I’ll admit it. I wanted to read the book based on the title alone. I had expectations of what I would read and well, I was completely blown away. I enjoyed the plot and how the clues were slowly doled out.

Ashley, Natalie, and Lauren developed a close-knit friendship during college but over the years their friendship unraveled.

Ashley is feeling out of control in several areas of her life and she is determined to bring her best friends together for a girl’s only trip to Mexico. She knows there are significant issues to resolve but rest assured, nostalgia for the old days would help restore this friendship. She has high expectations and let’s face it, Ashley gets what Ashley wants.

Toasting over fishbowl sized margaritas, they all agree that anything could happen. After a wild night of who knows what, Natalie wakes up completely alone on beach with absolutely no memory of what happened. She’s scared and fearful that she was drugged. Natalie is the responsible one. She’s forty with a husband and kids and this kind of thing could never happen to her.

Nothing goes according to Ashley’s plan. One of them goes missing and the next few days are just plain scary.
Mexico, a beautiful paradise is the setting for this heart stopping nightmare. Nothing is as it seems. Did she run away? Was she kidnapped or murdered? There is no shortage of suspects and possible scenarios.

Though it was a little long, I enjoyed the book. Each time I thought I had it figured out, I was proven wrong.

I received an advance review copy of this book from Great Thoughts Ninjas. All opinions are my own.

I read this book in one day on a beautiful holiday weekend. I wasn’t expecting such an intriguing story. There were so many factions and debth to the characters. Ashley, Lauren and Natalie all were likable , relatable,yet flawed. The girls meet for a vacation in Mexico to try to reconnect their friendships. We’ve all been there... friendships suffer due to marriages, families, jobs and other outside interests. The concept of leaving everyday life behind to nourish those old friendships is appealing, but clearly not as easy as it sounds. Hidden secrets, past hurts, marriage issues, jealousy, financial troubles etc are a lot to resolve over a few days. It was interesting to me that the authors admit to experiencing their own friendship/work issues. Perhaps that reality is what made this book work so well. On a silly note, the three main characters names sound like a millennial sorority roster and I had to go back to the beginning of the book twice to remind myself who was who and what their backstory was. There’s a lot to think about this story long after the last chapter. I will be highly recommending this to many.
#girlsnightout #netgalley #lisasteinke #lizfenton

I really enjoyed this book! There was an “incident” that you don’t find out until the end of the story. The rest of the book takes place before the incident and after the incident. It was an interesting read for me, as the story kept going back and forth, which made it fun to read. This is sure to be a good beach read this summer. If you do read, be sure to check out the author’s note. It is my favorite author’s note of all time! Happy reading!

First of all, I have to say I'm crazy impressed by anyone who can write a novel WITH someone else. Not to mention, two friends writing together! This must be so much fun, but also immensely difficult and tense and potentially friendship destroying! But Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke managed to do it yet again and put out an extremely well-written, suspenseful novel.

The premise of the book will suck you in from the start. Three girlfriends on vacation in Tulum together, working on repairing their friendships, which have had some rough times over the past year or so. When Natalie wakes up one morning on the beach with no memory of the light before and can't find Ashley, she and Lauren immediately start searching for her. The book bounces back from the start of the girls' vacation to the search for Ashley and along the way, we're given more and more clues to what happened in their friendships and what occurred during their vacation together.

I loved the way the details were doled out and thought the pace was perfect. I kept changing my mind on what I thought happened to Ashley and was jumping back and forth between theories. I can't way I was blown away by the ending, but won't share much here so as not to give anything away. I was also slightly bothered by Lauren's anger toward Ashley and couldn't fully comprehend why she was still so pissed. Then again, I've never been in a similar position, so I decided to not over-think it (I'm a fabulous over-thinker) and just go with it.

Overall, I enjoyed this thriller; it kept me on the edge of my seat and I'd definitely recommend it to friends!

<i>"What kind of girls' night out does he not understand?" Natalie asked.</i>

This is a perfect summer book. Do yourself a favor and find a body of water (pool/ocean/lake/etc.) and dive in. You're in for a wild ride.

Girls' Night Out switches between Natalie, Ashley and Lauren -- three friends who are trying to repair old wounds during a trip to Tulum, Mexico. On their last night, Ashley goes missing and Lauren and Natalie are left to piece together what happened.

The book jumps back and forth between the night of Ashley disappearing and the events leading up to the night. Things are certainly tense between the women as there is a lot of history and hurt feelings coming from all directions.

<i>Had she become addicted to how the anger felt, how it slid into the small chasms of her budding happiness, crushing it? Maybe.</i>

<i>"But you know what the difference is? You get to decide! You took that away from me. And I don't know if I can ever forgive you for that."</i>

While this book is certainly a thriller, it also takes a deep dive at friendships and whether they can be saved, even after they've turned toxic or started to fall apart. I appreciated the author writing three complicated, but strong, women who are neither fully good or bad. All three are complicated and complex and we feel for them, even as they make poor choices.

Just FYI, trigger warnings for abuse (physical and emotional) and drug/alcohol use. Also some mention of rape, but only speculative.

All in all, this was a fun read and I would certainly recommend it. And as I mentioned before, bonus points if you have a cold drink and a warm, sunny spot by some water to read it near.

I enjoy all of Liz Fenton/Lisa Steinke books so when this one came out, I was excited to get it through the publisher and NetGalley for my honest review. I've never been to Tulum, Mexico but have wanted to go. I started reading this while in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and it made me think twice before walking on the beach ALONE! Yes, this book made me nervous! But I loved it! Great story about 3 BFF's and one goes missing!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke for an advanced copy of this chilling and suspenseful novel.

When Ashley disappears on the girls' trip she organized in the hopes of repairing estranged relationships with her oldest friends, secrets, blame, and self doubt arise.

For Natalie, who runs a mega successful company with Ashley but ultimately wants different things for said company, the timing of Ash's disappearance leaves her thinking of one two things - could she have run off to avoid decisions regarding their work, or has something truly sinsiter happened?

Lauren often felt like the odd woman out for many years in the trio's friendship. Feeling discouraged after not making headway with Ash regarding the issues that plague them, Lauren lashes out in what may be the final blow up between them, for Ash is missing by the next morning.

Add in a handsome and charismatic stranger who worms his way in between the women, and who was one of the last people to have seen Ash, and you have the recipe for an intriguing page turner.

Told from the POV of all three women, in the days leading up to and after Ash's disappearance, Girls' Night Out is full of tension and explores the intricacies of female friendship in a gripping and memorable fashion.

Wow!! These two are a powerful force in book writing! Girls' Night Out captured my interest from the first page and would not give it up into the final period! The characters, the setting (which happens to be on my bucket list), and the storyline are all wonderfully blended together into this mystery!

The mystery of the disappearance of one woman who goes missing as the three friends are in Tulum, Mexico, trying to repair their friendship kept me reading to the end, but their differences and arguments got tedious and none of the women was likeable.

The story not only alternates from the three women’s points of view, it also bounces back and forth between the few days before Ashley disappears to the days after. So, one chapter you’ll be reading about the night they arrived, the morning after she disappears, two days before she disappears, the night she disappears, then back to three days before she disappears. That had to be a very hard way for the authors to plot this novel, but it did let all three women’s secrets be revealed in a way that unravels nicely.

Both Lauren and Natalie have reason to be pissed at Ashley, but there has also always been a rivalry between the two of them for her affection for the twenty years they’ve been friends. Though the trip was supposed to be about the three of them forgiving each other, Ashley spends much of her time with a handsome stranger, Marco, (despite the fact she’s married) adding tension between the three women.

Despite the good things about the novel, their endless arguments over the same things over and over again made it an unenjoyable read in the end.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the advanced copy of #GirlsNightOut!

This was a great book and a great follow up to The Good Widow, which I loved! The story is simple. Three friends go on a vacation in hopes of repairing their friendship however all of them have something to hide or are holding grudges from previous events. When one of them disappears, it forces the remaining two women to come to turns with their part in the disappearance and what they could've done differently in the months/year leading up to this trip. This book makes you think about the relationships in your life and how important it is to be honest with those closest to you, and yourself, and that you should try and forgive when you have the chance.

Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down! The premise is simple enough: three friends, who have tensions running through their friendship, take a girls trip to Mexico to try to rekindle their friendship. They search for forgiveness and clarity through the lens of margaritas, sunsets and spirituality.

However, when one of them ends up missing, the pieces of the story need to fit together to figure out what happened. Told through the perspectives of the three friends, alternating between the events leading up to the disappearance and the events after the disappearance, the whole story is gradually told.

The characters are well-developed and their actions all make sense. This isn't a book where you have to suspend reality or disbelief - you can understand why everything happens. The ending is resolved in a way that makes sense as well.

The format and story was similar to Liane Moriarty; you know the big event (one of the girls is missing) but you don't know what happened until about 3/4 through the book and then the rest is spent answering the questions the reader had all along.

This book is truly the perfect blend of a beach read and a thriller. The reader feels like they are with the three friends, cringing at times, laughing at others. However, there's the shroud of mystery that surrounds the trip - what happened to Ashley?

By the end, you'll know. And as the co-authors write at the end, you'll want to give your friends a hug, a call, anything to let them know how much you love them. Because at the end of the day, friendship (especially female friendship) is one of the most important things to have. And what would we do without that?

Loved this book!!! A girls' vacation sounds like fun, until someone goes missing. Ashley, Natalie and Lauren head to Mexico for a girls' getaway. They have been friends for twenty years, but haven't been close in the last year. Lauren blames Ashley for what happened to her husband and they haven't spoken in a year. Ashley and Natalie are not only best friends but own a company together. Natalie desperately wants to sell it, while Ashley completely refuses. Ashley meets Marco on the second day of the trip and spends much of her time with him. On their last night in Mexico, Ashley disappears. Natalie has no memory, Lauren was fighting with her and Marco is nowhere to be found.

The book alternates between before Ashley disappeared and after. Ashley was my least favorite character. She invited her friends on the trip and pretty much blew them off for some random guy. As soon as she met Marco, she pretty much told him everything about herself. All the woman even went to a private beach with him where no one knew where they were. I guess I watch to much Investigation Discovery because I immediately thought Marco was some kind of creep, preying on innocent female tourists and that he will either murder or kidnap Ashley. I'm not sure I would call Ashley, Natalie and Lauren friends. They seemed to hate each other. I don't know why they didn't tell each other the truth about what was going on in their lives. Natalie didn't want to tell them why she needed to sell the company.

I definitely recommed the book and now need to start reading the authors' previous books. I liked the writing style and the story.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and the authors, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.

Thank you Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an early copy of Girls’ Night Out. I was so looking forward to this book since I read The Good Widow and this book did not disappoint me at all. Great friends that had many secrets in their friendship, Told from all three characters made it more interesting, I did not want it to end.

I want to thank Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an early copy of Girls’ Night Out. I really loved the premise of a week away with best friends in a beautiful setting. Friendships have so many different aspects, this book touched on many of them. It was a fast read, I enjoyed it.

Three friends take a beach vacation to attempt to reconnect after growing apart. One of the women goes missing, and her business partner/best friend is the last person to see her, but she can't remember what happened because she blacked out. It was a fun thriller, but my favorite part about this book is how well the authors captured the complex relationships between long-time friends who can love and hate and fear and want to give up, all at the same time. I've often wondered how two authors can collaborate together to create one cohesive book. It seems like such a solitary pursuit, but I'm not a writer so what do I know? I appreciated the authors' insight into their writing process and their relationship's evolution after the end of the book. I can see how their own dynamic influenced this story and I think that's a big part of why it worked so well.

Have you ever doubted where your life was going and found yourself nostalgic for times gone by? What would you do to go back in time? Ashley finds herself feeling lonely just as she is on the verge of the biggest success she has had in her life. She calls together her three estranged friends for a trip that is supposed to reinvigorate their souls and their relationships. What happens at the resort however is that old wounds are opened and the integrity of their friendship is fractured as the women vie for attention. When one of the women turns up missing and another has a lapse in memory these bonds are tested further and a cloak of suspicion surround the group.
A slow burn, Girls' Night Out is a well thought out mystery that is more about relationships than the whodunnit. My first Liz Fenton/Lisa Steinke novel, I'm glad that I had the chance to read it for Books and Lala's Buzzword Readathon.
Special thanks goes to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke for the receiving this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I wasn''t into this book; which is weird because I really liked the previous book by these authors. It felt very formulaic and like very other psychological thriller that has come out in recent years. I pretty much skimmed through until the end so I would know what happened to the characters. Would not purchase on my own but I appreciate the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy.

I read this book a few weeks back and wanted to wait a bit to review. I absolutely loved the book! The story delves into a friendship between 3 women who decide to take a vacation to Mexico to get the friendships back on track. As the book goes along, we learn more about the characters and what has happened in their lives over the course of their friendship. We find that they are pretty angry with each other over some misconceived notions of how they should run a business, how they should act towards one another and how to move on from all the hurt feelings. There are a lot of twists and turns in the book and the last one, you won’t see coming! It pretty much stayed with me after reading the book and at times, left me feeling sad about lost friendships. I would highly recommend this book!

Well-spun! Three friends, Ashley, Natalie and Lauren, are trying to rekindle their once terrific friendship. They've set out for a refreshing vacation in Tulum, Mexico in order to repair their relationship. Once there each of them begins to confront secrets that they've been keeping from one another about themselves. When they are out one night, Ashley disappears. No one knows what happened to her. Has she run away? Has she been kidnapped by the man that has befriended her on the vacation? Has someone murdered her? This book definitely keeps you guessing. It's another fantastic read by Team Fenton & Steinke. Great job, Ladies!!!!

Done @lisaandliz!! #bookreview time for Girl’s Night Out!! Blazed through the last 27% this morning! Couldn’t do anything else until I knew what happened!!
I had theories, oh did I have theories! And they kept changing even just with one action or sentence by a character!
SO well written. Seamless. Characters were amazing and well thought out! Loved the location! Next thing I’m doing is googling Chichén Itzá! God I felt myself in so many of the characters relationship and marital struggles (not from the abuse side at all thankfully!) the fights were so real and I just wanted to scream at some of them to realize how they were wrong! But then I’d see the other persons side 🤦🏻‍♂️
Girl’s Night Out is just a hugely successful book! I loved every minute of it and I can’t for a physical hardcover to grace my shelves!! ❤️❤️📚❤️📚
Five HUGE stars from me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I will recommend this book until the end of time! ❤️
#bookstagram #girlsnightout #lisaandliz #lizfenton #lisasteinke #bookreview #bookrecommendation #arc #advancedreaderscopy #thriller #mystery