The Girl Before You
Published May 27th 2019 by Avon, Kindle Edition 385 pages
She was his.
She was perfect.
And then, she was gone.
If you liked My Lovely Wife, you’ll love this.
Alice has always been haunted by the women from her husband’s past. As a politician and now a TV personality, George Bell’s reputation as a ladies’ man precedes him. But when Alice falls pregnant, her unease becomes an obsession.
And there’s one ex in particular she can’t get out of her head, a beautiful student who went missing before they finished university: Ruth.
When Alice thinks she see Ruth on a train, she can’t shake the feeling there’s more to the disappearance than George has told her. But does she really want to know what her husband has been up to behind her back all these years?
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
"If you liked My Lovely Wife, you’ll love this."Can we stop with these comparisons? These books are nothing alike. Not at all.
Alice is married to George who is a politician turned television personality. Charming and confident he seems to always attract the attention of women. He was known as quite the ladies man during his university days but he doesn't really like to discuss his past with his wife which leads her to believe that he's keeping secrets. Now that Alice finds herself pregnant she begins to wonder if the man she married is the man she thinks he is. She has always wondered about a young woman, Ruth, that went missing in their university days together. Now she's obsessed with finding out if her husband had a role in Ruth's disappearance.
We have multiple points of view that go back and forth in time that slowly reveal what happened on that terrible night.
One thing I find that I'm growing tired of are woman that can't seem to survive without a man. Even while at university Alice secretly wondered about George and his, let's say, extra-curricular activities and yet she went on to marry him and have his child. Why, oh, why would you do this?
Another character, Kat, who was Ruth's best friend back in the day is still hung up on her lost love from then. Like, really? Fifteen years later and you still haven't gotten over him?
This book is so hard for me to rate. On the one hand I did find the mystery of Ruth's disappearance strangely compelling and I wanted to know the who and the why. Yet at the same time the slow pace made this one easy to put down even though I wanted answers.
It's certainly a relevant topic with the #METOO movement in full stride and the writing was well done. Not bad for a debut novel. 3.5 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: really liked it
An intriguing start. Naomi watches her sister Ruth getting ready to go, out not knowing this may be the last time she will see her again.
The book is told from numerous people’s prospectives with different timelines. This can be either very confusing or very clever, but with this story it works perfectly.
Alice is married to George a television presenter who was formerly a politician, she has always known he was a ladies man and has often wondered about his previous relationships. They met at university where George was a
disliked by other students for his sense of entitlement and confident air.
Whilst on a train Alice thinks she sees Ruth, but Ruth went missing years before when they were at university and was presumed dead. Alice knows her husband knew Ruth but when asked he at first denies knowing her, then admits he did. Alice goes digging to find out more and as the story goes back in time secrets are revealed.
The time goes back to when Alice, George, Ruth and Kat were at university and leads up to the night that Ruth goes missing after attending a ball.
I couldn’t put this book down. I love books about friendships and secrets and this kept me guessing until the end.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.
Rating: really liked it
The Girl Before you by Nicola Rayner was not the page turner that I had hoped for. While overall I enjoyed the story I found it to be slow and dragged out. At times it I felt that I was reading the same thing over and over. Having said that I will read more by this author as I liked the story as whole.
George Bell is an MP and now a TV star. He has a reputation of being a ladies man. His wife Alice finally falls pregnant and becomes obsessed with one of Georges exes - Ruth, a read haired beauty that he dated at university and went missing. The story is told from multiple points of view including Naomi - Ruth's sister, Kat - Ruth's best friend and Alice. Through this we learn about Ruth's and Georges past which is colourful to say the least. The ending was a bit of a let down to be honest.
Thanks to Avon Books UK and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.
Rating: really liked it
3.5*
The Girl Before You is an intriguing mystery-thriller utilising a combined multi-narrator and dual-timeline structure. For an author to use either of these mechanisms is a challenging enterprise, but both together is a tricky venture indeed. For the most part, I felt that Nicola Rayner achieved the objective, maintaining the narrative flow and the pace of the story despite the different perspectives and frequent flashback scenes.
The story opens with a prologue in which two sisters are preparing together for a ball celebrating the end of the academic year. Heavy with foreshadowing, Naomi relates the last time she saw her elder sister, Ruth, headed off to the ball wearing an emerald dress and red "Dorothy" shoes. They're in the university town of St. Anthony's - a fictional location that the author explains is an amalgamation based on St. Andrews, Durham and Alnmouth.
The narrative then jumps forward to 2016, fifteen years since the night of the ball. Successful family lawyer Alice Bell is on a train from Edinburgh, returning home to London after a conference, when a glance at a fellow passenger prompts a startling sense of
déjà vu. Alice is unable to catch her, but feels sure that she's a woman Alice knew at university, a woman who disappeared, presumed drowned. That woman's name was Ruth Walker.
The remainder of the story unfolds from three alternating perspectives; that of Alice, whose rather odious politician-turned-television presenter husband, George, was once romantically involved with Ruth; Naomi, Ruth's younger sister, who remains haunted by Ruth's unexplained disappearance; and Kat, who was at one time Ruth's closest friend at St. Anthony's. Ruth could conceivably be regarded as "the girl before" each of them - she dated George before Alice met him, she preceded Naomi both in birth order and to St. Anthony's, and she created resentment in her friendship with Kat by choosing to start a relationship with Richard, the fellow student that Kat was - and remains - fixated upon.
While both Alice and Naomi's stories are set in the novel's present, albeit with frequent reminiscence of the events leading up to Ruth's disappearance, for the bulk of the book Kat's story is told as it unfolds between 1999 and 2001. We catch up with a more mature Kat towards the story's conclusion. Initially, Alice and Naomi reflect upon Ruth's fate separately from each other, but they are drawn together by circumstances arising as the story unfolds. Both are at a similar stage in their first pregnancy, which, for different reasons, has made the search for the truth regarding what happened to Ruth particularly important for both of them.
I felt that Nicola Rayner accurately captured the sense of tangible potential, personal angst and social consciousness that characterises the university (college) years for many of us. Paradoxically, we're at our physical peak whilst also battling self-consciousness, we're excited to test the boundaries but need to be wary of those whose motives are anything but honourable, our futures are literally in our hands, yet many of the choices we have to make are daunting.
Nicola Rayner explores themes including female friendship and solidarity, sexuality and power dynamics, romantic obsession and the agony of unrequited love, misogyny and date-rape culture, impending parenthood, and trust within marital relationships. While I felt that the plot was intriguing and well-constructed, I occasionally felt that the pace slackened during the middle of the book, and that the somewhat jarring conclusion left me with many unanswered questions.
The Girl Before You is an impressive debut for Nicola Rayner, and a good read. I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy academic settings and split-timeframe narratives.
My thanks to the author, Nicola Rayner, publisher HarperCollins Australia / Avon Books, and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title. I can only apologise that it's taken me so long to get to it.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4
Alice has always been haunted by the women from her husbands past. As an MP and now a TV personality, George Bell's reputation as a ladies' man precedes him. But when Alice falls pregnant, her unease becomes an obsession.
This is a dual timeline story about Ruth's disappearance. The story starts of slowly before picking up its pace. Roth had went missing some time ago. People tell us about her that she went to Uni with her. We also hear from her sister Naomi. They tell us how they have dealt with her disappearance many years ago. The ending of the story fell a bit short. There were several loose ends that I needed tied up. Apart from that it's a decent enough read.
I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author Nicola Rayner for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
The Girl Before You is one of those psychological thrillers where the synopsis could is interchangeable with that of another book in the genre without losing the gist of the story. That's because there are so many novels effectively repeating the same trope-laden tale over and over, and this book is no exception. Don't get me wrong it's a fun, light, take-with-a-pinch-of-salt type of read and perhaps decent for a summer holiday or lounging around but nothing special or original.
However, I feel the fact that it is based at a university with all the usual student shenanigans means it should be targeted more at a young adult/teen audience as the sexual liaisons, endless drinking and drug taking started to become annoying to me. This is a domestic thriller that is merely a mediocre read and explores the notion that you can never truly know someone.
It's not the worst book I've ever picked up, but I was almost willing it to be over to engage with something better. The statement on the cover professing that you will be left gasping at the ending couldn't have been further from the truth. Many thanks to Avon for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
This is a really full-body reading experience.
There are so many events, so many names, so many twists to think about. I wouldn't recommend this as a light beach read exactly.
The story is told from various angles and timelines and thus requires a thorough sit-through, not just a when time allows skipping through kinda read.
My biggest struggle was the fact that I've recently read two other books with sisters and death and possibly one sister narrator, and it felt like walking through a jungle of comparisons in my head. At times, if I had to put the book down and come back to it later, I kept mixing up all the stories.
I'll tell you the books in case you've read them and might develop a similar disorder lol.
One was Into the Water and the other Imaginary Girls and somehow the vibe and the feel I've kept from those stories was overpowering this one.
But overall, this was a well-written and engaging plot with interesting (maybe too many to count but still) characters.
Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
Rating: really liked it
‘The Girl Before You’ by Nicola Rayner published by Avon Books and Out NOW ( published 27/6 )
384 Pages
All the way through this book I felt I had read it before, I hadn’t! and that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, it and the themes just felt ‘familiar’......
I am not sure if the tag line ‘This Years Girl on The Train’ helped, this is distracting and also quite an accolade to live up to!
Anyway the story is....rich and privileged uni kids, excessive drink, drugs, sex and all the woes that came with that.....a end of Uni’ ball’, someone dies, secrets are made and kept and life continues.....
Fast forward years later and secrets have remained secret, lives have been led....and then the girl who died is ‘seen’ ( on a train granted ) and the past starts to unravel and come back to haunt them all, some
of them have no desire to revisit their Uni days, some need to to come to terms with what happened to them....and the sightings continue...did she really die?
In the mix is a ( now ) M.P. who was, in the day, a real ‘ladies man’ with his bezzie....of course there is more to that than meets the eye, that story and the sightings story with an added touch of teacher/uni student lesbian love all add up to quite a shocking story with many characters battling to get to various truths!
The ending is very quick, after reading 350 pages I prefer a robust ending rather than a ‘mmmmmm so what did that mean’ kinda conclusion
Strong and entitled characters, some uncomfortable subjects, good writing and a VERY unsettling teddy that reappears after years called ‘Nonny’ ( yep Nonny ) all tinged with as said ‘Ive read this before’ led me to a good read which I enjoyed, up to a point
7/10 4 Stars
Rating: really liked it
This book was right up my street! Following a slightly slow start, the pace picked up considerably and I was immersed in this fabulous dual timeline story. It followed the viewpoints of different players in a disappearance both at that time and in the current day.
"The Girl Before You" was a very well thought out and engaging story and was edgy enough to keep my interest. With absorbing characters and intriguing themes it was definitely worth the read and for me, the elements all cleverly tied in together to complete a nice little package.
I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Avon Books via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.
Rating: really liked it
A gripping psych thriller and multi arc drama really very good.
I love books that look back to college or university days it's one of my favourite types of dual timeline to read and this one was really very clever - different interactions and motivations and in present time a wife who starts questioning everything she thought she knew about her husband...
There's a stellar cast of strong female characters and a thought provoking underneath to it all plus the plotting is taut and effective and beautifully done.
Overall a really great read.
Rating: really liked it
I liked this book from the start-Ruth had gone missing quite a while back and you get a few people from her past reminisce about their relationships from when they were at Uni with her. One point of view is told by Ruth's sister-Naomi. (yes, like the Bible story.) We see how they are dealing or not dealing with her disappearance so many years later. All of their stories seem unrelated but the author manages to intertwine them just enough so you know beyond a doubt that eventually it will be confirmed that they are very related. There were some unbelievable moments but not enough to me to downgrade the writing. Of course, this is all my opinion and others could be more critical but I still feel the story was unique enough to warrant the 4 stars. (Yes, they did drink alot, had sex in public bathrooms -ugh, and there was the #metoo movement featured but I still think the author kept you engaged in finding out what really happened to Ruth.)
I definitely recommend this book as a unique thriller.The author, Nicola Raynor, definitely builds up the suspense bit by bit. I eagerly await her next book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.
Rating: really liked it
I'm pretty jaded when it comes to yet another domestic thriller with 'The Girl...' in the title but this one came with The Guardian's recommendation of note-perfect prose and an addictive story-line... but, you know, it's just the same-old stuff: switching narrators/PoV, a then-and-now storyline, privileged men, #metoo women, the wife who suddenly realises she doesn't know her husband, the devious best friend, girl-on-girl competition for men, a double helping of pregnancy, the dead sister trope - sounds familiar, no?
Plenty of plot-holes and thin characterisation here: Alice (the wife) is supposedly the most brilliant divorce lawyer in London, so how come it's taken her 15 years to realise that her Tory MP-turned-TV-presenter husband is a sleazeball? Ruth (the eponymous Girl) is loved up one minute, incensed the next, then loved up with someone different (and tru-love means bonking in the public toilets of student pubs - yeurch!). L-o-o-o-n-g chapters about Ruth's sister's burgeoning sexuality slow down the momentum - they are kinda relevant in a sideways fashion but could have been fashioned with way more economy - I started skimming them.
The fact that a brand new character is introduced at 93% in order to bring the whole thing to a wacky climax sort of speaks for itself. And the more you think about the ending, the more improbable it all seems. But I guess that's the point: we're not really supposed to subject this kind of book to much critical scrutiny, are we?
On the plus side, it's certainly readable when you want something that is pure switch-off entertainment but why The Guardian extolled this is a mystery (actually, more of a mystery than that of the book which - surely - we can pretty much see from the start). There's a slightly laboured, pulling-the-puppet-strings to it all: people don't make sense, don't really behave like this in real life.
But for addicts of Girl World where mysterious postcards and soft toys appear in the post, where everyone remembers exactly what happened 15 years ago, where no-one is what they seem, no-one can be trusted, how well do you know your friends and husband is plastered everywhere, this is a fun diversion. Just be ready for lots of student drinking/drugs/casual sex - and some wonderfully nutty plotting. Oh, and no sign of that supposedly pitch-perfect prose. 😉
Rating: really liked it
The Girl Before You is being marketed as " The new Girl on the train...The ending will leave you gasping" and after reading it all I can say is I'm not sure I've read the same book as the person who wrote that line.
While I'm not the biggest "Girl on the train" fan I decided to give this a try cause the synopsis sounded good but, oh boy, was this boring. A psychological thriller with absolutely no thrills.
The story is told through three different POVs and alternates between the past and the present. It's extremely slow-paced and the same scenes keep repeating over and over again while the plot goes nowhere. All the characters are super bland, the writing is nothing special and the constante switching between past and present is pretty confusing at times.
And what about
the ending that will leave you gasping? I assure you gasping was not one of the things it left me doing. The final twist's got to be one of the most underwhelming twists I've ever read and it felt completely anticlimactic. And when done right I don't mind an open ending but that's not the case here so I ended up being pretty annoyed.
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK fro providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
*thank you to Netgalley, Nicola Rayner and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
3 stars.
I was eager to start this as I read that it's along similar lines to Girl on the Train and yes it was, especially at the beginning. But what I discovered with this was the story was a bit too slow for me. It was still good but I'd rather have had it been more fast paced as I found my attention drifted quite a few times. It read more like a drama/woman's fiction than the psychological thriller that I'd been hoping for.
Rating: really liked it
Alice is married to George, an MP turned TV personality, he is a well-known man, and also a well-known ladies' man. When George and Alice were still at university a girl named Ruth went missing. Ruth was a stunning redhead, someone who caught everyone's attention, including George's at the time.
When Alice thinks she sees Ruth on a train one day, she starts digging into the past to try to figure out how Ruth was involved with her husband, and to figure out the story with all of their friends from the time.
This story reminded me of the new TV series "Anatomy of a Scandal" in a lot of ways. I battled to get into it at first, but I was somewhat gripped in the end.
