Bad Little Girl

I finished this book and had to remind myself to breathe again! I was drawn in from the very beginning but found myself wondering where the story was going to go! I needn't have wondered this...wowsers, this is a Bookouture book after all!!!!

I loved this book! It completely drew me in, especially when I have worked in education for almost 20 years, so the whole safeguarding/child protection bit was really familiar to me, as was the feeling of waifs and strays pulling at your heart strings. Claire's actions and decisions are entirely questionable professionally, her personal emotions overriding all others. The characters were great, I was at a loss as to who I could trust and who was leading me a merry dance!

Tense, creepy and darnright addixtive! Highly recommended! I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book, with thanks to Netgalley and the publisher. 5*

Not really sure what I was expecting from this book. Although it had my interest I think it moved a bit to slowly for me and for me felt a little unbelievable. Worth a read but not one the top of my list for good books

3.5 stars rounded up
It's been a few days since I read this book and, to be honest, I am still a bit unsure of what to make of it. I guess it doesn't help matters when I absolutely loathed main character Claire. I found her to be a bit inconsistent, flawed, and a bit too gullible and, as such, failed to connect with her properly, something I do need to make a book a good read. I don't have to like characters, just have a connection on some level but Claire, quite frankly, annoyed me a bit too much. The way she allowed certain things to happen to her, even given her desperation and how much she wanted certain things, just at times left me wondering... I know she eventually did get there but, no, not comfortable with how long it took her. I am not even going to get started on my thoughts about Marianne but, oh my goodness, did I want her to suffer or what!
That said, I did manage to finish the book. I think I had got beyond my issues with the characters by the time I would have called it a day so I duly carried on to the end. Mostly to see if what I thought was going on was right. And anyway, the writing was mostly good and I did find Lorna to be interesting enough to keep me going. Also, in a strange kind of way, I wanted to see what the author would cook up next. I guess by the time I got to the end of the book, I realised that actually it had given me a few things to think about. Hence this rather love it / hate it sort of disjointed review. Well, I did say I was still unsure what I thought of it!
I spent the beginning of the book shouting at certain characters, wanting to shake some of them up a bit. I did this a bit too much and I started to annoy myself so eventually I gave up with that and adopted the "made your bed, go lie in it" philosophy for the duration.
I did find the story interesting. I think that the direction it went could have been better delivered although being no writer, I am not sure what would need to be done apart from looking at the obvious characterisation anomalies.
The one thing I do have to praise though would have to be the ending. After all that went on in the book, I was wondering exactly how the author was going to be able to wrap it up sufficiently. I figured that the nature of the genre would probably leave a few things unresolved and that's OK but I was really impressed with how the author managed to leave things, on the whole, very satisfactorily for me. Hence me rounding my star rating up rather than down.
All in all, an OK read for me that did keep me occupied, did draw on my emotions (albeit mostly in the wrong way) and ticked most of the boxes I need for a good read.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Claire Penny loves being a teacher and she is good at it too, she is the type of teacher that pupils remember fondly for many years to come. Claire prides herself in not being the type of teacher who no longer cares because of the stresses of the job, in fact she does care very much, possibly a bit too much when it comes to the children less fortunate than others.
Lorna Bell is a young girl who fits in the 'less fortunate' category and over the space of a few years Claire makes it her business to keep a special eye on Lorna who is clearly troubled with a poor family background.
Despite being told to leave the situation well alone Claire doesn't and goes further than ever before to protect Lorna, but in this chilling tale things are not all as they seem.
This is the second novel from Frances Vick and a real page turner. As far a psychological thrillers go this is up there with the best, in my opinion, and I would urge other readers of the genre to try Bad Little Girl, you wont be disappointed!

Little Lorna Bell lives on a run down estate with her notorious family. Nobody likes her. The school children call her a thief. Claire Penny is a teacher whose kind hearted, takes an interest in Lorna. Claire thinks some children need a little more attention than others, and Lorna thrives on it. Then Lorna meets Marianne Cairns. There is something unsettling about Marianne.

I felt my skin. Rawl a few times reading this book. To me there was an underlying creepiness throughout. A bit slow to start with but when it picks up its pace, it maintains it for the rest of the book. An enjoyable read.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Frances Vick for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This little girl was so much worse than bad! This book was a steady escalation of intensity. I found myself pulled right into Lorna's deceit in the beginning. It seemed like my heart rate increased along with the thrills! Lol. Though Claire was a gullible pushover I liked her. Teachers should care about students just not to this extent.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy to review.

Oh dear. Where to begin with this one. I wanted to like it. I really did.

Lorna Bell is an unpopular child at school. Belonging to a notorious family, she doesn't fit in.
One of the teachers Claire Penny notices Lorna more and more being isolated. Claire believes every child should be nurtured and shown love and can't help but find herself coming to Lorna's aid on more than one occasion until they eventually build up a relationship.
Claire begins to notice Lorna appearing with bruises at school and looking disheveled. After some investigating she is convinced Lorna is being abused at home and decides she has to get her away from her home. Lorna agrees to leave with Penny for the coast to an old family holiday home. They hide out there until Penny can decide what to do. They have a chance meeting on the beach with Marianne Cairns, a woman who becomes heavily involved in their lives.

And so it goes on. What starts off as a relatively interesting story about a possibly abused or complete liar of a child and a teacher wanting to save her, soon turns into a frankly preposterous story about two women and a child in isolation after the teacher decides to run away with the child to save her.

The characters are incredibly irritating and dislikable. Not one of the three main characters could I have any empathy with or even any grudging respect for. They were just consistently irritating. Making non sensical decisions in a bizarre and totally unbelievable story, I really struggled to get through this one.

The first few chapters had my attention as there was a bit of intrigue but the first portion of the book dragged quite a lot and when the "escape" portion of the book kicked in the story totally lost me.

I don't want to be overly harsh on Bad Little Girl but if I'm being honest it's probably the worst book I have read in the last 12 months.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and Frances Vick for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The plot just dragged a little bit in this psychological thriller and I felt that it just failed to deliver for me. Lorna comes from a well known family on a run down estate and turns to her teacher for help. The main characters are portrayed very well but I just could not get to like any of them. I think my review will be in the minority as many people seem to love the book. This is just my opinion. Many thanks to Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Goodreads.

I think authors are getting darker and how they come up with new twists and turns is beyond me.This was both dark and twisty and an interesting subject matter.I had no idea how it was going to pan out and it kept my interest until the end.No spoilers but you are going to want to set aside a chunk of time and dive in you will want to find out what happens.Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Little Bad Girl, I was hooked from reading the first Chapter until the very end, such a tense, gripping story that will stay with me!

BAD LITTLE GIRL by Frances Vick is a psychological thriller dealing with the protection of a child. The title tells you everything. This is a dark story and one where I never knew which characters to trust…but I didn’t like any of them.

"I’m not safe – you have to help me…"

“Little Lorna Bell is from a notorious family on a rundown estate. Everyone thinks she’s a nasty piece of work. The schoolchildren call her a thief. But Lorna’s hair is matted, her shoes pinch her feet and school teacher Claire Penny can’t help herself; some kids just need a bit more support, a bit more love, than the rest.”

“As the bond between teacher and pupil grows stronger, Claire sees Lorna’s bruises, and digs to uncover the disturbing tale behind them. Heartbroken, Claire knows she has to act. She must make Lorna safe.”

But just when Claire thinks she has protected Lorna, a stranger Marianne Cairns comes into their lives. Who is this woman and what does she want?

Claire has put everything on the line to protect Lorna. So many lies and manipulation.

I can say that I came out of this reading experience with mixed feelings. This is a gripping tale that takes some time to get going, and was very predictable. While the plot is strong in its purpose, I felt it took a long time to really get moving, longer than I would have liked. For the first half of the book we see Claire living her life, caring for her mother and watching Lorna. I would have liked the first half to be more concise and more time being spent on the latter half, flushing out Lorna’s character…how she controlled the two women in her life.

I wish to thank the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for the Advanced Copy of this novel.

4.5 Stars

Due to the nature of this book, I spent a fair amount of time during the first half of the story utterly annoyed as to what I was reading. I was trying to work out just what was being conveyed could ever happen, and having done safeguarding children workshops, I was shocked at some of Claire's dialogue and behaviour.

Unless I am mis-remembering what I've learnt in the past, about how to handle potential disclosures and child protection issues, there is a fair amount of what Claire said to Lorna Bell at various stages that would be wrong. Of course some of her actions are incredibly questionable to, but I do appreciate this is a work of fiction and thus some liberties can be taken with real life situations.

Yet despite of my frustrations, I found I wanted to know how the story ended, I didn't see the twist mentioned on the cover of the book, coming, nor the exact nature of it, and as far as I'm concerned a book that is keeping me reading to the end, and that I have such strong opinions about some of the content of, is clearly a well written book, and could be in fact expected to divide opinions.

It took a while for me as a reader, to work out the true natures of some of the characters, so its no surprise it took them longer to size each other up. I had some suspicions the whole way through to various aspects, and none of those particularly surprised me.

What did take me be surprise were my feelings towards Lorna Bell. She when we first meet her, is a five year old child in a playground, but she is from a family with a bad reputation, so it isn't before long that the other children can see her as different. At times I really felt sorry for the child, and at others as she grow up I started to suspect she was a lot more cunning then she appeared.

Claire on the other hand is the soft hearted teacher who has been at the school for many years. She takes pastoral care perhaps more seriously than teaching her own class anything, and it's clear she has taken a shine to Lorna. At a time where Claire is feeling low, the pair's "friendship" as it is, seems to be mutually beneficial, but how staged is it and by who.

The addition of a third main person for the second half of the story is where it started to get even more interesting, and I loved seeing how all the dynamics kept shifting around, between the main characters.

There is a sense of danger in the story throughout, which is what I always tend to associate with psychological thrillers, and on the whole I was incredibly intrigued to find out exactly what happened. Bad Little Girl is a cleverly crafted story, that had me fairly gripped throughout.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bookouture for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I felt that the plot had a lot of potential but failed to deliver fully. The book is on the long side and I felt that it dragged at times. The first half seemed overly descriptive, going into detail about Claire's home life, her teaching and her relationship with her mother, none of which really contributed to the story in any meaningful way. From there the story jumps forward by a year and starts to become slightly implausible. Without giving anything away, the decision to rescue Lorna and the introduction of the character Marrianne, who suddenly becomes such an integral part of Claire's life, seemed to me to be a tad far fetched. The story also seems a little rushed towards the end. At the end of the day, I did like the concept of this book. And it did entertain me somewhat, even though I found it longer than perhaps it needed to be. Ideally, I would have liked the story to move a little faster and for Marrianne to have had a more believable relationship with Claire and Lorna. For these reasons I'm finding it difficult to award more than 2 stars. I really wanted to love this book but it didn't deliver for me. But you should note that this book gets some great reviews and my opinion is in the minority.

My thanks to author Frances Vick, Bookouture publishers and Netgalley for my review copy. It was my pleasure to write an honest review.

The title „Bad Little Girl“ is very suitable for this book. But it also tells you too much about the story.

Claire is a teacher and Lorna is one of the pupils. Not her pupil, but she knows her. Lorna is an outsider and very shy. Somehow Claire keeps an eye on Lorna, even start to really care. She is afraid, that Lorna’s strange behavior comes from some kind of abuse. Claire lives a very quiet life, visiting her mother and doing her job. Claire talks to Lorna’s mother but she denies any abuse and tells her that Lorna makes things up. Of course Claire is sure, that that could not be true. After her mother dies, she somehow got closes to Lorna. One night Lorna is knocking on her door, telling her she has to take now to her cottage in Cornwall because she needs to be safe. Claire, confused, agrees. She is a good person and wants to do the right thing. It never occurs to her, that she is manipulated. For a short time, they both play mother and daughter in this remote cottage. But then Lorna gets bored.

The story is very predictable. I disliked Lorna immediately. She acted strange and I never saw the charms she obviously must have. The story also took very long to get going. Half of the book we see Claire living her life, caring for her mother and watching Lorna. It took a little bit too long until it got moving and something finally happened. A child being a sociopath is unusual but not unlikely. It is indeed quite an interesting subject. But the author failed to make Lorna interesting for me. I found it hard to believe that she charmed to adult women into taking care of her and doing almost everything for her. She was quite lucky to find not one but two women who were more than happy to play her mother because of their personal circumstances.

Well, it was an interesting story. But the pace was very slow and there weren’t many surprises. I liked the idea but I found it also quite unrealistic.

Bad Little Girl is just the right kind of gripping thriller that you can't put down. From the start I knew this would be a great choice for me.

The story follows Claire, an older teacher who has never married but always dedicated herself to her young pupils. She notices Lorna, a child who isn't in her class. She's from a run down estate, from a family that people tend to avoid. One day she says 'I'm not safe, you have to help me.' Claire notices her dirty clothes, matted hair and the bruises on her skin. Claire wins her trust and tries to discover what is going on in Lorna's life.

The story unfolds gradually and the whole time you feel slightly on edge as to what will happen. This book is fantastically written and I would happily give it 4.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Frances Vick for the chance to review.

Hard to get into, the characters were rather boring. The story line was good but not as intense as I had hoped. Loren is in major need to help, and Miss Penny saw that, as the lie and betrayal that follow are crazy. Worth the read, but not as great as I had hoped.

Bad Little Girl is a brilliantly crafted read. Well-written characters, page-turning plot and some interesting issues raised. The characters were captivating, if not always likeable but always real.
I found myself awake in the middle of the night trying to work out how it would all end. A book I will not forget in a hurry, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for future releases from Frances Vick.

Thank you

This book kept me gripped all the way through. It is a real page-turner. But I did feel the first half of the book was a little long. It was very focused on portraying Claire’s home life, work life, relationship with her mother.

There was an interesting mix of characters. Although none were particularly likeable and you were never entirely sure who to trust.

The introduction of Marianne felt a little strange. It was too sudden and a bit far-fetched.

I had guessed most of the twists but was surprised by the ending. It did come too quickly though. I think there should have been much more of a slow-burn build up.

That said, I would definitely read something else from this author in the future. There's a lot of potential.

Thank you netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Claire is a teacher who lives a solitary life visiting her mum. She has taken a shine to Lorna, a waif of a girl from a bad neighbourhood who loves Claire. Claire is sucked in to the tales that Lorna tells her and with her caring nature she starts to overstep the teacher/pupil boundary.

Soon they are sucked into a different life with a bizarre stranger who has moved herself in to the household. Without giving too much away things start to get worse for them all.

The author really weaves the lies in the story so perfectly you get immersed in feeling sorry for Claire and Lorna and then being angry with them. A great read

I enjoyed reading this, and read it in one sitting, however, now I have finished it, I'm not sure how I feel! Well worth the read just to see how it makes you feel!