My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read my first psychological thriller. An interesting novel about four friends meeting up in Botswana to celebrate one of their numbers 30th birthday, not having seen each other for two years.

The storyline is strong and reveals past events which they all wished to forget. Each girl has a secret but this is not revealed until the second half of the book. There are many surprises in store. The tension is overbearing in anticipation of what will unfold.

A well written thriller, keeping you on the edge of your seat, so it’s difficult to put this book down. I felt the book was slightly unbalanced and would have preferred less about the events in Botswana and more about the girls’ earlier lives - but I imagine that might dilate the thriller aspect.

Even the best friendships have secrets. Two years after the night where everything went wrong and created a seemingly permanent divide the 'wild girls' head to Botswana for a birthday party reunion. But things are not what they seem and soon things take a dark turn. Incredibly tense and nervewracking. I read this extremely quickly because I had to know what was going to happen. The isolated safari lodge is a perfect setting - far from everywhere and surrounded by predators while the predator they should actually worry about is not local wildlife.

This is the first book I have read in a long time that I managed to read in 24 hours. I found the whole style just so captivating. Just the blurb was enough to draw me in. I'd been hoping for an ARC and was delighted to be able to review on here.
I loved the opening few chapters which just start to set the scene and the relationships between the four main characters.
When the girls first arrive in Botswana I was totally drawn in to the resort, I could feel the sun on my back (probably the closest I'll get this year!) and it was just so luxurious and idyllic. The tone changes very subtly but quite quickly to a sense of forboding. I honeslty can't remember turning pages so fast, I almost felt sick with anticipation of what I was going to discover next.
I have read two of the author's previous novels and enjoyed them but this one was definitely a cut above for me. Highly recommend.

Love love love this book!

Four childhood friends who have drifted apart are invited to a birthday party in Africa in the hope of rebuilding their friendship, unbeknown to them what is in store.

I read it within a couple of days, not wanting to put it down for the fear of missing out, wanting to know what was going to happen next. This book reeled me in from the start and kept me guessing and interested the whole way through.

This is the first book I've read by this author and the storyline was similar to Lucy Foley's novel "The Guest List" where they all travel for a wedding and someone in the party dies.

I would 100% recommend this to anyone and I'm keen to read more from this author.

Brilliant.

Author Phoebe Morgan, is a first read for me. I was intrigued by the book's description. Written in three parts, moving back and forth in time and drove me nuts! The story of four childhood and university friends, each one with secrets and lies to keep and tell! Felicity has invited Grace, Alice and Hannah to her 30th birthday party to be held in Botswana, Southern Africa. Part one was tense, edgy with twists & turns and enjoyable. Part two, not so much and part three.....I will leave for you to decide! I disliked all the characters but curiosity kept me reading!

I give a 3 star rating

I WANT TO THANK NETGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED COPY OF THIS BOOK

This was a rollercoaster of a read.

Four seemingly solid friends with a bond from when they were younger, now estranged, that is until one of the group, Felicity invites them to a beautiful Botswana Lodge, the other girls, Hannah, Grace and Alice think this is the olive branch they've been waiting for.

The reader knows, from the dramatic prologue that this isn't going to be the case.

Loved the safari setting, nice to feel the sun on my face (in my imagination).

This book highlights the secrets we all keep and how the ties that bind us can be severed, but can they ever be mended?

Great twists and turns in this book, you never quite know who to believe and whose side you are on. Ultimately I think it was quite a toxic friendship group.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book - this is my honest opinion.

'The Wild Girls' has an intriguing blurb, which will really pull readers in. It tells the story of 4 school friends, Felicity, Hannah, Grace and Alice, who reunite for Felicity's 30th birthday in a luxury retreat in South Africa, after two years of not speaking to each for some big, unknown (to begin with) reason. However, the three guests get a nasty shock when they turn up to the retreat, which is in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal, to see no sign of Felicity, any other guests or any staff.

The story starts off fantastically. The scene is set in which the women, who were once extremely close, expect to reunite in a socially awkward situation. The atmosphere then becomes very dark and tense when things aren't as relaxing and luxurious as they seem to be.

The characters aren't particularly likeable, but they're relatable, and I found myself very interested in the group dynamics, and how these changed over time.

I really enjoyed the first third of the book as I got to learn about the characters and the story started to unfold at a good pace. However, the second third of the book really dragged for me, and I ended up thinking 'get on with it'. All of the tension built up just fizzled out for me, and the dead bodies (not a spoiler- this was revealed in the first few pages) just seemed very random and flat. Luckily, the twists in the final third of the book salvaged it for me!

Overall, I would recommend this book, although I wouldn't suggest it for a book club title as the pacing felt a little off for me, and I know some of my readers might lost interest halfway through. Nevertheless, there is enough intrigue to keep readers guessing, and the twist at the end was a fun surprise.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book! I read it in one day it was unputdownable. The story follows a group of friends who fell out 2 years ago but they are meeting to celebrate a 30th birthday and make amends. However it doesn't go to plan. It a very dark thriller set in Botswana in a deserted holiday resort. From the start the story is full of twists and turns. I enjoyed finding the backstories of the characters that lead them to the women they are today finding out out their secrets and the reason they fell out. The characters were great and the ending caught me off guard I would highly recommended.

This is the story of a group of friends who lost touch a couple of years ago, meeting up to celebrate a special occasion. Of course, nothing is as it seems, and only when we are told the backstory does it become clear.

This was a fairly typical thriller set against the un-typical backdrop of a Botswana safari lodge. I enjoyed the scene setting in the beginning - although I would have liked a little bit more positive life experiences for the main characters - and found the characters relatable if not likable. I won't say much about the storyline as it will spoil it if I do, but it felt a little bit by rote and expected if I'm honest. Having said that, it was quite exciting. I'm not sure how I feel about the breadcrumbs left for the reader to begin to understand some of the odd actions taken.

Overall I would give this a 3.5, so have rounded up to a 4. I liked it, it was an easy read. and would read more from this author. Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read.

𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘
The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan

When I received this from Netgalley, I immediately put my current read down. Eager to be taken away to an African landscape and delve into the stories of the four friends. Written from the three perspectives, Grace, Hannah and Alice - I felt a connection with each of them, Grace’s vulnerability, Hannah’s mothering nature and Alice’s confidence. Phoebe Morgan grips you from the start, unravelling each person’s story piece by piece.
There is a sense of foreboding that starts quite early on, and slowly grows stronger chapter by chapter. I couldn’t put it down, I needed answers. This book left me feeling like I’d been the passenger of a crazy driver, going too fast and taking corners without slowing down. The smugness I felt thinking I had guessed a twist didn’t last long when I realised I had guessed incorrectly! After the last page though, I still have questions. What a ride!

I loved this book! I have read a few based on trips away with old friends that have grudges but I would say this was the best! Loved the setting and the suspense throughout. The only issue I found was when felicity was interviewed by the police she told them Nate had followed her over to Botswana. However further in the story she states that they travelled together . I’m sure the police investigating would have found out she was lying and would easily found out they were travelling together.

I requested 'The Wild Girls' because of the setting - a safari in Botswana is a fantastic experience, and I was looking forward to reading a book that was set there. The story held my attention, it is an easy read and I wanted to finish it to find out what happens. I liked that the story is told from several points of view; and the characters were, on the whole believable..
On the other hand, the 'incident' in Felicity's past couldn't have happened (don't want to write a spoiler). And although the plot required an isolated location, it could have been anywhere. I didn't get a sense of Botswana, so that was a disappointment for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and HQ for an ARC.

This is the first of Phoebe Morgan’s books that I have read, but I know it will definitely not be my last! I found this to be a really gripping read and I was hooked from the opening pages, wondering who the two dead people at the safari lodge in Botswana were!

This level of intrigue was then amplified as the story goes back in time and Grace, Alice and Hannah whose perspectives this story is told from are introduced (Grace in the first person, Alice and Hannah in the third person). They have each been invited to Felicity’s 30th Birthday Party at a luxury safari lodge in Botswana. However, we learn that this will be the first time the four women, who used to be best friends, will have seen each other in two years, following an evening which tore their friendship apart. When the women arrive at the lodge, a feeling of unease settles over them as there is no sign of the party they were promised, no phone signal and they are alone...in the wild!

I loved all of the little hints right from the beginning of the secrets that Grace, Alice and Hannah were each keeping. I loved this element of mystery and intrigue and being able to come up with my own theories/ideas as I was reading and wondering just what happened on that fateful evening to destroy the closeness the four women used to have. I also really loved the alternating perspectives of Grace, Alice and Hannah as I felt like I really got to know and understand each of them (and I definitely had a favourite and least favourite)!

The descriptions were so beautifully detailed throughout meaning I could really picture the luxury retreat in Botswana. I could so clearly visualise the landscape and all of its wonderful colours, the lodges, the food, and feel the heat on my skin and hear the sounds of the animals close by. I also really liked the depth and mystery surrounding the characters and found this all combined to make for a really immersive reading experience.

There were so many brilliant twists and turns throughout this book too, and I found myself racing through the pages to see what would happen next. I also really liked the way we got to see in Part 2 just what happened on that night two years ago which drove the four girls apart! It was really clever!

This is such a fantastic book that I just couldn’t put down. I would recommend this to everyone and will definitely be reading all of Phoebe’s other books very soon!

This book takes the phrase "Hell has no fury like a woman scorned" to a whole new level, it's a gripping page turner. Three best friends get invited to beautiful Botswana for a weekend party to celebrate their other best friends birthday, they are really excited until things start going wrong on arrival and it goes wrong on a massive scale. It's an atmospheric, chilling, creepy roller coaster of a ride and I found myself holding my breath until the shocking twisty ending. I was going to say the second half of this book was really predictable but bloody hell it's a damn good twist which was completely unexpected. All the characters are hugely relatable and they have their own secrets which they want to keep to themselves but unfortunately that does not happen and it leads to murder, deception and frightening scenes. Phoebe knows how to make them sinister and menacing. It's a well structured plot and I wanted to take my time reading it but that was impossible because all the chapters ended on a cliff hanger. Phoebe has certainly come a long way since her debut "The dolls House". In my honest opinion this book is her best yet and I can't wait to see what she writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley for supplying me with a pre-release copy of this book. It is an intriguing beginning: invitations to a birthday party in southern Africa for a group of friends who have fallen out of touch. As always, Phoebe Morgan establishes a strong storyline very quickly, but the real strength of the writing is in the relationships between characters. Their sense of competitiveness even in each other’s absence is psychologically convincing. The mystery of ‘that night’ two years ago is compelling because the characters are credible but morally ambiguous. The dynamic between them keeps the reader guessing as to their reliability as narrators. The book moves smoothly from present to past and back again. The tension never goes away and it is a memorable ending, cleverly contrived.

Beautiful venue filled with suspense on suspense. How could such an amazingly luxurious place become so threatening? The story draws you in and perfects the indecision as to who is good and who is evil.

Wow. The Wild Girls had such an exciting premise and it was so easy to get stuck into. I read this book in one sitting which is a huge credit to the author as that's not something I achieve often.

Four friends are reuniting for a birthday party in Botswana. What should be a celebration slowly turns into a nightmare as each of them are forced to confront the secrets they are desperate to keep buried.

I've given this rating a lot of thought and I know I am in the minority against everyone else's four or five stars. After finishing the book and thinking it over, I think I would have enjoyed it far more if the flashbacks had been intertwined throughout the book as opposed to grouped together in a lump towards the end once it had already been revealed who had been killed. Then we would have gotten to see them interact as friends on better terms before the terrible night everything went down hill.

Moreover, this was my largest issue with the book which really took away my satisfaction with the ending but I'll mark it as a spoiler for new readers. [ I really didn't like how Felicity who was the driving force for the events in the book was absent until the last third of the story. Then it just seemed like an awkward whirlwind of an explanation as to why the events unfolded. Felicity was a very complex character that could have been explored more, instead of being a melodramatic crazy for the sake of it villain. The same goes for the reveal with Grace. Her backstory and tragic past seems to be dumped in the pages suddenly by way of an explanation for her part in the book. (hide spoiler)]

In summary, this book had a lot of promise, but the execution of a lot of events could have been done a lot better.

Really didn’t like this book. I adore Botswana which is why I decided to read this book but Botswana was both incidental & incorrect!!! For me the characters are totally unbelievable & the plot very weak!

I have read all of Phoebe Morgan’s previous novels and thoroughly enjoyed them so was delighted to receive my ARC of The Wild Girls. It did not disappoint and I raced through this in a day.

The story centres around four friends- Felicity, Grace, Hannah and Alice - who were close growing up and going through university until one evening it all went wrong and they haven’t been in touch for two years. I could relate to the friendships and how it is easy to grow apart over a ‘situation’, so found this part exceptionally well written.

Felicity moved to New York at that time but has now invited the other three to a luxury retreat in Botswana, all expenses paid for her birthday. They all decide to go and the descriptions of the lodges and the environment were brilliant.

The story is told from multiple perspectives covering the friendships and how they have changed along the way; all the time drip-feeding twists and turns into the storyline as the narrative goes from present day Botswana to that night two years ago.

All the characters are flawed but the portrayal left me with a soft spot for all except one of them. Entertaining and cleverly plotted.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HQ, General Fiction (Adult) and Phoebe Morgan for my ARC of The Wild Girls in return for my honest review.

Another superb read from this author. Highly recommended.

You know how some books you read by the fire with a cosy blanket and a cup of tea. this is not that book. Its a book you read that makes you feel like you are in the hot dry sun on a very bright day. I loved the story and the characters are interesting. I am going to see if the author has any other books. This is definitely an author to watch!