Leave the Girls Behind had so much promise, especially for spooky season reading, but, ultimately it fell a little flat for me. At times, I struggled to keep track of who was who and to pull the threads together, but I was intrigued enough to finish. After loving Before You Knew My Name, this one didn't quite reach that level for me, but I will still be anxiously awaiting Jacqueline Bublitz's next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC.

What a twisty ride! I really enjoyed this book and Ruth-Ann our FMC. She is still unwell over her childhood bff murder and who can blame her. When she sets out to solve it, things get really wild.

Ruth has just discovered that another child from her hometown has disappeared. Ruth’s childhood friend went missing when they were very young. And this has made a huge imprint on her life. She has never let this case go. So, when this young girl comes up missing, Ruth starts to investigate and she discovers that the man accused of harming her friend may have had an accomplice.

Boy! Ruth is a bit damaged. And this endears me to her. But you see the train wreck coming…or at least you think you do!

I love when a story has me all over the globe and Ruth does not give up. She ends up in Australia and then Oslo. She is bound and determined to find out what she needs to know.

Well! This tale has a few twists and turns. It is a bit of a slow burn but that just enhances the drama!

Need a story which will have you wondering who did what…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Internationally bestselling author Jacqueline Bublitz returns with her latest riveting thriller, LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND —a woman is traumatized and haunted by a serial killer and the ghosts he left behind.

About...

Nineteen years after the murder of her childhood friend, Ruth-Ann Baker wants to know the truth.

Ruth-Ann is a 26-year-old New York bartender. Back in 2010, she was a 21-year-old college dropout. She had been studying forensics and wanted to become a criminal profiler. But all that changed before the episode.

In 1996, Beth Lovely disappeared from the children's playground across from the high school in Connecticut. Her dead body was found eleven days later buried in a shallow grave in the woods six miles away. She was only seven and a half years old. Her friend.

Ethan Oswald, a 31-year-old popular music teacher, murdered her and was arrested the same day. He also led the choir at the town's largest church. The parents of Beth attended the church.

He has been dead since 2002. So this means he cannot be responsible for the disappearance of another little Hobel girl (Coco Wilson) all these years later, in 2015.

After two decades of wondering, the disappearance of another girl from her hometown sparks Ruth's mission to uncover the killer's unknown partner and three different women. She thinks one of them may hold the answers she is searching for. Ruth intends to find everything she can about the Connecticut cold cases.

My thoughts...

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND cleverly blends psychological, crime, suspense, and thriller with a supernatural element with an amateur detective haunted by murdered girls (Beth and the others).

Ruth is an unreliable narrator and amateur sleuth who embarks on an investigation that takes her worldwide and into the lives of three women with connections to Oswald.

Psychologically rich, dark, and disturbing, the author explores the scars, traumas, and the aftereffects violence leaves on its victims.

Recs...

For fans of true crime and authors Alafair Burke, Megan Collins, J.P. Pomare, Megan Goldin, Hannah Morrissey, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Katherine Greene.

Thanks to Atria Books for a digital advanced review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

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@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: Oct 29, 2024
Oct 2024 Must-Read Books
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Thriller • True Crime • Paranormal
Pub Date • 29 October 2024

Thank you @atriathrillers & @atriabooks for the ARC!

This book was disturbing and unsettling in the way that I was craving during the month of Spooktober. It’s the story of the lost and forgotten girls, murdered by deranged men, but this time the focus will be on the families they left behind.

Ruth-Ann is a college dropout, a bartender, and an amateur detective who can’t stay away from true crime. She also sees dead people. Most prominently she sees the girls who were killed, like Beth, her 7 year old former friend.

It’s been almost 2 decades since then, and now there’s been another abduction with too many coincidences — but Beth’s killer, Ethan Oswald, died while serving a life sentence... so why is the MO so familiar?

Ruth-Ann should walk away, but she can’t. No one would believe a girl who sees dead people anyway. Like a lot of women, Ruth-Ann is used to not being believed.

The ending of this book was a mind bender. The scenes were atmospheric, with the midsection a bit slower than the pacing at the outset and the ending. If you love an unreliable narrator, or are a true crime junkie, definitely pick this one up!

Thank you Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for my #gifted copy of Leave The Girls Behind! #AtriaPartner #atriabooks #EmilyBestlerBooks #LeaveTheGirlsBehind

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐳
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

Leave The Girls behind had such a promising and unique premise. I’m always up for a book with an amateur detective. While I did enjoy the flawed character aspect and unreliable narrator, I just had a really hard time getting into this one. I didn’t dislike the book, it just didn’t really stand out to me. I enjoyed the characters more than I did the plot, and found it a little difficult to stay engaged. I did find the overall writing to be enjoyable. With all of that said, I have heard amazing things about the authors debut novel, Before You Knew My Name, and I definitely still plan on giving that novel a try. I think maybe I just read this one at the wrong time. If you enjoy suspense novels, give this one a try.

Posted on Goodreads on October 28, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around October 29, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on October 29, 2024
**-will post on designated date

This is suffused with melancholy, which is appropriate given the subject matter but it wears. Ruth Ann lives her life in a limited fashion, constrained by the murder of her best friend Beth when they were seven and her own trauma. Now, twenty years later, Beth comes to her as a ghost and another little girl-Coco- has gone missing in their small town which sets her off on a quest. Ruth Ann believes she can tie a series of women to the murder of Beth and other girls whose bodies have not yet be found so she sets up interviews and then travels around the world (literally- first to New Zealand) to interview them. Her search for answers leads her into more darkness. There are some sharp characters here (I liked her uncle and his husband) and good atmospherics but know that the paranormal aspects do wax and wane. It also struck me as remarkably unrealistic that she could track down the women and that they would agree to be interviewed for her (pretend) podcast. And there's one more - no spoilers- aspect I found forced. That said I kept reading because I wanted answers , especially about the fate of Coco (who is forgotten for much of the novel). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I was a huge fan of Before I Knew Your Name so I was eager for this. While it didn't live up to her first novel, Bublitz has good storytelling chops.

This book is one of those you want to love - great story, good characters, sweet dog.

However - it just kept being right outside my reach. The first half was very slow, draggy and repetitive. It did pick up toward the end - but it might be too late for some.

I’ve read very mixed reviews with this one and I have to say, I feel it! Leave The Girls Behind is a very atmospheric, suspense building novel about a girl, seemingly orphaned, obsessed with the trauma of her past. Every chapter felt like midnight. There’s also a paranormal aspect as the main character works with other victims of this serial killer to solve the mystery of her friends murder.

The pacing of this story needs a little work, I think it can be difficult to build up a background story while still keeping the chapters exciting. This seems to be the case here as the story revs up and slows down frequently. Overall, I enjoyed the novel, but still struggled to get through it.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I’m a huge fan of Jacqueline Bublitz and loved her first book. This is no exception and kept me up way past my bedtime. It was well written with a great plot and well thought out characters. Highly recommend!

I’m surprised by all the lower ratings. I liked the author’s previous book but was braced for being disappointed when I saw the reviews. But I was pleasantly surprised.

The story is dark and the narrator is kind of unreliable but I was still drawn into her story and the story of the other girls. The investigative journey she goes on was interesting and kind of tense. I felt like all the pieces of the story fit well together. I’m glad for the way things wrapped up for Ruth. The little piece at the end was a dark ending but I was glad Ruth remained untouched by the reveal.

very thrilling and filled with emotion and passion. a lot of cool vibes and i totally loved our protagonist. how everything worked out, too, was a very fun untangling that i would recommend. some of the side characters were a bit more flat than I would have hoped for, but in general it was quite cool. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

As someone who isn’t a sensitive reader, I couldn’t get past the 20% point in this book. The description of kidnapping felt too close to home as a mom with a similar aged child. The overall premise is intriguing but my comfort level didn’t allow me to finish.

Ruth is currently a bartender, but nineteen years ago her childhood friend was murdered by a serial killer. When another girl goes missing from the same town 19 years later, she thinks maybe Oswald didn’t act alone.. What follows is Ruth’s hunt for a killer, She has always been able to see the dead, and is hoping to get help from the women who were previously killed in order to stop this once and for all.

This was a slow burn suspense that pulled me into the mystery and had me asking what was really going on. Ruth’s journey around the world was interesting, and the idea of killers having protégées and mentees was fascinating. The ending left me a little confused and wanting more, but it was an engaging story that I couldn’t put down.

Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz had me very engaged through the whole book, the characters were great, the plot was amazing and the storytelling was very intriguing,
Bublitz grabbed my attention from the start; this became a book that I just could not put down.
The twists blew me away, the ending was brilliant! 


Thank You NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

If nothing else, the writing in this book was on point. The tension remained high through every page. The reader didn't necessarily know why, but the dark foreboding of things to come and things we didn't know was there. And with each page turn and each unraveling of the secrets, the tension didn't let up. It stayed because now the reader knew. Ruth's character development was strong and heavy. I wish we had gotten a bit more on some of the other characters. They were there, they did things, but that was as far as the reader got with them. But, this was already a long slow-paced book. I am not sure there was time to learn more about the other characters, especially since there was so much to Ruth. She, and this whole story, will stay with me.

I gave this one 50% then unfortunately dnf’d. I was really tried to get into it but it just did not grab my attention the way I wanted. Maybe it was a personal thing…idk

An engaging, unique plot with diverse characters and a touch of the paranormal.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Formal review to come. This was such a different spin from your typical serial killer thriller! I enjoyed it. I do think that the “ghost” of Beth was very adult considering she was supposed to be a 7 year old child. I suspected something was up with Gabe pretty early on, it was just how/what/why. This was my first book by this author! I enjoyed it. The first half was a little slow, but it picked up towards the end.

Personally not my writing style. I unfortunately didn’t finish this, I struggled to stay engaged from the start and just too slow paced for me.