This is the kind of book I have a really hard time believing was someone's passion project. This book had zero substance. The relationship story was neither romantic enough to be classified as a romance, nor bad enough to qualify as a tale of abusive relationship. We learned basically nothing about Danielle's daughters and husband. We knew absolutely nothing about her life, from the end of 2004 to 2019. The final twist came from absolutely nowhere and the sudden focus on Danielle's mother-in-law's hatred of Danielle's mom, even less so.

What was going on here? This felt like AI, in the sense that I have a hard time believing an actual writer was behind this book. The plot felt like when you look at an AI-generated image of a human and when you first look at it, it looks normal, but the closer you look, the more you realize the human has 16 fingers, their skin is too polished and their legs disappear into odd shapes.

Dual timelines, multiple points of view and a lot of surprises. This is a really great listen. The author did a great job on this book. The end left me surprised. I was not expecting that. Interesting characters. Multiple locations. Complicated lives and families. Great job by the author and well read by the narrator.

So thankful for the opportunity for the ARC from Netgalley.

I’m glad I pushed through this one, but it was a slow burn-and not in the gripping, edge of your seat kind of way. It leaned more mystery than thriller, which is fine, but the pacing dragged for me. The frequent flashbacks to Danielle’s childhood felt excessive, and honestly, kind of boring. I get the need for some backstory between her and Benji and lulu, but flipping back every other chapter pulled me out of the present-day plot.

Things finally picked up for me at the 80% mark when the mystery around the body in the woods started coming together. I didn’t see the twist coming, which I appreciated-but even with the reveal, the ending still felt flat. There was no big “WOW” moment or emotional payoff.

This one had potential, but it didn’t fully land for me.

I really wanted to like this book because the premise was extremely interesting, but the story jumping around between past and present was extremely confusing and just…. Not a cohesive story??

What an excellent title for this book! It’s a blend of coming-of-age, mystery, and obsession. I love stories about coming back home, even if there are secrets buried beneath the surface.

The premise here is intriguing. Told through past and present timelines, the narrative immediately grips you with the discovery of human remains in the present timeline by Danielle’s young daughters. We are then taken back in time to unravel the secrets Danielle is keeping. This structure of the story, with its timelines, is a key element that keeps you engaged; however, I wish we had spent more time in the present.

The more time we spent with Danielle in her youth, as a model living in New York, I began to realize I needed more depth from her, as well as other key characters surrounding her. We especially don’t get much of Danielle as an adult, now a wife and mother. As a character-driven reader, I believe this was what held me back from truly enjoying this read.

This is mainly set in Georgia, and I'm a fan of Southern fiction. The author did a great job of creating that feel and atmosphere that is so characteristic of Southern fiction. I want to try another book by this author sometime.

🎧 I always appreciate having the audiobook to pair with my reading, and while this was not a bad production, I do wonder if reading the entire book with my eyes would have been a different experience.

3.5🌟
Thank you @bookmarked for the #gifted book.
Thank you @tantoraudio for the gifted audiobook via #NetGalley narrated by Eliza Summers.

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.

This book sent me straight back to when I was 17, trying to learn the world and refusing to let my first love fizzle, luckily my history didn't involve any dead bodies! It's a coming of age story mixed in with a mystery. It felt very relatable and engaging. With the world building, I could picture it all in my head crystal clear.

A book solely written for vibes, nothing bad happens—but nothing good also happens. To me this book felt like a character study. Where the narrator was explaining a bunch of happenings.

Great premise for a book, but there were too many characters that were not adequately fleshed out and I felt like the storyline dragged. Some editing might have helped.

I really liked the narrator. The story just felt very boring to me. It didn’t draw me in. And I found myself rewinding the audio book. It was a decent story overall!! Just maybe not the intended audience

I received the audiobook of Fast Boys and Pretty Girls from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The narrator did a great job bringing the story to life, engaging and easy to listen to throughout. While I found the main character insufferable at times, I still found myself rooting for her, which says a lot about the writing. That said, the story felt like it ended quite abruptly, leaving me wanting just a bit more closure. A mixed experience overall, but still an intriguing listen.

Danielle Greer starts the book in North Georgia with a four-pack of daughters, a husband who basically exists offstage like he’s waiting to be called in from the wings, and the kind of haunted past that makes your childhood home feel like it’s whispering “bad decisions” through the floorboards. So when her kids stumble across a whole dead body in the ravine behind the house, it’s not just a murder mystery. It’s a full-throttle faceplant into the swampland of her teenage trauma.

Now let’s be honest. This book is called “Fast Boys and Pretty Girls” and that’s EXACTLY the energy we’re working with... teen modeling, questionable romances, emotionally stunted adults pretending to be grown, and the Southern-fried melancholy of never really escaping your hometown. The setting? Perfection. It’s humid. It’s tense. It smells like secrets and hot asphalt. I grew up in North Georgia too and yeah, Lo Patrick absolutely nailed the vibe where everyone knows your business and your bad decisions are just family lore now. It's less a small town, more a time loop in denim.

But sweet Lord, I have to ask… why was Danielle so into Benji Law? Like, deeply, devastatingly, “I will ruin my life for this man” into him. He’s got all the red flags of a boy your mom would say “bless his heart” about and then immediately forbid you to be alone with. He is Peak Tragic Southern Dirtbag. And yet, teenage Danielle treats him like he’s the last cigarette in the apocalypse. It’s not even hot. It’s just bad. Not “bad boy” bad. I mean objectively bad choice bad.

Danielle herself is… a lot. Both as a teen and an adult, she’s prickly, selfish, and kind of a mess, which I honestly respect in theory. Give me a complicated woman with too much eyeliner and an avoidant attachment style. But the problem is, she doesn't really change. Past Danielle is obnoxious. Present Danielle is just bored and tired and still making it about herself. I was rooting for her to have a moment of clarity, or like, any noticeable growth arc, but alas… nope. Still stuck on Benji like he was the plot of her life, not just a speed bump.

The dual timeline thing almost works. The teen sections feel more alive, more dramatic, more messy (which, okay, that’s probably the point), but the adult sections are just kind of... there. We open with the Big Dead Body Discovery and then promptly slam the brakes and vibe in the past for 90 percent of the book. I kept yelling “HELLO?? There’s a skeleton in the yard??” but Danielle is too busy re-living her 17-year-old downward spiral to focus on the present.

And listen, I didn’t come here expecting a twisty thriller. This leans way more literary mystery than beach read crime novel. That’s fine. It’s moody. It’s reflective. It’s kinda sad and nostalgic and smells like Aqua Net and unresolved guilt. But at a certain point I needed something to happen. I can only hear about Danielle’s crumbling modeling dreams and morally gray teenage choices so many times before I start rooting for the corpse in the ravine.

The saving grace? The atmosphere. I mean it. The setting is so good it’s practically a character. That weird, sticky North Georgia limbo where everything is either decaying, haunted, or both. I felt that. You can taste the humidity. You can hear the cicadas. You can smell the bad decisions baking in the sun and fully understand why our girl is camped in front of a cranked up air conditioner.

So yeah, it dragged in places. And Danielle’s obsession with Benji made me want to stage an intervention via time travel. But I kept listening, and I did care, even if I wanted to throttle half the cast. Plus, Eliza Summers absolutely ate the narration. If nothing else, it’s worth the listen just to hear her bring this sleepy, broken woman to life.

Final verdict? Three stars. A little too slow, a little too moody, but still got under my skin in a “haunted hometown heatwave” kind of way.

Whodunity Award: For Making Me Suspect Hormones Were the Real Killer All Along

Big thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced audiobook of “Fast Boys and Pretty Girls.” I listened, I cringed, I yelled “girl no” into the void. Honestly, I haven’t side-eyed a teenage crush this hard since “Twilight” tried to convince us imprinting was romantic.

I was initially drawn to this book because of its intriguing synopsis, but overall, it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. While it’s listed as a thriller/mystery, I’d say it’s far more on the mystery side—definitely no real thriller elements, in my opinion.

The story shifts between past and present, which gives it a YA feel, but what really held me back from loving it was the main character, Danielle. She was just… insufferable. Her personality made it hard for me to stay fully invested, and I think her presence really impacted how I experienced the story.

As for the mystery? It was okay—not jaw-dropping or super twisty. The plot drops enough hints that by the time the ending arrives, it’s easy to guess where it’s headed. That said, I must have enjoyed it enough because I finished it in just two days, so the pacing and premise kept me going.

Overall, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls was an okay read. Not mind-blowing, but decent if you’re looking for a quick mystery that leans more character-driven than plot-twisty.

First time reading this author. Booki 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.

This is one I desperately wanted to love but definitely didn’t. The narrator was wonderful, however I was bored 99% of the book and the only time I was entertained, it was by Danielle’s southern mama’s shenanigans. Ultimately a DNF, for me.

First off, the narrator did a fabulous job.

The story did not keep my attention. I did listen to its entirety, but was not entertained. I think the story lacked substance. The main character, Danielle, was not a good character.

3 stars

Many thanks to Net Galley and Tantor Audio for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Tantor Audio for the ALC, all reviews are left honestly and voluntarily.

First, the narrator of this book did a good job! She has a pleasing voice and it kept a nice pace throughout the story. It didn't feel like this book was super dialogue heavy, I had no issue discerning people talking or the time lapse.

For the actual book itself, I was bored. Danielle is not a likeable character, whether it's teenage Dani or adult, mother Danielle. There wasn't much growth or change between the two, and it was left with a main character who felt whiny, selfish and lazy. I was hoping for more action in the plot, but it was pretty much a consistent "does Benji love me?" for 80% of the book.

The synopsis had me requesting this novel. This book is told in different timelines but not with good transitions in audio at least at the beginning . I was a bit confused to start. The story starts with Danielle Greer`s four daughters finding a body. Then it takes you to the past of her modeling days and there will be another dead body. Sadly I was just not interested in Danielle and her story. The book was slow despite being less than 8 hours. Sadly this was not for me but it might be for you.

I was drawn to this story between the lovely cover and the synopsis. But unfortunately, it feel short of expectations. Giving it a 3. A 2 or maybe 2.5 for the story itself but since I was given the audiobook to specifically review, and that was high quality, I’m averaging to a 3.

The story follows the life of Danielle across two times, present day, when her daughters found the a dead body and years before, when Danielle was a teenager. The majority of the story is in the past, following an intentionally unlikable Danielle as she tries becomes a model. The writing is descriptive and detailed, drawing out the plot and instead, focusing on Danielle and her actions.

I had a few key issues with the story. I didn’t like Danielle and she didn’t have any real growth over the story, thus making it hard for me to be invested in the story. Additionally, the plot was very slow moving, making it hard for me to care about the mystery element of the story.

Thank you to Lo Patrick, Tanor Audio, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt a bit unbalanced and drawn out for me. I had a hard time seeing the point.

Following a semi-successful career as a teen model in New York City, Danielle Greer has moved back to the mountains of North Georgia and is living in her childhood home with her husband and four daughters. One stifling, lazy afternoon, the girls are exploring the ravine behind the house when they come across a body.

Danielle knows the body doesn't belong to Benji Law, a younger local misfit who Danielle had an illicit relationship with as a teenager. No, his body was found right away, after he was killed in a motorcycle accident on the road in front of her family's house. Danielle has a good idea who the body might be, but she doesn't know how it got there.

When local police officer Cady Benson is called in to investigate, Danielle's world is turned upside down, and she's thrust back into those dark, confusing days leading up to Benji's death, battling the things she remembers with the things she can't forget.