The Girl Before: A Novel

Jane has recently lost a child and needs to find a new place to live. She is immediately drawn to One Folgate Street, an architectural masterpiece, as well as to its designer. Jane begins to discover that the previous tenant, Emma, died in the house under mysterious circumstances. As she tries to find out what happened to her, she realizes she is making the same choices and having the same experiences as Emma. Jane has to solve this mystery before she ends up like The Girl Before.

Overall, the story line was amazing. However, it very much read like I would imagine Fifty Shades of Grey does. There is a lot of sex with in-depth descriptions. I know for most people that will be a selling point, but for me I thought the book would have been better without it. I particularly loved how the story alternates each chapter from Emma’s viewpoint then to Jane’s viewpoint now. You watch them make the same choices and mistakes without knowing how either story will end. That was a very clever way to keep the reader engaged.

I would have given more stars if all the sadomasochism were taken out of this story. So be forewarned going into this book–if that’s your thing you will love this, if not you might want to steer clear unless you are really good at skimming and can still get the gist of it.