Great story. Kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Lo Patrick is a great writer. Highly recommend this book and all of the authors other books.

I read and enjoyed the author's previous books, but Fast Boys and Pretty Girls never grabbed my attention. A very slow burner and repetitious, things didn't get interesting until about the 80% point and by then it was too little too late. I didn't care about or connect with any of the characters and was glad to finish. Very disappointing.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for permitting me to access a DRC of the book via NetGalley. Publication is 7/8/25. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

2.5 Stars

I loved the books The Floating Girls and The Night the River Wept by this author. In this story, Danielle (Dani) returns to Georgia after living in New York City and working as a model. She’s even living in the house she grew up in, with her husband and four daughters in tow. One afternoon, her kids are playing at the back of the house, and they find a dead body. I should have loved everything about this slow-burning, southern, coming-of-age tale, but I didn’t.

This book has an awesome setting and an excellent premise, but for some reason, it didn’t click with me like her two previous books have. I think the pace was just too slow for my liking. I didn’t like Dani very much either; I felt no sympathy for her. Even though the writing is great, it often feels like a young adult book. I think more of a backstory was needed, and the development of the characters wasn’t there. I loved the past-and-present format, but it missed the emotional punch I got with the other two books. I also found the mystery a tad predictable. Would I read this author again? Absolutely, but this one missed the mark for me personally.

This is a slow-burn Southern mystery about first love, buried secrets, and the kind of guilt that doesn’t stay buried. Atmospheric, messy, and quietly devastating.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick really wanted to be something special and it failed to do so for me. Perhaps this is a young-adult novel and I am far from a young adult. The characters were self-centered and her children seemed to be afterthoughts. Sure there was a missing person mystery, but this was a going nowhere story and I....needed somewhere to go.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

A very well written slow burn story. Even though this was a slow burn, I felt totally engaged and couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Dani (Danielle) is a semi successful model from North Georgia. Told in as dual timeline (2004 vs 2019). The story unfolds as Dani is starting out as a new model in New York, her mother is supportive but very "all about me".  On one of Dani's return trip home, she falls head over heels,  madly in love with Benji,  a boy her mother does not approve. In 2019 Dani's girls are out playing in behind their home when they discover skeletal remains. Dani is a flawed, very human strong female lead. This was a very enjoyable read, I really enjoy stories that are set in the south.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

3.5 stars rounded up

I was interested in reading Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick because I enjoyed her last novel, and the premise of this one sounded similar. It is partly a coming of age story, a little bit mystery, and kind of a love story (if a one-sided obsession with a bad boy teenager can be considered a love story). After a somewhat slow start, and after I got used to the back and forth of the dual timelines, I liked this new one quite a bit, though I was a little distracted by dislike of the main character and found her amazingly immature and self-centered.

The mystery part was the strength of the novel, even though it was fairly obvious what had happened once the body was identified. The moral dilemma at the end of the book was realistic and somewhat relatable as a parent. Lo Patrick's writing is what keeps me reading her novels, I enjoy the way she describes life in the South, and in this case the 'relationship' between Dani and Benji highlighted the small town gossip and biases that are so prevalent.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the digital ARC of Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick. The opinions in this review are my own.

The title says it all. Dani has come home again with her daughters and her husband but her past looms up to haunt her. This is a coming of age story tied in to a mystery. She was a teen model who at 17 fell hard for Benji, a 15 year old proverbial bad boy. That relationship was not meant to be because Benji was killed in a motorcycle accident. But now bones have been found (by Dani's daughters no less) and she's to both give and get answers. She's not the most sympathetic character (I did really feel for her kids) but the story is good. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. YA but can also keep older readers engaged.

3.5 stars.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick is a dual time period novel.

In 2002, Danielle Greer is a teenager when she is discovered by a modeling scout in her small hometown in Georgia. In the modeling world, she is known as Dani as they play up her country roots. Although she works hard, Dani’s predicted meteoric rise never really gets off the ground. She works hard but she only achieves a modicum of success.

Back home during a visit, Dani falls hard for local bad boy Benji Law. Although he is mostly indifferent when they are not together, Dani is completely obsessed with Benji. While her family tends to ignore her, they repeatedly warn her away from him and delight in sharing local gossip about Benji with her.

In 2019, Danielle, her husband and four daughters now live her old family home. The past catches up with the Greer family when Danielle’s daughters discover skeletal remains on the property. Local detective Cady Benson is determined to uncover the truth about the events that occurred so long ago.

None of the characters in Fast Boys and Pretty Girls are likable except for Danielle’s dad and Cady. Danielle alienates a lot of people, including her family, with her attitude and behavior. Her family is unpleasant and the way they treat each other is appalling. The mystery surrounding the remains is intriguing and plays out in between flashbacks to the past. Lo Patrick brings the novel to an abrupt conclusion that does leave any loose ends

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is one of those books that had such a strong setup, it’s moody, Southern, mysterious, and full of emotional undercurrents. It follows Danielle, a former teen model who’s now back in her childhood home in rural Georgia with her husband and daughters. One summer afternoon, the girls find something behind the house, and that discovery cracks open old memories Danielle has tried to forget.

There’s a lot of emotion packed into this story: grief, guilt, the intensity of first love, and how the past can shape (and haunt) who we become. The writing is lyrical and atmospheric, which I appreciated, and the mystery had me intrigued from the start.

That said, I didn’t really connect with Danielle as a character, which made it hard for me to feel fully invested. Her choices and emotional distance kept me at arm’s length, and the pacing was pretty slow in places. I was hoping for a twist that would shake me but it didn’t quite get there for me.

Still, I think readers who love slow, character-driven mysteries with a strong Southern vibe might enjoy this one more than I did.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC!

A Haunting Return to the Heart of Georgia

“One year lasts a lifetime when it’s the year that changes everything” shares former teen model Danielle “Dani” Greer in Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick, available July 8. As Dani, she saw New York City, Miami, and Paris, but after a short modeling career, Danielle moves back to Pressville, a small town modeled after Ellijay, Georgia, in a story that burns slowly and leaves deep scars.

Now married with four daughters all living in her childhood home, Danielle wakes from a nap to the excitement of the girls’ discovery of a body in the wooded ravine behind their house. While the majority of the book flashes back to Dani’s modeling years when she found herself enamored with a Georgia underage misfit, the current timeline revolves around the mystery surrounding the bones found on Danielle’s property.

As Danielle reveals that her boyfriend died in a motorcycle wreck on the curve of the road in front of her house more than a dozen years ago, she suspects that she knows the identity of the body in the woods although she has no idea how it could have ended up there. The past refuses to stay buried.

The investigation of the found remains by Cady Benson, a woman whose trajectory has been similar to Danielle’s with a brief career in New York and now settled as a police officer in Pressville, has triggered Danielle’s mental visit back to the confusing time in her life when she was a 17-year-old on her own in the Big Apple trying to carve out a modeling career.

Once again Danielle enters a puzzling phase in her life causing her to ask, could it be who I think it is buried in the woods? How much if anything do I know about the quickly identified body?

A satisfying exploration of love, loss, and the weight of secrets in small-town America, a surprising twist will devastate Danielle’s family.

Georgia native Lo Patrick is proving to be a compelling voice in Southern mystery fiction. A lawyer-turned-writer, she lives in the Atlanta suburbs with her family. Her debut novel, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly in 2022, and she followed it with The Night the River Wept, another gripping Southern-crime tale.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting June 25, 2025.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark, an imprint of Sourcebooks, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick is a very highly recommended literary Southern mystery and coming-of-age story told in a dual timeline. I have read and loved every novel Lo Patrick has written.

Danielle (Dani) Greer moved back to North Georgia after a brief career as a teen model in NYC. Now she is a married mother of four daughters living in her childhood home. One afternoon her girls coming running back into the house saying they found bones in the ravine behind the house. Danielle knows who it couldn't be, but may know who it was. She calls local police officer Cady Benson.

Years ago when insecure teenage Dani, 17, came home from NYC for a visit she fell in love with motorcycle riding bad boy Benji Law, 15, and quickly became obsessed with him. Her modeling career may not be taking off as fast as promised, but her fixation on Benji is overwhelming, although seemingly not reciprocated in kind. He was killed in a motorcycle accident on the road in front of her family's house so she knows the body in the ravine isn't his and still recalls the events leading up to his death.

The extremely well-written literary novel held my complete attention throughout. The narrative unfolds through chapters following events in dual timelines set in 2004 and 2019. Danielle is the narrator and the novel follows her point-of-view. Even though it is a slow-burning novel, it is full of psychological insight, complex family dynamics, and tackles the emotional intensity of a first love. We have both a mystery and coming-of-age story, that follows the folly of a youthful and the realities of adulthood.

Danielle is portrayed as a fully realized individual, with strengths and flaws, especially since we meet her as a teen and later as an adult (who is likely suffering from depression). Her character development is carefully crafted and Patrick manages to capture the heartbreak, confusion, and resignation she experiences in pitch-perfect prose that is both insightful and poignant.

When the realization of what happened becomes clear toward the end with clues provided in the plot, it is both surprising and shocking, yet somehow understandable. I may be an outlier in my love and appreciation of Fast Boys and Pretty Girls, but I was completely immersed in the novel from start to finish.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is a perfect choice for those who enjoy literary novels, Southern fiction, mysteries, and coming-of-age stories. Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

“Fast Boys and Pretty Girls” is by Lo Patrick. I so wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. The premise sounded interesting, but there was just something about this book that didn’t work for me. The pacing was slow, the dual timelines okay, but at the heart of it, I just couldn’t really care about Danielle, the main character. This book being a slow-burn one didn’t help with the pacing, at least for me. I will note, however, that Ms. Patrick did a great job with “rebellious, don’t give a darn, everyone’s jealous of me” teenage Dani. Have to admit, the romance between Dani and Benji - didn’t really feel it. I think if you've read other books by Ms. Patrick and have enjoyed them, this book might be another one to add to your collection.

Dani is home. she did the big city after leaving her small town to begin her modelling career. shes now back and living in the home she grew up in with her husband and daughters. when one day her daughters stumble across a body whilst playing all the darkness starts to begin again for Dani as her own secrets threatened to become uncovered. it all links to her younger years when she fell for the local "bad boy" much to the disdain of her family. and then came a tragic accident which changed everything once again.
we are given this story in a dual timeline so we got to know her now but also then the reveal of what happened in her past. it was a really good way of storytelling and worked well for the tension building and character building in this book. Lo did a great job of being able to write both those teenage years and 'those' feelings and behaviour some have and also the woman Dani is now. it drew a greater picture for us readers too, we got to know Dani and you are then so much more immersed into her story.
its definite in its YA genre and fits itself in there really well. it doesn't ever take it too far but neither is it immature in themes or writing.
a real solid read for me and i was captured by the story all the way through.

I found the modeling world interesting and the present time line but the past chapters were difficult to read as Dani was so immature, naive, and stubborn!

This book was an interesting read.. I hated the MFC. Danielle was immature, ok I expect it at 17,18,19... however the fact that she was STILL immature at 30-something with daughters was a big turn off. So then at the end, I didn't really care about her. The writing was really interesting even if I hated the main pov.

3.5

I found this one to be really interesting but was more of a "light mystery" than a thriller. The actual story is more focused on Dani's past and is a coming of age compared to a thriller marketed as. I did really enjoy the story overall.

A high schooler is approached at a mall and asked to be a model. She moves to New York and becomes one against her mom's wishes. Coming home to visit, she hooks up with the local bad boy and they become a couple. He moves to New York with her, and she quickly discovers her lifestyle is not all it's cracked up to be. I give this a 3 for being so predictable. There was no surprise ending with this one.

This book had me intrigued but I had a lot of trouble connecting with Danielle. I liked the writing and the overall story but I really struggled to connect with the characters and they didn’t feel authentic in some scenes and which let it down.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I went in blind and can say that I enjoyed certain parts of the book, but other parts fell flat for me.

The book is written as a dual-timeline, which I found kept me hooked. Lo Patrick did a great job capturing the teenage rebellion streak. I will say it was a slow burn and certain aspects of the story felt forced - like the relationship between Benji and Dani. While I didn’t like Dani as a character, I found myself invested in the story.