I enjoyed this book and would recommend it, however it was really slow burning and I feel like it cogld have been a better book/higher rated if some scenes were cut out

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

A really gripping read with lots of twists and turns, absolutely loved it. Another great read Fromm this author!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

In a time where violence against women is a hot topic, and the me-too movement is active, a book like this is very relevant. It makes you think about your own life, and look at other's lives with a better understanding. Recommended.

Thank you for providing a copy of this book for review however I was unable to open the file for this document unfortunately! Apologies.

Fab read - atmospheric and tense. Loved this book. Strong characters and loads of twists and turns to keep you guessing

Today is publication day for Christobel Kent’s new novel What We Did so I have completed reading it at the perfect time to post my review. Although, this is going to be a tough book to review without giving away any spoilers so I may be briefer than normal. (Was that a small sigh of relief I just heard?)

Let’s just take a moment to admire the cover, which was one of the things that drew my eye to it on NetGalley. I love the grey with the bright spots of orange and green. Would look fabulous on any book shelf, great cover design.

This is a psychological thriller with a tricky subject matter at its heart. Bridget is a survivor of abuse she suffered as a teenager at the hands of her violin teacher. She has built a small, safe life for herself in a provincial university city with a quiet husband and a well-balanced teenage son, running her own clothing shop and working hard to keep her demons at bay. Her husband and her son know nothing about her past and that is the way she would like to keep it so when her abuser casually walks into her store one day in the company of his latest pupil, Bridget believes her whole way of life is at risk.

When I started this book, I had a slightly jaded feeling that I knew how the story would pan out. However, I was completely wrong. Things unfold in a very unexpected way and the story goes off then at a totally different tangent and really drags you with it.

The first quarter of the book was quite slow and I did start to worry that the whole story pacing was going to be too staid to carry me to the end – I have begun to expect more flourishes from a book in this genre – but once the first pivotal act occurs, things pick up and I was totally gripped from that moment on and I ended up staying up late to finish the book. Looking back at the book as a whole, the pacing was perfect for the storyline and the nature of the characters and it was actually a refreshing change from the constant bombardment of action and tension we sometimes get. The gentle start, followed by the sudden shocking change was the perfect reflection of how Bridget’s gentle life is so immediately disrupted when her abuser reappears on the scene.

The characters that need to be sympathetic are sympathetic, the criminal perpetrators are suitably loathsome. Bridget’s sister was my favourite character, and the most complex, I believe, and I also enjoyed the way her innocuous husband’s story arc developed. There was a side storyline involving her shop assistant that I think was meant to throw Bridget’s complicated feelings about her past into relief and give her some enlightenment, but it wasn’t really well-developed enough to end up as anything but a distraction which was a little disappointing.

The main storyline was psychologically twisty enough to keep me guessing about who was involved in what. I suspected people of things they hadn’t ended up doing and didn’t guess the ending so early in the novel that it was an anti-climax when it came. All in all, I enjoyed the book and it is well worth a read. However, it does not have the jaw-dropping twists that have become the norm, this is much more a character-based novel that isn’t relying on any schlock or shock for shock’s sake that some novels in this genre do. You will have to make your own decision about whether this is a positive or negative based on your own preferences for this type of novel.

This was a fantastic book. From reading the synopsis I thought I had a basic idea of how this story would unfold, but I was wrong!
Bridget is married to Matt and they have a teenage son called Finn. One day an older man brings a young girl into Bridget’s shop. The man, Anthony Carmichael, abused Bridget when she was a child but she never told. Is this young girl his next victim? As Bridget tries to keep control of her life whilst struggling with memories from the past a journalist also seems interested in Anthony Carmichael.
I loved how this story was written and found yourself rooting for Bridget and her family. Every time I thought I knew where the story was going it surprised me by another twist. The characters were well written and constructed. I would definately read this author again.
Thanks to Little, Brown Book and Net Galley for an ARC
#WhatWeDid #NetGalley

I turned the pages quite quickly on this,and liked the story of a past child abuse victim confronting the abuser as an adult.
Throw in an investigative journalist who isn't letting go of what she thinks is a story... and it all feels like a bit of a race against time to keep a lot of things hidden.
Slightly surprising at how easily the family accept the idea of killing... But that was a tiny niggle.
All tied up neatly at the end.

This was a bit of a troubled read for me.
As a survivor of childhood abuse, I could identify very easily with Bridget. I loved that she decided to fight back and take control of her life.
The story is very well written and I enjoyed reading it.