‘The Girl in Times Square’ Has A Hard Time Maintaining Her Focus [REVIEW]

In Paullina Simons’ The Girl in Times Square, a young woman’s search for her missing friend turns into a life-shattering odyssey. (Photo courtesy Pexels)

Life in the big city of New York is expensive and filled with lots of distractions, especially for art student Lily Quinn. But she forgets all of that when her best friend and roommate Amy vanishes without a trace in Paullina Simons’ The Girl in Times Square. 

William Morrow

The story opens when Joshua, Lily’s boyfriend, leaves her to pursue another opportunity. She doesn’t understand why he packs everything up. Still, she doesn’t want her friends to fix her up with another man.

Soon after, Amy disappears. Initially, this doesn’t concern Lily. She knows Amy will turn up. She always does. But then Detective Spencer O’Malley appears on Lily’s doorstep to inquire about Amy’s whereabouts, but Lily is quick to inform him that she doesn’t know where her friend is.

Then tragedy strikes in a way Lily doesn’t see coming. Throughout the rest of the novel, Lily struggles to deal with these new developments while simultaneously looking into Amy’s disappearance and navigating through a story populated with dysfunctional parents, siblings and friends.

Even through all the drama, and despite Simons’ best efforts to deliver a fast-paced story, the author doesn’t really deliver the goods. I never became fully vested in Lily’s life and thus my first thought once I completed reading this book was, “Why was this novel written?” I honestly couldn’t tell you. That being said, I don’t think I will pick up another novel by Simons anytime soon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paullina Simons
(Photo by Renaissance Photo)

Paullina Simons is the internationally bestselling author of Tully, The Bronze Horseman, and Bellagrand, as well as nine other beloved novels, a memoir, a cookbook, and two children’s books.

Born in Leningrad in 1963, she immigrated to Queens, New York, when she was ten and attended colleges in Long Island before moving to England and attending Essex University.

Now she lives in New York with her husband and an alarming number of her once-independent children.

Visit Paullina at her home on the Web at PaullinaSimons.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

THE GIRL IN TIMES SQUARE
By Paullina Simons
608 pgs. William Morrow. $16.99

Purchase The Girl in Times Square at one of these fine online retailers: HarperCollins, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

The Girl in Times Square is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.

The Girl in Times Square Giveaway

Want to win a copy of The Girl in Times Square for your personal library? Simply complete the form below and click submit to enter. Giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only. Contest ends January 9, 2018.