Review : The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
Pages : 352
Genre : Mystery
Stand alone
My Rating : 2.5/5
About the Book :
Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia’s life.
Colin’s job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia’s mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family’s world to shatter.
My Thoughts :
As they say, honesty is the best policy; so I’d rather just get to it and admit up front that The Good Girl didn’t work for me.
Its cover is striking and the mystery appealing; and yet, in its execution, it felt very flat to me. I couldn’t connect to any of the three narrators, and most of the characters were either unlikable or just not interesting for me. The one character I was truly interested in was Mia, but because she doesn’t get to narrate her own story, we never get to really connect to her.
I also found the story to be very predictable, but not in a fun “ooooh I think I know who did it” way. I think the author went for a slow revelation of the characters and their motives, which I appreciated in parts, but from my point of view, a lot of it didn’t bring anything important to the story.
I did find the writing interesting though, and it got me right from the start. It’s direct, simple, sort of how I imagine someone would tell me the story face to face. In fact, I think this might be a book better enjoyed on audio for this very reason!
All in all, The Good Girl and all didn’t click; but I think its mystery, especially for readers who don’t usually read thrillers and mysteries, is still interesting. I feel like the odd woman out because most of the reviewers I follow seem to have loved this one. And the (few) ones who didn’t really, really didn’t. So maybe it’s the type of book you either love or not, connect or not.
I truly believe every book has its readers; I just wasn’t The Good Girl’s one.
The Good Girl is available now! Thanks to Harlequin for generously providing a e-copy of this book!
The cover is very appealing so I’m disappointed to see you didn’t love it.
Hmmm, I definitely think The Good Girl will not be a book I will be picking up because my favourite aspects of a novel is the characters and being able to connect with them, and by the sounds of it they are not very likeable. Whilst I definitely agree with you on books being individual to the person, I think I’ll have to steer clear from this one.
Appreciate your honesty!
Livvy – previously @NerdyBookReviews