Many, many, years too late I am finally getting through my NetGalley list as time allows and I am sorry I waited so long for this one.

I really enjoy a good thriller full of twists and turns and this one does not disappoint!
The outdoor element and the strands that weave together as we draw closer together gave me From the Corner of his eye vibes which is never a bad thing as far as I am concerned.

If you enjoy a thriller I would recommend this, a solid 4 star read.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Quite a violent book with a topic of mental health. I think this would be good for those who like a good survival story as it is about that. If you don't like hunting or violence, this book would not be for you but I did find it very gripping with intriguing characters that made me want to continue on.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Magda has her own problems and is struggling to come to terms over what has already happened in her life. She goes to live with her grandparents in a rich summer holiday town.

She meets a boy in the woods called Bo. He’s wild and helps her open up about what she has gone through. His family aren’t like others.

Do they hold an even bigger secret than her’s?

It's great to be in a position to recommend much more diverse books to our young people at school. Building the senior school library as a place where students actually come and find books that they want to read as opposed to books that teachers think they ought to read is an important responsibility and one we take really seriously.
Books like this are such a positive move as they will appeal to a broader set of readers than we are usually attracting. Dealing with modern issues in a clear and captivating way with a strong narrative voice and characters that the students can relate to is critical as we move forwards. This book is both an intelligent and compelling read that will hold even the most reluctant reader's attention and keep them turning the pages long into the night. It keeps the reader on their toes and ensures that you give it your full attention too. I found myself thinking about its characters and events even when I wasn't reading it and looking forward to snatching kore time with it and I hope that my students feel the same. An accessible, gripping and engrossing read that I can't recommend highly enough. Will absolutely be buying a copy for the library and heartily recommending it to both staff and students.

A fun, tense and twisty YA in an unsettling woodland setting. I read this book really fast because I couldn't wait to see how it turned out. I liked trying to figure the main character out, and how she felt like a believable, well-developed person with a back story. Definitely recommended for fans of YA thrillers!

What She Found In The Woods is an incredibly twisty thriller with so many red herrings to keep you guessing.

Magdalena is a liar and this caused a lot of problems for people when she was younger.

Now, bodies are found, a murderer is on the loose and Magdalena decides she will find out who the killer is…..

This is a gripping thriller that has you hooked from start to finish.

Read this one the morning after my son was born, and if I’m completely honest I can remember hardly anything about it.

There was a boy called Rainbow, which was an interesting choice, and his parents lived in the forest or something because they were survivalists and didn’t like the government? Wasn’t a fan of the relationship between him and the main character, but I did find the fact that they got caught having sex in the forest to be very funny: teens are often criticised as being uncontrollably horny monsters but they don’t really act upon it in YA, so this felt very authentic!

I remember the climax being very explosive but I can’t remember exactly what led up to it… I can remember being gripped, though, and wondering how our main character was going to manage to get out of everything.

I mean it kept me interested and I read the whole thing in one go despite the fact that I had a newborn, so it definitely deserved the four stars… I just don’t remember why. Might have to reread…

A great book from start to finish, I would highly recommend this to any and all thriller fans. Just a warning though: this book is hard to put down so make sure you dont have plans for the rest of your day

I don’t like giving bad reviews on books because it’s so subjective and everyone has different reading tastes. But I just couldn’t get into it.

I hate giving books low ratings but this was just... not it for me. It was weird right from the start and I just couldn’t deal with the insta love or the love triangle in this one.

The was fabulous, the writing, the unreliable narrator leaving you questioning everything you are reading right up until the end. I loved the flashbacks revealing Magda's past the family dynamics and the way mental health is portrayed and explored within this novel.

It missed out on 5⭐ for me because of the instant love, you know the kind that only happens in a few YA novels.

Overall a thought-provoking, gripping thriller that deserves a read and is perfect for fans of Riverdale!

Thanks to Pan Macmillan & Netgalley for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm a big fan of YA thrillers so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read this. The whole story had be gripped and needing to know what happened next. So it's safe to say I wasn't disappointed with this book.

I feel so sorry for Magdalena, whatever happened to her at her old school in the city, the doctors just threw drugs at her and essentially kicked her out of the hospital, her parents are too embarrassed by her and ship her off to stay with her grandparents, and her grandparents want everything to look perfect, even if that means Magdalena being miserable pretending she's someone she's not. It's heartbreaking learning about why the doctors give up on her and why she ended up in the hospital in the first place. I like that we're not just told everything from the beginning, we slowly learn piece by piece throughout the book.

We meet both Rob and Bo pretty early on; Rob is someone Lena would hang out with when she used to spend her summer's with her grandparents and I don't like him from the moment he is introduced to us in the book. He's one of those guys who won't take no for an answer to get what he wants and what he wants is Lena, what makes it worse is her grandparents just encourage her to go out with him because 'it's the normal thing to do'. Bo is someone she meets while spending her time in the woods during the afternoons, she learns that him and his family live in the woods illegally, she promises to keep it a secret and they end up hanging out almost every day and getting closer.

Throughout the book, in the woods where Lena and Bo are hanging out in, bodies are being found and Lena makes it her personal mission to find out who has bee murdering women and dumping thir bodies in the forest. The ending of the book when she discovers who the killer is, and what happens after, had me so hooked I was literally moving my face closer and closer to the book until my eyes starting hurting and I realised how close to the book my face was - so safe to say I was hooked.

I would recommend this book but also note that there are some TW: suicide, drug use/drug abuse

After a scandal, Magdalena is ousted from New York by her parents to live with her grandparents.
Doped up on powerful drugs that prevent Magdalena from feeling anything and from seeing the ghosts of her past, she drifts through her days by hiking in the nearby woods.
Then Magdalena meets Bo. He lives in the woods with his family and Magdalena finds that she actually feels things when she's with him.
But when a body is found in the woods, Magdalena discovers that they might not be as safe as she thought.
Who can Magdalena trust when there is a murderer in town?
Can she even trust herself?

Josephine Angelini's books seem to be either hit or miss for me and, unfortunately, What She Found in the Woods was more of a miss.
Magdalena was a mixed character for me - there were times when I liked and felt sorry for her, and others when she annoyed me. She had a complicated history and had done a lot of messed up things which lent to her potentially being an unreliable narrator which I always find intriguing.
None of the characters really stood out for me, except maybe Gina.
Most of the book was set either in the woods or at Magdalena's grandparents' house. I would have liked to have seen more or been told more about the town, but this did give an isolated feeling to the book which may have been intended.
Not much really happened plot-wise and the mystery element wasn't as interesting as I expected it to be. I found myself skim-reading once or twice and did consider not finishing the book. I guessed part of the plot twist.
I didn't like the romance - it happened way too quickly for me and I couldn't feel the connection between the characters.
I feel like What She Found in the Woods didn't reach it's potential for me, and I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more.

Overall, this was an okay read.

Another thriller, another unreliable narrator... all very of the moment, however you would be wrong to pass this up! What She Found In The Woods is a brilliant book- I have never read this author bonfire but I feel compelled to look up her work as I adored this book so much. Our unreliable narrator Magda should have been frustrating and annoying, a privileged teen unaware of how lucky she is- yet somehow she isn’t. A brilliant fast read.

Magda is sent to her grandparents' cabin in the remote woods of the pacific Northwest after she is embroiled in a scandal in her exclusive boarding school. She spends the first part of her stay wandering in an over-medicated fog, walking through the forest. She meets some of the friends she knew from her childhood visits, but is most fascinated by the wild boy, Bo, who she meets in the remote area where she lays her picnic blanket.

Just as Magda is starting to feel that she is regaining some control over her life, events take an unexpected and sinister turn, Crimes start to occur in the local town, and then a body is discovered in the woods near Bo's camp. Who is behind these events? Who can Magda trust?

I read What She Found in the Woods during my holiday, lying in a hammock in the garden, and flew through it. I had a great time fathoming out the twists and turns, deciding who I thought could be believed and what really was happening in the woods!

Really gripping and very entertaining.

What She Found in the Woods - Josephine Angelini

Confession: I requested this when it popped up on Netgalley for purely nostalgic reasons. You see, back in my Twilight days I had a Josephine Angelini book called Starcrossed which was one of those doomed YA romances but with Greek Gods. I remember absolutely bloody loving that book... Though I don't remember how it ends... Anyway, when I saw this book on Netgalley I was hit with so much nostalgia I simply had to read it - I've just never seen anything else by Josephine Angelini - I asked, I received and here we are.

This was both very different and kind of similar to the teenage Greek Gods because there was a romance and I have FEELINGS about it but on to that later. This is one of those books that is kind of addictive and is so fast paced that you can't just put it down for unnecessary things like food and sleep. Before I tell you too much about it though, let's get a few warnings out of the way. This is a story that deals with drug addiction, suicide, mental health and murder, you know, all the good stuff so if any of that is difficu;t for you, click away now. Otherwise, read on!

After a scandal breaks in her elite New York City private school, Magda is shipped off to her grandparents’ sleepy Pacific Northwest town to spend a summer recovering under the radar. Over-medicated and uninspired, she spends her days in a fog, hiking in the woods behind her grandparents' cottage.

But then gorgeous wildboy, Bo, stumbles across her picnic blanket and Magda starts believing she might be able to move on from her past. The only problem seems to be the series of crimes breaking out across town, and when a body is found in the woods near Bo’s encampment, it’s clear that Magda’s nightmare is just beginning. She's no longer sure who she can trust. . .

What She Found in the Woods is an addictive and all-consuming thriller with a twist from the internationally bestselling author of the Starcrossed series, Josephine Angelini.

Ok, so the final lines of the blurb are absolutely right, this is an all consuming story and it does have a twist which is one of those amazing double bluff kind of twists. You think you know where this book is taking you and then you get thrown a curve ball and then just when you think you have it worked out, there's another one. I actually really appreciated that this kept me on my toes in that respect because some times guessing the real villain and figuring out the ending before you get there is no fun. I guess it does fall into the remit of being a thriller, but for me, the thrills didn't really start until the last third of the story, up until that point it was all build up, but I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing. Before I explain my FEELINGS about the romance element, let me tell you about the things I liked about this book.

The unreliable narrator.
IDK about you but I LOVE unreliable narrators, they're my favourite kind and bloody hell, Magdalena couldn't be more unreliable if she tried, at some points in the story she doesn't even know what it is that she is telling you. The way this is written weaves Magdalena's backstory and unravels the 'Scandal' that sent her to live with her grandparents with what is happening here and now. Even though by doing this you are getting the bigger picture, Magdalena is still not to be trusted when it comes to the whole story.
The pacing
This was one of those books that you can't put down and the story flows really quickly. For me, the second half of the book went much faster than the first but I think that is partly down to the build up... I did love how quickly the plot moved on though, it worked really well with Magdalena's mental state, the moderate pace of the beginning compared to the race that was the end. That sounded like the sort of wanky thing you might read in sparks notes or something, but trust me, it was like that and it works.
Bisexual rep
OHHHH YAAAAAS. Our main gal is bi and this is neither a big deal or part of the story, it is briefly mentioned by another character who doesn't judge or disapprove and this is literal music to my ears.
The story
I mean, it was kinda complex but also reminded me a little of a Riverdale story line. I'm saying that as someone who unashamedly loves Riverdale, but you know what I mean, yeah?

When it comes to the story what we have is a girl with a mental illness being shipped off to her grandparent's where she spent her summers as a child because her parents no longer want her. Once she arrives she falls back in with the crowd of rich kids she would hang out with over her summers, only now they're into partying and she being medicated constantly and kind of soul searching isn't into that, so she starts spending time in the woods behind her grandparents' house where she meets a boy who's family live there. Which would be cool except for the various murdered teen girls that keep showing up in the forest. Do you see what I mean? It is kind of Riverdale.

Earlier on I mentioned there was a romance and that I have FEELINGS.
Well... Magdalena falls deeply in instalove with the boy from the forest. Who conveniently falls for her too. It was a pretty sweet relationship that was built on trust and respect but honestly I had a few weird vibes, probably because I'm old now and this is a YA with all the associated YA drama but I just... I don't know if a boy who has never been to a public school and has never really had a social life among people of his own age is able to really have the kind of intense relationship that he and Magdalena do. Similarly, she has a severe mental health issue that she is being treated for and again, there felt like there was a weird balance of power between the two because he didn't know any different and she wasn't exactly well. I mean, it kinda worked for them and if you overlook the instalove, it's an otherwise pretty good relationship, but I did feel a bit weird about it. If any of you guys have read this, I'd love to know your thoughts on the relationship.

I'd also really like to know how you felt about the representation when it came to mental health issues. I'm someone with a mental health issue that pops up fairly frequently in YA, but I've not come across a YA book with a schizophrenic character before and as I don't know that much about schizophrenia as a mental health condition, I don't know if it was well done or not. I can relate to being on medication that can make you feel a bit like a zombie but I can't really attest as to how well the overall representation of a schizophrenic teenager is done with this. I did think some of the circumstances involving Magdalena's hospital stay were a little odd, but I'm also not a resident of the US, so for all I know, that's just how hospitals are run there.

Overall though, this was a fun thrill ride and I can let go of any issues long enough to enjoy this. If you're a fan of shows like Riverdale or like a fast paced, addictive read, make sure this one is on your radar.

This was a thriller with a difference. I really enjoyed reading this, my first introduction to the author. Magdalena's back story and why she was staying with her grandparents was explored in depth and I do get the feeling she wasn't inherently bad and although involved, definitely took the fall for everyone else.

I did have an inkling about a certain character - although the twist soon changed that - only for it to twist again and I was sort of right. The satisfaction you get when you put some of the clues together is always great.

This is unlike any other thriller I have read and I'll definitely check out more of the author's work.

For most of this story I was stuck on a 3/3.5 star rating because I didn’t feel like a psychological thriller. Mainly because it’s completely different to any I’ve read before... which is nice, refreshing, but not completely in a good way. Unfortunately, this has a level of bore to it for the most part, though the author’s style of writing was amazing and totally engaging, I just felt there was something off about this story. It’s kinda like, serial killer meet jungle book to be honest.

There wasn’t really any fault in the characters. I mean, Magda/Lena was thoroughly thought out and written, I could picture her completely and I felt like I was her brain for the most part. Bo was fab, he’s like every girl’s wet dream except for the fact he was a wildboy - in the sense that he lived in the forest and not a home and not wild in the way that he was a party boy. He was sweet and naive and totally up every young woman’s street. Rob, I found, was quite pushy and clingy, never liked him at all. Mila seemed sweet but underneath all that she was an underrated mean girl who showed it through manipulation. Loved aura-blue and her innocence... as well as Amy’s.

What really made this book a 4 star read was the ending. Although a little too dramatic, was fantastic. I can’t really go into detail without giving anything away but some bits were too unbelievable and eye-rolling worthy which completely ruined the explosion of an ending.

But the very very end is cute, sweet and happy and that’s amazing, especially in this genre!

The author’s writing style was exceptional. She knows how to draw a reader in, keep them invested - even through the boring bits - and knows how to make a story blow like a nuclear weapon. She details everything to perfection, readers feel they’re part of the story and most writers, myself included, can’t pull that off.


A little dull in parts but it does pick up pace. Definitely worth picking up and reading!