This book was dark and twisted. It has some dark themes and I would recommend reading the trigger warning beforehand (bullying, suicide, rape). Two former best friends meet again at a college reunion both wanting to find out what happened back then. The story moves from current day perspective to back when they were at college. The ending was a twist I didn’t see coming which I love in books; trying to guess but not getting it right. My only problem with this book was the relationship with the two friends was so toxic and hit a little too close to home.

Thank you NetGalley for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book so quickly! It gripped me from the start and was dark, mysterious and thrilling throughout. The two main characters aren't very likeable but they are very well written and I was desperate to know what Amb was running from. The ending felt a little rushed but it was a good twist and a good ending.

Firstly a big thank you to Hq for my copy to review on netgalley. Ive been seeing this everywhere so was looking forward to it.

This is a story of toxic friendships and the power they hold on your life .

Revenge ,power, loss and lust

Everyones moved on or have they?

A fascinating and insightful look into female friendship and the damage that can be caused.

Gripping,addictive and chilling .

I can see this being a huge hit next year and wish the author every success.

Published 1st April 2021

I started reading this book and could not stop. It’s been a while since I’ve been quite as drawn in and absorbed by a title. Utterly gripping. Dark, menacing, extreme and hideously, uncomfortably, relatable. I wasn’t sure how satisfied I was by the ending, and it felt a little rushed, but overall this was a brilliant escapist read.

The Girls are all so AWFUL Here. Wow, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn has conjured up a truly dark tale here with her debut adult novel 'The Girls are all so Nice Here'. In classic psychological thriller style, the plot follows two timelines, one seeing Ambrosia Wellington start college and the other depicting her 10 year college reunion. There is a stark contrast between the Freshman Amb, who is desperate to impress the wild Sully by any means possible, and the married adult Amb who attends the reunion with her lovable husband. We get hints that Sully and Amb's wild partying had some tragic consequences in their college days, events someone would rather not let them forget even many years later.

You would think that having a main character who is deeply flawed and unlikeable would make this an unpleasant read. However, Amb is so deluded in believing she is in the right that the reader almost starts believing that perhaps she is not as evil as she appears. Do not fall for it! These girls are beyond mean, they are truly horrid. The only redeemable character is the lovely Flora, Amb's roommate, who only wants to be accepted by her new 'friends'. Her experiences in the book are some of the darkest so be prepared to go on a horrific journey with these characters.

I was gripped throughout the book but it all went a little bit off the boil in the last few chapters. In comparison to the rest of the novel, it was rushed, a bit cliché and obvious. This clunky ending was not enough to ruin my enjoyment but I would have hoped for a better pay off. I would still recommend as this is a pacy, gripping and completely twisted story. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gripping, shocking and totally compelling. A delicious slice of campus life, with two young women hellbent on getting what they want no matter who they hurt, until it all goes wrong. I loved the back and forth between present day and past tragedy, as we try to understand what the main character is running from. A great read!

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire. A lot has changed in the years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads “We need to talk about what we did that night.”. It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything. At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the price. Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a shocking novel about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death.

I read this book very quickly and I enjoyed every second of it. It is very fast paced and the end of each chapter leaves you desperately wanting to know more. When reading, it made me think of Pretty Little Liars and Mean Girls so if you are a fan of either of them, then you might like this book.

I especially liked how the book what told through two different time periods, one being the present day and the other being during Amb’ college days. Each ‘email’ or message Amb received made me want to know more about what truly happened and why she was so terrified about her secret coming out. Towards the end of the book the past and present entwined and the story came together perfectly.

The characters were very well developed and as it went on, I really felt that I knew them really well. At some points Amb was a little bit annoying but when certain things happened, I liked her again. Sully was very well written and I can easily compare her to (but not to the full extent) people from my school. Flora was such a lovely character and I felt so sorry for her, I felt like Flynn conveyed the theme of depression very well through Flora. I honestly think everyone will be able to identity with these characters and recognise certain characteristics from other characters with people from school/college, etc.

I am not going to mention who the blackmailer was, but what I will say is that it was such a twist and I didn’t see it coming. In some books the blackmailer/mysterious person is a character that has only been in the book for a short amount of time and (I feel like) the author does this for shock value rather than making sense within the story, but this book the reasons why this person was the blackmailer makes a lot of sense.

What can I say about this book? Right from the second I picked it up I fell in love with it. If you are a fan of thrillers, mysteries and college dramas then this is the book for you!

Amber goes to a prestigious college but wants to fit in. She befriends Sully who shows Amb a way of life, sex, drugs and partying. Things go horribly wrong and when Amb is invited to the college reunion she doesn't want to go.

I really enjoyed this book. The story is told now and then following Amb around and what she and Sully get up to.

I found the book very easy to read and the story did hold my interest until the end. I found myself flying through the book.

There are a lot of dark themes in this tale and college life isn't always rosy. The main characters are not exactly likeable and don't think reading the story I was meant to like them. Girls can be mean and this book shows exactly how much.

Although I enjoyed the book I have a little niggle, and that is the amount of sex that is in the book. I'm not a prude and college life away from home can be sex and partying but I felt there was just too much of it. It didn't spoil the story I just felt there was too much.

I would certainly read books by the author in the future. I would like to thank the publisher via Readers First for the opportunity to read and review the book.

If you like your dark academia a bit less serious and thought provoking than most and a bit more of a thriller, then you'll like this one.
You'll be guessing up until the last few pages!
Brilliant.

This story follows Ambrosia Wellington as she starts college at Wesleyan. She finds herself gravitating towards the wild Sloane Sullivan and the two girls find themselves living life too close to the edge and it’s not long before someone gets hurt.
We follow two timelines, the past when Amb is starting college and the present where she has been invited to her class reunion. As the timeline flips we learn more about her friendship with Sully and the bad thing they did which caused her to drop out all those years ago. The girls are now receiving threatening notes but they don’t know who could possibly know their secret.
I really loved this storyline, it was addictive and hard to pinpoint exactly what was happening which really ramped up the tension. I hated Amb with a passion, she was not just an unlikeable narrator but a vile bully and I found myself getting furious listening to her thoughts. This story definitely captured the ugly side to female friendships and demonstrated how important it is to stay away from toxic situations.
I would definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a thrilling college drama. If you can cope with unlikeable characters then I think you’ll get more out of it.
Finally, I’m not someone who ever really gets ‘triggered’ by fiction but I did really struggle at one point in the book and I think it will really affect other readers too. I’ll list the main triggers here but these could be considered as slight spoilers so read at your own discretion...TW/ graphic suicide attempt, self-harm, rape, alcohol/drug use.
✨ Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this book ✨

When Ambrosia gets an invite to her old college reunion she does not really want to attend as she’s put that time behind her and forged a new life for herself. At the same time she also receives a cryptic anonymous note which alludes to something that happened when she was at college. The story then alternates between Ambrosia’s time at college and what happens at the reunion.

Dark and unpredictable this book is about toxic manipulative relationships and rivalries between teenage girls and what happens when they get out of control. It makes for very addictive reading.

The girls are all so nice here plays across two timelines, one when the events happened and at the reunion years later.

I’m sorry to say i think this novel falls in to an already saturated market of private school drama.

I really didn’t feel there were many hallmarks of a thriller. The situations are horrific but this didn’t fill the thriller lover in me up at all

I devoured this book really in 2 days, I just was so invested in what happened, who was involved, and who was going to end up hurt in all of the craziness that takes place in this book. The story is set around Ambrosia who starts at a very prestigious college, and quickly realises she isn’t like the other girls there, especially Sloane, or Sully as she is known. Sully is a party girl who likes sex, drugs and dancing. But she’s a very manipulative girl, and gets girls to do her dirty work, and has boys lapping at her feet.

The book gives of a very ‘Mean Girls’ vibe, but a whole lot meaner. You can see how easily manipulated Amb is into doing the things Sully goads her into doing, things she doesn’t necessarily want to do, but the desire to be Sully’s friend is high. She ends up having a lot of sex with random strangers, ignoring friends, lagging at school and delves into alcohol and drugs.

The book flits between then and now, where Amb has received an invitation to her college reunion, and against her better judgement, she goes with her husband Adrian. But Adrian know nothing about what went on, about ‘Dorm Doom’, or Sully.

A really good book though with some twists and turns, and things that a make you question whether you even know what happened at all.

There are trigger warnings for assault, mental health, death in this book.

I was definitely intrigued by the premise as I love toxic characters and the idea of a school reunion. However, I personally felt like this wasn’t a thriller, there were no surprises to me in the way things panned out and the book felt a bit more like a slightly older YA rather than an adult novel. Having said all that, I did enjoy the authors writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was dark and delicious. I had heard wonderful reviews of The Girls are all so Nice Here and was so thrilled to be approved for an ARC copy.

I devoured it in a couple of days.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is the story of Ambrosia who embarks on her college journey at the prestigious Wesleyan College. There she moulds herself into the person she thinks others want her to be and forms an obsessive friendship with wild girl Sully.

Together Amb and Sully play games with the girls and the boys at the college. Fierce oneupmanship to see who can be desired the most.

Brilliantly written characters who were complex and cruel. But also dangerously real. Any one of us could be in the position Amb was in; the painful quest to fit in and be liked.

TGAASNH is superbly written. A twisting story of female friendships during the most vulnerable of times. The story flowed flawlessly and it was one of those books I couldn't put down yet didn't want to finish.

Totally lived up to its well-deserved hype and I'll be recommending this to everyone I know!

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for the chance to read and review.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a book I have been really looking forward to reading and was thrilled to be accepted for an ARC. I am a fan of school/ college based stories, probably harking back from my love of Mallory Towers and St Clare's as a child. The Girls Are All So Nice Here is told in a mix of 'present' and flashbacks with Ambrosia as the central character. She attended Wesleyan with high hopes of becoming an actress, but most importantly, of reinventing herself and meeting new and interesting students and being part of the in crowd. She quickly realises that she doesn't quite fit and after the first day is despondent. Her roommate Flora is a sweet, possibly naive, girl who sees the best in everyone and everything and is a ray of light in their dorms. She tries to befriend Ambrosia but isn't quite the best friend she has in mind. On the other hand, wild girl Sully enchants Ambrosia and soon the two of them are thick as thieves, but at what cost? We follow the dramatic and tragic course of the girls' Freshman year at Wesleyan interspersed with plans for a reunion ten years on where secrets may start to unravel and old wounds reopened.

I really enjoyed the writing style for The Girls Are All So Nice Here. Having two timelines made the story fly and kept a level of intrigue about what horrors occurred during that first year and how they can never quite be buried. The characters are mainly completely unlikable but still interesting and great to read about. It makes me very glad my university days are long behind me! I thought the story was well written with enough mystery to keep the reader guessing whilst enough clues to let you have a crack at working out what went on.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here should appeal to readers who want a bit of Mean Girls with a bit more of a grown up twist. I very much enjoyed reading and look forward to more from Laurie Elizabeth Flynn!

Unlike some thrillers I've read recently where the author shies away from a bloody, uncomfortable peak to the action, The Girls Are All So Nice Here doesn't disappoint - and in fact gets bloodier than I was expecting. Ambrosia Wellington (better known as Amb) attends her college reunion despite being involved in a scandal there in her late teens. Having once fancied herself as a actress, Amb now works in PR in Manhattan and has an uninspiring husband who can charm the birds from the trees, is always talking about his unfinished novel and longs to get her pregnant, despite her ambivalence. Her best friend, Billie, is lost to motherhood, bottles of Riesling and her new life as an Instagram influencer - but it's her college best friend, Sully, who's on Amb's mind. Some reviewers have said that they found the detail about drugs, drinking and partying monotonous, but I think the time spent on these repetitive activities illustrates the cyclic boredom of college, supposedly the best years of your life - definitely not the case for Amb, who finds herself walking deeper into a trap. Original enough to stay with you, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a slow burn, but one that pays off.

Darkly juicy and taut with the intensity of desire, The Girls Are All Nice Here blows apart the idea of the sisterhood.

Nice girls can do bad things…

When Ambrosia first arrives at prestigious college Wesleyan, she’s desperate to fit in. But Amb struggles to navigate the rules of this strange, elite world, filled with privileged ‘nice’ young women – until she meets the charismatic but troubled Sully, with whom she forms an obsessive friendship but the games they play have devastating consequences.

I adored the characters of Amb and Sully. They were so complex, desperate and cruel. It was fascinating to witness the lengths Amb would go to in order to belong and the lies she told herself in order to see them through. And I just loved the wholesome yet layered Flora.

From start to end this novel's tense writing explores female friendships during the most vulnerable of times - the teenage years. The years where you aren't sure who you are yet or who you should be. When you just want to find your tribe. It is a compelling and riveting study of how girls can be so mean to each other. 

The greatest strength in the writing is that although I hated both Amb and Sully, I also wanted to help them, I could at some level understand why. I wanted them to stop. This is rare when the characters are so ruthlessly mean but its a sign of incredible writing.

I inhaled this book within 24hrs desperate to find out what happened and I think you will too.

Highly Recommended.

Oh wow!!!!. And I mean wow!!!. Literally from the first page I was hooked, it grabs and pulls, twists and turns until the very end where you are left breathless and just a bit mad. This is powerful, this is raw and this is why the females are more deadly and much much more scarier than the males. I had I am sorry to say sympathy with Kevin, ok I hear you say he’s a male he was off with all these girls flirting with them, but I am sorry I didn’t quite buy that and tbh I really despised both sully and amb they were just awful, but I became almost admiring in the face of their denials and just plain disregard to tell the truth. I did like that poppy got her revenge on her sister, in such a calculated and cold way.... she in a sense was also a victim to their madnesss and lies. Wow wow wow..... this is a fabulous and powerful story of girls and how competition, society behaviours have a lot to answer for.

The premise and concept for this book were brilliant; the cover, the title and the description really drew me in. A story of secrets, toxic friendships and how devastating the effects of bullying can be. There are a fair few twists and turns in this book which certainly keep you on your toes (I won't mention these to avoid spoilers, but one of them was certainly a heart-wrenching realisation).

The story felt quite slow in the first half, the characters, especially in the past scenes, became very repetitive and I didn't feel as though we were delving deep enough into their motivations. The party scenes and 'bad best friend' feels a little overdone too, so I would have loved to see something a little differently. After the first couple of chapters we didn't really get much more of a sense of Amb as a person other than her crippling lack of self-confidence.

The pace picks up after the 60% mark, before this it felt as though a fair few scenes weren't necessary, and more time could have been given to the aftermath of what happened with Flora. The final chapter was a fantastic way to end the novel, though I would have liked Amb and Sully to have gotten more of a comeuppance and for us to see the trial Amb went through.

Ultimately this is a good suspense novel, however, it was hindered by unlikeable characters who showed no redeeming qualities. Even in the present scenes it was hard to see if Amb had learnt anything from what happened in the past which made it incredibly hard to trust her.

I'd give this 3.5 stars because the last 40% kept me incredibly hooked, but I wanted to see more from the characters and something a bit different to the wild girl college narrative.