Originally published: 4 August 2022

Author: Ruth Ware

Published by: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Thriller

Length: 432 pages

Reading dates: 10-13 August 2022

Everyone wanted her life

Someone wanted her dead

It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago.

It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day.

Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison?

She needs to know the truth.

Even if it means questioning her own friends.

Even if it means putting her own life at risk.

Because if the killer wasn’t a stranger, it’s someone she knows…

Around 10 years ago, Hannah’s roommate and best friend April was found murdered in their room at Pelham College at Oxford University. Hannah and their friend Hugh discover her body just after they have seen porter John Neville coming down the staircase and he is jailed for her murder.

April was beautiful, rich and clever so her murder has continued to hold a fascination with people and Hannah often gets contacted to share her side of the story, When John Neville dies in prison, a Geraint Williams, a reporter gets in touch saying that he believed Neville to be innocent and this makes Hannah question what really happened that night.

Told in a series of “Before” and After” chapters, we join Hannah as she starts at Oxford University, feeling out of her depth with some of the other privileged students but soon makes friends with April, Will, Hugh, Ryan and Emily and she enjoys her time there. In the “After” chapters, Hannah is now living in Edinburgh, married to Will and is pregnant with their first child. After hearing some undisclosed evidence from Geraint, Hannah reconnects with her old Uni friends to see if they hold any information that can help convince her Neville was guilty.

The It Girl was an absolute page turner of a thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. Hannah has reasons to dislike Neville – he is creepy and over familiar with the girls and he makes her feel uncomfortable. But April wasn’t without her enemies – she didn’t always treat her friends well, often playing quite cruel pranks. I really liked the dual settings of Edinburgh and Oxford and I very much enjoyed the structure of the book.

The last 100 or so pages had me hooked and I read them in one sitting while enjoying the hot weather at the weekend. With lots of threads and twists, The It Girl was a really good thriller that kept me guessing until the end and I very much recommend.

Many thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Simon & Schuster for my proof copy. Check out what other reviewers are saying on their blogs below

About the author:

Ruth Ware is an international number one bestseller. Her thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, The Death of Mrs Westaway, The Turn of the Key, One by One and The It Girl have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the Sunday Times and New York Times, and she is published in more than 40 languages. She lives on the south coast of England, with her family.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RuthWareWriter
Website: https://ruthware.com/