Chick lit meets suspense in this easy-read, predictable novel. I guessed the villain early on but despite this, the plot and writing were engaging enough to keep me reading past my bedtime. ( )

An edge of your seat, fast paced psychological thriller that will have you flying through the pages at break neck speed and a definite candidate for psychological thriller of the year!

This is one of those books that it is almost impossible to review without giving away any spoilers and I certainly don’t want to ruin it for anyone. All the red herrings and plot twists is what gives this book an edge. Some were fairly predictable, others completely blindsided me. It is the level of tension and expectation of what will happen next that makes this a gripping page turner of a book. While the who becomes obvious quite quickly, the why will undoubtably surprise you!

Luke is every girls dream man, he handsome, charming, caring and makes you feel safe so it doesn’t came as a surprise to Georgia that Lukes ex-girlfriend is finding it hard to let him go.

As Georgia and Lukes relationship blossoms there is only one small hitch, Cadence, and it is not long before that small hitch escalates into a massive hitch. One that shows no signs of going away. From sending Luke text messages to leaving notes on Georgia’s car it becomes clear that Georgia is being stalked by Cadence and when the troubles ultimately follow her into work Cadence decides to confront her and put an end to it all once and for all.

If only it was that simple!

The characters are well written and feel real, the tension and emotions come through the page sucking you in from the very start, I even found myself wanting to shout at the characters at one point!

Compelling, suspenseful and utterly captivating. If there is only one psychological thriller you read this year then this is the one!

The Ex-Girlfriend will be published on 31 October 2019 and is available to pre-order now from Amazon UK

A big thank you to the author Nicola Moriarty, publishers Penguin UK – Michael Joseph and NetGalley for my advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review.

https://debbiesbookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/10/24/the-ex-girlfriend-by-nicola-... ( )

I've been meaning to read a Nicola Moriarty book for a while and The EX-Girlfriend sounded so good that it jumped right to the top of my Nicola Moriarty queue. It's fast paced and a really easy read that is impossible to put down so I found that I raced through it in two sittings; it would have been one sitting but, rather disappointingly, I had to put it down so I could go to sleep when I was 75% through.

The prologue is entitled 'The Elevator' and it sent shivers down my spine; there's nothing worse than being in an enclosed box with someone you don't want to be in close contact with. It could be quite innocuous but there is just something so menacing about it and that's before we even get to know the characters of Georgia and Cadence.

I really liked the character of Georgia; the youngest and only girl in a family of boys. Although she may have been taunted and teased by her brothers when they were all growing up, I had no doubt that they would look out for her and never more so than when she brings her new man, Luke, to her brother's wedding. The way she met Luke was rather fortuitous as she had been stood up on a Tinder date. Georgia was just about to leave the bar when she got hassled by some beefy blokes and Luke rode in on his white horse to come to her rescue. Fate does seem to work in mysterious ways and Georgia happily exchanged numbers with Luke. She later finds out that Luke comes with a lot of baggage, namely his ex-girlfriend Cadence.

By the end of Chapter Two my bullshit-o-meter was going absolutely haywire. Maybe I'm just old and sceptical but, apart from his ex-girlfriend issue, Luke seemed too good to be true. Meanwhile, Cadence sets out on a campaign to get Luke back by stalking Georgia. This really was very frightening and it just shows how easy it actually is to stalk people these days thanks to Social Media. I always cringe when people 'check in' to places, sharing every minutiae of their life and not realising that they're leaving themselves wide open and vulnerable. Georgia didn't seem to be able to go anywhere without Cadence's eyes on her and I really started to worry about how far this would go when it seemed like Cadence not only wanted Luke back, but she wanted to ruin Georgia's life in the process.

Gripping, chilling and scarily believable, The EX-Girlfriend is a firecracker of a read; I couldn't put it down. Even if I had worked some of it out (and I'm not saying whether I had or not), it didn't spoil my enjoyment one bit and I was immensely satisfied at the girl-power ending. Nicola Moriarty has definitely earned the full five stars for this The EX-Girlfriend and I'm even more excited to read her other books now.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

Ooh, now The Ex-Girlfriend is a fantastic read. Georgia is out one night waiting for a Tinder date who it turns out has stood her up. But Luke comes to her rescue, saving her from sitting alone. He's everything she could want in a man: kind, thoughtful, gorgeous. There is one problem though. He has a psycho ex called Cadence who doesn't want to let him go and she certainly doesn't want Georgia to have him. Cadence wages a war against the pair of them, determined that she will hang onto her man.

The whole situation with Cadence freaked me out a bit. After all, you don't expect that amount of baggage when you begin a new relationship. But I have to say that for much of the first half of the book it was not what I was expecting at all. I thought it was going to be a psychological thriller and what I got seemed to be a relatively tame stalker storyline. Then boom!! Certain things that I had started to suspect fell into place and this turned the story into an unputdownable piece of domestic/psychological fiction.

I have to hand it to Nicola Moriarty. What a book of two halves! It's a really exciting, edge of my seat story. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that first half a lot, but when the pace picked up it really thrilled me and I loved how she threw curveball after curveball at me, so much of it completely unexpected.

If you love a fast-paced and exciting read then The Ex-Girlfriend is for you. I thought it was fabulous. ( )

I have to be honest, I’ve been agonising over this review for days, worried that no matter how carefully I word it, that I’d inadvertently reveal something that could spoil The Ex for the reader. Something I definitely don’t want to do. I’ve drafted paragraph after paragraph, and deleted them all, so I’m going to make this short and sweet.

Having finally found her feet after a difficult few years, Georgia Fitzpatrick thinks she now may have also met ‘the One’. Luke is handsome, charming, and most importantly, makes her feel safe.

Georgia can understand then why Luke’s ex-girlfriend is reluctant to let go, but as Cadence’s behaviour escalates from nuisance texts to increasingly threatening notes, Georgia is worried about just how far she will go. Despite Luke’s assurances that he will take care of it, when Cadence’s latest stunt affects the job she loves, Georgia is determined to confront the ex, and put an end to the harassment, once and for all.

A compelling story of love, betrayal, and revenge, The Ex, offers enthralling twists and turns, even though I found, in part, I was able to predict the path the story would take. The pace was just about perfect, and I finished it very quickly, even for me. The characters are intriguing, and Moriarty deals sensitively with issues raised concerning Georgia’s mental health. That I’m familiar with the setting (Castle Hill, NSW) was a bonus for me.

The Ex, Nicola Moriarty’s fifth novel, is a gripping domestic thriller I’m happy to recommend. ( )