Book Review: Pretty Guilty Women | Gina LaManna

An extravagant wedding at the Serenity Resort and Spa ends in a death and four women confessing to murder… Gina LaManna’s Pretty Guilty Women is a perfect beach-read. The drama of four former friends who lost touch reconnecting was popcorn-worthy. Add in a murder and four independent confessions, I was so curious to find out what was going on!

What is Pretty Guilty Women about?

Whitney Debleu is marrying up…way up. At the Debleu-Banks wedding at a swanky California resort, no expense is spared on the week-long extravaganza. Four women arrive for the wedding with more than just luggage, they arrive with baggage long buried in their past.

Emily has never escaped the depression caused by the end of a bad break up, the loss of her daughter, and the end of her college friendships. On the plane to her former college-pal’s wedding, Emily drinks to much and has a vacation fling with a stranger she meets on the plane, only to find out he is attending the same wedding as her.

Ginger got the man of her dreams in college, marrying Frank and having three beautiful children, but she’s never shaken her resentment at an incident that occurred between Emily and Frank long ago. Now, she is dealing with a teenager who keeps secrets from her, financial worries to get to this expensive wedding, and she’d dreading seeing her old college friends.

Kate seems perfect form the outside—beautiful, successful, and dating the perfect man. But after years of doing everything she can to get pregnant and nothing working, Kate is defeated. Now, heading to her college friend Whitney’s wedding, she feels lower than ever. Until her boyfriend dumps her at the front desk of the check-in to the resort, and Kate drops even lower.

Lulu is the only one not connected to the others. She’s almost 70 and on her fifth husband. But this husband is her true love, she is certain of it. Unfortunately she realizes it too late. Lulu is certain Pierce is having an affair and is set to break things off with her. Avoiding her problems as long as she can, she heads to the bar where she meets three former friends of the bride…

Four women, one murder, four confessions…

What did I think?

I love this type of story telling. Each chapter is punctuated by a police interview of one of the four women or other hotel employees or guests. You won’t find out who was the victim until close to the end, so I had quite a few theories and I thought the reveal was a lot of fun!

I heard a few reviewers complain that the women seemed a bit petty or competitive at times. This is absolutely true, but that is what made them feel authentic. Frankly, who doesn’t have moments where we feel less than someone else and worry about justifying that what we have and who we are is good enough? These feelings are often self-imposed, and I liked that LaManna showed that they all felt this same worry that they were less than.

I also loved how they each grew to appreciate what they do have and how others might envy it. For instance, Kate has all of the beauty, money, and success, but she can’t get pregnant. This is a problem that money can’t fix, and so all of the things Kate has achieved feel meaningless when she sees others with children. Ginger feels like she can barely make ends meet, but then she realizes she has a man who loves her and three beautiful children. Emily holds onto her pain, convinced she is the problem. And eventually, she realizes that it isn’t her that is the problem. She didn’t cause these things, and she needs to stop feeling guilty.

Then there are the two other characters who are central but not part of the college friends—Lulu and Sydney. Lulu was probably my favorite character in some ways, a woman who fought her way into a string of marriages that paid off, and now is truly in love and worried she’ll lose him. Sydney is a young mother they meet in the bar with her baby Lydia. I really was curious and Sydney and she ends up being a really interesting part of the story as the book goes on. Lots of interesting tidbits in the story about Sydney, but you’ll have to read it to find those out!

The books stays light and breezy, and though the murder is central to the investigation, the true story is about these four women. Who are they, what drives them, how do we see them grow throughout these events, and what happened to make each of them confess? This is a great vacation read. I flew through it and I enjoyed the mix of drama and suspense. I loved it!

About the Author

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Gina LaManna has also called Italy and Los Angeles home. At the moment she lives nine blocks from the beach and sometimes runs marathons. After studying numbers and equations in college, she realized multiple choice tests were “just not for her” and began writing books instead. She loves cappuccino foam and whipped cream and would subsist solely on sprinkles if possible. She has one imaginary dog.

Gina also writes the Mini Pie the Spy! books, under pen name, Libby LaManna, a children’s series featuring an over-enthusiastic little detective, similar in style to Junie B. Jones.

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