I was desperate to read this book and it didn’t disappoint. The story starts with Lane, a teenage girl living in New York City, she has a fractured relationship with her emotionally unstable mother. After her mother commits suicide, she’s sent to live with her Grandmother, Grandfather and cousin Allegra at a small family farm in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. Allegra fills her in on the family history but Lane soon learns there are big secrets in the family. Lane lives out the best summer of her life but swiftly leaves Kansas for reasons we uncover throughout the book and we pick up with her 10 years later when she’s moved on with her life and all but forgotten Roanoke.

The book is fantastically written and is told from the perspective of each of the Roanoke girls and Lane’s perspective in the present day and during the one summer she spent there.

When events force her to return she is faced with the devastating family secrets and events of that one summer while desperately trying to search for missing cousin Allegra.

The writing in this book was really good and completely sucked me in. I couldn’t put this book down and loved uncovering the mystery of each Roanoke girls’ story.

The subject of this book is disturbing and may well put some people off. I agree with other people when they say they feel conflicted giving a book with such an horrendous subject matter 5 stars but it is really worth every star. The mystery, the pace, the characters, everything just drags you in. You think you know their secret but when the truth is revealed it is disturbingly shocking.

I thoroughly recommend The Roanoke Girls. A brilliantly written book that I couldn’t put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Staunton for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Was very disappointed with this book. Heard a lot of hype about it and had been sitting in my kindle for a while til I got around to reading it. Managed to read in a couple of days but purely just to get the book finished rather than out of enjoyment

Dark, twisted, compelling. I read it in one sitting.

Such an elegant and pace book. Highly recommended. Shows what secrets families keep, and what it means to do so.

I've got more into this sort of read recently, especially after reading The Girls by Emma Cline. This was so beautiful and mysterious.

This book was an uncomfortable but compulsive read. I didn't like the main character but I don't believe I was supposed to as events unfolded. As much as I wanted to put it down, I simply couldn't.

Not for the faint hearted as it deals with uncomfortable themes, but very well written and reminded me a little of The Virginia Andrews books that I read in my teens. Family secrets and forbidden love.

This book is written in two times when Lane was sent to live in her mum's family home after her death, and also present time. There is a big family secret which see's all the females in the family either dying or running away from home. It's quite easy to work out the secret but the book draws you in so you want to see where it goes.

I was aware before I read The Roanoke Girls that it may be an uncomfortable read, and it was but not to the degree that I expected; perhaps I have become hardened to shocking dark fiction. I think some people will find it very difficult to read, but as a piece of fiction it was quite riveting.

When Lane's mother commits suicide she is sent to live with her grandparents' who she has never met, so you know there is some kind of family secret that caused the fracturing in the family. Lane's cousin, Allegra, already lives with her grandparents and the pair form a natural bond, but things with Allegra aren't quite what they seem. When Lane sees her family for what they really are she leaves Roanoke, never to return, until Allegra goes missing and she has no alternative but to go back.

As Lane uncovers the truth around Allegra's disappearance, be prepared for some very difficult reading. Praise to Amy Engel for not being too graphic but it still made my skin crawl. It's very difficult to talk about this book without giving anything away but I think of it as sort of a guilty pleasure. I really enjoyed it but felt I shouldn't have, if you know what I mean? You'll know what I mean if you've read it.

It's the darkest book I've read for a long time but it still defies you to have the courage to remove your eyes from the page. I loved how what was going on was insinuated but when proof was revealed in front of my eyes I felt shock and disgust. It just shows that seeing is believing! Although the story is told from Lane's point of view, we mustn't forget Allegra: she is a true Roanoke girl and the thread that draws us into this fascinating story.

The Roanoke Girls is a story that will shock and horrify you, but it is so compelling that you can't tear your eyes from the page until the inevitable heart-breaking ending is revealed.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Received a free copy for NetGalley

I was intrigued by the title and blurb of the book , so was pleased when I received a copy of book .
However, this book didn’t stand up to the expectations.
I felt the characters were not developed properly and some of the dialogue was off putting so I couldn’t really get into the book .
I think the book was badly written and overall a NO for me .

There is something about the Roanoke girls, they are all beautiful young women. But there is a mystery surrounding the family and the disappearance of the girls.

After Lanes mother dies by suicide she goes to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin in Kansas. What follows is an unbearable hot summer with an underlying evil element as Lane tries to make Kansas her home.

I loved this dark twisted tale, it was a truly disturbing read. You could certainly tell what dark secrets lay hidden in the Roanoke house but the whodunit remained till the very end. I liked that all the characters were pretty messed up in their own ways.

This has certainly been one of my favourite reads of the year.

The book is described as a thriller but I'm not sure that's the best description. It has a mystery and there are a number of aspects of suspense but these take a back seat to the characters and more of a dark 'coming of age' story.

Roanoke is the house of Lane's dreams and of her mother's nightmares (and disappointingly it's not the Roanoke in Virginia that I've been to). When Lane's mother commits suicide Lane is sent to Roanoke to live with her grandparents, people that she didn't know existed. Roanoke is the family home on the outskirts of a small town in Kansas - and completely different to Lane's New York City existence. She's welcomed to the house by Allegra, Lane's cousin, one of the 'Roanoke Girls' - the young women from their grandfather's sisters down who have lived in the house. They all have tragic stories "Roanoke girls never last long around here" says Allegra.

The story moves between 'Then' and 'Now'. In 'Now' eleven years have passed since Lane left Roanoke and she's pulled back by the disappearance of Allegra. In 'Then' we find out more about Lane's time after her arrival at Roanoke as well as the fate of some the other girls. Both in 'then' and 'now' the central themes are Lane's relationships, with boys and with Allegra, as well as her take on her family and the way she gains some understanding of the mother she tolerated. Lane is central to the investigation to try and find Allegra but the secret at the heart of the family eclipses this; it all plays out slowly in a claustrophobic small town setting.

In trying to avoid spoilers I'm not sure I'm giving a very good account of the book! I did enjoy this despite its dark themes. I liked Lane and I found her to be a credible, flawed character. If there was something that I struggled with it was probably the character of her grandfather, it was difficult to understand his personality and his charm, he didn't quite jump off the page for me.

A dark and emotional read about families, secrets and small town America.

The Roanoke Girls is an atmospheric, dark tale set in Kansas. After her mother dies teenage Lane is sent to live with her grandparents and her beautiful cousin Allegra. After a wild summer she escapes after uncovering a secret about the Roanoke girls. 11 years later Allegra disappears and Lane returns. This is a disturbing and addictive thriller that will get under the reader's skin.

I absolutely loved this book in the most heartbreaking kind of way. It is beautifully written and it will break your hear.

This book totally gripped me from the first page to the last. The storyline is about as disturbing as you can get, but you have to keep reading, all the way to the twsted end. I could not put put it down and polished it off in two days! Highly recommended.

The Roanoke Girls

I really loved the synopsis for this book, it drew me in completely and wow, what a beautifully written piece of work.

I don’t think this is for the faint of heart; it’s gritty, dark and really quite disturbing. Just my kind of read!!

Truly though, this book will leave you breathless after an amazing roller coaster ride, it’s only a quick read but will make a serious impact on you. Five stars from me!

The Roanoke Girls sat on my bookshelf for ages. I’m embarrassed to say that I kept prioritising others books because I was pretty sure I’d enjoy The Roanoke Girls so I knew it was a good back up when I didn’t have anything else to read. As it turns out, as soon as I picked up the book I couldn’t put it down. I started it one morning before university and I’d finished it by that evening. It was just that good.

The story itself is so captivating but, without a doubt the best part of the book is Amy Engel’s writing. It’s raw, powerful and intelligent and definitely a contender for one of the best books I’ve read this year, if not for the last few years. The best way I can describe the book is that it’s dark. It covers a lot of difficult topics that I’m not going to go into much here because *spoilers* but the novel opens with a death and the macabre nature just keeps coming. In a similar way to The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde which I reviewed a few months ago, the novel sizzled with a dusky Summer feel which I loved and helped me picture the Roanoke estate so much better. The small town vibe mixed with the creepy undertones which ran through the book really created an unsettling atmosphere that worked so well with the plot progression.

The Roanoke Girls is so heart-wrenchingly sombre and yet it dazzles with a youthful feel, especially in the present day chapters where Lane meets with her old friends. The book questions the meaning of family, of hometown ties and sisterhood and will leave you with so many questions that you’ll want to go right back to the start and read again for any clues.

If you only read one book this year, The Roanoke Girls should be it.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I snagged a copy of this one when it was a read it now for the first 100 members. It promised some of my favourite tropes in novels – rich family, idyllic setting, dark twisty secrets. This book has one of those annoying boats in the title tag line saying the most dark twisty shocking plot! However, this one did deliver on the dark twist.

My biggest issue with this (side from the really nauseating disturbingness of the plot twists) is that it was predictable. I’d guessed the Roanoke family secrets almost immediately. Anyone who’s ever seen Law and Order: Special Victims Unit could probably guess what’s going on here. I also guessed correctly who the killer was.

That being said, there was something utterly compelling about the story telling. I really liked Lane, the main character. Told in a then and now format, what happened when Lane was a teenager and went to live with the Roanokes after her mother committed suicide. Her grandparents and her cousin the same age as her Allegra. And the now chapters of what happens when Lane goes back as an adult after Allegra disappears.

Lane was by no mean a good, nice person. Not as a teen, nor as an adult. She was a flat out bitch, she was blunt and cold and didn’t even bother to hide the fact that sometimes it was easier to be cruel than to be kind. Despite her personality flaws, she made a very interesting character, and I kind of loved her. While her cousin Allegra was your typical spoilt rich girl. She could manipulate people easily, and wrap boys around her finger. She could convince you to do anything, regardless of consequences. She had a certain charisma about herself, despite the fact Allegra could be stroppy selfish and childish. She tells Lane about the sordid history of the Roanoke girls before them. All the girls in their family line - including both their mothers - all got pregnant young and either ran away or committed suicide.

The Roanoke household is a big mansion and a farm run by its patriarch Yates Roanoke Lane and Allegra’s grandfather. He has an old world charm about him. Firm when needed without being overbearing, yet very witty, charming and always with a kind word and encouragement, while grandma is your typical blue blood grandma. Beautiful but cold and kind of passive.

In the summer in their teens Lane learns about farm life and meets Allegra’s current boyfriend Tommy, and his best friend Cooper. Tommy is your average small town good boy from a nice family while Cooper is the good looking dude with the shady family and bad history, he and Lane hit it off immediately and begin a relationship, more hooking up when they can than anything else.

When Lane comes back to town as an adult she reconnects with Tommy, now married and a police office and Cooper, now a mechanic. The Roanoke house is still the same as it was when Lane ran away in her teens. With one exception. Allegra is gone. Lane searches for answers to what happened to her. Flipping back and forth between what happened that summer when she arrived and her investigation on return.

Also flittered into the novel is chapters on various Roanoke women and what happened to them either when they ran or when they died.

The writing is top notch, even though none of the characters are particularly likeable. The story telling makes you want to know what’s going on, what happened back in that summer, why did Lane run away, what did she learn about the Roanoke secrets. And when she comes back what happened to Allegra. Did she finally leave – was she murdered? What happened? It’s twisty and very disturbing in parts. The answers to the Roanoke secrets are actually in the text if you look between the lines. And it is sick. It’s stomach wrenching and utterly utterly wrong in very way possible.

It’s a pretty fucked up book but it’s excellently written.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the review copy.

The subject matter made this book disturbing but never seedy. The characters all have flawed characters and it is difficult to warm to them or feel any affection or sympathy. I was constantly fearing for the main character Lane and this kept me gripped throughout the book.

Amazingly written. Disturbing, oh so disturbing for amazingly written. I loved it.