. However, this had the potential to deliver in a literary “Jennifer’s Body” kind of way, and it fell short. Thank you to #NetGalley and #WilliamMorrow for providing me with an advance copy for review.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

There’s just something so appealing about picking up a debut novelist’s book. There are no expectations because you don’t know what the writer’s style is, so you can just jump into the book and enjoy it for what it is. And that is exactly what I did here…and bonus points for it being a thriller that involves missing girls. I love those types of stories!

This book totally grabbed my attention from the beginning and never really let up. I loved that the tension and suspense slowly build over the course of the book and that there is this sense of unreliability from just about everyone we meet. There are definitely mean girl vibes here, yet it is much darker.

This is one of those books where I definitely didn’t like many of the characters but I needed to know what happened to those missing girls and I really wanted to know why Mary was expelled from school. It’s talked around many times but we aren’t given the reason until much later in the book. This kept me glued to the pages because like a car wreck that you just need to see, I needed to know what had happened that would force her to return to the last place she really wanted to go.

There are so many addicting parts to this story that combine to make a great read. While it starts off as a slow burn, it eventually picks up pace with twists that keep you flipping the pages to see what comes next. It delves into some heavy topics that the author handles with ease and for that alone, I am so excited to see what she writes next. She is definitely one to keep an eye on!

Things don't exactly go as planned for Ivy League Mary. All she really wanted was a remarkable and successful life. Unfortunately she finds herself booted from school and back home working a low level job. On the flip side things are going very well for Olivia, a former childhood friend. That is, until she disappears.
This was a terrifically fun book! Deliciously dark it sucked me right in until I got to the jaw dropping end! Thank you so much!

After escaping Liberty Lake thanks to a scholarship, Mary almost had it all. She lost weight, was close to graduating from an Ivy League, had many friends, and had no plans to return to the city escaped. Then she finally let out all the anger she’d been keeping in, leading to her expulsion. Mary finds herself back in Liberty Lake with student loans breathing down her neck as she works a minimum wage job when her former childhood friend, Olivia, goes missing. With nothing better to do, Mary finds herself becoming increasingly obsessed with the case, especially when she becomes convinced that there’s a serial killer involved.

Narrated by Mary, we follow her from the moment her dad arrives to help her move out of her dorm room. Lonely, angry, depressed, and ashamed, she doesn’t tell anyone the real reason she’s not at school. Not even her best friend. We spend a lot of time in her head learning why she’s angry and depressed. The more we get to know Mary, the more it becomes apparent that she has had anger issues for a long time and is obsessed with fitting with her peers while being better than them. She’s not a likable character, but she is interesting to follow as she continues to stick her foot dog poop everywhere she goes.

For someone who doesn’t want to call attention to herself or get involved in what’s going on, Mary sure does like to play amateur sleuth. It was interesting to see her make a connection between DeMaria Jackson’s murder and Olivia’s disappearance before anyone else did. However, Mary does call attention to herself a lot more than she thinks she did, and she certainly made life very bad for a character who wasn’t involved in the murders. I think the fact that she’s far from being a detective and makes mistakes left and right is realistic, but I do think that the extent of her investigation does require readers to suspend belief as the story continues.

All in all, I think it’s a great story. I also like that it has an open ending, but that there’s enough information that I know exactly what happened to Mary after the final chapter. I’m excited to see what Catherine Dang publishes next because she had me glued to every page of this book.

Mary was an overweight, awkward, bullied girl from the small town of Liberty Lake, Minnesota. She turned her life around with weight loss and was accepted into college at Cornell University. Unfortunately she was expelled from Cornell for attacking another student She arrived home angry and depressed and found work in a grocery store. One of her childhood friends who was a popular, beautiful social media star. disappeared and she became obsessed with trying to find out what happened. The police organized a huge manhunt for her, but ignored the disappearance of a poor Black girl who had disappeared around the same time. The book does touch on police disparities in treatment of victims according to race and class. Although the book was suspenseful, it was not one of my favorites. The characters were not like able and there were many unbelievable actions leading to the resolution of the story.

This is a murder mystery thriller story. Mary has been expelled from Cornell and is now back to small town Minessota. Frustrated at being back to the small town existence she tried so hard to escape, she tries to look for alternatives to take her life back. Then two girls in her town go missing and are suspected to be murdered and Mary unwittingly finds herself in the midst of the storm.

I wasn't too impressed by this one. I got an advance reader copy on the The Book club Girls Facebook group and I initially did not realise it was a murder mystery when I opted for it. It was more like Young Adult fiction. I took a while getting to read it since I had some technical issues sending to kindle. It's a fast paced easy ready although bizarre and far-fetched in parts.

Thanks to Random House and Net galley for the advance copy