Review: The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Goodreads

Release date: March 9, 2021

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Synopsis:

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.

A lot has changed in the years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads “We need to talk about what we did that night.”

It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.

At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the price.

Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a shocking novel about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death.

Review:

Ahh this was such a devious, wickedly fun thriller! Think Mean Girls with a sharper, darker edge and that’s what you have here. Secrets, lies and girls behaving appallingly make up this tale of horribly toxic relationships, backstabbing and revenge.

Told from alternating timelines from back when Amb was in college and then ten years later as she’s getting ready to go to her reunion, this style almost always keeps my attention. I usually prefer one timeline over the other but here I was equally invested in both. It starts out a little slow but then about halfway through things ramp up and I was totally hooked. I kinda predicted a few of the twists, but seriously didn’t even care because this was so dark and shocking that I was just too swept up in the story I couldn’t be bothered enough to be mad about guessing. This one was pretty disturbing and hits basically every trigger around, but if that doesn’t bother you definitely check this one out!

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Review: The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan

Goodreads

Release date: April 6, 2021

Publisher: Berkley

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

Naomi Grant has built her life around going against the grain. After the sex-positive start-up she cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, despite her long list of qualifications, higher ed won’t hire her.

Ethan Cohen has recently received two honors: LA Mag named him one of the city’s hottest bachelors and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Taking a gamble in an effort to attract more millennials to the faith, the executive board hired Ethan because of his nontraditional background. Unfortunately, his shul is low on both funds and congregants. The board gives him three months to turn things around or else they’ll close the doors of his synagogue for good.

Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems–until they discover a new one–their growing attraction to each other. They’ve built the syllabus for love’s latest experiment, but neither of them expected they’d be the ones putting it to the test.

Review:

Last year Rosie Danan’s The Roommate was hands down one of the best romances I read all year. It was funny, fresh, and incredibly sexy and I’ve been waiting for Naomi’s book ever since I finished it. Once again the author wrote another original and sexy romance, I mean a rabbi and an ex porn star?! GIMME

Really quick for those that didn’t love TR because it was too spicy don’t pass this one up thinking it’ll be the same. I was actually expecting more steam than this one had and while it definitely wasn’t closed door, it was nowhere near the level of hotness that TR was.

Ok, while I didn’t love this one as much as the previous book I did like it, I think my expectations were just unrealistic and way too high. Totally on me though, I can still recommend it for sure, I was just really hoping this would be another favorite of the whole year. I did really enjoy the merging of faith and sexuality and liked learning more about Naomi but I still didn’t feel like I truly knew her in the end. I guess I basically wanted more of her past and even how she would take her experiences into a future with Ethan, but I did really like him, so adorable! Overall I flew through this one, so there’s something to be said for that, I just hope that special magic that happened for me in book one will be back again in book three.

Overall rating: 3.5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.