After reading Good Bad Girl and not enjoying it, I hoped this was better. And yes! Immediately I was hooked. Love an author character and an isolated setting. I had no idea where it was going and was shocked by the twists every time. Brilliant.

After reading and loving Good Bad Girl I had really high hopes for this one.
I liked the premise, and at first I was really intrigued as to where the plot was headed - but then by the end of the book I wasn't even sure what I felt about it! I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it - I was just like huh!

Alice Feeney is my new auto-buy author!

Best selling author, Grady, is given the opportunity to move into an isolated cabin located on the Scottish Isle of Amberly. And after the disappearance of his wife, Grady feels as though this is his chance to begin writing again and put his past behind him.

But the island holds many secrets, and how can he trust the other 25 inhabitants of the island when he can’t trust his own mind.

Beautiful Ugly is an addictive, atmospheric thriller filled with twists and turns, keeping the cogs turning in your brain the entire time. You will not want to put this book down!

Thank you to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This is Alice Feeney’s seventh book, but the first I’ve read – and I’ve definitely been missing out!

Beautiful Ugly centres around writer Grady, whose wife disappeared a year ago under mysterious circumstances. Struggling with writer’s block, his agent offers him a lifeline: a free extended stay at a writer’s retreat cabin she inherited on the Isle of Amberley, off the Scottish Highlands.

The book features chapters from both Grady’s point of view and his wife Abby’s, before her disappearance. On the island, Grady is haunted by the image of Abby and the island setting adds an eerie atmosphere to the mystery.

This is a gripping thriller that kept me hooked throughout. The end in particular had a part that really made me smile! Genius.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the free eARC.

This is one of those books that you think you know and keeps flipping it on it’s head. Perfect for those who love a bit of mystery and intrigue in their life.

Grady Green is an author. A moderately successful author with a book that became a New York Times Bestseller, but shortly after getting the best news of his life, he has the worst news – he is on his phone to his wife, ready to give her the news, when she gets out of the car to check someone lying in the road and disappears. A year later, unable to write with his wife still missing, Grady is offered a house on a remote Island off Scotland to live and write a new book. The house used to be a writers’ retread for a best selling author and Grady hopes he will be able to write again there.

I won’t say any more as I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but just read it!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7247405257

https://maddybooksblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/beautiful-ugly-by-alice-feeney-this-is.html

Beautiful Ugly is a curly-wurly twister of a thriller! In classic Alice Feeney fashion, this book kept me second-guessing everything with every turn of the page. Just when I thought I had figured it out, another twist would prove me wrong.

The story follows Grady Green, an author whose wife, Abby, an investigative journalist, mysteriously disappears while on a call with him. A year later, consumed by grief and unable to write, he follows his agent’s advice and retreats to the remote Scottish island of Amberly, hoping a change of scenery will help heal his heart and rekindle his creativity. But upon arrival, he spots a woman who looks exactly like Abby. But that's impossible....isn't it?

As strange occurrences mount and eerie coincidences pile up, Grady finds himself questioning not only those around him but his own sanity. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or is something far more sinister at play?

And that ending!!! 😮 If you love psychological thrillers packed with emotion and unexpected twists, Beautiful Ugly is a must-read.

Alice Feeney excels at creating eerie settings & unhinged characters. I was gripped from start to finish & finished this in less than a day. I loved the dual timelines/POVs. The twists’ & turns kept me questioning everything until the very end.

★★★★½ ROUNDED UP ⬆️⭐️

“I hope you die in your sleep.”

Feeney is back with another twisty mystery that will have you questioning everything, thinking you’ve got all the clues figured out and ultimately leave you in a state of shock and bewilderment (in the best possible way of course!)

I’ve read all of Feeney’s books and she has an innate ability to come up with some dark and twisted mysteries that get under your skin. In Beautiful Ugly we meet Grady who is having the worst day of his life. While on the phone with his wife who’s driving home with fish and chips to celebrate his book featuring on the New York Times bestsellers’ list, he hears her slam on the brakes and get out of the car never to be seen again. Still grieving a year later, Grady is desperate to find out what happened to Abby. He can’t eat, sleep or write and he’s invited by his agent to go stay on a remote Scottish island to help him get his writing mojo back. But there he sees a woman who looks identical to his wife, and his world comes crashing down around him.

Feeney excels at atmospheric thrillers and with the setting of the remote island where communication with the mainland is non-existent, the tension and suspense remains strong throughout the story. The characters are fleshed out, nothing is what it seems and the addition of the unreliable narrator with Grady struggling to determine if what he’s experiencing is real or an illusion adds so much to the story.

The pacing can be a bit slow at times but in the last third of the story, Feeney ramps up the speed and finishes on one of the most unexpected endings she’s ever written. The novel deep dives into some big issues such as marriage, family,grief and the extent to which a person will go to get their retribution for what has happened in their lives.

Another addictive read by the author, Beautiful Ugly is out today. Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the arc. 4.5⭐️

I love Alice Feeney's writing so much. You can tell she spends a lot of time with her characters and building up the setting - the Isle of Amberly in Beautiful Ugly feels tangible and real (and quite uncanny!)

Beautiful Ugly is her best yet - one of the best parts of her work is finishing a book and thinking back on all the breadcrumbs that you missed, but had been cleverly placed the whole time.

An eerie and atmospheric read, packed full of suspense and twists. Great characters and a gripping storyline. Another great book by Alice Feeney.

Well written with a claustrophobic and menacing atmosphere The examination of a marriage between an author and an investigative journalist is told from a dual point of view. There is trauma and obsession but the final twists are shocking in their unpredictably. Recommended.

"If there is a more beautiful place on this earth I haven't found it, and her so many ugly things have happened here."

A writer's search for his missing wife whilst trying to beat writer's block on an isolated Scottish island truns very weird. In typical Feeney style this is a terrifyingly, twisted dystopian and feminist tale of revenge.

"Wives think their husbands will change but they don't. Husbands think their wives won't change but they do."

I loved this book!
It’s such an original story and it well and truly had me hooked.
Grady is heartbroken after his wife Abby disappears and he struggles to cope with his life as a writer.
His agent suggests he goes to a remote Scottish island and stay in a cabin that she was left in a client’s Will, to help him focus.
The island is not what he expected and it takes him a while to realise he may not be able to get back to London.
I won’t spoil it for you, as you need to see how things develop for Grady on this strange, remote island but
this is a great mystery thriller that I’d highly recommend.
Thanks to Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this book.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this awesome book

what a twister this one was... i was compelled to read it and couldnt put it down.... never saw that ending coming at all

grady green is an author.... he was top of his game with a new york best seller... but since his wife disappeared he hasnt been able to write and his life has spiralled....

his agent sends him to a remote part where she has a cottage for him to write

this is a compelling read and once you start you cant put it down... there are twists and turns and red herrings galore but still i didnt see it coming....

cant wait for the next book by this author

Alice Feeney is an author I just instinctively KNOW won’t let me down and I was happily proven right with Beautiful Ugly. I was a super lucky chosen one and received an early copy from the publisher (love u @panmacmillan) 😍

I usually like to write my book reviews in chronological order of the book but, days after finishing it, I still cannot wrap my brain around *that* twist! I should have known something mindblowing was coming because Alice is queen of the unforeseeable revelations but I truly could not have predicted what unfolded in those pages.

Beautiful Ugly is definitely a slow burner initially, as we are introduced to author Grady Green and the events which have led to him visiting the very small and tight-knit island of Amberley. One year after his wife Abby seemingly disappears, Grady is struggling to write anything so his eccentric agent, Kitty, offers him a short stay in a cosy cabin on Amberley in order to help get his creativity flowing. The residents of the remote island are odd to say the least, and I found Grady’s encounters with them equally entertaining and unsettling.

This story just screams ‘foreboding’ and looking back there were subtle yet increasingly sinister vibes from the moment our unreliable narrator set foot on the island, resulting in a wildly unpredictable conclusion. There are also some very clever chapters inserted towards the end of the book which made me think I knew the gist of what was going on: spoiler, I did not at all 😅 I had a great time with this book and would highly recommend!

Author Grady Green has just found out his latest book has become a New York Times bestseller, when his wife Abby vanishes. His life falls apart without her, and a year later he goes to stay on a tiny Scottish island to try write his next book.

I have heard a lot about Alice Feeney but have never tried one of her books before. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly not what I got. There's not many thrillers that give you that eery uneasy feeling while reading it, but this is one of them. Certain aspects of the plot I worked out very early on, but I would never have guessed the whole outcome. This is one of those WTF did I just read books, and I love that! When you read a lot of thrillers they become a bit too predictable, and it's rare to find one that truly surprises you.

So why 4 stars instead of 5? For me the explanation of the backstory of the island towards the end was a bit difficult to follow. I had to reread it a few times, which did diminish my enjoyment of the end of the book. I also thought that it was just too far fetched. I know it's fiction, but for me the thing that really makes a thriller unsettling is that feeling that this could happen, and by the end of the book that feeling was long gone.

I did really enjoy reading this book though and will definitely be picking up more of her books in the future. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feeling about this book but it did hit the ground running and help my attention all the way through and I was mostly satisfied come the end.
We start with author Grady Green who is about to, hopefully, get the best news of his life so far. He was looking forward to celebrating with his wife, Abby, but, as usual, she has let him down and is "running late". He gets the expected call and immediately calls her to share the moment. But as he is talking to her whilst she is driving home, he hears her stop and get out the car to investigate something. This is the last he hears from her so he ups and backwards follows her likely route, finds her car abandoned, drivers door open, phone left behind.
Fast forward a year and Grady is still suffering. Abby is still missing and no one still has any idea what actually happened to her. His health is suffering, he can't eat, sleep, or work. But he knows something has to change so when he is offered the use of a remote log cabin, he ups and travels to a small Scottish island to try and kick start his life.
And that's when things start to get really weird... and also, sadly, start to skirt the bounds of credibility and all gets a wee bit far fetched... although, that said, delightfully so. I rolled my eyes a fair bit as I read, but at the same time, I was mostly happy to do so... It was also a tad predictable after a certain point...
It has all the things you'd expect from the author - with secrets, lies, dysfunctional behaviour and obfuscation aplenty, all served up with some delicious twists and turns. Played out by larger than life characters who will definitely get under your skin. And the Scottish setting is just wonderfully described.
My best advise to you as a reader is, if you can stick with this book, it will be worth it in the end. Yes you may need to hold on to a few things, suspend belief, and read through a bit of confusion to get there, but you will be rewarded for your hard work. It's a bit of a game of two halves all told. A definite five star beginning with a three ramping up to four star ending.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Grady Green, a successful writer, is struggling a year after his wife Abby disappeared without a trace. His wife vanished while driving home on the day Grady found out he had become a New York Times bestselling author. Her car found abandoned, she was presumed dead, and now a year later Grady can’t write, has no income and has lost his home. When his agent throws him a last resort lifeline of spending three months in a writer’s cottage she owns on the tiny Scottish island of Amberley he jumps at the chance.

Grady hadn’t realised how small and cut off the island would be. Only 150 inhabitants, no phone or internet and no regular ferry service outside of tourist season. Nevertheless, it’s a rent free home in a beautiful rugged location, the inhabitants seem welcoming, if a little strange and when a writing opportunity falls into his lap he decides he can do this, even though what he’s planning is totally unethical.

However, nothing is as it seems and Grady has no idea what is really going on around him. He is such an unlikeable man and so self-centred about his writing being all important that he doesn’t really care about others and badly neglected his wife who did nothing but support him. So it’s wickedly delightful to watch what is really happening to him, even as he remains clueless and strange things keep occurring around him. The rugged landscape and atmosphere of the little island are so well portrayed as are the people and their strange affinity for each other. There are some terrific twists as Grady eventually comes to realise what has been going on. Masterfully done and so good!!

I love Alice Feeney and the twists I never see coming and was so excited to get a copy of this book.

Following Grady as he moves to a remote Scottish island to try to write a new book after his wife goes missing I didn't know who to trust at any point during this book.

Told with a dual narration this story is a slower burn than some by this author but that doesn't detract from the story at all. I knew throughout that there would be twists but I didn't guess any of them. I love that no matter how many books I read by this author I never guess the twists.

An intriguing story that doesn’t follow an obvious path. Full of suspense and intrigue, the twists come thick and fast and will surprise you.
You may think you know where the story is heading but it will surprise you.

Perfect read for a winters evening.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Beautiful Ugly.