From up u till approx 85% through #BeautifulUgly I would be giving this amazing book a 10 out of 5! The way I connected with TMC and the style of writing really touched. I literally could not put it down.
Generally in every 10 or so books I read, I will make a note of a quote or a line that really resonates with me. In this 1 book alone I made 6 quotes. The grief our mc feels is so real, I felt every single second of his pain and loneliness.
The excitement or maybe mystery grabbed me more once our mc goes to stay on this remote Scottish Isle. Everyone there are all a bit weird yet Grady, is unsure whener it's them or him due to his mental state of health.
I had no idea where this was going, which is rare and excellent nowadays after reading so many books. Surely, I thought, how on earth can this all be solved??.. Sadly I hated the ending, I felt so let down. I'm not sure how I wish it couldve finished but just not this way. A pet peeve of mine is when feeling so connected to the mc and then find out as a reader I've been lied to. Such a shame.
This is my 1st book by #AliceFeeney and it won't be my last as the writing was so engaging. Really special.
Thank you #NetGalley for the arc. A 4.5 star rou ded to 5 stars

Grady Green is a bestselling author whose wife Abby disappeared over a year ago. She was an investigative journalist and Grady’s worried that she has been kidnapped or killed by someone she was investigating. He has been unable to write since. Told from both Grady and Abby’s POV’s this is a spine chiller of a read.

Briefly, Grady’s agent offers him the use of a cabin on the Island of Amberly off Scotland. It is a strange island with only 25 residents, a ferry service that runs irregularly, no phone or internet service and, it appears, no children or men! Grady is settled into the cabin, which had previously been occupied by a famous writer, and finding an unfinished book from the author he sets about editing it into his own. Grady thought he saw Abby on the ferry coming to the island and again on the island and when other strange events happen he thinks he’s losing his sanity.

This is a seriously tense and at times creepy book. Weird goings on and some brilliant twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat. A twisted tale as life gets stranger and stranger until a major revelation shocks both Grady and the reader! An excellent psychological thriller, very entertaining. And I’m still thinking about the last sentence in the book!

Beautiful Ugly is Alice Feeney at her absolute best.

I devoured this book, drawn into the story from the very first page and unable to put it down as the need to know what happened next was consuming me. This was a read that got under my skin in the best possible way, I could not turn the pages fast enough.

We follow author Grady Green as he is struggling to cope with the disappearance of his wife, now unable to write he retreats to an isolated cabin in a remote Scottish island that is home to only 25 permanent residents. Grady arrives to an idyllic, stunningly beautiful location and a cabin that literally looks out over the edge of the world, the perfect writing haven. But before long the island & its strange residents begin to appear far from idyllic; strange, weird and creepy things that are happening start consuming Grady but are they real, tricks of the mind, a slow decline of his mental state or something far more sinister.

Feeney has created a beautifully atmospheric story with an intriguing and compelling plot, you will struggle to know who or what to believe, made all the better as the author drip feeds us information from the characters & islands past. Speaking of the characters, they are fantastic, a real mixture of quirky, mysterious and unsettling individuals, their actions perfectly add to the mystery and suspense.

I was gripped from the very beginning of this story until the very last line, the tension and twists kept me on the edge of my seat and I felt the eeriness leap off the pages, the twists towards the end truly shocked me and caught me so off guard.
While this is a outstanding mystery/thriller it is also an brilliant look at the dark side of marriage, family, relationships, retribution, how isolation & solitude can be both beneficial and damaging.

A perfect exploration of how many things can be both Beautiful and Ugly.

I raced through this book in 2 days. It had me on the edge of my seat throughout, the twists and turns really kept me guessing right to the end. I loved the ending, as dark as it was! The whole vibe of the island and it’s people was truly creepy and sinister and there was an underlying sense of threat throughout that highlights just how great the author is at building atmosphere and suspense. This is by far my favourite of Alice’s books and I will be recommending it to everyone.

I had heard a lot about this book on TikTok & boy did it live up to the hype!
This book will go far in 2025!
Amazing read.

Initially this took me a bit to get into but I am glad I continued. It was a highly enjoyable read with an ending that creeped me out so I call that a win.

The story revolves around Grady who is a writer who absolutely loves his job and his wife Abby who is a journalist. While waiting for his publishers to call him about his latest book and for his wife to arrive home from work to join him in the celebrations he gets a call from her to say she's on her way and running late. Suddenly while on the phone he hears his wife brake suddenly. She has come across a body of a woman lying on the road. Despite warning her not to get out of the car when she's alone Grady hears her open her car door and call to the stranger then nothing. Abby was nearly home when she last called so he runs to see if he can get to her car. When he does he finds her car but his wife has disappeared. What has happened Abby? Grady spends the rest of the book figuring out how to move on but the ghost of his wife and her disappearance haunts him.

His editor Kitty send him to a remote Island so he can get away from things and maybe get his writing juices flowing and when he sets upon the island of Amberly he finds the quiet space he needed to write but its not long before visions of his wife find him and the island is not what it seems...

Very enjoyable mystery.

Grady's life changes dramatically when the same night his dreams come true, his wife disappears.

Now, one year later he can't write, he doesn't have any money, or house, in an attempt to get his life back he retreats in a small Scottish island in hopes that he can write once again. But from the moment he sets foot in the island he experienced something very strange, he sees a woman that looks exactly like his wife.

I can't share much about this book, because I really don't want to spoil it. So I will keep this review a bit vague.

The pace of the plot is a bit slow at first but the more the story processes the more you can see and understand about what is happening in this small island.

There are a number of twists that are revealed one at a time, I figured out some aspects of the mystery but the biggest secret was very nicely hidden through the story.

I enjoyed how the plot was developed and the finale was truly amazing, I definitely recommend giving this book a try, and then let's take about it.


* I received an ARC and this is my honest opinion

Firstly thankyou NetGalley and pan macmillan for honouring me with this masterpiece of a book before release date. I was fortunate enough to get this arc copy, as a devote Alice feeney fan that has read all of her book I can hands down say this is her best one yet and she is bringing 2025 in with a bang.

Now for the review.

My Summary

It follows Grady a struggling author trying to navigate his life after his wife all of a sudden goes missing, he is given the opportunity to go to a remote island to focus on his work to try and bring a comeback to his writing career before it’s too late.

My Review

Starting this book i opened it open minded I didn’t know what the book was about and I’m so glad I didn’t because it made it even better, I was hooked from the first page but also the anted to savour each chapter as I didn’t want the story to end, Alice gave me a false sense of trust 🤣 *this is a joke* I read the book completely forgetting that Alice will have you reading her book thinking you know the plot and you just thet for a good time when in true style 🙂your humbled with twist after twist. I’m not adding spoilers as I feel everyone should have the right to experience the turmoil of this book. Did it feel like I was Grady in a fever daze as he’s trying to write a book and be part of a close knit society yes. Do I want to live on the island also yes. The moral of the island and th story of the island of how it become is a beautiful entity of protecting something that isn’t broken. I would 100% recommend this book, be prepared your gonna be in for wild ride.

Thanks to NetGallley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book a bit slow to start but saying that I was invested enough to keep reading and then I NEEDED to know what was going on and what had happened to Grady’s wife!! So many strange goings on had me baffled and looking for answers and I did not guess the twist which shocked me!!!

Alice Feeney can be hit or miss for me but this one was definitely a hit!!!

This was a rollercoaster ride I DID NOT want to get off! Twists, turns and gasps! What more do you want?!

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney is an absolute page-turner. I stayed up into the wee hours reading to finish the book because I just had to know how the story would end. I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep not knowing.

The story unfolds from the point of view of a married couple. Grady Green is an acclaimed author who is navigating the disappearance of his wife Abby in one strand of the story. It also unfolds from the point of view of Abby, but in the months leading up to her disappearance.

Grady is devastated by the disappearance of Abby and is struggling. He’s overdue on delivering a new book and is running out of money. His agent, Kitty, is concerned about him and in a bid to help him provides him with access to a holiday cottage she has on the Scottish island of Amberly and also loans him some money to tide him over. Overcome by her generosity, he packs up his belongings and drives up to Scotland to catch the ferry to Amberly with his trusted dog Columbo. On the ferry over he is convinced he sees his wife Abby.

I got sucked into the narrative and felt great sympathy toward Grady. He clearly is a man grieving his wife and finds himself seeing her everywhere. I thought that was so believably. I also thought the book portrayed really well how two individuals can be in a relationship, but feeling entirely different things and have different goals. It is entirely possible that a couple can in fact actually be like two separate islands.

Islands do attract creative types and Amberly felt no different. The island residents were creative and eccentric and it was interesting reading how Grady was settling into life on the island and fitting in with the locals.

The atmosphere of the book builds and shifts gear becoming quite dark. There are so many twists and turns and I found myself gasping at points surprised by what I was reading. It’s an atmospheric, tense, suspenseful page-turner.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Pan Macmillan, for making this e-ARC available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I struggled to get into this book then it suddenly came alive.

It begins with the archetypal professional couple. Grady, a writer and Abby, an investigative journalist. They are both having problems within the marriage but neither seems to realise the same is happening with the other.

Just as Grady gets some wonderful news Abby disappears in suspicious circumstances..

As time passes with no answers Grady's life falls apart. His agent sends him to a remote Scottish island to get him writing again.

I have never read Alice Feeney before. This is where I woke up.

This book a psychological scare fest with heavily forested areas, steep cliffs, roaring seas and enough weird women to form a coven - but they don't.

It took me a while to notice the obvious. Then I really got scared. I could see only one ending. Luckily the author had another...and hers is a terror I have had since childhood. No sleep for me tonight.

Another great thriller from Alice Feeney.

Where has Grady Green's wife, Abby, disappeared too? Since she's disappeared Grady has been unable to write, has no income and has lost his house, but his publisher has a solution - Grady can use a remote lodge on a Scottish island, the perfect spot to write Grady's next book. But something about the island seems a little odd to Grady, he keeps imagining seeing his wife, and he has no idea when the ferry to leave the island will next depart.

One of those books which feels a little disturbing/unsettling, but is neatly tied up by the end. A great read and I am hugely grateful to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My mind is reeling - 4*

I love Alice Feeney; Daisy Darker was the book of the year for me in 2022. I feel I knew what I was expecting from this book: I knew there'd be twists, I knew there would be a dark history and I knew there'd be secrets...but I didn't expect that.

The book is very Harlan Coben so if you love his books or his Netflix dramas, then this book would definitely be for you. This book is filled with twists and turns that still have my mind reeling. When I finished the book, I just sat for a moment to process. I think I'm going to be thinking about this book for a while. The final chapters were truly something.

If you need to get out of a book slump, pick this up because you'll be reading to find out what the twist and what on earth happened to Abby.

Amazing book I finished in two days.
Set on Scottish Island, the story is something new and j enjoyed it from the beginning.
As always I like to read Thriller without reading the blurb and I did that for this and worked well.
Yes if you have read her works before you will get some idea of what is going on but still you will enjoy it well enough
And
You cannot guess the twist 🤌
As always
So an amazing book to start my Year
I am happy I read this after my exam finished
It was amazing
You cannot go wrong with Feeney

*thank you to net galley for providing me with an e-arc in return for an honest review*

You know when you read a book and think you know what’s happening? You feel like it’s following a plot you’ve seen a thousand times and here comes the ‘twist’? Well im not going to lie for the first 30-40% of this book I thought I had it alllllll figured out. Joke is absolutely on me, because I didn’t. Not one little bit. The twists were twisting and if you do guess it, I would like to take a trip inside your brain!!!

I personally didn’t really connect to any of the characters, but I got through it in one sitting so still a good read ☺️

WIVES THINK THEIR HUSBANDS WILL CHANGE BUT THEY DON’T. HUSBANDS THINK THEIR WIVES WON’T CHANGE BUT THEY DO.

✍🏻 The story follows Grady, a best selling author whose wife has disappeared. A year later he is still trying to cope up and moves to an isolated island to get his life back on track. But then he see the impossible: a woman who looks qexactly like his missing wife.

✍🏻 Pick this up if you like/don’t mind:
📌 psychological thriller
📌 slow paced
📌 locked room/ missing person mystery
📌 dual POVs
📌 unreliable narrator
📌 unlikeable characters
📌 sinister vibes/ unsettling atmosphere
📌 MMC suffering from insomnia
📌 unputdownable/ binge worthy
📌 unpredictable plot twists

✍🏻 This one was a slow burn thriller filled with suspense, thrill, unsettling atmosphere, dark vibes and sinister characters. I was literally glued to the book as it was 100% unputdownable. I finished 3/4 of the book in one sitting.( thanks to the power outrage and my kindle paperback) Now coming to the multiple plot twists that everyone’s is talking about: yup most of them were unpredictable, far fetched and came as a total surprise. The only issue I had was that Alice Feeney has set the bar too high with her novel “Rock paper scissors”, that the twists failed to WOW me. But having said that I am still gonna recommend this one. ( I may sound biased but I can’t help it. Alice Feeney is an auto buy author for me)

✍🏻 Thanks to NetGalley and panmacmillan for the ARC.

On the night Grady Green hears he’s become a New York Times Bestseller, his wife Abby mysteriously disappears.
A year later she is still missing and Grady is unable to move on with his life.
His agent Kitty has been left a cabin on the Isle of Amberly and suggests Grady goes there for a while to see if he can start writing again.
On his arrival, strange things start to happen and there’s more to the islanders than meets the eye.
I loved the suspense at the beginning and the middle of this book, but found the twists at the end a bit unbelievable and confusing. This left me feeling slightly disappointed and is reflected in my rating.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is certainly a pacy book - Grady Green's wife Abby is on the phone to him on her way home, only for her to stop and say there was a woman in the road. He never hears from her again, she has vanished without trace. Grady's life as a successful author then spirals down as he cannot write, so loses his house and friends. His agent, Kitty, offers him a lifeline - to go to a remote Scottish island and stay in a cabin gifted to her by another author, where he can have the peace to try once more to write and rebuild his life.

The book very much concentrates on what Grady is going through, his thoughts, his belief his wife is still alive and his excessive drinking. Apart from Grady we don't really see the characters in any depth, and much of what we are told turns out to be incorrect, a wrong perception of events, or relevant to someone else entirely.

It is a complex plot, not altogether believable, but it makes for an interesting read. Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful Ugly is a fitting name for this novel, being both great and, well, less so. It embodied strong, atmospheric, beautiful writing throughout. I loved it and hated putting it down. I was addicted to this story and halfway through I would have happily said this was a five star book and praised it heavily. Beautiful Ugly suited my mood, the weather and was a joy to cuddle with fireside and in bed at night. Hooked, absolutely hooked. I was even looking through Alice Feeney's backlist of books to see what I might read next.

Then the twists occurred and ugly raised its less than glorious head. One of the twists was smart and left me interrogating the knowledge gained from what I had read. A nice surprise I did not see coming, I was excited by this. One was wholly implausible. I read it a couple times to make certain I understood it correctly. It just did not sit well with the story and what we knew of the main characters. It felt like panto, jumping the shark in its unlikeliness. Another twist or two later and we seemed back on track though the damage was done and I felt this was the only way it could go. It seemed fitting but I wasn't as invested by the end as I might have otherwise been.

I know it sounds awful and, to me, it feels awful as I was entirely onboard and loving the journey to who knows where then the opportunity for a great finale was lost. But a fun read, nonetheless.