The Birthday Girl

By: Sue Fortin

Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Dear Carys, Zoe and Andrea
Come and join me for my 40th birthday adventure weekend, full of mysteries and surprises
the like of which you can't imagine.

When Joanne's friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, it quickly becomes clear that there is more to this weekend than they are expecting.

One of them is hiding a secret. And Joanne is planning to reveal it....

A weekend away in a cottage in the woods sounds like fun – until no one can hear your cries for help.

Four friends.
A party to die for.
Who will survive?

©2017 Sue Fortin (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Worth the money!

I’m so glad I took a chance on this book! It reminded me of Ruth Ware’s “In a dark, dark wood” but kept on going! After the party was over I thought it was going to end soon but I realized I still had several hours left! There was so much more to this story besides just the party. It kept me interested and wondering what was going to happen next! You could really understand what the main character, Carys, was going through. Such turmoil that touched everyone’s life. I’m not sure why this one reviewer claimed it was choppy because everything is explained. It was so good it only took me 2 days to read it. The narrator did a fantastic job with all the different character voices. Many twists and turns you won’t see coming!

Eh

Too many unlikable characters for me. The ending irritated me as well. The narration was okay for the female characters, but the male characters..not so much. Save your credit, and read (or re-read) "In a Dark, Dark Wood" instead.

A mind blowing ending

The first couple of chapters have the impression of a dud but that quickly changed. A lot of twists to this story kept me guessing. The narrator did an ok job. Excellent story that is worth the price and or credit. 😀😀

wow a great book

loved this story so much, the author is just wonderful. I just finished this one and about to buy another book by her.
for sure worth the listen.

Decent listen

it took a minute for the story to pick up but a good twist to the ending!

Surprised Me!

So many secrets, twists, and turns - and evil. I didn't expect to get into this book as much as I did but it was a pleasant surprise. It moves very quickly - basically happens over one weekend but there is a lot of back story to fill in the blanks. Some good action sections and suspense / mystery ... It has it all plus secrets - I love a good secret!

Entertaining

This book started off a little slow but became quite entertaining as the chapters flew by.
I liked that the characters, even though they’d been friends a long time they were very different people.
I also enjoyed the fact that there are several aspects of the past that we don’t understand at first and become clear over time as motivations for certain action in the book.
I loved the the isolation of these women having to suss out their issues in a creepy cabin (or “croft”) in Scotland somewhere.
This also made the book more interesting, the fact that none of these women really know where they are and things get creepy quickly.
With no phones, relationship backstories being revealed creating a more and more volatile situation, the tension ratchets up nicely.
And just when you are positive you’ve figured out what’s what, and who’s responsible for all this madness, you realize you couldn’t have been more wrong.
Only complaint, the situation is highly improbable, nobody in their “right” mind would allow their phones to be confiscated (there no LL either) nor would a group of highly intelligent women put themselves in such a vulnerable position, and a couple of these ladies are mothers so just, no, that would never happen.
But I still loved it, the narration was excellent and I might even read this one again in a year or two.
Extremely enjoyable, a little unrealistic but hey that’s totally acceptable so long as the overall premise makes sense and adds up.
I love that I was so wrong about the suspect, that always thrills me because I’m pretty darn good at figuring these things out early on.
Thank you for an all nighter, and thank you for pitch perfect narration.
Will be filling this author’s future endeavors.

Awful premise

Ugh, women tormenting and attempting to murder another woman because of her husband’s sexual indiscretions and affairs, also a child tormenting and attempting to murder her as punishment for her husband’s suicide. Awful premise for a story.

Choppy plot start to finish

The author had the makings of an interesting book but went off the rails in the following chapters. I had to check if I'd purchased an abridged version because characters suddenly came in and out of destinations, leaving me to say 'how did they end up by the river?' or 'why is this character so frightened she ran to 'there?'.

The narrator did a decent job given the materials with which she had to work.