The Girl on the News by Elisabeth Carpenter
(Narrated by Zoe Mills)

Fast-paced, promising and intriguing thriller. I loved the story setting which kept me guess in what’s next.

The story was not only about kidnapping, it’s about secrets were going to be revealed. Living in the dark and worrying. The book was smartly written to keep readers hooked. The narrator had a great voice and pace to let the character alive!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: Jan 29, 2024

Good read. I liked the writing style. It kept my attention and had likable and interesting characters. Good plot twists. I would recommend it to my bookish friends.

A very drawn out tale, with all the answers in the last chapter, it seemed to take ages to get to the solution.
Characters were good and loved the audio version- great narrator.

The Girl on the News was a great read by Elisabeth Carpenter. The headlines read 'Missing girl believed kidnapped'. A young mother sees a picture of her daughter, Mia, underneath the headline. But Mia is safe beside her and she knows that her past is coming back to haunt her. She knows that someone must have uncovered who she really is and the accusations she faced as a child. Then Mia is taken from a playground and her world collapses. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.

A creative and reliable thriller. '*It's a believable story. I can see this really happening.
I consider this book creative, as the author combined the narrative with the interviews that Sadi collected over almost 30 years to find out who killed her niece.
This story is about poor 12 year old Rosie who was in the wrong place when they found her best friend's body. She paid for a crime she didn't commit, and even almost 30 years later she still has no peace.
The only thing to point out is that the cover has a phrase that refers to a different type of book, I really liked it, but I was expecting something different.

I listened to the audio version of this book. It is perhaps telling, that as I come to write a review, just a week after finishing it, I can remember very little apart from how annoying the narrated version was to listen to. There are parts of the book recorded interview style with initials given for each person in the interview room. Reading this would not be a problem but listening was really annoying. It's hard to explain this unless you have listened in. The plot is less of a psychological thriller, more a sad story of misjustice which occurred many years previously. There is a lot of jumping around in time frames and with one narrator it is hard to distinguish who is who. I found myself annoyed by some of the inconsistencies and to make the misjustice happen, the police lapse in procedures is appalling; frankly to the point of unrealistic. Having said all that, I did finish the book and would not say it was not worth listening if you need a distraction whilst doing a mundane task.

Good read, decently quick read as well. I think I'll recommend it to some of my friends who like this vibe

I found this one all a bit confusing. The story didn't seem to match up with how it was described by the title, the blurb and even the cover of the book - it was vaguely a psychological thriller but it was more about family relationships, and the ending left me bewildered and not really sure what it was all about - why certain people had acted the way they did at the time, and why things were stirred up again now. Most of the book was pretty slow until right at the end when everything came out, and I think that must have been where my attention waned and I lost track of what was going on, rather than the book not making much sense. Without giving away too much about the plot of the book, I can't understand why police and juries came to the conclusion that they did about the original murder. Even if I can accept that in real life serial killers have been overlooked because the police have simply failed to make the obvious connection away between the crimes, surely it must have been obvious that a 12 year old girl couldn't have killed another 12 year old in that manner, even if she was found at the scene of the crime? I don't know. There is just an awful lot about this story that makes no sense.

Woah, this was a wild ride and I'm still left with questions. I listened to about 50% of this book, mentioned it to a friend and she decided to purchase the audio. I started over to 'buddy read' it with her. I missed several clues on the first listen and just a few parts in general.
I liked the interview style of writing and the back-and-forth timeline and POV. It did make it confusing but once pieces fell into place and I figured out who was who, it helped. As i said it left me with several questions, but I think it was supposed to.

This was a very fast-paced read and makes for a great buddy read or book club. It leaves a lot to discuss throughout the book.

The story was a unique storyline with many twisted character stories that intertwined. The story is fast paced and the narration by Zoe Mills is excellent. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a chance to read and review this book in exchange for an honest review.

Audio version of this book 📕- A good storyline though I did find it a bit ‘Busy’ !! So many characters and story’s past and present got a bit hard to keep up with ! It might just be me being a little dumb but the title and front cover didn’t really seem to match the storyline 😬

The narrator was quite irritating at times when trying to do male characters, she put on an annoying voice that was really off putting.

Narrator zoe Mills
For me not the best audiobook of Elizabeths, that I've listened too. It was quite slow at the start and picked up in the middle and ended ok.
The narrator wasn't brilliant either, it was hard to distinguish who was who.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me an advance audio to listen to.

I will say from the get-go that. I think the book itself deserves a lot more credit than the audio of the book. I listened to the audio and it was very confusing with the time jumps and transitions. It is a good story, but the audio needs some help. I listened to a ton of audiobooks and there is a way to do the transitions easily for the reader. Good story though.

This one was kinda on the slower side. This is the story of Jessie who around the anniversary of her childhood best friend's murder starts to experience weird happenings with life and she can't explain what is going on. Jessie was convicted of murdering her friend because her friend's mother saw her screaming over her friend's body and was convicted that she murdered her friend. Jessie after being released changed her name and moved away from her old neighborhood so that she would not be easily recognized and then one day her mother calls her freaking out about a post on social media. The post started with Jessie's daughter being missing from school, while Jessie is freaking out and her mother is freaking out Jessie's daughter is safe and sound. Sadie is a reporter who believes Jessie is telling the truth about not murdering her friend, but she is also a reporter. After the social media post, Jessie hides at her mom's house with her daughter and she teams up with Sadie to find out what actually happened all those years ago and who killed her friend and the girls from then until now!
Wow, this was a great listen! The narrator was awesome and the story was intriguing enough to keep my attention and the story kept me on the edge of my seat! Thank you Bookouture Audio for the listen I loved it! Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to listen and review this one!

I did not get to enjoy the book much, as I must say the format is not ideal for it according to me. The incessant change of narrator and the interview format in some chapters, made it difficult to follow through, especially at the beginning of the story. It took me about a third of the book, to really figure out who's who, and that is too much to get really interested in any story. I did not especially enjoy the accent the narrator did, though I understand the necessity to tell the different characters apart.

So what is the story about? According to the pitch, it is all about the news that Mia Donovan has gone missing, though she is still with her mother, until she goes missing for real. The story is actually way more about her mother's past, who has been accused of murder, while a young girl herself. I might have liked the story better, had the pitch been less provocative and more focused on what really matters.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher of the book, for providing me with a free copy of this eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for this book. I picked this book up cause the blurb of the book sounding so incredibly and interesting to read but sadly that wasn’t the cause at all. I really didn’t like narrator she sounded off sounded so sympathetic and calm and you could tell all the characters apart but when you get to half way you can’t really understand what character the narrator is talking about sadly as it all gets mixed up. The story was so bland and so interesting I kept reading as I wanted to know what happend but the clues the author sprinkles into the book don’t match up to the real killer at all as there only in the last 10% of the book which I thought was a bit unrealistic and unfair to the main characters in this story. I didn’t really many of the characters at all in this book they were so dull and so boring they only characters I liked were Mia and Jesse cause of their mother daughter relationship and bond they have together and there the only two characters that hold this whole book together. I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future just sadly this one wasn’t for me

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an audiobook copy of this book. I was really excited to listen to this book, however, it was a bit of a letdown. Not a fan of the narrator for this one.sinly on the kid voice. The story was a little confusing with so many characters thrown at you. I lost interest quickly with this one.

This is a high quality quick listen. . Told over multiple timelines. This tells the atoey of Rosie who is convicted of killing her best friend when she is 12. She maintains her innocence and creates a new identity and new life cimpleye woth daughter. Years layer it appears on social media that her daughter is missing but she is right there. An investigative journalist Sadie believes in her innocence.
I loved tge pov and various side characters and red herrings. The narrator had a real feel for each character and did being the story to life. The problem i had with the story was rhe final twist did not seem realistic and made me question how realistic the original conviction would have been but as it would have been done to 12 people I guesse its a fine line. I felt i needed a few more loose ends tied up and explained in more detail to trully believe in the ending and twist. I loved all tg5e characters but just felt the ending let the story down.
I would still highly recommended this its still a solid 4 star listen as long as you can remember its a story and unlike me try relate it to real life.
Thank you netgallery and publisher and author and narrator.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW


Review for 'The Girl On The News' by Elisabeth Carpenter and narrated by Zoe Mills.

Read and reviewed via NetGalley Shelf and NetGalley for Elisabeth Carpenter, Bookouture publishers, Bookouture Audio, Bookouture anonymous and Hachette UK.

Publication date 29th January 2024.

This is the second book I have read by this author. I have previously read 'the Family On Smith Street' which I would also recommend.

This novel consists of 43 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short to medium in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!

'The Girl On the News' discusses some topics that may upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Elisabeth discusses neglect.

This book is very well written and narrated and had me hook, line and sinker from beginning to end. The descriptions were so in depth and vivid that the hair on my arms was standing on the ends and my heart was pounding throughout. The synopsis, title and cover were perfect for the storyline.
I will admit that this book was a bit of a slow burn to start as the story starts to build up but I would definitely liken it to a rollercoaster ride. You open the page and then you start going up the ride to the peak and then all of a sudden you are thrown over the top with twists and turns with the speed building up and up until it comes to a fantastic ending. The book is written with both multiple protagonists as well as a dual timeline and Elisabeth weaves the different characters and the different timelines together perfectly building up the larger picture for the readers to see what happened in the past to lead to what was going on in the present. The storyline is ram packed with tension, drama, twists, lies, mystery, friendship, secrets, red herrings and much more! It is a captivating book that once I started listening to it I just couldn't stop and I was playing it through my earphones while doing jobs in the house, in the car when out and even through Alexa until I had devoured it in several hours!! There were several twists throughout the book. Although the book was slow to begin with it did pick up speed quite quickly and I enjoyed the unexpected twists and even the ones that were not a huge surprise. The ending was definitely unexpected and did leave me mind blown and considering how many crime books I have read that is definitely a huge bonus as it is getting harder and harder to surprise me. I am looking forward to seeing what Elisabeth comes up with next!
It is set over multiple time lines. When books show what has happened in the past and what is happening in the present I find it really helps the reader (if it is well done) understand why things are happening and what has lead to the present activities and decisions. It also shows the bigger picture
This is one of the few books that I have listened 100% on Audiobook. If I listen to a book on audiobook I usually also read the physical book between but I listened to the whole book and I was impressed! I must say a HUGE congratulations to the narrator Zoe Mills who did a great job bringing this story to life. I would listen to it in the car and while walking at any opportunity and Zoe did a fantastic job on both male and female characters voices!!! I'm not only looking forward to reading more books by Elisabeth but also to listening to more books narrated by Zoe! I have previously listened to several books that Sarah has narrated and she really does do an absolutely amazing job ensuring the story comes to life for the reader. The books I have listened/read that Sarah has narrated and I would highly recommend are The Holiday Home by Daniel Hurst and The Italian Daughter by Soraya Lane.
The characters were all realistic and Elisabeth evocative writing skills and Zoe's fantastic narration brought each of them to life leaving you feel that you are standing next to each of them as they are telling you their stories. They each had their own unique personalities that I enjoyed getting to know as the story was being told. This is a book filled with lies, twists and one where you have no idea which characters are telling the truth or who are hiding secrets. regardless of whether you love or hate the characters they all work together perfectly to create a tension packed psychological drama that will keep you hooked throughout!


Congratulations Elisabeth on yet another absolutely gripping true page turner! I am looking forward to reading more of your books!!

Make sure you read to the very end of the book to read the first two chapters of Elisabeth's fantastic 'The Family On Smith Street' which is another page turner and one I have read myself and would highly recommend!!

Overall a captivating and tension packed intriguing psychological thriller!!!


283 pages. 7 hours 4 minutes via Audible.


This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited, £8.99 in paperback and £7.99 for the Audiobook (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!

Rated 4/5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.

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It was an interesting mystery however quite predictable. I’m not sure I enjoyed the audiobook as much as I hoped I would, I didn’t particularly enjoy the narrations of the male characters however apart from that the narrator did a wonderful job and the change in accents helped relate to characters more.
I didn’t quite enjoy the change in views of multiple characters however.
Overall although interesting I didn’t feel like it was a very memorable book.