The Good Girl
by Mary Kubica
Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his 
smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.
smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.
Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.
~ Goodreads
My review.............5 stars
This is yet another of those books that is being compared to Gone Girl (gah....when will it ever end?). I liked this more than Gone Girl! The characters in Gone Girl were just flat out crazy, this one, not so much. I absolutely love a book where I can be convinced to change my mind about a character, once I learn their back story, and get to know them over a period of time. Such was the case with Colin Thatcher. For the most part this book was completely predictable, but I was ok with that, I just wanted to find out what was ultimately going to happen. I enjoyed the detective work that is intertwined within, and there is even some Mia before and after chapters to keep you guessing. I don't like to include spoilers in my reviews, so I'm just going to say OMG about the last few pages!!!
If you like a crime story, and a book where you start rooting for the bad guy, trust me.....this one is for you. And the ending.......OMG, did I mention the ending?!!
I listened to this one and found it pretty predictable...and also too much of a stretch of the imagination. But, shortly after, I figured out that audiobooks just aren't for me (I have trouble staying focused), so maybe I would have liked it more in book form.
And - yes - enough with the GG comparisons! Just throwing that statement next to a book is sort of a spoiler in and of itself.
It was definitely predictable, except for the end, I never saw that coming! I'm so sick of the Gone Girl reference, that it's affecting my opinion of the original book.
I am not sure this is for me as I am not hugely into crime, however this does sound like an intriguing read. I love the cover. Not a Gone Girl reader though! Never appealed to me.
I'm not really a crime follower either, but I get where you are coming from. I liked Gone Girl, but I liked this one better.
Sounds like a good one for me! I don't like comparisons to other books, period, some go over the top! At first glance I thought this was going to be like a more modern "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"-- ever heard of that one? Diane Keaton in the movie version. But then you explain more and I realize it isn't like that at all. I now want to read this and it doesn't sound predictable to me.
I hope you enjoy it if you decide to pick it up. Parts of it are predictable, but certainly not the end!
I've been debating this one but your review has made me want to run out and grab it! Sounds so good. And I'm with you, I hate comparisons between books, I just think they set the book up for failure as you go in with expectations that aren't always met.
If you are a big fan of crime books, you might be disappointed. But if you like character driven plots, I think you will enjoy it.
Oh I am glad to see you say that it's not like Gone Girl because I wanted to throw Gone Girl against a brick wall! I did not like it one bit.
I thought the characters in Gone Girl were really messed up people. In this one you learn pretty quickly that there is a reason behind the crime. Don't let the comparison keep you from picking this one up.