The Arrangement by Miranda Rijks. Narrated by Jilly Bond.

Grace's daughter Abi is murdered while Abi is on her dream vacation. To deal with her grief, Grace wants to find out who would kill her daughter, but she finds that Abi had a secret life. And someone is trying to prevent Grace from finding out the truth.

The story is told from the perspective of Grace, the mother of the murder victim. The story had a good pace, and I liked the author's writing style as it held my interest, and the details kept the story moving forward. The ending is a bit cliche in the reasoning for the killing (I don't want to give away any spoilers).

The narrator had a nice cadence. I like the main character's voice, but the other voices were a bit off and didn't match the characters. Ruth and Natasha sound more like men than women, and they sound like the same character, so when one talks, I couldn't figure out which it was until the narrator said their name.

The story starts off well, and the mom is shown to be struggling with alcohol abuse. She finds out Abi has a secret lifestyle. Abi was selling herself and was a "super baby." One of the men told Grace he only met Abi for companionship and never slept with her. The readers get a glimpse into her sugar baby life from Abi reading her blog. Grace also begins reading Abi's emails and finds out Abi is pregnant. But doesn't know if Abi knew or if she was going to keep the baby.

While Grace is struggling with alcohol addiction, her friends and family are disgusted with her. Her ex-husband is not sympathetic, and her friends begin not to believe her about Abi's murder.

Grace does whine a lot, but I attribute that to her inability to deal with Abi's death, and she turns to her addictions to deal with the grief and pain. Everyone deals with those in their own ways.

Grace's friends are not very nice to her as time goes by, and the author does an excellent job of showing how grief can impact those left behind.

I would recommend this audiobook.

#TheArrangement #NetGalley @Dreamscapeaudio

3/5 stars

Thank you Dreamscape Media for the advanced listening copy!

When Grace gets the call she feared most, that her daughter Abi was murdered in Cape Town, she is beside herself. After a quick and anything but thorough investigation by the South Africa Police, Grace works to uncover the secrets behind both Abi's death AND her life. Apparently, Abi was part of a sugar baby website, which gives Grace pause. How well did she really know her daughter? And who is trying to stop Grace from investigating with anonymous threats?

This book just wasn't my cup of tea. Though generally well-written, I was fairly uninterested in the story. I rarely enjoy books that involve a murdered child; I often find the main characters to be insufferable and this was no different. The twist in the book was unexpected and clever, as many Miranda Rijks' are, and that's what kept me listening. I was less than satisfied with the narrator, as well, which didn't serve the book in any helpful way.

Overall, if this topic isn't one that generally annoys you (like it does me), then this might be a good read for you. It was fast-paced and the story was convoluted in an enticing way. It just wasn't for me.

One of the better psychological thrillers I've read in a while. I liked the "who-dun-it" approach.

I didn't think I'd be able to read another book with a drunk as the narrator, but I found Grace "different". I was also impressed by how well and accurately alcoholism was portrayed (A+) and Grace's struggles became their own story for, which enhanced the book. I also liked that there was a blog written by the deceased. It was great to hear her words and experiences as they happened in the past.

I have mixed feelings about the narrator. Most of the time I really enjoyed the narrator but a few of the voices she did didn't work for me. Grace's one female friend in particular has a deep mans voice.

Towards the end there was (albeit brief) a confessional scene (which I loathe) with a character who turns suddenly maniacal (which I also loathe) but it was very brief and the rest of the ending was built out in a way that I could pretend those pages of bad writing didn't exist.

The book title and cover doesn't work for this book, at all. This isn't a story about an arrangement. There also isn't a beautiful blonde in a red dress going into elevators and hotels. Both sets the wrong expectations imho.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the audio version. I will say I didn't really care for the narrator. I felt like her voice was to old sounding for a 47 year old woman. Story was interesting. I pretty much figured out though way before it ended.

Thank you Netgalley & Dreamscape Media for an ALC of The Arrangement by Miranda Rijks.

Grace finds that her student daughter, Abi, was murdered on a dream vacation. Who would want to kill her? As she starts investigating, she realizes that she didn’t know her daughter as well as she thought she did.

The story moves at a good pace throughout the audiobook, and I think the narrator is a strong fit for the story. She did a great job of changing her voice to distinguish between characters and convey emotions.

I feel that a lot of thrillers have the trope of somewhat unreliable narrator who is relying on alcohol to cope - So this felt repetitive to me compared to other works like it.

I am really loving Miranda Rijks lately and her style of writing these fast paced thrillers. I found the main character, Grace, to be a bit neurotic but I guess I would be too if my daughter was murdered in a foreign country. As she begins to uncover why her daughter was murdered and who did it, her own life unravels and she finds herself being targeted to keep quiet. This was very fast paced and quick listen which I really enjoy. As I got to about the 75% mark I was pretty sure I figured out what happened and sure enough I was right. I think there was just a bit too much foreshadowing in this that gave it away. I did enjoy the final twist though despite knowing it was coming. I thought the ending was wrapped up nicely as well. Looking forward to my next from this author! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Grace finds out her daughter Abi was murdered. When she tries to discover what happened she finds out Abi had a double life.

Abi has expensive clothes and Grace knows she cannot afford it as she is a student. She finds out something no mother wants to hear.

As she starts to delve into Abi’s secret life it is very clear she is in danger and someone does not want her to find out what happened to her daughter!!!

Another psychological thriller by Rijks. This is my second and looking for more.

I figured out the ending to this book very early on. But it was still an entertaining read. This book is told mostly from the POV of main character Grace who is a divorced hair dresser raising 2 daughters. When her daughter, Abi, is murdered while on vacation, Grace finds out that she didn’t really know her daughter. Grief stricken Grace must dig into her daughter’s secret life as a sugar baby to find out who murdered her. Grace suffers from alcohol addiction and struggles to stay sober through the whole process. She deals with the loss of her murdered daughter, loss of her job, lose of her house and her decaying relationship with her other daughter. Just when you think nothing else could happen to this women, disaster strikes. This psychological thriller goes down a very dark path.

Grace’s world has been destroyed. Her daughter Abi has been killed while on vacation and Grace is determined to find out who killed her and why. Fighting her own alcohol fueled demons, Grace soon learns that her daughter was leading a double life and that she didn’t know her at all. Rijks is fast becoming one of my favorite thriller authors, providing first class entertainment with every story

While parts of this were predictable, the story moved along at a good pace and kept me interested the whole way through. I felt for Grace and her destructive behavior but couldn't really connect with her because of it. This is my third book by this author and I can't understand why every single main character has to be so dependent on men and spineless. Grace, at least, was on a mission so on some level had a little backbone but it's disheartening to see women portrayed this way consistently. I loved the setting of South Africa and the idealistic (but definitely unrealistic) view of sugar daddies. Entertaining and suspenseful.

THE ARRANGEMENT is a sugar baby-sugar-daddy tale that turns toxic and deadly in this provocative thriller of sex, obsession, and murder from the queen of psychological thrillers with a twist—author Miranda Rijks.

In this thrills-a-minute riveting suspense, a determined mother (heroine) will stop at NOTHING to attain justice for her daughter.

Emotionally powerful and packed with page-turning suspense, THE ARRANGEMENT delves into the sordid, all-too-real world of shadowy relationships between wealthy, powerful men and the young women caught in their web.

Set in England, we meet Grace Woods, a single mom, hairdresser, and recovering alcoholic. She has two girls, Abi, 21, who has just finished her second year at university, and Ella, the younger 17-year-old, living at home. Grace is divorced from Bob, who has remarried with a son.

The stress and grief caused Grace to fall into drinking. She hated herself while drinking but had to dull the pain. Grace had a traumatic experience when she was younger, raped by a real estate agent after her parents died. She never reported it and continued bearing her anxieties in alcohol which caused her divorce ten years earlier.

Up until now, she had been sober. But now, she was sliding again, drinking during the day on the job, and smoking.

Then they said they had the person who committed the crime, some random drug dealer who killed her for money, and wanted to close the case, but Grace knew there was something else they were missing.

Abi was a sugar baby with several sugar daddies to help with her student debt and her lifestyle. Grace is tenacious and meets with these men, some nice and some not. Some just wanted companionship and, in return, offered money, clothes, travel, etc. Which one was the daddy of the baby, and which one killed her? Each time she gets closer, there is more danger.

Her daughter has been living a double life. However, there is something much more sinister, and it may be closer than you know. How well do you know those close to you?

A twisty plot that builds slowly and masterfully escalates to a chilling end! A nightmarish deep dive into the underbelly of a secret world and an insider's look into the world of sugar daddies. They can be married, fathers, or living right before you.

Rijks strength is her interesting and complex female characters. You will root for Grace from beginning to end as the mom who would not give up no matter how hard she was kicked down by peers, friends, and family.

A fascinating, dark, twisted, and gritty tale that was such an irresistible, entertaining, and fun book to listen to. I was immediately pulled into the story, intrigued by the premise, and fully absorbed in the suspense. The narrator, Jilly Bond, did an outstanding job with all voices with high tension and emotion.

A fast-paced, addictive tale of the thin line between love and obsession and how easy it is to put aside all logical thought for the sake of sex, love, and money. A cross between Pretty Woman and Fatal Attraction. For fans of Michele Campbell and Robyn Harding'sThe Arrangement.

I enjoy this author's style and highly recommend her thrillers! Thank you to #DreamscapeMedia 🎧 and #NetGalley for an ALC to listen to, enjoy, and review.

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www.JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Aug 16, 2022
My Rating: 4 Stars
Aug 2022 Must-Read Books

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I am not typically the biggest fan of audiobooks because I find that I get distracted super easily, but this narrator had me hooked! I really enjoyed how she would change her voice just a bit to distinguish between characters, and you could really feel her emotions through her words. They carried so well with what was happening in the story, and I found it that much more intriguing! I would be curious to read the book without the narration to see how it compares, but I really enjoyed this mystery. It was super compelling, and I found it very easy to follow along with. There would be times where my jaw would be hanging open as I listened to some of the little plot twists!

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

This was a good read.
After losing Abi her oldest daughter Grace goes thru hell to discover what really happened.
Thanks to NetGalley & dreamscape media for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This audiobook was so good! I didn’t want it to end. The narration was fantastic and the novel itself fantastic.

I had difficulty getting into this one. It did get interesting later on but by that time it was hard to hold my interest.

How well do you really know your family members and friends?

When Grace's daughter Abi is murdered while vacationing in Cape Town, Grace is determined to find out who killed her daughter and why.

Almost immediately, Grace discovers that she did not know her daughter Abi at all.

Overcome with grief and battling her own inner demons, Grace is like a dog with a bone as she questions police findings and seeks justice for her daughter.

I enjoyed this thriller's straightforward writing, pacing, and first-person narration by Grace, the extremely vulnerable and headstrong protagonist.

The author's characterizations were strong and the plot was compelling.

I also felt that author did a superb job of portraying the family angst/turmoil resulting from the murder of a beloved family member.

Although there were twists, turns, and red herrings, I was able to guess the ending mid-way through the book.

I listened to the audiobook read by Jilly Bond. A handful of times the narrator sounded whiny but, overall, the narration was good but not great.

I am a huge fan of author Miranda Rijks and I look forward to listening to her future titles.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a Miranda Rijks fan, so I was thrilled to receive an arc of the soon to be released audiobook version of The Arrangement, first published in August 2020.

The Arrangement was a hard read for me. Mom, Grace, suffers a tremendous loss when her eldest daughter, Abi, is murdered while on vacation. Following Abi’s death, lots of secrets are revealed and Grace cannot rest until she finds out who killed her daughter.

So, why was this one hard? The publisher tells us in the description Grace is ‘fighting old demons.’ So, not too much of a spoiler, but the demon is alcohol. As a daughter, sister, granddaughter and niece of alcoholics, this is my trigger. Had the word alcoholic been used, I probably wouldn’t have read the book, so take that for what it’s worth. I was not able to muster any emotion for Grace other than anger. I am absolutely certain Rijks wanted us to feel empathy, but I just couldn’t find it in myself. So, while a generally good story, personally I was glad to wrap it up. Please do not let my trigger affect your giving this one a read. It’s got mystery, travel, best friends, secrets …… all the ingredients needed in a tale.

As for the audio part of this review, I did not like all the narrator’s choices for character voicing. One of the best friends, a woman, had the deepest/slowest voices ever chosen for a female character and I literally had to remind myself when she spoke that this was the female best friend, not a man.

Oh my word this book was completely and utterly awesome. As soon as I started listening to this book I was hooked. A fantastic story and a brilliant narrator.