I really enjoy this author, I loved Rock Paper Scissors and Sometimes I Lie. This one was just not for me. There are a lot of characters that took a long time to connect together for me and I had trouble connecting with them. I wanted to follow along and see it to the end, but I had a lot of moments where I was really confused, which made the ending feel just ok.

Intricately woven and utterly engrossing, this novel takes readers on a journey that spans two decades, connecting a stolen baby's disappearance to a recent murder in a care home. The enigmatic Edith, determined to escape her involuntary nursing home stay, becomes an unexpected ally to Patience, who harbors secrets of her own. The narrator's adeptness at transforming her voice for each character immerses the listener into the heart of the story, creating a multi-dimensional experience that brings the characters to life.

What sets this audiobook apart is its artful approach to storytelling, shifting seamlessly between characters' perspectives with every chapter. This narrative technique not only offers a fresh vantage point but also amplifies the suspense as hidden truths come to light. The complex dynamic between Edith, Patience, and Clio, whose strained relationship adds another layer of intrigue, forms the backbone of the plot.

Amidst the backdrop of mistrust and uncertainty, the three women are compelled to collaborate in solving a dual mystery involving murder and a long-unsolved abduction. As they navigate a maze of motives and deception, the listener is gripped by a relentless desire to uncover the connections between these seemingly unrelated events.

With its masterful blend of suspense, intricate character development, and a narrative structure that keeps you guessing, this audiobook is an absolute must-listen. It's a journey that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the unearthing of long-buried truths, leaving an indelible mark on anyone seeking an immersive and enthralling audio experience.

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alice Feeney’s new book just fantastic! She kept me guessing until the very end. It wonderfully shows us how sometimes very good people choose to do some very bad things.

We follow two timelines as a baby is abducted from a stroller and then years later a woman is murdered. Following the two timelines, they eventually merge to discover how these two events are connected and really how it is difficult to trust anyone at all!

Thank you for the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this opportunity.

`A good book can be a light in the darkness` — this is so true —and this was definitely a good book ! I enjoyed all the narrators they did a great job of the POV of the characters. By the time I got about 20% in I was hooked with intrigue and had to know what was going to happen and how all these characters were connected to to each other. I loved the technique of building tension of a character and then switching POV it really keeps you on your toes and makes you want to continue with the story to know what will happen to that character where the tension was built . This is a story about mothers and daughters and their relationships , it really touches on the issues mothers and daughter can have. The author does a great job of threading the characters lives together . Loved this book , hard to stop listening— I love this tag line — Sometimes good people have to do bad things! — Recommended !

I was pretty unengaged with this story and I cannot pinpoint why. It was very confusing and dare I say there were too many twists? I just didn't see the point of the entire book until the end when all the twists were revealed and explained. It was interesting and they all made sense afterwards. But was the bulk of the book worth it?

Again! Another great book by Alice Feeney. I just can’t seem to read them fast enough. I am too impatient to find out what the next great twist is going to be! And there are many in Good Bad Girl.

The main characters begin by eking out cryptic stories of their past and present lives. They, along with some side characters ALL have secrets to hide!!!
And the amazing part is that they all come together in the end. I was fascinated with how Alice Feeney made them all fit like a complete puzzle.

I can’t say too much without giving away spoilers but this is a fun ride of a book. You’ll need to pay attention to the many clues and be on the edge of your seat as each character reveals a shocking new discovery! As you can tell, I really liked this book and want to read all her others.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio for the ARC via NetGalley!

What an interesting ride! This author always tackles some hard topics, and she’s at it again with motherhood this time. She plays with perspective, and always has those twists coming out of nowhere. It was a little confusing at times, but maybe that’s because I was listening on audio. Overall, captivating and very enjoyable!

Edith is an eighty-year-old ex-store detective who’s been shuffled off to a nursing home against her will. She blames her daughter Clio for putting her there. Clio feels she’s doing the best she can and blames her mother for never truly loving her. Neither prefers to communicate with the other.

Patience is an 18-year-old care home employee who’s befriended Edith and her adorable dog, Dickens, who Patience sneaks in for visits with Edith. She also has a strained relationship with her own mother, Frankie, a prison librarian. Patience left home after a disagreement and hasn’t communicated with Frankie since.

In each woman you see both good and bad. As truths come to light you see they’ve all made very bad choices in their lives, yet are any of them truly bad? For a story involving crimes committed, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more sympathetic towards the characters involved!

It’s rare that I finish a book and have no complaints, but try as I might, I can’t find a single one. Alice Feeney outdid herself with this, and it’s risen to the top as my new favorite book of hers! It's a domestic drama/mystery that twists and turns in ways that Feeney has made an art of. It’s also eminently quotable and so insightful regarding women and mother/daughter relationships, that I guess my only complaint is that I couldn’t highlight the MANY wonderful quotes on my Kindle since I listened to it on audio! Who am I kidding? I really can't complain. The audio was amazing.

Speaking of the audio, it was narrated by Stephanie Racine, who always does a brilliant job with Feeney’s books, and the equally impressive Katherine Press. They brought all these fascinating personalities to life and only added to my enjoyment of the story.

I can only sing this book's praises and tell you to check this out if it sounds like a good match!

The beginning of this book was a little hard for me to follow mainly because there were so many different points of view in the story that it felt kind of jumbled and I spent more time trying to piece together how every character is connected and their role in the story.The story is a bit predictable, but there were some twists that were surprising and kept the story interesting.

Both narrators were enjoyable to listen to and brought a uniqueness to the different POV. They brought the uncertainty and distrust of the story to life while also bringing a warmness to each character. This was my first time hearing a story be narrated by either of these women and I truly enjoyed their voices.

Overall this was a good story, but ultimately one that isn’t memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC

My expectations for this book sort of messed with me at first as I didn't find it to be all that twisty or feeling like a thriller. I mean, there are secrets and murders and surprises - don't get me wrong. But it really was more of a book about family and the murder mystery stuff was more the backdrop for that exploration and I really enjoyed the book. Some of the relationships in the book are ones you can kind of figure out and some are surprising. And as in the other book by Feeney I read, Daisy Darker, there are plenty of flawed and dislikable characters and some that you root for. So I wasn't on the edge of my seat, but once I just sat back and enjoyed the book as it was it was excellent!

The very first chapter will have your jaw already on the floor

Multiple POV’s (like 4 different people) - this did get confusing at times just trying to figure out who was who and keep up with the separate intertwining stories. However, the narrators did do a good job of each character having their own voice/tone - it was just hard for me to keep up with that many different POVs.

There are several twists in this book - some that I saw coming and some that I didn’t.

Would recommend for a good thriller, but probably keep notes/tab so you can easily distinguish the different characters in the book.

Good Bad Girl
By Alice Feeney

Genre:
Adult Psychological Thriller/Mystery

Red Flags:
Postpartum Depression, Abduction, Loss, Murder, Family Saga with Severed family relationships

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

Summary/Review:
A sweet baby girl is abducted from a grocery store, and twenty years later, the woman is murdered in the local nursing home. Somehow…the two incidents are connected, and the reader will wonder how until the last page is read. I will not share too much and ruin this novel for anyone, like some reviews do. This is my first novel by Alice Feeney and I can’t wait to read more from her. I did feel the beginning was a little slow for me, but after about half of the novel, the pace quickened as the story quickened. A psychological thriller, with unexpected twists until the very end!

***I listened to the audio version, and recommend it. The narrators Katherine Press and Stephanie Racine did a wonderful job!


Thank you to Alice Feeney, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

#reluctantreaderreads
#Goodbadgirl
#Alicefeeney
#macmillanaudio
#netgalley
#advancedreadereditions

The plot builds at a slow place, with multiple characters and two different mysteries going on at once. By the time the storyline comes together I was no longer invested in the characters. This one just didn’t work for me. I received a digital audio copy via NetGalley, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I want to thank Alice Feeney, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I have read a bunch of Alice Feeny books. She is known to be the "queen of twists," and I must always agree with that statement...

Good Bad Girl starts with a stolen baby and then moves into the future twenty years, where a woman is murdered in a care home. A "good bad girl" is the key to uncovering the truth.

I knew I would struggle with this book from the beginning when I had to restart the audiobook four times to understand what the heck was going on! There were so many POVs and characters, and the narrator's voice, besides being monotone, was the same for all the different characters! I was so confused the entire time that I found myself rewinding to keep up with what was happening. Maybe if I had a hardcover, it would be easier to turn back pages. Struggling to get to the end, I was disappointed with the "twists" that came. It all just fell short. I did not develop any character attachments and honestly kept reading so It would all end.

I am not writing off Alice Feeny just because this book and her last book were a bust. You can't win them all!

Unfortunately this won’t be a favourite of Feeneys, I’d say 3.5 star rounded up. In saying that, I still really enjoyed the reveals and unveils, but it didn’t get my heart going like her others have. While pieces were easy to put together, others were still shocking as expected from her! The back and forth chapters without revealing who’s POV it was I really enjoyed too, it did make for a good guessing game. It was more of a mystery vibe than a thriller which wasn’t my fave. Still worth the read!

THAT WAS A WILD RIDE!!! Omg what a twisty turny story! 90% of this book was me just screaming “WHAT IS GOING ON!” And trying to pull out my own hair. We have multiple POVs, a slew of unreliable narrators, and a jumping timeline. I was so hooked, I couldn’t stop, not even for a second. There’s so much going on, but the plot didn’t feel messy. We’ve got a baby kidnapping, a murder, and a whole lot of drama, rolled into a roller coaster of a storyline! I was constantly pausing the audiobook to try to piece things together along the way, and in the end, I got it all wrong 😂 Alice Feeney is an absolute legend! This book is going to run through my mind for a long time to come.

The whole way I kept wondering how things were going to come together. Then BAM! You get hit in the face with it. SURPRISE! There it is. Wow, nice job Alice.

Thank you Macmillan audio and Netgalley for my advanced audiobook of Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney The narrator of this book is fabulous. However, there are a number of characters and each chapter flips back and forth between time and different characters, so you need to pay attention closely or you will get lost. (Disclaimer- I would have rather read than listened)Do not give up, the second half of the book comes together seamlessly and wraps up. Also, this is not like other Alice Feeney books that I have read and other reviewers feel the same way. (another lighthearted warning) Like other Alice Feeney books, there are twists and turns all the way to end – riding the line of good and bad… be prepared for the ending!

Thank you Macmillan audio and Netgalley for my advanced audiobook of Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney.
This book I would give 3 1/2 stars. I did like it but you should know that it is more of a convoluted family drama vs. a thriller with a huge surprising plot twist you might expect from this author. I loved listening to the narrator of this audiobook - I love her accent. There are a number of characters to keep up with so you really need to pay attention to figure out how the events from the past (a child abduction) and present (a murder at a nursing home) come together and how all of the characters connect. The book also delves into postpartum depression and mother/daughter relationships. It did seem a little slow burn at first to me but I was trying to keep up with who was who - there is Patience, Cleo, Frankie and Edith. Once I finally got them straight the story seemed to flow more for me. I did like how everything wrapped up in the end. It was interesting finding out their connection even if some of it was a bit of a stretch. While this was not my favorite book by this author I think it was well written and liked the audio version.

Omg… this book takes you on a ride the entire time! This is a great mystery/thriller book that keeps you wanting more! I at some points did have a hard time keeping up with all the characters, but I eventually caught up with who is who. Overall, it was a great and fast paced read/audio book! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️