Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney was an electrifying story.
She isn’t called The Queen of Suspense for no reason!
A captivating slow-burn domestic suspense/family drama that draws you in almost immediately.
I love how Feeney puts such great detail in each chapter which makes the reading more thrilling and exciting.
I really liked all the characters. They were all well developed and you don’t know who to trust here.
An enthralling read that kept me on my toes with some amazing twists.
The narrators Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine rocked it!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is my third book read by this author and I find her thought processes hard to follow. I felt there were too many characters to flip back and forth between on a non-linear time line. The author always surprises me in the end and I never see the ending coming, but sometimes I’m too lost to even follow the plot. In this book I could not keep track of the different characters, so keep notes as you are reading. The author keep referring to a “paper cut” hanging on the wall, or whatever, and I have have no idea what a “paper cut” is as she is referring to it, because to me, a paper cut is an incision into the skin made by paper, but this description doesn’t fit the sentences it is used in, so it becomes frustrating because I can’t tell what the author is talking about, and this is used a lot!
Anyway, with the being the third book from this author that I’ve read, I’ve decided to give up reading any more books from her, they’re just too hard to follow and that makes them less enjoyable. I do not like to leave bad reviews because this is only my opinion, but I do know that a lot of my friends like Alice Feeney, as she strikes much debate, always.

Twenty years ago in a grocery store on Mother's Day, a frazzled mother turns away from her baby girl napping in her stroller to chat with a fellow customer. Mere minutes later, the mother's horrific screams ring throughout the store when she discovers her baby is missing. The police arrive to help, but their comments are laced with judgment and condemnation. As the days and weeks go by, it becomes painfully clear that her baby has vanished, seemingly without a trace.

In present day, a brutal murder takes place at a nursing home. Somehow, these two events twenty years apart are connected by the cast of characters we encounter. We meet Edith, a sharp, eighty year old woman who is deeply resentful of her estranged daughter Clio for placing her in the nursing home. Clio is a therapist laden with guilt for her decision but also struggling to cope with her own past trauma. Edith's health care aide, Patience is a young girl willing to help Edith escape the home but also harboring secrets of her own. Meanwhile, Frankie is a mother desperately searching for her missing eighteen year old daughter before something terrible happens to her.

Alice Feeney delivers her classic, creative twists several times over with her latest novel. It took me awhile to puzzle out the characters and their connections, but when it all came together it was immensely satisfying. The audio rendition of this novel was fantastic. The narrator added another dimension to this rich novel and her pitch and pacing lulled the reader/listener into the world of this thriller.

Alice Feeney is a master class in how to produce an engaging and smart thriller that resonates with readers on every level. Check out this one immediately!

After reading some of her previous books this was a little bit of a lit down for me personally.

The plot was very convoluted and the slow pace didn't help it either.

I would say it was an okay book and would recommend the audiobook.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Pub date: August 29th

Wow! I LOVED this story. It is a top-tier psychological thriller that will have your head spinning and your wheels turning.

It was a race to see if I could figure out how the narrators would all cross paths before it happened and I love that kind of story. It took me on a wild ride and I enjoyed every minute!

I listened to this via audiobook and loved the presentation. I had to pay close attention as each narrator was introduced and to follow the path it led me on - this one definitely requires your attention, so this format may be for an advanced audiobook reader. Otherwise, I’d stick with the physical copy!

Perfect for you if you like:
Multiple narrators + POVs
Guessing game to figure out the plot
Twisty twists!!!

4 stars

In the latest Alice Feeney novel, Good Bad Girl, three women and two crimes makes for one engaging and thrilling story!
The novel opens with every parent’s worst nightmare; a baby being taken in broad daylight, never to be seen again.
Flash forward two decades and we meet 80 year old Edith who hates being in a care home, blaming her daughter Clio for it. The only thing Edith doesn’t hate is Patience, one of the young, new care workers. But Patience is let go, accused of stealing, and shortly after, a care home worker is found murdered, Clio wonders just what kind of place she’s put her mother in but she knows she can’t care for her alone.

What do these women have in common? How do the crimes ft into their lives? Do their paths cross by chance or is one determined to right the wrongs of the past?

Alice Feeney will always be a must-read for me. While this seems like a side step from her usual writing style, it was delightful and thrilling. I highly recommend checking it out!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook ahead of its release in exchange for an honest review.

Good Bad Girl
Alice Fenney
4/5 ⭐

A baby, only six months old, was taken from her stroller in the middle of a grocery store. A woman is found dead in the elevator of a care home. These two crimes happened 20 years apart but the connection can be found with one girl.

Edith an eight-year-old woman hates the nursing home that her daughter, Clio, placed her in. Her only saving grace is the young girl, Patience who works there and befriended Edith. Edith trusts Patience and is planning her escape from the nursing home. Patience may seem like a good girl but she has a bad side, similar to her mother, Frankie.

Frankie learned the hard way to only count on herself. As a young mother, she tried to make good choices but sometimes that meant doing bad things. Working as a prison librarian, she provided for Patience and gave her everything she wanted. Well, everything but the truth!

Clio punishes herself and her mother since that awful day when her baby was taken. They barely talk so when Edith goes missing Clio is indifferent about her mother’s whereabouts. That is until a detective shows up at her door suspecting her of murder. These mothers and daughters unexpectedly come together to solve one mystery and end up solving two.

Good Bad Girl is a complicated web of mysteries. It is a mystery, within a mystery, within a mystery. The book is told from each of the four women’s point of view. I kept notes on the connection between the characters because I was getting confused. The first part of the book developed at a slower pace. About halfway through the book, it picked up and Alice Feeney did her thing with twist after twist. I did figure out the main twist before the characters which always leaves you feeling impartial.

Thank you to @Macmillan.Audio and @netgalley for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. All my opinions are my own.
Publication Date: August 29, 2023

This book is extremely confusing. Many different POVs. Even when you have all the characters lined out it really isn’t that “thrilling”. I didn’t connect with any of the characters and the narration was incredibly boring.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this ARC. Alice Feeney is one of my favorite thriller authors because she always tells such a suspenseful story with twists and turns.

I enjoyed this audio book, the characters and the overall plot. After reading two of her other popular books, this one fell a little flat for me. One of my favorite things about books written by Alice Feeney is the twist at the end. The mind blowing wow….& this one just didn’t hit me like they usually do. I knew what was coming, I figured out the characters and who they were prior to the end 🙈 that’s always such a bummer for me. Overall it was still a good book and I’m glad I got the chance to read it because I love Alice Feeney!

If you haven’t read any books by this author, I highly recommend Rock, Paper, Scissors, and His & Hers! Those two were INSANE and awesome.

I’m a fan of Alice Feeney and the way she can create a cozy spooky vibe out of her settings. I had a little trouble following all of the characters but overall the story and ending was very satisfying.

Alice Feeney is one of my fav authors and I always know I’m in for a fun entertaining read with her books. Good Bad Girl wasn’t her typical twisty thriller, it felt more like a family drama with a touch of mystery and was more of a slow burn character driven story. While I enjoyed it, I was able to predict the entire plot and kept waiting for the big twist that never came. It’s not my fav of hers, but I still liked it.

I had a few writing style choices I didn’t understand. The detective’s description was repeated by every person who saw her, some more than once! By the end I was tired of hearing about her pink strip of hair, her different colored nails, how young she looks, etc. I thought for sure it had to be tied in to something, but it did not. There is also a lot of word play with “good” and “bad” which leads to some interesting thoughts, but also became very repetitive.

This has more introspective musings than I’m used to in a thriller, but would give some good discussion topics for a book club! I split time between the physical and audiobook and would recommend either format. Both narrators did a great job, but I did have some trouble hearing one at times when she dropped off the end of her sentences into a whisper talk.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Flatiron Books for the ALC/ARC.

My favorite Alice Feeney novel so far!

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narration was excellent. It’s narrated by two separate women to cover the multiple POVs within the book and I enjoyed both narrators.

It took me awhile to actually get into the book. I would have put the book at a 3 star read up until about the halfway point, after that I was hooked and didn’t want to stop listening to the story.
I really enjoyed the last half of the book. There were multiple pieces I didn’t anticipate that kept me guessing what would happen next or who did what and how things would turn out up until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this audiobook ARC!

A mother who is regretting having her baby. Then, one day, the baby is missing from her stroller at the supermarket. Somebody had taken her. She knows who it was, and she knows why. A murder occurs at a nursing home and a resident has gone missing. Is it just a coincidence? Is there such a thing?

Who would have thought a story partially based in a nursing home would have so much excitement to it! This book has multiple points of view from four characters whose lives are intertwined in ways they couldn’t imagine. I listened to the audio version, and the narrator was EXCELLENT. The book was a little hard to keep up with at first because of the multiple viewpoints, but it eventually started coming together. The stories take place in the present and past and have you scratching your head to see how the pieces are going to come together in this puzzle of a domestic thriller. If you’re looking for a domestic thriller that has a different story line from the norm with a lot of twists and turns, this would be a great one to pick up!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.

Good Bad Girl is the latest release from the Queen of the Twist, Alice Feeney. I'm not ashamed to start this review by saying I am a Feeney-Fangirl. I love her stories. As for this one, I have been anticipating it all year and am so happy to report, it did not disappoint.

I loved the tagline of this book's synopsis: 'Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.' From the moment I read that I wanted to know more. Like the tagline, the book itself delivered that kind of intriguing teaser, chapter after chapter. This story does follow multiple perspectives and initially, I'll admit, to having moments of slight confusion.

I didn't let that bother me though. I trust Feeney's process and knew all would be revealed in good time. I just sat back, relaxed and let the story flow over me. It was amazing.

This follows 80-year old, Edith, currently residing in Windsor Care Home, but it wasn't by her choice and she's not happy about it. Patience, a care home worker, is Edith's closest confidant, but she's harboring secrets of her own. Edith's daughter, Clio, gets most of the brunt of her mother's anger about her current living situation and with Mother's Day upon them, that should make for an interesting visit. Frankie, a librarian at a prison, is also saddened with Mother's Day approaching, but for reasons of her own. Her only daughter left home in anger a year ago and she hasn't seen her since.

After a murder at the care home, things begin to really heat up for our characters. People on the run, confrontations, incidents with the police, it's non-stop action and eyebrow-raising reveals until the very end.

As mentioned above, initially the number of perspectives did seem like a lot, but they were all interesting. I never minded learning more about each specific character. Additionally, discovering the truth behind how all the perspectives were connected was just so fun. There were a lot of different layers to the drama.

One aspect of this I found especially interesting was how a lot of this has to do with individuals, who are in a vulnerable position, having decisions made for them. Then it sort of unpacked the circumstances and the repercussions of that. The relationships involved in these scenarios, while over the top here, were actually quite relatable and believable. Particularly those pertaining to an aging parent, or to the early stages of motherhood.

I feel like Feeney did a great job bringing that level of substance to her signature style of twisty-Thriller. The added element to it all was the murder mystery at the heart of the story. That was so fun to try to figure out.
Overall, I think Feeney delivered with this one. It's a real page-turner. If you have patience with it and let the perspectives fall into place, I think you'll be able to enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. At this point, I will pick up anything Alice Feeney writes. I have never been disappointed. Her perfect record continues!

Read if you like:
👩‍👧Mother Daughter Relationships
🍼 Missing Children Cases
#️⃣ Multiple POV
🐞 Ladybugs
⏳ Alternating Timelines

This story opens on Mother’s Day 20 Years ago when a baby is abducted in the grocery store, and the woman who had the child stolen from her indicates she knew who stole the child but didn’t tell the police who it was.

We then start to pop around multiple points of view to include:
👩🏼‍🍼 The woman whose child was kidnapped 20 years ago
👵🏼 A Mother in a nursing home who is very upset about being there
👩🏼 The Daughter that put her mother in a nursing home
🚶🏻‍♀️A woman with severe anxiety who’s daughter recently ran away from home
🤷🏻‍♀️ A Young adult who ran away from her mother who works in a nursing home

I enjoyed the weaving and twists and turns this one took, but ultimately I was saddened by how predictable this one felt as it felt like all the reveals were things that I guessed and was very sure of before they happened aside from smaller twists/reveals that weren’t as substantial.

All in all, this isn’t my favorite from Alice Feeney but also not my least favorite either. Alice is one of my favorite Thriller authors but this one just didn’t rise to the the top of her books for me unfortunately.

As far as the audio, I the narrators did a great job and it was an enjoyable listen i just would have wished for at least two more narrators to enjoy it more.

Thank you so much to MacMillan Audio for my ALC of this one.

A baby gets taken from its stroller at a supermarket. Twenty years later, a murder occurs at a care home. Somehow, these two crimes are connected.

Our main characters are:
Edith: a resident of a care home.
Patience: a young aide at the care home
Clio: a therapist with a strained relationship with her mother
Frankie: a prison librarian who's daughter has run away
Each characters story is a little hard to keep track of initially, but once the reader finds out how each is connected to the other, wow! Some relationships are obvious, but there were some twists that I wasn't expecting! Every one of these women has something to hide, and I loved how it all unravelled. Alice Feeney has never disappointed me and I will continue to look forward to her new releases each year. I listened to the audio version and really enjoyed the narration.

This book was a pleasant surprise! After loving Rock Paper Scissors, but disliking Daisy Darker, I wasn't sure what to expect. This story demonstrates what Alice Feeney does best; she delivers small clues a bit at a time until we have the full picture of what happened. Just the right amount of information is given as the story progresses, but there is still a great twist towards the end.

Unlike Daisy Darker, this story, while still a bit unrealistic, seemed at least plausible. It wasn't as creepy or suspenseful as RPS, but I was still very invested in the characters and couldn't wait to find out how everything came together!

The audiobook was expertly performed! I love Stephanie Racine, and the other narrator did a great job with Patience's sections too.

Alice Feeney is a master at keeping you guessing until the very end and Good Bad Girl does not disappoint. This story weaves through different viewpoints as well as time, a slow-burning mystery that will leave you stunned more than once. What I love most about Feeney's style of writing is the breadcrumbs she leaves throughout the story. There will be little hints that you begin to realize are more significant than they originally seemed and eventually all come together into a cohesive tale. It leaves me always wanting more! I highly recommend!

This book came out in August and is so so good - it is actually one of my favorite Alice Feeney books that I have read! It is full of unreliable narrators within a story of mother-daughter relationships. We have a daughter who doesn’t feel accepted and runs away when she doesn’t get the answers she needs. We have a mom who is mourning her runaway daughter and trying to find a way to keep her without giving everything of herself away. We have a mother at the end of her life, trying to make things right in a way that not everyone understands. And, we have another daughter who has her own secrets and can’t seem to move on from where she is because everyone else’s decisions seem to dictate her life.
The artistry of the author is the way she combines and weaves these stories together. Nothing in this book is cut and dry and every small detail is important. This story map must have taken up a whole wall in her writing space because it is magically written and I loved and hated each of the characters at different times throughout the book. Then, she offered an ending that was satisfying without being contrived.

As a HUGE fan of Alice Feeney, I have been waiting to get my hands on this audiobook (or book, whichever!) for a weeks! That being said, this is the first Feeney audiobook I have listened to, so maybe the "wow factor" just wasn't as Prominet as when I physically read her work... Where was the thrill? What about the darkness? This was more of a mystery novel than the usual twists and turns of a typical Feeney book. The quick chapters made it easy to breeze through the story.

All in all, the story was solid and interesting, I just had higher expectations with the Feeney name backing this work.