Initially I was drawn in by the cover of this book and once I read the description I just had to read this! I was very excited about a thriller set in Botswana as I love Africa and I could imagine how terrifying it would be at a secluded lodge, the animals lurking around outside. However, apart from the description of the lodge itself you wouldn't really have any idea that this story was set in Botswana. I would have loved a chapter where the animals played a part in the story or the girls did get to go on safari with a sinister twist!
Overall the book was good, easy to read and had a plot that flowed well throughout the story. Although I felt at times it was a bit unrealistic and that something was missing.
This is the first book I have read by Phoebe Morgan and I really enjoyed her style of writing. Thank you to Phoebe Morgan, NetGalley and HQ for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

A good, easy read, with plenty going on from the start.

The plot is highly unlikely, yet thoroughly enjoyable. If you prefer a more realistic thriller it may not be for you, however, if you're looking for a good read with an unpredictable outcome it's definitely well worth reading. Well written and atmospheric it easily transports you to the setting.

The characters are complicated and their back story pretty dark, but they mesh well.

Not quite like my usual reading material, but I'd definitely recommend it

Grace, Alice, Hannah and Felicity had grown up together. They were friends for a long time, until the incident took place. An episode that none of them would forget and would tear their friendship apart.

Two years later living separate lives having moved on, Grace, Hannah and Alice receive an invite through the post. A beautiful, expensive invite to celebrate Felicity’s 30th birthday, in Botswana. Thinking it’s an elaborate way to bring them back together the girls decide it’s time to move forward and join their once best friend for her birthday party.

Questions linger as they arrive at the empty complex wondering where Flick is, if she’s still with Nate and if they can repair the cracks in their relationship?

This book was so good. It’s very fast paced and the story is surrounded by questions throughout beginning with the incident that ruined the girls friendship. I loved all the twist and turns and I had guessed the culprit but it didn’t spoil the story in the slightest, I just wanted to keep reading and finding out more.

Description appealed but the book disappointed. The Wild Girls of the title were four friends from school - Grace, Felicity, Hannah and Alice; all very different characters and it seems odd that such a disparate bunch could have been friends and remained so. Having lost contact over the last couple of years they were surprised, delighted, baffled at an invitation from Felicity to join her on her birthday celebration in a very upmarket Botswana game lodge, all expenses paid. Once there, mystery deepens and bodies accumulate. Of course they all have secrets but these are entwined with those of the others. I found the women shallow and distinctly unpleasant; they made me very glad not to be in my 30s again if that's how one should now behave. They had no honour or respect for anyone, seemingly little common sense and what little they did have they didn't use. The perpetrator was obvious from the start and the ending frustrating. Descriptions of the landscape and game park allowed me to give this a 3*. Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

From the start of Wild Girls there is a good build up and character development. I was gripped as to wanting to know the background story, which is often referred to, and this kept me reading. The plot builds up tension as it takes us to a safari lodge in Botswana, (not South Africa, as one reviewer stated!) and at this point the story is gripping. However, the girls' naivety, lack of empathy towards each other and their reactions started to grate with me and the story drags at this point, just when it reaches the most tense part.
This is down to the writing style which is very descriptive almost to a fault, including minutiae details where I felt at the point I wanted to know what was happening, not the interior decor in such detail. The chapters alternate between the 4 girls' voices and for some reason Grace is written in the first person, Hannah and Alice is the third person and then right at the end we hear from Felicity - in the first person, just when I was used to the only 1st person being Grace! Is it meant to be seen from their independent perspectives or not? Confusing!
I find it difficult to believe they wouldn't have checked out the address, location etc of where they were staying and pass on these essential details to partners, especially Hannah, married with a child, The girls reactions are strange and I felt their behaviour at the Lodge unrealistic and a bit irritating. The reasoning from Felicity happens very suddenly and I felt, knowing what certain people were capable of, on edge as to their future relationship.
Not a bad read, easy to zip through, but not a brilliant thriller.

Good read this one, entertaining plot! Took a while to figure out who the villain of the piece was. Highly recommended.

Amazing and addictive! What a fantastic book! From the first pages, the writing is engaging and the story perfectly crafted. A birthday reunion abroad turns into a dive into the secret filled past of a group of friends. The perspective from each girl is very unique and the narrative clear and imaginative, A definite must read!

I’m a HUGE Phoebe Morgan fan. I’ve loved all of her previous books, but this one is hands down her best yet 👏👏

This follows three female characters living in London, who each receive an invitation for a birthday party in South Africa. The invitation is from a friend neither of the three have spoken to in two years. The four used to be inseparable. The perfect foursome. They spent uni together and their tricky twenties, yet after one night two years (we’re not told what happened, but there’s lots of alluding to this night), their friendship broke and neither of them have spoken to each.
Now three of them are chugging their way through, somewhat broken and exhausted. They contact each other and all three agree to go this birthday party. After all it’s all expenses paid in a South African safari. But when they arrive there’s no sign of their host...and except for each other they’re alone...trapped in an isolated hotel in the middle of the desert...

Wowzer, this was a pure rollercoaster read!!! I could NOT put this down 😱😱
The setting is amazing. It was pure travel escape for me trapped in lockdown. The villa was atmospheric: the stuff of dreams that quickly spirals into a nightmare. But best of all was the three characters and their relationships. Female friendship is one of my favourite themes in thriller reads, and it’s portrayed so well here. The tensions, the petty jealousies yet those sudden moments of protectiveness and solidarity. Argh, this was such a perfect read. 🦁🦓🦏🦒🐅🐅

Great story, lots of twists and turns and leaves you on a lovely cliffhanger with what will happen next...

This was a wild read, from the start! I loved it. Great characters and a storyline that slowly unwinds yet wraps you up in its twists and turns.

3.5 stars.
I absolutely loved the first half of this book, it was paced perfectly and drip feeding just the right amount of back story to keep the reader entertained and curious. The second half of the book was explosive, although I didn't enjoy it as much, but that is down to my person preference.

A solid thriller, going to make a great holiday read

I loved the premise of this and it was certainly an addictive, speed-read. The atmosphere was tense and sinister from the off, in no part due to the predatory safari setting, and I was literally holding my breath throughout waiting to see how it was going to pan out. Sadly though in the end I didn't really like the way it did pan out. The atmospheric setting didn't come to much, and I struggled to engage with any of the 'wild girls'. It didn't help that although the chapters alternated equally between the 'friends' some were in the first person and some the third which seemed both jarring and suggestive. But, mostly I found it a bit far fetched, very twisted and the motive uncomfortable (although for those reasons I definitely didn't see it coming). I also like things neatly tied up and justice to be done so naturally I didn't like the weird non-ending. Despite the dubious story line this was an enjoyable, gripping read nonetheless.

It’s been years since Grace, Felicity, Alice and Hannah were together – The Wild Girls, as they were once called, are no longer so wild. Alice has settled with a new baby and partner. Hannah is now a teacher. Grace has gone to the ground. Only Felicity seems to have the same spark she once had. Now, Felicity has invited them all on the weekend of a lifetime – a mini-break in South Africa to celebrate her birthday, a chance to put that night two years ago behind them, when things went so very wrong between them, and their bomb-proof friendship was shattered forever.

This book is the perfect mystery-thriller needed for cold nights in the dark, it fits in well if read by a cosy fireplace.
The author has done an amazing job at making the characters relatable, I can easily imagine which of the characters fits within my friendship group. Throughout the book there is a sense of unease and that something is going to happen and the author keeps you in suspense throughout.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Well I read this in two sittings and only because I had to work in the middle. The pace of this was extremely engaging and page turning and I enjoyed this one a fair bit.

I don't think the plot itself was ultra special but there were something's that elevated it for me: the setting was really immersive and was actually used in the story to create a layer of suspense and unease rather than just being a throwaway location where they happened to be. It also removed that question you sometimes get in thrillers where you're kind of like 'why don't these people just x/y/z?' because there was reasons why those things would be difficult.

The other great thing is the level of suspense and unease that the author managers to create. Leading on from how immersive the setting was, the whole thing felt very creepy and claustrophobic and I do enjoy any book that manages to invoke strong feelings in me.

There was some really uncomfortable subject matter on here that I maybe could have done without but this sort of stuff seems to be the bread and butter of thrillers at this point so I didn't deduct star rating for it - just be sure to look up triggers for this one if that's something you have to be careful of.

I did predict the overall outcome sort of but it did happen in a different way to what I expected and I quite enjoy that. I don't mind working out an ending if it still plays out in an unexpected and enjoyable way. You kind of get the satisfaction of working it out but also some extra surprises so I thought that was done very well.

All in all a very fast, engaging read with a good level of suspense and action and didn't outstay it's welcome.

Should appeal to keen readers of the likes of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley & C.L. Taylor

Rating: 3.5/5

I had previously read Phoebe Morgan's debut novel, "The Doll House", but have to admit to having not been particularly impressed by it. It struck me as being pretty standard fare for the genre and I felt that the plotting was loose with a storyline that meandered around as a consequence. It was enough to put me off trying this author's next two books. However, the synopsis for this, her fourth novel, appealed to me enough to sample her work once again.

"The Wild Girls" refers to the nickname that four firm friends, Alice, Felicity, Grace and Hannah had earned for themselves during their schooldays. However, something dramatically went awry and their group friendship was torn apart as a result. For years they have been living completely separate lives, when, out of the blue, the other three girls (or women, as they now are) are invited by Felicity to an expenses paid break in Botswana to celebrate her birthday. As they jet off to Africa, the former "Wild Girls" are looking forward to putting the past behind them and rekindling their friendship ... but events are soon to take an unexpected turn.

This is a far better read than "The Doll House". Phoebe Morgan has clearly matured as a writer in the four years since her debut was published. The plotting is tighter and the storyline has clearer, more controlled direction. Whereas "The Doll House" was more reminiscent of the style of psychological thriller that someone like B.A. Paris might produce, "The Wild Girls" more closely resembles the type of thriller you might expect from a writer such as Ruth Ware. In fact, there are elements of this "The Wild Girls" that put me in mind of two of Ruth Ware's novels, "In A Dark, Dark Wood" and "The Lying Game".

I liked the effort that Phoebe Morgan has made to find a location for the action that is fresh and different. Safari lodges in Botswana certainly make a pleasant change, from remote islands, isolated woodland hotels and alpine chalets. That said, I still don't think that her writing quite matches up to the finesse of her contemporaries such as Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley and C.L. Taylor. They are not only adept at selecting appealing, authentic settings for their novels, but they also develop credible, relatable characters and scenarios around them too. Much as I enjoyed "The Wild Girls", events do stretch credulity a little far on occasion and Phoebe Morgan's style is prone to being unnecessarily melodramatic in parts. Sometimes it is more effective to let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks rather than taking the spoon-feeding approach.

Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable read, with its share of twists and turns that will keep most readers happily guessing at the eventual outcome.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for the arc of The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan.

4 stars- This is about a full expenses paid trip to a safari lodge in Botswana which is in South Africa. In which to celebrate a friend's birthday, which is hard to turn down right?? The girls Hannah, Grace, Alice and Felicity didnt exactly part on best terms. But one of the girls want an reconciliation, or does she really????

This was an exciting and thrilling thriller was on the edge of my seat and it was a fast and quick read for me read within 24 hours loved this so much!

Highly Recommend

4 STARS⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved reading the story of the 3 main protagonists and their friends/foes. It really did keep me guessing until the very end although I had lots of ideas for what was going on throughout which made it all the more interesting for me to read. It was full of suspense and I was anxious to discover what on earth was going on in that Safari Lodge. A great suspenseful read and I recommend it to anyone!

The blurb for this book sounded interesting so I was keen to read. I have never read this author before.
On balance not a bad book but not great either. If you find it in the bookcase at a hotel it's worth taking to the pool. Quick easy read. The writing is fine although a bit heavy on unimportant descriptions. The characters are well drawn and believable although thoroughly unlikeable. Quite how these four people became and remained friends stretches credibility. The plot did drag somewhat and it got a bit boring- x has another glass of wine, y has a shower, there are towels... who knew? A minor point but the travel vaccine info was wrong. Why not just say they had travel vaccines rather than giving any (inaccurate) details? Speaking of medical inaccuracies , I really can not see Felicity undergoing the procedure she did in the UK. Nope- that's stretching things way, way too far. It hasn't put me off the author. I will likely give another book a go and hope for something better
There are a few typos and grammar errors that need to be corrected

Grace, Hannah, Alice and Felicity were long-term friends until an event two years ago made them break off contact with each other. So when invitations for an all-expenses-paid trip to Botswana arrive, apparently to celebrate Felicity’s 30th birthday in style, it does not take Grace, Hannah and Alice long to decide that it’s time to make amends. But on their arrival at Deception Valley Lodges in the centre of Southern Africa, there is no sign of Felicity…and then the bizarre messages start arriving. Individual secrets and the extent of toxic friendships are laid bare. More than five thousand miles away from home, Grace, Hannah and Alice are each forced to confront their lives whilst wondering how their African mystery will play out. Told alternately in the first person by Grace and in the third person with a focus on the others, this is a true page turner because of the quality of its evocative, concise prose that means it can dispense with the literary brutality and slang so many other thrillers resort to.

With 'Wild Girls', Phoebe Morgan has managed another superbly crafted psychological thriller with many twists and turns – as an editorial director as well as a novelist, she obviously knows her stuff! The only regret I had when I finished this thriller was that rather little was made of the unusual setting of Botswana. It is a country that gets very little attention in the press and with a captive readership of loyal fans, this would have been an excellent chance for Morgan to promote a little-known country. However, this gripe does not detract from the fact that The Wild Girls comes highly recommended!

Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for this honest and unbiased review.

Interesting storyline at times implausible but somehow still engaging !
All of the characters personalities are very different and the dynamics between them certainly made interesting reading . Would highly recommend if you like psychological thrillers with slightly crazy characters !