Monday, June 23, 2014

Review: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Goodreads Summary:

"I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will."

Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a compulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems…

Publication Date: July 29, 2014


Hmmm…that was an interesting book! I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got. But I wouldn’t say that was a bad thing. The flawed characters intrigued me and I did like the twists that the author threw in at the end of the book.

The Good Girl has a narrative structure that I normally don’t like: multiple point of views and time jumps. However, the author handled the transitions flawlessly. I never thought the switches were jarring and I felt like the way the book was laid out painted a complete picture of the plot without giving away anything too soon.

The characters were interesting and I felt the strongest connection to Mia’s mother. She felt like a real mom who had made mistakes in the past with her daughter and starts to question her entire life after her daughter’s abduction. Mia was hard to get to know because the story is never told in her POV. I didn’t like her or hate her, I just felt a little neutral towards her. It was a little bit of an issue because it made it hard to cheer for a HEA for her. I also was never sold on the relationship between her and Colin.

The beginning and end of the book really grabbed me. These sections were exciting and emotionally charged. I figured out portions of the plot early on, but there were definitely some surprises the author decided to add. For a debut novel, the suspense was very well done.

I’ve read several books from Harlequin MIRA and I have to say they were all enjoyable. If you like suspense novels with a hint of mystery, then you should definitely pick up The Good Girl.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!

2 comments:

  1. The flawed characters and the attention grabbing beginning and middle seem great.

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  2. I may have to try this one, but I am a little sad you could see some of the twists coming in advance, but that happens in almost all books I read so it shouldn't be too big of a deal. I too am intrigued by the flawed characters and for some reason I love books with lots of family secrets. Great review!

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