This novel explores how, as adolescents, we view the world. Danielle Greer, a country girl from North Georgia is ‘discovered’ at a mall and enticed to the glamorous world of modelling in New York. She is not at all prepared for the life she finds there, yet she tries so hard to fit in, that she loses more than a bit of herself in the process…

“Such is the world of fashion and beauty. Feelings of superiority are like makeup: They can be put on for any occasion. When necessary. When required.”

2004 – Danielle (Dani) was not an easy character to like. Probably because she didn’t like herself very much. When she returns home to Georgia for a visit, the teenage Dani connects with Benji Law, a teenage renegade and delinquent. She falls for him hard – that old story of the attraction to ‘bad boys’, that is the stuff of legend. Dani persuades Benji to visit her in New York, and they begin an affair. Mind you, a very immature affair. Dani’s parents, and her mentor at the modelling agency highly disapprove of Benji, who is a bit younger than Dani who herself is only seventeen. Benji is homesick, and Dani is desperate to keep him in New York. Her efforts fail and he goes home…

Of her home town Dani states “Pressville, Georgia – somewhere between Atlanta and North Carolina – is a place filled with long lives lived on hills or in ditches.”

Flash forward to 2019. Danielle is now married to Jasper and is the mother of four young daughters. She and her family are living in the house where she grew up. Her daughters discover human remains in the ravine at the back of their house. The past, it seems, has returned to bite them where it hurts the most.

“There can be things you do – or just one thing you do – in your life that can lead to years, maybe decades, of regret.”

This novel was an easy read. The plot was neither slow nor fast. The mystery not that mysterious. The suspense not that suspenseful. That being said, it did maintain my interest to the end, which was satisfactory in its own way.

This is the third Lo Patrick novel I have read. I much preferred her “Floating Girls” to this one. I do admire the author’s writing, the way she uses descriptive phrases to enhance her story. “Fast Boys and Pretty Girls” was a coming of age novel. A story that delves into the parent/child relationship, the exploration of the impact of first love, innocence lost, and forgiveness. The book had an overall tone of melancholy and regret.

I loved the idea of this one…the small town girl turned model in the big city. I loved the multiple timelines and the mystery element, but I didn’t feel like everything was developed as well as it could’ve been and didn’t feel a sense of completion when it ended. I think it’s a good middle of the road read, enjoyable, but not over the top.

First time reading this author. Book starts with Danielle Striker in a small town being discovered for modeling in the big city of New York. Danielle "Dani" Striker as a teenage model in New York City and has moved back to Pressville in the mountains of North Georgia and is now living with her husband Jasper and four daughters. She’s living in the house she grew up. Everything is going okay if not great. Until the day her daughters find human remains buried at the edge of their property. As the body is uncovered, so are bad decisions and secrets from Dani’s past. This isn’t a “love story” - more a coming of age tale with some suspense peppered in with who the body found belongs. Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Landmark as well as the author.

A Southern mystery with models and problematic relationships, set in the early 2000s, is what immediately sold this book to me. And then, unfortunately, it ended up being too dull and boring for me to care about any aspect of it.

We follow Danielle today, after her daughters find bones on their property, and her back in 2000s, when she was a model called Dani and was living in New York. I really couldn't connect to her character, at any point. She was extremely self-centered, and her opinions were often so, so childish, even in the present day. I was excited to read about this specific era, to see how the author talks about problematic aspects of model culture from twenty years ago, but there was very little of that. I found the storytelling extremely repetitive with little to no new information being talked about. Dani is pining after a younger boy who is deemed problematic by the adults in her life and she's miserable about him — he gives her the tiniest bit of attention and/or her modeling finally starts going better — she fights with her mother and rolls her eyes to oblivion... rinse and repeat. That is literally the whole storyline, apart from the slight mystery happening in the background. I think it would have been better if more chapters were from today's timeline, or if the modeling years were at least more interesting. Either of those, or it could have been more than 100 pages shorter.

There was a lot of potential for this story and these characters, but the plot choices and the odd repetitive dialogues have made this into a disappointing read.

I’ve had mixed feelings about Lo Patrick’s books. I loved the first one and did not like the second. This one fell somewhere in between. It is about a woman from rural Georgia who goes to NYC to be a model. Years later she’s back in GA with her husband and daughters in her family home when they find a body on her property. Dual time periods fill in the blanks as to her life and who the body is. The who and why are revealed at the end. This didn’t have quite as much of an impact as her first book but it was a worthwhile read with excellent character development and an intriguing storyline.

This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Lo Patrick and I must admit that it was a bit of a disappointment for me. I had really enjoyed her first 2 books but thought this one was a little slow. I really feel that giving it a 4 star rating is me being generous. I loved the title, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls, but didn’t feel that the storyline lived up to my expectations for what a book with that title should be. I also didn’t really like any of the characters involved. Danielle, the main character, was allowed to move to New York City at the age of 17 to take up modeling instead of finishing high school. What kind of parents would allow their child to do that? And Dani becomes obsessed with a younger bad boy from back home and that just didn’t make any sense to me either. If a young girl who is living on her own in the big city and is pretty enough to be a model, what would she want with a younger boy who is a troublemaker and is not going to amount to anything? There were just so many things to this book that didn’t seem logical to me. I didn’t understand why the mother did what she did and was basically allowed to get away with it. And I also would have liked to have learned how Danielle met up with her husband as none of that was disclosed. She was just a young girl moping over a boy and then she was married and a mother of 4 with no explanation as to how all that took place. I just wish the story would have went a little deeper and maybe I would have felt better about reading it. I’d like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the arc. I’ve always enjoyed reading this author but I’m not sure that I’d be too quick at recommending this particular book. I feel that 4 stars is being generous and that it’s really more deserving of 3. However, I do realize that a lot of thought and work went into it and not every book can be great. And just because this particular book didn’t wow me, it will have absolutely no impact from me reading any of Lo Patrick’s books in the future.

It was a slow paced but interesting mystery. Told through now and then timelines, the story slowly builds up. Danielle is portrayed truthfully at both points in her life. As a teenager when she moved to New York for her modeling career and a mother of three young girls. Suspense buildup is slow and sometimes very slow, but I think it was crucial to understand her properly. But, I feel that the mystery element is somewhat shadowed by her life story. The ending is surprising. Overall, it was an easy-to-read thriller with drama. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Thank you Netgalley and Lo Patrick for an earc in exchange for honest review.

After modeling as a teen Danielle is now a mom of 4 girls who stumble upon human remains at her parents old house. Danielle thinks she knows who it is and flashbacks to her first love Benji and her time modeling.

The premise of this book sounded so good but fell short. It was very slow paced and got so repetitive I had a hard time picking it back up. I did do a mix of digital and audio and that did help some. Throughout the story Danielle truly has no life outside of Benji, even modeling fell to the wayside. What’s wilder is the obvious lack of affection Benji gave her yet she really believed he wanted her. Her relationship to her family was also strange and the twist at the end wasn’t really a twist and seemed quite obvious. This had good bones but didn’t deliver.

I flew through FAST BOYS AND PRETTY GIRLS — Southern small town, buried secrets, first love, a body in the ravine, and a woman haunted by the past. I couldn’t put this down.

I love the way the author pulls you into the story - gets into your head and then drops the revelations like a bomb.

I never knew who to trust and as unreliable and unlikable the FMC could be, there was just something about her that made me hope for redemption at the end.

Brilliant and highly recommended!

2.5 ⭐️

I liked the premise of this book, however it fell flat for me. I found it hard to like the characters and root for them since they were extremely annoying and there wasn’t much character development. It didn’t flow very well and it was very slow paced and repetitive. Felt more YA than an adult mystery fiction (since there wasn’t much of a mystery to it).

Thank you NetGalley for the copy.

This was my second book by Lo Patrick. My first was The Night the Rive Wept and I really enjoyed it. When I seen Fast Boys and Pretty Girls I was excited to read it. Unfortunately this book was not for me. The flash back chapters took over the whole story. I was so bored. I was thinking the book was more about the body the girls found but even half way through all you really learned was the back story which was not even entertaining. This was a DNF at almost half way through.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a gifted copy in exchange for a honest review.

Dani wants to leave her small Georgia hometown. She heads for the big city to try her hand at modeling. After some moderate success, she returns home for a visit and meets bad-boy Benji. She falls in love and wants Benji to return to New York with her. Doesn't happen. Fast forward 17 years and Dani's daughters discover bones in the woods behind the house she grew up in and where her family is now living. Well, Dani has a good idea who they could belong to, but not how they got there. But don't be fooled, this is not really a mystery thriller. It is more a character study and small-town coming of age drama. And I really enjoyed it! That says a lot from someone who loves her murder thrillers. The atmosphere is great, the characters are well written, and I loved Dani as she struggles with first love and all the later struggles of adulthood. I would read more from Lo Patrick.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Lo Patrick and Sourcebooks for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really loved this book.

Danielle is a young model who gets caught up in first love and all of the turmoils of being a teenager living a bit ahead of her years.

I don't want to spoil the novel but I absolutely loved it. I needed a few days to process it. Lo Patrick is a wonderful author - The Floating Girls was incredible, the second novel I liked but didn't love, and this novel is back to the heights of the first book.

I felt like Dani was a real person, and the writing style is so engaging.

Thank you Sourcebooks as always! What a wonderful book. 4/5.

Coming of age at its best! This one is slowwwww slowwww slowwwwwww plus a little more slow but in all the right ways. The language is descriptive, the daughters could be my kids and the small town….it could be mine.

Pick it up for the coming of age, not so much the mystery.

Danielle is a teenage model from Georgia and even though successful with her own apartment her family don`t think much of her.
Years later when she is married with two children she moves back into the family house and her two children find a dead body on the land.
I found the story very slow and went from present to past without any explanation so it did not flow well for me as I was confused.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.

Dani gave modeling her best shot, but finally she left the bright city lights and returned to her small hometown. Life is routine , but she is fine for now. But one day, her daughters find human remains buried on their land. The body is exhumed, and some long-kept secrets are unearthed, too.

I loved the Southern feel of this book, especially the descriptions of the setting. Danielle’s character is authentic and believable. This is a warm, inviting story with an engaging plot.

Danielle Greer is 17 and aching for a life beyond her small southern town. When a modeling scout approaches her at her local mall and promises her just that, she jumps on it, much to her parent’s dismay. Danielle then becomes “Dani” after moving to NYC to kick off her modeling career. This is when Dani’s relationship with her Mother starts to deteriorate. Dani becomes more and more full of herself and starts becoming reckless - especially when an interest sparks in a local troublemaker on one of her trips back home.

Told in dual timelines, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is mostly a coming of age novel, with touches of slow burn mystery and dramatic fiction. I didn’t dislike this book. I actually enjoyed reading about Dani’s life as a model in NYC, but I enjoyed reading about her sleepy southern town in Georgia most of all. I didn’t find Dani to be a very likable character, not at 17 or as an adult with a family of her own. Benji wasn’t a good choice as her boyfriend, but I found myself feeling bad for him at times.

I thought the ending of the book was good, but it was a tiny bit lackluster. Overall, I would say that if you enjoy coming of age stories, you will love this. If you’re looking for a true mystery book, I would skip this one.

Thank you Netgally and Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Everything about this book excited me when I read the blurb! It hwas book itself lived up to the hype. I loved the way this story was told and the way the mystery within it unraveled. It was a slow burn that was satisfying.

Another Great Southern Novel from Lo Patrick Having read and reviewed Lo Patrick's previous two books, I was honored to be invited to read her latest novel—and it did not disappoint.

Set in small-town Georgia, this coming-of-age story follows Danielle “Danny” Greer as she returns to her childhood home with her husband and four daughters. Surrounded by memories, Danny reflects on her past life as a model traveling through New York City and Europe. During one visit home, she meets Benji—a boy with a troubled family reputation and a brother in jail. Her mother strongly disapproves, but that only intensifies Danny's interest. What begins as a first love quickly becomes a one-sided obsession shaped by secrecy and defiance.

The novel takes a gripping turn when Danny’s daughters discover a skeleton in the ravine behind their house. Could it be someone from her past? Benji died in a motorcycle accident outside their home, and his body was recovered at the scene—or so everyone thought. Now, suspicion falls on everyone.

Told through alternating past and present timelines, the mystery unravels slowly but powerfully, culminating in a truly shocking ending. A haunting, atmospheric read that lingers long after the last page.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the title and gorgeous cover.

Danielle left her small town at 17 to chase modelling dreams in NYC. On a quick trip home, she met and fell for "bad boy" Benji Law. Dani becomes somewhat obsessed with Benji who is two years younger than her. Things suddenly end when Benji is killed in a motorcycle accident.

Now an adult, she is back home in Georgia with her husband and daughters. The plot picks up when her daughter find a body in the woods, Dani has an idea of who it may be but not how the body would have gotten there..

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is told in past and present timelines from Dani's perspective. Overall, it was just ok. I enjoyed the pacing and the way the story unfolded, the twist was nice and held my attention. I struggled to relate of even like Dani's character. I think if Dani's character was more likable it would have been a more pleasant read. The relationship between Dani and Benji also did not seem believable. It was a pretty quick read and I was able to finish it in a day.

Thank you to SourceBooks and NetGalley for allowing me to read early and for the gifted copy!