The Girl on the Train meets Before I Go to Sleep with a dash of Bridget Jones in this chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong … ‘Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.’ direction. And it’s not always north.’
Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge.
Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: ‘Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle he’d slowly dissembled … stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again.’
So Taylor consulted The Art of War and made a plan. Then she took the next step – one that would change her life forever.
Then things get really out of control – and The Sunday Girl becomes impossible to put down.
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There’s a saying, “If you hit the king you’d better kill the king.”
Well, our protagonist Taylor, with a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War wedged firmly in her pocket for guidance takes a big swing at her douchey ex-boyfriend after he publishes a raunchy private video of her.
The only problem is, she has more than met her match…
I was fortunate enough to have won this book from Cindy over on Instagram (lovemybooks2020). I left this book sitting on my shelf and decided to give it a read. This is the first book I have read by Ms. Drysdale and I was not disappointed.
Taylor is madly in love with Angus, and she believes he is madly in love with her until she finds out he cheated on her. After having lived with Angus, Taylor moves back to her tiny apartment that she can barely afford, having moved there to be close to Angus. She then devises a plan to get back at Angus for breaking her heart. She does some small things that would cause him some irritation, never thinking he would figure it out was her. There came a knock on her door. It was Angus toting flowers and an apology. She knew it was wrong, but she let him in. They got back together. Charlotte, Taylor’s friend, and Taylor’s mom kept warning her to stay away. Taylor followed her heart. Enter David, a business client. Then, some odd things started happening in Taylor’s personal life (she knew Angus had a temper and a cocaine problem) and then some odder things started happening in her work life. Taylor then decided to exact her revenge, but Angus proved to be a formidable opponent … or was he?
If you like books that involve twisted relationships, you are sure to enjoy this one. The entire cast of characters make this a complete story. The relationship between Taylor and Angus. The friendship between Taylor and Charlotte, including Charlotte’s fiancé Ben (Ben does not have a major role in this tale). The relationship between Taylor and her mum (important, I think, because who do we usually turn to in times of trouble? Mum!) The business relationship between Taylor and David. The relationship between Taylor and Val (her work supervisor). All these combined together make for an enjoyable day of reading. (I actually read this twice and was more taken in the second time around.)
My Review of
THE SUNDAY GIRL
By Pip Drysdale
Published & Gifted by @bookmarked
On Sale in Paperback- 2/1/21 -Link In Bio
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This was my first time reading Author Pip Drysdale and I was completely intoxicated by The Sunday Girl. I had to take moments where I had to think how the Author’s mind worked so brilliantly to develop this utterly thrilling plot and the completely complex stories twisted in. It had my fingers and toes bent, biting my lip harder and harder as each page passed. When you think it couldn’t get anymore thrilling; watch out…it does. The characters’ depth were so well developed and I felt I had a secret screening into what they were thinking and what was going to happen next. It has such an intense psychological thriller focus, I was scared as if it was happening to me. I had to look around the room and find my grasp on reality for a moment of reprieve before diving back in. This is one thriller that hit my 2021 off just right and I’m feeling fully satisfied.
*****
What a lovely little relationship that Taylor and Angus have. He calls her “The Sunday Girl” and he cheats on her and she takes him back despite his roughness and aggressive nature. But Taylor finally has had enough after Angus has leaked a video made just for him onto the internet of Taylor & another girl on one drunken night. Even worse, when confronted Angus takes his ex-gf on the ski trip Taylor had planned for the two of them.
When Taylor picks up a copy of Sun Tzu’s, THE ART OF WAR. A revenge plot begins to form in her head. While he’s gone, she takes the opportunity to screw with some things that can majorly impact his life. But little did she know how indestructible Angus would be and when he becomes privy to what transpired; Taylor’s life goes from bad to worse. The man she used to love is now the man she cannot escape from.
the Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale is a psychological domestic thriller that will grab and hold readers from the get go. Without giving away any spoilers, this tells the story of a love gone horribly wrong. The characters are brilliantly and methodically created. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, but it will not be my last. It has all the elements of a good spine chilling thriller that is guaranteed to keep readers on the edge all the way to the end.
The Sunday Girl By Pip Drysdale
What an amazing domestic thriller read of a great revenge story from a woman who has had enough and in her last straw. Amazing read that had me turning those pages to see how nice girl Taylor Bishop deals when boyfriend Angus Hollingsworth did the unthinkable. Pip Drysdale wrote a fantastic psychological thriller you won’t be able to put down. I enjoyed this one a lot!
Thank you Netgalley , and Sourcebooks for this ARC. I really enjoyed this psychological thriller from Pip Drysdale . The story centers around Taylor Bishop a nice girl who is in love with Angus Hollingsworth an older man who calls her his Sunday Girl. Angus seems like a good catch until Taylor sees his true side and realizes he’s far from it. Angus shows patterns of not only physical abuse, but also emotional and verbal abuse. Taylor does all she can to keep the peace and make Angus happy until the day they break up and he takes his ex-girlfriend on the vacation, Taylor was supposed to be on. When Taylor finds out Angus has also released a sex-tape of her on the internet, she reads the Art of War, and plots her revenge. As Taylor lays out her plan to get back at Angus she realizes just how dangerous he is, and that he may be plotting against her at the same time as she is plotting against him. Taylor has to be smart and play her cards right. As it seems Angus knows everything she is going to do before she does it, Taylor has to work harder to persevere. Ultimately things get really dangerous and Taylor hopes she can get out of this situation alive. As things spiral its clear they both will never be the same when the dust settles.
#The SundayGirl on sale now @pipdrysdale @sourcebooks
@pipdrysdale
The Sunday Girl is my first read from Pip Drysdale. It’s an intense tale of well deserved revenge and suspense. Angus screws Taylor over, but she doesn’t take it lying down. While I enjoyed this read, and did spend most of it rooting for Taylor, Drysdale does a fantastic job making it a little bit difficult to truly love any character in this story. This is one of those stories that you may grimace through half of what’s going on, but you’re still going to enjoy the ride. I don’t want to spoil things, but I will say that there are some surprises in this one, and not everything is as it seems.
All in all this was a great read. The Sunday Girl is incredibly well written, and I’m surprised that this was the authors first published book. It was published in 2018 in Australia, and I’m pretty sure when it releases in the US it’s going to be a hit. If you love suspenseful revenge reads, then you will love this story.
This is a first novel for Pip Drysdale, but you wouldn’t know it. She writes with the assurance of an experienced author, with a confidence that I haven’t seen in many recent debuts. From the beginning of The Sunday Girl I knew I could relax, knowing that I was in good hands: she knows how to tell a story. And what a story it is.
To be honest, I don’t think the blurb does it justice. It sounds like a typical revenge tale, and in a sense it is. But it’s not only that.
Angus isn’t simply a “bad bad man”: he’s an abuser. Taylor is his victim. This becomes clear fairly quickly, so I don’t see this as a spoiler alert. Within the first chapter, we read how he manipulated Taylor into recording a sex tape of her in a threesome–one that she did not want to do, one that was entirely his idea–and after they broke up, he posted it on the internet . . . with her full name included in the description. That’s emotional abuse.
While I’d fully expected his betrayal to be of the run-of-the-mill adultery type (as horrible as that is, of course), I hadn’t expected this. Neither had she, apparently.
Drysdale flipped my expectations for a betrayal. She took my expectations of a simple petty revenge tale with an unsympathetic protagonist and jerked them out from under me.
By the end of the first chapter, I was on Taylor’s side. While I normally don’t sympathize with those bent on revenge, Drysdale made me sympathize with Taylor after this revelation of her ex’s humiliating betrayal. Once something’s on the internet, it stays on the internet forever. When Taylor says that she’s spent her life trying to be the good girl–the kind, tolerant, forgiving girl–and she’d finally had enough, I wrote in my notes, I don’t blame her, actually!
For people who’ve come out of abusive relationships, this might reopen some wounds. For the rest of us, this story can help us understand why the Taylors of this world do the worst possible thing when faced with abuse: stay.
I found Taylor sympathetic, even when she was doing the wrong thing. She’s been betrayed by many men throughout her life, starting with her father. (That’s a doozy, too.)
While she could’ve been a flat-out nasty character, full of anger and hostility, Pip Drysdale makes her more nuanced than that. Everything she does makes psychological sense, at least to me. She’s justified Angus’s actions for so long that it’s hard for her break free from his hold on her. Her heart and head fight one another: her head argues for cool logic, but her heart wants to heal the wounded spirit of her ex-boyfriend.
The story held me in its grip. Feeling a bit burned out on reading, I opened The Sunday Girl and resolved to read only a chapter or two, enough to keep my Kindle reading streak going. That chapter or two stretched out to reading the entire book in two days.
The plot moves slowly at first, then picks up speed until we’re inexorably rushing toward the inevitable conclusion. To borrow an analogy Taylor uses in the book, once the dominoes start to fall, there’s no turning back. Drysdale works in trivial details earlier in the book that only become significant in hindsight.
This was a five star read for me. The book hit all the points I love about great books. Emotional impact. Nuanced characters. Interesting plot. A story with significance, one that helps illuminate the challenges of our modern life. The Sunday Girl was all that and more for me.
Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and Netgalley for a copy of The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale in exchange for an honest review.
Ominous, relentless and intense!
The Sunday Girl is a character-driven, domestic thriller that takes you into the life of Taylor Bishop, a 29-year-old analyst who decides to use the principles found in Tzu’s, The Art of War to damage, destroy, and ruin the life of Angus, her successful banker, boyfriend after he not only leaks a video onto the internet of her engaged in a threesome but also decides to take his previous ex, Kim on the holiday they had planned together.
The prose is taut and gritty. The characters are vulnerable, consumed, and ruthless. And the plot does a nice job of building tension and unease as it subtly intertwines and unravels an intricate tale of lies, secrets, abuse, control, manipulation, violence, and vengeance.
Overall, The Sunday Girl is a dark, unnerving, satisfying read that delves into how much relationships define us and reminds us that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Read for 2020 Popsugar Summer Reading Challenge “book with the word ‘sun’ in the title”
The Sunday Girl by Pip Drysdale is a domestic thriller about a revenge against an ex that turns into a cat/mouse struggle between the two. Taylor is a London professional that has devoted her life to her wealthy banker boyfriend Angus. And Angus is a complete shithead narcissist that suffers from at least one personality disorder. Somehow Taylor makes it work until the day Angus decides he doesn’t want her anymore and Taylor descends into a free fall of angst and revenge fueled by a copy of The Art of War.
I won’t lie. Taylor is weak and frustrating and lacks the maniacal edge she needs to go up against Angus but you can’t help but pull for her.
I recommend The Sunday Girl for readers interested in reading about the dark side of love and need an underdog to root for.
3.5 rounded up for 4 for Amazon/Goodreads
If your SO calls you ‘darling’ as often as the ex/current bf refers to the main character in this book does, either he’s forgotten your name or it’s a gigantic red flag slapping you in the face.
Not to my taste, too much gloom and despair. Made me itchy under my skin.
When I first saw this one on NetGalley I gave it a pass. It sounded fine, but revenge stories are usually not my thing – as a category, in my experience, they tend to either fall into all-too-familiar tropes or go so far over the top that I struggle to stay with the stories Then I was invited to participate in a Poisoned Pen bookshop author panel online that included Pip Drysdale, and I was so captivated by her personality and her explanation of her book that I immediately went back and requested it. So I had high hopes after initial low ones, which I know could be a dangerous combination – and proved to be…
The book started off beautifully – I was delighted to find that the book read the way the author spoke. It was snarky and subtle and funny and dark but with a curious levity that felt appropriate and made everything intriguing. I loved the premise, and was initially drawn to the voice of Taylor, the protagonist. But about 1/3 to 1/2 in, that voice shifted and from there on I struggled with this one. Taylor became improbable and much less sympathetic to me as a character and she lost all of the edge and snark and wit that I so enjoyed in the beginning of the book.
It was strange, but it almost felt like someone else had written the book from that point forward. The clever bon mots and one-liners and bits that wove Sun Tzu into the revenge story were suddenly gone. What I was left with was a revenge tale that felt fairly typical, which I found very disappointing. There were a few twists and turns, that is true, and it never occurred to me to stop reading – I was curious enough to see where things would go and constantly hopeful that the author’s delightful voice would turn back up (at the denouement and resolution if nowhere else). It never did and it left me a little disappointed. Still, I so loved the beginning and the concept was clever and fun, even if its execution wasn’t always quite as surgical and deft as the beginning led me to believe it would be, and I will definitely keep an eye out for more of her books in the hope of finding that magic again…
And honestly, Drysdale is delightful to listen to, so if you have an opportunity to look her up it is definitely worth your time!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
“Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.”
The MC Taylor Bishop has been dumped by her much older boyfriend, Angus Hollingsworth. Good riddance, it was an abusive relationship that lasted way too long. She is very much relatable in that she’s hurt, angry, and fantasizes a revenge. All for nothing Angus deserves everything bad that comes his way! There are a few twists, but a lot is also predictable. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley for an ebook ARC. This is my honest review.
Thank you NetGalley for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
REVIEW
The Sunday Girl is a story of calculated revenge. Taylor has been humiliated and abused by her longtime boyfriend Angus, and she’s had enough of it. Now, using The Art Of War as a guide, Taylor exacts her revenge. Things don’t go as planned because Angus is cunning and always a step ahead of Taylor. These two play a toxic and deadly game, bent on destruction. But, who, if anyone, will win this game? When does revenge go too far, especially with a guy like Angus who deserves what he gets? Or does he? It’s a twisted tale of love gone very bad and payback turned to obsession. I recommend this thrilling evocative tale about the fallout of an abusive relationship and subsequent breakup.
The Sunday Girl follows Taylor, an abused woman who wants to get back at her ex-boyfriend Angus for posting a sex tape online. But she’s not sure how to go about doing it, and she isn’t sure if she’s ready to let him go. With chapters framed as days of the weeks, we follow Taylor in her quest to get the revenge she thinks she deserves.
It would be easy to get mad at her about her lingering love for Angus, but one has to look at how abuse changes a person’s way of thinking over time, and we see that in Taylor. But I didn’t love Taylor’s character, and it wasn’t necessarily because she was still in love with Angus. At times, she was too pushy, (when Charlotte was trying to set up a dating profile for her), and Taylor’s entire way of thinking was obsessive. It was too much for me.
But the thing is, once I started the story, I didn’t want to put it down. Because the more that was revealed, the more enjoyable the story was; it was a well-written story. While our cast of characters was fairly small, they were 3 dimensional, and they all had a role to play. Overall, a fairly fun read.