Give it 3 stars. Slow slow start to the book but the ending is

…

I was expecting more with the “gripping psychological thriller”. I definitely appreciated that Kathryn put the year on the title pages because of it going back and forth, it helped with keeping everything straight. The build up of finding out who the stalker was and the steps she was taking to figure it out was the best part about this. The crime of which why Leah was living this isolating life… I can understand but don’t think it was as bad as she made it out to be in her own mind. And then the twist at the end was nice, but I almost feel as though another chapter or two could have added a nice little closure of how everything ended.

Review to come

Unbelievable plot, the main characters feelings for the bad guy don't ring true.
It was altogether to far fetched to be anything other than disappointing

Originally posted at Always, Lissa

** I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

I think it’s pretty clear that I’m a sucker for psychological thrillers. Usually the darker, the better. So when Netgalley approved my request for this novel, I was ridiculously excited. The Girl With No Past has been compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train and while it was in fact thrilling, I don’t agree with the comparison.

I had a hard time getting into the storyline. Leah is very hard to read, which is all the point of the story, I know, but it doesn’t make for a smooth read. Once I got the feel for the the flow, I actually read it pretty fast and found myself wanting to know what happened in Leah’s past and who was taunting her now. It’s definitely an intriguing story and I don’t regret reading it at all. However I had some issues with the novel as a whole.

While complex, Leah actually isn’t a very strong character. Most of the time while I was reading the story I wanted her to grow a backbone and actually stand up for herself. I understand she felt horribly guilty for the past events but I feel that part of the reason she felt so much guilt was because of her lack of strength to begin with. There was no exploration into why she was so meek before her crime and that really bothered me. I wanted to see her stand up to someone, at some point and that never came.

Also, I felt that the climax of the story was just too much, too fast and I didn’t find most of it plausible. It’s hard to explain what I mean without spoiling the plot twist but I wanted, no, I needed more information as to what made one of the supporting characters do what they did in the first place. It just came out of nowhere and escalated so fast. I needed more exploration of what had caused so much rage and I felt cheated that I never got that.

But there were plenty of things I did quite enjoy about the story. I loved the flashbacks. It helped give a lot more background and helped to flesh out some of the characters some more, plus it was a great way to break up some of the current day storyline. I also enjoyed the “who dun it” moment when Leah’s taunter was revealed. I had a moment of “Aha! I thought so!” But I won’t lie, I had thought that of a couple other characters as well so the revelation was quite satisfying as well.

All in all, while I felt the story had several faults, I did enjoy it and it did keep my attention fairly well. I do recommend it to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This was a good psychological thriller. It was two mysteries - what had actually happened in Leah's past and who was tormenting her about it now. After finishing a chapter, it left me wanting to know more. The characters are interesting and well developed and I enjoyed Kathryn Croft's writing.

I hate to admit, but I was kind of disappointed with this book. The main character was annoying and melodramatic, and I predicted all the "big reveals" except who was stalking her. I did still enjoy it, but The Stranger Within was so much better!

Not sure how I feel about it. I definitely was very intrigued about what what going on with Leah. That's mainly what kept me reading, I wanted to know what she did that was so horrible. I have a lot of unanswered questions though. It's almost as if the author forgot to go back and elaborate or explain certain things. I also felt like it ended a bit quickly, like she spent the entire book leading us to what happened and then finally it was like "this is what happened. The end". I finished the book and literally said out loud "that's it?" An epilogue would have been nice to just tie up some loose ends. On a positive note, I did not expect the horrible act to be what it was. And I liked that it wasn't so predictable. You start guessing what it had to do with as the book goes on, but I never guessed what actually happened. Overall, a decent book. Not one I would re-read and I'm not sure if I would read more by this author.

I was at a 4 star rating through most of the book. It dropped because the end was so awful. Is writing a good ending to a book that difficult? Ridiculous and so unbelievable. But the overall story was good and the way it played out, interesting... until it wasn’t.