Not my normal choice, read for book club and enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say I was overly stunned with a major plot twist, maybe as I knew one was coming so was on the look out. A good read with nice suspense, if try the author again. ( )

The Short of It:

Impossible to put down!

The Rest of It:

This book has it all. A beautiful Greece setting, characters you care about. a quick, dramatic pace, and it will keep you guessing. A group of friends take off on a “hen” weekend, a bachelorette party to celebrate Lexi’s upcoming wedding but everyone on this trip has a secret she is keeping and at the top of the story you know someone ends up dead so from the very first page I was pulled in.

Clarke tells a really good story. There are some surprises and many twists but that gorgeous Greece setting takes center stage. With each page, you are right there with them. At the villa, on the boat, soaking up the sun and enjoying they many drinks that a gathering such as this one has readily available. Clarke slowly peels back the many layers and reveals all of their insecurities and worries and doubt. Do you ever really know your friends?

If you haven’t read One of the Girls yet, you should. It was excellent and got me out of my slump. ( )

An enjoyable read. Full of fake-outs that are surprising and keep you guessing. Definitely an interesting exposure of what we keep from others and the little lies we tell ourselves. It was nice to see personal growth in the characters, mostly with one of the bride's long-time chums, Robyn. All that said, I do feel the story description is a bit misleading as to the characters' motivations and the story arc. (It's not truly a "locked room" style mystery as implied.) ( )

6 women from England get together for a Hen (bachelorette) Party on a beautiful Greek Island. Drinking. Secrets. Drama. What could go wrong? Oh, just read and see.

Plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes, revealed little by little, but at a fast enough pace to keep you engaged. I love the author’s writing style, she introduces many characters but it’s easy to follow and keep track of who is who. Book starts out with a death and we are left to figure out who and why. Characters are well developed... some you’ll love and others you’ll love to hate! Beautifully descriptive. Enjoyable vacation read!

Thanks to Ms. Clarke, Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone. ( )

Oh, you're going to want to get your hands on a copy of Lucy Clarke's new novel - One of the Girls. It's a fantastic read!
Six women head off to an isolated villa in Greece. Bella, one of the six has arranged for a bachelorette party in anticipation of Lexi's wedding. Robyn, Ana, Fen and Eleanor round out the six.

One of the six (we don't know which) acts as a narrator for some short italicized inserts between some chapters. The foreshadowing in those short missives just fueled the fire for me.

"We all had different reasons for being there. But one of us - well, she had a very specific reason for saying yes to the hen weekend. The problem was, none of us realized until it was too late."

On the surface, the relationships between the women are good - old friends meet new, memories are recounted, new ones are being made and more. But there are undercurrents, tendrils that have been hidden, but are slowly but inexorably making their way to the surface. Planting roots and changing how the dynamic of the women changes. Incidents from the past, suspicions, jealousy. Revenge perhaps?

Clarke has done an amazing job creating her characters. I could mentally see each one very clearly in my mind. Their thinking and actions ring true and are very believable. I know who I liked and who I would avoid in real life. Each player is given a voice with their own chapters.

And this is where the unravelling begins. Those tendrils start winding themselves together. The connections were ingenious and surprising. I really enjoyed being got off guard. I hadn't imagined the ending at all and truly thought things would play out a different way. But, I was quite satisfied with how things turned out.

Clarke's prose are effortless and make for addictive reading. And easy five stars to One of the Girls. ( )