The It Girl by Ruth Ware – ARC Review

 

 

My Rating ~ Four Stars

RELEASE DATE:  12 July 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 432

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

 

 

Blurb

 

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder. 

 

 

 

Review

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review!

 

When Hannah starts at the prestigious Oxford, she feels like she doesn’t fit in with the other rich students, but her super rich roommate April soon it’s her at ease and they become best friends. April isn’t always a great friend though. She’s known for her sometimes nasty pranks on their friend group and being a pretty terrible girlfriend, but Hannah loves her anyway. Then, one night, April is killed. Hannah saw the murderer leaving their staircase and her testimony sent him to jail. Now, ten years later, a journalist has called into question whether the man she accused was really guilty. He is dead and can’t tell the tale, so Hannah is determined to find out the truth herself.

Told in alternating sections between the past and present day, the story was built up with revealing clues that kept me guessing the whole way through.  This was a fast paced and gripping psychological thriller, with interesting characters and the added drama of Hannah being pregnant in the present day timeline.  Other than Hannah herself, it wasn’t easy to spot who was and wasn’t trustworthy in the story and the atmosphere conjured up in the writing made me want to keep reading all night! 

If you love dark academia type thrillers, make sure you add this one to your TBR