The It Girl
By Ruth Ware

This is definitely a book you should add to your summer reading list. I thoroughly enjoyed the story with its many escapades and would love for a sequel!

April Clarke-Cliveden was the “It Girl”, who was killed at Oxford University 10 years ago. Now, her best friend Hannah begins a journey that brings suspense, love, and unexpected danger into her life. You see, when April died, her killer was sentenced and the college friend group seemed to all move on with their lives. John Neville had stolen April’s life and he paid for it by being sentenced to jail. However, Neville suddenly dies in jail, and Hannah is faced with thoughts that perhaps he did not commit the murder of her best friend? After all, he always proclaimed his innocence and his lawyer was in the process of preparing for another appeal of his jail sentence when he died. Enter Geraint Williams, a reporter who happens to be an acquaintance of one of Hannah and April’s Oxford University friends. His foray into Hannah’s life reintroduces her deeply hidden thoughts, that maybe she helped send an innocent man to jail.

When the story starts, Hannah is a typical college freshman, ashamed of her family background and still wondering how she made it to Oxford. The book is written with each chapter titled Before or After correlated to the time of April’s murder. It helps make the story flow and sets the ambiance to a rolling mysterious ride. When reading the “After” chapters, I was always longing for the “Before” chapters to put things in perspective.

The storyline continues to highlight each of Hannah and April’s friends and contacts, as the characters develop, in synch with the development of the storyline. Ten years later, things have changed drastically for some and not so much for others. What secrets do they carry with them from their Oxford days? Is the real killer one of April’s friends or lovers? The ending really threw me for a loop! Read it, you won’t be sorry.

Loved this (after all it was a Ruth Ware book). Well paced, well-written. A surprise ending. What more could you ask for? Five stars!

Evocative of Daphne Du Maurier, The It Girl is filled with twists and turns and red herrings galore. Ware is skilled in creating memorable characters in the rather confining settings of a residential Oxford College “staircase” and a very limited group of locations in Edinburgh. But her forte is plotting, which again is the major strength of this novel. The action moves forward steadily, in chapters that alternate between the past and the present, and ultimately raises questions about who one can trust even among their most intimate friends. The It Girl is a splendid read.

When a new Ruth Ware book comes out set aside a day just to read because invariably when you start one of her books you won’t put it down as she is the queen of twisted suspense.

Ruth Ware does it again!! the It Girl is her newest novel Hannah is pregnant with her first child with her husband Will. When the convicted killer of her best friend dies in prison Hannah is contacted by a reporter that brings new evidence to light that maybe things weren’t quite what they seemed. Telling the story from before the murder and after the reader is taken on a wild ride of suspicion and intrigue. For any fans of a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat definitely check this book out

Excellent thriller. Ruth Ware delivers another twisty plot filled with suspense. However, I did have trouble with the basic premise...a woman who is five months pregnant with her first child investigating the murder of her long-dead college roommate. If you can get past that, then The It Girl is hard to put down.

Hannah and April are roommates at Oxford. April is rich, gorgeous, confident and entitled; just your basic mean girl, but middle-class Hannah is pretty awe-struck. They immediately gather a friend group of Ryan, Hugh, Emily and Will. Then one day it all goes horribly wrong and April is murdered. Ten years later, the man convicted of the crime dies in prison, but a reporter contacts Hannah with what seems like new evidence that the man was innocent. Hannah feels compelled to investigate to determine what really happened (this is where the reader must suspend disbelief).

The chapters alternate between Hannah's time at Oxford leading up to April's death and the present day in Edinburgh. April is such a horrible person that it is hard to work up much sympathy for her. I had an inkling of the real villain, but Ware does a good job with red herrings. Not a masterpiece but a solid mystery/thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC.

Can you imagine tragically losing your friend, the killer going to jail and then finding out later that he may never have been the killer?! Ruth Ware has the perfect beach read books. They are so much fun, interesting and can be read even when you have distractions.
I love the premise and the development of the story looking back into the past as now adults, with their own child was a great POV for the story. I love not knowing who to trust and lots of twists and turns. Another fun story from Ruth Ware!

The It Girl by Ruth Ware is a riveting mystery that challenges you to wonder how well you really know your friends. Hannah Jones is determined to discover the answers to her questions ten years after her roommate at Oxford was murdered. The author gives us a window into Hannah’s thinking about each of her tight knit group of friends. We can feel both her uncertainty and fear as she unravels the truth. I highly recommend this book to readers who love a great mystery.

Excellent, dark, and full of twists. Hannah and April have opposite personalities, but still become best friends when they become roommates at college. While April has a large group of friends, the truth is that she is not very well liked among most of them. With a cruel streak and a reputation for practical jokes, it comes as no surprise that many people wouldn’t mind if April ended up dead. Years later when Hannah is married and pregnant she tries to unravel the mystery of what really happened to April, and if an innocent man went to jail because of her. Fast paced, well written and impossible to put down.

4.5 A slow burn story about a woman trying to understand what happened with the murder of her roommate and the man she accused of killing her.

The It Girl Review
Hannah Jones, a quiet girl from a small English town, was surprised to meet her new university roommate, April Clarke-Clivedon. April was the beautiful, vivacious daughter of wealthy parents. Yet the two girls became best friends at Pelham, one of the colleges of Oxford.
The girls became part of a close knit group of students. Then one night Hannah came back to their rooms to find April dead on the floor of the apartment.
Hannah was one of the primary witnesses at the trial of John Neville, a porter at the school. He was convicted on her testimony but always claimed his innocence.
Ten years later Hannah was the wife of April’s former boyfriend, Will, and pregnant with their first child. Neville had died in jail and Hannah was ready to put the whole experience behind her. However a journalist friend of one of her college pals contacted Hannah and told her of new evidence that would exonerate Neville. Hannah reluctantly met with the journalist and soon decided to find out who really killed April. She contacted three of the college friends to solve the mystery.
This story is a masterful work from one of the best psychological thriller writers alive today. Ware alternates between past events leading up to the murder and the present where pregnant Hannah is trying to find answers. The evidence points to one character after another but the identity of the murder will be a shocker and not revealed until the very end of the book.
I received this ARC from the publisher and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.


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Hannah’s life isn’t what she’d planned, but she is happily married, pregnant with her first child, and working in a bookstore. Yet she remains haunted by the tragic event that caused her to drop out of Oxford, changing the course of her life. She’s managing until she discovers the man convicted of murdering her roommate, April, died in prison. The man, whose conviction relied largely on Hannah’s testimony of seeing him outside of her dorm prior to discovering April’s body, maintained his innocence. While Hannah knows he’s guilty of stalking her, she starts to doubt that he killed April. But, if he didn’t kill April, then the murder is likely to be one of Hannah’s friends, or even her husband, all of whom, due to April’s love for merciless pranks, have excellent motives for her murder.

Hannah’s pregnancy makes a cool ticking clock as the stress of her investigation affects her health. Victim April is the type of character that a reader can love to hate. She’s wealthy, entitled, beautiful, a trickster, and a talented actress. At one point in the story, Hannah muses that had they not been assigned roommates, they likely would not have been best friends.

I liked how Ware showed the devastating effects of April’s murder on family and friends, and then sets Hannah up to potentially become the killers next victim. Hannah is nicely conflicted, because the convicted man genuinely made her life at university hell, yet she feels guilty for being responsible if he was falsely convicted.

The book intersperses chapters taking place “before” and “after” April’s murder, which keeps the backstory fresh and engaging. I loved seeing a reference to SA Cosby and his amazing book RAZORBLADE TEARS as being a highly recommended read at the bookstore where Hannah works.

The IT GIRL delivers a great locked room mystery with plenty of suspects and a likable protagonist.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Scout Press, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

I started reading this in the midst of reading a bunch of Ruth Ware's backlist, and was really hoping to love it. While I did have a good time with this one, it's not my favorite of hers.

Our POV character is Hannah, who was in her final year at university when her roommate April was murdered. They caught the murderer, a university porter who had long given Hannah the squicks and was spotted leaving the stairwell just before April's body was found, and he was imprisoned. Now, ten years later, that porter has died and reporters are once again reaching out to Hannah for her thoughts on it. This time, though, she starts to doubt the guilt of that porter, who went to his grave insisting that he was innocent. Funnily enough, Hannah has long been considered suspicious by people looking at the case from the outside, because she had access and also benefited by ending up with April's college boyfriend, Will, who Hannah is now married to and having a baby with. Through the book, we go through twists and turns of the large friend group to try to uncover the truth of that night.

My overall feeling when I finished this was eh. I can't say too much without giving away some of the reveals, but it felt so long to me, and it was barely 350 pages. For me, there was a bit too much time focused on showing us glimpses of the past, so that the end felt incredibly rushed. I also didn't really believe the solution. There were certain things that just didn't add up once it was revealed and I was left with more questions.

As with most Ruth Ware's books, I think that there are going to be people for whom The It Girl is their new favourite, and there are going to be people like me who think it was just okay. Either way, I'll definitely be stocking this one in my lil shop, and always reading whatever Ruth Ware puts out there.

Hannah is headed to Oxford, and we follow her path as she finds her way around and she meets her suitemate for the first time – April Clarke-Cliveden. April is beautiful, wealthy (or posh as the Brits say), and quickly pulls Hannah into her social orbit. You could say that April is The It Girl.

There’s a whole group of friends we get to know for the Oxford scene – Emily, Ryan, Hugh, and Will. Several couples pair off and they all socialize together.

I loved the Oxford setting of this one and I’m ready to enroll!

We learn fairly quickly that April is murdered at the end of the second term. The book alternates between “Before”/Oxford time and “After”/Hannah’s life in Edinburgh, working at a bookstore and expecting her first baby.

The After section is 10 years after the murder, but events crop up that cause Hannah to think about everything again. She realizes that she may not be remembering things correctly. Is the right person in jail?

As Hannah begins to dig into things, she might be putting herself in danger.

I enjoyed being in the hands of a master storyteller for this one. My only request is more of Edinburgh!

Let's be honest, I would read anything written by Ruth Ware - a shopping list, a doctors note, or physics research paper. Luckily she wrote this great mystery instead! While not her best, it was an enjoyable read.

Hannah is a bit of a humdrum girl starting at Oxford University. Her assigned roommate April is wealthy and the life of the party. Opposites attract, even in friendship and April brings Hannah out of her shell. We follow the lives of their friendship group throughout the ups and downs of their first year. At the end of the year something tragic happens to April.

Fast forward a decade and April's killer has died in prison, still protesting his innocence. Did he really do it? Or is someone else in Hannah's former circle to blame - including her current husband?

Told in the back and forth, present and past, style it definitely kept me turn the pages. Though I found the ending a little too implausible.

It's a solid story with a definite twist. I enjoyed the atmospheric setting in Oxford and the alternating timelines. I thought I had the mystery figured out but I was pleasantly surprised. I hate when I figure out the ending before it happens!

This was better than I was expecting! First time reading Ruth Ware and I will definitely read more from her!

Hannah and April are an odd duo. Had they not been assigned as roommates, they likely wouldn't have been friends. However, as fate would have it, they became best friends. Unfortunately, that friendship was short lived.

Readers find out about the murder of April from the get go. Ware does a superb job weaving together the timelines to keep readers guessing who the killer is.

While I knew the culprit fairly early in the story, I was still hooked to the story of April's murder and the girls' unlikely friendship at Oxford.

First let me start by saying this cover is 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 I’m obsessed! What I’m also obsessed with is dark academia mysteries with a campus setting and this one didn’t disappoint! Ruth Ware is a hit or miss author for me, and this one was a hit. Hannah meets April at Oxford her freshman year (kicking things off to a bold start with a game of strip poker on night ONE. No thank u) and you know off the bat that April is the queen B. She’s wealthy, beautiful, fun loving, intelligent, and more. You also know from the synopsis that April is murdered. What we don’t know is who did it. This one gets 4 stars from me! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

I don't always like Ruth Ware books but this one I can highly recommend.. Great characters, plot. A really good read.