Audiobook Review: Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
Good Bad Girl
Author: Alice Feeney
Narrators:
Katherine Press
Stephanie Racine
Published: August 29, 2023
Audiobook: 9 hours 21 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: August 25-30, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
Twenty years after a baby is stolen from a stroller, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.
Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door…and their intentions aren’t good.
With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.
Jessica’s Review:
Good Bad Girl had promise for me, but it is less of a thriller and more of a slow burn domestic drama dealing with complicated mother/ daughter relationships. We have two crimes that occur twenty years apart that are somehow connected: a kidnapped baby and a murder at an assisted living facility. We have 4 main characters that are the focus on Good Bad Girl. Alice Feeney knows how to write: “This is a crime with three suspects, two murders, and one victim.”
For me the title could have been different: Can we please drop the ‘Girl’ in book titles, especially when we don’t even have a ‘girl’ in the story? All the characters were grown women. ‘Girl’ is in just too many titles these days for thrillers. Especially when the book is less thriller and more domestic drama.
For me the audiobook did not really work: This is a book where I need to actually be sitting down to actually read it and not worry about driving. Because of this I had trouble following the book and keeping the characters straight. The two narrators were very similar in their voices, so I know that did not help me either. I would be willing to pick up a physical/kindle copy to see if I can end up with a differing opinion of this one.
Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review.
Book Review: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Daisy Darker
Author: Alice Feeney
Published: August 30, 2022
352 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: August 7- September 7, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.
The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…
Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darker’s must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.
Jessica’s Review:
Whoa, whoa whoa! Despite taking a month to read, I really enjoyed this one; especially the closer it got to the ending!
My reactions to the book went from:
I knew it!
Wait…. What???
What am I reading???
WHAT am I reading!?!?
WTF did I just read!?!?!?
And this was all in a good way! OMG, this is one of those books where once you finish it you have to read again so you can see things you might not have caught the first time. And I plan to read it again (at some point with that never ending TBR…..)
Feeney has been an author on my TBR list for a while and I have a few of her books, I just haven’t been able to get to her until now, and I am so glad I started with this one.
Our narrator is Daisy in both present day and the past. The Darker family has many issues, and Grandma (Nana) is a famous author. They are all coming together for her 80th birthday after a long time spent avoiding one another And the house (which is called Seaglass) Nana lives in is secluded when high tide comes in, so there’s no leaving Seaglass after dark! And on this night a storm comes in that is both outside and inside.
Just as the clock strikes midnight on Grandma’s birthday a scream is heard and everyone comes into the kitchen and finds Nana dead. There is a creepy poem written on the chalkboard in what looks to be Nana’s writing. The poem has some frightening and foreboding verses for the family to decipher. And then one by one as the night goes on the bodies begin to pile up.
That’s basically all you can say about Daisy Darker! It is a fast-moving story, yet also slow paced as the present-day events take place in just over a 12 hour time period, but each hour drags on as you don’t know what is going to happen and who is going to die next! For me there was definitely suspense as to what might happen next! The past is also important to what happens in the present.
Many thanks to the publisher Flatiron Books for sending me a copy to read and review! I really enjoyed it! And I hope to move some of Feeney’s other novels higher up on my TBR list.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Sometimes I Lie
Author: Alice Feeney
Published: March 23, 2017
387 pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie.
Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?
Kim’s Review:
Whoa. This book was nuts! I found it cheap at Ollie’s and I love the cover. I picked it up for a quick read and it was indeed quick, but whoa! I mean twists and turns and crazy spirals and surprises. Amber starting out in a coma was an interesting interpretation. I was fascinated and horrified all at the same time. All I could think was, “is that really what it’s like to be in a coma??” I almost went to the hospital to volunteer to read to coma patients! And it all started from page one! I don’t really want to say much about this book, because I don’t want to give anything away! All I can say is that I loved it and I might just have to read it again! Ok, I will say that I liked this book better than Girl on a Train. Amber is a much stronger protagonist than that chick was. Definitely a good book for those who like psychological thrillers . . . and believe me, it’s thrilling!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
