Is he responsible? Is he a victim? Is he creepy or just a misunderstood young man who has been labeled due to his looks and demeanor? Looks can be deceiving.... Is the predator hiding in plain sight? From the look of things, Kirsty loves this young man and their parents, on the other hand, believe that Gray is overreacting. Lisa Jewell has done a fantastic job of developing characters that are quite unforgettable. The animals in the narrative were equally entertaining, just like the humans.

I kept thinking of Lord of the Flies as I was reading this. Children that seem to be basically raising themselves, either because of neglect, a hand off approach to child rearing, or because it is assumed they are safe. Didn't agree with much in the way of parenting here, not sure I cared much for the parents who seem oblivious to all the undercurrents happening within this gang of kids. Pip, who is only twelve seems to have more sense than any of them.Finally, there is Saffyre. She is a former patient of Mr. Fours, and develops an obsession with watching him. But what happens when a single mother of 2 teenage girls moves in to this tight-knit world? Everything is not as perfect as it seems, and slowly things go off kilter. Families with secrets, teenage love, green-eyed monsters, and an unresolved 15 year old murder of a young girl that was killed in this very garden make for a captivating story that I found hard to put down. This story is told from three perspectives. A man loses his memory and is trying to figure out who he is. Simultaneously, a woman can’t find her husband who has disappeared without a trace. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Although, we wouldn’t say that this was a nail-biting thriller it was the way that the story was told and the drama within that really grabbed our attention. Would recommend!

Set in London, this is a story about a close-knit community surrounding a central 3-acre park, complete with a playground, rose garden, even a secret garden. Many of the people who live here have known each other for a lifetime, since they were children, and many have stayed in this same neighborhood until adulthood, now raising their own children here as well. So the children of friends are now friends themselves, playing the same games in the same park as their parents did.When Alice eventually manages to get the police to take her seriously, the information that they give her shakes her to the core. Kirsty and Gray are teenagers who when on their annual vacation meet with a teenage boy, who begins to show interest in Kirsty. Pip drops to her knees. "No," she mutters, "no. No. No. No." She pulls Grace's comisol down, pulls her shorts up. Then she runs down the hill, runs and runs, toward the warm safe lights of the Howese's apartment, toward the grown-ups, her heart thumping piston-hard in her chest. Saffyre Maddox has a big secret: something happened to her when she was 10! Someone had abused and left invisible scars at her soul! Now she harmed herself to deal with her bottled up anger and inner scream. He is orphan, raised by golden-hearted uncle Aaron but she cannot confess him what the boy did to him. So she starts seeing her therapist Roan Fours. She got help for three years but Roan cut her therapy sessions because he thought she was fine. But she was far from fine. She didn’t blurt out her secret slowly killing her. So she decides to stalk her therapist and sees his double life.

Lisa Jewell is one of the few authors who consistently have the gift of successfully weaving storylines together. Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible? While this wasn’t a heart pounding thriller, it did manage to keep my attention nicely once everything was set up. I loved the childlike drawings thrown in by Pip in the letters to her father. My favorite character was Adele; she was such a strong character and I found her sense of humor refreshing and a little lighter air when the mood was getting too somber. I also really enjoyed Gordon’s character (I know he was despicable and unlikable but he always made me laugh!); my favorite scene in the book was when he was singing: Hot diggity dang!! Now that’s what I been talking about! A well-done domestic, suspense thriller that focuses on fresh, unique unlikeable characters while staying away from those behaviours, roles and characters we come to expect in thrillers. Lisa Jewell has definitely gone over to the dark side for her latest two books, The Third Wife (reviewed here) and now The Girls. Both books are much darker in content than her previous novels and are almost in the psychological thriller genre. However I’m not complaining, as regular readers of this blog will know, I love a good chiller and this certainly doesn’t disappoint.Thank you so much to the publisher, Atria Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I certainly appreciate it! After being made redundant, Jewell accepted a challenge from her friend, Yasmin Boland, to write three chapters of a novel in exchange for dinner at her favourite restaurant. Those three chapters were eventually developed into Jewell's debut novel Ralph's Party, which then became the UK's bestselling debut novel in 1999. [5] [6]

I give Lisa Jewell a lot of credit, right from the start I felt totally immersed within the garden community. The setting descriptions are beautiful and almost at times unsettling in their real-ness. I found myself feeling like I could totally picture the places these characters were walking. It's a real sense of adventure to be able to immerse yourself in a book like that.Lisa Jewell was born and raised in north London, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the bestselling debut of 1999. We’re introduced Cat, Roan’s wife, mother with two children: Georgia (mostly annoying, spoiled), Josh (mother’s sweet boy), suspected her husband was having affair but her husband insisted he was not so they gave their marriage second chance. They rented a temporary place till their house’s restoration ends but she reads and hears so many assault news around the place. Someone out there is targeting women and she is afraid of her daughter’s well-being. This book truly had me hooked instantly and kept me there until the end! I loved the characters and thought they each had a lot of depth. This story really puzzled me, and not completely in a good way. I find it hard to decide exactly which genre it falls under - its a little drama, a little mystery, a little crime. Jewell is known for stories featuring complex family and friend orientated issues, which this book does well. However, there is no one lead protagonist, which makes it difficult to fully understand any one character. There is something on the brow of the hill, a strange shape emerging from the hedge that encircles the Rose Garden. She heads toward it.