A brilliantly constructed thriller about the evils we commit in youth and the long shadows they cast. I enjoyed the dual timeline and the way life on campus was depicted. I thought the relationships were well drawn and believable with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. For fans of Donna Tartt, Emma Cline and Robin Wasserman.

WOW! I picked this book with no major expectations, it sounded like a decent read but it really was so much more. It flashes distinctly between then when a specific event occurred that we are constantly left wondering about, and now, when our main character Ambrosia is sucked back into the life she once led by being blackmailed into the attendance of her school reunion. I often hate books that flick perspectives or time frames but this was so well written and left no confusion, the characters were likeable and I always wanted to know more. I read this so quickly because of the pace, the twists in the tale, the whole plot was so well thought out and it highlights just how toxic friendships and wanting to fit in can be. I adored this read, I will definitely be heading to buy it when it's out because it is a book I could recommend easily to anyone.

Ambrosia Wellington, now Turner, is invited to the ten year reunion at Wesley. She so doesn’t want to go but with a heavy heart and a sick feeling she agrees and oh boy, does she have ‘music to face’ for her toxic manipulative behaviour with Sloane aka Sully. The storyline alternates between Then and Now which works extremely well.

One of the biggest strengths of the novel is the characterisation and the variety. We have lovely, fragrant Flora who is wholesome and pretty to the absolute extreme end of the spectrum or polar opposite of Sully. Ambrosia or Amb as she prefers to be known (and who wouldn’t being lumbered with a name like that) is an enigma. She’s sucked into a mean, dark, monstrous world which makes her feel alive, it gets her noticed and not overlooked. She has hatred for everything that she is not and exacts a perverse revenge against the girls who have it all. In the present day - does she have guilt?? It’s very hard to tell as she evades all the lies she has told and so it’s more a case of not getting caught out. It becomes very apparent that someone is out for revenge in this dark tale of nasty, manipulative deeds, of destructive loss, deception and betrayal which is very chilling and shocks to the core. The finale when it comes is pitch perfect as the truth is finally extracted and a vengeful justice is achieved. Karma really is a .......!

Overall, this is a good debut. If you like your reading ‘on the dark side’ then this one is for you! I like the irony of the title too.

With thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the arc.

I am not too sure what to write about this book. It was well written but not a very nice story. I wouldn't have wanted to be friends with any of the girls in the book. The book did keep me gripped though.

I liked that this mean college girl story was told from the point of view of the actual mean girl.
I can't think of too many times that happened.
Though I did get a bit bored of "went to party,had alcohol/drugs, had sex" .
There were few likeable characters in this book,meaning I didn't mind who went down for the crime,,and who was setting them up (fairly easy to guess I think)

The book flows well across the two timelines and has a satisfying ending.

I am fairly horrified at the idea of a weekend long reunion though! 😃

I wanted to love this book so much after seeing it all over my social media. I have enjoyed it, the author has a lovely writing style that flows and keeps your attention. Although, it’s been a bit drawn out and sometimes a little slower than I usually prefer. The end has left me shocked and this is definitely one I recommend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

This was a gripping book of teenage issues. It was interesting but I didn’t relate to a lot of the content. The characters were quite realistic though. It’s definitely an unusual plot so it is good if you fancy something different for a change.

A thriller that keeps you guessing till the end & never lets you go, if that's what you want then this will be an investment for you that you will love.

What's the secret who is it or what is it a little is given as you read through, yet will they won't they it's a minefield of questions that do get answered but if you manage to guess them then your better than me, Not that I'm claiming thats difficult because its probably not.

So yes I love it the characters were baffling in the right way you get to know them but always wonder what their secrets are not all have them but I can't say more without giving things away. However I will say this is a book I'm really glad I read and I hope you will be as well. The writing is off a high standard that sets it above many others in this category.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. Toxic female friendships is a favourite trope of mine and I couldn't wait to get stuck into this.
This follows our protagonist Ambrosia who gets an email from her college for a ten-year reunion. But going to the reunion means confronting her past and her dark secrets...
Honestly this was a tedious read. The narrative has now and then set-up. In the then narrative the protagonists are narcissistic and apparently seducing people's boyfriend is 'edgy' and 'rebellious'. I don't have anything against terrible people, but their voices need to be compelling. In here that was not the case. It was very repetitive - it was I-got-drunk-at-another-party-where-I-met-Sully-and-she-dared-me-to-sleep-with-this-guy-and-steal-his phone-so-we-can-show-the-world-who-he-really-is-and-then-I=had-more-meaningless-sex, rinse and repeat - and the thriller element was hardly there, with the constant remainder of the 'secret' in the present narrative. The revelation wasn't any better.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a tense novel about the dark side of female friendships and what happens when the past comes back to haunt you. When Ambrosia was at college, she wanted to fit in and seem more like the nice, privileged girls there, until she met Sully, another girl who didn't fit in and who had a charming yet twisted side. Amb wanted to impress her, but to do so, she had to keep playing the same game, and it all gets very tangled up with her personal life. Now, she finds herself at their college reunion with her husband, trying to not confront the past, but it seems that the past wants to confront her.

The book has two timelines—the 'present' of the reunion and the past of Ambrosia's freshman year—and the chapters jump between them as the plot unfurls, using a classic thriller structure to bring a few surprises along the way. It is certainly quite dark in places (it needs a warning for a fairly graphic discussion of suicide at one point) and shows how unhealthy friendships based on doing outrageous things and throwing people aside can spiral into something even more destructive. The narrative is gripping, though it did feel like it lacked depth sometimes and it was easy to forget who some of the characters were (though this could be because Ambrosia didn't care about them, or didn't want to). Ambrosia's perspective is an interesting one, and the present narrative is really used to show how much you can not know the whole story at the time, or how you can wilfully ignore it. The ending felt a bit rushed, not quite addressing everything that suddenly happened or was revealed, but that may just be personal preference as a lot of thrillers do wrap up pretty fast.

As someone who read a lot of Point Horror as a teenager but doesn't read a huge number of thrillers now, this novel felt like a Point Horror book for an adult audience, bringing some even more twisted turns but also focusing a lot on the social side of college (you basically got no sense even in the past narrative of anything else Amb was doing there). That isn't a complaint: it works well for the vibe of the book, which is being compared to Mean Girls but probably deserves more of a Heathers comparison if anything.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn. 4/5 💋

Two former friends return to their former college for their ten year reunion and find themselves ensnared in a web set by someone who knows exactly what they did ten years ago, exactly what they are guilty of and someone who is ready for them to pay the price.

This was a juicy, delicious, dark little read! I was completely blown down by this one. Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars as if they were crafted by Gillian Flynn. Sully, Flora and Ambrosia were brought to life, dancing across the pages, easy to picture.

This deserves a tv adaption. A story that almost burns your fingertips as you turn the pages.

#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #books #bookclub #reader #reading #bookblogger #bookish #booknerd #bookgram #weekendreads #bookaholic #whatiread #octoberreads #potd #octoberbookstagram #currentlyreading #currentread #booknerdigans #bibliophile
#autumnreads