Really enjoyed this book. It took me a little while to get into that but after that, it hooked me. Looking forward to reading more from the author in the future.

A pageant queen is murdered she came from the perfect family or did she,
The story is told by Jenny the 14 year old victim who tells the story leading up to the murder. And Virginia her sister the aftermath .
This was a good book
Thanks NetGalley

Jenny Kennedy appears to have it all. She’s the perfect daughter, the popular girl at school and a successful beauty queen. But then Jenny is found dead in a murder that rocks the small town she grew up in to the core.

Her estranged half-sister Virginia finds herself thrust into the spotlight as the case dominates the news and is desperate to uncover who killed Jenny. But she soon realises that maybe Jenny’s life wasn’t so perfect after all.

The truth is that Jenny has more than a few secrets of her own, and so do her neighbours… What really happened that night?

Unfortunately, I missed my spot on the book tour for this book, but a book reviewed late is better than a book never reviewed!!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the plot line was very clever and the book stayed with me for a few days after reading it. It was a dark but enjoyable thriller. The only thing that disappointed me with this book is that I did not connect with any of the characters. I think it was the author's intention to make the characters unlikable, but one important thing in a book for me, is that I like to have a favourite character.

Otherwise, this book is great and is highly recommended for fans of Lisa Hall, Mary Kubica, Suzy Quinn and B A Paris.

Brilliantly written outstanding loved it each characters were outstanding what an ending excellent book will be reading more from the brilliant author
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 Word Review: Family, community, beauty, pride, mystery.


There is something very unsettling about the story and the writing, and what is more unsettling is that I can't put my finger on what it was! I thought that it was very cleverly written, a thrilling read, and a perfect page turner.

It felt like this was quite a short read, but it's not. It's fast paced and I couldn't stop turning the pages, I raced through it. It's a fantastic debut.

The first character we meet is Virginia, and I really liked how unlikeable she was. She's abrupt and sick of this shit, and I enjoyed her narrative voice and parts of the story the most.

I did struggle a little to connect with the characters in general, but that's a Me problem, and nothing to do with the writing. I enjoyed the dual narrative and the way that the mystery was slowly revealed.

The Prized Girl is a pretty dark story, with lots of twists that I didn't see coming - definitely a thrilling read.

A good story told from different perspectives. Who murdered Jenny and why? All the facts come together piece by piece with a few twists thrown in. My only gripe is that the story is a bit too long in places.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The Prized Girl tells the story of Jenny Kennedy, aged 13, and a former pageant queen who was found murdered in the woods bordering cornfields, near her home in Wrenton, New England. The police think they’ve got the killer, a man who is a fan and attended all her pageants, but her estranged half-sister, Virginia, who’s 13 years older, isn’t convinced and begins to do a bit of digging herself to try and find out the truth.

Jenny’s mum, Linda, adores her but pushes her to perform in the pageants. She eventually rebels, which sets off a chain of catastrophic events. Jenny shares a father, Calvin, with Virginia, who was 11 when her mum died.

Told in two timelines, before and after the murder, and from the points of view of Jenny and Virginia, we learn more about the secrets that both sisters are hiding and how things are connected between various people in the small town in which they live. Everyone seems to be mixed up in each other’s business to a large extent!

Virginia has her own demons, after a traumatic childhood, and she doesn’t get along with her father, stepmother or stepsister but she joins forces with the local cop, Detective Brandon Colsen, to investigate Jenny’s murder and together they uncover some new evidence, which sends the story in several different directions.

Neither of the main protagonists is very likeable but they were both rather misunderstood, abused and vulnerable. It’s a shame the two sisters weren’t closer as they were more similar than they realised and had both been mistreated by people around them.

The Prized Girl is well paced and secrets are slowly and intriguingly revealed until things come to a dramatic conclusion with several shocking revelations. It was twisty and cleverly plotted and I didn’t have a clue how it was all going to be concluded or work out who the killer actually was!

Overall, I really enjoyed this dark, chilling story and liked the various twists, turns and misdirection. Gripping reading at times. Just when I thought I knew who had done it, another thing was revealed by one of the sisters that sent me back to the drawing board! I’m looking forward to reading the author’s next book.

Virginia and Jenny are sisters. There is a thirteen year age gap between them and they don't seem to have anything in common. Then Jenny is raped and murdered when she is fourteen. Virginia attempts to find out what had happened to Jenny. The police have got a suspect, but Virginia isn't quite so sure that they have the right man. She quickly learns how troubled Jenny was and that she harboured a lot of secrets.

The story is told through multiple points of view. The family is dysfunctional and they all seem to be hiding secrets from each other. Her parents wanted and pushed Jenny into being a pagent queen. Everyone was blaming Benjy for eing responsible but Virginia is not convinced. I was not keen on the ending of the book, it wasnt how I imagined it would end. It's well written and gripping with a steady pace. Theres lots of twists. A really good read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, HQ and the author Amy K. Green for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, wow, wow what an absolutely incredible read. The Prized Girl was a wonderfully written thriller that had me gripped from the beginning. I thought it was well paced and the author excellently told the story through the points of view of the sisters, Virginia and Jenny. I highly recommend The Prized Girl.

I think it's fairly clear that the world of pageantry has lost the majority of its fake gloss since the murder of JonBenét, and the author only dips ever so slightly into that world in this story. Just enough to show the obsessive and narcissistic nature of the parents who parade their children, and how their needs overshadow those of their children. And then the deviants who follow the children put on display like possessions. They ones who want to own them and much worse.

Jenny used to be a teen pageant girl until she decided she wanted to make her own choices, so she started to rebel and now Jenny is dead. Raped, murdered and left in the woods. Unfortunately her life has been less than stellar lately and her attempts to free herself from a her strict and obsessive mother culminate in tragedy.

Virginia and Jenny are half-sisters, but blood doesn't mean they are close - in fact it's quite the opposite. Virginia is too busy dealing with her own demons to pay attention to the fact her teenage sister is crying out for help. When Jenny jumps over her own shadow to reach out to her the rejection sends her deeper down the rabbit hole of her own making.

It's a captivating psychological suspense thriller - a riveting debut by a talented writer.

What I really enjoyed was the way Green was almost dogged in her determination to keep readers from grasping the truth. Teasing it here and there, then twisting the truth to then lie and back again. Also the lack of need for a fluffy candy floss ending, which is something I always like to see. I hope this is the first of many by Green.

The Prized Girl by Amy K Green. Published by @hqstories
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Psychological thriller at its very best. It’s told through the eyes of 2 characters who happen to be sisters.
Jenny (murder victim) and her long lost sister Virgina. Also two different timelines- before the murder and after the murder.

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The people in the town are grieving the death of Jenny a well known popular 16 year old. Who they believe kind, honest and reliable. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jenny is anything but....

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Virgina has not been around all that much but returns and wants to try and piece together want has happened to her sister. Yet her reputation isn’t exactly glowing-but again not everything is as it seems.

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The truth isn’t that easy to find. It’s very much like peeling an onion and striping if it’s various layers.

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The topics within this book are difficult: abuse, youth & vulnerability. Here is a book that will set your heart racing.
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You may feel frightened to turn the page yet your curiosity gives in and your impulse too strong.

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This is out 19th March 2020. Great read.

Thank you to both NetGalley and HQ for giving me the opportunity to read this book

Jenny, a teenage beauty queen is found murdered. She is the perfect daughter and well liked at her school.

The story is told from dual perspective. It’s told from Jenny’s POV and also her older sister, Virginia’s POV.

The pace of the book was very slow at the beginning but definitely sped up in the second half of the book. I felt the ending of the book was predictable and saw it coming.

This book would be a good read for readers who are new to the genre of psychological thrillers. I did enjoy this book but it didn’t wow me.

This book has a dual narration and a dual timeline. Beginning with Virginia’s story as she attends her half sister Jenny’s funeral then moving to Jenny’s story weeks before her death.

There was so much to love about this dark book , a dysfunctional family, small town dynamics, the world of beauty pageants and the mothers that think their darling girls are perfect, teenage drama, stalking and murder.

I didn’t take to either of the two narrators but I don’t need to like characters to enjoy reading their stories. In fact the opposite is normally true and I find the unlikeable have more of a pull. What made them how they are? Nature vs nurture and in a family with this many issues was this a foretold conclusion?

This almost felt like reading one of those choose your own adventure books as there were so many suspects and ways this could pan out and f**k me I did not see that ending coming. So if you like a twisty thriller with some teenage angst thrown in this is the read for you.

I read the synopsis for 'The Prized Girl' and it certainly sounded like the sort of psychological crime thriller that I would love. I wasn't wrong either because I did thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Prized Girl' but more about that in a bit.
I was drawn into this story from the moment I read the synopsis alone and as soon as I started to read the story within, that was it. After that I just couldn't put the book down. I loved the fact that Jenny, who was the popular girl at school and who seemingly had the perfect life, had more layers of secrecy and more layers to her personality than you would find on a parcel during a game of 'Pass The Parcel'. Open one layer and then half a dozen more appear. The pages turned increasingly quickly the more of the story that I read. I totally immersed myself in the story to the extent that I was able to shut out all other distractions and focus solely on the story. Usually I have the attention span of a gnat and I am easily distracted but not in this case. There was that much going on that I didn't want to miss a single second of the story. I reached the end of the book far quicker than I had anticipated or wanted to. I had been enjoying the author's writing style, the storylines and the characters that much that I just wish the book had been longer.
The author has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. She grabs your attention from the start with an intriguing synopsis and then gradually draws you into the story. Once she has your attention she will not release it until the moment you read the last word on the last page. I genuinely felt as though I was part of the story myself, which is in part due to the fantastically realistic and vivid descriptions that Amy used. I felt that I was helping Virginia solve the mystery of her half sister Jenny and who killed her. This was one of those books that gripped me throughout and had me on the edge of my seat throughout.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Prized Girl' and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I will definitely be reading more of Amy's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Firstly, I would like to thank HQ for sending me a copy of this book and for asking me to be apart of the blog tour.
I had not read a really good crime thriller in a while. That is until now! I was completely hooked from the start and the pages juts kept on turning with the need to find out who was the murder.
Amy K. Green is a new author for me, her writing style is detailed but has that easy read feel to it. During each chapter she lets slip just enough information to give you details and keep you reading, just what you want in a good crime thriller. The story is told from two points of view, Jenny who has been murdered and her older sister Virginia. Both girls are not what they seem and it is so interesting to get to know them and their story as it unfolds.
I could not guess who it was and I tried the whole way through. The ending was brilliant and topped of a perfect read.
I will sure be looking out for more books by Amy K. Green

The plot line for this thriller is quite dark and disturbing with a cast of characters who are all caught up in a web of predatory love and dangerous secrets, all of them to blame in some way for the events that unfold.
This novel opens with the knowledge that the ‘prized girl’ Jenny has been murdered. Once a familiar face on the pageant scene, she’d lost favour with mother Linda especially but her family including her half sister Virginia (black sheep) are clearly in shock. The family dynamics in this family are strange to say the least with a father only present at weekends, choosing to stay in New York City the rest of the time and wife Linda a completely alcoholic mess!! Virginia’s relationship with all three of them is strained to say the least and she too seems to live the life of a recluse in this small American town. The reader can quickly arrive at these conclusions since this thriller favours a backward timeline approach to revealing the events leading up to Jenny’s murder, told from the perspective of Virginia and Jenny. It’s fair to say both of them are troubled individuals, one only a teenager, the other in her thirties but they don’t have a close relationship and I found it hard to get under their skin and empathise with them. Virginia, in particular comes across as rather wooden and robotic but with good reason. Slowly these reasons are revealed causing me to feel immense sadness for the life Virginia has led. The whole family are so distanced and estranged from each other, with little or no love in evidence which is why I struggled to engage fully with the storyline. All the male characters are at least unpleasant or cold if not downright vile and exert some kind of control over the female characters in varying degrees. Ultimately this is a thriller centred around abuse of power and trust and the rippling damaging effects this has for all involved, a vicious circle that cannot be broken. Or can it?? Virginia, who harbours guilt over the death of her little sister, turns detective alongside the real Detective Brandon Colsen assigned to this case so there is a possibility the past finally be laid to rest.
I thought the blossoming relationship between Colsen and Virginia peculiar with the boundaries blurred between the professional and personal. Somehow though, investigating Jenny’s murder does give Virginia a sense of purpose so that by the end she did redeem partially herself in my eyes. It is the final run up to the killer’s identity and beyond that finally captured my full attention, with a few twists that I didn’t expect thereby improving my overall opinion of the book. Without a doubt there are no winners here in the messy tangled web of lies and secrets that connects all these broken damaged individuals. An unsettling read but worth picking up!
My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

The Prized Girl - Amy K. Green ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Oh the suspense in this devastating and dark tale!

Jenny, the prized girl who seems to have it all. A pagent queen and beautiful. However, her small hometown is shook when Jenny is found dead. Brutally murdered. Virginia her half sister who is battling her own demons, decides to take matters into her own hands in order to find out the truth. Who could possibly kill Jenny?

So cleverly crafted. Told in two narratives between the two sisters. I could not see how this book would all tie together, right up to the final pages I was still pondering. It took directions I did not see happening.

"What really happened that night?"

I absolutely had to find out. I tore through the pages.

Pacey and packed with suspense. Being her debut I am looking forward to seeing what Amy K. Green has to deliver next. 📚

A fantastic debut from Amy K. Green, I thoroughly enjoyed this tense, thrilling drama. I will look forward to what comes next from Green.
With the whole town morning local beauty queen, 16-year-old Jenny, we read on as her sister, haunted by her own childhood issues, seeks the truth about what happened.
The story is told from both Jenny’s point of view and that of her much older sister, Virginia. We see that Jenny isn’t the happy, sweet and innocent girl people think she is whilst Virginia isn’t the selfish, loner we may have initially thought. The different perspectives help the story unfold in a brilliant way, and as we got further into the book, I realised there would be more twists and turns more than I thought would.
The characters are not the most ‘likeable’ but I didn’t mind that at all with this book, in fact in was interesting to see the flaws or issues with each one. I did sympathise for some of them and it was clear to see they were only the way they were because of the actions and treatment from others.
It is a real, interwoven, dark story that kept me gripped. It was very well written and paced nicely, not much given away too soon but just enough to keep me interested throughout.
The ending – oh the ending! Not at all what I expected, and if I’m honest still not entirely sure what I think but it was different. Also left me wondering if we would be seeing some more from this set of characters.
A book I will happily recommend to others.
Thank you to HQ for a copy of this book to read and review honestly.

The Prized Girl by Amy K Green is a marvellous contemporary psychological murder suspense that had my heart racing.
The action has two distinct time periods – before and after the murder – from the point of view of the victim and her sister. The elder sister tries to piece together the truth but sometimes the truth is buried by so many lies. Some amateur sleuthing enables the reader to join the clues together – I failed, again, to predict the outcome!
There are the difficult themes of preying on the young and vulnerable, blackmail and abusing ones position of authority. There is a merry go round of abuse that never ceases.
Family dynamics are explosive as a controlling family member loses their power and love turns to hate.
The Prized Girl was a totally thrilling read that I could not put down. I read with my heart in my mouth to the end. It was marvellous and well planned out. Amy K Green is a new author to me. I hope to read more by her.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

I liked the way this book was set out, with the past telling Jenny's story, and the present, telling her sister Virginia's story.
However I didnt like the characters, and the story was very drawn out. I just didnt find myself enjoying reading this one unfortunately.