The Girl in Times Square

A Novel

By: Paullina Simons

Narrated by: Christina Traister

Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

International best-selling author Paullina Simons delivers a riveting novel about a young woman whose search for her missing friend turns into a life-shattering odyssey.

The truth will change her forever.

Living in bustling New York City, Lily Quinn has plenty of distractions and is struggling to finish college as well as pay her rent. But that all pales in comparison when Amy, her best friend and roommate, disappears without a trace.

Spencer O'Malley, a cynical NYPD detective assigned to Amy's case, immediately captures Lily's attention. Though he is wary and wrestling with his own demons, he, too, is irresistibly drawn to Lily.

But fate has more in store for Lily than she ever expected. As she looks deeper into the mystery surrounding Amy's disappearance, Lily finds answers she never imagined she'd find - answers that challenge everything she knows about her own life.

Lily's search puts her on a collision course with tragedy and love and gives her a glimpse into the abyss that swallowed her friend...until she faces a final confrontation with her own life-changing destiny.

©2004 Paullina Simons (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Part mystery, part romance, part family drama...in other words, the perfect book." ( Daily Mail)

great book!

Loved this book! a little bit of everything - mystery, romance, intrigue =) Great narrator as We'll! all around 5 stars!

Intense and Moving

This story grabbed me right away with realistic characters and their complex lives. The narrator was top-notch. I highly recommend.

narrator was annoying, story wasn't good

the narrator got on my last nerve. She got too excited and you could tell it was just off the author has really grown I just read her trilogy about Leningrad. but this book I give three stars.

Overall good.

A little slow sometimes and too full of detail. Some characters are tiresome but overall decent read. It's a love story and mystery all in one and pretty surprising in the end.

Paulina Simons is USUALLY a favorite, BUT...

...this evocative and enraging book confused me. There’s no denying Simons is brilliant at character development and bringing her reader into her protagonist’s lives, and it’s no different here. This however, was the first time I found myself genuinely disliking every character in one of her books, and even down right hating some of the characters (the character of Allison in particular was one of the most loathsome characters I’ve ever read, even with the explanation that finally came for her behavior, which to me was nowhere near enough to warrant any forgiveness or redemption for the absolutely wretched way she treats her daughter and husband). I even found the main character, Lily, to be incredibly grating and frustrating. I’m confused by this because I’m still pondering whether or not that was actually Simons’ intention, that perhaps she WANTS the reader to dislike the characters, and that it makes her an even more brilliant author because of it. I’m still debating that one and would love to see what other people think, too. All in all, it’s still a very good plot. I do have to say that I agree with many of the other comments I’ve seen that the narrator was a little “extra”; if it’s possible to chew the scenery in an audio performance, than this narrator is the perfect example of it, and when you already find the characters unplesant, that’s NOT a good thing. If you’re looking for the typical Simons heroine - one you’ll find yourself identifying with and rooting for, -you won’t find it here; in fact, you’ll find yourself wanting to slap her at times and say “Will ya grow a backbone and stand up for yourself for God’s sake!” All in all, definitely not anywhere close to Simons’ best. Pick any of the other Paullina Simons options on audible to grasp her real talent (and PLEASE AUDIBLE, RECORD TULLY! I BEG YOU!)

A surprisingly long story, but I enjoyed it.

The Girl In Times Square has all sorts of fun things in it: a missing girl, a police investigation, a slow-building friends-to-romance, a super dramatic family, and a grandmother that I just adored. When I started reading/listening, I thought Amy’s disappearance would be the prevalent plot that drove the book. But the more that I read, the more I felt like that wasn’t going to be the case. Certainly the investigation into finding Amy was important, but I was far more interested in what happened with Lily, since her life seemed to be on a bit of a roller coaster after her best friend’s disappearance.

This isn’t a super-tense, super-suspenseful, thriller-y book that raises your heart rate and keeps you turning the pages because you’re terrified for character outcomes. This is actually a finely crafted character-driven story that follows Lily and her relationship with Spencer, who is the lead investigator on Amy’s missing persons case. At first, these two know one another because they are linked by the missing persons case, but then they become friends. The two become closer over a period of months. The story also focuses heavily on Lily and her relationship with her large family.

Lily’s life is a roller coaster of ups and downs, and she is loyal to the people that she loves, even when I didn’t feel like she necessarily had to be. Throughout the story, Lily discovers so much about herself emotionally and physically, and she battles so much on her own that is totally separate from the difficulty of just knowing that her best friend is out there somewhere, missing, waiting to be found.

I was not expecting to become so attached to these characters and the events in their lives – particularly Lily and Spencer. I was rooting for Lily so much. And I loved Spencer from the beginning. Neither are perfect; both have flaws. The characters’ imperfections and flaws and vulnerabilities are one of the best things about this story, I think, and ultimately are why I think that I was able to connect so deeply with Spencer and why I loved both he and Lily so much.

This book is surprisingly long at 19 hours 32 minutes, but I was fully immersed in the plot throughout. The narration here was pretty good. If anything, I noticed the way the narrator seemed to be overpronouncing words, like she sounded a little bit stiff or maybe unrelaxed.

But was this worth a credit? Yes, I think so.

Slow start but picked up mid way

Book was a little slow for the first half and then the characters developed and got more engaged in the book .. still a good book , but definitely not as great as her others .

Too much going on

I am a HUGE fan of Paullina Simons. Her trilogy of the Bronze Horseman is my all time favorite novel, ever, hands down. I was hoping to get so much out of this story and unfortunately it just fell short. I think part of the problem was the narrator. She was not what I would have wanted for this audio book. I tried to imagine reading the book, as there is so much detail and so many story lines going on at once and I felt like I would have to physically read it instead of listening to it, The narrator took away from the characters with too much excitement or too much exaggeration. I will continue to read Paullina's works but this one was a miss.

Terrible

This could have been good but it was awful. It was slow, boring and nothing really happens or by the time it does you don’t care. I don’t know why people gave it good reviews.

Nope

Loved the entire Alexander and Tatiana series. Hated this. It was difficult to understand and the climax was a complete disappointment and utterly beyond belief