This is rich people's problems at it's finest. Although, I do not think this was very 'Saltburn', because the Sterlings did not give any sort of chill vibe in the slightest... but definitely nailed the Succession vibes because, my goodness, these people are brutal and awful.
I felt like the pacing of this book was very inconsistent. The first 60-80% of the book was kind of slugging along, and then everything happened all at once towards the end.
The 'locked room' setting feels to be more prominent in the rich people's problems sub-genre, and while it's definitely fitting, it does feel a bit overdone.
I wish I had connected with the characters, even Maya, but I just didn't feel that with them. Which is definitely a me problem. But I know so many people who love these types of books will devour this one!
The narrator for this one did excellent. She definitely nailed that haughty tone!

A Girl Like Us is a twisty tale of a wealthy British family in lockdown at their estate Silver House. This book has a bit everything - emense wealth, secrets, lies, and family members who will stop at nothing to get what they feel is owed to them. Add in an ex-reality show party girl from America who married into the family and is accused of being a gold digger. The reveals totally surprised and delighted me. I was hooked from the very beginning until the last sentence.

The story is told be duel POV. I was surprised to learn this was Anna Sophia McLoughlin’s debut novel. Well done! I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Allyson Morgan did an excellent job with the narration.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for letting me read this ARC.

⭐️⭐️ 2/5 Stars (Meh)
Setting: Silver House, the ancestral home of the Sterling family located in the English countryside
Genre: Psychological Thriller

I wanted to love A Girl Like Us. A locked-room thriller set against the backdrop of obscene wealth and family secrets? It had all the makings of a gripping, high-stakes read. Unfortunately, what started as an intriguing premise quickly became a repetitive, drawn-out story that failed to deliver the tension and pacing I was hoping for.

The Sterling family’s world is undeniably fascinating, and Maya’s fish-out-of-water perspective had potential, but the narrative gets bogged down in endless internal monologues and recycled conflicts. Instead of a tightly wound thriller, the story meanders, making the twists feel more like obligations than genuine surprises. By the time the big revelations arrived, I found myself more exhausted than exhilarated.

That said, there are some strengths—the setting is vividly atmospheric, and the themes of power and control are compelling. But ultimately, the sluggish pacing and repetitive storytelling made this more of a chore than a page-turner. If you love slow-burn mysteries and don’t mind a bit of redundancy, this might work for you. But for me, it just didn’t live up to its promise. #netgalley #agirllikeus #booked_this_weekend

3.5 rounded up.

I wanted more from an alleged Succession x Saltburn (both of those were sooo up my alley), but this did deliver the rich people behaving badly trope that's so addictive. The story is solidly between a 3 and a 4, but I listened to it as an audiobook and the quality of the read made me round up to 4. I highly recommend the audio format for this!

Premise - A reality star, Maya Miller, marries a media heir, Colin Sterling, and then there's a murder in the family. Everyone goes into lockdown in a fancy estate in the English countryside, but 'safety measure' soon turns sinister as Maya begins to suspect that the murderer is amongst them...

Read this for:

* rich people behaving badly
* classy vs. trashy class tension
* everyone's a little bad
* conniving family
* crazy people you root for anyway
* antiheroine
* claustrophobia locked-away-from-the-world-with-a-murderer

There's a lot of good material year! It came together pretty cohesively and was a fun ride the whole way through. While some of the characters didn't feel fully realized and the pacing towards the end was a little off for me, Maya won me over from the start. She felt the most real of anyone (possibly with the exception of Arianna). Colin was a cardboard cutout, so I felt 0% bad for him even when I knew some empathy should be kicking in.

As aforementioned, I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Allyson Morgan. Morgan did a great job with the read and all of the characters! Her 'crazy' character was hilarious, quirky and charming.

Thanks, NetGalley and RBMedia, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.