This is the first book I have read by this author and I enjoyed it. It was fast-paced and had great character development. I will be reading more of this author.

I had high hopes for this book: the blurb hinted at a slow-burn mystery, a return-home story filled with buried secrets and emotional complexity. And to some extent, it delivered — but it just didn’t work for me.
The writing is often lyrical, and I liked the structure that moves between past and present. It builds tension well. Still, I never quite connected with the main character. Danielle felt distant and passive, and many of her decisions — especially her fixation on Benji — lacked the depth or clarity to make them feel believable.
The central mystery, while intriguing, unfolds at a frustratingly slow pace and never feels like the true heart of the story. I found myself turning pages just to get to the end, but without much emotional investment.
It’s a shame, because the Southern atmosphere and the author’s style show real promise. I might give one of her other books a try someday — but this one wasn’t for me.

I felt like the characters were cardboard concepts more than characters, which meant nothing really connected as it should.

A story of mistakes and growing up to fast. Small towns and big cities, the wrong people with bad mistakes. Good people who make split second decisions that not only ruin their lives but others and the lives of the ones they love the most. I give this book a 3 star rating, an easy fast paced read that really makes you think about the decisions you make in everyday life and the consequences they have on your future.

ARC review; this book was just okay for me, with somethings I enjoyed and others I did not.

To start, I thought the prose was quite beautiful, there were lots of quotes worthy of being underlined. I enjoyed the flip from past to present as we come to understand what brought Danielle to this point in her life. I enjoyed the underlying mystery and the descriptions of the cities Danielle used to live in as well as the country home she comes back to. The settings felt very well done and I could picture her apartment and parent’s house vividly. Her time as a model felt well executed and believable as well, her frustration and failure to thrive in that particular industry.

However some things did fall flat. I found the dialogue particularly hard to follow, especially when multiple people were talking. I thought the mystery could have been written with more depth. The ending with the reveal felt very rushed in my opinion. And I wished we got a bit more from Danielle’s relationship with Benji. Although he was supposed to be her big first love there was no chemistry between them and I couldn’t get a handle on Benji’s character. If I’m being honest, none of the characters in this felt likeable or even that fleshed out.
I think the entire story could’ve benefited from a bit more depth and detail. I felt a bit like I was skimming the surface of something without ever becoming fully immersed.
Overall this was a quick, easy read but I don’t feel compelled to read any more of this authors work.

The writing style was an easy read, told from two time periods of Danielle Greer’s life. Her life as a 17 year old that goes to NY to be a model, and her adult life with four young daughters living in her family home where remains of a girl have been found on the property.

I requested this book on NetGalley by the beautiful cover and the name of the book alone. Slow to unfold - but not in a negative way.- we follow southern girl Danielle on her journey from being discovered by a talent agent at a mall to moving to NY on her own at 17 to model. On a visit home she meets up with 15 year old bad boy Benji and a one sided relationship begins. At times I would forget Benji was so young when he was acting like, well a typical 15 year old boy would. I felt badly for Dani, it was a very one sided relationship and she did not want to let go. Pulled me back in time when I was 17, chasing after my own fast boy, which went as good as it did with poor Dani and Benji. This isn’t a “love story” - more a coming of age tale with some suspense peppered in with who the body found is.

I received a copy from Net Galley for an honest opinion.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

The synopsis immediately pulled me in, and the first couple of chapters did a great job of keeping me hooked. Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is written in a dual-timeline format: one follows 'Dani' as a teenager, her brief modeling career and her reckless romance with local bad boy Benjamin 'Benji' Law. The other follows an older Danielle, now a mother of four, whose life is thrown into chaos when her daughters discover a body near their home.

Lo Patrick's writing captures the teenage mindset pretty good—the rebellious streak, the "everyone is jealous of me" attitude, and that desperate longing to be seen as independent. It makes Dani seem real, and even if she’s not always likable as a character, you feel for her.

The YA angle makes this an easy read, but the mystery-thriller elements elevate it beyond just a coming-of-age story. I wasn’t shocked by the big plot twist, I had it figured out halfway, but the way it was executed still made for a compelling read.

A single complaint: I never fully bought into Dani & Benji’s romance, maybe because of the age issue, or because it never truly felt like love. It's more like Dani clinging to the idea of being in love, or using it to rebel against her mother. I wasn't invested in their relationship at all.

Overall, the book starts strong, gets even better in the latter half, and delivers a solid mix of YA drama and mystery.

This was such an original book, written with a lot of heart. It was suspenseful, and it was also so much more than that. It was dark and moving and beautiful. There were so many things that kept me turning the pages: the characters, their worlds colliding, this feeling of impending doom. This is a wonderful novel.

Seventeen-year-old Danielle drops out of high schools and heads to New York City become Dani, a successful model. Although Dani is enjoying the money and lifestyle, her heart is still back in Pressville, Georgia where Benji, a sixteen-year-old with a juvenile record, rides his motorcycle throughout the small town. Fourteen years later, bones are found on Danielle's family property by her own daughters. In then and now chapters, readers are thrown into a plot that raises many questions about maternal love and motivation. Highly recommended for discussion groups; questions are included with the novel.

After taking a shot at modeling in the big city, Dani finds herself back in her small hometown. She’s living in the house she grew up in with her husband and young daughters. 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. I enjoyed this book a lot and struggled between giving it four or five stars. The storytelling is a bit drawn out at times but the authors creates an air of suspense that lets you know that something bigger is coming.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. It was really good. I actually picked this book because of the title. I went in blind and I'm glad I did, it was very good.

The blurb caught my eye but the book couldn’t hold my attention.

The writing style was an easy read, told from two time periods of Danielle Greer’s life. Her life as a 17 year old that goes to NY to be a model, and her adult life with four young daughters living in her family home where remains of a girl have been found on the property.

I didn’t understand her obsessive relationship with the home town boy other than where it leads in the end. And I found her character odd as an adult. It is like the emotional story didn’t match with the rest of the book. Some of the characters just plain lacked emotions, or were unfeeling towards others entirely.

The remains and the accident was a decent twist but again the discovery and investigation could have been portrayed with more reactions and emotional depth to match to scenes.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls - Review

3 Stars

A a perfectly fast paced and surreal book.

Reading this book - I felt like nothing exists and nothing matters. Time has stopped and it’s just me, in this moment. It was such a bizarre and wholly surreal reading experience and I mean this in the best way possible. I found something so oddly comforting about this book, whether it be the comfort of the south (I personally have family there), or just the way it was written - whatever it was, it pulled me in and I wasn’t able to put the book down.

I really enjoyed the writing style and the literary chaos that was the plot line sprinkled through. The nuances and juxtaposition between Danielle and her “rough around the edges, tell you how it is” parents. Absolutely comical showing her modelling career and how receptive (in part or lack thereof) her parents and home town was of the career choice.

I found the dynamic between Danielle and her family a bit odd and I would have liked to see more of a relationship explored between her and her sister. The ending felt a bit incomplete for me regarding her mother. I did feel like the story was sort of.. stuck at one point towards the end and I was intrigued how it would all wrap up.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this book as it was definitely fast paced and an easy read. Absolutely will be recommending to friends.

Thankyou to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Told over dual timelines, 'Fast Boys and Pretty Girls' focuses on Dani, in one life an aspiring model moving from her small town to New York, another as a mother of four back in her childhood home. When one of her daughters discovers a body in the woods behind the house, she is forced to relive the tragic accident of her past.

Throughout this book I often found myself disliking the main character of Dani but this didn't make it an unenjoyable read for me. She is obsessive, often unkind and primarily focused only on herself. I think it makes an interesting read when you don't particularly like or agree with the choices and opinions of the main character.

The relationship aspect of this book was also a little odd to me. I did find it hard to understand why Dani was putting herself through that constantly and basically destroying her career for a boy that was obviously not interested lol.

A really enjoyed this story and felt it read really well. The plot was interesting and kept me hooked throughout. I'd suggest reading it blind and you'll really enjoy x

I wanted to like it but this wasn't like I though it would be.

Not captivating enough to keep my attention.

I found this book disappointing due to its lack of character development. It was well written, I liked the author’s prose. But most of the characters remained stagnant, showing little to no personal or professional growth throughout the story. The protagonist, supposedly a model student from New York, falls deeply for a high school dropout who clearly isn’t serious about her, which felt unrealistic and frustrating. Their relationship lacked depth, making it difficult to root for them. The novel had potential, but the underdeveloped characters and implausible romance made it an unsatisfying read for me.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book!

I wanted to like it, I thought the summary sounded interesting, but this book fell short for me. It was a lot of obsessing about a bad boy and making terrible decisions. I found Danielle lazy and annoying and a very distant and difficult character.

It wasn’t terribly written, but it was a book that I struggled to finish as it was boring and inconclusive.