First of all, thank you to William Morrow and Catherine Dang for my ARC of this book that comes out on September 7, 2021. Is anyone really a nice girl? Mary doesn’t think so. After years of being the fat, awkward, forgettable girl from Liberty Lake Minnesota, she wants to change her town’s perspective of her. She works hard and now she’s known as “Ivy League Mary”- the girl who got out and attended the prestigious Cornell University. Now she’s back in Liberty Lake after being kicked out her senior year. No one knows why she’s back, but she is almost unrecognizable.

Soon after Mary’s return, the beautiful and popular Olivia Willand goes missing from Liberty Lake. Mary was childhood friends with Olivia, but after a falling out Mary knows Olivia’s dark side. She can’t help but obsess about the case, and starts looking into her disappearance along with another girl who also went missing from Liberty Lake. As she starts to dig in to Olivia’s life, Mary begins to bring up the past and everything that comes with it.

Nice Girls talks about the pressure girls have to be the best version of themselves. High school can be a hard time for girls specifically, and this book showed how that pressure is not always a good thing. The book also pointed out how friendships are not always born of connection, but sometimes of convenience.

The story slowly builds tension and I think Catherine Dang is an asset to the woman’s suspense genre. She layers the story so it builds and slowly lets the reader in. I felt for Mary without completely trusting her, always wondering if there was something going on beneath the surface. It was hard to put down and easy to imagine myself in the dark and gritty setting, with two specific parts of town.

Nice Girls talks about anxiety, depression, and the importance of mental health. It points out racism in the police force and the media, and inequality in the way crimes are investigated. It brought up many important points while also being an exciting and mysterious read. I recommend this debut to lovers of All The Missing Girls and Luckiest Girl Alive. 4-stars!

Oh my goodness this book was incredible. I couldn't remember what this was about before starting it and I'm glad I didn't it made the whole book a surprise, it sucked me in from the very beginning kept me reading non stop. The ending I did not see coming! Would definitely recommend this!

Nice Girls is kind a mess. Not such a mess that it's completely unreadable, but most of it feels like a bunch of random stories loosely connected to create a thriller. A fight Mary has that gets her kicked out of school and living back home with her dad, that she reflects on throughout the book. Her regular flashbacks to growing up with one of the women in her community that disappeared. Her time working at a grocery store back home. Her best friend from high school that has nothing to do with the story. The weird way that once the author reveals the bad seed, she constantly refers to that person by their first and last name each time during the climax. The ending itself is just off - I can't figure out why Dang finished it that way. There are parts that are good; unexpected alliances, misdirection, multiple suspects and a twist connecting the two women that disappeared, but unfortunately the reader has to work too hard to junk the unnecessary pieces to get to the core pieces of the story.

What a weird concept for a novel but it was really interesting how things can change Mary came back to her town when she got took out of her ivory at school and she encounters all these crazy problems and I like how the book was all tired together and how we really don't see things but you really don't seek it before what they really are in these small towns while she witnesses a murder of a black girl and you can see how they twhwthblack girl how she was treated differently when she was a murderer and an Olivia who was a white girl was like oh my God that search parties and had almost and you can see the spirit of me when black people disappear they just lay all their just to run away But they have their people too and it was really an eye opener how marriers trying to figure this out by herself Then she finds out who the real killer is and it's kind of really kind of creepy but that's all I'm going to say And how famous judge black people all the time time you'll find that out when the book is well well and our marriage is trying to do the right thing if she had a lot of problems and then she needs Kevin who is the police officer and nobody's going to like him and and she finds out stuff about Olympia it's a really nice book and a running called nice girls your cousinice girls and the Olivia was this and that it also touched it on pornography when they needed money And I'm manipulated And it attempts a lot of points with me and I think it's a really good book for women to read to see how you're different societies are treated and how things can get this a screw really quick

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to review but this was not for me.

Ivy League Mary is expelled from Cornell and goes back to Liberty Lake with her widower father and her meager job at a grocery store. She stumbles upon a murder mystery off 2 girls in her town that are linked that she tries to solve.

I liked the premise, but fell flat quickly.

Points I did not like:

1. Mary was a very unlikable and unrelatable character .
2. Book was listed as Adult Mystery, but seemed much more young adult.
3. Slow build up. I would have liked to have known earlier about her expulsion.
4. The ending with what happened when confronting the killer....meh

Can't recommend

As a young girl, Mary was chubby and unpopular. She worked hard, got into an Ivy League college, got skinny.... and then got kicked out of school in her senior year after a physical altercation with a freshman girl. Licking her wounds, Mary returns home and gets a job at a local upscale grocery chain. She can't believe it when her childhood friend, the beautiful, rising social media princess Olivia, goes missing. Everyone begins searching for Olivia, and her disappearance is all over the local and national news. Mary is intrigued, but can't help thinking that Olivia's disappearance is linked to another young woman who went missing a few months prior - a woman who no one seems to care about. Mary slowly becomes entangled in both disappearances, desperate to find a link between the two women.

I enjoyed this thriller, though it wasn't my favorite. I had a hard time connecting with Mary, and disagreed with a lot of her choices and actions. If you enjoy a good unlikable main character, this one's for you. While the big reveal is pretty heart-pounding, overall I found the book just okay.

Nice Girls by Catherine Dang is described as a dark, psychological thriller. Unfortunately, I found it to be more of a young adult novel that moved very slowly. I wanted to know more about Mary's life at Cornell University. For a debut novel, it has potential. I am hopeful that Ms. Dang's future work will be more relatable to an adult audience. Thank you to NetGalley and The Book Club Girls of Facebook for the ARC!

I'd more accurately rate this as a 3.5/5 for me.

Growing up, Mary never really fit in. Doing well in school was supposed to be her ticket out of Liberty Lake. But when she gets expelled from Cornell the fall of her senior year, "Ivy League Mary" is forced to return with little to show and plenty to hide. Shortly after she comes back, Olivia Willard, Instagram queen and golden girl, goes missing. Mary becomes convinced that her disappearance is linked to that of another girl's, DeMaria Jackson, and throws herself into the investigation.

Mary can be hard to root for sometimes - she often self-sabotages. I actually found that interesting, especially in the context of the title being Nice Girls. After graduating high school, Mary tried to reinvent herself as a "nice girl", but one of the themes of the book is that no one is exactly like how they present themself to the world. The narrator isn't always likeable, but she certainly was interesting, and I wish we got to explore more of the undercurrent of rage and dissatisfaction she felt.

The pacing of the story was good and I was genuinely curious to see how Olivia and DeMaria would be connected. Some of Mary's decisions/actions towards the middle and end of the book required some suspension of disbelief for me, but the ending scenes were super cinematic - I could imagine watching it in theaters! Definitely satisfying.

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was a really solid debut, and I would read future books by this author!

Nice Girls by Catherine Dang. A girl who gets kicked out of college for an altercation and returns home in shame. An old friend is murdered and she gets involved. Through the ordeal there's soul searching. This book grabbed me at the beginning. I wanted to learn why she got expelled. Somewhere the author lost me. I think it was after Ron was taken by her and she was the only one who could solve the murders. The ending just didn't seem believable to me. Killing John and not even being questioned or not finding any evidence too. I had a hard time understanding this character. And why is it named Nice Girls anyway?

This was a good story but unfortunately I didn't really relate to the characters that much. They were small town people who hadn't had much success in life.

Thank you to William Morrow & Custom House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I agree with Leslie B in her review that I didn't feel invested in any of the characters in this book. Mary's story is given to us in bits and pieces with no real explanation until near the end, and then it was glossed over. Why her sudden, intense interest in these crimes in her hometown is not really understood either., or why she decides to play detective and solve them. I skimmed through, after about 75%, simply to find out "who done it" and it all seemed to be cobbled together by the end. this is my honest review.

A girl who gets kicked out of her Ivy League college due to a fight with the wrong girl finds a mystery in her own hometown. Mary, once known as Ivy League Mary, was unpopular at school and hoping her new life at Cornell would be the start of a bright future. Instead, she gets into a physical fight with a girl with a powerful father and finds herself kicked out and everything gone. Now with a mountain of debt and no degree, she must go back to her small town in Minnesota, living with her father and working for a small grocery store with another former classmate who also lost his ticket out. When a former childhood friend goes missing, Mary's whole town begins searching, but only Mary questions the link between Olivia's disappearance and a less desirable girl named DeMaria's disappearance earlier. As she looks deeper, she could be in danger of disappearing herself.

A story of "nice" girls who are really mean girls in disguise, a look at who we find sympathetic or not, all wrapped in a murder mystery that will keep you guessing, this is a fun read.

First question- red or white wine? For the longest time, I only liked sweet white then I moved on to Pinot Grigio/Sauvignon Blanc and now I am really liking Cabernet or or Pinot Noir.

Red is really healthy right? So we shold definitely have a glass every night with dinner, for health purposes of course.

Second question, have you heard of the upcoming novel, Nice Girls by Catherine Dang?

"Growing up in Liberty Lake, Minnesota, Mary was chubby, awkward, and smart. Earning a scholarship to an Ivy League school was her ticket out; she was going to do great things and never look back. Three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, and restless failure. Kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of senior year, she won’t tell anyone why.

When beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand, a rising social media star, goes missing, Mary—like the rest of Liberty Lake—becomes obsessed. Best friends in childhood, Mary and Olivia haven’t spoken in years.

Everyone admired Olivia, but Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hid a manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the world worries for Olivia, Mary can’t help but hate her. She also believes that her disappearance is tied to another missing person—a nineteen-year-old girl named DeMaria Jackson whose disappearance has gone under the radar.

Who was the true Olivia Willand, where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary delves deeper into the lives of the two missing girls, old wounds bleed fresh and painful secrets threaten to destroy everything. Maybe no one is really a nice girl, after all."

This is exactly the kind of book I am in the mood for right now.

There is a Goodreads giveaway happening right now so head over there and enter to win!

Hooooooooboy, this was a wild ride. We've got an unreliable narrator expelled from an ivy league school, a sleepy midwestern town rocked by a sudden disappearance, and SO SO much drama!! I literally blinked and was halfway through this book. It's that compulsively readable. One small complaint I have is that I don't feel that there was enough foreshadowing for the final twist, but that's just because I like to Sherlock it out myself. However overall, still a solid thriller.

*Thank you to William Morrow & Custom House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review*

There are many positive reviews on NetGalley for this title; but not from me. Because this was an advance copy I felt that I needed to plug through and provide an honest review.

Back in high school our protagonist, Mary, was overweight and unpopular. She hoped her life would change for the better after she was accepted into an Ivy League college. She lost weight and although we don't get many details, she seemingly spent her first several years in college remaking her life, fitting in, living a normal college life, partying, boyfriends, etc. even becoming a resident advisor in a freshman dorm during her final year. But then she gets in a violent altercation with a freshman student whom she thought was her friend and is expelled. She returns home to try to pick up the pieces. She's home a few days when two women in town disappear around the same time, one of whom was a childhood friend, and she decides that only she can make the connection between the two of them and solve the crime.

Mary is not a likable character and I didn't get invested in her at all. It wasn't at all realistic that she would suddenly care so much about the two missing women. Her childhood friend dropped her when they entered junior high and went on to be a popular girl with a large Instagram following. She didn't know the other one at all - a black woman from the other side of town. She runs around suspecting literally everyone, jumping to ridiculous conclusions and pursuing crazy and reckless theories at the drop of a hat. For awhile I could only wrongly assume that it would end up all being in her imagination, which wouldn't have been satisfying, but might have made some kind of sense.

The writing style is brisk and oftentimes breathless - short sentences, many one sentence paragraphs, 52 chapters in 320 pages. One element of the author's prose particularly grated on me - her overuse of a name in a chapter with only two people in the scene - she constantly used the character's name, or in many cases, Dad, in almost every sentence when just "he" or "she" would do.

Sorry, this just didn't work for me.
#NiceGirls #NetGalley

One small town, two missing girls. One black, the other white. One poor, the other an Instagram mogul. One dismissed, the other national news. Authorities state the two cases are not linked, so they are not… right?

Mary is back in her hometown for reasons she is not proud of. When she hears about the disappearance of one of her high school classmates, she tries to dismiss it. Yet, she can’t seem to shake the feeling that this may be a way to repent for the things she has done. As her investigation gets closer to finding the truth, the riskier she becomes. Will she find the truth before the truth finds her?

Catherine Dang’s "Nice Girls" is a rush of pure endurance. Keeping the reader engrossed from beginning to end; tossed from one twist to another turn. Just when you think you’ve got it, an unexpected ending.

With quite a few profane words, and some light sexual content, a rating of 4 out of 5 stars is given. There are some triggers to be weary of from abduction, hit and run, dismemberment, racism, major depressive disorder, anxiety, bulimia, drug abuse, and physical beatings. There is also mention of Catholicism and confession, but not enough to be a religious book of any sort.

If you enjoy a fast paced, cannot wait to turn the page, hold your breath thriller, then Nice Girls is for you. Make sure you do not miss the release on September 7, 2021 as
Catherine Dang knocks it out of the park with this debut. Looking forward to see what she creates next.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #BookClubGirls, #WilliamMorrow, and #CatherineDang for the advanced readers copy in return for my honest review.

I enjoyed the story about Ivy League Mary who got kicked out of college and returned to her hometown to live with her dad. She really made a mess out of her life and she was not the most likable person. She lied to people to get answers and she lied about people because she thought she knew all the answers. But yet, I liked Mary. She was real.
There were two missing girls in her hometown and she became the sleuth and tried to find out who had a hand it it. It was a thriller at the end that was totally plausible. I would read something by the author Catherine Dang again.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an early ebook copy.

This is a small town murder mystery. Our protagonist Mary, a junior, is expelled from Cornell University, for most of the story all we know is she had an altercation with a freshman named Carly. Mary heads home to Liberty Lake and with school loans mounting, Mary gets a job at the grocery store. “Ivy League Mary” is feeling remorseful, embarrassed, and lonely. When a local classmate, Olivia Willard, goes missing Mary throws herself into the investigation and search party as she reflects on their childhood friendship. Mary discovers Liberty Lake had another missing girl, DeMaria Jackson, that was dismissed as a runaway. Is there a serial killer in Liberty Lake? Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a gifted copy. This is my honest review.

this book grabbed me from the start and kept me hanging on. A damaged girl, hurt and angry investigating the disappearance and possible murder of two other women. One was a former friend, who had hurt her and she finds herself back at home after an incident at school. We were teased as to what happened for maybe half the book. There are lots of underlying issues explored, bullying, racism, social media. worth the read

Let me begin by saying that I do not enjoy giving negative reviews, but I did promise to always be honest with my feedback. So here we are.

I did enjoy the beginning of Nice Girls. I loved the spooky Halloween vibe – complete with a missing person’s search in the woods on Halloween itself.

I did really struggle, however, with the multitude of unlikeable characters who really had very little redeeming qualities to speak of. The actions and motivations of the protagonist were so outlandish and immature that I just could not suspend belief any further.

That said, I would definitely read another book by this author and give her another try.

My thanks to William Morrow Books for the opportunity to read this book before its September 7 publication date.