A Penny for Your Thoughts? A Book Review. The Roanoke Girls

Welcome to my first ever book review! I put a lot of thought and went back and forth before deciding to actually post this (I tend to write my posts on notebooks so I already had it written down). Do you like the title for my book reviews? I really hope this isn't taken!

First up is The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel, I received an eARC of this for a review. Click here for my disclaimer, thank you!

I give this 3.5 pennies out of 5 (and I will explain why)


I dove into this book blind. I did not read its synopsis or other reviews before I started. The reason for this is that I wanted to read The Roanoke Girls as a blank slate, no bias or unconsious ideas derived from others about the book. This is a very well written book, my rating has nothing to do with the author's ability. On that note, I would like to congratulate Amy Engel on this debut Adult novel!

Even thoughy I really liked the writing style, this novel just wasn't my cup of tea. It took me a while to get any traction while reading this, I'm not sure if it was jsut the genre or something specific to this story. I absolutely loved and enjoyed that the characters were flawed (some extremely), just not enough to keep me engaged. I love myself stories filled with secrets, the big secret here is revealed to the reader a bit too early for my taste. I kind of enjoy simmering in that not-knowing-trying-to-guess-what-are-they-hiding??? stage of a story for a good while.
This is a dark thrilling story and can get (will get) disturbing. If you enjoy dark family secrets this is the book for you. It just wasn't the dark secrets story I normally enjoy, I might give it sometime and then try again (who knows maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this genre when I read it). I will check out Amy Engel's other books and give them a try. Oh on a side note that has nothing to do with the book, can I just say how much I like that Amy Engel was formerly a criminal defense attorney? I don't know why I just do, that is so badass.

Here is part of the synopsys on Goodreads:
After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But w...

Thank you for sticking till the end of my first ever book review, Here is to hoping they get better!
Do you guys enjpy thrillers? What are some of your favorites? If not, what genre do you favor and what book from said genre would you recommend?

Have a great weekend guys!

Con Amor,

Yaris  ♡