Julie's Review: The Good Girl

Author: Mary Kubica
Series: None
Publication Date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Pages: 352
Obtained: via a friend
Genre:  Psychological Thriler
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Keeps you wanting more
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: "I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will." One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter. An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems. ~powells.com

Review: The Good Girl is a book that definitely has received a lot of buzz and it is well deserved. The novel is told from 3 different points of view: Eve, the mother; Gabe, the detective; and Colin, the captor. It is Colin's POV that I found the most interesting. For me, he was also the one who had the most character growth or change. It's not that he was a good man, he wasn't but he was also trying to do something good.

Eve wishes she would have been a better mother. She wishes that she would have stuck up for Mia when her dad, James, would be overbearing and rude towards their daughter. James was very much a man caught up in his own ego and stature. He wasn't going to let any daughter of his tarnish his good name. Gabe is a better detective than he gets credit for and it's his detective work that cracks the case wide-open.

Mia is the daughter that could do no right in her father's eyes. Mia was a free-spirit according to him. Mia wasn't trustworthy in his eyes. To say that her relationship with her parents was strained, would be too obvious. Mia wanted to live her own life and was doing just that when her world got turned upside down. I'm not really sure that she ever had Stockholm Syndrome but instead really was looking for someone to show her love. Even if it was in the strangest circumstance. Mia seemed like the simplest character but she truly was the most complex.

While I read the book, I felt that there was a big piece of the puzzle I was missing. Ms. Kubica does a great job of using this to her advantage. She keeps you turning the pages because you just want to know what it is you are missing. As a great author does, she leaves breadcrumbs for you to keep "eating" to the end. It isn't until the end when she drops her bombshell. In fact, I had to go back to read it again to make sure that I had read that correctly. It makes you look at each of the characters in a different light after the reveal.

If you are looking for a book that keeps you on your toes and keeps you turning the pages, then The Good Girl is up your alley!

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