The Girl With No Past: A gripping psychological thriller Paperback – October 15, 2015

3.5 Stars I was a little disappointed with this one. While there were several thrilling scenes, the history kept bugging me. If this girl had no past, why did she need a therapist? And why did she hate the town she grew up in? Why was someone threatening her? I think the title just really messed with my mind while reading this story. Because she did have a past and it was a horrible past.The writing was done well and the characters were well developed. I just had a problem with the thriller part as to why someone was doing all of this to her. I mean these were some outlandish, really thought out tricks. Then when I heard the history it all came together. Maybe that is what the author intended. I enjoyed reading the book and was entertained so possibly I am criticizing something the author had planned to begin with, so the jokes on me. Ha!!I just didn't find it gripping throughout the whole book, however as the blurbs would suggest. It was rather slow until about halfway. Then it picked up and was a much better book for me as the thriller part really began to take off. And when it did, then the blurbs were worth their weight. The history part was really shocking!I think the title and the blurbs took off a half star for me. It really wasn't a bad book, it just took a while to get into it.I would like to thank Bookouture and Net Galley for this free e-galley in exchange for an honest review. As I said, it took a while for the thriller part, but it was worth it if your willing to wait

4.5 starsI enjoy a good psychological thriller but lately I've had a hard time connecting with one that leaves me truly satisfied...until now. I began this book knowing very little about it and having no expectations so I was more than pleasantly surprised once I got into it.This book weaves between Leah's past and present. The reader knows that something happened in her past to make her emotionally disconnect and keep her distance from people in the present but we don't know what. So not only did I want to know who was harassing Leah in the present but I wanted to know the big "what happened?" in the past that created her present day situation. It was two stories woven into one with many twists and turns to create one giant, page turning story.I was pretty much useless for anything else while I was reading this book. I had to find out what happened and I was dying to know who was tormenting Leah. There were some things that I was able to guess but then there were some shocking things that I did not see coming. I had her tormentor/stalker figured out pretty early but was blindsided by some of the other events. Both past and present were equally entertaining and kept me on my toes. I can't and won't say anything else about it because I think it is important to go into this book knowing as little as possible about it. You won't regret it!The Girl With No Past is an extremely entertaining, well written book that fans of psychological thrillers will e sure to enjoy. I know I did!

Here is a book written in two time periods, what happened before and what’s happening today. Reading the first few lines of the book offers a clue about the denouement.There is no doubt that Kathryn Croft is a good writer, and skillful at her craft. For that alone I admire her; I gave up thinking I could do it some time ago. However the way she believes her characters should think is fairly typical of how many young women imagine life: A life of some secrecy, some payback, a little 'vengefulness', plenty of pointless guilt.So, let me get a couple of things out of the way. I am a man of 74, thus right there is a good reason for many young female readers to now say “aha, now I know why he has these beliefs”. Etc. But all is not as it seems.Firstly, I read a ton; I mean, a hell of a lot, always have. Secondly I have my ‘periods’ of reading, ie periods of reading the classics, periods of reading adventure, thrillers, historical narratives, archaeological tomes, detective novels, European espionage; periods that can last from a half dozen novels to dozens spanning a couple of years.One of those periods, around 2009-2010 was my ‘chick-lit’ period, ‘chicks’ being young women, ‘lit’ being of course literature. I can tell you that this period was soo enlightening, I learned so much. Jane Austen, you might remember, describes some of her female characters as lachrymose; especially in her earliest book (if I’m not mistaken) Sense and Sensibility; well, let me tell you, did I learn about lachrymose! Did I ever? Chick-lits are full of it. But not only that, they are also full of self-delusion and an inability to face facts.I’ve heard many women say how happy they are they were born women: Let me say here and now, I am exceedingly happy I was born a man. A relatively forthright man, may I add. (But don’t imagine that my life has been a bed of roses because I can tell you here and now, it hasn’t!)So, with that background let me get back to this novel. This girl, Leah, is a liar. Do you like that? In this book she constantly tells lies, or makes ‘excuses’ if you prefer a gentler description. She simply cannot truthfully tell someone why she cannot do something, or be with someone, or why she needs time to herself, or how she feels; she simply must tell a lie. And this really got to me, maybe because I’ve known people like this, people who must make excuses or exaggerate or minimize; more forms of lying.What is it with young women that they feel so awful about themselves that they need to lie, fib, ‘excuse’?I’ll tell you something I discovered in my last job, where I was a Sydney bus driver from age 62 to 70 when I retired (well, I’d screwed up everything else, so I had to try a make a buck somewhere, right?) I discovered that there are ‘groups’ of people with certain characteristics: Boys and girls up to mid-teens; they’re horrible; young men 18-30; bearable; women 18-30; ridiculous; and men and women from 30 onward who are mostly more-or-less normal. So there you are, approximately four major groups.Guess which group wastes the most time; by far; looking for their bus tickets or for the change to buy one? You guessed it, I won't insult you by saying which..I won’t waste any more of your time, and thanks for reading this far. By the time I was 40% of the way into this book I was already pretty irritated, and as another reviewer, Kerry Hunter, said, the plot fell somewhat short, the baddie became somewhat apparent and the end was fairly predictable. The only thing that caught me out was that, late in the book, someone I thought was dead was actually still alive.Somehow I thought this book was a purely psychological thriller, as it was touted, but it wasn’t. It’s more of a chick-lit; I was over chick-lits by 2011. (Maybe I was fooled into thinking this was a purely psychological thriller by another one I read recently, ‘The Girl in 6E’ by Alessandra Torre; THAT was indeed surprisingly good.)There’s no doubt, this book will have a tremendous readership of young women. The rest of us should stay away.