This book quite literally put me in the worst reading slump of my life. I went from reading 15+ books a month to not even reading a single book in 2 months.

I started this book AGES ago and finally finished it after continually forcing myself to pick it back up. It just wasn't interesting at all to me. I didn't care about any of the characters and didn't really care about the mystery presented.

The only good thing about this book was the plot twist at the end, and that's only because I genuinely did not see it coming. But... a bad book can't be salvaged by one good twist. The other 98% was simply boring and impossible to get through.

Take my advice and skip this one.

I don't think this is Ruth Ware's finest work, but it is still good and worth reading. It follows a period of ten years, switching from past to present, nearly every chapter. The characters are well drawn and and some of the scenes are dark. The story revolves around a murder at Oxford University, and how it has affected some of the students. Well worth reading.

It was a solid mystery! I did feel like I figured it out about halfway through, making me quick read the rest.

The It Girl is about Hannah, a first-time expecting mother, trying to uncover the truth about her best friend’s murder 10 years ago. When the man accused of the murder dies in jail, Hannah comes to realize that her testimony, which had put him in prison, may not have been true at all. Told in alternating chapters of past and present, the novel follows Hannah as she revisits her memories to untangle at Oxford all those years ago.

I was extremely excited for The It Girl, Ruth Ware’s first foray back into a college-campus mystery since The Lying Game, which I absolutely loved. While the premise was intriguing, the book fell slightly flat, with too much emphasis on present-day Hannah wandering around town and up and down throughout the country. The flashbacks Hannah’s Oxford days were fun, but the eventual murderer was too obvious. However, Ware’s writing and atmospheric gloom are, as always, on point, making it worth the read.

Not Horrible, not great. It was super slow to begin with but in the last like 75 pages it picked up. It reminded me a lot of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife. I was a little disappointed because I love Ruth Ware but this juts really didn't hit the mark for me.

This page turner told in dual timelines had me guessing until the very end. April Coutts-Cliveden is the definition of an It Girl. She had it all together and pulled Hannah into her tight knit friend group at Oxford. When April turns up dead, April is the eye witness that puts her murderer behind bars.
.
When convicted murder John Neville dies in prison old wounds are reopened. To make matters worse a young journalist comes to Hannah with new information that makes her question everything. I knew there would be a twist but I can happily say I didn’t guess it!
.
Thank you #gallerybook and #NetGalley for the gifted book in exchange for an honest review.

There are some moments in our lives that change everything—moments that define the rest of our lives. For the expectant mother in The It Girl by Ruth Ware, that moment was a devastating one—one that’s haunted her for years—and she’s determined to get some long-overdue closure.

Review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

I thought the ending was really creative, but this book really dragged, and I skimmed way too much of it. It pissed me off in some ways because I thought if it's labeled a thriller, it should be more shocking and thrilling, but overall it was a good story, and I did like some of the events that I didn't see coming until I did.

Thank you so much to @netgalley for this advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
This one kept me on my toes. I never knew who the killer was. Usually, I can guess, but Ruth Ware did a good job keeping me guessing.

I enjoyed this, but it didn't quite have the ZING that Ruth Ware books usually have for me. Hannah was a likable character and easy to follow. There were so many red herrings for the whodunit that it became too much and spoiled a bit of the mystery. Still worth the read, for sure.

I wasn't sure what to expect here, but I ended up enjoying it.

The It Girl is about a group of college friends in Cambridge, told in alternating timelines both before and after the murder of April, the "It Girl" of the group. The story is told from the perspective of April's roommate Hannah, who discovered April's body and has never truly moved on after her murder. When the man convicted of the crime after Hannah's damning testimony dies in prison after maintaining his innocence, Hannah feels compelled to begin looking into April's murder again.

And I have to admit that I was wrong about who the murderer was and did not see the last twist coming. I wasn't a big fan of Hannah's character though, and the setting kept giving me The Maidens flashbacks and I would never have picked this up based on the title alone, because it makes me think about the roaring 20s and flappers. The Turn of the Key is still my favorite Ruth Ware, but I did enjoy this one.

I always like the way Ruth Ware can make her readers feel. She can weave so many side stories and characters into a book to throw you off. I was suspicious of every single character at one point until finding out who was actually guilty. I found it to be a little long and dragged out during some scenes, but I liked the past and present timelines and dynamic of this friend group.

Hannah is excited to attend Oxford and discovers she has a rich, spoiled roommate, April. April’s antics are usually thrown on everyone except Hannah, sparing Hannah from April’s devious pranks. One night, Hannah finds April strangled and dead in their dorm room. She’s shocked and doesn’t remember what happens after she finds April. She’s the main witness in April’s murder trial and the only information she has is seeing a college porter going down the stairs by her dorm room. He’s found guilty on that little bit of evidence but insists he’s innocent until the day he dies, even though he remains imprisoned. Hannah begins to doubt that he was guilty and digs into any evidence she can find. She uncovers much more than she bargained for, putting her life and her unborn baby in danger. Love the twist of this mystery thriller and the suspense had me glued to the page, 5 stars!

Ten years ago, Hannah Jones returned to her suite at Oxford’s Pelham College to find her roommate, rich, beautiful and famous “it girl” April Clive-Cliveden, lying dead on the floor. Minutes before while crossing the Quad, she’d seen one of the college porters, a man named Neville whom she’d always found disturbing, leaving the stairway that led to her rooms. She’d given testimony to that effect in court and the man had been put away, but he’d always proclaimed his innocence, even when it cost him the possibility of parole.

Now Hannah’s living in Edinburgh, married to college friend Will, and expecting their first child. The news of Neville’s death in jail sets off a new round of interest in the decade-old story, and she finds herself unable to escape it. She’s always had nagging feelings of doubt, and when a journalist confronts her with possible proof of Neville’s innocence, she is haunted by the possibility that she may have been wrong. But if it wasn’t Neville, who?

Author Ruth Ware does an absolutely masterful job of building suspense, shining light one way and then another, and keeping you guessing. I also really appreciated how well developed the characters were. The timeline moves back and forth between “Before”–Hannah’s freshman year at Pelham, her friends April and Emily, Will, Ryan and Hugh, her flirtatious tutor and the creepy porter–and “After”–after April’s death. Her deepening description of April’s character, multi-faceted and nuanced, is really well done. As Hannah revisits the past, she begins to see events in new ways, and discovers secrets that have been hidden for years.

The It Girl is a great read. The characters are well formed, the pace is just right, and the story is gripping. It’s stayed with me for days. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Ruth Ware writes a fine puzzle of a novel again.
Similar in setting to Donna Tartt’s THE SECRET HISTORY but with the feel of a traditional thriller. Twists at the end are laid out deliberately to keep you on edge. Characters are likable.

I read lots of mysteries, and usually know "who done it" before the end, but not with this one. Hannah tells this story in a before and after narrative. Hannah came from a small town, a very ordinary background, and she felt a bit awed, excited, and scared when she entered Oxford. Fortunately her wealthy, outgoing roommate, April, takes Hannah under her wing, and Hannah begins to thrive. But there are secrets beneath the surface of their crowd, and then April is killed, and Hannah's testimony is critical to the conviction of the killer. Years later, there are questions, and Hannah is consumed with guilt thinking she may have convicted the wrong person. I received an arc and am under no pressure to make a positive review.

This was the best one of Ruth Ware's books I have read so far. A woman's traumatic experience at the prestigious Oxford College in England confronts her head on ten years down the road. Who murdered her best friend and roommate? Did she really see what she saw? I enjoyed reading about the setting and I typically like the dual timeline stories. The only drawback would be that the plot has been quite overused in the past five years. Each novel has tweaks that make it unique, yet it just doesn't seem fresh. You may keep guessing who did it but you ultimately know how you are going to get there. I would recommend to Ware fans and those that love suspense thrillers. #netgalley #goodreads #theitgirl #ruthware

Hannah Jones has rebuilt her life after her college roommate was horrifically murdered in their dorm room. Now pregnant and married, she's done her best to move on with her life. That is, until the accused and convicted murderer dies in prison and rumors start to spread that he was actually innocent.

This one kept me guessing! I definitely didn't see the murderer coming, which is always nice in a thriller. I did find it slow at times, and the constant back and forth between present day and the past could be jarring at times. Overall, though, a solid read.

This book was one that I could not put down. Three different times I thought I knew what was going on but didn’t. Great twist at the end.

Hannah Jones has built her life back from the crumbling despair that followed the murder of her best friend. As a new college student at Oxford, Hannah had met April Clarke-Cliveden on her first day at the campus. The rich and affluent April took Hannah under her wing and soon Hannah melded seamlessly with a group of Oxford students who held much of the limelight on campus. April's upbringing and past caused her to often behave with reckless abandon or cruel teasing. The gamut of people April has hurt creates an interesting array of red herrings. The novel moves backward and forward in time recounting the last days before April's murder. All the while, Hannah must decide if she made a horrible mistake over a decade ago.