To me the real heroine in this book is not the four friends it’s centered around. It’s the cool 15 year old kid named Elise who is Gingers daughter. What a kickass kid.

So this book is about 4 college roommates , and as we all go thru things in our 20’s , they did too

Ginger Adler married Frank and had Elise 15, Poppy and Tom her two youngest.

Emily , 38 no children. No husband. But she did have that. And it was taken away in the most horrible way. She’s never really healed and punishes herself daily.

Kate . Attorney. Rich. Has money. Can’t have kids and is dumped by her BF because of it.

And Whitney, while part of this foursome you don’t read or hear to much about her. Why ? Because they’re all there attending Whitney’s wedding to Art Banks. Super rich. An over the top one week wedding at a resort.

They all go to the bar and meet Lulu a 70 year old awesome woman who befriends all of them and is a big part of this story.

I loved this book. The twist at the end and the epilogue is what sealed the ( )

I was first attracted to Pretty Guilty Women on NetGalley because I thought it was a Liane Moriarty novel, Truly Madly Guilty, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised by lots of similarities to Liane Moriarty novels. Pretty Guilty Women is broken up with conversations with a detective investigating a murder, just like in Big Little Lies, and the identity of the murder victim is obfuscated for most of the novel, just like in Big Little Lies (but don’t worry he’s a total jerk, just like in Big Little Lies, so it’s ok for all the ladies to lie to the cops, just like in Big Little Lies).

But where Big Little Lies has readers rooting for the women from the start, allowing readers to overlook some of the goofier plotpoints, Pretty Guilty Women seemed like it was checking the female character Tragic Backstory boxes. (High-powered Career Woman Secretly Struggling With Infertility is prob my least favorite archetype, and if a novel's just gotta use it, at least throw me a lifestyle-porn bone here, and give me some handbags, shoes, and Manhattan real estate.) The novel has shifting third-person perspective, which can be difficult if the characters are so similar that I had trouble remembering who was who. This was compounded by every character's desire to strike up friendships with strangers at pre-wedding festivities, offer personal favors, and drop big hints to her Secret Tragic Backstory. Characters all seemed to know the same things and draw the same conclusions, which didn't help me differentiate them between them.

The women as a whole also managed to be blindsided by things that were super definitely coming. Kate's interior monologue about how Max is about to dump her is interrupted when Max dumps her, and she's surprised? Very surprised? (I really did appreciate naming the rich jerk Max Banks, I got a kick out of it every time Kate charged something else to his room.)

The book's about a murder and false confessions, but the really memorable moment for me was when Ginger fondly looked over at her husband, noting lovingly that although she was always primarily responsible for looking after kids, house, logistics and holding down her own job, dear Frank would step in, just before she lost it completely. Ugh, a husband who takes the kids on occasion, as his wife's about to break down? Please spare me from that love story. But since the other men were flatly evil (Henry, Daniel, Max), this was a rare moment of nuance.

I usually love stories about women's friendships, so it's interesting to unpack why this fell so incredibly flat for me. I just didn't believe in the college friendships on any level, and the insta-bonding with Lulu and Sydney felt forced. To feel like there's a real friendship, I need to see the characters reference the same jokes/songs/movie quotes, or maybe just see the casual intimacy of ordering a friend's usual. These women shared almost no group memories, and the new friendships didn't feel like they were based on a connection. ( )

3.5 Stars for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone!

Quick, fast paced read about 4 college friends that reunite for one of the groups over the top wedding week at an exclusive spa. These Friends haven’t seen each other in years, after life and a falling out put distance between them. While at the spa, they meet an older woman and a young single mother with secrets. Then a murder!

Told in 4 voices with police interviews thrown in add to the page turning mystery. An easy, not very complicated read. Characters are whiney and not necessarily likable. But if you are looking for a fun escape murder mystery, or a quick read for a fall weekend, this book could be for you. ( )

This book is about 4 college roommates, Whitney, Kate, Emily, and Ginger, who get together for Whitney's wedding. They haven't seen each other in years, and don't really keep in close touch. There is a lot of baggage they are carrying with them - and it all comes out during the week of the wedding when they are all together at a resort spa. The roommates also meet Lulu, an older woman, and Sydney, a single mother, at the resort. Also, there is a murder at the spa, and four of the women confess to killing the man. The problem - none of them are giving the correct account of the murder.
I did not like one of the women in this book. All the characters were full of angst or self-pity, and I just didn't like any of them. The only saving grace for me was that I was able to read the book rather quickly. I didn't like the ending - I found it to be a bit odd that Kate would investigate the way she did.
#PrettyGuiltyWomen #GinaLaManna ( )

Pretty Guilty Women is my first exposure to Ms. Lamanna and her first published novel in the Suspense category. Unfortunately, I didn't find that the confusion and the self-aclaimed bizarre scenario equated to a satisfying suspense novel. Wonderful prologue, but I found the pace lacking in in the first half of the book. ( )