The New Girl

The New Girl #1

by M.I. Hattersley

She’s landed her dream job. Now the nightmare begins…

To her new colleagues at lifestyle brand Beautiful You! Jade Fletcher is the perfect employee. She’s fun, easy to get on with and knows her stuff.

But she’s also harbouring a dark secret…

A secret so devastating that if it came out it would destroy the company and its renowned and influential founder, Rebecca Burton-Webb.

At least, that’s what Jade’s hoping for…

But first she needs proof. She needs to get close to Rebecca. To get inside her life.

Yet as Jade becomes embroiled in Rebecca’s world, she realises there is more to the enigmatic older woman than meets the eye.

Caught up in a deadly maze of secrets and lies Jade must work out who she can trust and what to believe before it’s too late.

How far will she go to find the truth – and how much of herself is she willing to lose in the process?

Genres: Thriller

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2022

About the author

M. I. Hattersley was born in Yorkshire, UK. Over the last twenty years, he’s toured Europe in a rock 'n' roll band, trained as a professional actor, and founded a theatre and media company, none of which paid particularly well. To keep the lights on, he’s also held a long list of mind-numbing day jobs. He now writes psychological and domestic thrillers, which, fortunately, let him put all that experience with strange people and tense situations to good use.

Reviews

[mrs jacqueline d kirby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed in this book.
Too long winded and the ending was crap.

[Lexxi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out strong. Jade gets a job at Beautiful You! but she has ulterior motives and it has something to do with the company's founder, Rebecca. I appreciated that our main character was the one with the secrets, instead of her being nice/naïve/innocent and falling into a sinister situation.

As the book continued, I struggled to care about any of the characters. It was so mysterious about WHY Jade is going after Rebecca and it takes too long to get to the reveal. The final scenes were way longer than they needed to be and the ending was not good.

The author does the thing I hate where they use the characters full names throughout the book. We know who Jade is - we don't need to have her referred to as "Jade Fletcher" for the entire book. The husband can just be "Seb", not "Seb Turner".

I also struggled to suspend disbelief around the HR documents. Jade doesn't have any type of right to work documents (the Jade persona is made up). HR keeps asking her to bring them in, but she doesn't, and they just let it slide saying "okay, but this is important, do it soon". I know it's different than in the US, but here an employee has to provide documents within 3 days, and I've had to tell people that if they don't bring in their documents tomorrow (day 3), they can't come back until they do and it was non negotiable. Or alternately, why didn't HR do any type of background check or check Jade's references? HR was way too lenient than seemed appropriate. It's minor in the grand scheme of things, but since it was a key plot element, it was distracting.

[Phyllis Krall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The New Girl is psychological thriller with many twists that I never saw coming. This is a real page turner with a surprising ending that was totally unexpected .

Jade is a new intern for a successful company in London. No one can understand why she left a high powered job in New York to start over at the bottom. Little do they know that she is not really who she seems to be. Determined to expose the secrets of her boss, Rebecca Burton- Webb , Jade quickly becomes her assistant. If Jade brings her boss down, Rebecca’s company will be ruined. Revenge is the only answer for her and she does whatever it takes to get it.

I enjoyed reading this Ebook from Amazon and was shocked when the characters’ secrets were u veiled. Highly recommend!

[Linda Tatum · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I knew the plot the whole time even though it dragged on. The ending wasn't as thrilling as I was expecting it to be. 2.5 stars at least.

[Jessica Cavender · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5… maybe?
Grabbed this free book during stuff your kindle day and it was just average

[Brynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Ines Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ok. It had real possibilities in the beginning, but I got bored with this long story about revenge, because I really couldn't connect to the other characters later in the storiy. The ending was predictable: the older lady's husband who was a user and only after her money. No surprises there. No, I would not recommend this book. Now I know why Patricia Cornwell is so successful with her page turners, because this was not one. Sorry🤔

[Jessica Lescano · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible plot

[Rachael Ashak-Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keep your friends close, & your enemies….

…. well - it depends on the circumstance, I suppose, what you do regarding them…. ;)
So, The New Girl. It’s a pretty entertaining quick read!
Solid writing, & the premise is intriguing.
The mystery of it all is crafted in a skilled manner. Leaving me consistently (& pleasurably) unable to see through all the “smoke & mirrors” intentionally thrown up by the author to conceal the truth of the plot. Only getting a little glimpse through the fog here & there.
Yet, still …. was what I saw, or what I think was revealed, TRULY the reality of the situation, or just an illusion of it?? And within this type of book, you know no matter what, the enlightenment you wish for will never be afforded until the very last pages.
Good stuff!
Additionally, I don’t feel like there are many twists & turns. But that’s not a negative here.
This author, M. I. Hattersley, is clearly well practiced in writing stories which draw you in quickly, keep you fully engrossed, & totally invested in the characters’ storylines. As well as encouraging you to root for those seeking clarity, & hoping some character’s goals will finally bear fruit. While a few others — fingers crossed— will wither on their vines & fall flat on their faces.
Overall, The New Girl is a worthy choice within this genre. I’m happy I came across it - especially as I’ve now discovered a new talented author to follow.
In fact, I’m about to seek out my next read from Hattersley’s body of work.
I definitely recommend The New Girl!

[Angel **Book Junkie** · Rating 3 out of 5]

The New Girl — M.I. Hattersly

The beginning of this book was great — I was hooked right away. Jade takes a job at Beautiful You, and it’s clear she has her reasons. Honestly, I figured out what those reasons were within the first three chapters, so if it was supposed to be a secret… I saw it coming.

Being in HR, some of the HR scenes felt a little off to me — like, you only get three days to turn in those documents? The timeline didn’t quite sit right, which pulled me out of the story a few times.

And the ending… what? Really? I get that it was supposed to be dramatic, but it felt a little over-the-top and left me scratching my head.

That said, the book had strong moments and a plot that kept me reading. Jade is a compelling character, and there’s enough intrigue to make it worth finishing. I just wish some things had landed more realistically and the ending had been a bit cleaner.

Overall, an okay read, but not one I’ll remember as strongly as others in the genre.

[Wendy Del Toro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just an okay story for me. We are told right out the gate that Jade is out for revenge. She's pretty young and was out of the country for a while so it's obvious that she is avenging a family member for some alleged wrong doing in the past. I think the story would have been more intriguing we didn't know this going in. As such, the story plays out pretty much just as I guessed it would. I didn't know the specific details of the 'why', but when it's revealed it is no big surprise. It is a very typical and derivative revenge story and we know who will come out on top. The final few paragraphs were supposed to be a 'twist' or surprise but really weren't to me. Overall a pretty boring story.

[Sharon Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly typical Kindle "thriller" which is to say it was an o.k. book but not much of a thriller.

The whole plot was ridiculous on its face - what kind of Human Resources Department hires someone without checking on them at all? Didn't they call to check on references? No one realized asked if anyone by that name worked at the employer? And Jade and her sister never thought about looking into what happened and talking to people instead of hatching a ridiculous revenge plot? And then, the disintegration of the husband into a complete mad man was just a little difficult to believe.

The ending, which was supposed to be the big twist, was the only thing that actually made sense to me!

[Meganne krewson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty slow to start and honestly seems to drag with a lot of references that people were hiding things without actually getting to the point of what was being hidden, until probably the last quarter of the book. I’m not a huge fan of continuous “hinting” around the secrets as a way to keep the reader intrigued, and I felt this book did have quite a bit of that.
Once I the storyline actually progressed in the last quarter or so, I definitely didn’t see what seemed to be the ending coming, let alone the final twist in the very last couple of pages.
Over all, if you can get through the first few chapters, it was pretty good(:

[Lee Husemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jade Foster returns to from New York to her home in London to work for Beautiful You! a beauty/fashion empire run by Rebecca Burton-Webb, an older woman, who has a younger, unfaithful husband, actor Sebastian Turner. Jade has an ulterior motive for leaving her job at Tres Chic to work as an intern at Beautiful You! with the hopes of ending up with the job of Personal Assistant to Rebecca. As the story unfolds, lots of things begin to happen and this turned out to be a very good read. This was my first read by this author and I definitely will read more of his books.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat, and easily pulled me in (as I finished it in a matter of 2 days). I did enjoy this book, but I gave it 4 stars simply because at times it did seem as though it was drug out longer than needed. It took some time to uncover the main character’s identity and motives, but perhaps that was the idea to keep the reader going. I was also not a fan of the ending.

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a deliciously wicked and twisted story. Every character had their own secrets and ambitions and were willing to do whatever it took to keep the secrets hidden so they could get what they wanted. Jade, Rebecca and Nicole were all headstrong women which I love since women are often written as weak and pathetic and need to have a male rescue them. The ending was also satisfyingly clever.

[Ellen Aish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jade has just landed her dream job but she has very personal reasons for being there. Things that happened years ago have now come to light and Jade needs to put them right. This is a fast paced book with strong women and an end that I definitely never saw coming. This book is a must for fans of this author.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 is not the authors fault!

The author creates a good story, a strong world and a twisty twist of an ending. My problem was that because it was so firmly set where it was, I had to keep pausing and looking something up so I fully understood the story. I’m not a fashion person, and that’s not the authors fault.

[Pheadra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay read, but I would not describe it as a gripping thriller. Justine and her sister, in an effort to get justice for their sickly mother, conspire to bring about the downfall of the person, Rebecca, who they blame for doing their mother in financially. Justine creates a fake name and goes to work for Rebecca. Things then become bizarre and rather unbelievable for me. 3 stars

[marjorie birney · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book.

Wow, talk about twists and turns. I thought I had everything figured out and, wham... Another twist. It will have you back to square one until you can't put it down. I stayed up late because I knew I wouldn't sleep until I finished. Now to relax and get some sleep. Get this book. You won't be disappointed.

[Linda Edmonds Cerullo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great novel with an unusual back story. A few twists and turns and even after the big reveal which comes a little more than halfway through, there is still lots of suspense and thrills right up to the end. I liked the characters as well. This is a writer I will be reading more from in the future.

[Angelic Reid-Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half truths and full fledged lies!

WOW, the creativity and lengths some people can plot, plan, stalk, and study others, to ensure they get the revenge they want. In a company full of nice welcoming people, plenty of them sneaking, spying, scamming, and watching their coworkers comings and goings. Great weekend read.

[Brittany coffey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too slow of a burn

I feel I gave this book 3 stars instead of 2 because the last 50 pages were really good. I just felt that it took forever to get to the point and for a thriller, that isn’t my cup of tea.I hope reading the second book I’ll feel differently considering we don’t need to learn the whole story and character introduction from every Angle.

[Jessi Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a new girl starts at Beautiful You, Jade is quickly promoted to being the personal assistant for the companies owner. However, Nicole has her concerns about who Jade really is and starts digging into her past and how she ended up with the company? What will she find and what is Jade doing there? A great book that has you wondering about who Jade is and what her true intentions are.

[Connie Fidgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book but wished it were more of an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It took some time to reveal why Jade took the internship, so there's a bit of a build-up. It did turn more exciting after that was done.

[Tanisha Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect!

It's been a while since I've read a thriller as perfectly crafted as this one. All the dots connected, everything was cohesive, and the twists made sense and fit with the story. I will definitely be buying more books from this author!

[Nicola Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book had me hooked straight away the story had me feeling anxious in certain scenes and I've never experienced that through a book the characters had you feeling every emotion there was great read and would highly recommend I would definitely reread this

[Amanda Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!

Loved the twists and turns in this book. Who is good? Who is actually bad? Jade may just learn that these questions are never that simple when it comes to co-workers and other relationships.

[dianne jean stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of two sisters who believed their mother who is ill and needs special care they cannot afford had been wronged by her business partner and friend a long time ago looking for revenge. I found it rather drawn out with a lot of the action near the ending of the book only to leave you hanging

[Lauren Clough · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just okay. I enjoyed the story, characters, and the setting but really didn’t like the ending. Could have done with an epilogue for the character we’d followed for the entire book! The showdown was slightly unbelievable too. Really disappointing ending.