Book review – Novelgossip

Goodreads/Amazon
Genre: Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction

Release date: July 1, 2016

Publisher: Aria

Goodreads blurb:

Is it ever too late to take charge and live your life on your terms?
Life for school friends, Melissa, Steph and Eilis, hasn’t quite worked out the way they once imagined it might.
Melissa may be professionally successful but inside she’s a mess of insecurities.

Steph is lonely and lost, balancing the fragile threads of family life and walking on eggshells around her philandering husband and angry teenage daughter.
Finally, Eilis, a hardworking A&E doctor, utterly exhausted by the daily pressures of work and going through the motions with her long-term partner Rob.
It’s crunch time for all the friends…
A light-hearted and emotional novel about family, friendship and coming to terms with your past. Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Amanda Prowse.

Review:

I love a good chick lit novel. Emily Giffin, Lauren Weisberger, Mary Kay Andrews, etc. When I saw this on Netgalley I was instantly drawn to it because of the lighthearted description and lovely cover. Superficial, I know. Turned out to be fitting as this book was a tad superficial. I just wanted to be drawn in a little bit more. I didn’t feel a true connection with the characters.

Three friends from high school reunite to plan their twentieth high school reunion. Melissa, Steph and Eilis meet several times to plan things but that is not actually relevant to the plot. Instead the book focuses on the unraveling of the three women’s lives. All of them are facing heavy issues in their lives and they lean on each other for support. Divorce, infidelity, angsty teenagers, work woes, death and more all try and drag the girls down.

Told alternately from Melissa, Steph and Eilis point of view works nicely. You get an intimate glimpse into all their lives and the book flows well. Even though they are dealing with some heavy subject matter, it still has an overall lighthearted tone. There are many sweet moments between the girls and O’Gorman was able to capture the power of true friendship.

While it definitely had its good moments, it was slightly clichéd and predictable. All that said, I did like the book, I just didn’t love the book. It is a nice, easy summer read though. If you’re looking for a book that is breezy and fluffy this might be for you.

Overall rating: 3/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Aria for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

People have been recommending this book to me for awhile now, so naturally I have been dying to get my hands on a copy of All the Missing Girls. Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

Synopsis

Nicolette Farrell is still deeply haunted by the disappearance of her best friend, Corinne. It’s been ten years since anyone has seen Corinne. Ten years that Nic has been tormented by guilt over her missing friend.

And now it’s all happening again.

There is another girl missing. Same town, too many similarities to Corinne’s disappearance to be unrelated. The same people are linked again, but this time the truth will be revealed.

Told entirely in reverse order, from day fifteen to day one, this novel asks the question; how far would you be willing to go to protect your loved ones?

Review

This is my first time reading one of Megan Miranda’s books and it’s safe to say that it won’t be my last. When I first heard that the story was backwards I was both intrigued and somewhat skeptical. I kept thinking, won’t that be really confusing? How can a book told this way make any kind of sense? Well rest assured, it works. It works better than I would’ve imagined. It kept me turning the pages as fast as possible and there were times that I was so intent in my reading a bomb could’ve went off and I may not have even noticed.

Nic was a character that I was rooting for the whole time. You could feel her pain and regret throughout and I so badly wanted her to find closure and be able to move on with her life. She is absolutely tortured at every turn by her painful past, yet you can feel how desperately she wants to move forward. Her relationships with everyone in her life are clouded with grief and sadness; Her father Patrick, her brother Daniel, her ex boyfriend Tyler, her old friend Bailey. Yet while I felt like I could relate to parts of this character, I also wanted to scream at her. She makes rash and dangerous decisions consistently, however there is something extremely raw and vulnerable about Nic that makes the reader want the best for her. To me, that is the mark of an excellent storyteller. To make the audience root for them even when they are frustrated by their choices.

Without spoiling the ending, I can safely say that I was satisfied. I always adore it when a writer wraps thing up with some kind of an epilogue or fast forward that ties things up and answers all those unanswered questions. Megan Miranda does not disappoint.

Overall rating is 4.5/5

All the Missing Girls is available on June 28 from Simon & Schuster.

Goodreads

Amazon