(Review) The Perfect Stranger

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
Publication Date: May 16, 2017
Pages: 384 (kindle)
Genre: Fiction/Mystery
My Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
In the masterful follow-up to the runaway hit All the Missing Girls, a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all.

Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.

Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

Everyone in this rural Pennsylvanian town has something to hide—including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own?

My Review:
I'm going to need to start this review off by telling you that I read this book this morning while I was in church. Now, I'm not normally one to slack off on my churchin', but Megan had me hooked and I needed to know the things! 

I was a huge, huge fan of All the Missing Girls, and was really excited to get this one through NetGalley. Leah Stevens is starting over. After being pushed out of her last job for writing an article that ended in disaster she moved to a small Pennsylvania town with a roommate she hadn't seen in eight years. 

From my perspective, Leah is kind of a loner. She's got some demons to live with but she's also got a lot of goodness in her. She wants to see the best in others, which is probably a huge flaw in her character. Leah trusts Emmy enough to leave her life behind and not to ask any questions about, well, anything. Okay, maybe Leah is kind of blind to people around her sometimes. 

When Emmy disappears, things get weirder. A girl in town has been assaulted, Leah is being stalked by someone, and Emmy is gone, so enter Kyle Donovan. Kyle is also trying to make a name for himself as a detective and the lead on a case that now involves Leah. Things definitely get heated between them, but while Kyle tries to keep things professional Leah begins an investigation of her own. 

This story definitely kept me guessing that's for damn sure. I wanted to know what was going on inside Leah's head and I kept wondering if she had secrets to tell, as Kyle wondered the same thing. I liked the rollercoaster of their relationship and just the cleverness of Leah. She'd lost everything and was on the verge of having everything taken from her and she fought for what she wanted. I loved that. Leah didn't back down from anything and, in the end, everyone got what they deserved. 

Megan Miranda is quickly becoming one of my favorites. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.  

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