‘The thing is, we always believe the best of our own kids. What mother thinks her own daughter will do something terrible? But every bad deed is carried out by a person who was once someone’s child.’
Everyone has secrets. Even your daughter…
The morning after a glamorous, luxury wedding, you and your best friend go to wake your twenty-four-year-old daughters. You open the door to their shared room in the pool-house and find a lamp smashed on the floor, a blood stain on the carpet, a ringing phone – and both girls are nowhere to be seen.
The police come and you discover something shocking. Something inexplicable. Is one of your daughters trying to kill the other? And that’s when you and your best friend begin to unravel what's really going on between the girls.
You need to work together to find your daughters, testing your friendship to its limits. And you can’t help but wonder: which girl is the killer and which is the victim?
Oh Andrea Mara you are never shy of sharing a twist or two...
Such a Nice Girl is a tense Irish thriller about two missing daughters. Best friends Siobhan and Grace wake up after a luxury wedding to find their daughters, Ré and Luna, missing. After checking their shared pool-house room. They find blood, a smashed lamp, and a phone which has evidence that one of the girls might have hurt the other.
This is my fourth book by this author, and she is so a go to when I am looking for a one sit heck of a ride read.
You are sucked into the action from page one and stay immersed into the story throughout. There is a lot of characters in this one and at times I was a bit like ‘and you are who to this story?’ but after a while I got into the swing of whom was who! Some characters you will like, some you will feel meh about and others you will loathe. There was a great blend of different personalities.
I had my suspicions and Ms. Mara did a good job leading me off track. The story telling was told so well I could picture the read so well in my head and I think it would make a great movie or short tv series.
There are aplenty of twists and reveals that will have you in a tizzy while rapidly blinking and whispering ‘errr wtf’ . Although good I will say in the same breath that they are bit cliched and OTT.
I would say this book was fast paced but at times would take a little pit stop break and become slow but I wasn’t bored once and couldn’t wait to get to the end.
The book is told in a dual timeline, and I personally enjoyed the present more as it was so tension filled and you could feel the pressure from all involved.
I am excited to read the rest of her backlist and her future releases.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- pre read I really enjoy this authors work! Juicy blurb! Excited to finally be reading this one! 🩵🤍🤍🩵
I liked parts of this book, but it felt really slow and not much happened for a long time. The secrets were interesting though and kept me reading. Overall, it had a good idea, but it dragged too much for me.
Andrea Mara ALWAYS throws you in right in the action from page 1 which I'm obsessed with and gives you enough characters to keep it interesting but not enough to overwhelm you.
I really liked this but not as much as some other books I've read by this author :(
I discovered Andrea Mara when I read It Should Have Been You and immediately wanted to read everything she’s written! She knows how to hook the reader right away and she doesn’t let go.
It’s the next day after a glamorous wedding. You and your best friend go to check on your adult daughters after all the late night booze. Only to find that both of your daughters are missing. There’s a blood stain on the floor and a call has been made to the police that seems very suspicious.
Where are the girls and what really happened?
This goes back to the past and the present as you try to put the pieces together. I found it very twisty and I couldn’t put it down! I know US readers are desperately awaiting the release for this one. For the record, I’ll read anything she writes.
Add it to your TBR! You’re not gonna want to miss this. I highly recommend it.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to my sweet dear friend Suzy for gifting me a copy!
Andrea Mara is ago to author for the twists and turns of a good thriller. She doesn’t muck around, you are immediately thrown into the action and there is no time to breathe, and I love that about her books.
I also love that her characters are so real and are flawed just like we are, she writes about everyday people who are put into an impossible situation. We are not meant to like them all, and boy were there some awful people in Such a Nice Girl. It is a story about friendships being tested, truths being outed and the past not staying in the past.
Set in Ireland, another page turning winner from this author. A fight gone too far, a kidnapping or something more sinister? read it and find out.
Thanks so much to Random House UK, Transworld, Bantam for allowing me to read this book early. Publishes on May 7th.
I generally have a 'hit or miss' relationship with Andrea Mara however this one was neither. I would normally give it 3 stars however it is losing a star for the point below (which is a minor spoiler so don't read on if you don't want to know more.....)
....There is a point in the novel where they have a photo of one of the characters and they are trying to date the picture by the fact that the character has a nose stud but they then realise that it isn't a nose stud but is instead a speck of dust on the photo...sorry, not buying it.
Absolutely loved this one. It was so interesting and gripping and the twists were amazing. Andrea Mara is a safe choice always, although I always get whiplash from her books so beware! Would absolutely recommend!
Literally a pile of steaming shit. Most bizarre plot. Don’t even bother with this one. Not even worth the time for a review. Won’t be considering Mara as an author to read anymore. Avoid at all cost. That’s it.
I read this in a day and genuinely struggled to put it down. I absolutely flew through it!
After a wedding, two young women vanish from a pool house. There’s blood left behind, and from there it’s a constant spiral of suspicion, shifting perspectives and second guessing everything you think you know. It’s not just about what happened. It’s about who you believe, and that never feels settled.
This explores adult friendships, long buried secrets and revenge in a way that feels messy, layered and constantly shifting. Loyalties feel fragile, perspectives keep changing, and I was constantly recalibrating as new details came to light.
The pacing is sharp, the chapters are quick, and it’s incredibly easy to lose hours to this without even realising (I mean, did I set out when I picked this up around midday today to read this in a day? No I did not. Yet, here we are at 10ishpm having done just that)!
Twisty, tense and ridiculously addictive. I couldn’t put it down and highly recommend if you love character driven domestic suspense where no one can be taken at face value.
The morning after attending a glamorous wedding, best friends Grace & Siobhan are stocked to learn their daughters, Ré and Luna are missing. There is blood in found in their accommodation and it doesn’t make any sense, but even more confusing is learning a call was made to 999, with one of their girls saying the other was threatening them with a knife?
Siobhan believes the voice on the call is her daughter Ré, and Grace is convinced the voice is her daughter Luna.. but who was it? And where are the girls now?
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Andrea Mara has done it again! This slow burn suspense builds perfectly with each chapter
Without giving anything away, let me say this is one of those fab stories where you have no idea where you are headed as you get caught up the web of twists and turns!
Thank you so much Penguin Books for my gifted copy!
I don’t know why I keep trying Mara’s books. Each one I’ve tried, I’ve not finished. I have come to learn after attempting to read nearly a handful of her work, that it’s the overwhelming dialogue that feels like filler to her intriguing plots. If it weren’t for the abundance of needless dialogue, I think I would favor her writing style. Not sure if there will be a next time.
It's been a busy few months and I'm hopelessly behind on reviews, but determined to get back on track and what better book to start with than Andrea Mara's latest thriller, which is due to be published on 7 May.
Andrea is renowned for her well-plotted, Irish suburban noir - with All Her Fault having recently been made into a blockbuster TV series starring Sarah Snook - and Andrea delivers again with Such a Nice Girl. It's set in south county Dublin but with a summer setting and a swimming pool in the garden (a rarity in Ireland!), this could be California or the South of France. It makes for a great holiday read (I read it in the Greek sunshine over Easter).
The book opens on the morning after a glamorous wedding, and two lifelong friends awake to discover that both of their daughters are missing, and with a bloodstain on the carpet of the poolhouse, it would appear that one of them is trying to kill - or has killed - the other.
Andrea's books are famously intricately plotted, sometimes to the point where the sheer number of characters takes me out of the story, and I'll often forget what happened in the book almost immediately after finishing it. That didn't happen here. This is a tightly plotted mystery that kept me turning pages and guessing to the end (red herrings galore thrown in). It has TV/film adaptation written all over it. One to pack in your hand luggage; you'll have it finished before you land. 4/5 stars
*Many thanks to Andrea and to Penguin Books Ireland for the advance copy. Such a Nice Girl will be published next week on 8 May.
“I need police, help me, my room-mate has a knife, we had a fight, she said she’s going to kill me…”
This story is a high tension slow burn that's very dense with information. It’s not just about the peculiar circumstances of two girls gone missing that start the ripple of the police investigation. Actually, what starts as a simple phone call to the emergency soon unravels a much bigger and older picture, also between the mothers of both missing girls.
It’s a book about friendships and old feuds, betrayal and bitterness, also forgiveness and moving on. But before that, it gets super tangled by lies and turns of events, and messy as hell with suspense and unraveling secrets.
Definitely a very thrilling mystery that's set against a very interesting backdrop of a posh neighborhood in Dublin where despite the unlikely weather people have not only swimming pools but also pool houses. I never thought there even was such a thing - you live and you learn!
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. I ended up listening to the majority of the book and audio and can highly recommend.
However the “Aussie” accent was very weird and strange. Bit too over the top. Very enjoyable book the quips back and forth between the mothers were hilarious. This book went into so many directions. Loved it
4⭐️- Andrea Mara never disappoints 📚🔥 Another brilliant thriller that throws you straight into the action from page one and does not let up.
As usual, it is packed with plenty of twists and turns 😳🌀 and each chapter ends on a cliffhanger that keeps you saying “just one more chapter” over and over again.
Some of the twists did feel a bit over the top at times 🤯 but it still worked overall and kept the pace really entertaining.
Overall, I liked it a lot 👍 just not quite as strong for me as some of her previous books, which I absolutely loved more. Still a very solid, addictive read though.
Oh wow!!! Andrea Mara knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat. You will be questioning everyone in this book and still not figure it out, what a fantastic read this was.
She’s back! Queen of the domestic suspense novel Andrea Mara’s latest is publishing this week and I’m delighted to say it’s another banger. I’m talking can’t-put-down, reading-into-the-middle-of-the-night addictive reading, with a healthy sprinkling of trauma for the parents amongst us.
Siobhán and Grace have been best friends for most of their lives. Their daughters Ré and Luna are now in their early 20’s and on the surface are also pals but the morning after a glamorous wedding the two young women have seemingly disappeared without a trace leaving their mothers panicking. It soon transpires that one of the girls phoned the Gardaí asking for help, saying “my roommate is trying to kill me”.
It’s not obvious whose voice it is, leaving Siobhán and Grace stuck in an impossible situation; finding their kids before one of them hurts the other. But which is the dangerous one? Soon all sorts of secrets from the past are being revealed in an effort to find the girls, changing all their lives in the process.
What Andrea Mara does really well is take a regular parental fear and flip it; what if it was actually deeply terrifying instead? Mentioned in the book is that horror of getting a call from Creche to say your kid was involved in a biting incident; every parent would prefer their kid was the bitten party rather than the biter.
This is that but on speed.
My nerves were shot reading it, it’s so carefully plotted and evenly paced, I feel like I was on edge from the first page to the very end. There’s plenty of believable red herrings in here too so I couldn’t guess the ending; which rarely happens to me!
If you’re saving this for your holidays, that’s a great choice but I think this is also ideal for getting anyone out of a reading rut.
Highly recommend!
With many thanks @penguinbooksireland for my early copy. All opinions are my own, as always. Such a Nice Girl is out on the 7th of May.
Andrea Mara is a go-to author for me! She never fails to disappoint and this one hits the mark so well! You’re thrown into the action instantly making it completely bingeable. The writing style is captivating and the twists were brilliant! Another fab Mara book! Definitely one to add to your TBR!~⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bought this book in the dublin airport because I left my kindle at the hotel :// really good actually and held my interest! Definitely twisty and a thriller but got a bit confusing with alll of the twists
I really enjoyed this book! I look forward to reading other books by this author. There were so many twists in this book I didn’t see coming. But then again I rarely can figure books out. I would definitely recommend this book
Andrea Mara’s latest thriller…two best friends discover that their daughters Luna and Ré are missing, it is unclear who is the killer and who is the victim. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and made me want to keep on reading!
Siobhan and Grave have been best friends for many years. One day after celebrating the wedding of Graces ex husband Charlie they wake to find that both of their both of their daughters have gone missing. Not only that but one of the girls made a 999 call saying that she was being threatened by the other girl with a knife. The only problem is Siobhan thinks the voice belongs to her daughter Rae and Grace thinks the voice belongs to her daughter Luna. Just what happened to these two women? And where are they now??
I really enjoyed this, Andrea Mara is incapable of writing a bad book and this is no exception. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, this isn’t something I am always a fan of but after settling into it and making a “who’s who” list it all got a little easier to keep track of. Also the slow burn was a little slow at times! One thing I didn’t doubt though was that there would be twists which I was really eager for.
Two girls go missing the day after a boujee wedding, and their parents begin to worry after finding what they think is blood. They call the Gardaí, who reveal they received a 999 call claiming that one of the girls is trying to harm the other.
This book is not messing around. The story kicks off with a bang, and you are sucked in immediately!
However, when the Gardaí play the phone call for them, no one can tell which girl it is on the phone. I thought this was really silly—how can you not tell who it is on the phone?!
The chapters were short and punchy, and it was addictively written. It is certainly an easy one to fly through, albeit far-fetched at times! I definitely had to suspend my disbelief.
The story is jam-packed with twists. Some I thought were obvious, while others I found jaw-dropping!
I enjoyed this and think it is worth a read, but you definitely have to take it at face value. Don't overthink it like I did; just sit back and enjoy the fast-paced drama unfold.
This was ok. It wasn’t edge of your seat or particularly thrilling and I found the story a bit of a stretch. For some reason I couldn’t hold on to the characters for the whole book. It was bizarre. Two mums and their 24 year old daughters who go missing after a family wedding, and the whole way through I was like who’s that mum, who’s daughter is she etc. I just couldn’t attain the info in my head. This is the author of “All her fault” and that was a better read.
“Every bad deed ever is carried out by a person who was once someone’s child.”
What a great line! I took a photo of this whilst reading and then realised it’s used in the marketing text too.
Best friends Siobhán and Grace wake up after their friends wedding to find their 24-year-old daughters Ré and Luna are nowhere to be seen. Their room is trashed and there’s been a strange call to the Gardaí…
Fears grow that the cause of the disappearance may be that one of the girls has harmed the other. Both mums are keen to find them whilst each defends their own child.
This makes for a gripping domestic thriller. The timeline switches between the days and months before as well as during the search and often ends in a cliff hanger that makes you want to stay with that timeline. There’s a few lines like “That’s when it hits her” that will have you cursing as you want to find out more immediately but luckily the chapters can be short so you’re never waiting too long for the reveal!
There are plenty of secrets to uncover about the girls and their mothers, some you may figure out easily but don’t worry there are still more that will shock you!
I really enjoyed this one, it’s up there just after Someone in the Attic for me! It was fun to read along with our The Mara-thon Readers group on Instagram and discuss theories too.