Chevy Stevens is back with her most powerful, emotional thriller yet— a story of survival…and revenge.

Life has never been easy for the three Campbell sisters. Jess, Courtney, and Dani live on a remote ranch in Western Canada where they work hard and try to stay out of the way of their father’s fists. One night, a fight gets out of hand and the sisters are forced to go on the run, only to get caught in an even worse nightmare when their truck breaks down in a small town. Events spiral out of control and a chance encounter with the wrong people leaves them in a horrific and desperate situation. They are left with no choice but to change their names and create new lives.

Eighteen years later, they are still trying to forget what happened that summer when one of the sisters goes missing and they are pulled back into their past.

This time there’s nowhere left to run.

As much of a thriller as it is a deep exploration of the bonds among sisters, THOSE GIRLS is an unforgettable portrait of desperation, loyalty, and evil. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1241540014

Read from March 30 to April 02, 2015

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK NETGALLEY AND ST. MARTIN'S PRESS FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK.

I was pulled into this book from the very beginning. Three sisters, Jess, Courtney and Dani live in a home with their abusive father. He leaves them for periods at a time, which is not so bad since he's a scary drunk. One night he comes back and starts beating them, one thing leads to another and the girls sneak out of town.

They are just trying to find a place where they can stay together and live a life of peace. But alas, they meet Gavin and Brian when their truck breaks down on the side of the road. The guys say they can fix their truck, but it will take a few days and in the mean time they can work off the money on their families farm. The girls decide this is their only option.

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT!!!!!!!

What happens next is them being held captive in a warehouse being tortured, raped and humiliated. Jess is only 15 when she is raped by Brian. Her sisters try to get them to only rape and torture them so she can be spared but Brian wanted to have Jess. It's a very sickening situation. A woman or child can't be safe in real life because of scum like this. Anyway, they managed to get away and only cut up and knock them out. I'm sorry but I would have stayed and gutted them with the knife to make sure they would hurt no other woman or child, but I digress!

They make it back to the garage where the boys were keeping their truck. They were not able to get to it, but ran into a biker that owned the bar. He ends up being a really nice man. He feeds them, gives them his late wife's clothes and has son Owen takes them to the bus station to get them away. He has it set up for a friend to pick them up and help them out. They call it paying it forward, helping those who need help. I loved they mentioned this in the book!

They end up staying with the man and his wife who own a boxing school. They put them up in the apartment over the school. They work for him and he gives them new names and birth certificates to start a life for themselves. Courtney and Dani get jobs in restaurants to help out with the money.

They find out that Jess is pregnant. She decides she wants to keep the baby. She's a girl that she names Skylar. The sisters wanted her to have an abortion. They didn't want to be reminded of those jerks, but it wasn't their choice.

It jumps ahead to Skylar being seventeen and everyone decently happy. Skylar is in school. Jess gets her GED etc. Only Courtney is partying and has never been the same. She was the worst one hurt by Gavin in the torture.

Now we move on to the stupidity. Skylar keeps asking about the past. Instead of Dani and Jess just telling her and letting her know not to bring it up in front of Courtney, Skylar has a big discussion with Courtney about killing the guys etc. You know what happens next. Courtney leaves to go back to confront them and kill them with a gun she has and of course gets caught again. Skylar goes looking for her and of course gets caught by them. I won't say any more from this point with spoilers.

I will say there is a sad and happy ending to the book. It was a pretty good book over all. I just wish they didn't make that stupid move to go back.  3 Stars