3.75 stars
Alice Feeney fans, rejoice! Feeney Fans have patiently awaited her next story since Daisy Darker’s 2022 release. While the audio switching POVs was hard to follow at points, I still highly recommend this domestic psychological thriller. Read if you enjoy mama drama and suspense!


Thank you MacMillian audio for the advance listener copy!

I just couldn’t finish this audiobook. It just didn’t keep my interest at all. I so wanted to like this.

I do not recommend

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. I am the biggest Alice Feeney fan and will read anything that she writes. And she doesn't again with this thriller. There is no common theme and a little all over the place but it works. I couldn't put this down.

The twists keep coming in Good Bad Girl - the new book from Alice Feeney

"Four women are connected - but it takes a stolen baby, a couple of murders, an escape and an arrest before they figure it out."

Patience has run away from home on her 18th birthday. She's working at a care home for cash. And I kept pulling for her. She just wants to go to Art School. I know she's a fictional character but it seemed like so many people were against her that I just wanted to help. Edith has made terrible choices her entire life and looking for some redemption. As a former store detective she knows things. Clio regrets her mistakes, especially giving up a baby. Frankie has secrets and a little OCD.

Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine do a wonderful job with the audio.

The last twenty-percent of the book is twist after twist. It's "What?!? What?!? WHAT?!" I love the ending.

Calling this my favorite Feeney book.

Book Title: Good Bad Girl
Author: Alice Feeney
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Release Day: August 29th, 2023
Format: Audio Book
Rating: Storyline 4.5⭐️ Narration 4.5⭐️

Synopsis: Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.

Our Queen of Twists, bestselling author of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney, returns with another thrilling mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprises.

Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.

Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.

Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.

With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.

In the style of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors, Good Bad Girl is a thriller in which nobody can be trusted and the twists come fast and furious.

My Thoughts: So right off the bat, know like many of Alice's storyline, there is multiple pov. This one is no different and had me perplexed in the beginning. However, this can sometimes happen to me when listening to audio books. With that said, once I found my way, it had me listening nonstop, and I had to know what happened. Every theory I had went out the window. The twists are just played beautifully like always. Once again, this author left me with such a feeling that this book will definitely be on my mind months from now. I am always like in awe at the end of an Alice Feeney book!

The narration was superb as well. I do wish that when there is multiple POV like this one, there could be a cast of narrators, but I know this is not always a possibility. Katherine Press did an outstanding performance, and I will definitely add her to my list of must listen narrators.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacmillanAudio for this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book even though I was confused about what was going on for a good portion of the book. Apparently, there was a baby stolen in the very beginning but tying that occurrence to the rest of the story seemed farfetched. As you listen, you try to unravel the significance of the women in the assisted living facility, the pink house, and the girl who lived in the attic. In the end, the loose ends were tied up, but the reasonings for why everything happened was a bit of a letdown. This is probably my least favorite Alice Feeney story but still a solid fast-paced listen. (3.5 stars out of 5 stars)

The narration was good - clear and easy to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

(4.5⭐️) Many thanks to my friends at @simon.audio for the #gifted copy of this audiobook and to my friend @getlostinabookwithme for sharing her extra copy with me!

"Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things."

Smart. Shocking. Addictive. The “Queen of Twists” is back with another winner!

Two Mothers’ Days twenty years apart. One results in a stolen baby. The other in a murder.

In Feeney’s latest, which is more domestic suspense than thriller, her signature style takes on a brilliantly fresh tone. Delving into the world of mothers and daughters, Feeney mixes emotion with suspense in a way that fully captivates.

An inventive character driven puzzle, this book opens at the end and ends at the beginning. It’s cleverly plotted with crisp and quoteworthy writing. Perfectly timed reveals are interspersed with contemplative themes.

I was hooked from the first gasp-worthy chapter. And while the pace varied between the “can’t read fast enough,” and the “slower and more introspective,” I found this blend highly satisfying.

There’s a complexity to mother/daughter relationships. Good Bad Girl is steeped in that intricate emotional balance that often dances between love and hate. The depth of character development, with fully fleshed out perspectives, adeptly brought those intricacies to life.

But it was the expertly crafted examination between good and bad that elevated this murder/kidnapping mystery. I loved the thought-provoking narrative nestled within the suspense.

Truly, Feeney never disappoints! You’re going to want to grab this one on pub day, next Tuesday!

🎧 Stephanie Racine is back (big cheer!) and is joined by Katherine Press. The narration is fully infused with tension, emotion, and drama, making this an excellent audiobook that I highly recommend.

I was so excited to get an advance audio for Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney through @macmillan.audio
Alice Feeney's book is smart and takes on mother daughter relationships in a thriller-y but exploratory way.
Good people - bad choices or Bad People? What if someone who generally tries to be good and live by the rules sets bad things in motion by a decision that seemed good at the time? Is there ever a way back to healing ? What was it about good intentions paving the way to hell? Bad things can happen to good people, which can force them to do bad things! It's all very twisty, but so we'll plotted.
In this book five women - Edith locked up in a nursing home and rarely visited, Cleo her daughter, ravaged by her own grief but unable to forgive her mother, Patience her caregiver, an 18yo runaway and Frankie, the mother whom she ran from after she was unwilling to tell her more about her past as well as Caroline, the investigating police officer, who has more "skin in the game" than she probably should ...
This is not dark - especially compared to Rock Paper Scissors or other Alice Feeney books but it is such an intricate spider web and the connections are so well thought out, the characters are wonderfully fleshed out, I loved the puzzle this one presented and found the solution to be satisfying!
I listened to the audio for this one and the narration by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine was so well done, it brought the story to life!

I have read/listed to a few of Alice Feeney's books now and I usually love them, and its not that this one is bad its just that i like it the least of all her others so far.
This book was way more predictable than her others and it took the fun out of reading/listening to it.
The audiobook narration was good this one was just not for me.

Initial Thoughts
I enjoyed this book! It has been a while since I last picked up any of Alice Feeney's work so I decided that I should give this book a try. We get several different points of view to sort out but it didn't take long before I was completely hooked. Edith has been in a care home which is the last place she wants to be. The only thing that she looks forward to is the time that she spends with one of the staff, Patience. In addition to those two POVs, we also meet Clio (Edith's daughter) and Frankie who is looking for her own daughter. There were quite a few twists and turns worked into the story and while I did guess some of them there were enough surprises to hold my interest. I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narrators did a great job with the story.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Full review to be posted soon.

"𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚, 𝙨𝙤 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨”

Going into this book, I thought I would be reading a thriller full of dark twists, but I would say this was more of a domestic family drama mystery with a little bit of suspense.

This book is about a baby who is stolen from a supermarket, a murder in a nursing home 20 years later, and four women who may be linked to both events.

It is a slow burn which didn’t really start to pick up until about more than half way through.

Told in multiple POV’s, which if I’m being honest, I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. At one point I got two of the characters mixed up, but I’m not sure if this was partly because I listened on audio.

I just felt quite confused and a bit lost while reading this and struggled to be fully invested, that I wasn’t blown away by the time we got to the final “twist”.

Sadly, this wasn’t my favourite of hers but I look forward to whatever she writes next !!

𝙍𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚: 𝘼𝙪𝙜𝙪𝙨𝙩 29𝙩𝙝

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for an advanced audio copy for an honest review

I LOVE Alice Feeney but this one was definitely not my favorite.

I struggled for the first probably 20% at least not knowing what was going on. And I had a very hard time on audio distinguishing which of the four women was who.

The premise was good. She had a good twist and the latter half of the book was much better for me. But still struggled a bit.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Good Bad Girl is one of the most confusing stories I have read in a while. The story was predictable until the end when the author had to throw in a twist that seemed forced.
I like a good thriller but I can say this one was not it. I will not recommend this book to anyone.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced audio copy of Good Bad Girl.

Twenty years ago, a baby was stolen from a shopping cart in a grocery store and was never found. Now, there has been a murder in the care home that 18-year old Patience works in. She has become very close with one of the residents of the care home, 80-year old Edith. who was unhappily left there by her daughter, Clio. Frankie works at a prison librarian but today is her last day. None of this seems related, but perhaps there's more to the story.

This audiobook hooked me from the prologue and kept my attention all throughout. It was really well done and once I got all the characters down in the beginning I had no problem keeping them all straight. I liked how well developed the characters were and how real they felt, as well as how the story and their connections came together in the end. The book didn't have me on the edge of my seat dying to know the ending, but it definitely kept me engaged and curious. Overall I enjoyed this one on audio and got through it fairly quickly!

I quite enjoyed Good Bad Girl. When I started it, it was like that movie Valentine’s Day or What To Expect When You’re Expecting, where there are SO many characters — but as the story went on, they were SUCH developed characters. Everyone had such different personalities and it really pulls you right into the story. Listening on audio was a challenge in the beginning, though, keeping all the characters/names straight, since I couldn’t turn back the page and reference a name (and it doesn’t help when a character changes her name!!)

Good Bad Girl was a story about complex mother-daughter relationships. It was done in a very unique way, and way to go with the ending, Alice Feeney! I’m usually not a fan of endings where everything is wrapped up in a big, shiny bow… but this one had the perfect amount of closure at the end - and I loved it.
All the pieces clicked together and I have nothing except for golf claps 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Also - I loved Frankie’s frantic, number-rambling. And the timeline jumps to the past.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books and Macmillan Audio for gifting me an audio ARC of the latest book by a favorite, Alice Feeney, and wonderfully narrated by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine - 5 stars!

On Mother's Day 20 years ago, a momentary lapse of attention caused Clio's baby girl to disappear and her life to implode. On Mother's Day in present time, a woman is murdered in a care home and the detective in charge has three suspects - Frankie, who works in a prison library; Patience, an aide at the care home; and Clio, whose mother, Edith, is a resident in the home. Is anyone telling the truth and how are all these people and crimes connected?

I absolutely adore Alice Feeney's writing style and twisty novels - I had a few gasps in this one that I just never saw coming. The story is told from these different POVs and timelines, but the chapters are short and I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook. The author brings all the characters to life and I felt for all of them. Besides being a twisty tale, I loved all the personal and family drama - who doesn't love a messy family? Another highly recommended book!

The reigning queen of psychological twisty thrillers, Alice Feeney, returns following Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors with her BEST YET, GOOD BAD GIRL— an intricately woven mystery of mothers and daughters, when a past abduction collides with the present in this riveting multi-level mindbending yet heartrendering gripping suspense.

Four women, three suspects, two murders, and one victim. DCI Charlotte Chapman is on the case.

Twenty years ago, on Mother's Day, a baby in a stroller was abducted in a grocery store. The mother is distracted while shopping; she discovers her six-month-old daughter is gone when she returns her attention to her baby carriage. The child was never found.

Twenty years later, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good-bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.

Frankie is a prison librarian struggling to deal with losing her eighteen-year-old daughter, Patience, who has run away. She makes an appointment to see a counselor called Clio.

Clio's mother, Edith, is unhappy having been moved into a care home. She wants to escape and move back into her house. She blames her daughter, Clio.

Patience works at the London nursing/care home. She has a special relationship with Edith and goes to the pound to get Edith's dog for her. Can she be trusted?

Everyone has a past. Everyone has secrets. Each is acting good and bad and you will sympathize with both sides. The gripping mystery—what do these women have in common?

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people.
Sometimes, good people have to do bad things.

How does this mystery connect these women, both mothers and daughters? Does history repeat itself or will love win out in the end?

What a book! Feeney has outdone herself —cleverly exploring the emotional, unique, complex relationships between mothers and daughters. A relationship that shapes lives.

GOOD BAD GIRL is well-written, fast-paced, engaging, smart, and intriguing, with characters that jump off the page with all the Feeney signature twists and turns. No one writes family and complex relationships better (whether good or bad).

Feeney fans will delight! Also, for fans of authors Sally Hepworth and Michael Robotham. It's an ideal book club pick for further discussions. Binge-worthy and movie-worthy, you will be on the edge of your seat to discover how this clever puzzle's pieces fit together.

I loved Edith with her spunk, humor, and drive. Just because she is old does not mean she is done with living.

AUDIOBOOK: I listened to the audiobook, which was SPECTACULAR! Narrators Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine gave an award-winning performance and perfect voices for all the women. I could not tear myself away.

Heart-stirring, emotional, and suspenseful —I highly recommend GOOD BAD GIRL.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio for a gifted ALC via NetGalley for my honest opinion. I also ordered the hardcover copy.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Aug 29, 2023
My Rating: 5 Stars
Aug 2023 Must-Read Books

“This book is 🔥🔥. The queen of twisty psychological thrillers does it again 🖤.
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A baby was kidnapped from a stroller in a supermarket twenty years ago. And now an employee of a nursing home has been murdered. But how are the crimes connected? Patience works at the nursing home and is planning to help eighty-year-old Edith escape. Edith resents her adult daughter, Clio, for tricking her into the nursing home. And Clio has her own reasons for refusing to speak to her mother. Frankie is a prison librarian who wants nothing more than to find her beloved long lost daughter. The four women are possible suspects in a murder, and it’s up to DCI Charlotte Chapman to uncover the truth.
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This book is told from the alternating perspectives of the four women. (Apologies to the people trying to sleep next to me on the plane while I gasped, “oh no!” listening to this book 😂.) There were so many beautiful quotes about books, love, and life in this one. And I did not guess the ending!
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Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review. The narration by Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine was phenomenal.
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Good Bad Girl - Alice Feeney
4.75/5⭐️
Pub Date: 🎉8/29/23🎉
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“Not everyone is fortunate enough in life to be loved. It’s like winning a lottery. If you get those lucky numbers in life, it doesn’t matter where you bought the ticket.”**
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“A good book can be a light in the darkness. A good book can cure loneliness, change minds, or even change the world.”
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(** Quotes taken from audiobook ARC and may appear different in final product.)

3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4

I feel like I've had a seriously hard time being impressed my thrillers lately. It takes A LOT for me to be really wow-ed. Or to feel like one is going to be memorable. Ultimately, I enjoyed the process of reading Good Bad Girl and looked forward to listening to it each day to see where it would go. But I felt like the ending was a bit far-fetched and that the author was reaching a bit in order to tie the story together.

Though the narrator is great and I enjoyed listening, I do think I had a little trouble with the book on audio since there are several characters you're following. It took me a while to remember who each of them were and even deep into the book, I was getting them confused with each other. The book follows Edith, a woman in a nursing home; Patience, and employee in the nursing home; Clio, Edith's daughter who doesn't have much of a relationship with her; and Frankie, a prison librarian whose daughter has stopped talking to her.

The book starts with a kidnapping that happened in the past. And now there's been a murder at the nursing home Edith is at. How are these crimes connected and who's involved?

Like I said, I did enjoy following along with this book, but I wasn't a big fan of the ending. I think it's really hard for thriller authors these days to write a book that's going to engage a large audience, give them the awesome twists they're looking for (that they didn't see coming!), and feel believable and I do commend Alice Feeney for doing it better than most!

I was looking forward to Alice Feeney’s newest mystery/thriller since discovering her books earlier this year. Her other novels, His & Hers and Rock Paper Scissors, are 2 of my favorite thrillers thus far.

I was quite disappointed in her newest novel since I felt like it lacked both the mystery and thriller aspect that she has written so well with her past books. The story had started off so slow that it wasn’t until I was 60% through the audiobook that it started to become more interesting. Even after the pace had quickened, the twist (twists?) towards the end were lackluster.

Overall, this wouldn’t be the first Alice Feeney book that I would recommend and I truly don’t think I would ever recommend this book for readers who are looking for a good thriller.

I will still be looking forward to what future stories this author will write.