Phoebe Morgan (1)Rezensionen

This truly is worthy of every 5 star rating this book will receive plus more! Be prepared to be blindsided by one of the most greatest, unexpected conclusions of a novel in 2020!

A woman found dead in her flat, her body slumped over the side of an empty cot. Who killed Caroline and more importantly, where is the missing occupant of the baby’s cot?

The answer to the first question appears to be obvious, the married man she has been having an affair with for the past year and a half, but how does little one year old Eve fit in the puzzle? Would Callum have murdered the baby as well as his mistress and if so, what has he done with her tiny body, or are the police looking for two separate incidents? Nothing is as it seems, the connection is baffling and as the investigation delves further into the lives of Callum, Caroline, and the missing baby’s parents things are even more unexpected than it first seemed.

Told from the viewpoints of Siobhan, Caroline and DC Wildy and set between Ipswich and a villa in France this is one hell of a psychological thriller that reads like a Hollywood movie and packs a massive punch. A clever, dark, whodunit with a small cast of characters that somehow still manages to keep you identifying the culprit wrongly right up until the bitter end, and what an ending it is!

As all becomes clear it is a genuine OMG moment and one that you won’t forget! This was a read in one sitting, couldn’t put down book and I loved it!

If you are a fan of psychological thriller’s than this is the book for you, plus it is a perfect book club book as it will definitely have everyone talking. From the characters, the plot line and then that all important plot twist, it all comes together to make this one of the top books in this genre of 2020!

The Babysitter will be published on 28 May 2020 and is available for preorder now

25/08/17

I have just finished this book and i am really really impressed with how the book played out.
It is a massively over used statement but! You really should read this book!
If you are fans of Chelsea Cain, Karin Slaughter or M. J. Arlidge, you will love this.
It is an amazing debut novel and Phoebe Morgan is going to be an author to look out for, she will definitely be on mine.
When i wrote the initial review i was only 28% the way through and if my ME wasn’t playing up i would have completed the book much much faster.
It continued all the way through with twists and turns, some plot twists you might see coming but there are many more you won’t!
It’s nice to be surprised by a book these days and not to have it worked out how it will end completely without having to read the end!
I will be recommending this book to anyone that ill listen and i wouldn’t hesitate buying this book for a present for friends and family 😉
Congratulations Phoebe on a brilliant debut, i hope the wait until your next release isn’t going to be too long!!

I have been a bit slack on the book reviews thanks to my M.E but I am still trying!

​My ME has decided to flare up so I have either been asleep or topped up on morphine

I honestly wouldn’t wish this on anyone, just when I thought I had a handle on it, thought I was on the up with it it decides to remind me it still has control over my life!!

​I am currently reading The Doll House by Phoebe Morgan and I’m 28% the way into now.

So far it’s a really good book. Very atmospheric and as things are picking up in the book it’s starting to get more suspenseful with plot twists added in.

I can’t wait to unravel the plot, I just need to stay awake long enough and have the brain fog to clear so I can keep up with the new twists and turns!

​The story so far is about 2 sisters and their partners and the grief of losing there dad who was a world renowned architect. He hand made a big dolls house to a replica of their own house for the girls which they treasured all through childhood.

​Now grown up and having moved the sisters haven’t seen or thought about that dolls house for years, that is until a piece of the house turns up on 1 of the sisters doorstep.

​Who is leaving parts of the house? Where is the dolls house and who has it?

​That has yet to be discovered and I can’t wait, it has defiantly got me intrigued!

​I fell asleep on the sofa reading earlier and Birdie has had a bit of a chew on the corner of my new kindle Only cosmetic damage that god! Some how she managed to take all my earrings and nose ring out without waking me up!! Maybe she has a bit of Magpie in her DNA!

If money gets tight I will have to take her into some jewlery shops lol.

​The kitten wladimir ( named after Wladimir Klitschko! ) is getting a bit to brave, as you can see he ended up shutting himself in Birdies cage!

I was worried about the dog with the kitten but other than following him everywhere we’ve had no problems of that front yet! My dog is a huge Alaskan Malamute so compared to a 10 week old kitten he looks like a giant!! It is a mad house here!!

I am sure the animals know when I am suffering and not feeling great, all 3 cars plus the kitten are in bed with me tonight! Thank god I have a superking size bed or there would be no room for me!

That statement instantly let’s you know I am single!!! I’m heading into the crazy cat lady category if I’m not there already

I will do a full book review on The Doll House when I finish it and going on what I’ve read so far it’s just getting better and better!

Thanks for bearing with me.

Have a good weekend from me and Birdie and now Jack the dog and wladimir xx

A psychological thriller that portrays a story from a variety of people's perspectives and demonstrates how destructive secrets and lies can be. Nicely written, with well developed characters and some good twists.

Quick read.

This is my first book I have had the pleasure to read by this author and it did not disappoint.
Four lifelong friends, up until a couple years before when they broke up for unknown reasons to the reader is coming back together to celebrate a thirtieth birthday in Africa! All expenses paid and they all decided to throw caution to the wind and jump on the plane to meet the birthday girl. Each one has different suites and nobody else appears to be on this all inclusive vacation. I enjoyed the now and then timelines as the story began to unravel and we began to see the real reason the band broke up.

Female friendships can be wonderful at one moment, but you must always be careful of a woman left scorn.

Corrinne and Ashley are sisters who are still grieving the loss of their father. As the one year anniversary of his death approaches, strange and ominous things start happening in both their lives. Ashley is getting crank calls, and Corrinne has reason to believe someone has been sneaking into her home. Corinne's boyfriend thinks it's just stress, between the death of her father and their failed attempts at IVF. Ashley has her own troubles, what with her husband supposedly "working" some very long hours. Each of the sisters want to avoid overly upsetting the other instead of confiding much in each other. The complexity of the relationships between the sisters and with their significant others felt so real. I never knew who to trust from one minute to the next.
Meanwhile someone has been watching the sisters from afar but they are no longer satisfied with just observing the life they think should have been theirs, they want revenge.
I would not have guessed this to be a debut novel, it was a most impressive psychological thriller, full of suspense and family drama.

I received an advance copy for review.

The Wild Girls, by Phoebe Morgan, reunites a group of old friends for an upscale foreign vacation, full of secrets, twists and danger. (Not to be confused with The Wilder Girls.) This reminded me of The Hunting Party, with the college friends and their secrets all together in a luxe resort. When this works, I really love it. (I was not a huge fan of The Guilt Trip or They Did Bad Things but there's a similar theme.)

Years ago, Felicity, Grace, Hannah and Alice were a tight group of school friends. But their friendships imploded after what was meant to be a fun night out revealed too many secrets. Now Felicity has reached out to the others with invitations to a blowout 30th birthday party in Botswana.

The reunion is tense at first, as the former friends look at each other nervously, but the gorgeous resort and the fun activities Felicity has set up change their minds. There are realistic and gently emotional moments as old friends try to reconcile the girls they remember with the women they see now, which develops the characters and when the suspense starts, this only makes it more dramatic.

I liked the suspense and the exotic setting a great deal (although after the last year and half in my apartment, I'd probably have just chilled in my own plunge pool instead of investigating anything). There are twists and shocks in The Wild Girls, right up to the end.

Crossposted to my book blog

Four BFFs known as “The Wild Girls” have been estranged for two years. The Teacher, The Mom and The Introvert come back together when they receive an invitation to celebrate The Birthday Girl. Perfect timing since they are all in desperate need of a getaway; an all expense paid trip to Botswana plus the hopefulness of reconnecting and healing old wounds…what could go wrong?

Beautiful cover and jacket cover drew me in. Characters are all dealing with heavy life issues that can be relatable, understood. Completely different personalities, very critical of each other that at times I wondered how they could really be friends. I had hoped that the author would bring more of beautiful Botswana into the story, lost opportunity in my opinion. I did enjoy the narrative thru each of the friends eyes. Their background and falling apart is intermeshed with the current situation and then brought together. Many little inconsistencies through the story but it was enjoyable nonetheless. A good vacation read that will keep your nose in the book.

Thank you to Ms. Morgan, William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone!

The premise for this thriller is great: a group of four (ex) friends plan to rekindle their lost friendships at a blowout birthday party for one of them, at an exclusive Botswana hideaway. Things go wrong from there....

This had some good promise. The first half of the novel presents the cast of characters and I must say, the Botswana setting (exotic and private locale, decadent hotel, luxurious digs) offers mystique, intrigue and a good dose of suspense as the story gets rolling. However, the promise doesn't carry through. For one thing, the dual story of the current setting vs 2 years ago when Everything Went Wrong doesn't work: the mystery of what happened all those months ago leaves the reader hanging and confused in the present. The characters all reference it in their thoughts and speech to each other, but since the reader is in the dark, it has no resonance to what's going on in the present, although we understand that the two timelines are connected somehow. Unfortunately, when the mystery of 2 years ago is finally unleashed, it is a little anticlimactic (for reasons I can't give away).

I did not like the constant shifting of perspectives. It makes for a confused reader, having to stop and reorient yourself with "OK, it's X talking now" breaks, particularly when the voices were so similar. There was also no good reason for the shift in POV -- there was nothing in their perspectives that could not have been related from the outside, from one of the character's perspectives.

The characters are not people I would care to know in real life. The CONSTANT drinking was tiresome and made for cardboard characters I did not relate to at all.

The big mystery and villains I found totally unrealistic verging on ridiculous.

Books like this are the reason I am reluctant to take a girls trip! Just kidding, but even the tamest of girls can be trouble at times. In this story, readers meet a foursome of longtime friends and one of their favorite childhood games was truth or dare. They seemed to live a bit on the edge when they were together, but jobs and romances eventually forced them to go their separate ways.

One night they get together to meet Felicity’s new boyfriend. This night caused a crack in the foursome that wasn’t easily mended. Each woman had feelings of guilt or betrayal and they kept these hurts to themselves instead of sharing their feelings and working them out.

When Felicity invites them for a special birthday weekend in Botswana, they each have their own reasons for accepting. Mostly each one was anxious to have a break from their lives that was greater than their reluctance to face Felicity again.

Almost immediately things start to get strange when they arrive. It doesn’t take long before they figure out this was not a trip for pleasure, but a trap for revenge. But what have they each done?

The story slowly takes readers back in time to the events of their last get-together where we learn what happened that caused the friendships to split apart.

I can’t say I was that surprised at the ending, but the final paragraph was quite chilling.
Thriller fans will love this one!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

Title: The Wild Girls
Author: Phebe Morgan
Publisher: William Morrow and Custom House
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"The Wild Girls" by Phoebe Morgan
My Assessment:

Wow! What will happen when Hannah, Alice, Felicity, and Grace, who had been school friends, but this friendship had stopped in the last several years due to what had happened during a night of partying some two years ago. However, it seems like Felicity's 30th birthday is coming up, and she invites all three of the ladies to a luxury lodge in Botswana. Will they accept this invitation?... It seems they do; however, arriving, they find the luxury place deserted. What is up with that? This author gives the reader a lot to chew on because there will be POVs from all of these ladies. And what comes out will have one shaking their head and saying, Wow! Be ready, yes there will be ...der!

From the events at the lodge, one will get a clear picture of each of these so-called friends. It seems to be lots of secrets that will come out that help completes the whole story. One will be left thinking about what Grace had told her friend Felicity about a specific person... did it lead to this? Well, I will stop here and say you will have to pick up this read!

Also, there is a fellow in this read that causes a lot of grief, especially for one of the ladies...due to...stopping here and saying the reader must pick up this read to get it all from how well this author presents it to us. When you think the story is going one way, it takes quite a turn! It will be quite an ending where one could be left saying, Grace, you may want to watch your back with who is left from this situation.

The ending brings it all to the point of going through many twists and turns until this violent ending where lies are still being told. What a read!

Thank you, Net Galley, William Morrow, and Custom House, for my ARC and a giving an honest opinion of the read.

Phoebe Morgan's latest book is The Wild Girls. And it's a wild tale!

As teenagers, Grace, Felicity, Alice, and Hannah dubbed themselves The Wild Girls. They were fast friends until something happened two years ago that destroyed the friendship. As listeners we don't know what that 'until' is. But, when Felicity contacts the other three with an olive branch - an all paid escape to a Botswana holiday spot to celebrate Felicity's birthday - they all agree to go.

Morgan gives a voice to all four women and we slowly learn more about their friendships, their personal lives and their inner thoughts. Morgan slowly lets the listener to get closer to what happened amongst the four. And...what is happening now. Because there's something very wrong at the holiday spot.

Morgan deliciously ramps up the suspense with every new chapter, often changing the narrator at a critical spot. (Which only ensures I will be up late listening to 'just one more chapter.'

Now, I thought I had things all figured out as the end drew near. I had guessed one bit, but didn't see the last 'gotcha' coming. Well done Phoebe Morgan!

I am so glad that four narrators were used for this book - Stephanie Racine, Polly Baron, Silvia Presente and Olivia Dowd. Each had a completely different voice that made it easy to know who was speaking. Each voice suited the character they were reading. The readers were very expressive in their roles, easily capturing the uncertainty, the unknown, the danger and the tension of Morgan's book. All four spoke clearly, enunciated well and were easy to understand. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I become more immersed in a book when I listen. And The Wild Girls is the perfect example of that.

The publisher has suggested that if you like Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley, you'll like Phoebe Morgan. I agree. Great plot, great listening experience.

I realize I’m getting tired of paint-by-numbers thrillers that are devoid of character development and rely solely on how shocking the twists are. Unfortunately, I found this repetitive, weirdly fixated on the victim Claire’s blonde hair (to the extent that the character herself kept referencing it), and just kind of empty. Yes, there was a great twist and I love an unreliable narrator, but I was just left wanting more, and not in a good way.

I received this book free from the publisher via netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Please see my full reviews available at www.coffeeandtrainspotting.wordpress.com.

For requesting arcs and books to review, please visit www.netgalley.com.

Once there were four friends who called themselves the ‘wild girls’, all keeping their own secret, and then they became estranged. Two years later three of the wild girls are invited to the fourth’s birthday party at a luxury lodge in Botswana. But, as in all good thrillers, nothing is as it seems and murder is the name of the game.

This is a brilliant, fast paced and creepy psychological thriller. It’s definitely a page turner. The name of the luxury resort is Deception Lodges and the clue really is in that name. It’s quite a tense story and there are a couple of great twists which I didn’t see coming. I was on tenterhooks throughout wondering what was going to happen next. It takes you on a real rollercoaster of a ride. Exhilarating!

Another fabulous read from Pigeonhole! A babysitter is found dead and a baby has gone missing. Throw in a couple of distraught parents, an adulterous husband, a long suffering wife, a confirmed bachelor girl sister and a sulky teenage daughter and the stage is set.

I found this book a page turner. I was gripped throughout even though the characters were all very unlikeable. It’s one of those thrillers where everyone is a suspect and the reader is led on a cat and mouse chase to discover ‘whodunnit’. It took me on quite the journey and definitely kept me guessing. However, I did have my own theory and my assumption did turn out to be correct. 😊 Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Yikes! What a total creep-fest. When I was younger, I used to really dislike people watching me. Not that I was ever interesting enough to look at, but I just didn't like the idea of someone watching me eat, drink or read when I was completely unaware. So the strapline of The Doll House attracted my attention immediately as you really don't know who's watching you.

Corinne and Ashley are sisters who are both grieving for their father and struggling with troubles of their own. Corinne is desperate for a baby whereas Ashley has 3 children and, although she loves Ashley's children, it's getting harder for Corinne to cope being around them. Corinne is naturally very fragile and her partner, Dominic, is a reporter so he never seems to be around to support her. When Corinne finds a piece of a doll house at her front door, she doesn't feel threatened...but she should. As more pieces start to arrive: at her work and inside her home, the already fragile Corinne feels as if she's falling apart...and that puts her just where her tormentor wants her.

I literally couldn't put it down, so I read The Doll House in a day as I was immediately drawn into the web of intrigue that Phoebe Morgan has created. Seriously? Is this a debut? I had to double check as it is such a top quality psychological thriller. There is so much tension is all relationships that I suspected everyone of tormenting Corinne. After all who would have access to the old doll house? We are also shown glimpses into a story from the past, but whose story is it?

I read most of The Doll House covered in goosebumps and if that's not a sure sign of a five star book, I don't know what is! A highly recommended read - it will definitely get under your skin, play with your mind and creep you out.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this, I found it gripping throughout, however, I found the end to be puzzling and all of it slightly far fetched

This book pulled me in right away and kept me up at night. What a great psychological thriller. I have not been this invested in the outcome of a book in quite some time.

A gripping psychological thriller set in a close knit community. When Clare Edwards is found dead in a ‘buttercup’ field, the gossips come out of the woodwork and rumours run rife. It’s all about keeping up appearances in this book.

The Girl Next Door is an excellent read, it’s full of twists and turns, a few red herrings and a surprise ending. There’s even a hint of creepiness. No-one is whom they seem and no-one can be trusted. The characters are mostly unlikeable but well drawn, so the reader can have a great love to hate relationship with them! It’s definitely a page turner and had me eagerly turning the pages, even though I had guessed who the killer was before the big reveal. Just don’t be lulled into a false sense of security!

Captivating, enthralling and highly recommended - if you like a mystery with a bit of divergence, this is for you.½

Slowly but surely, I'm getting caught up on my NetGalley reviews. (I'm waaaay behind.) This time around, I finished reading The Doll House by Phoebe Morgan. It's a slow simmer with a bit of predictability and a lot of unnecessary information, but in the end, Morgan manages to redeem the book through fast-paced, constant action.

The plot is a bit all over the place for the majority of the book, but, like The Roanoke Girls, this seems to be a technique used to drive the story forward. That said, the chapters end with a bit of suspense before the jump to another character. (Also, it should be mentioned that I HATE how Morgan switches between first and third person.) Unfortunately, the first 80% of the book feel like a drag. There's little to no action, with the most exciting parts being an apparent flashback to the antagonist's past. The last little bit of the book picks up drastically, which was a nice relief from what came before.

I said earlier that it's a slow burn, and The Doll House really is. Morgan leaves enough clues throughout the book that a reader can pick up on something awful culminating at the end, but its done in a manner that is simply alright. For instance, the conflict between Ashley and her husband is unnecessary. The title, The Doll House, is a bit of a misnomer because aside from a few parts of the house showing up and a few references to it, the dollhouse is very rarely mentioned. (Also, let's take a moment here to point out that the dollhouse on the cover of the book is white and it's made extremely clear that the actual dollhouse is pink. That would have been a simple photoshop fix.)

Now, the characters in The Doll House are really something else. Personally, my favorite is Ashley, the self-conscious, overweight mom of three whom I feel is quite realistically depicted. Corinne is more skittish than my Dad's dog, which is pretty impressive. Which... it amazes me that she keeps her job with how much she calls out in the book alone. The male characters are alright, albeit apparently quite handsome. Andy is a pig, but you'd have to read the book to see why.

Overall, I didn't hate or love this book to death. It's a pretty solid three out of five, which is better than some of the other stuff I've read lately. I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review.

The original synopsis of this story did not mention Ashley at all, so I went into this story thinking it would only be about Corinne. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this would be about both sisters. The story is told in their alternating voices, with brief interjections from Dominic, as well as moments from the past told in the voice of an unknown character. Of course, the unknown person was the most intriguing part of the story, and I was wondering the entire time who it could be. I found Ashley's perspective to be a lot more interesting than Corinne; I also liked her better as a character, even though not much was really happening on her end as compared to Corinne. But to be honest, I didn't really care much about what was happening with either one of them. There just wasn't enough emotional connection or depth to them to get me interested; every time I felt I was connecting, the story would hurry on and it would be lost. I had pretty much guessed the ending of the story so there wasn't too much of a thrill there. However, I WAS surprised by the identity of the unknown character; it wasn't the person I was expecting it to be. For the most part, this story was lackluster, and I was just trying to get to the end to see if I was right or not. The ending was the only interesting part of the novel, but it ended in such a cliffhanger way that I wonder if there will be a sequel. Overall, this was an okay thriller with characters I didn't really care about, and not enough thrill to keep me enthralled. I'm giving this a 2/5 stars.

I received this novel as an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

On the outside it appears as though Corinne has a perfect life, but after three failed IVF attempts she has one more chance at having a baby. When she finds a little part of a doll house at her door she feels as though it's a good sign. But as more pieces show up she realizes these aren't good signs at all. These are pieces to her childhood doll house. Someone has been inside her home. But why?

Corinne's sister, Ashley, has three children. Her baby girl won't sleep through the night and her teenage daughter doesn't seem to like her much these days. An exhausted Ashley is becoming more and more frustrated with her husband as he spends more and more time at the office. When phone calls from an unknown number start up, she thinks that maybe her husband is having an affair. What else could phone calls like that mean, right?

I tried picking this book up a few times, but wow - boring. I was bored until about 25% at which point I was disgusted. I don't enjoy reading about dead animals, real or fictional. And the author mentioned this same animal over and over and over. I get the connection, but there was no need for it to be in the book. It didn't add anything. Neither did the dead pigeon. I hate that and I was so close to dnfing because of this. But anyway, the story eventually picked up. It was suspenseful. I had to find out who was stalking Corinne and Ashley. And then it kind of fell apart for me at the end. So the middle part was fun but overall it's not going to be a memorable book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Digital for an ARC.

Corinne and Ashley are sisters who lost their father almost a year ago. Both went on with their daily lives, but are still emotionally affected by the loss as they were always close to him. Corinne is also trying to have a baby and down to their last round of IVF (paid for by Ashley). She starts finding pieces of her childhood dollhouse at first thinking it's a good omen for the future, but they seem threatening after while, appearing and disappearing so others don't take her seriously. Ashley feels her husband pulling further and further away from her while she cares for their three children on her own. As she grows frustrated at being on her own most of the time, her infant never sleeps through the night and her oldest seems to be getting more and more in trouble. Do their problems have perfectly reasonable explanations or is something more sinister afoot?

The Doll House is a psychological thriller with some twists and turns. It's told mainly from three different voices: Corrine, Ashley, and a third unnamed girl in the past. Corrine is kind of fragile. From the very beginning, she's easily startled, still reeling from the death of her father, and devastated that she might never become a mother. I found her story the most frustrating because pretty much everyone in her life dismissed her very real concerns of her home being invaded. I found Ashley the most sympathetic because she is trying to a run a household and take care of three kids at very different stages while her husband spends more and more time at work (if that's what he's actually doing). She expected to have help and having everything thrown in her lap is only making her feel resentful and incredibly stressed as her children's problems worsen over time.

The third woman remains unnamed for most of the novel. Hints are dropped here and there to make her relationship to the other girls more clear. Her mother mistreated her growing up, forcing her out at all hours to spy on another family. Over time, her mother's obsession became her obsession. I felt sorry for her, but only up to a point. The identity of this woman and her mother came as a huge surprise to me. By the end of the book, I was puzzled as to why they would choose to plan as they did. It seems like they would be easily caught by the end, successful or not, so why bother to be so secretive and perfectly planned only to give a stereotypical villain monologue revealing everything.

The Doll House is an overall enjoyable book. My main problems with it are in the villains and the horror aspects. Based on the cover, I thought it would be more horror I also thought there was an inkling of supernatural that would grow into something more, but everything stayed squarely in reality. Other than that, it's a decent thriller that's well plotted and interwoven between the three main characters.½

A well-crafted story with characters you can empathise with (even the baddie, a little). It piqued my curiosity and was complex enough not to let me guess the ending. I don't often go for psychological thrillers but I believe The Doll House is a very good example of the genre.