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Good Girls Who Have BIG Secrets

by  | March 26
NBC's Good Girls

About a month ago, my co-worker Heather and I were chatting about which shows we were watching and kind of obsessed with. She recommended that I check out Good Girls starring Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and Retta. I got home from work that evening and started watching—and before I knew it, it was 4am and I had finished streaming the entire first season.

If you haven’t seen this show yet…stop reading now because there are spoilers ahead. (Still reading? Either you’re a rebel like the characters in the show or you just don’t care about spoiler alerts.)

Sisters Annie and Beth along with their friend Ruby find themselves in desperate emotional and financial situations. As wives and mothers, they are just trying to take care of their loved ones no matter what it takes. Out of desperation, and in order to dig themselves out of their financial troubles, they rob the grocery store where Annie works. But they come to find themselves in deep shit with a local gang. To keep their cover going, the three women hide behind their seemingly normal lives, while their families have no idea about the crimes they’ve committed while trying to keep things afloat.

The show is in the midst of its second season now, and each episode will leave you hooked and wanting more. But since the season is on-air, I can’t binge all the episodes in one sitting and need something to keep my mind occupied as I wait each excruciatingly long week until the next episode.

So, once you’re all caught up on the current season and find yourself in my predicament as well…grab one of these books about other “good girls” who are keeping some big-ass secrets.

Photo by: Josh Stringer/NBC | NBCUniversal Media
Good Girls– “Pilot” Episode 101 — Pictured: (l-r) Christina Hendrick as Beth, Retta as Ruby, Mae Whitman as Annie

Her Pretty Face

Her Pretty Face

by Robyn Harding

Frances Metcalfe is a stay-at-home mom who is struggling with her troubled son. But when he gets into the elite Forrester Academy, she thinks that things will start to change for the better. However, after her son is involved in a disturbing incident at the school, the kids and other parents start to ostracize the Metcalfes. Frances is insecure, and lonely, and desperate to fit into Forrester’s world.

Enter Kate Randolph…Kate is everything Frances is not: beautiful, wealthy, powerful, and confident. The two bond over their disdain for the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons. But one of these women is keeping a shocking secret that threatens to tear them apart. One of them is hiding her true identity: her real name is Amber Kunik—and she’s a murderer.

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Verity

Verity

by Colleen Hoover

It seems like every main character in this book is keeping huge secrets. Without giving away too many spoilers, here’s an overview of the plot...

Verity Crawford is a bestselling author, but after a terrible accident she is no longer able to finish her successful series. Her husband, Jeremy, and her publisher decide to hire another writer to complete the series.

Lowen Ashleigh is a writer who is struggling financially when the job opportunity of a lifetime falls in her lap—that of finishing the Noble Virtues series. Lowen heads to the Crawford home to review Verity’s notes for the previous titles in the series so that she can start writing the next books. But while digging through Verity’s office she comes across a manuscript of what appears to be Verity’s autobiography, which includes some horrifying revelations.

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Lying in Wait

Lying in Wait

by Liz Nugent

From the first line of this book, you can tell the author is about to reel you into something twisted: “My husband did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it.”

Like the lead characters in Good Girls, Lydia Fitzsimons’s life seems idyllic, but beneath the surface there lurk some dark secrets. Her husband is a prosperous and respected judge, which helps to support their cover.

But the murder of Annie Doyle sends their lives into a web of lies to cover up the crime. Lydia’s son, Laurence, starts to suspect that something is very wrong in his home, and he’s determined to uncover the truth.

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Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies

by Liane Moriarty

This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this book, which became a mega-hit when it was adapted by Reese Witherspoon for HBO.

Each of the female leads in this story are playing a game of deception. The three women live in a small town where gossip spreads like wildfire. Madeline, Celeste, and Jane are each desperate to keep their friends and neighbors from finding out what’s really going on behind closed doors. When someone in the small town is killed, people start to question—was it a murder or a tragic accident?

via GIPHY

Pick up the book or check out the HBO series to find out! If you loved Big Little Lies here are more books for you to binge.

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Saimah works on the Corporate Digital Marketing team at Simon & Schuster. She is a fan of dystopian fiction, celeb memoirs, contemporary rom-coms and murder mysteries. When she's not reading, she is binge-watching her favorite shows, exploring the best rooftop bars in the city and watching sports. Follow her on Instagram at @fire.escape.reads!