Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book!
One of my reasons for requesting it was that it mentioned that the main character travels to a tiny Scottish island- I mean, that sounds like the dream doesn’t it?! Add to that a bit of background mystery around his missing wife, and it sounds like the perfect story!
So, we have author Grady, not able to write after his wife goes missing, his publisher offers his use of a cabin on an island that she was left in a will from another of her author clients- and she suggests he uses it to try and get his creative juices flowing again. Off he goes, accompanied by his dog, to drive up to Scotland and catch a ferry to his ‘temporary home’. From the moment the ferry arrives for him, things are a bit different than he expected! Once on the island, the cabin (which has supposedly been empty for years) is clean, tidy and with a little vase of flower- someone is welcoming him, but who?! The island itself, while appearing on the surface as quite welcoming, seems to be hiding secrets of its own.
I did wonder at one point if this was going to be a predictable story - and I won’t give spoilers- but when he finds something hidden in the cabin, I thought this would go a particular way, and while it did to some extent, thankfully it didn’t quite pan out the way I thought!
One of my least favourite things in books is jumping backwards and forwards in time, and there’s a fair bit of that in this book- but it’s done well and is fairly easy to follow.
Overall, a solid 3 from me.

Alice Feeney is one of my favourite mystery authors, and I definitely had fun reading Beautiful Ugly, but I can easily see why it might not appeal to many readers.
The solution is, without a doubt, improbable and far-fetched. I personally figured out very early on what was happening and why, probably because I read a lot of mysteries, but there were a couple of things I missed. However, I can objectively see that, while everything is more or less explained, it doesn't make a lot of sense and the motivations behind the characters' actions are quite unbelievable. 

That being said, even if the solution wasn't especially clever or satisfying, I personally enjoyed the book. I found the storytelling very enjoyable, the story was never boring and I always wanted to keep reading to see how it would unfold. I also really liked the setting and the closed-knit community of the island, and I loved learning more about it. The main character also worked quite well as an unreliable narrator.

Not one of Feeney's best works, and I wouldn't recommend if you prefer more plausible mysteries, but for me quite enjoyable overall.

Beautiful Ugly is a 4.5⭐️ rounded up to 5⭐️
Grady Green is an author, he’s waiting to hear if he’s a top seller and for his wife to come home with celebratory fish and chips. He rings Abby to see where she is, she’s not far but she slams the brakes on as there is a woman on the floor in the middle of the road. Grady tells her not to get out and he’ll come and get her but Abby gets out and Grady hears nothing or sees her again. One year later and Grady is not in a good place, he can’t write, he can’t sleep, has no money and he misses his wife and wonders what happened to her. His agent has a cottage on a secluded Scottish island that only has 25 residents. Does he want to live there and get his book finished in 3 months? He snaps it up, peace and quiet but can he write a best seller in three months….he doubts it. When he arrives on the island by a small boat/ferry he starts to think he’s losing his mind, he keeps seeing his wife everywhere from afar but can never find her. The island has no phone or signal but why does he think he can hear the phone ring in the village? Why can he never get an answer to when the ferry leaves to take him off the island?
I raced through this book, I loved the eeriness of the forest that Grady went to live in, the suspense of what happened to his wife. There were questions everywhere that did get answered at the end much to my relief!! The concept of the storyline was like nothing I’ve read before, yes it does start off as if you have read similar before but I haven’t and I didn’t guess the ending!! Alice Feeney never disappoints me and this book is another winner.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

💭 ᴍʏ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛꜱ:
From page one, I was hooked. Abby's disappearance sucked you right in. I felt a bit complex about Grady, I like him and I loathed him at the same time. Which made the story really interesting. The Island of Amberly created such a unique environment, it really added an extra layer to the suspense/thrill. I did feel there could have been added something extra to it, but overall I really enjoyed it. And I loved the ending, it was really what bumped it up from 3 to 4 stars for me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🤓 ʀᴇᴀᴅ ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴋᴇ:
Quick read
Short chapters
Secluded environment
Multiple timelines
Multiple POVs
Strong female leads

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ:
𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘏𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘧 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. . . 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥.

𝘈 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘺. 𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦, 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 — 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦.

Alice Feeney's Beautiful Ugly is an exciting psychological thriller with all the twists and turns for a wonderful thriller. I have read mostly all of her books, and none of them disappoints us. Beautiful ugly is fast; it grips you from the start till the end. All the characters have an interesting role to play. Further, the story has some great creepy vibes. The only thing off was that I felt the author got confused between giving it a paranormal or a thrilling touch. Still, the story hooks you up till the end. I was expecting a more thrilling conclusion. The story takes you from a husband-and-wife relationship to a creepy island. Alice has done a fabulous job in defining the island to create an aura around the readers. And the most important thing is that this is not that kind of book where you can predict the plot. With every page, there are unexpected turns that were unbelievable. Definitely, the book deserves 4 stars.

I’ve been desperately waiting for this book to come out and I LOVED it! Alice Feeney sets the scene so well and I felt like I was on the island too. The characters are constructed brilliantly and I could see this being a great for TV. Kept me guessing right til the end!

From the premise of this book, I was completely intrigued. Billed as a deliciously dark thriller about marriage and revenge, it does mainly live up to this with the odd drop of pace in the middle. Having said that, the twists at the end certainly redeem this book. I would rate it 3.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Pan MacMillan and the author for the chance to review.

Author Grady's wife disappears after stopping her car and getting out on the way home - while on the phone to him. A year later she is still missing and he's trying to put his life back together plus get over his writer's block. His publisher arranges for him to go to a remote Scottish island to focus on his writing and get his mojo back. But from day one he starts seeing a woman who looks a lot like his wife and odd things begin happening on this tiny island with its mysterious inhabitants.
The idea of this book grabbed me and I was hooked from page one, I also loved the island setting but the plot didn't quite get going and the characters around Grady didn't feel developed enough to connect with them. It was an enjoyable read but not enough to be memorable sadly.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for allowing me access to this ARC of #BeautifulUgly.

Let me tell you, I am such a big Alice Feeney fan and this book was fantastic. I honestly never saw the twists coming and I was on the edge of my seat from when Abby disappeared whilst trying to help a woman who was lying on the ground.

Grady, the husband, is grieving his wife disappearing and not knowing what happened to her. He is also a writer and needing to write another book as he is on a timeline with his agent so she sends to him to a Scottish island where another writer stayed and wrote a lot of books, surrounded by the beautiful Scottish countryside and stunning views… sounds perfect, right? But there’s a twist!!

I couldn’t put this book down and I was dying to find out what happened to Abby. How did her story end?

It went in a complete other direction than what I was expecting (typical for an Alice Feeney book!) and from there on, I tried to read as fast as I could because the suspense was just about killing me!

Wow, just wow. Another 5-star read for me and a 5-star write from Alice Feeney.

After the mysterious disappearance of his wife Abby, author Grady relocates to a remote Scottish island in the hope of curing his writers block, but he soon realises the local residents aren’t who they seem to be

There was lots about this book to love, mainly the sense of isolation and intrigue making it a great page turner. With this author I knew there would be a big twist coming, but I was unfortunately confused and a bit disappointed with the ending, which for me left too many questions unanswered and a rather large plot hole!

I throughly enjoyed this book. I was gripped the whole way through and loved the twist. It was the first time I read this author and I will reading more.

@currentlyreading__
Book 4 of 2025

Thank you to @NetGalley and the publishers Pan Macmillan for the advance copy of Alice Feeney’s upcoming book. It’s no secret that I have loved all of Feeney’s previous novels with ‘Rock Paper Scissors” in at number one but “Beautiful Ugly” now shares that top spot. It is a beautifully atmospheric novel set on a remote Scottish island and the setting is as much a character as are the actual characters.

From the synopsis: Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

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

I love the fact that Grady is sent to this seemingly idyllic island of Amberly so he can write his next book after struggling through grief for the past year. The island is hauntingly beautiful and with just his black Labrador Columbo for company. There are just twenty-five inhabitants on Amberly and everybody knows everybody so when Grady takes residence in a cabin which has been left to his publisher by a recently deceased novelist, it seems like the perfect retreat. That’s until the claustrophobia sets in, bones are found in the cabin and Grady feels like he’s under the microscope from the Amberly inhabitants.

This is a page-turner; full of menace and it has to be devoured in a big hungry sitting. I can’t wait to see what Feeney has in store for us next.

Out: 30th January 2015

#bookworm #iamreading #bookreview #kindle #bookreviews #bibliophile #bookreview #mustread #bookobsessed #bookrecommendations #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #netgalley #mustread #alicefeeney #beautifulugly #newthriller

The second Alice Feeney book I have read and a brilliant idea for a plot with a superb twist or two at the end. Looking forward to reading many more books by this author. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Alice Feeney's 2022 book, Daisy Darker, so I thought I'd try her most recent thriller. I wasn't disappointed.

Grady Green is a bestselling novelist whose wife disappeared one night on her way home, while on the phone with him. He is distraught and cannot write, so his agent organises for him to go to a remote Scottish island to get his next novel written. There he encounters someone who looks just his missing wife and weird things start happening to him. All is not as it seems!

Beautiful Ugly started out well for me, but there were so many twists and turns and unlikely events that it started to erode my suspension of disbelief. Despite that I liked the book and found it to be a page turner which started 2025 off in a fun way for me. A recommended read.

One minute Grady is a bestselling thriller author, and the next his agent suggests he should go to a remote Scottish island for 3 months.

His main problem was that his wife, Abby went missing on her way home from work, he was forced out of his house and was not able to write again..

One year on and no news of Abby, his agent, Kitty knew of this secluded cottage on this Scottish island. Amberley which also used to be inhabited by another famous author. Rugged landscape and changeable weather adds to an eerie story which develops slowly with Grady struggling with insomnia, a drinking problem and not being able to communicate with the mainland.

The island had few dwellings; people seemingly unable to help him and he becomes desperate to leave.

Without any more spoilers suffice it to say the story unravels beautifully. Ms Feeney paints some beautiful descriptions of Grady's frustrations. Of course, a detective could have helped and Ms Feeney had one at hand - his dog Columbo!

Super stuff and well worthy of five stars.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Pan Macmillan for the chance to read and review.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I generally really like Alice Feeney. This book did well at creating the suspense and gradually revealing the story. Grady was incredible unlikeable for me but I think that was the narrative choice. The ending did underwhelm me slightly. I completely understand what Feeney was trying to do but the writing did not seem as strong for the last 20% of the book. I of course will continue to read Feeney's books as I love the way that she writes. I would recommend this still!

Oof, not sure about this one. Bit of a slow burn to start with, then it picked up, but the ending made no sense to me. Can't say too much without giving it away, but if you know you know, as the saying goes.

None of the characters were particularly likeable, apart from the dog!

This was a decent enough psychological thriller. I enjoyed the descriptions of the island and Grady's confusion about what was real or not.

A story about an author who wife goes missing, goes to an island to write and finds a woman who looks like his missing wife.

With unreliable characters and a twist i did not see coming this book was an enjoyable read. It had parts which did not make sense until the story unraveled.

The ending was great and not what I was expecting.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

Grady has just got the best news - his book is a bestseller. Then he takes a call from his wife which goes silent when she finds a body in the road. He rushes to where she was but there is no sign of his wife or a body.
A year later he takes himself off to a remote island in the hope of finding his writing ways again. But then he thinks he sees his wife!
Is he going mad?