<i>Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.</i>

BEFORE - Hannah and April are best friends and Pelham University roommates. In their first term, the two grow their friend group into an inseparable six: them, Will, Hugh, Emily, and Ryan. By the end of the second term, April is found dead in her and Hannah's shared room after a school production of <i>Medea</i>.

AFTER - A decade later, the man convicted of April's murder dies in prison and a young reporter emails Hannah with news that the man might have been wrongly convicted. With a potential killer still roaming free, Hannah gradually disrupts her peaceful life to dig up the past. But as Hannah uncovers more secrets about that night 10 years ago, clues begin to point in directions she...doesn't like. And you can't turn a blind eye to the truth once it's been uncovered.

The book alternates chapters between BEFORE and AFTER the incident, both in 3rd person POV following our main character, Hannah. I'll admit, my main qualm with the book (and why it ultimately got 4 stars instead of 5) is because of its length. At times, it was just hard to push through—very dense with prose and so. much. description. That being said, the alternating timeline between chapters really helped with the pacing issues on this one! It really balanced the introduction of new info and the plot points with the more subtle character work.

And speaking of the characters, I like that this book had a smaller cast. We're focusing on the main six in the friend group (Will, Hugh, Emily, Ryan, April, and Hannah), John Neville (the man convicted of April's murder), November Rain (<spoiler> April's sister </spoiler>), and...I think that's it! It's much easier with the smaller cast to keep track of everyone and to really get to know them over the course of the story (and try to guess April's killer!)

I listened to the audiobook along with the eARC I received for this, and Imogen Church never disappoints. Her and Ware are an iconic duo that are auto-buys for me!

Overall, this was a really solid thriller and arguably one of Ware's best! I personally still think <i>Turn of the Key</i> takes the cake, but I will absolutely recommend this one if Ware's been a hit-or-miss for you lately (I know people weren't huge fans of <i>One by One</i> and its large cast). This book, though slow at times, does excellent character work and pulls off a believable but breath-taking twist that any mystery/thriller writer yearns to achieve. Fans of Ashley Winstead's <i>In My Dreams I Hold a Knife</i> will enjoy this one!

I need to stop reading Ruth Ware books. You see, she's highly praised all over the bookternet and I love thrillers, but each book by her leaves me wanting something more. The IT Girl is no exception.

I found this annoyingly predictable for a psychological/ domestic thriller. I clocked the killer 23% in and kept reading out of some weird sense of duty. I suppose I feel Ruth Ware has potential and can't always let me down, yet she continues to just be boring and basic Agatha Christie regurgitation. Yawn. I'm done giving her chances... probably.

A mystery set at Oxford? Say less! The “it girl” of campus is murdered her first year at school, and 10 years later her friends are still struggling with their pasts. When the man found guilty of the murder dies, Hannah, the It girl’s best friend, realizes the man she convicted of murder may have been innocent all along, and the true murderer may still roam free.

In typical Ruth Ware fashion, this book is filled with red herrings. This book is a psychological thriller that goes between the present and the past. The author sprinkles hints throughout out the book so pay attention. I didn’t guess who the killer was as I kept going back and forth on a number of characters. Ruth Ware is a modern day Agatha Christie. Great book!

If your roommate got killed in the apartment you shared, would you be able to leave it alone?
Hannah can't. She helped put a man in jail but now she's not sure if he was guilty. He dies in jail still protesting he's innocent. Her husband begs her to stop because he's scared for her and she's pregnant. They love each other but they fight over this.

The writing goes from the present back to the past all the way through the book.

She gets worried about her husband because he might be the killer. He's not.

The killer is someone she trusts. Will she be able to say alive once she figures it out?

This is probably the strongest novel I have read by Ware. A young and extremely annoying student at Oxford (the "It Girl") is murdered, and a porter who has been harassing her roommate, Hannah, is convicted of the murder. When he dies in prison, the roommate begins to have doubts about her testimony, which put him in prison. This was the rare mystery whose resolution truly surprised me - very clever. I also thought Ware's treatment of the harassment was well done - when Hannah's friends insist she report him (before the murder), her male tutor clearly questions her story and the frustration is overwhelming, for this reader at least. But overall good plot and character development.

Ruth ware's books are always a solid 3 star read for me. They are good for a quick cozy mystery read.
Things I did like:
The narrator for these audiobooks always makes for a good atmospheric listen.
I liked the dark academia vibes of this---liked this timeline more than the modern one.
The pace was nice. A bit slow going a t first but the dual timelines worked well with this story
Our main character actually didn't bug me too much---at least she didn't have a drinking problem making her unreliable.

Things I didn't like:
I have found these domestic thriller becoming tiresome with the same old troupes like the popular it girl who is really a bitch and everyone hates...
The killer was super obvious, so were the red herrings.
The whole John Neville part---the guy was still a major stalking creep and would have escalated if given more time and opportunity and still deserved it in my mind.

Overall, it was an average mystery.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really exciting thriller that kept me turning pages all night long. Really enjoyed this one and will be recommending to others!

I am a huge Ruth Ware fan and that is even further solidified after finishing The It Girl! I absolutely loved this book! The dual timeline was one of my favorite parts of this one! The story begins ten years ago on our MC Hannah’s first day of college at Oxford and flashes back and forth between present time and the events leading up to one of her best friends being killed. Many years later, Hannah is unsure about the evidence she had against the convicted killer and she begins digging. Each of the characters from the past pop back into the story in different ways. I both loved and disliked this cast of characters. I loved how I had conflicting emotions regarding each one. Admittedly, I thought early on I had an idea where Ruth Ware was going with the story and I was hoping she wasn’t playing that angle… I am happy to say that I was wrong and she didn’t! I won’t say any more because it will spoil it!

The It Girl It was everything I look for in a suspense thriller! It had, a great mystery, a cast of characters that kept my guessing, twists and turns I didn’t see coming and an absolutely perfect pace that kept me eagerly flipping the pages! This was 5 huge bright and glowing stars and I highly, highly recommend!

Thanks for the ARC. I found this title by Ruth Ware a little slower at first. There were enough twists and turns to keep me interested and then the can't-put-it-down last few chapters, that I will definitely recommend it to my customers.

i liked the dark academia vibes and the dual timelines. once i got towards the end of the story i pieced together where things were going, but i really liked how the author got us there. other than that, the story felt like your average thriller. if it had been 80 or so pages shorter, i probably would have bumped up my rating, but the story really dragged for me.

overall not bad, but not great

3.5 stars

The It Girl by Ruth Ware is the story of a woman whose life changed after her college roommate was murdered. It was written in mostly alternating chapters: Before and After. To say she was profoundly affected would be an understatement. It was almost not on her mind daily, when the man convicted of the murder died of a heart attack while he was in prison. True, he had been creepy, but was he a murderer? She saw a photo online that showed him as the broken old man he had become. He had been convicted on circumstantial evidence, given by her. Had she done him wrong? She had to know. She tried to talk to her husband, Will, about it but he didn’t want to hear it again. Will had been April’s boyfriend, although the romance had been waning. He had never been a suspect because he was out of town. Maybe she could talk to Hugh, their friend, who lived here in Edinburgh. She could try. With Neville dead, she started getting calls and emails from reporters again. She never responded to any of them. Her friend, Emily, from college, called her about one who was apparently a friend of another of their friends. He ambushed her with April’s much younger sister, who looked exactly like April. She was living in a nightmare. What to do.

This was a fine thriller, keeping me guessing right along with Hannah until the very end, and then some. Hannah was a woman with a conscience. She still felt bad about so many things. She had left college after April’s murder, never to return. She had moved as far north as she could get: Edinburgh. She couldn’t work in a library or publishing house with no degree, so she compromised and worked in a bookstore. She loved it. Three months after she left, Will turned up. They date, lived together, got married, got pregnant. Then it all started again. Her blood pressure was high, not good for her unborn baby. Should she do as Will recommended, try to put it behind her? Should she return to counseling? That had helped for a while. This story had a plot done so well that Ware should be celebrated. Her primary character, Hannah, was developed and laid out before us in all her glory. Her husband and friends were less developed but it was not as necessary. The whole thing kept me on the edge, feeling Hannah’s pain every step of the way. This was an excellent book. I recommend it.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The It Girl by Simon and Schuster, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #simonandschuster #ruthware #theitgirl

Ruth Ware did it again— I could not put this one down. If you like your mysteries a bit twisty, this is next on your TBR pile.
Ware took me back to my university days filled with first love, shenanigans, and those deep relationships forged from newfound freedom and the intense emotions that come with it.
The shocking death of “It” girl April spins everyone’s lives in different directions; her roommate Hannah is haunted by it and her testimony that sent the creepy Porter to prison. What if she was wrong? He died in prison and now reporters are inquiring and she cannot rest until she knows the truth. Will the truth set her free or get her killed?

I am happy to say that Ruth Ware got me again.

I spent most of the book thinking I had it all figured out....and then SHE GOT ME. Yet again why she is one of my favorite authors.

A slow-burn suspense with an unreliable protagonist and fantastic characterization. Ruth Ware expertly creates a storyline that readers can submerge themselves in, with several twists and turns along the way. Great read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheItGirl which was read and reviewed voluntarily.

I’m a huge fan of Ruth Ware and I have loved her previous work so much that maybe I had just a little bit too high of hopes for this book. This is a good book and well worth reading but just doesn’t match up to some of her previous novels. Some of the characters were rather tedious and I didn’t feel as surprised by the ending as I had hoped to be. I’m still looking forward to reading her next novel.

3.5 stars rounded to a 4
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC of The It Girl by Ruth Ware. This story was my first Ruth Ware book and I enjoyed the academic setting for this psychological thriller. The main theme of the book: Was the wrong person convicted of the infamous murder of The It Girl? The dual timeline in the book focuses on Hannah Jones, the It Girl's roommate and best? friend and the Before and After of Hannah's life and the manner she deals with this traumatic and tragic death. Hannah has never been able to let go and move on with her life and continues to search for the truth. I think enough supporting characters were introduced in this story so that the killer remained a mystery throughout the tale. More editing could have been done in some areas of the book to avoid repetition. The ending felt rushed and sad. Did Hannah feel relief and closure? You, as the reader, will determine that.

There are some things a person needs to know before walking into a Ruth Ware novel:

1) she loves the unreliable protagonist trope.
2) she writes a slow boil, so while it might not hook you right away, it goes “get better” as people love to ask.
3) I want to give a small spoiler here but I won’t because I’m a decent human being.

This book was more of the same in terms of playing to her pre-determined strengths. That said, there were some different elements that worked really well. First, the setting. I loved the old, stodgy university feel. Something about it made me feel very atmospheric and it was a whole vibe tbh. Additionally, I mostly enjoyed the characters… although, I think they were a bit too flat and more than a bit cliched (the brash feminist, the cheeky athlete, the awkward brain, the poor little rich girl with a spoiled side), they were still believable as a college clique. Finally, I liked our main character, which isn’t necessary, but is uncommon enough to be a treat.

Still, there were other things I didn’t like. The twist went too hard: she was really trying to get you to believe it was person A, to the point that is was painfully obvious that it wasn’t. In fact, if you’ve read five or more thrillers, you could guess the ending. Probably not quickly.

Commenting on THE IT GIRL by Ruth Ware, The Wall Street Journal's Tom Nolan says it "may well be her best book yet." I concur. Ware (author of multiple thrillers, including One by One) tells the tale of a group of Oxford college students: Hannah, Will, Hugo, Emily, Ryan and April. The chapters are headed Before and After, referring to the time before April's death when they were all freshmen at Pelham College and to the time ten years later when Hannah and Will are married, living in Edinburgh, and expecting a baby. The others have moved on, too: Hugo is a successful doctor, Emily has returned to Oxford as a professor and Ryan is married with two young girls. At that time, the man convicted of April's death dies in prison which prompts renewed interest and stirs Hannah's own doubts. Despite resistance from Will and possible danger to herself and the baby, Hannah pursues a variety of ideas, culminating in an exciting, threatening encounter. Readers will be surprised although the before flashbacks provide a confusing collage of insights into the personalities and possible motivations of the students, teachers, and employees at the college. THE IT GIRL is a LibraryReads selection for July and received a starred review from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Mystery fans will not be disappointed.

THE IT GIRL by Ruth Ware

In THE IT GIRL we’re following Hannah in two timelines. In the past she is at school in her first year at Oxford with her infamous roommate and It Girl, April.

In the current timeline Hannah is pregnant and married to Will who was in her college circle, back at Oxford.

One day she receives unsettling news that a killer she help put away has died. This news sends Hannah on a one woman investigation as she searches the echoes of her past to make things right.

Reading this book felt a bit like chasing a ghost.

As the main character is working things out so are we, the reader and it takes a while.

The more Hannah digs into the past to discover the truth, the more precarious things become for her and everyone around her.

It creates this very effective unsettled feeling.

And although there were quite a few aspects to the story that were unbelievable it didn’t deter from the overall enjoyment of the book.

The It Girl landed somewhere between three and four stars, rounded up to four because overall I enjoyed the reading experience.

THE IT GIRL…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Netgalley Gallery Books, Gallery/Scout Press for the advanced copy!