Dear god what a book, I was loving it from the start and Lorna had me hook, line and sinker!!!....I read this in 2 sittings and begrudged feeding the children!!! The characters were brilliant and totally believable the twists and turns were there along with the fast pace of the book it's an unforgettable read...cannot wait for more by the author! Must read!!!!

Bad Little Girl is a psychological thriller with a difference. The victim is not the person that you might naturally think. I cannot say anymore on that for fear of revealing something I shouldn't.

Claire (Miss) Penny is a teacher at Lorna Bell's school. Lorna is from a notorious family on a run down estate. Impoverished and perpetually dirty, Lorna is a timid little thing who seems lonely in the playground.

Claire takes steps to take Lorna under her wing and encourage the girl to come out of her shell a bit. Quickly Miss Penny becomes the only adult that Lorna seems to trust.

I did guess the twist before it came, but I do think that's because I do read a lot of this genre. And I have to be honest, it didn't take anything away from the novel for me. If I'm honest, I even doubted myself for a little while, the writing is that good.

Bad Little Girl is a very impressive novel and I look forward to this author's next.

Mixed feelings on this one ... while I did read the whole book, I found myself skipping pages to get to the end. I liked the story but it was a little unbelievable in parts. As I don't want to give any spoilers I can't really say which parts. Anyhow, I thought it was otherwise well written, and I would read more from this author.

Review of a digital copy from the publisher.

Wow the reviews for this book are all over the place. Well I fall on the high side. Having 2 girls the same age of Lorna I was easily hooked. Thank you to the publisher and the author.

Oh my gosh Lorna!
I loved Bad Little Girl. The unravelling of Miss Penny at the hands of Lorna kept me turning the pages as I got totally swept up in her awfulness. The house by the sea was perfectly described as we get caught up in Lorna's machinations and watch helplessly as spinster Claire gets tangled up like a spider in a web. It;s really hard to review without spoilers but I can really recommend it to anyone who loves a dark and twisted read. Lorna is a fantastic creation and I found myself growing more and more incredulous as her awfulness magnified as the book progressed. The arrival of Marianne adds another angle to the story and really begins to make us fear for Claire's safety as her gentle naivety and lack of perception means she gets stretched to the limits.
A fascinating study of nature over nurture and a brilliantly depicted character study of a monster. I'm really looking forward to see what Frances Vick writes next - I can't wait!

Wow, what a book!! This I have to say has left me slightly traumatised so be warned. I started reading this and instantly knew I was going to love it by the third chapter, the way it is written and the slightly mysterious sense you get to all the characters until everything is made clear.
Claire is a primary school teacher and is a caring one but perhaps too caring. There is a vulnerable child at school living in a rough neighbourhood, turning up to school dirty and in shoes too small, Claire who is emotionally not in a good state as her mother has just died decides to help this poor child. Little does she know what the future will bring.
This is a top read of the year for me and I couldn't put it down at the end, reading as fast as I could whilst my heart hammered away!
I would like to thank netgalley and bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for this book, but I could not get into it. I will not post a review.

This is quite an unusual modern thriller. It's well worth reading. Claire is a teacher with loads of compassion. Lorna is a pupil at Claire's school she is from a poor family and is neglected. Claire is feeling especially emotional when Lorna turns up at her home and in a moment of madness agrees to take her away, to her holiday home in Cornwall. Soon everything Claire believes in becomes a nightmare. Can she escape from the madness? A brilliant story.

I'll be honest, there is no real twist or mystery. The plot is quite clear from the get-go and only becomes more obvious as the story progresses. Still, this was an interesting story. The first half of the novel focuses on Claire and Lorna, and how victimized Lorna is at her house. In this section, the author really focused on a key issue of society: how to protect children. The author took the time to show how hard it is to get authorities to verify concerns about child abuse, and how reluctant people are when it comes to whistle-blowing. It struck a chord with me because I've heard numerous cases where people noticed something amiss but did nothing until too late; it made me sympathize and understand the desperation that Claire felt during this point in the novel. I won't lie, it dragged on a bit and the author was quite heavy-handed with some of the hints, but the plot was still interesting enough for me to want to continue. In the second half of the novel, we delve deeper into the relationship between Claire and Lorna, and see how the entrance of Marianne disrupts it. This is when things really start to heat up, and I found myself eagerly flipping through the pages. I mean, I knew the general flow that the story was going to take but it was still compelling to read! The final chapters showed that the main characters got what they deserved ... but compared to the rush that preceded it, the finale was a bit lackluster. The author also leaves the ending open, and I really didn't like the implications of it. It made me stop liking Claire's character, who I had sympathized and pitied for the most part. My final thoughts on this novel is that the author wrote an interesting thriller that deals with protecting a child but there wasn't really a twist involved in this novel. It was not the best in the genre but it was certainly not the worst.

Really good book, a total page turner, this book left me wanting more and wanting to keep reading every time. It kept me in suspense throughout and the ending was shocking but great.

Everyone, even her parents, says Lorna Bell is a bad little girl. But when a child tells you someone is abusing her, you have to believe her, no matter what. Because a little girl would never lie about something so terrible. Would she?

Bad Little Girl is a dark psychological thriller that will leave you feeling horrified at how truly evil someone can be, and how far they are willing to go in order to get what they want.

There were several things I liked about this novel. The story is much different from anything I’ve read in a while, with strong characters and vividly written throughout. I could easily picture everything in my mind as I read; even as I write this review more than a month later, I can still ‘see’ several scenes that played out in the story.

The one thing I was disappointed with, and what ultimately led me to give a three star rating rather than a four star rating, was being able to figure out a few key things in the story long before it was ultimately revealed near the end of the novel. I’m still torn on whether or not it’s fair to give it the lower rating, but I’ll leave it as that’s how I rated it immediately after I finished it.

Rating uncertainties aside, Frances Vick is definitely a worthy addition to my Author Radar. I’ll be on the lookout for more of her work!

no review submitted - please see notes to publisher. many apologies.

Really intrigued by this idea, and it started well, but I found the whole idea just too far-fetched to really enjoy this. Claire was a character I felt equal sympathy for and irritation with. I'd like to believe nobody is 'bad', but there's a real suggestion of something disturbing about Lorna.

Is she. Isn't she. This is not going to end well. Or is It?

An addictive psychological page turner that has you gripping your kindle until the very end. A thoroughly brilliant book.

This book is responsible for the fact that my family had no clean clothes or decent meals for a two day period which is how long it took me to finish reading. It was simply unputdownable.
The story started as a simple one and moved quickly into deceit and manipulation. I found myself frustrated, wanting to shout or talk some sense into the characters, but in reality how does anyone know how they will react? I loved the detail of the lives of the main characters. Whenever I had a question about something happening, it was quickly and expertly tied up by the author.
I both loved the ending and hated the ending. That's a sign of a brilliant book, it makes you question your feelings. I would highly recommend this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Ever read a book description that sounded so amazing you knew it would be and then it just wasn’t? Well, this was that book for me. The story starts with a teacher, Claire Penny, who feels bad for a little girl in her class who is a little odd. Knowing that the girl, Lorna, comes from a difficult home life, Claire takes the little girl under her wing. When she thinks Lorna is being abused, she lets her come live with her and they take off to the seaside to stay for awhile. The story becomes odder and odder and I was left with so many questions. And without giving the story away, let’s just say I thought the main character was really quite an idiot. Who kidnaps a child, takes her to the seaside, and then invites a stranger (Marianne) into her home only to be fully taken advantage of by both Lorna and Marianne. I mean, what a moron. By the end of the book I was thinking that if something bad happened to Claire, she really brought it upon herself. Stupid decision after stupid decision. It was a fun read for a while, but I like stronger female characters.

Thank you to Frances Vick, Bookouture, and NetGalley for me free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very dark book, and very atmospheric, I found it hard to put down. The story moves slowly at times, then suddenly very fast, which is a little jarring, though an interesting effect for this type of novel. I will definitely keep my eye on this author for the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.

We meet Claire, or Miss Penny as she’s know by the children from the primary school where she is a teacher. Claire has been a teacher for many years, just like her mother is. She really cares about her pupil and one day one particular child catches her attention. 8 year old Lorna Bell is a bit of a loner. She is unkempt, her clothes don’t fit and none of the other children like her. Everyone else thinks she is a trouble maker, but Claire sees her as a child in need, crying out for attention. One day, following a problem at school, Lorna’s mum slaps Lorna across the face and Claire sees this. She pleads to the headteacher to look into Lorna’s home situation, to see if there is a safeguarding issue at home. He talks to Lorna, but Lorna denies there is anything wrong. Lorna appears to only be telling the ‘truth’ to Claire, and as Claire feels that no one is listening to her concerns, she decides to take matters into her own hands and make the child safe.

This was an okay book. I initially thought that this would be a difficult read, obviously the book is about a child who is being neglected, and isn’t a story that will have a happy ending. I found the story a little bit slow in parts, and to be honest I did find parts very difficult to believe. I found it hard to comprehend that a teacher with so many years experience would be drawn in so easily by one girl’s story that she would risk everything by taking her away and passing her off as her own child. I also found, later in the story, when they met the mysterious Marianne that someone like Claire would let the situation get as bad as it did – Claire seemed to get weaker as the story went on.

But, there is no doubt that the story does get you hooked, purely on the fact that you want to know what on earth is happening and how is all this going to end! I’m not sure if there was a ‘brilliant twist’ as was described on the book’s cover, but it certainly wiled away a few evenings even if they were spent shouting at Miss Penny for being so weak, gullible and stupid!

Three Stars (although I think it was probably more of a 3.5 Stars!)

This is a real page turner of a book! Gripping read with so many twists and turns it made it very hard to put down. Look forward to reading more from this author in the near future.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

My thoughts: I've been on a kick lately reading dark, thrilling psychological thrillers and finding some amazing new-to-me authors along the way. So of course, when I came across this one, I just had to read it.

I will say, this one didn't quite grip me as much as I had hoped. I liked it, but I never quite connected with the characters and kept waiting for something more to happen - more what, I'm not quite sure, but I just felt it fell a little flat. Don't get me wrong - the story was interesting and the characters were diabolical at times. I never quite knew who I could trust and definitely had my suspicions about one character from the get-go.

As for the pacing of the book - the first half is a bit slow. The author does a good job setting the stage for what is to come, but perhaps this could have been condensed a bit? In the second half, the pace picks up as things start happening - and this really was my favorite part. This is where you really start questioning what is going on - questioning everyone's motivations and doubting people's motivations.

Overall, this book does bring up some good points to consider. It brings up nurture vs. nature, dysfunctional people, and emotional manipulation to name a few. Just how far is someone willing to go to help a child they feel is in need - a child that is not their own? When does a teacher or adult cross the line in being seen as being over-involved? This book tackles those questions in one way or another.

This was the first book I've read by Frances Vick and I am willing to give her another go - I liked the writing - I just felt the story itself wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be.