The Wild Girls just didn't click for me.

I loved the premise of the novel but not the execution. The blurb made Botswana seem as if it would be integral to the plot, but it was extremely underutilized. The gorgeous resort could have been anywhere hot and pretty. The main characters were all unlikable and annoying. The POVs changed but it was hard to remember who was "speaking" because the voice was not clear. I think I would have preferred solely first person narration. I found the pacing slow and very repetitive.

This was my 2nd "locked room" thriller and I didn't love either. Maybe the genre is just not my thing.

Thank you to William Morrow, Scene of the Crime and NetGalley for advancing me an eARC in exchange for an

After 2 years of not speaking, 4 old friends try to make amends when one of them invites the rest of them to a resort in Africa to celebrate her birthday. However, things take a sinister turn when they realize they are stranded and someone is killing them off, one by one. I give this book 4 stars because it was just way too predictable for my liking. Overall, a good suspenseful read though.

FOUR FRIENDS. A LUXURY RETREAT. IT’S GOING TO BE MURDER.

It’s been years since Grace, Felicity, Alice, and Hannah were together. The “Wild Girls,” as they were once called, are no longer so wild. Alice is a teacher. Hannah has a new baby. Grace is a homebody. Only Felicity seems to have retained her former spark.
Then Felicity invites them all on the weekend of a lifetime—a birthday bash in Botswana. It will be a chance to have fun and rekindle their once bomb-proof friendship… and finally put that one horrible night, all those years ago, behind them for good.
But soon after arriving at the luxury safari lodge, a feeling of unease settles over them. There’s no sign of the party that was promised. There’s no phone signal. They are on their own… and things start to go very, very wrong. 

💭 This one had me at the synopsis! The beginning is fast paced, edge of your seat type of thriller. You just know something WILD is about to happen! I liked the characters (after reading part 2), even though I wanted to shake them. Showing up to a basically deserted resort and nobody finds that…odd?! But I will say that helped build anticipation. The twists caught me by surprise! I do wish there could have been more description of the scenery in Botswana. Overall enjoyed this one!

Three friends are invited to another friends birthday party in Botswana. The friends have not really kept in touch but see this as a reunion. It turns out not to be the reunion they were expecting.

This book is like a curvy road up a steep mountain. The twists keep coming and kept me guessing. Multiple POV’s are used for this book, which is great because you get to see a little more into everyone’s lives. I loved this book for the unexpected.

Wild Girls is a sinister, atmospheric girls weekend gone terribly wrong while on safari in Botswana. I felt like the story really took off at the halfway point and the twists in the end, while not entirely original, are expertly executed. Thank you Netgalley, William Morrow and Custom House, as well as the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

“The Wild Girls” by Phoebe Morgan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 4/26/22

I really enjoyed this one! I was constantly trying to figure out what was going on. The last 25% had unexpected twists and I really enjoyed every single one!

“Four Friends. A Luxury Retreat. It’s Going to be Murder.” This quote tells it all.
The four friends “The Wild Girls” had a falling out two years ago and Felicity is using her birthday as an excuse to get the girls back together.
Hannah is married with a baby, so even though she’s skeptical about the weekend she desperately needs fun.
Alice lives with long time boyfriend Tom and is a teacher. They are struggling financially so when Felicity says it’s all paid she can’t find an excuse on why she shouldn’t go.
Grace has become a loner and really wants her friendships back.
The girls just want a weekend of fun. What they don’t expect is a weekend of terror.

The Wild Girls was a fast-paced locked room mystery set at Deception Valley Lodge in Botswana. The name of the lodge creeped me out! The story revolves around four women who had been best friends, but because of something that happens, they have not seen each other for two years. One of them sends a birthday invite to the other three for the trip to Botswana with all expenses paid and off they all go. Nothing feels or seems right when they get there and that is when the past starts to catch up with them. The twists and turns that bring you to the ending are great with some that I didn't see coming. I definitely want to read more from the author.

Will review in the future, was offered as a free book with no review needed. However, as soon as I read this I will review. Thanks for offering free reads for Scene of the Crime.

This premise had so much potential…three former friends receive an invitation for a free trip to Botswana from their fourth friend. Each of these women has the typical backstory and threads run consistently through the book with clues referring to one night in their past when everything changed.
The Deception Valley Lodge, far from everything, sounded incredible, but very foreboding, other than the plush beds. Strange things began to happen immediately., very predictable except for the fortune teller, which certainly brought my own memories of them flooding back. Highly unusual for the food to appear out of nowhere as it seemed to.
The final revelation of that fated night was mostly predictable. The ending was a bit of a surprise. I found myself ambivalent about the characters and did not even feel sympathetic towards the end, which is very unusual for me. I was expecting more conflict/suspense from animals in the surrounding area.
Many thanks to Phoebe Morgan, HQ, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this book, published today.

3.5 / 5 rounded up

Okay Phoebe Morgan, I see you!! The Wild Girls was my first time reading a book by this author but based off of how much I loved her writing, it will definitely not be my last. This is a super pacy read that you can easily speed through, and I loved all of the wonderful and lush descriptions of Botswana. I am always up for a locked room mystery as well, and a luxury lodge in the middle of the African plains sounded like the perfect setting for one. The story is told from the viewpoints of the different friends, and it was really great having all of them as opposed to just one or a couple. Told through alternating viewpoints and jumps between past and present, Morgan slowly reveals what has happened in the friends' past and just what is going on at the lodge.

If anyone is on the fence about this one but loves or even just LIKES audiobooks, then I think you are going to have to listen to it. There is a full cast of narrators (Stephanie Racine, Polly Baron, Silvia Presente & Olivia Dowd), and they freaking NAILED both the characters and this book in general. Each one made the storyline feel even more real, and I enjoyed each person for the character they voiced. The only real downfall to The Wild Girls that I found, is that it needed more animals and some gore. For being set in Africa, I was expecting the girls to go on a safari, or at the very least come in contact with some real-life animals. I was disappointed that Morgan didn't fully take advantage of her setting, but otherwise I really enjoyed the story. It was a little predictable but that didn't bother me, and the end had a nice touch that I didn't see coming. Overall, this was more of a win than a miss for me, and I am eager to read Morgan's backlist!

Thank you to the publishers for my advanced listening and reader copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

This mystery murder set in England and Botswana was a nice read but a little predictable. The writing was good and the dual time lines were enjoyable but I didn't really like any of the characters and had a hard time rooting for any of them. Also, as someone who has spent a good amount of time in Botswana, I was bothered by a lot of the inaccuracies that a few google searches would have cleared up. But overall it was a nice fast-paced read that would warm you up during chilly weather and make you sweat in the summer.

I enjoyed this locked room thriller and liked that it takes place in Botswana. Told in multiple POVs, all the characters are hiding secrets and you can’t stop turning the pages to find out what they are. The twists were not very surprising to me, but there was enough suspense throughout that it really kept me engaged. I didn’t really care for the ending, I felt it was too open-ended.

Thank you to Scene of the Crime, Netgalley and William Morrow for the e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

💭 Overall thoughts: This book has Lion King vibes mixed with Mean Girls… That’s a very weird mixing of genres but trust me, it works. I love the setting of the book and the multiple timelines. It has you going between when the group were BFFs and the present where they are rekindling things. There are a lot of twists the author does a good job of hiding everyones true motives. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured, just wait!

DNF at 27%

<u>The Wild Girls</u> is an isolated mystery/thriller by Phoebe Morgan. The ebook version is 320 pages.

Two years after their friend group disbanded, three women receive a birthday invitation from the fourth woman in their formerly close-knit pod. Said celebration will occur at an exclusive resort in Botswana, all expenses paid by the birthday girl.

We follow our four main characters with alternating first- and third-person points-of-view, jumping around in time from the present to the past. Grace, our only first-person POV character, is a huge introvert. The other characters, Hannah and Alice, have sections in the third-person. We cycle through each woman throughout most chapters, which felt a little choppy to me; I wish that we had longer times with each.

I really struggled to get into this book. At the 20% mark, I was hopeful that something would happen to hook me in. At the 27% mark, when my Kindle Paperwhite told me that the next chapter would take me thirty minutes to read--and I'm a quick reader!--I decided to put this down.

The POVs cycled through the characters too quickly and too often, and it was jarring for me to read one POV character in first-person while the others were in third-person. I didn't really care about any of the characters, either; I'm usually a character-driven reader. It was also really difficult for me to suspend disbelief for the entire conceit of the book, which is interesting because I'm a big speculative fiction reader in general.

I can't really recommend this book personally, but if you like locked-room mysteries you may want to give it a try.

<b><u>Tropes in this book include</u>:</b> locked-room mystery

<b><u>CW</u>:</b> murder, death

Special thanks to William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own. <u>The Wild Girls</u> ebook releases today, <b>April 26th</b>.

This novel is one wild ride, and the perfect beach read for women in particular. The book is based on the relationship of four women in London -- Felicity, Hannah, Grace and Alice -- who have not spoken to each other after a night of drinking two years prior when they all got together to meet Felicity's boyfriend Nathaniel. Suddenly, Felicity presents Hannah, Grace and Alice with the opportunity of going on an all-expenses paid trip to a luxury hunting lodge in Botswana for her birthday. Sounds like fun, right? Not so much when Hannah, Grace and Alice arrive in Desolation Valley in Botswana (if that location doesn't scream "Run Away" I don't know what does), to find that the luxury hunting lodge is apparently abandoned and staffed by unseen hands. I think that we know where this is going, but we don't know who will survive, how or what is behind this sick game. The novel is action-packed, aided by the author's decision to tell the story in short chapters with multiple narrators. I had a lot of bloody fun. 4.5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins for gifting me with an advanced copy of this book. All of the opinions I have expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Felicity Denbigh, Grace Carter, Alice Warner, and Hannah Jones were the best of friends, but they haven't seen each other for two years. Grace, Alice, and Hannah unexpectedly receive an invitation from Felicity for an all expenses paid trip to Botswana to celebrate her 30th birthday. Each woman is hesitant, but all end up accepting the generous offer. They arrive to find luxurious accommodations, but far from a warm welcome from their old friend Felicity.

This book started out fantastic, telling the story from multiple points of view so the reader quickly got to know Grace, Alice, and Hannah. It is strongly hinted that each woman is keeping secrets and there is a strong sense of foreboding about how what happened in the past is putting some of the characters in danger in the present. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy how things ultimately played out and several things didn't add up for me. This is a fast-paced read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. 3/3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Scene of the Crime Early Reads for this ebook. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan is a fresh take on the locked room thriller. Set in a tropical vacation paradise, three friends are to meet up for a birthday celebration. Instead, strange events start to happen. I was waiting on every page to see what was going to happen next. Definitely a must read.

The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan

What an exciting premise: Four childhood friends who were known as the wild girls in college, reunited for a 30th birthday celebration at a safari lodge in Botswana. Sounds like the perfect girl’s weekend, right? Except it turns into a weekend of fear and revenge, I would describe as a real-life escape room with deadly consequences.

A captivating, riveting, fast paced thriller told from multiple unreliable POV. It starts out slow but picks up speed once the girls arrive in Botswana. I also found some of it was predictable, but maybe I have read so many thrillers that I figure things out easier than I used to.

Overall, a solid read if you enjoy fast paced thrillers and delving into friendships and their secrets.

Books like this are the reason I am reluctant to take a girls trip! Just kidding, but even the tamest of girls can be trouble at times. In this story, readers meet a foursome of longtime friends and one of their favorite childhood games was truth or dare. They seemed to live a bit on the edge when they were together, but jobs and romances eventually forced them to go their separate ways.

One night they get together to meet Felicity’s new boyfriend. This night caused a crack in the foursome that wasn’t easily mended. Each woman had feelings of guilt or betrayal and they kept these hurts to themselves instead of sharing their feelings and working them out.

When Felicity invites them for a special birthday weekend in Botswana, they each have their own reasons for accepting. Mostly each one was anxious to have a break from their lives that was greater than their reluctance to face Felicity again.

Almost immediately things start to get strange when they arrive. It doesn’t take long before they figure out this was not a trip for pleasure, but a trap for revenge. But what have they each done?

The story slowly takes readers back in time to the events of their last get-together where we learn what happened that caused the friendships to split apart.

I can’t say I was that surprised at the ending, but the final paragraph was quite chilling.
Thriller fans will love this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Title: The Wild Girls
Author: Phebe Morgan
Publisher: William Morrow and Custom House
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"The Wild Girls" by Phoebe Morgan
My Assessment:

Wow! What will happen when Hannah, Alice, Felicity, and Grace, who had been school friends, but this friendship had stopped in the last several years due to what had happened during a night of partying some two years ago. However, it seems like Felicity's 30th birthday is coming up, and she invites all three of the ladies to a luxury lodge in Botswana. Will they accept this invitation?... It seems they do; however, arriving, they find the luxury place deserted. What is up with that? This author gives the reader a lot to chew on because there will be POVs from all of these ladies. And what comes out will have one shaking their head and saying, Wow! Be ready, yes there will be ...der!

From the events at the lodge, one will get a clear picture of each of these so-called friends. It seems to be lots of secrets that will come out that help completes the whole story. One will be left thinking about what Grace had told her friend Felicity about a specific person... did it lead to this? Well, I will stop here and say you will have to pick up this read!

Also, there is a fellow in this read that causes a lot of grief, especially for one of the ladies...due to...stopping here and saying the reader must pick up this read to get it all from how well this author presents it to us. When you think the story is going one way, it takes quite a turn! It will be quite an ending where one could be left saying, Grace, you may want to watch your back with who is left from this situation.

The ending brings it all to the point of going through many twists and turns until this violent ending where lies are still being told. What a read!

Thank you, Net Galley, William Morrow, and Custom House, for my ARC and a giving an honest opinion of the read.