A Ruined Girl by Kate Simants

Author : Kate Simants
Title : A Ruined Girl
Pages : 384
Publisher : Viper
Publication date : August 27, 2020

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

Two years ago, teenagers Rob and Paige broke into the house of Paige’s school counsellor and stole only a necklace, but traumatised their victims in the process. No one knows why. And Paige hasn’t been seen since that night. Having spent her life in children’s homes and the foster system, no one cared enough to look for her.

Now Rob is out of prison, and probation officer Wren Reynolds has been tasked with his rehabilitation. But Wren has her own reasons for taking on Rob as a client. Convinced that Rob knows what happened to Paige, and hiding a lifetime of secrets from her heavily pregnant wife, Wren’s obsession with finding a missing girl may tear her family apart.

| MY THOUGHTS |

Full of thought-provoking moments, A Ruined Girl is a psychological thriller that travels between the past and the present in order to solve the mystery of “what on earth happened to Paige?”. Paige disappeared two years ago after breaking into her school counsellor’s house with her friend, Rob. Rob has been behind bars ever since but now, a government scheme set on reducing the population of the overcrowded prisons means Rob is released early. Probation officer Wren Reynolds has been tasked with his rehabilitation. Wren is convinced Rob knows more about Paige’s disappearance.

This is a tough one to review because every single sentence I type seems to sound like a spoiler so I end up deleting everything because I really don’t want to give anything away. What I can say is that the intriguing plot pulled me in right away and I thoroughly enjoyed the back and forth between the “now” and the “before” as I tried to find the clues between the teasers in an attempt to figure it all out before it was revealed to me. Some of it I got quite easily, some of it I didn’t see coming at all.

However, I must admit there were moments in the book where my interest started to wane and I was desperately longing for something, anything, to happen and shake things up. But the latter part of the book more than made up for that when it felt as if everything was suddenly happening all at once and I feared I might end up with whiplash trying to keep up with it all.

All in all, A Ruined Girl is a cleverly plotted psychological thriller that ended up on a much deeper level than I was expecting. This was my first time reading a book by Kate Simants but it won’t be the last time. One to watch!

My thanks to the publisher for the review copy! A Ruined Girl is available to buy!