This book was so good and twisted! I loved the suspense and truly couldn't put it down. A little bit dark because of some heavy topics, I was sucked in from the first page and read it in 24 hours.

This one had so much potential, but in the end I found it predictable I’m sorry to say. It was an entertaining read, but I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Disclosure I received this as an ARC.

The story was extremely interesting, it just felt entirely too slow paced for me.

If you love unreliable narrators and twisty stories this might be for you!

I won’t say anymore to keep from spoiling but I feel like if you’re a fan of Gone Girl or a Simple Favor you would enjoy this as well.

I enjoyed this one. It touches on some serious and traumatic topics like bullying, ghosting, break ups, abuse, etc so please make sure to read the trigger warnings before reading! Break ups can be messy after all!

I enjoyed it and definitely would recommend to other readers!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review!

Oh Claire Darling!
If a man walks away, hold your head high and LET HIM!

Claire is excited to drop off a surprise workday lunch for her fiancé Noah on their anniversary, but the surprise is on her when the receptionist tells her that no one with Noah's name works there.

Suddenly, he isn't picking up her calls or answering her texts.

She has been ghosted!

With her new friend Sukhi by her side, Claire is determined to get answers. In fact, she becomes OBSESSED.

But, she REFUSES to believe the things that they find!

This psychological thriller opens with a MURDER, and ends with a Courtroom TRIAL, but in between you will learn about all of the ways Noah has humiliated her in the present and all of the ways her MOTHER has abused her in the past-IF you can believe everything that Claire (and her diary entries) are telling you…..

As a reader of MANY books in this genre, I could predict some of where this was going -BUT despite that- the story DID hold my attention throughout and offered up a fun, memorable ending!

A promising debut! I will definitely pick up the author’s next!
3.75 ⭐️ rounded ⬆️

A buddy read with MarilynW. Be sure to watch for her review to see if she had fun with this one too!

Available March 13, 2025.

Thank You to Bantam for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts!

This Book grabbed me from the start and I was hooked till the end. Claire fell hard for Noah when she met him in a market one day and they began dating. He was in her eyes the Perfect Man. He always did the right thing, said the right thing, pampered her and met all her needs. Almost too good to be true right? No wonder she said yes when a year later he proposed.

However Claire began to find things about this perfect man Noah that wasn't so perfect and she was very upset. Claire spirals and things go from bad to well really bad.

This was a good book with lots of twists that you might wonder what is really happening up until the end.

Even though I knew where this book would lead me, the getting there was just 𝗦𝗢 good. I could not get enough of it. The unreliable character (Claire) had me gripped with her past and present narrative and while having to read about her abusive mother was at times difficult, it really made the story what it was. I was strangely getting Eileen by Moshfegh vibes and I was not at all upset by it. Loved this debut novel and would definitely recommend it!

A really fun psychological thriller that grips you within the first few chapters. It’s easy to get through and we switch back and forth between Claire’s past and present timeline. Her diary entries were interesting to say the least. We navigate through Claire’s past with her overbearing, abusive and controlling mother and present time where we see claire clearly spiraling more and more ever chapter as she finds out what happened to her Fiancé to make him disappear out her life.

I did get the twist 20% in which is really sad, so the ending wasn’t surprising at all and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending entirely. However, I did finish it quickly and enjoyed my time doing so.

Will be picking up more from this author again!

3.5 Claire is ghosted for seemingly no reason and I had no clue where this was going. I kept coming up with scenarios for why he did this and I wasn't even close. Parts of the book are really sad and harder to read. Seemed a little rushed at the end.

amazing book! so glad I read this one and can’t wait for future books. This book was very fast paced and had a jas dropping plot.

Claire, Darling was quite the unexpected trip. I was not sure what to expect, and truthfully, was not sure which way it was going to turn out during the entire first half (the joys of reading on a kindle and not flipping ahead).

I really looked forward to reading this book based on the summary. A woman who thinks she’s found “Mr. Right” discovers she was in love with an illusion. Mr. right ghosted her after her discovery leading to her need to pursue the truth. While the plot showed promise in the book’s beginning, I felt like I had already read this book before. I reached midpoint. The plot became very predictable and almost repetitive.I guessed the conclusion prior to the halfway mark and had to make an effort to finish reading the book. I received a free advanced reader’s copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Claire, Darling is a fast read, but it is mismarketed as a thriller. The tagline suggests Fatal Attraction vibes, but it's far from it. This is a sad book about delusion, mental illness, and an abusive childhood. Now that I've read it, the UK title "Cuckoo" makes sense.

This was an interesting read for me. I was lead to feel bad for Claire. I wondered why a man would do such things to a woman he loved. The total twist at the end had me in awe. I couldn't believe that I had missed any signs of that being the case. I think this is worth a re-read to see what signs I didn't pick up on the first time.

Claire drops off lunch for her fiancee, Noah, only to be told he doesn't work there. Unable to contact him, she finds that he has a totally different life with a different woman. As she goes deeper down the rabbit hole, Claire uncovers more secrets. What else is Noah hiding?
What a great book! It kept me enthralled from the first page to the last. I look forward to reading more from this author. Highly, highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

3.75 stars

The word "darling" in the title becomes a bit sus as readers get to know this protagonist, and while Claire may not be what one would consider "darling," she is highly readable. This book - despite some predictable elements and motifs - kept me engaged throughout.

When the novel begins, Claire is in a perfect seeming relationship with her fiancé. Things get weird, fast, when - as noted on the cover so no spoilers here - Claire gets ghosted. As Claire tries to unravel the mystery of what the heck is up with the guy she thought she was starting a family and life with, readers begin to piece together the truth of this relationship and these characters and how this all fits together with Claire's troubling past to make her who she is today (again, NOT darling).

This is a quick read, and my attention did not shift, even when I was pretty sure I knew where we were going (somewhat early on). I'd recommend this as a beach read or a read that can be handled in a single sitting (a short flight or train trip, for example). It'll hold attention, and readers will want to know what happens before they close the back cover.

I'll look forward to more from this author.

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't a thriller but it kept you wanting more. While reading I felt like I might have had an idea of where it was going because of the journal entries.

I would definitely recommend this book to others.

This is described as a thriller, but it’s not, although it has some twists that initially were head-scratch inducing. My main issue with this novel is that I didn’t like Claire, even with her mentally ill mother and her fiancé that ghosts her entirely after their one-year anniversary. I just never had empathy for her.

Claire, Darling is such a fascinating look at the "girl falls in love, girl gets ghosted" subgenre of thrillers--the writing is sharp, the narrative unfolds perfectly and the characters are so well drawn. I read thus in one long gulp and throughly enjoyed it!

This book was definitely a roller coaster of a thriller. You almost feel sorry for Claire and her horrible childhood as the story develops. But the glimmer of light is her fiancé or who we think is her fiancé and how sweet and kind he is too until he goes missing.