The Girlfriend

This review is featured on my Mini Review Monday segment I think this would be better suited as a domestic drama than being pushed as a thriller of any variety I know that psychological thrillers are hot right now and the title sells books, but readers like me who go in with certain expectations will only feel lukewarm about this story While it wasn t a bad read by any means, I m afraid it wasn t great or anything I haven t read before There were cliches abundant in this story and the pacing mov [...]

4.25 slow burning stars .25 What do you get when the ultimate helicopter mom and the ultimate gold digger go head to head You get a pretty spectacular book Laura is a true mama bear who cannot let go her obsession with her only son borders on oddCherry grew up thinking she deserved so much and she will stop at nothing to get what she feels she deserves so who will be left standing at the end the mom or the girlfriend The beginning of this book was a definite slow burn watching these two equally [...]

The Girlfriend was highly highly addictive It s clever, unique, and fast paced What I liked about this psychological thriller is it s something that I haven t seen before I feel like I ve read quite a few thrillers over the last few months that have the SAME storyline So, Michelle I commend you on creating an addictive and sassy thriller This little baby kept me on my TOES like I m talking almost falling off the edge anticipation to find out what happens between these two manipulative women.We m [...]

3.5 It all starts with one little white lie it can t hurt anyone Come on No one will ever know The problem is, just like potato chips, can you stop at just one And exactly how many lies are needed to get what you really want When Cherry meets David, maybe one tiny lie slipped out Just enough to gain his attention Oh, and maybe one just to hold that attention When she meets David s mother, well you see where this is going The heart wantswhat the heart wantsLaura loves her son David, than anythi [...]

3 Stars.Laura loves her life she has an amazing relationship with her son Daniel and she has an uber successful job In an instant it comes crashing down and Laura doesn t see it coming It happens because of a girl Daniel has become smitten with Cherry She is a gorgeous gal who works in real estate, who is from the wrong side of the tracks Laura is positive that she is after Daniel s money and Daniel doesn t see it Immediately thereafter cracks start to emerge in Laura and Daniel s relationship a [...]

Take one overbearing mother and add in a young woman on the prowl for a rich husband That sets the stage for the beginning of The Girlfriend Laura lives for her only son Her husband has golf and his own affair, so she is basically alone and unloved But I couldn t understand her making her son her sun , her be all and end all, around which her whole world revolved I mean, the son is 24 and starting his doctoral internship I didn t find her sympathetic at all But neither was Cherry, the girlfriend [...]

EXCERPT You re deluded Just let go, let go of him He looked at her with a new distance, as if he didn t know her Stop making excuses for your obsessive behavior You ve driven him away you and you ve only got yourself to blame THE BLURB A girl A boy His mother And the lie she ll wish she d never told.The Girlfriend by Michelle Frances is a gripping and chilling debut psychological thriller, based on the fall out following an unforgiveable lie It looks at the potentially charged relationship betwe [...]

Addictive to the point that whilst on a two hour flight, I found myself wishing my flight was longer just so I could spend some quality time with this gem.I have mentioned before that I am very stingy with my 5 star ratings, only saving them for my absolute favourites and this one definitely fits into that category When it grips you to the point that you can t help thinking about it and talking about it to all who will listen, then you know it s oh SO goooooooood I couldn t get enough of readin [...]

4 inventive and suspensful stars to The Girlfriend Michelle Frances told quite the original tale Laura is a mother who feels like she has it all Until one day, her son, Daniel, with whom she is over involved, brings home Cherry, a girl who Laura firmly believes is all wrong for Daniel As Laura and Daniel s relationship grows apart, Cherry relishes having Daniel all to herself Both Laura and Cherry are unlikable characters and jealous over each other s relationship with Daniel This actually kept [...]

Cherry has never known what it was like to have money coming from the poor side of town where her single mother worked for years in a supermarket with no hope of anything better Cherry was determined that was not going to be how she spent her life and spent a few months making appointments for real estate showings only to learn the business and snag a job at a nice firm In her new job she meets Daniel while showing him an apartment up for rent Daniel is from a very wealthy family and while he wi [...]

5 ReviewI absolutely loved the girlfriend It was fast paced, exciting, very clever, and a chilling in places Daniel is from a very wealthy family He meets the charming Cherry in an Estate Agents whilst looking for a place to buy.Cherry is from a poorer family in Croydon She dreams of living the wealthy lifestyle and strives to achieve bigger things Then along comes wealthy Daniel They have instant chemistry and things between them move very quickly.Laura is Daniels Mother She is in a loveless ma [...]

It can be hard for a mother to let her son go to relinquish her place as the woman in their life It s hard to imagine no longer being the first person they go to for comfort, for congratulations, for support But what happens when that is made even difficult by a bad feeling in regards to the woman your son has fallen in love with There s just something wrong with her something a bit dark, something calculated and manipulative How do you deal with that I would certainly recommend this one if you [...]

This novel, set in Kensington, England, pits the two women that love twenty three year old medical student Daniel against each other His mother Laura and his new girlfriend Cherry Daniel never wanted for anything growing up Cherry, on the other hand, lived in poverty and is desperate for a way out, even if it means lying a bit on her resume and pushing her mother out of her life as much as possible Both Cherry and Laura initially hope to have a great relationship with one another, but misunderst [...]

4.5 freakishly scary starsCan money buy happiness Laura has what seems to be everything, money, a gorgeous home, a wealthy husband, and a wonderfully loving and handsome son, Daniel They live in a gorgeous home and even have a villa in the south of France Life, it seems, is wonderful.Then Daniel meets Cherry, a young real estate agent, and things start to click between them Cherry has never had much She grew up poor and is ever so embarrassed by her roots She wants , a lot , and sees Daniel as a [...]

4.25 Stars A mother thought their child perfect than anyone but mothers also knew their children better than anyone else did Well, for her first book it was damn great Such a thrilling story So compelling She enraged me with those characters Howard for his damn coolness about his family Actually I think his family didn t matter to him Daniel with all his naivety that chose his NEW girlfriend above his MOTHER Oh, Cherry I liked her she was so smart and at the same time I despised her She was qui [...]

Oh I so count myself lucky I got on with my Mother in law and that I am grounded.This is a book you will start and be prepared you won t want to drag yourself away from I stayed with it until I finished it the early hours of this morning.RelationshipsYes, they are the hardest to keep, the hardest to keep steady but throw in an unsteady person, jealousy and then things crack.Daniel and Cherry The Girlfriend.Daniel was raised in a well to do family his aim was to become a Doctor.Cherry never had t [...]

3.5 starsThough it took me a while to finish, I thought The Girlfriend was a solid mystery It was cleverly plotted, if a little slow paced, and the characters were intriguing and multi dimensional It had certain predictable aspects, which made me guess the ending fairly early on, but I didn t really mind That being said, 450 pages is too long for this story it could easily have been told in 300 All the same, it was a good read and I ll keep my eye out for this author s futures books.Find review [...]

This was actually really good A fast paced, compelling read.The protagonist is Laura, a woman who has a good job, and is wealthy but is estranged from her husband but won t divorce him They live in the same house, and she cooks for him sometimes but Howard has been having an affair for years Laura s one great love is her son, Daniel.He is now 23 years old and a trainee doctor Laura is pleased and proud and quite smug that her son is so handsome and has done so well Then Daniel meets Cherry.This [...]

3.75 Stars The Girlfriend is a fast paced, well written mystery by Michelle Frances It s a bit predictable with an abrupt ending that left me wanting maybe an epilogue from Daniel s point of view Overall it was a good read and I would not hesitate to read from this author Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

This book was not was I was expecting but I don t mean that in a negative way, I guess I was thinking it would be fast paced, intense and twisty and instead it was slower, with a subtle intensity and while it definitely had some surprises it wasn t as twisty as I had imagined it would be I do think it s best to go into this knowing as little as possible about the plot so I won t be delving into that too much, you really need to discover things on your own to fully appreciate this book.This is a [...]

The Girlfriend was highly addictive a read in one sitting tale of the divide between a girl and her boyfriend s mother or in this case two rather unlikable manipulative women each trying to one up each other, a scenario that doesn t end particularly well for anyone.I loved the character dynamics in this seriously twisted, I m not sure if I m talking about the Mother or the Girlfriend to be honest it is also quite an intriguing little take on how money divides us The haves and the have not s, how [...]

When I was approved for The Girlfriend from NetGalley, I was giddy with excitement I waited for the perfect time to dig in Right away I m sucked in A few pages in and I m telling my husband about the mother that s obsessed with her son and feeling a little put off by the new girlfriendHe interrupts me, Like you ha, ha very funny If he thought that was going to curb my enthusiasm from telling him , he was so wrong I couldn t stop talking about it.Ok, ok, so Daniel is from a wealthy family and Che [...]

3.5 4 starsThe Girlfriend is a wild and somewhat predictable ride, but it certainly held my attention The story is entertaining but unfolded a little differently than I was expecting, partly I think because I was expecting an unreliable narrator type tale when instead it is suspense and family drama I didn t love any of the characters, but I think that is frequently the case in these type of stories because they do things I would never dream of doing, and that is what makes the book enjoyable M [...]

2.5 starsI m not a big fan of books that overly explain characters inner thoughts or feelings This story was told from 3 POV s, so unfortunately this style of writing was everywhere I almost gave up, but it reads fast, so I decided to see how things played out.The only POV I cared for was Daniel, but he was a minor player compared to his Mother and his girlfriend Cherry Both of these two characters deserved each other Fake, narcissistic, emotionally needy, manipulative, and selfish are just a fe [...]

I probably couldn t have chosen a worse week to read The Girlfriend as my own nest finally became empty this weekend after 25 years and I m feeling very emotional and redundant at present But thankfully my situation is very different to Laura s as I have daughter s and not sons so the first thing that came to mind when I started The Girlfriend was that old saying A son s a son till he takes a wife, a daughter s a daughter for all of her life Unfortunately for Laura, her family circumstances made [...]

The number one selling thriller is not quite that, but a good book all the same Said genre is very en vogue right now, which seems to allow publishers to market their books as fast paced thrillers when in reality they are anything but.Cherry is thrilled when she meets the handsome and wealthy Daniel who also happens to be a doctor cliche much and sees a way out of her rather mundane existence Her worst nightmare is ending up like her mother, living in a cramped flat in Croydon and working in a s [...]

4 starsI received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.Let me start by saying that this is NOT a psychological thriller So before you go into this book, you should reset your expectations This is a demented and twisted domestic drama I would like to thank my GR friend, Ms Chelsea Humphrey for reading this book before I did and setting my expectations right What we have here, folks, is another case of mis labeled, mis marketed genre Of misrepresented literature This is not, I [...]

Laura is a wealthy woman with a successful career in the entertainment industry and a very close relationship to her son, Daniel, who is studying to be a doctor She cherishes this closeness, but that all changes when Daniel meets Cherry, a beautiful young woman who hasn t had all the opportunities that Laura and Daniel s wealth has brought them When Daniel meets Cherry while searching for a flat, she immediately recognizes all that he could bring to her life The pair quickly form a romantic rela [...]

Being a 450 page book, I thought this would last me a few days reading on holiday well, it managed to last just two days because it is so addictive I just couldn t put it down.Cherry really wants to lift herself up out of the poverty she is born to, and being a very intelligent young lady, she acquires a position in an estate agency in the affluent Kensington area of London When Daniel walks in to the estate agents to purchase a multi million pound apartment, Cherry seems to fall on her feet whe [...]

3.5 Stars.Domestic thrillers seem to be making a comeback and I am NOT unhappy about that They are fun reads and it s interesting to see how an author will bring this kind of story to life In this case, we have two deplorable characters Laura and Cherry Boy did the author make me despise both of them Cherry is just straight up certifiable, selfish and manipulative Laura just lives in her little bubble and makes some extremely dumb mistakes but they all at least stem from what seems to be a good [...]