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Sunday 21 January 2018

The Girlfriend


Author: Michelle Frances
Genre: Suspense
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Kensington
First Published: January 30, 2018
First Line: "Laura had a good feeling about today."

Book Description from GoodReadsA girl. A boy. His mother. And the lie she'll wish she'd never told.

The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances is a gripping and chilling debut psychological thriller, based on the fall-out following an unforgiveable lie. It looks at the potentially charged relationship between girlfriend, boyfriend and his mother, which most women can identify with, and locates it in an extreme but believable setting.

Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a twenty-three year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome, and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but she hasn't had the same opportunities as Daniel. And she wants Laura's life.

Cherry comes to the family wide-eyed and wants to be welcomed with open arms, but Laura suspects she's not all that she seems.

When tragedy strikes, an unforgiveable lie is told. It is an act of desperation, but the fall-out will change their lives forever.


My Rating
: 2 stars (aka 'meh')

My Review:
This book is marketed as a 'chilling psychological thriller' but it is a domestic drama at best. It lacks tension and depth to the story and instead gives readers a long-winded, slowly paced story with lukewarm characters who behave exactly how you'd expect, making this debut 'just okay' at best.

The premise had heaps of potential, but the author couldn't pull off a 'thriller'. It just wasn't clever enough. It felt like the author had to lay out every character's thoughts and didn't trust her readers to be able to piece together a more intricate plot. This may appeal to people who want a mild, family drama read but for avid readers of the psychological suspense genre, like myself, this doesn't add anything new to the genre (either domestic drama or psychological thriller).

With thinly constructed characters, a weakly executed premise and a lack of suspense, this quickly became one of those books that I wasn't eager to get back into.

Disclaimer: This ARC was generously provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.


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