This was a fast paced twisty novel that reveals the twisty often complicated nature of long term friendships .
I enjoyed reading this book although I found it difficult to connect with the women.
Thanks to Net galley and lake union for allowing me to review this book.

"Girls Night Out" by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke was an intense, heart pounding novel that really made you think! This was my first read by these authors but definitely will not be my last! These ladies definitely know how to set up an amazing setting as well as in-depth characters.

I absolutely loved how the story alternated between the character's POVs and also the days surrounding Ashley's disappearance. I won't give a lot away storywise in this review but I will say, definitely check this book out! 4.5 stars

The brilliant duo of Fenton and Steinke bring us a suspenseful work of psychological intrigue about three ladies attempting to reconnect after events that lead to division in the group; division which caused deep wounds that have gone unhealed.

Ashley, Lauren and Natalie head to picturesque Tulum, Mexico to reconnect but while there get much more than they anticipated. I enjoyed that the story unfolded from each person's differing perspectives while offering insight into past and present events (and intentions); events that had the potential to lead to danger.

Halfway through I thought I had it all figured out. Nope! There are twists and turns that lead away from the normal course but that leave you wanting more. I absolutely LOVED this read. It was exciting, unpredictable and filled with the scaffolding of suspense.

I received an advanced review copy (ARC) of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ashley plans a girls weekend in Tulum for herself and best friends Natalie and Lauren. The three of them are on the outs and the Mexican vacation is a last ditch effort to salvage their relationships. While on vacation, the girls drink, fight, drink, fight, meet a cute guy, drink, fight, do yoga, drink fight. On the final morning of their trip, Natalie wakes up on the beach with no recollection of the night before and discovers that Ashley is missing. Together, her and Lauren work to piece together what happened the night before and try and track down Ashley.

This one was not for me, but if you like easy beach reads (see: the last time i lied, woman in cabin 10, woman in the window) and have a couple hours to kill, this might be right for you. There’s some wish fulfillment in female friends traveling to a beautiful locale for drinks and fun, and there is a lot of discussion about female friendship and empowerment. Further, the mystery, while not satisfying for me, might be for others.

3.25 stars, rounded down to 3*.

I'm a fan of Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke, and I've read all of their books. They are well-written, with relatable characters and interesting but believable twists.

Girls' Night Out is the story of Ashley, Natalie & Lauren: college friends who decide to get together for a girls weekend in Mexico to try to work through drama and issues that have evolved in their friendship. Each woman arrives with marital troubles and unspoken irritation with the other friends. Ashley & Natalie bear the added burden of having built a successful business that has a buyout offer that they are unable to agree on how to handle. Enter a mysterious man who attaches himself to Ashley, causes friction and leads them to make decisions that lead them to Natalie waking up wet on the beach with no memory of the night before and Ashley missing.

What I liked: the women related in a way I thought was realistic. I enjoyed their self-reflection and the way they talk about managing their careers and families. I liked that the chapters were unveiled in each characters voice telling their version of events. I liked that I really wasn't sure what happens

What I didn't like: I felt like at times the characterization of Ashely, in particular, was stilted and she came across as a caricature. She seemed like she could be based on a reality TV character. I didn't love how the women passive-agressively fought and none of them seemed willing to put themselves in each others' shoes. The childishness and immaturity of their possessive friendship dynamic made me sad.

I'd definitely recommend this as a beach read or a travel read. It's not life-changing literature but it's good for what it is.

* with thanks to netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Girls Night Out: A story about three friends away for a girls weekend in Mexico trying to resolve some issue from the past and rebuild their friendship. Some are ready to forgive and move on and others are afraid to let go of their past as if they do their whole life will change until something goes terrible wrong.
I enjoyed this story although a times thought it dragged a bit and could have been edited to remove some of the unnecessary detail. The ending was definitely a twist that I was not expecting and the writing flowed effortless while talking during present time and then flashing back to previous parts of their lives. I highly recommend reading this and it does remind you that forgiveness is the kindest gift a person can give.

Solid four stars

Thank you for the chance to read this ahead of release, Netgalley!

I love the premise of the book and that's certainly what drew me to it. Complicated dynamics between friends and any kind of story that focuses on a shift in a relationship definitely draws me in. Marriage and work can be real friendship killers. The idea of having the three spend a vacation together was a genius way to help magnify or condense their troubles.

My only hangups with the book are that 1/ I felt like there was more dialogue than I normally like - lots of back and forth tennis match style dialogue. It was tricky for me to keep track of who was who and possibly I should have written down their names but it felt like they were all too similar somehow (could have entirely been my own headspace at the time though and not a flaw of the book) and 2/ I actually got tired of all of their feelings! How is this possible?! Maybe I was just jealous of the women for even being on vacation and I was a little irritated by their tiffs. I would normally be all over a book about women talking about their feelings and ultimately, I imagine I was just having some sort of female friendships/stories fatigue at the time of reading this. It was like being taken along on a deep undercover version of a Real Housewives franchise vacation episode (but I mean that as a compliment!) .

That all said, Fenton and Steinke totally got right into the dynamics and intricacies of female friendships and how they break and shift and I did really appreciate their approach in this book.

I would also like to mention I'm loving the trend of teams of women writing books, by the way. I hope more of this happens. I'm totally fascinated by the process! Looking forward to their next book.

I had high hopes for this one, but sadly, it left me feeling very disappointed.



*After seeing all the hype it is getting, I appear to be the outsider here. But, if you give me a minute, I will explain. Also, I feel bad giving a negative review on a popular book, but I can't lie. It was so not my favorite.



This novel is about three estranged friends who travel to Mexico on a girls' trip to mend fences, but along the way, one of the girls goes missing. I purposely read this book at the end of my own girls' trip to Mexico, so I think my experience (and friendships) greatly influenced my feelings.



Ashley is the loud on the group and the one that goes missing. I hated Ashley. She came off as obnoxious and stupid, honestly. For example, she spends her time on the girls' trip with a local guy she just met talking about spiritual crystals and whatnot (she's married, by the way). And, she does not seem to understand why her friends might be upset with her.



Lauren is the most estranged from the group because her husband died from a heart attack when Ashley convinced her to leave him because he was beating her. So, she's mad at Ashley for "killing her husband." I can't even with this one. Oh, and she apparently has a sex addiction now.



Natalie is Ashley's actual BFF and company partner, but she wants out. The problem is she has zero backbone and just won't be honest and tell her friend that her family is in desperate need of the money they'd get from selling the company to Revlon. Oh, and she woke up from being blacked out on the beach the night her BFF went missing.



The novel is basically a series of whining and arguing and talking behind each other's backs. This is the stuff of high school (or college at the most), but THESE ARE FORTY-YEAR-OLD WOMEN! Um, no. I am nearing forty and my friends and I do not act anything like the women in this book.



The climax and ending were disappointing, mainly because I hated the characters so much. I didn't really care what happened to them or who did it. All I thought the whole time was that this was a very immature view of adult female friendships and women, in general.



It was unrelatable and unbelievable. But, then again, maybe it is because I have been lucky enough to have friendships based on love and respect. I say pass on this one unless grown women acting like thirteen-year-olds sounds appealing to you.



Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy to read and review. I wish I had liked it more!

Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC.

Overall I enjoyed this book about 3 women who go to Mexico to try and reignite their friendship. The story goes back and forth over a period of about 4 days with the before and after story of each friend , their perspective on their friendship and what went and what is still going wrong with their relationship. What started as a beautiful beach reunion ended with a mystery disappearance of one of the friends. This coupled with a mystery man who seeks to monopolise one of the women.

I advise readers to read and enjoy this story of friendship and betrayal you will not be disappointed .

I couldn’t wait to read Girls’ Night Out and it didn’t disappoint! I enjoyed getting each character’s point of view. I also the flashing back between before and after the event. It was an enjoyable read. I didn’t want the story to end. Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC.

A very weak ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars

Ashley, Natalie and Lauren, about to turn forty, have been “best friends” for nearly twenty years!

But the friendship is strained.

Last year, Ashley and Lauren had a fight, at the funeral of Lauren’s deceased husband, Geoff.

And, now Revlon has offered to buy from Ashley and Natalie, a product they designed and marketed, called the Blowbrush, and the two cannot agree on whether or not to accept the offer.

So, Ashley decides to invite both of the women to Tulum, Mexico on a “girl’s trip” in an attempt to restore their bond.

“Girl’s night out” is told in alternating timelines from each woman’s perspective:

“Before that night” , “That Night”, and “After That Night”

The first 50% of the book is very repetitive. Drink too much, Bicker, Repeat.

Immature dialogue (excerpt: “the bartender sarcastically asked if she wanted another. Duh, she said, and pushed her empty glass across the bar,”) kept me from relating to any of the three women, who seemed much younger than their age.

The women are supposed to be “best friends” but they obviously have never really confided in each other, as “best friends” do. They don’t use the time together on this vacation to discuss anything substantial either.

No wonder nobody is reconnecting or having a good time.

Lauren blames Ashley for her husband’s death (which did not seem justified to me), Natalie refuses to tell Ashley why she wants to accept Revlon’s offer, and Ashley, disappointed in how this trip is going, turns to a local, Marco, for spiritual advice, or maybe more...

And, then Ashley goes missing.

Both Natalie and Lauren, regret their last conversation with Ashley, and their hazy memories from all of the liquor have them worried that their nasty accusations may be the cause of their friend’s disappearance.

Where is Ashley? Is she alive? Did she leave on her own accord?

I WAS curious enough to finish the book and to find out, BUT feel that those of a younger generation may be a better audience for this book, than I was. (I have already celebrated the milestone birthday that they were approaching) 🎂

I really enjoyed this one! Good mystery until the last possible second and I never came up with the ending way beforehand which is unheard of recently. Would highly recommend.

Three friends, Ashley, Natalie and Lauren, used to be so close. However, it seems lately that the trio are not as close as they used to be and Natalie wants to change that. So, of course, a trip to Tulum, Mexico is in order - a place to "relax".

When Ashley ends up missing, relaxing time is over and the friends must figure their stuff out and find her.

While I found this to be a pretty good read, I did have trouble with all the bickering going on with these women. And there was a LOT of bickering. They were really turning me off. I almost put the book down. However, I did finish it.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I knew straight away this was the book for me!! A story about friendship and betrayal that’s beautifully written and stays with you after reading it.

Lauren, Ashley and Natalie are friends that are not as close as they used to be, so Ashley invites them to stay with her in Mexico hoping that they can build bridges between them, but it will take more than sea, sand and Sangria’s when friends are keeping secrets from each other!!

After a night out with local Marco, Natalie wakes up the next day on the beach alone and Ashley is missing. Has something happened to her or has she run away!!

I loved the dynamics of this friendship, 3 close friends but 1 will always feel left out. As the story unfolds we discover why their friendship unravels and that each of them was partly to blame.

The question is do we ever really know someone or what they are capable of doing? We all have secrets that we may not want to share and this book just blew me away. This twisting intriguing thriller made me think about my friendships and whether I am a good friend after all!!

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley. This will not effect my review of this book.
1.5 stars. I really struggled whether giving this book one or two stars, this is a story about three women who go on vacation to Tulum and one of them goes missing. These women are 39-40 years old and I didn't quite understand why they kept acting like teenagers throughout the entire book, fighting with each other, flirting with the bartenders, passing out drunk in the beach, going away with strangers who claim to be owners of a smoothie bar; Since they've been having problems with each other, at times, it seems like they just hate each other and they're pretending to be friends, which is kind of annoying.
This book is very easy to read, although sometimes you can get lost in the conversations.
I love mystery and suspense books but this one just didn't do it for me.
Also, as a mexican, I felt attacked while reading this book, first thing that bothered me is that the very first thought of the character we are presented is "Did I get mugged? raped? Because well, I'm in Mexico" and then it actually happens, one of the girls goes missing! I can't even remember how many times Natalie points that being there is not safe because "It's Mexico!" Plus, come on, the names of the hotel employees are "Jose" and the two-braided woman "Maria", really?
I just would like to give the authors some statistics about their own country.
They write that in MX there are 30,000 people missing, well, in the US there are 83,957.
They say that there are 1500 corpses in MX, but there were 1930 murders in California (where the women in the book are from) in 2016.
It doesn't bother me that the story/crime takes place in Mexico, the thing that bothers me, it's the way they talk about the country.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

What happens on a girl's trip to Mexico and one of your best friends disappears? Ashley , Lauren and Natalie have been friends forever and what starts as a relaxing, fun girl's trip turns into a mystery of what happened to Ashley. Lots of twists and a stunning conclusion. A definite must read!

Girls’ Night Out (which is officially published as of today!) is by the same pair as The Good Widow—Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. Three seemingly estranged friends hope their Mexican vacation can help them reconnect…until they wake up, one of them is missing, and one of them can’t remember the night before. Told in a split-narrative from all three women’s perspectives, this novel also alternates between “the night” in Ashley disappears, and the aftermath of how Natalie and Lauren try to find out what happened to their friend. As their relationship is already estranged, Natalie and Lauren start to doubt each other and wonder what really happened to Ashley–all while each woman is coping with some personal issues.

As I mentioned, it took me a bit to get into this book; I didn’t really connect with any of the characters–two of which own their own thriving business, and the other who is mourning the loss of her abusive husband. I also wasn’t dying to know what had happened; I just wasn’t invested. But then…something clicked and I was hooked; I flew through the last half of the story, just as everything was starting to unravel! Even up to the very end I was trying to figure out exactly what happened, and how the characters would cope. While I couldn’t necessarily connect with the main female characters, I think all women can relate to dealing with frenemies and/or trying to navigate strong, female friendships. If you’re looking for a thriller or suspense novel with some beautiful resort-like scenery, potentially unreliable narrators, and strong female characters, you will definitely enjoy Girls’ Night Out!

Yeeeesh. This one did not work for me AT. ALL. The story here is about three 40-somethings who take a girls’ trip in order to reconnect. There’s drama between two of them due to the fact that they hit the bigtime with their company “BloMe” (okay I’ll give credit where it’s due to that name) when they invented something every woman didn’t even know they needed until they saw it . . . .

Now one wants to sell and the other doesn’t. Both because of reasons that come out that I didn’t give a rip about. The other friend is there . . . . because I guess the author thought she needed a third wheel/someone to exchange dialogue with about what a dumb bitch the one who goes missing is????

Anyway, as I just said one of these cardboard cutouts idiots goes missing and the book is about trying to find her.

Warning for anyone who might be interested in going on a trip with me – there’s a pretty simple code you should respect and it goes a lil’ summin’ like . . . . .

HOES BEFORE BROS.

If you don’t follow it????? You get what you deserve.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

From the very first line I was hooked!! Three friends, a trip to Mexico and lots of alcohol, what could go wrong! Unfortunately something does go wrong, very wrong and then that ending, wow!! I loved this book and will be recommending it to the ladies in my book...

I loved ‘The Good Widow’ by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke so I was really looking forward to their next book, ‘Girls Night Out’. It certainly did not disappoint.
Ashley, Natalie and Lauren head to Mexico for a trip to mend the rifts in their friendship. After a girls night out they awake to a chilling discovery.
The story is told in flashbacks to a year ago as well as to several days before the girls night out. These flashbacks keep the reader quickly turning the pages to find out what happened to cause the rift in their friendship as well as what occurred during the girls night out.
I loved how the author used flashbacks to build up the suspense in the novel. This book is an adrenaline rush that will keep you guessing until the end.
I received an Advance Review Copy. All opinions are my own.