OH. MY. GOD. This audiobook was ROCKING! I could not stop listening to it. The voice actors did a great job and I was reeled in immediately. The storyline was fascinating and I couldn't wait to find out who exactly these Maidens were and why they were dropping like flies!! I wasn't sure what to expect but since I loved The Silent Patient, I knew I had to give this (audio)book a go! And man I am so glad I did.

I was starting to try and figure out the "whodunnit" and I think I did a pretty good job. It was so much fun trying to put all the clues together and there were so many twists. I LOVED IT! The end made my jaw drop and I was not prepared for what was revealed!! Definitely recommend this one to all the thriller lovers out there and I just KNOW its going to be a hit when its released!!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for the Early Listen. Another great audiobook by Alex Michaelides. Great narration

I ADORED this book. A twisty thriller with a character I sink right into, feeling as though we could be friends, like despite her faults, I want to know her. I loved the backstory, the way it was built up, and how it was shown to affect the future. I'm also SO GLAD I did the audio version. The narrator did an incredible job, and I think it just made the story that much better. Highly recommend.

This was a well written mystery/thriller. Set in modern-day Cambridge academia. Good setting and characters.

I really enjoyed the narration of this book! The twists and the ending were so unexpected! I kept guessing who the "murderer" was ... and omg wow, I was sooo wrong. Great book!

Let me just start out by saying I was underwhelmed with The Maiden. I really enjoyed the Silent Patient but this one just didn’t quite do it for me. It picked up in the very end with a plot twist but the rest was a very slow burn for me.

I didn’t mind the exposition on the main character, Mariana, but it was once she arrived on The Cambridge campus, which would be the rising action, that the book began to drag. I raised the rating solely on the ending which I didn’t see coming.

Synopsis:
Mariana, a group therapist, has recently lost her husband, Sebastian, in a freak accident. Death has always loomed nearby because she also lost her mother at an early ag, her sister and sister’s husband were killed in a car accident. Shortly after her sister’s death her father also passed.
Leaving Zoe, her niece, as her only remaining family. Zoe’s roommate, Tara, has just been murdered and that is what brings Mariana to Cambridge to help her niece cope with another loss. The prime suspect is one of Zoe’s professor’s, ,Edward Fosco. He has a secret group of female students he refers to as The Maidens. They behave more like a cult, hanging on to every word that leaves his lips and believing in the Greek tragedies his classed is based on.

Mariana is determined to prove Fosco’s guilt but this will cost her a great deal: her credibility with the university, the police and those dearest to her.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to The Maidens early! While this wasn’t my favorite thriller ever, you couldn’t beat the ambiance and the unsettling feeling that came with the idea of a serial killer at Cambridge University. I will admit, while I did half predict the “twist”, the story did make me question my theory throughout my entire reading experience. Plus, the additional features of a secret society and Greek tragedy made this even more fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy. I absolutely loved Michaelides’ The Silent Patient and couldn’t wait to get my hands on his next novel. This book was a disappointment for me. I predicted who the murderer was but the way it played out didn’t have me on the edge of my seat as I’d hoped. I didn’t really care for any of the characters. I will definitely read a future book by this author but it’s hard to follow up such a fantastic first book.

This audiobook was fantastic! I put it in 2.5x speed and finished it in about half a day. The narrator was amazing, she was such a fantastic actress I actually felt like I was watching a movie despite having no visual stimulus. The way the narrator captured intense emotion via voice was super powerful, and made this book super enjoyable. The audio was clean, the narrator had good diction, and overall it was lots of fun to listen to.

I found The Silent Patient to be predictable but I decided to give Alex Michaelides another try. I called this one very early on as well. I found myself wanting to skip to the end just to see how it finished so I could move on to my next read.

4.5 Stars
This was a great follow up to the Silent Patient. I enjoyed just as much and dare I say a little bit more. I was completely surprised by the ending. I thought I had it figured out but I was so wrong!! Theo Faber the psychotherapist from the Silent Patient makes an appearance which made it even more enjoyable. The majority of the story takes place at Cambridge University which is steeped in history and traditions. Michaelides does a great job not only setting the scene but develops the characters very well. Mariana is a group therapist that is coping with the loss of her beloved husband. Her niece, Zoe is attending Cambridge and is like a daughter to Mariana. When Zoe's best friend is murdered Mariana hops on the first train to support Zoe. She decides to stay after she notices strange behavior from Zoe's Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca. Mariana finds herself investigating the murder, putting herself in danger. This was a roller coaster ride that I thoroughly enjoyed. The audiobook was fantastically narrated and kept me listening for hours without a break, I couldn't stop listening!! Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

When Mariana’s niece Zoe calls her to tell her that her best friend was murdered by their campus, Mariana runs to her. In trying to help her grieving niece Mariana is caught in a web of lies and deception. She’s convinced she knows who the killer is, and will stop at nothing to get others to believe her.
I have not read Alex Michaelides’s previous novel The Silent Patient, but his writing is compulsively readable. I felt like I flew through this book and enjoyed the narrative he laid out. I particularly enjoyed the classical references throughout and how they were used in the post cards. But the final twist was not exactly one I loved, it was unexpected though.

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an ALC of The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. This one hits shelves on June 15th!

Alex Michaelides got me again! When I read The Silent Patient I was completely shocked by the twist at the end that I had to put my kindle down and walk away before finishing the last like 15 pages. I really enjoyed it and was excited when I was granted early access to his latest release!

I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews for The Maidens here on the internet. I actually really enjoyed it! I loved the narrations by Kobna Holbrook-Smith and Louise Brealey. I think had I been just reading a physical copy of this it would have felt slow at times, but the audio was perfect for me.

There were so many twists throughout! When I thought I had figured out who was the killer, I would completely second guess myself. I love trying to solve the mystery before the end of the book I can honestly say I did not see the ending twist coming!

I also LOVED The Silent Patient Easter eggs that were scattered throughout this book! No spoilers for either but OMG. Loved the addition of those!!

I thought this was a pretty good second book for Alex Michaelides and I’m excited to continue reading his work!

I enjoyed this book until the end. I was disappointed by another unrealistic ending. Everything was going well, and then all of the crazy was dropped on us. The same thing happened in The Silent Patient. I did enjoy that there were some Silent Patient Easter eggs in the story, but I would have enjoyed it more if the ending made more sense.

The Maidens is the most recent release from author Alex Michaelides known for his popular novel, The Silent Patient. With The Maidens, Michaelides has created an intelligent work of psychological suspense that left me guessing. I enjoyed this one even more than The Silent Patient. The narration was expertly executed and suspenseful. Silent Patient die-hard fans beware, this book only vaguely resembles its predecessor.

Thank you to NetGalley, author, publisher, and narrator for the opportunity to listen to this advance audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

Like with his other book, Michaelides kept me on my toes with The Maidens. I knew that things would take a twist, but I wasn't sure how it was going to play out. Rich with history and lore, I realized that I was not only listening to a good book, but I was also getting a history lesson. I don't think fans of his will be disappointed.

I was provided an Audio ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This is my first book by the author, and when I discovered that this might have ties to to Greek mythology and it was a thriller it really peaked my interest. I love both Greek mythology and a good thriller. Let's just say that those two aspects are not as connected as I would have liked.

I really didn't enjoy this book. I found the characters unlikable and the plot to be kind of ridiculous. I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator's performance either. All of the female characters were poorly portrayed and all of the male characters suffered from the same troubled childhoods making them all suspects. For a thriller, I was never once thrilled or surprised. The reveal was a huge let down and completely underwhelming.

There were several plot lines meant to mislead the reader and make you think "maybe that person is the killer", when really those parts of the story could have been completely left out and you wouldn't have missed them. The aspect of Mariana inserting herself into a murder investigation was so unrealistic. I also did not like the use of mental health and the treatment of those struggling with mental health issues in this book. Much like our main character, I felt like it was unnecessarily crossing boundaries.

I think this is going to be a book you either really love or really don't like at all. While I didn't particularly enjoy this, I think there are going to be plenty of people who really do enjoy this. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed this more had I read it on the page vs listening to the audio, but this didn't work for me.

I wish I had been more invested in this book as I was with Michaelides first novel, The Silent Patient. I so badly wanted to LOVE this story, but the main character really REALLY got on my nerves. She made me not want to read any more. I know....grief is HORRID and I expect no less when I lose a close loved one, but reading about her and her grief for more than half the book, just killed it for me.

THAT being said, it definitely plays a part and comes full circle as to why it is so important so I don't feel like it was a total waste of time. I found myself not really having to push to read this book but it wasn't calling for me. I never got to a point of the book calling for me to pick it up and read.

I never try to guess the killer in stories like this but you can't help thinking many times "Is that him/her? Or is THAT him/her?" and trying to connect some dots. I will say I suspected the real killer but I couldn't put together the pieces for it to work out. I was definitely surprised by the ending.

The audio was well done but not the best I've heard. I did enjoy having it to read when I couldn't sit down with the e-arc.

The Silent Patient was an amazing book so I wanted to read this book because of the author. While it’s not The Silent Patient good, it’s still a really good book. I listened to the audiobook version and was interested from the beginning to the end. I definitely recommend this one and look forward to more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to listen to this audiobook. Reading the description, I was so excited to dive into this novel, and it did not disappoint! The story centers around Mariana Andros, who is a grieving widow and group therapist. When a murder happens at Cambridge, her alma mater, she goes to soothe her niece, as the victim was her niece's close friend. Very quickly, Mariana gets the feeling that the girls' Greek tragedy professor, Edward Fosca, knows more about the murder than he is letting on. And of course, the murders keep happening, all Fosca's students and all with a macabre, mythological twist.
The story twists and turns from there, and I don't want to give too much away. Needless to say, there were abundant red herrings and the real story behind the murders was definitely not what I expected! It was a true jaw-dropping reveal!
The narrators were brilliant with smooth, melodic voices that really captured the tense, dark atmosphere.
I highly recommend this novel, and I kept thinking of how it would pair nicely with Donna Tartt's The Secret History.