Right, first things first. I just need to say that this book is absolutely brilliant. It was a struggle to put it down and I only did so when I had to, like when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

There's so much more to the story than what is on the back of the book. Alice plays a big part but she shares the telling of the story with Naomi and Kat. Alice is married to George Bell, a former MP and now a television presenter. He's one of those supremely confident men who think that they can get away with anything (and often do). On a train one day, Alice thinks she sees Ruth, a woman who went missing when they were all at university, one George had a dalliance with. Naomi is Ruth's sister. Quite understandably, it's been hard to move on with her life when her sister is missing. Is she alive? Is she dead? Will she just turn up one day? Or did she see her for the last time all those years ago? Kat's story is mostly from those university days and we see much of what happened then through her eyes.

Alice's sighting on the train moves her to look a bit closer at George and to ask herself if she really knows her husband. More digging ensues and that, combined with the story from the past, mean that secrets are starting to come to light. As it says on the front cover, there is something that is revealed at the end that is totally unexpected. I'm not sure I gasped but it was quite a revelatory moment and I had to take a moment to process it.

The Girl Before You is just such a fantastic read. It's very human, it's full of real life issues. There are characters who have such a sense of entitlement I know I would have hated them if I'd come across them in real life. There are also some that I know I would like.

I'm trying to think what I liked best about this book but I think it's the whole combination: there's the wonderfully twisty and complex plot, which all comes together so cleverly; there's those characters to love or to hate; and then there's the writing which totally drew me in and completely absorbed me.

This is the kind of book I love. It's about relationships and friendships, with a mystery to solve. Nicola Rayner is one to watch.

"The Girl Before You" by Nicola Rayner

My first time reading that author.

3.5 stars.
I liked that book but it wasn't my favorite this year. I found it a bit confusing with the different POVs and expected more or different as it was said to be "The new Girl on the train".

Well written and interesting story. Good thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Alice has always been jealous of her charming husband's ex's but when she becomes pregnant those feelings intensify. One particular ex is the key focus of her obsession- a girl who disappeared after they dated. It is told through three different perspectives which isn't one of my favourite formats. I found this book to be quite slow and while I was interested- I wasn't gripped the whole way through. It's a perfectly enjoyable read but not one of the best thrillers I've read this year.

All the way through this book I felt I had read it before, I hadn’t! and that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, it and the themes just felt ‘familiar’......
I am not sure if the tag line ‘This Years Girl on The Train’ helped, this is distracting and also quite an accolade to live up to!
Anyway the story is....rich and privileged uni kids, excessive drink, drugs, sex and all the woes that came with that.....a end of Uni’ ball’, someone dies, secrets are made and kept and life continues.....
Fast forward years later and secrets have remained secret, lives have been led....and then the girl who died is ‘seen’ ( on a train granted ) and the past starts to unravel and come back to haunt them all, some
of them have no desire to revisit their Uni days, some need to to come to terms with what happened to them....and the sightings continue...did she really die?
In the mix is a ( now ) M.P. who was, in the day, a real ‘ladies man’ with his bezzie....of course there is more to that than meets the eye, that story and the sightings story with an added touch of teacher/uni student lesbian love all add up to quite a shocking story with many characters battling to get to various truths!
The ending is very quick, after reading 350 pages I prefer a robust ending rather than a ‘mmmmmm so what did that mean’ kinda conclusion
Strong and entitled characters, some uncomfortable subjects, good writing and a VERY unsettling teddy that reappears after years called ‘Nonny’ ( yep Nonny ) all tinged with as said ‘Ive read this before’ led me to a good read which I enjoyed, up to a point
7/10 4 Stars

Maybe it was the timing, but this was a bit rough getting into it. I just couldn't hold my interest.

And towards the middle I found myself skimming through it. It wasn't necessarily boring or bad, I just wanted to get to the end.

Also, please stop marketing books as "the next Girl On The Train". That gives the reader either two aspects: either the main character is portrayed to look crazy and really isn't (or is), or there is a big twist at the end. Either way, you want your reader going into it expecting none of that because you might get your hopes up, like I did.

This book was right up my street! Following a slightly slow start, the pace picked up considerably and I was immersed in this fabulous dual timeline story. It followed the viewpoints of different players in a disappearance both at that time and in the current day.

"The Girl Before You" was a very well thought out and engaging story and was edgy enough to keep my interest. With absorbing characters and intriguing themes it was definitely worth the read and for me, the elements all cleverly tied in together to complete a nice little package.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Avon Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

The Girl Before You is one of those psychological thrillers where the synopsis could is interchangeable with that of another book in the genre without losing the gist of the story. That's because there are so many novels effectively repeating the same trope-laden tale over and over, and this book is no exception. Don't get me wrong it's a fun, light, take-with-a-pinch-of-salt type of read and perhaps decent for a summer holiday or lounging around but nothing special or original.

However, I feel the fact that it is based at a university with all the usual student shenanigans means it should be targeted more at a young adult/teen audience as the sexual liaisons, endless drinking and drug taking started to become annoying to me. This is a domestic thriller that is merely a mediocre read and explores the notion that you can never truly know someone.

It's not the worst book I've ever picked up, but I was almost willing it to be over to engage with something better. The statement on the cover professing that you will be left gasping at the ending couldn't have been further from the truth. Many thanks to Avon for an ARC.

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

Thank you so much to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was not the page-turner I was expecting it to be. I was hoping for a great domestic thriller after reading the synopsis but it fell a little short for me. It was an overall okay read but at times I felt like the story was getting repetitive and I was reading the same thing over and over again.

This story is told from three different points of view and goes back and forth between the past and present. There were a few times when I honestly got confused about what time frame we were in and I forgot which character’s view I was reading about. I think the reason for that was because the book seemed extremely slow-paced so I would kind of drift off and forget where I was at.

The writing style is another thing I didn’t really care for in this book. I found myself getting bored a lot because it wasn’t very engaging for me. I might still try to read other books by the author but this wasn’t a “gasp-inducing” novel like it was claimed to be.

# The Girl Before you #
Wow how ridiculously fast you get drawn into this book, I couldn’t believe how quick I became hooked. It as a little creepy element behind the story, especially when his fist wife suddenly keeps popping up. It’s full of twists turns and a couple of heart stopping moments. This is very well written brilliant storyline. Full of shocks and surprises you don’t see coming. At one point I thought this is going to be a predictable ending, hmmmmm how wrong was I. One final twist changes the concept of the book so bloody amazing. I must read

My thanks to Avon Books for an eARC via NetGalley of Nicola Rayner’s domestic noir, ‘The Girl Before You’ in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Bell has always been haunted by the women from her husband’s past and especially Ruth, the beautiful student he dated while attending St. Anthony’s University. Ruth went missing in 2001 on the night of a memorial ball and was never seen again though was presumed drowned. When fifteen years later on her way home from Edinburgh Alice sees a woman on a train that resembles Ruth she cannot shake the feeling that George knows more about Ruth’s disappearance than he’s told her. She begins to investigate becoming quite obsessive.

George was a MP and is now embarking on a new career as a television presenter while Alice is a prominent London divorce lawyer. We learn of the lives of Ruth, her sister, Naomi, and her friend Kat as well as others present at St. Anthony’s during their wild student days and of enfolding events in the present.

There are multiple storylines and the narrative moves between them as well as back and forth in time. It did all become a bit confusing much like one of those multi-perspective domestic dramas. I just felt at times that I had whiplash from all the switching about.

It started fairly slowly though gathered pace as it progressed. Despite my feeling confused earlier on, the final sections did go a long way to redeem it for me bringing the threads together and providing answers to most of the mysteries.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Ruth went missing 20 years ago. Alice now pregnant thinks she sees Ruth. Good plot. Lots of twists. Definitely read more by this author

The Girl Before you by Nicola Rayner was not the page turner that I had hoped for. While overall I enjoyed the story I found it to be slow and dragged out. At times it I felt that I was reading the same thing over and over. Having said that I will read more by this author as I liked the story as whole.

George Bell is an MP and now a TV star. He has a reputation of being a ladies man. His wife Alice finally falls pregnant and becomes obsessed with one of Georges exes - Ruth, a read haired beauty that he dated at university and went missing. The story is told from multiple points of view including Naomi - Ruth's sister, Kat - Ruth's best friend and Alice. Through this we learn about Ruth's and Georges past which is colourful to say the least. The ending was a bit of a let down to be honest.

Thanks to Avon Books UK and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

This is a dark tale of men mistreating women under the guise of partying fun, where women strive to find their sexual freedom during their university years with devastating consequences. George and Dan are repellent characters, Naomi so endearing and Alice who is mostly brave but should never have married George in the first place.
However the whole book is centred around Ruth, the magnetic redhead, who is feisty, wild and ends up missing. Presumed to have died by drowning, nothing is clear cut as her body has never been found. So she has 'disappeared' and her sister Naomi, having lived for 15 years mourning the loss of her sister eventually links up with Alice, George's wife, when Alice is determined that something sinister has been going on and perhaps still is, following her sighting of someone who could be Ruth on a train.
I liked the descriptions of college life, the area it is set in and the women's determination to seek the truth, but I didn't enjoy the endless drinking and drug taking, although this is very much in keeping with the setting and student life it portrays. It is not a linear story, the plot weaves in and out of the past and the ending is so very typical of real life. There is no answer, no final resolution, just a vague sense of uncertainty that will carry on indefinitely.

A gripping psychological thriller.
I love books with a dual timeline and this one was so cleverly written.
The plotting is effective and beautifully done.
A great book

wow what a book i had trouble putting this one down, i had to keep reading to find out who the person was with the red hair who Alice saw on the train.

THE GIRL BEFORE YOU by Nicola Rayner wowed me! I loved the dual timeline, knowing what happened at the start of the book and then seeing things unfold. This book keeps you on your toes until the very end, constantly changing what you think happened. I will admit that I wanted a little bit more from the ending but I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

Ruth went missing 20 years ago and a lot of people have something to say about her. Not the least of these is Alice, who has finally caught on to the fact that her husband George is a rat. This movies around narrators and the time line and sometimes it might seem a tad disjointed but it's a good read. Alice, for an intelligent woman, isn't too smart actually but she's digging for truth and that's a good thing for those who knew Ruth. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. No spoilers- a good travel read.

The Girl Before You is being marketed as " The new Girl on the train...The ending will leave you gasping" and after reading it all I can say is I'm not sure I've read the same book as the person who wrote that line.

While I'm not the biggest "Girl on the train" fan I decided to give this a try cause the synopsis sounded good but, oh boy, was this boring. A psychological thriller with absolutely no thrills.

The story is told through three different POVs and alternates between the past and the present. It's extremely slow-paced and the same scenes keep repeating over and over again while the plot goes nowhere. All the characters are super bland, the writing is nothing special and the constante switching between past and present is pretty confusing at times.

And what about the ending that will leave you gasping? I assure you gasping was not one of the things it left me doing. The final twist's got to be one of the most underwhelming twists I've ever read and it felt completely anticlimactic. And when done right I don't mind an open ending but that's not the case here so I ended up being pretty annoyed.

This book took some time to get into and whilst the story is good, it was a bit slow in places.
The book centres around Ruth who has been missing for a number of years.
We get the story from Naomi, her sister and also Kat who was her friend at Uni.
A lot of the story is also told from Alice’s perspective, after she thinks she spots Ruth on a busy train.
Alice knows something went on at Uni and realises her husband knew Ruth at the time she went missing. She is determined to find answers and gets in contact with Naomi.
This is very much a mystery thriller and whilst I really wanted to know what happened to Ruth, I found that I still didn’t have all the answers at the end of the book.
This is a good read but not one that had me on the edge of my seat.
Thanks to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.