I wasn't sure how to rate this because even though I marked it 'novella' it's more like a prologue for what I believe to be a predator and probably psycho giving the beginning of his fantasies a first try and honing his skills - testing to see if he can get away with preying on the innocent. Conrad, probably in his 30's, systematically picks out a very shy college girl that he hones in on in a coffee shop. His every move is calculated, preying on her timidity, her uncertainty and passing himself off as harmless. He eventually gets her to come to his house after first having taken her out on what seems like a real date and then, with a little trust established and also having thrown her off balance, he sets the second date at his home where he sees how far he can manipulate her through facade and self-questioning to do sexual things. And that's really all there is to the story, thus why I would usually expect it to be a prequel at the beginning of the real book, The Abducted.
I cannot state for sure, but I pretty much see Conrad as a sociopath, maybe a serial rapist or serial killer in training. One thing is for sure, he has been thinking about acting out for awhile and the girl in the story, Ellie, is more like a short experiment to get his feet wet so to speak.
If read by itself, it's quite an unfinished piece but now that I've started The Abducted, which starts with the heroine already having come into contact with him and having escaped, I'm kind of cringing about when he's going to back into the picture and what he's finally turned into. So, if read alone, Conrad's First Girl comes off with no real conclusion or 'finished story', but if read as just as a warm up to the actual novel, I think it probably comes in pretty handy, maybe a necessity (as I'm not that far into The Abducted) so I'm going to leave it at 3 stars and see where the novel itself leads me.
One thing is for sure - he's creepy as fuck and definitely not a good guy. Stranger Danger all the way!