The Girlfriend

By: Michelle Frances

Narrated by: Henrietta Meire

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A chilling domestic thriller, The Girlfriend brilliantly renders the relationships between a fiercely protective mother, a charming son, and the young woman who will stop at nothing to come between them.

Laura Cavendish can't wait to meet the woman who's won her son's affection. Despite a successful career in television and a long, prosperous marriage, Laura's world revolves around kind, talented Daniel. She pictures his new girlfriend, Cherry, becoming a close friend and confidante ...one day, even a daughter-in-law. But although Cherry is beautiful and amiable, Laura can't warm to her. There's something about the possessive way she touches Daniel, the little lies Laura detects. Cherry seems to resent Laura, driving a wedge between mother and son - until one day Daniel is injured in a terrible accident.

Six months later, with Daniel still in a coma and facing death, Laura makes a fateful decision - and carries out an astonishing deceit. A handsome doctor for a husband, with a trust fund and a family villa in Saint-Tropez - it was all supposed to be Cherry's. Now, instead of living with Daniel in his impeccable home, she's jobless and broke. And then Cherry discovers Laura's stunning deception. But Cherry is too clever, too ambitious to let her get away with it. She has already transformed herself into Daniel's dream woman. Now she'll become Laura's worst nightmare.

Author Michelle Frances masterfully weaves both women's perspectives into this gripping, artfully plotted psychological thriller, propelling the listener through one dark twist after another toward a shocking, unforgettable finale.

©2018 Michelle Frances (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Couldn't finish...

I'm not sure if it was the awful narration (I had to slow it down to 0.8x to actually hear what the robot was sayin), or the fact that the mom was a complete dolt, or the insta-love her son felt for some apparently hot chick with a dull personality. Or maybe the disconnect with some kid/med student who goes out and drops $2.5 million on a first-time apartment. I tried on three separate occasions to get into this book but each time had to turn it off before the end of my run because it became more annoying than entertaining. I'm not sure if a better narrator would have made this story anymore tolerable.

Update: So I ran out of credits for the month and went back to this one. Upped my stars. Struggled through maybe the first 5 hours and finally got roped in enough to finish. Got better during the second half but mostly because I wasn't sure who was being the shit head, which was oddly pleasant. The annoying narrator got less annoying though she made the only redeeming character, the son, sound like a monotone idiot. Still, in the end, I didn't hate this book as I did during the firs several hours. So, if you can endure the narrator (I ended up setting the speed at 0.9x) and the fact the characters are somewhat all dumb asses, then it's a pleasant waste of time in the end.

wow twisted

I really enjoy thrillers— of all topics, I’m in no way easily offended or disturbed by controversial or sensitive subject matter. And with that said, I was shocked by the behavior of these two women in this book (but mostly because of the extent to which they behaved, not necessarily their specific actions). However, this isn’t inevitably a negative thing, it may be how well the author can develop her characters. It’s almost like how some actors are so good at the roles that you end up not liking them in general because of how effective and talented they performed their character. I think the story could’ve been more digestible if the sequence of events were ordered differently or if there were more substantive reasoning behind the assumptions the women had about each other. Overall, however, the behavior of the GF (girlfriend) and the mother was abhorrent, but I get it was supposed to be as such. But their actions and reactions were not really justified, especially when considering them together. Without spoiling it, the mother would do something drastic, and in turn, the GF would react and vice-versa, but their actions were never in line with one another — but again perhaps their relationship was supposed to be that disjointed for all the ”misunderstanding” to happen. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that was really the crux of the plot.

Hm, so for instance (these are NOT real examples from the book, just some hypotheticals to get a sense of what I mean) let’s say the mom fakes a DNA test and reveals to the GF that the GF’s parents aren’t her biological parents and her real parents are notorious murderers and tells everyone in town and it affects most areas of her young life — all because of an assumption the mom has about the GF. Then, the GF learns it wasn’t a real DNA test and the mom faked it, so now the GF then sets the mom’s house on fire to get back at her (yes, how extreme). The mom is upset but sticks to her assumptions about the GF and is merely not friendly toward her at social gatherings. Then the GF is annoyed that the house fire didn’t affect the mom enough and is mad she’s being ignored so she then humiliates the mom by making it look like she shoplifted at a store even though she’s wealthy and pays a security guard to say that the mom harassed him and the story ends up in the tabloids and is the talk of the town. The mom is furious now and so she tries to talk to the GF but the GF plays innocent and goes about her days. The GF however, is annoyed the mom tried to even talk to her in the first place so she then switches out the mom’s shampoo so all her hair falls out and the mom thinks she has a disease and sees doctor after doctor seeking a diagnosis for her sudden hair loss. The GF then goes further and convinces a doctor to give her a false diagnosis and the mom takes medicines she doesn’t need. The mom learns the truth about all of this and confronts the GF. But the GF is mad the mom confronted her (yes, very unreasonable) so she then has the mom’s car stolen and makes it look like insurance fraud, again humiliating the mom.

So, see how all the actions and reactions aren’t reasonable and are very unequal? That’s how the book unfolds, and you don’t end up liking either of the women and although the DNA faking was messed up, the GF really went to great lengths to get back at her, in very permanent ways that matter.

I was both absorbed and disturbed by the actions of the characters and not so much the plot as a whole and if you’re easily disturbed or appalled, you probably won’t like the book. But if you can get past that somehow (it’s the whole theme of the book, not just certain events) then you might be interested. I wouldn’t recommend this book just because it’s the kind of story that people will blame you on for encouraging. I saw in other reviews that some were particularly disturbed by a "puppy scene", and that was enough for me to not recommend the book to a select few – but I can't well make a recommendation for everyone just based on that. I also wouldn’t prevent anyone who is interested in the book so you can make your own assessments of the story as a whole.

A little far fetched...

but, we listen to get away from reality, so it wasn't bad. Many complained about the narration in the reviews, I am pretty sensitive to narration, adjusting the speed can make a huge difference.

Couldn't stop listening once the ball got rolling....wow, what a story!

The wrong woman died - I wanted to push her myself!

I have never had such a visceral reaction to a book. Maybe it’s bc I had a hellcat for a m-in-l, but that witch deserved to die. I was outraged when she told the GF such an egregious lie! She was a meddling, narcissistic b***h. I am sure my 🩸 pressure went up while listening to this.
It was definitely a slow 🔥 but it did not need to be so long winded. I found it really tedious at times, BUT it is a good listen, especially while spring🧽.
Now let’s turn to the narration. Abysmal, absolutely dreadful. Daniel sounded like a monosyllabic drone. Awful, just awful. I had to slow it down to -5 to get a speed anything close to understandable. The accents? 😳 Unnaturally long pauses and Laura was a high pitched nasal whiner . It was so bad I almost didn’t bother. Audible!!!!! WHY DO YOU DO THIS. It ruins so many of your titles! You go from an amazing talent like Gerard Doyle to this. It’s shameful. We deserve better for our money 💵

Beautifully done!

I love books that tells story differently, choosing angles that are not so overworked and this book is like that. Kept me guessing all the time, surprised me and was interesting. Recommend!

Terrible narration

Good book, a horrible monotone narration lacking expression that completely takes away from the plot

Twisted

Not edge of your seat....but characters on the edge of pychotic. Very believable and unpredictable story. Interesting story abd you just cannot wait to see what will happen next.

Interesting read.

At times the narrator is kind of dull and the story takes a while to get good but overall an interesting read of two very toxic women. Their behavior is childish and trivial at times but mostly comedic.

Meh

Story is anticlimactic and reading is fairy robotic. You already know very early on what’s going to happen.

Holy Moly!!!

WOW!! Every mother's nightmare! For your son to have a girlfriend like this one!
This is not a "who-dunnit". You know who did it. But you are there when she's doing it!

Narration: Henrietta Meire is perfect! Except.....Daniel sounds a bit like Hannibal Lector 😜