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    The Perfect Stranger: A twisting, compulsive read perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn
    Unavailable
    The Perfect Stranger: A twisting, compulsive read perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn
    Unavailable
    The Perfect Stranger: A twisting, compulsive read perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn
    Ebook339 pages6 hours

    The Perfect Stranger: A twisting, compulsive read perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn

    By Megan Miranda

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    What happens when your best friend becomes your worst nightmare...

    Having reached a dead end in Boston, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs a change. When she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who is moving to rural Pennsylvania, Leah decides to join her. But their fresh start is quickly threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.

    Determined to find Emmy, Leah helps Detective Kyle Donovan to investigate her friend's life for clues. But with no friends, family or digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Forced to question her version of reality and to save herself, Leah must uncover the truth - no matter how dark or terrible it may be...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCorvus
    Release dateMay 16, 2017
    ISBN9781786492890
    Unavailable
    The Perfect Stranger: A twisting, compulsive read perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn
    Author

    Megan Miranda

    Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger, The Last House Guest, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, The Girl from Widow Hills, Such a Quiet Place, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter and Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit MeganMiranda.com.

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    Reviews for The Perfect Stranger

    3.5/5

    175 ratings28 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The narrator, Leah Stevens, is a discredited journalist starting over again in a new location with a new profession. The story is straightforward to this point, but become so convoluted that it doesn't really work as a suspense novel. Multiple crimes, multiple suspects, multiple identities, an over abundance of good things. The discredited journalist is hunting the Truth, but seems to be the only one that defines said Truth.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book!
    • 4/5
      Great summer read. A disgraced journalist moves to a small town in Pennsylvania to start over as a teacher. She moves along with an old college friend of hers that she just reconnected with in a bar. And it goes from there. Who is this friend. What connection does the dead girl have to her friend? Is she being stalked by one of her fellow teachers? Is her friends life a lie. Good ending.
    • 4/5
      Wow! This book is a nail biter to the end. I loved this book!
    • 3/5
      This mystery was mostly intriguing, but I do have several sticking points with the story. Why was Leah so unquestioning, so trusting, with her friend Emmy to the point where she really knew nothing about her or her background? Why did the author feel that she needed to make the story unnecessarily complicated by focusing so much on Leah's previous life in Boston? Why did Leah do so much detective work on her own and leave the police in the dark? I always find it annoying when characters do this. Anyway, it was an OK story but could have used some editing.
    • 3/5
      After reading All the Missing Girls, I was expecting more out of this book. It was a decent read, but I would not read it again. I was hoping it would have the same style of writing and layout as All the Missing Girls because it was different. This was nothing like that.
    • 3/5
      3 1/2 stars - great premise but the ending was confusing.
    • 5/5
      I received this for free on NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. After ready All the Missing Girls, I couldn't wait to get into this one. This is about a former journalist named Leah who becomes involved in an investigation into an assault case. She is also looking into her missing roommate, who doesn't appear to actually exist. It is one of the most captivating stories I've read. Highly recommended this book. I think @meganlmiranda is my new favorite author. #reader
    • 2/5
      Leah Stevens, a former journalist starting over as a teacher, learns that a young woman, Bethany, has been attacked near the house she shares with Emmy. Then Leah realizes that she has not seen Emmy for days. When the police investigate, it is as if Emmy never existed.I found this story slow and it constantly went back and forth in time repetitively. We were supposed to see Leah as a "dogged" journalist, but she displays no curiosity at all about Emmy, and Leah's big story which led to her downfall was in fact fuelled by SPOILERa desire for personal vengeance. Leah seems to be an ineffectual teacher and a poor judge of character. Her loyalty to Emmy was mystifying (they seemed mostly to have drunk a lot of vodka together and smiled at one another when Emmy stole things), and her insistence on constantly keeping things from the police seemed at odds with her desire for truth. Just generally annoying and unpleasant in tone.
    • 4/5
      Megan Miranda's debut adult novel, All the Missing Girls, was a fantastic read. I couldn't wait to read her latest, just released book - The Perfect Stranger.We meet Leah Stevens in the prologue. She's left her job in the city and moved to a small town to work as a teacher. Not a planned move, but...."(I) could start over. Be the Leah Stevens I had planned to be."The why of her departure from her former life is only revealed slowly, in memories and offhand comments. And what of her roommate, the enigmatic Emmy? They lived together back in Leah's college days and now again by good fortune.And then a woman is killed in that new, quiet small town. And Emmy goes missing.Can I say that Miranda does missing girls really, really well. That first book also had us hunting for a missing girl. Miranda has again come up with a fantastic plot line in which nothing is as it appears - in part one. But in part two the mouse becomes the cat....."Truth and story - doesn't matter which comes first, as long as you get where you need to be at the end. As long as you end at the truth, all's fair."So, who's telling the truth? I could see the danger ahead and found myself wanting to shout at the character to open her eyes and see what was coming! You know, those 'don't go in the basement' moments in a scary movie. She doesn't listen however. Thankfully, because otherwise the reader would be robbed of a heck of a good read. And no psychological thriller should be without that last gotcha ending. The Perfect Stranger ends with a 'just right' one. Another great page-turner from Megan Miranda - this reader will be eagerly awaiting her next book.
    • 3/5
      When Leah runs into Emmy, an old friend she hasn't seen in years, it seems perfect timing. Having had to quit her job as a journalist in Boston and with a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit hanging over her, she is grateful for Emmy's invitation to move to rural Pennsylvania with her. But starting anew as a high school teacher isn't that easy in a town that seems full of people looking for a fresh start. Megan Miranda did a great job of creating a host of characters that all seemed to be untrustworthy. When Emmy goes missing, Leah has difficulties convincing people that Emmy actually existed at all.The Perfect Stranger was a decent enough mystery. Maybe I had set my expectations too high because I was mesmerized by Megan Miranda's suspenseful and uniquely told All the Missing Girls last year. The Perfect Stranger dragged a bit in parts. There was a lot going on, plenty of threads to keep straight, but nothing much seemed to be happening and there was no real depth to it. Not sure that makes a lot of sense, but that's how I felt. I also never really warmed up to Leah, and as the entire story was from her perspective, it made it more difficult to become really involved. I was expecting something more from the ending as well. It was anticlimactic.Overall, this was alright, and I would certainly read more books written by Megan Miranda, but this one just felt a bit too safe.I received an ARC via NetGalley.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book more than the first one and I think it's because I found the characters in this book to be so easy to relate to. I related to characters that I didn't like as well as to those I did. This book flows effortlessly with all the twists and turns involved. Sometimes in a book with major twists, I'm looking back and questioning things and with this one I just kept reading. Not because any of it was easy to figure out, because I was way off base more than once, but because the story line was so well done. This was a page turner of the first order, and if I didn't find reading so relaxing, I would have finished it in one sitting. As it is, I fall asleep when I am reading a really good book. Read this book if you liked this author, this one is awesome also! If you've never read her books, you can start wherever you'd like, just start!
    • 5/5
      I loved "All the Missing Girls" and could not wait to reading this book. It has been sitting on my TBR pile since the beginning of the year. And, like her other book, this one did not fail to disappoint. This one had me going crazy. I was starting to wonder if there was an Emmy or not. I read the pages, Leah and Emmy had conversations. Were they her dreams or not? This was such a great suspenseful thriller. So many things stacked up against Leah. The author did an excellent job and I absolutely loved the ending.I am definitely looking forward to Megan Miranda's next offering and will hungrily grab it up and make it mine.Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for approving and allowing me to read and review this thriller!
    • 2/5
      Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as well as I did Megan Miranda's first book, All The Missing Girls. This book seemed to drag out for me and I lost interest in the final conclusion. Leah, is forced to resign from her reporter job in Boston and moves to a small town to start her life over. She moves with her old friend, Emmy. Emmy steals her identity and we are left to wonder if Emmy really exists! I found myself not engaged in this story or the main characters but will certainly give Megan Miranda another try as I enjoyed her first novel. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      Megan Miranda does it again! Just as in All the Missing Girls, I was slow to warm up to the characters in The Perfect Stranger. Much of that is from only getting glimpses into the characters at first and many of those glimpses are not flattering. It's not until you're well into the book that you realize that even though the characters are flawed there are valid reasons for the actions they take. There were a couple of surprises in this book that I didn't anticipate which enhances the suspense.
    • 4/5
      I loved All the Missing Girls and The Safest Lies, so I was very excited to get the chance to read The Perfect Stranger. The book was definitely a mystery with a little bit of romance and a ton of creepiness. I'm not sure how Leah managed to live out in the middle of nowhere, with no one around in a house with huge glass doors all by herself. I would have been a big scaredy-cat.Honestly, I did not know how this would end. Every other chapter I suspected someone different was the attacker. I even questioned if Emmy was real.Leah moved to rural Pennsylvania with Emmy, a friend she hasn't seen in eight years. Leah is starting over as a teacher, after her career as a journalist was ruined over an article she wrote. On her way to school, Leah finds out a woman was attacked not too far from her house. The woman has an eerie resemblance to Leah. Naturally, Leah's roommate also goes missing. Some people start to doubt Emmy even existed. It was a very twisty story. The article Leah wrote plays a prominent part in the story line. When Leah investigates the apartment of the woman who was attacked, it's very creep what she discovers and makes you question her missing roommate even more. I really needed to learn about Emmy and discover her real identity. This was an all around great book and I definitely recommend it!!Thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author, Megan Miranda, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.
    • 4/5
      The second novel in a mystery series that can be read as a stand-alone. This book includes some eerie settings and characters. I missed the first one, but if it was as suspenseful as this thriller, then I may go back and read it too. It kept me guessing til the end. The plot is interesting and there are plenty of twists throughout, even with how the reader feels about certain characters (it's written in a way that makes you question whether certain ones are what you thought they were in the beginning). A good mystery, especially for fans of the author's YA mysteries and those readers who enjoy NA thrillers. Net Galley Feedback
    • 4/5
      Some good twists. Not as predictable as I'd expected.
    • 4/5
      The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda is a perplexing mystery about a woman who goes missing around the same time another woman is attacked. Is there any connection between the two cases?

      On the same day Bethany Jarvitz is bludgeoned, high school teacher Leah Stevens becomes increasingly concerned over the whereabouts of her roommate Emmy Grey. Trying to pinpoint the last time she saw her friend is not easy since they work opposite schedules, but Leah decides to err on the side of caution and report the disappearance to the police. Having already been questioned by Detective Kyle Donovan, she turns to him for help in finding Emmy. However, the more questions Kyle asks about her friend, Leah realizes how very little she knows about Emmy. When the police are unable to uncover any information about her missing friend, Leah begins her own investigation but there are many surprises awaiting her as she begins digging into her roommate's past.

      Following a scandal surrounding a newspaper article about a series of college suicides, Leah has no choice but to quit her job as a newspaper reporter. While she is trying to figure out what to do next, she unexpectedly runs into Emmy at a local bar. Although she has not seen nor heard from her friend in eight years, Leah has absolutely no qualms about agreeing to Emmy's plan to move to Pennsylvania for a fresh start. Leah has secured a job as high school teacher and although she is a little troubled by the unwanted attention of the school's basketball coach Davis Cobb, she has no regrets about her decision.

      Trying to keep the information about her past under wraps, Leah is rather evasive during her interview with local police after Bethany is attacked. She continues to be a little vague as she reports Emmy's disappearance and after Kyle cannot find any solid details about her missing roommate, she soon realizes she does not know much about her friend. Emmy does not have many possessions but after Leah makes a shocking discovery, she aggressively begins her search for information about her friend's past. The deeper she digs, the more elusive her friend becomes and Leah has difficulty trying to make sense of the things she knows about Emmy. She is quite introspective as she reflects on their friendship and Leah soon reaches an utterly shocking conclusion as she uncovers stunning clues that leave her reeling and desperate for answers.

      The Perfect Stranger is a compelling mystery with a unique storyline. Leah is an incredibly loyal friend and despite her former profession, she is rather naive in the face of overwhelming evidence that Emmy possibly fabricated her entire history. The first half of the novel is a little slow paced but once Leah begins her investigation in earnest, the story then hurtles to a fairly shocking conclusion. Fans of the genre will enjoy this complex and multi-layered mystery by Megan Miranda.
    • 4/5
      A very fast read. Leah is a disgraced journalist who has moved away to start a new life. Her roommate, Emmy Gray disappears, and now Leah is questioned on what is real, since there seems to be no record of Emmy. Will Leah's past hurt her credibility or will she be able to break through to the truth? Enjoyable, the story will keep you interested to the very end.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant and better than the first one, but that was really great too.
    • 4/5
      I haven’t read All The Missing Girls which seemed to garner a great deal of praise but that might be to my advantage in this case as I have nothing to compare this story with. I found the book to be a compelling read, I wanted to find out what happened. It was interesting because as I progressed through the narrative I thought I had yet another flawed narrator tale, so in vogue within the thriller genre today. I smugly thought I’d interpreted all the clues correctly and come to - the wrong conclusion! And in my perverse way I actually enjoy that!! That a writer can wrong-foot me and wipe the smile off my face is exciting. It messes with your head in an irresistible way. There are a lot of twists and turns in this story making it hard not to give anything away but that does somewhat restrict all that I’d like to say about it. So I’ll begin with a book blurb summary -‘Having reached a dead end in Boston failed journalist Leah needs a change. She runs into an old friend, Emmy and they move to Pennsylvania. Not long after the move a woman who resembles Leah is assaulted and Emmy disappears. Detective Kyle Donovan and Leah work together to uncover the clues surrounding the assault and Emmy’s disappearance.’ I didn’t find any of the characters particularly engaging but I never got the feeling that I was supposed to. The strength of the book and the momentum it generates seems to derive from a desperation to know what happens next . This was sustained for a good three quarters of the novel but I felt a subtle shift in the dynamic as we neared the conclusion. It was almost as if for writer and reader alike the reaching of the end was an inevitability that was not particularly desired. And I suppose I found the final denouement a little confusing with the red herring hues ranging from pinks to scarlets. But it’s a sufficiently complex psychological thriller that will delight fans of Megan Miranda and gain her a few new ones along the way.
    • 4/5
      After losing her job, Leah finds again an old friend and the two move to rural Pennsylvanian to start over. Some months later, however, a girl very similar to Leah is found severely hurt near their house and her friend goes missing. Maybe the threatening emails and a possible stalker had something to do with it?

      This was a 3.5.

      I really enjoyed All the Missing Girls but mostly because the backward storytelling had me gripped to the book. Considering this one goes the normal way, I wasn't expecting the author to keep me so excited again. Gladly, she did.

      It's true that I didn't care enough about the characters. And Leah being so weird contributed. I did get she had suffered a severe blow when she lost her job but I didn't get how that would stop you from going to the police for things if your life may be on the line. It was like she had this filter that never allowed her to absorb just how terrible the situation was. This made me anxious for her and anything that went wrong with her instead of pitying I'd think of how she deserved it. Not a good way to treat the main character, is it?

      On the other had, the story compensated any issues I had with the main character. The plot twists weren't the punch-in-the-stomach kind, the conclusion wasn't stellar but the rhythm was good—and that is very important in a thriller. Even without the backward story device, the author kept me interested until the very end.

      Talking about the conclusion, it wasn't surprising but it wasn't so predictable. I thought it was possible from the beginning but I wasn't sure until it was already time the reader suspected. Also, I liked how Miranda tied up all the parts of the mystery.

      Not something stellar, nothing that special, but I good thriller nonetheless. If you don't have problems with characters being weird beyond logic, go ahead and have a good time!


      Honest review based on an ARC offered through Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
    • 3/5
      Thanks to a story she can’t corroborate but which resulted in tragedy, reporter Leah Stevens finds herself without a job or prospects. Seemingly fortuitously, she runs into an old friend she shared an apartment with in college. The friend, Emmy, suggests they become roomies again in a different town where they can both start fresh. Leah lands a job as a teacher but soon finds herself the object of a coworker’s unsolicited and unwanted attention. Then a woman who bears a striking resemblance to her is found murdered, the coworker is brought in for questioning, and Emmy goes missing. Leah reports Emmy’s disappearance but, in an attempt to hide her past from the detective investigating the case, she is evasive in her answers about both the coworker’s actions and her relationship with Emmy. As a result, Leah becomes the main suspect and, to save herself, she begins her own investigation.I enjoyed The Perfect Stranger by author Megan Miranda with some reservations. There were times when it stretched my suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point and I often found myself putting it down. However, there’s plenty of suspense and twists and turns and, if the plot seemed at times…unrealistic, these kept me returning to the book to find out where the story would eventually lead. Overall, not a bad read especially for people who enjoy psychological thrillers.Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      I received a free advance review e-copy of this book and have chosen of my own free will to post a review. As always another great psychological thriller from Megan Miranda that is full of twists and turns. Couldn’t put it down, just had to see what happens next. So many secrets and lies, intrigue, the suspense never quits. A very well written thriller with an amazing plot and a surprise twist at the end. ‘The Perfect Stranger’ is a book that is well worth the read. I look forward to reading more by Megan Miranda.
    • 4/5
      What a ride your about to begin as you turn the first page of this suspenseful book, from the first to almost the last you will wonder what is going on.Your long lost friend shows up just when you need her, and an offer to begin anew, and you accept, but before this book is finished I had to wonder if there was such a friend. Even when we travel in the shoes of Leah Stevens, Journalist turned teacher, and when she reports her roommate missing, there is no one there, or is there.As we find out what brought her to rural Pennsylvania from Boston, and all that happened there, and now what, no record exists, no fingerprint trail, what is going on, and just when you think you know the answers, don’t be to sure.I loved that there is a bit of romance for this tormented soul, but even this you have to wonder if it is really real.A don’t miss journey that once you crack the first page your hooked on finding the answers, full of surprises.I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Simon and Schuster, and was not required to give a positive review
    • 3/5
      Leah Stevens, unexpectedly reunited with former roommate Emmy Grey, finds herself with the opportunity for a fresh start after losing her position as reporter for a Boston newspaper. The two women relocate to western Pennsylvania and Leah begins a new chapter in her life as a high school teacher.Suddenly Emmy disappears, leaving Leah with more questions than answers. And when the local police can find no trace of Emmy, she realizes she knows next to nothing about the woman that she considers her friend. The police question Leah’s credibility; was she involved in the attack on a local woman --- a woman left for dead, a woman who bears an eerie resemblance to Leah? What is the real story about the roommate Leah knows next to nothing about?Leah believes the only way to clear her name is to find Emmy. But where is she . . . and, Leah begins to wonder, does Emmy even exist?Often-clueless Leah seems a bit too trusting and almost unbelievably naïve, but readers will appreciate her dogged determination to find the answers as she searches for Emmy. This secret-filled story, with the narrative alternating between the present and Leah’s backstory, occasionally feels jumbled and drawn out, but the ever-present feeling of menace is a good match to the dark, bleak, and dreary atmosphere prevalent throughout this narrative. Despite the strong, often lyrical, writing, the story tends to drag and several subplots remain unresolved, leaving the reader to wonder about the reason for their inclusion in the tale. Although wrapped around an intriguing plot, many are likely to find the story’s inefficacious ending a disappointing letdown.
    • 5/5
      First, thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an e-book copy of this book for my enjoyment and review. Having read “All the Missing Girls” by Miranda, I was naturally looking forward to this second book. An excellent mystery involving 2 girls living together, Emmy Grey and Leah Stevens, in a cabin in rural Pennsylvania. Their pasts are both sketchy, but when Emmy disappears things become very complicated – and the book becomes un-put-downable. It is a true page-turner from beginning to end, and I am so glad I found Megan Miranda.