First off thank you, Random House Publishing: Ballantine and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC. The following review is merely my opinion. I will start off with my dislikes, shift to my likes, and my personal thoughts.

What is this book about?
It shifts back and forth between Emma (the then) and Jane (the now). Emma wanted to move to place due to a break-in. She wanted to feel safer in a place. That would be ten years prior to Jane renting the same place. Jane suffered a personal tragedy and lost a baby due to its stillbirth. So, these girls chose to rent out an unusual "minimalist" and modern-day home off One Folgate Street. They had to fill out an unusual application, in order to rent the place. I won't say anymore, you have to figure it out for yourselves.

What didn't I like about this novel?
1. The chapter titles. I wished the author was a little more creative. The "then" and "now" titles for chapters, may confuse readers if they decide to put the book down or if they lose their place. It can be a problem.

2. The masculine character is the one, I disliked.

3. It does switch between past and present tense. That may pose as a problem for some readers.

4. The sentences seemed crammed together. That also may pose as a problem for some readers. At least on the e-book copy of this book.

What did I like about this novel?

1. I enjoyed the twist at the end.
2. Jane was the save for this book.
3. The plot was enjoyable.
4. The pacing was appropriate.
5. And it made you question your landlords, if you rent.
6. The short chapters makes an easier read.

What are my personal thoughts?

The author makes us want to list what is important in your life. What can't you live without? I also enjoyed this quote, "And that's all anyone's looking for really, isn't it? Someone to take care of the mess inside our heads?" Maybe we need to take care of that mess ourselves. It makes you really think. There is a reason for why this book was titled "The Girl Before." You think it's going one way, but it goes a different route. One that you wouldn't expect. Overall, I did enjoy this novel and I hope you will, too. Even though, I ranked it 3/5 stars. The plot and the characters may sustain a new reader.

I really enjoyed this thriller. The architecture element is fresh and I liked the back and forth timeline format between the two woman. It felt like Girl On a Train meets You by Caroline Kepnes. I wouldn't compare it to Gillian Flynn but I didn't see most of the ending twists coming and I enjoyed the read.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.  I really enjoyed it!  Let's start with the summary.
           Please make a list of every item essential to you.
              Two women at different times are looking at one house- it's perfect.  Safe, secure, demanding of a fresh start.  This isn't your normal renter's agreement though.  Due to it's minimalist nature and the acclaim of the architect not only are there tours at times, but very strict rules for what can and cannot be done to or go into the house.  This is a home that is meant to shape and change you-and it does.
           To get the lease, each woman must meet the architect and get approved.  Now, this takes place in two different times- Emma's and then Jane's.  (Jane comes in several months after Emma's passing).  Each woman falls for Edward, each one has a relationship with him.  This is a story underlined with deceit, madness and intrigue. 
            I really loved this book.  I loved how each woman adapted both to the techno-savvy minimalist home and to Edward.  These are two very different women, both recovering from a different traumatic experience.  I enjoyed seeing how they reacted to events.  The book had a suspenseful, creepy feel that I liked.  Best of all, it kept me guessing through the book.  This is always a sign of a good book for me.
          Now, I did have issue with Edward's character.  He was extremely controlling and most of the time very hard to like, which made it hard for me to see why our women fell for him; especially as one was in a relationship when they met.  Still, for all this it was a five star book for me. 
          On the adult content scale, this is really high.  There is very explicit sexual content, language, violence, and substance abuse.  I give it a nine- not for young teens.

The mystery aspect of this novel was well-done. I was hooked from the start. The only reason why this wasn't five stars is because there were aspects of the book that were reminded me of 50 Shades of Gray which is not a compliment in my mind.

4 stars--I really liked it. (Warnings for sexual violence and one small moment of animal violence.)

I gulped this down in two nights. If you're looking for something deep and lasting, this isn't it, but if you're in the mood for psychological suspense, lots of red herrings, and some fascinating (and unreliable! and probably unlikable) characters, give this a try.

You do have to be able to swallow a lot of disbelief: that people would be wiling to live like this, that cops act like this, that characters are capable of keeping a lot of secrets, etc. I was so caught up in turning pages that these things never bothered me.

This book kept me guessing (and kept me up late reading!). I especially enjoyed seeing different characters through various points of view. Definitely a page turner.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

I read this book because the description sounded intriguing. I liked "Gone Girl" and "The Girl on the Train" and while this was suspenseful like both of those books it was the ending that left me thinking. The pacing of the story is quick and compulsive, it keeps you guessing, tackles some social issues but the ending is different. I don't want to be a spoiler but this was a really thoughtful ending.and worth the read for that alone.

The Girl Before is a unique and compelling tale that, unfortunately, fizzled at the end.

The Girl Before incorporates a dual perspective of both time and characters. The character from the past is Emma. From the present, we have Jane. They have a lot in common, and it starts with them renting a house. The house is very unique. It is austere, and there is a very long list of rules that you must agree to in order to live there.

Both of the girls end up in a relationship with the architect, Edward. As we weave through both of their stories, we see that their relationships are very much the same, following the same patterns as Edward asserts his dominance.

Emma has a violent past. She was attacked in her old apartment where she lived with her boyfriend, Simon. They move into the new house to help Emma get over it. She and Simon soon break up.

Jane's past involves a still-born daughter. She is also trying to heal. Jane finds out that Emma died in this house, and becomes somewhat obsessed with finding out how.

They both find out that Edward's wife and daughter were killed while the house was being built and are forever interred in the foundation.

The Girl Before is a weird story. This house is very high-tech. And between that and the rules, it seems to change the personalities of the people who live there. It's hard to explain without your reading it, and I don't want to spoil too much.

Ultimately, it's a mystery about just what happened to Emma, as well as Edward's family. But the journey to these answers is very entertaining.

I found the lack of quotation marks annoying. And even more annoying is at some points Delaney uses them, and then other times not. It had to do with which character was talking, but it was hard for me to adjust back and forth. I didn't see a need for this technique. In other books like this, I eventually got used to it, but with The Girl Before, it kept switching back and forth.

While I was suitably surprised by the outcome, I still felt the ending needed some more punch. I was expecting a weird, exciting twist, and I just didn't get it. I would still recommend The Girl Before. I found it easy to read and very engaging. I'm not sure I would recommend this to most teens because of the sexual situations; it's definitely an adult book.

Added note: the Amazon entry for this book says it's soon to be a motion picture directed by Ron Howard. I'm looking forward to it.

When I started reading The Girl Before, I was immediately reeled in and captivated by the author’s writing. It was only the beginning but I could feel myself being frightened by the eerie sense the story gave. By this alone, I was amazed by how the author could do this to my reading experience so very quickly.

One Folgate Street is very secure and private. It has the latest technology for the security system. The house comes with a whole set of rules and is set for a simple lifestyle without the added essentials of our lives. The house felt like a character in the story and it’s what elevated the creepy feel.

Emma is an unreliable, unlikable character who has issues. She went through a burglary and a possible sexual assault, which is what leads her to want to move out of her home and search for a safe place to start over. One Folgate house is the perfect place to start fresh, especially after what she went through. She meets Edward, who’s the architect of the One Folgate House. Very soon, they start dating and Emma loves all the attention she receives from him. Unfortunately, something happens that ends with Emma being dead.

Jane is a strong, independent, brave woman who went through a miscarriage. After the miscarriage, she quit her job and found a job in helping other mom’s who go through miscarriages. Because of this, her income is low, but the prices for an apartment or house are high. One Folgate Street is the only one that Jane can afford. She sends in her application and is accepted. She feels very safe in the house and is happy with her decision of living there. When she starts seeing Edward, a few questions arise and slowly, she starts to question her relationship and her living situation.

Edward is a controlling, manipulative man that I found myself being disgusted by. At first, I was kind of liking him and drawn to him, but when he treats Emma in the past the same way he treats Jane in the present, says the same things, gifts the same things, I was just appalled and creeped out by him. His character did enhance the eerie feel of the story, which I did like a lot. I couldn’t figure out his motives and that still made him interesting to me.

The last two chapters of the story had me saying WTF so many times. I have no idea how many times I re-read those pages. I’m telling you, there’s a whiplash at every turn the story makes! The story had lots of twists that had me doing a double-take and re-reading the pages because I couldn’t believe what was happening.

The Girl Before is a mindblowing and addicting masterpiece that left me completely transfixed and fascinated.

This book was amazing! I could not put it down. Every time I thought I had figured out who did what I would find out I was wrong. Delaney is a fantastic writer whose style just flows and pulls you in from the first chapter.

I liked how each chapter would go back and forth from the past to the present and they were each from that one character's point of view until it all just met up. Even though the chapters went back and forth they also picked up from each other in an interesting way that allowed so many red herrings to occur that it keeps you guessing until the end.

I also enjoyed the aspect of learning to live a minimalists lifestyle and the joy it can bring. It made me remember some years back when everything I owned fit inside one travel bag which went all over the world with me. Now I own a house full of things but long for the days of that one travel bag. My own experience helped lend a sense of familiarity with the story so I was able to believe more in what the character of the architect was trying to accomplish.

I've read some really bad dialogue in books lately but Delaney thankfully does a fantastic job creating believable conversations and interactions with these characters. The hallmark for me of a good story is if you could strip the background away and just throw these people on a blank stage to enact these conversations and they would still hold as being believable which I think this book can accomplish.

As a mother I completely love the ending. I was getting a little worried but Delaney pulled out a great finish.

I very much recommend this book and can't wait for the movie coming out that Ron Howard is directing.

If you're looking for a good thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end, then this is the book for you. It's like The Girl On The Train except that you actually like the main characters (at least one of them) and are actually rooting for them.

The way the book is written is very interesting in that each chapter is written from Emma's perspective (the girl before) and then Jane's perspective (the girl after). It really worked for this book and for some reason I felt like it was easier to keep track of than other books that do it, like The Girl On The Train.

Let's see: space age house, two timelines, unreliable narrators, obsessive landlord. Throw this all in a pot and you have The Girl Before, a book about women living in a house that is designed for perfection in living and from its occupants. I liked how it took something that is becoming reality now, the educated home, and turned it a bit on its ear. No major sci-fi take overs ala Hal in Space Odyssey, but the house becomes an integral character in the story just the same. Sadly, I never found any of the characters extremely likeable, even the ones I should have been sympathetic towards and wished at some points that the house would become deranged. This detachment made it hard to get drawn in to the story. I didn't care what happened to anyone. Despite this, the story itself was well thought out and involved a good level of deviousness.

I tried multiple times to read this book and found I just couldn't get into it. I found the author's writing style to be boring and couldn't get into the characters. The idea of this house that has so much control over those that live there seemed a bit much.

A thriller/suspense novel in the popular style of Gone Girl, this book contains many twists and turns and will be a hot item for library collections with a strong demand for this genre.

Intense, cruel, gut-wrenching. That's how I would describe The Girl Before. In other words, I loved it. In a strange and twisted way. Just like everything is in this novel. It starts with an absurd concept, and you think, it can't get any worse but it does. Oh dear, it does. It crawls under your skin, shakes your bones, makes you sick in the night. It's messed up. In an eerie and beautiful way. Moreover, The Girl Before raises many controversial questions of the 21st century. This novel challenges you in every possible way.

First, it makes you write the list of all of your essential possessions. Emphasis on essential. So, cross out that eyeliner and fuzzy slippers. Then, it makes you live in the house where 95% of people before haven't even lasted longer than a couple weeks. The house is indeed an architectural masterpiece created with a purpose of changing the resident. It's so sterile, you feel like a blank canvas - ready for a new start. And the house will either force you to start over or force you out. One Folgate Street's goal is to make your physical and emotional well-being better. That is the first question The Girl Before brings you to, shall architects create "buildings with a sense of purpose?"

Second, it makes you a subject to a house. One Folgate Street is an amazing creation. I was absolutely fascinated by a house that monitors health and well-being of the tenant. The house is equipped with all sorts of sensors, therefore creating the most pleasant environment. The lights, the temperature, the water, the AC, the appliances - the house adjusts everything up to tenant's physical and emotional parameters. It's insane. It's beautiful. It's genius. It's future. That brings you to the second question, would collection of physical and emotional parameters with the goal of general improvement cause the conflict between privacy and technology?

Third, it makes you reconsider your social choices. Because, honestly, what is going on in The Girl Before is equally messed up to Gone Girl. I am not exaggerating. It's like ice-cold water in the face, a wake-up call, a horrible realization, a gun to the head. Who do you trust? Who do you lie to? Who lies to you? All and no one. Everyone is this book is goddamn insane but so bloody real. Personalities are amplified, yes, but, honey, they are real. And they make you wonder, to what extent actions can be justified by love?

I read The Girl Before on my trip to New Orleans at night. This made the reading experience even creepier. I was not able to close my eyes until the next day, and this heavy feeling was gnawing upon me the entire day. I finished the novel over three weeks ago but I still can't stop thinking about it and the residents of One Folgate Street. I feel haunted. I feel heartbroken.

One Folgate Place is an architectural masterpiece: a minimalist design of pale stone, plate glass, and soaring ceilings. But there are rules. Emma and Jane are drawn to the house after both suffering personal tragedies. However neither woman is quite prepared for the changes their lives take after moving in. This book racing along quickly as the layers of the women's lives are peeled by to reveal the truths underneath. A great psychological suspenseful tale that will keep you up till the wee hours of the morning.

Please make a list of every possession you consider essential to your life.

The Girl Before is told from two different perspectives; Then: Emma and Now: Jane. Emma has just experienced a traumatic break in at her flat and is looking for a new place to live, but can’t seem to find something that is both affordable and feels safe to her. Until she looks at One Folate Street. The house is a minimalist design made of pale stone, high ceilings, plate glass and a very open floor plan and is considered to be an architectural masterpiece.But the enigmatic architect who designed the house has over 200 rules for living there, including no books, no photos, no clutter, no throw pillows or other personal effects as the house is meant to transform it’s occupant. Jane has just suffered a personal tragedy and is looking for a fresh start, which she believes she has found at One Folate Street. The space seems to bring her a sense of calm that she hasn’t felt in a while and she also feels drawn to the architect who created it. Shortly after moving in, Jane learns about the death of the home’s previous tenant; a woman who has a similar appearance to her. As Jane begins to investigate what happened, she has to untangle the truth from all the lies. She unknowingly begins to the follow the same patterns, make the same choices and cross paths with the same people and also begins to experience the same terror, as the girl before.

I received an ARC of The Girl Before about 3 months ago and I so wish I had read it sooner because I absolutely loved it. It was not at all what I expected it to be. The story, as mentioned above, is told from two perspectives; Then: Emma and Now:Jane. So the perspectives switch every other chapter but it was very easy to follow alone. Also, in between most chapters is a question from the application package when the girls applied to One Folate Street and from the follow up surveys the girls filled out while living there. I also thought that was a nice touch and some of the questions did make me stop and think for a moment. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away but I do want to mention a few things. I really liked the author’s writing style and I felt that even though we split time between Emma and Jane, we got to know their characters pretty well. The architect, Edward, is also a very interesting character. This was one of those books that I could not stop reading because every time I thought I had the plot twists figured out, it would go in a different direction. I read almost the whole book in one day. It really captivated my attention. I can honestly say most of the plot twists I didn’t figure out until they happened and the author did a really good job with that. And the ending was also pretty good, not as dramatic as I had expected it to be, but unexpected. There is some sex in this book, which I like to mention when it’s a book that I normally wouldn’t expect to contain detailed sexual encounters. The scenes are all well done and it is nothing over the top. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an advanced reading copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book started out really interesting, but about a 1/3 of the way in started reminding me of Fifty Shades of Grey - which I regrettably read a while ago. Certainly the writing itself was much better than Fifty shades....it was more the controlling male that I didn't enjoy at all. But fortunately the mystery part of the story was engrossing, as was the use of the house as part of the story. The characters were well developed, although I thought that Simon ultimately needed more fleshing out. I liked the back-and-forth between the two time periods.

I did have problems with the way a particular syndrome is dealt with at the end, although I know many people feel the way it was described. And while the end was surprising, I'm not actually sure I really like the way it went. <spoiler> I think the more predictable ending, with Edward the bad guy, might have been more satisfying despite its predictability. Either that or there should have been a bit more background on Simon than there was, to make it seem more realistic. </spoiler>

It was definitely a quick read, and wanting to find out what really happened kept me reading. I understand this has already been optioned by Ron Howard to become a movie. The pacing and unusual setting of the house should make for an interesting movie and I'm sure will be enjoyed by many.

A solid 3.75. If you're looking for thrillers this is a good one. Whenever you can't figure out which characters are actually sane and which are actually disturbed, it's going to turn into a book that you can't put down. This fits that description exactly. I also didn't mind that I tried to guess what was going to happen and I just couldn't. I couldn't guess correctly and I couldn't even nail down where I thought it was going to go.

Book Review: The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine

Two different women, years apart, agree to the insane rules imposed by the architect to rent a home. The rules list is 200 items long and include “no leaving clothing on the floor” and “no books allowed”. Those two alone would have disqualified me because my life is all about the clutter and the books. These women are apparently ok with or plan to tolerate the rules.

The house is a character all its own. Gleaming and perfect and plain white walls, the place sounded a bit like an insane asylum. The house is equipped with the newest in technology as it adjusts the lights, temperature, etc. based upon your mood or actions. It seemed rather creepy to me.

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Emma, the first tenant, and Jane, the current tenant. Normally I cannot stand this way of telling a story but I stuck it out. The one real thing that annoyed me about this is that the “Emma” chapters held zero quotation marks. This made it a wee bit difficult in differentiating between dialogue and thoughts.

Emma moves into the home with her boyfriend Simon after their apartment is burglarized. The security system on the home sways her decision. She craves a safe sanctuary and the privacy the home affords. Jane is looking for a quiet place to start over after the stillbirth of her daughter. She’s looking for someplace to think and rebuild. They believe the house is perfect for their needs.

You soon learn about Emma’s breakup with Simon and her falling into a relationship with the mysterious owner of the house, Edward. Let me tell you that if he were a real person I would avoid him at all costs. He’s a creepy perfectionist with a dead wife. Jane all into a relationship as well and soon becomes obsessed with him, his dead wife, and the death of Emma. Oh, did I forget to mention she died in the home that Jane now lives in?

The Girl Before is a quick and intriguing read. I’m pleased that the author led me down the path thinking I could predict what was going on and then fooled me completely. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a mystery with a thrill and a creepy house thrown in.

I read that this book is going to be coming out as a movie directed by Ron Howard. I’m eager to see how it shapes up compared to the book.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

You can find this review and more at: http://shiningstarreviews.blogspot.com/