Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the eARC of The Arrangement by Miranda Rijks. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This one was only okay for me. I'm not sure what it is about this one but I didn't love it.

There were times that I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and other times that I found myself bored and getting easily distracted.

I liked the concept of the story; there were a few blog posts which changed things up a bit coming from Abi's view and I would have enjoyed having more of those.

Overall I'm giving it a 2.5☆

The prologue was really intriguing and I was ready to dive into the story, however, I found myself eye rolling and skimming through the pages after the prologue. Every character introduced within the tight circle of friends just seemed bitchy and self absorbed.
I had to stop reading around 35% in. I didn’t like the characters and I felt the beginning story was a tad bit all over the place.
Thank you for the ARC. I wish the author much success.

Grace lives every mother’s worst nightmare learning her daughter who had gone to meet friends in South Africa has been murdered ..... her darling sweet daughter Abi however her life was not as it seemed living a double life studying at university but also earning money as a sugar baby
Grace can not accept the South African authorities verdict of murder and the person accused so starts digging herself and uncovers secrets and lies close to home
A great read that will keep you guessing until the very end

This is a well written and engaging book. I was absolutely desperate to find out what happened next and if my guesses were correct.

Thank you @NetGalley and @InkubatorBooks for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

The Arrangement is a story of loss, lies, secrets, deceit, and a mother’s obsession in finding out what really happened the night her daughter was murdered while she (the daughter) was away on a fun holiday in Cape Cod with her friends. Not only is this every parents’ nightmare, but it would also be a huge blow to find out that their kid also has a secret life that they knew nothing about and how it could have contributed to their death in some way.

First I'll say that this plot was really solid with a lot of promise. I really liked the idea and read eagerly to see what actually happened to Abi. The first-person narration does a great job of capturing my attention. I could see Grace as a real person. I could feel her pain through the pages. I felt like I was there along with her as she slowly loses grip on her life. However, I did cringe with some of the things she did and said.

The characters and the relationships with one another were lacking. I found a lot of the characters to be unlikeable, except maybe Abi, but she's dead and you only occasionally see her POV through her journal entries. I found inconsistencies throughout the book which wasn’t fun to read and made me think that Rijks could have done more research. For example, the world of sugar daddies and sugar babies is complex. And the story made it more confusing and illogical in some places. I must say though, the journal entries were a savior and helped me navigate through the confusing situations!

Overall, an entertaining story with elements of a thriller. However, it could have been amazing if the author had put more research work and depth into the story and the characters.

Grace’s student daughter Abi is away on holiday in South Africa, meeting up with friends when she is murdered. Grace cannot accept her daughter has been killed and is desperate to find out what happened.

Grace soon starts to question Abi’s friends and discovers that she had some dark secrets and that she didn’t really know her daughter that well! When she goes to pick up Abi’s belongings she discovers a wardrobe filled with designer clothes and that she was regularly travelling to London. Who was she seeing and how could she afford her expensive clothes?

This book had me gripped from the start and I was desperate to find out what really happened to Abi.

A must read and an author I couldn’t recommend enough!!

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

Thank goodness I read this over a holiday weekend, because nothing got done while I was glued to this thriller about a woman searching for her daughter's killer.

I've read other books that have a storyline that revolves around college students becoming "sugar babies" to support their college loans, but Rijks perspective on the motivations between client and "baby" was interesting. Trauma upon trauma is piled onto poor Grace, and despite warnings against doing so, she continues to seek justice for Abi. She alienates friends, and her surviving daughter Ella, and attends some questionable meetings with men who might have had a role in Abi's life and death.

Rijks describes Grace's downward spiral and incapacitation in a way that made me feel Grace's pain and helplessness as she battled to control her alcohol addiction, the disbelief of her friends and police, and her own inability to believe that she never really knew her daughter. The ending is tied up nicely, not with a tell all confession by the killer as happens in too many books, but with a fitting memorial to the daughter she loved.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for an advanced reader's copy for review.

I was so attached to this precious momma who was searching endlessly for her daughter’s killer. She wasn’t going to give up and she wasn’t judging her daughter when she found out less-than-desirable choices her daughter had made at Uni. She went through so much, and still had no answers. I was NOT prepared for the wild ending that came. I would never have pegged this killer in a million years. I was soooo angry at this killer. All I can say is you will NEVER believe the ending!! I was hooked until the very end!! Wonderful book!!!!

I have read and enjoyed this author’s books. The book is about a murdered young woman, and her mother’s search for information. We get a peek into the world of sugar daddies and sugar babies. The story was a bit predictable. Rijks is a good storyteller and this is overall a good beach read or rainy weekend read.

This was a real entertaining read that I read in one sitting. Not because it's short, which it isn't but as I was gripped by the story and wanted to find out whodunit. If I am honest I wasn't expecting too much from this novel as I had no previous knowledge of either the author or the book itself. But what a lovely surprise, gripping fast paced plot, good characters and a thoroughly exciting read.

Grace's student daughter Abi is murdered while on vacation in South Africa and her world is shattered. Grace cannot start to understand why her daughter would be a victim of a murderer and pushes for answers. She soon discovers that her daughter is not the girl she thought and Abi had dark secrets. When she goes to Abi's accommodation she discovers designer dresses and mysterious trips to London. Who was Abi seeing and how was she affording this secret life. Once Grace starts digging for answers it soon becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want her digging into Abi’s secret past. 

This was a very entertaining read and will look out for more books by this author.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Inkubator books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent psychological thriller. Another home run by Miranda Rijks. Compulsively readable thriller about a woman going through every mother’s worst nightmare when her daughter is murdered on vacation. As Grace tries to unravel the mystery of her daughters death with her two best friends she learns her daughter had many secrets. The secrets Grace discovers could put her remaining daughter and herself in danger. Impossible to put down thriller, not to be missed.

This was a mystery, set in England for the most part. It was pretty well written but I had to make myself finish it. The mystery part was pretty good but some parts seemed a bit far fetched. Like the mom chasing the sugar dads. It wasn’t an awful book just not my fave.

Thank you, Inkubator Books, for the ARC I received via NetGalley!

“The Arrangement” is an instantly compelling thriller that I found myself unable to put down. The first-person narration does a great job of plunging the reader straight into the bottomless pit of a mother’s grief. This really helps us see Grace as a real person, warts and all: she grieves, makes bad decisions, and is ultimately driven by the need to find out the truth about her daughter.

Apart from the good choice of narrative perspective, another strength of this book are the chilling and realistic themes: the way we can never really fully know a person, even someone we consider close and the lengths people will go to when they feel their world is threatened.

However, there were some inconsistencies throughout the book that significantly influence the interpretation of the character, and at times I got the impression that there was some more research that could have been done. The exploration of the world of sugar daddies and sugar babies in particular seems somewhat shallow (the blog entries are a good move, and I realise it must have been hard to balance those against revealing too much). Characters sometimes act in illogical, confusing ways, and I feel that a lot more could have been done to subtly pave the way towards the big reveal.

All in all, it’s a really entertaining story that could have been truly fantastic with some more work put into it.

SIngle mom Grace lives near London with her two daughters . Her oldest Abi, has been at college and is now on a trip to South Africa with friends. When Grace is told by the police that Abi's body has been found and she has been killed Grace is not satisfied with the investigation and vows to learn more about Abi's murder. Getting into Abi's computer leads to some interesting and shocking surprises as Grace is dismayed to learn that Abi raised the money for her trip by being a "Sugar daddy baby".When Grace meets with Dr. Jennings of whom Abi had a father/daughter type relationship with and then he too is murdered Grace is scared and falls back on her old habit of drinking excessively. Will Grace's friends believe her that something suspicious is happening or do they just think she has been drinking too much. Why does the younger daughter Ella also disappear? A very suspenseful mystery.

The Arrangement by Miranda Rijks
Miranda is one of those authors who's books I will want without reading the blurb.
This book grabbed my attention from page one and held it until the last page, proved by me reading this book in one day.
Great plot, well written and great characters.

Miranda Rijks really knows how to write a Psychological Thriller. This book really plays with your mind as you have no clue how it is going to develop or what the outcome will be.
It is so perfectly written, and you can really feel Grace’s pain through the pages. You are there along with her as she slowly loses a grip on her life. I was really cringing a lot with some of the things she was doing and saying. Other times I wanted to give her a good slap because if she hadn’t have fallen into the bottle, maybe people would have taken her more seriously. However, the protagonist slowly losing her mind always makes a useful element in a PT.
I really liked the snippets we were getting from Abi’s blog, it really helps to fill in the missing pieces, and it is ensuring that you get the full story and not just what her mother is finding out.
This book was fast-paced; I couldn’t put it down and was annoyed when I didn’t have the time to sit and devour it as I wanted. It really keeps you gripped wanting to know what happened to Abi.
I didn’t see the ending coming at all, and it had just the right amount of twists and turns needed so that your time invested in the books wasn’t wasted.
Another fantastic book by Miranda Rijks, I don’t think she’s let me down yet! A definite five stars!

The Arrangement is about a mother's grief after losing her daughter, Abi. Abi was murdered while on a trip to Cape Town South Africa. Grace is not satisfied that Abi was killed because of a robbery. In her quest to find out why, she realizes that her daughter was a Sugar Baby. Grace now needs to find out if a sugar daddy had anything to do with her daughter's death.
I was interested in this angle and wanted to know more from the stand point of Abi. But this story was more about how Grace handles her grief and shows how her friends help her to get through it. Throughout the book Grace is a mess and drowns her self in a bottle of alcohol daily. She sobers up enough to track down any sugar daddy that came in contact with Abi. I enjoyed the book and definitely felt Grace's pain. The book kept me on the edge of my seat as I tried to figure out who the killer was. One regret was, I wish we heard more from Abu before she was killed.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.
#TheArrangement #NetGalley

Grace is a mother of two girls, one id safely at college and the other is in cape town. People in suits show up at the door and immediately Grace knows something happened to Abi on her holidays. Her eldest daughter has been stabbed to death and been identified by her passport.

I have to say the prologue got me interested and then after that I was just kind of wading through waiting for the same reaction that never really came.
I found myself predicting the ending before it happened, plus the end was rushed and could have been done better.

The fact that Abi was living a life her mother didn't know about was believable. Other parts of the book seemed to be plucked from a soap, so less believable.

Thanks to the author/publisher for sending me a copy through netgalley for an honest review

Wow! This thriller was utterly addictive and completely absorbing and one more chapter very quickly turned into finishing the book as quickly as I could.
Most of the plot is told through the eyes of Grace, an unreliable narrator and mother of Abi who is stabbed to death on holiday in South Africa. Refusing to believe her daughter's killing was random, Grace insists on delving into Abi's life, but will she be satisfied or will what she finds make things worse?
Grace is distraught and has so many problems which makes her less believable to the outside world but Miranda Rijks really captures the heartbreak and utter ruin that live are left in after death - particularly if the victim was your child. I felt every minute of Grace's anguish and frustration throughout the novel.
Short chapters make this a fast-paced thriller and the occasional extract form Abi's blog add tension and keep the reader captivated.
This is a fabulous and tense thriller that takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster. Highly recommended.

Thank You NetGalley Publisher and Author for this gifted e-arc.

How well do you know your daughter?

Grace is living through every mother’s worst nightmare. Her student daughter Abi went away on a dream vacation to South Africa - and was murdered.

Murder, lies & secrets! What's not to love?
This was a good book. I kind of wished there was more to the ending.
I enjoyed the characters in this book.
The plot was good.
If you enjoy suspense, murder this is a great quick summer read.

Overall.... Good Book