The Girls Weekend

Hangover meets Knives Out waltzes with “And Then There Were None” vibes!<br /><br /> A great summary of vacation book: Best 5 friends’ reunion at least likeable but wealthier one’s estate in the San Juan Islands. But the least likeable a.k.a. control freak bitch disappears. <br /><br />Her 17 year daughter of the least likeable and now missing, probably murdered friend, is more annoying than her mother (yes she reminds us of Rosemary’s baby: we haven’t seen her/his image and Polanski’s movie but as you think about the father with horns and long tail, you may imagine what kind of child, she will become!) and the desperate father hits on main heroine June!<br /><br />I didn’t introduce you those five women (once upon a time living dangerously, thick as thieves but right now every of them are facing their troubled adulthood!)<br /><br /> June, community college English professor, indie author (her book is not shelved anymore), dumped by a text comes from bastard boyfriend who runs with his half aged girlfriend to Amsterdam. Now she needs to accept her ex best friend and old nemesis Sadie’s invitation. The very same woman who got married her love of her life after she rejected his marriage proposal (same man hitting on her throughout their holiday gathering!) <br /><br /> Sadie seems like have-it-all: June’s ex-lover Ethan as charming husband, a beautiful (also Chucky’s bride)daughter Dakota (reminded me of Dakota Johnson who gets aggressive when she finds out her mother Melanie rejects to watch her amazing performance at FSOG), a mansion, a rising career at the literature industry. Of course June is jealous about her.<br /><br /> June’s bestie Em is also having her dream career and a great relationship, cool, casual, loyal but she keeps a big secret from her past only Sadie knows.<br /><br /> Amy is suffering from bi-polar, related with Sadie who takes care of her and also controlling her life, is pregnant (that’s why they gathered for her baby shower!) but she keeps baby’s father as secret. <br /><br /> And Kimiko (Japanese Italian) works in her dispenser, raising her problematic son, a little aggressive, mostly stoned with weed or drunk because of too many gin tonics, one of the volatile and unpredictable characters.<br /><br /> So those girls get drunk and afterwards they don’t remember anything. Somebody roofied them. And Sadie is nowhere to be seen. There is blood on the walls. So what the hell happened that night? Who has been drugged them? Nope, not Zach Galifianakis! <br /> <br /> June is prime suspect because she secretly met with Sadie’s husband. She hates the guts of Sadie. Em hates her because Sadie will spill the beans about her big secret. Amy hates her because Sadie will take her baby and raise the baby as hers. Kimiko hates her because of common financial issues. Ethan hates her they had problematic marriage and Dakota hates her because she already casted as Anastasia Steel but her mother wants to end her acting career (Ha ha! I tested you to make sure you’re still reading. Nope: her mother pushes her go to Yale but she wants to be actress and get her education at UCLA)So everyone can be murderer and everyone has motive. So who did it? <br /><br /> What I hate about the book: Too many annoying characters and predictable conclusion.<br /> <br /> What I like about the book: It was fun when all those crazy women got tense and started to fight with each other. It was like regular episode of Bachelor. I got my popcorn accompanied with Cabernet when I was reading those parts and laughed so hard. I wish they start to fist fight or pull each other’s hair (I know I’m so bad!)<br /> <br /> The fast pacing, claustrophobic one place mystery with high tension picked my interest and I never got bored till the end. It was easy, entertaining, riveting page-turner.<br />I went back and forth between three and four stars but I guess it was better than most of my mediocre books-let’s meet in the middle and call them Switzerland books- so I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to 4! <br /><br />Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this entertaining ARC in exchange my honest review.<br /><br /><a href="https://niluferozmekik.com/" rel="nofollow noopener">blog</a><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/nilylovestoread/" rel="nofollow noopener">instagram</a><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/nilufer.ozmekik" rel="nofollow noopener">facebook</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/NiluferOzmekik" rel="nofollow noopener">twitter</a>

I buddy read The Girls Weekend with Julie (JuJu) and she summed it up well..."It definitely wasn’t a deep, thought provoking book, but it kept my attention...like a bad soap opera."  June and her friends make so many bad decisions, one after another.  Once I got over the fact they were never going to do the smart thing, I just settled in for the wild weekend, went with the flow, and enjoyed the story.. June, Sadie, Amy, Kimi, and Em, are 38-ish year old college best friends/frenemies, spending a long weekend at Sadie's estate, for Amy's baby shower. Sadie's husband, who first asked June to marry him before he married Sadie, is staying down at the beach house. But Sadie won, Sadie has it all, wealth from her best selling children's books, Ethan, the guy both Sadie and June fawned over during their college years, something to lord over each and every person there, and an ego that won't let her be bested by anyone else. <br /><br />It doesn't take long to figure out that almost everyone at the estate is messed up. June's boyfriend has just dumped her by text and she has never gotten along with Sadie really. They were more like competition to each other, which helped them both to be better at what they were doing. June still has a crush on Ethan, not having expected him to run to Sadie the minute she turned down his marriage proposal, all those years ago. Kimi likes her drugs and drink, Amy's baby daddy was a one night stand, Em has a secret that Sadie is going to make public, and Dakota seems to hate her mom. Ethan isn't just at the beach house for this weekend but instead he and Sadie are estranged. Then there is the landscaper who lives on the property. Leo has his own secrets that he's not ready to discuss with June or anyone else. <br /><br />After an evening of drinking, where all the women seem to have been drugged with something that had them running wild but not remembering what happened, they wake to Sadie missing and blood on the walls and floor. But don't worry, drugged drinks one night, doesn't keep them from drinking more the next night! They also take their time calling the cops, which made no sense to me...so that's where I just zipped my brain and just went along for the ride. Once the cops are involved, June is prime suspect because she had visited Ethan's cabin the first night she was there. But never fear, everybody has a motive for doing harm to manipulative, bossy, greedy, grabby Sadie so this "who done it" is wide open for guessing who did it. <br /><br />Publication: August 11th 2020<br /><br />Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for this ARC. 

<i>Their reunion just became a crime scene . . .</i><br /><br />Getting together with your friends from college sound like fun, right? Except when the host is your old nemesis who married the man you once dated and *gasp* turned down. June Moody is an English professor who had big dreams of becoming a successful author. Her nemesis Sadie, married June's ex and went on to become a successful author whose children's books have been made into popular movies. Begrudgingly she agrees to attend the weekend.<br /><br />Sadie has it all - a handsome husband, a successful writing career, a beautiful daughter who is about to go to college and a beautiful home. She has invited her college friends to her home for a girl’s weekend.<br /><br />The weekend gets off to an awkward start and after a night of drinking the women wake up with mega hangovers and very little memory of what occurred the night before. Glimpses of memories here and there but nothing solid. When they slowly begin to regroup, they find Sadie is missing, the house is ransacked and there are bloodstains.<br /><br />Soon the police are called in and as the investigation begins, so does the suspicions, bickering and feelings of dread....<br /><br />Where is Sadie? What happened to her?<br /><br />This was a fast read that didn't disappoint. The synopsis is intriguing and as soon as the bickering started, things really got interesting. Fairly early on, I had a suspect in mind and was right but still enjoyed how this book played out. This is pure entertainment. This book doesn't require much thinking, just curling up in one's favorite reading chair. I like to think of this as a guilty pleasure book. Everyone appears to have a motive; everyone has gaps in her memory but is one of them lying? hmm....<br /><br />Fun, entertaining, captivating and a fast read!<br /><br />Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.<br />

<b>3.75*</b><br /><b>Attention ladies! It’s time for the old gang to reunite.</b> <br />A weekend getaway to the sprawling estate belonging to one of the most successful in the bunch. Hmmmm, let me think…can’t imagine there would be hard feelings or jealousy! After all....they are all friends...right!?<br /><br />After a sleeping off a night of hard partying they awaken to the disturbing news that one of their fellow merry-makers has disappeared. Was she murdered? Well, maybe that huge smear of blood on the wall is a subtle clue. <br /><br />I was locked in from the start! The mystery was set up perfectly. And while it was a fun light mystery, I felt like I needed just a bit more....<br /><br />I’ve enjoyed Jody Gehrman's books in the past and will definitely be watching for her next release.<br /><br />Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC to read and review.<br /><br />Expected date of publication: August 11, 2020 <br />

Nope, no suspense or surprise for me.<br /><br />I had a hard time with this novel from the beginning. I wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't a review copy.<br /><br />The synopsis sounded like a novel that would suit me, but it failed in every way. I hated all the characters and couldn't connect. June was so annoying that my eyes were rolling non-stop, but the other "girls" weren't much better. <br /><br />Very slow, very mild mystery that was far-fetched. I'm going to stop here because this was a huge struggle from beginning to end. <br /><br />Thanks to NG for my advanced copy. OUT in June 2020<br /><br />

EXCERPT: The rest of the night is a series of blurred snapshots: the feel of someone's warm lips closing over mine. Hands in my hair. Golden light all around us. <br /><br />There are large black patches where everything goes dark. I can see myself sitting on a beach. The stars pulse with clear silver joy; I can feel their happiness coursing through my body. There's cold sand beneath my toes. Somebody is braiding my hair. <br /><br />A scream, high and sharp, full of panic; my throat aches as I realise it's coming from me. <br /><br />These are the fragments I'm left with - shards of sensation, broken and scattered. I'm aware only of the gaps, the dark places where my memories crouch, unwilling to be coaxed into the light. <br /><br />ABOUT THIS BOOK: June Moody, a thirty-something English professor, just wants to get away from her recent breakup and reunite with girlfriends over summer break. Her old friend and longtime nemesis, Sadie MacTavish, a mega-successful author, invites June and her college friends to a baby shower at her sprawling estate in the San Juan Islands. June is less than thrilled to spend time with Sadie--and her husband, June's former crush--but agrees to go.<br /><br />The party gets off to a shaky start when old grudges resurface, but when they wake the next morning, they find something worse: Sadie is missing, the house is in shambles, and bloodstains mar the staircase. None of them has any memory of the night before; they wonder if they were drugged. Everyone's a suspect. Since June had a secret rendezvous with Sadie's husband, she has plenty of reason to suspect herself. Apparently, so do the cops.<br /><br />MY THOUGHTS: Brooding? No. Atmospheric? No. Suspenseful? Mildly, in parts. Interesting like a carwreck? Yes. <br /><br />I really didn't like this book, but I just had to keep reading it, although I must admit to doing a fair bit of skimming around halfway. <br /><br />The characters are just awful. Obnoxious. Self obsessed. Insecure. Jealous of one another. People you love to hate. I felt like I was reading about teenagers rather than a group of supposedly mature women. Bitchy. Manipulative. Sulky. Drama queens. They do not like or trust one another. Why would they want to spend a weekend together? I would rather have run to the other side of the world than spend a weekend with this lot. <br /><br />The missing, presumed murdered woman, Sadie, is the hostess. Outwardly successful, her life is crumbling around her. She is a control freak. Her daughter is leaving home, her marriage falling apart. Her life is becoming a series of tangled knots of angst as those whose lives she has controlled are wriggling free. So why has she chosen now to bring her 'friends' together?<br /><br />A quick, okay, but not great, read. Far too much dialogue. But that ending? . . . That made the whole read almost worthwhile and bumped up my rating a few points. <br /><br />⭐⭐⭐.4<br /><br />#TheGirlsWeekend #NetGalley <br /><br />THE AUTHOR: Jody Gehrman is a native of Northern California, where she can be found writing, teaching, reading, or obsessing over her three cats most days. <br /><br />DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. <br /><br />For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com <br /><br />This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/2020/09/23/the-girls-weekend-by-jody-gehrman/">https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...</a>

<b>I was expecting something gritty and salacious...the reality of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/52001120.The_Girls_Weekend" title="The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman" rel="noopener">The Girls Weekend</a> was quite different.</b><br /><br />I'm so drawn to books like this one because I relate so deeply to the stage of life depicted...middle-age women spending time with old friends and reliving their youth. Unfortunately, this particular story didn't resonate at all. At it's heart, this is a 'locked-room mystery,' but there weren't enough characters to make it much of a mystery at all. I suspected the antagonist <i>very</i> early on, but kept thinking to myself...that's way too obvious. Surely I'm not right. I held out hope until the final pages. <br /><br />? <i>I was right.</i> ?<br /><br />Beyond that, the dialogue was super cheesy. I was fully expecting one of the women to break out in a raspy voice and impersonate Clint Eastwood saying, "Go ahead. Make my day." <br /><br />I couldn't relate to any of the characters, all of whom were quite unlikable and lacking in common sense. Thankfully, the story did somehow manage to keep me turning pages, so for that reason, I'm going to call it average and slap on a <b>2.5 star rating</b>. This might work for an ingenue to the genre, but for long-time suspense readers, it's pretty elementary. <br /><br /><b>Available August 11, 2020</b><br /><br /><i>**My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my review copy.**</i>

The Girls Weekend is a 2020 release by Jody Gehrman, a new author to me. I found the book on NetGalley and thought it would be a clever thriller to read this week. I enjoyed the book and ended up allotting 3.5 stars, as it was a good story but didn't fully pop or surprise me at any point. That said, I recommend it as a solid thriller and suspense novel for fans of this genre.<br /><br />Five college friends lost touch over ~20 years. Some stayed close, others drifted... the missing years are a little murky. When one is pregnant, another throws a weekend bash to celebrate and reunite. During the course of the evening, secrets come out, blood appears on the wall, and people go missing. What happened that night? Someone drugged the others, or an outsider sneaked in and drugged the whole group. Toss in a husband, a daughter, a boyfriend, and a curious landscaper, you've got a cast of ~10 potential culprits, or is the missing woman faking her death?<br /><br />The story is easy to read. The writing is good, and it kept me interested. I kept waiting for the major shocker, but it never quite came. I had expected some illicit relationship or secret popping up. Instead, we knew the basics, but figuring out how those played into someone's disappearance and/or death was the puzzle placed before us. I never really connected with any of the characters enough to wish they would be innocent. Our narrator, the main girl who never wanted to attend the event, is a bit wishy washy, and one of the other girls is so erratic, I couldn't understand why anyone would choose to befriend her. So... given all those things, I couldn't push it up to a 4 as a really great read.<br /><br />I did like the setting and the dialog felt real. I would read another book by this author, as I think maybe this story was just a little underwhelming for me. The rest was all good.

This was a pretty darn entertaining read! It wasn't incredibly deep or scary, but it was refreshingly entertaining and had my attention throughout! The characters felt very real to me, and actually reminded me of a few people I know similar to Sadie, our protagonist. I appreciated that at one point it seemed like every character had motive and opportunity, and I suspected all of them at one point, which I love in a good thriller. An important lesson this book teaches us is that the grass isn't always greener on the other side, despite appearances! I'm definitely going to keep my eye open for Gehrman and go back and check out her debut. I'd recommend this book to all of my thriller/mystery enthusiasts!

Like no baby shower you have ever been to...I promise you that...A story of jealously, mean girls, grudges and revenge...sounds like a good time, am I right? 5 college friends unite after years apart only to find...nothing has changed...they still resent each other...<br /><br />I listened to the audio version and the narrator was fantastic! I loved how she brought the story to life. I found myself lost in this drama filled story of 5 BFF's...yet they weren't really now were they? Invited to a McMansion owned by Sadie-who is now a rich and famous author..they had to go..they had to see what this was all about...I mean Amy was pregnant after all...so it would only be appropriate to party hard in her honor...HUH? Right? That was only the beginning..<br /><br />So this started out really strong for me. It was in no way suspense, but I was enjoying all the drama..and there was alot..With the catty behaviors and old grudges resurfacing..it was bound to be a good time and I was all in...however when we hit the midway point it seemed like we were just treading water....on and on it went. Now I was still all ears because this narrator somehow managed to be highly entertaining..however it just was not what I had expected. I thought it would be more of a suspense filled thriller. However it was fun and I did enjoy it.<br /><br />Thank you so much to Crooked Lane Books for my Netgalley copy!