Orchid girls is a psychological thriller that will get you hooked within the first few pages and keep you hooked throughout.

Three school girls (Charlotte, Molly and Grace) were out together but only two of them returned home. After that fateful day Molly and Grace drift apart and due to a lack of evidence no-one was ever found guilty of Charlotte’s murder.

Many years later Molly is a struggling alcoholic, who has never got over the death of Charlotte and the loss of her friendship with Grace. Then one day she finds Grace, who is now living in the public eye. But will we ever find out what actually happened to Charlotte ? And how will the two girls react when they are reunited ?

This is a great psychological thriller with plenty of lies, betrayal, obsession, manipulation and so much more. This will definitely have you hooked right from the start and the many snippets of information revealed throughout the book will keep you wanting more.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this arc.
Unfortunately I found the extremely slow, sluggish pace in this book hard going!
I actually contemplated giving up several times! It didn't pick up until three quarters of the way through but by then I had worked out the ending.

The Orchid Girls – Lesley Sanderson

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Molly, Grace and Charlene were three teenaged friends, who, by all reports, were inseparable. One day, in 2002, allegedly after an argument, they separated, and one of the girls was never seen alive again. The missing girl was eventually found deceased, but no killer was ever brought to justice.

Flash forward to present day, Grace Sutherland is awakened by her cell phone, and the caller sounds very familiar. But that was another life for Grace, and she hangs up the phone after muttering ‘wrong number’. Wife to an aspiring politician, Grace is on the cusp of her own success, as a nutritionist made famous via Instagram with an impending book release.

Molly, the other surviving member of the teenaged threesome, is a bad alcoholic, who has decided to reach out to Grace after all these years. After the loss of Charlene, the girls were prevented from seeing one another by their parents, and Molly remains distraught that Grace had not once answered any of her letters. After all this time she wants answers – what really happened that day, and what happened to their love for one another??

As the story progresses it’s told in both past and present tense, with journal entries for each of the girls filling in the backstory a bit at a time. Much of the story is fairly predictable, at least you’ll think it is….but the ending was quite unexpected.

A great, suspenseful read from a promising new author! I look forward to more from Ms. Sanderson!!

When the past comes back to haunt her, Grace is determined to keep it where it belongs. Married to Richard, who is running for mayor and having a successful job as author and cook, she will do anything to protect her secret. When a young girl goes missing it brings back the case of another missing girl and the story of the orchid girls.
An entertaining read where nothing is as it seems.The characters draw you into the story and keep you guessing what really happened all those years ago. A twisted tail of jealousy and revenge.

This book was a thriller!! I never expected the ending at all!! I thought I had this book figured out, but I was so wrong! This is a definite must read!!

This is a really well-written book, with vivid descriptions and well rounded characters. It's a slow burner as the author weaves in the clues and builds up the characters with an intriguing story-line of obsession, manipulation and deceit, building to the perfect storm of an ending.

I think the cleverness in this book is how you come to empathise with the two main characters, Molly and Grace, as the story flips between the dual narrative, peppered with diary entries to fill in the gaps and plant little clues as to the truth of what happened all those years ago, when the women were teenagers.

Fabulous read with the reveals being so well paced that suspense keeps going throughout the book. A different style of psychological thriller which I am sure will. prove popular. I look forward to more from Lesley Sanderson.

Not Completely Gripping. Not really Gripping at all.

Honestly, this took a long time to capture my attention. In fact, I almost stopped reading it.

Then we got to a book sighing that piqued my interest and I was good for a few more chapters. And then I lost interest again. Some chapters later? It picked up.

I did finish it.

While the author did a pretty good job of explaining why everything happened, the attitude behind everything was still distasteful to me – actually, both distasteful and old fashioned. In this day and age, much of what happens here should not be a scandal!

An okay read. I was curious enough to finish the book, but I can’t say I really liked it.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Orchid Girls’ by Lesley Sanderson in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

In August 2002 fourteen-year-old Charlotte Green is reported missing and her body discovered two days later. As they were seen talking to Charlotte at the time she went missing, Grace and Molly are arrested and charged with her murder and later become known as the ‘Orchid Girls’ due to the tattoos they had. Fifteen years later Molly, an unemployed alcoholic, contacts Grace who’s now a successful food blogger and author and married to politician Richard Sutherland, in the hope of rekindling their friendship. But there are details about Charlotte’s death that one of the Orchid Girls is hiding.

This is a cleverly written thriller with a gripping and suspenseful plot, a lot of twists and turns and interesting characters. The story is enhanced by excerpts taken from the girls’ diaries written in 2002 to the present time, giving a greater depth and understanding of events. I was very surprised when I reached the conclusion as it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I enjoyed reading it as I was kept guessing till the end and am happy to recommend it.

They called them the Orchid Girls. Grace, Molly and Charlotte. One of them is in love, one of them is a liar and the other one is dead. What really happened that summer?

The orchid Girls was a psychological thriller that had me hooked from the start. It's a compelling story about love, obsession, denial, addiction and relationships. It's told in chapters that alternate between POVs, mainly between the adult version of Molly and Grace, but also snippets of the girls' diaries entries when they were teenagers.

This was a well written psychological thriller where the author does a very good job at keeping the reader guessing and speculating about the shocking truth of what happened. I loved the buildup of suspense throughout the novel. I definitely would recommend and I look forward to reading more books from the author in the future.

The Orchid Girls by Lesley Sanderson was a slow burner at first. However, once you finally got into this book I was hooked. It's a great psychological thriller that will have you guessing who should you believe.
I just loved it. Plus the cover of this book is just perfect.

This is the first book I have read from this author, Leslie Sanderson and it won’t be the last!
So if you love a good psychological thriller that keeps you on your toes, mess with your head and play with your emotions, This is a book for you.........

Big thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this amazing book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2575124344

I received a free e-copy of The Orchard Girls by Lesley Sanderson from NetGalley for my honest review.

The Orchard Girls is a psychological thriller that had me hooked immediately. This is a story of three girls (Charlotte, Molly and Grace) who were all friends, until one day when Charlotte is found dead. Molly and Grace were the last to see Charlotte alive but there wasn't any evidence ever found to connect them to the murder. This split Molly and Grace's friendship apart.

Years later, Molly, is struggling with being an alcoholic and a very bad relationship. Grace is an internet celebrity (clean eating queen) with a husband named Richard who is a politician who expects her to be perfect.

The girls are forced to re-connect after all these years when they hear of another girl who has disappeared in Richard's home village and the incident is almost exactly like the incident with Charlotte.

So many lies and so much deceit but who is the killer?

Interesting book, I thought the main characters were worth getting to know, I wasn't sure if all was as it seemed and as the book went on I thought that some of viewpoints might be a bit skewed.Don't want to give anything away ,in the end I was pretty suspicious of most of the characters.My only very slight criticism would be that I found the book to be a bit too long,I think if it had been trimmed it would have been punchier,I did feel I wanted more to be happening in some parts.Having said that towards the end of the book the action was great and so was the conclusion .I did manage to work out some of the plot ,but it wasn't obvious and I thought it was great and a very entertaining read.Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an ARC.

Grace has it all, a gorgeous husband, a beautiful flat, a book deal and is a successful Instagram star. She doesn't want all that happened in the past to come back...she thought she left it all behind when she recreated herself in France.

Molly, her friend from all these years ago has come back on the scene, she's obsessive, still in love with Gracie and depends on alcohol too much - going from job to job and never really sticking at anything. She can't forget what happened in the past...

A journo has been blogging about cases which have been left completely unsolved and he's interested in The Orchid Girls....

The story drew me in from the very first page. It was fast paced with a few twists along the way. I loved it.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning. Molly, Grace and Charlotte and friends/rivals hanging around on the beach when they are 15. Charlotte ends up dead with Molly and Grace being charged but were acquitted. Fast forwarding finds Grace a successful food blogger/author married to a man who is running for Mayor while Molly cannot hold a job due to her drinking problem. This story moves right along with lots of twists and turns in it and a real surprise ending. I did not like the majority of the characters especially Richard, Grace's husband. I highly recommend this excellent book if you are looking for a really good thriller. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a well written book that shows what happens when you try and keep secrets. Once there were 3 young girls then there were only two. Who knows what happened on that faithful night and what will be done to cover up the secrets and lies. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I enjoyed this novel. It was a good pacy read, though I suspected the twist from fairly early on. I enjoyed the flashbacks and the way all the strands wove together at the end. There was some excellent set pieces, very atmospheric and tense and also some well-laid red herrings. A good beach read, or one to curl up with on a rainy autumn weekend.

Talk about a slow burn done right! The build up of The Orchid Girls was slow and steady like doing up the hill of a large crazy rollercoaster and then when the story got to the top WOW the rest of the rollercoaster was WOW. ONE. CRAZY. RIDE!
Lesley Sanderson wrote a thriller that had me wrapped up in everything about this book! The characters were cray cray I literally was screaming at some of them in my head. I can wait to read more from Lesley!

Very much enjoyed this debut psychological thriller by Lesley Sanderson, in which the titular 'Orchid Girls' refers to a 20 year old unsolved murder mystery where the 3 girls involved all had orchid tattoos on their wrists.
Fast forward 20 years and one of the 2 remaining girls, Molly, is living from cash in hand job to job, struggling with alcohol addiction and a toxic relationship.
The other, Grace, is an internet celebrity with a politician husband and has reinvented herself as a 'clean eating queen' with impossibly high standards of perfection demanded by her husband, Richard.
Both have avoided ever talking about what happened to Charlotte, the third Orchid Girl after a lack of evidence placed either or both girls as responsible for her death. After this, Grace was sent to live in France and Molly ran away from home.
However, when news of an almost identical girl disappearing in Richard's home village throws up memories that are better left buried and the 2 Orchid Girls have to find each other again, and the truth, before it's too late.
This is a very intriguing plot as when you think you know where it's going, it changes back again to something else. It constantly keeps you guessing and it's a very assured debut.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this copy in return for an honest review.

The Orchid Girls was a fast paced book right from the start. A great psychological thriller that had you guessing who should you believe. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.