Thankyou to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author, Vikki Patis, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of The Diary in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I jumped at the chance to review this book when I read the premise of the storyline. It sounded so promising. The Diary certainly delivers.
The storyline was well written with engaging and realistic characters. I was hooked on the rollercoaster ride of a plot.
Worth the late night to read this book.

Enjoyed this twisty tale, great characters and a tense storyline that kept me turning the pages.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

When one friend dies but leaves a diary of all of your past transgressions the old adage of, "2 can keep a secret if one of them is dead" is no longer true. Fast paced thriller.

This book didn't grab me for awhile but when it did I enjoyed it. I think I would have liked it even more if I was younger.

Good read. Recommend.

I enjoyed this book. But it took a little getting into - don’t give up. This is a great story, well written and a page turner.
4/5 on goodreads

I enjoyed this book but it didn’t blow me away. The plot was good but I felt it dragged a bit and was a bit contrived. However the author perfectly captured that feeling of being a teenager, with your group of friends and the rights of passage we all went through, or at least I did! I also enjoyed the setting as I used to live close to the town they grew up in. You never really know who your friends are!

i quite liked the story and the matters which were presented, found them very interesting!

the whole book kept my interest throughout and had me guessing until the very end! Lots of twist and i must admit that this is a quite dark book!

Will be definitely waiting for the author's next book!

Secrets, secrets and more secrets! This book is packed full of surprises. Vikki Patis does a fantastic job of capturing teenager drama that goes terribly wrong.

Is it possible to run away from your past or is it going to resurface to haunt you no matter how long it has been? Lauren is soon to find out the answer to that as she returns to her small home town. This is a fantastic debut psychological thriller that addresses some serious issues. We are allowed into the past and the present with alternating chapters helping us fill in the gaps of what had happened all those years ago.

Even though this is a slow burn for me, it kept me interested the entire time. I found it to be a very realistic portrayal of issues that teenagers face each day. The mean girl drama, suicide, trying to fit in, gossip and secrets spread that can destroy lives. Underage drinking, parties and much more. As adults these girls are trying to come to terms with their past and things they have done. Can someone really change?

This book hooked me from the start and kept me intrigued the entire way. So excited she has a new book coming out March 8th! Count me in for that one!

Lauren returns home after 10 years on the death anniversary of her best friend Hannah. However on return she starts to receive threatening text messages along with the rest of her friends. When Lauren finds Hannah’s diary she realizes that all of them had secrets to hide and maybe she didn't really know her Hannah after all

The Diary by Vikki Patis is a slow building thriller going back and forth between the past and the present that definitely has a “Pretty Little Liars “ theme to it. A few twists and turns but not exactly a psychological thriller as the antagonist was easy to guess and not too much of a suspense./

I would like to thank Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

Many thanks to Vikki Pattis and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this book. The Diary was an intriguing and dark read. Touching on teenage suicide and retribution the reader may be uncomfortable at times but unable to put the book down. Vikki handles the subject well, leaving the reader relating to the main character Lauren throughout the book. One to read and I'll definitely be looking out for another by this author.

he Diary is a atmospheric slow-burner of a novel that is full of suspense but also an enjoyable, easy read – it would be perfect to take on holiday and completely lose yourself in!

The characters are a real mix – though some are less likable than others, all are entertaining to read about and Lauren herself seems like a great character. Her sister Hannah – who we only learn about through Lauren’s memories and some limited diary entries – seemed to be a tricky character when she was alive; many aspects of her personality jarred with me, but she had her own problems which I like – none of the characters are too black and white or overly simplified. I think that Vikki Patis has a great knack for creating realistic characters who you can imagine as actual people.

The plot is packed full of secrets and mystery, which I really liked; there are also some really complex issues laid out within The Diary’s pages. I don’t want to give too much away about the story, but I’m sure a lot of readers – especially females – can probably relate to at least some of the experiences that Lauren, Hannah, and their friends talk about or experience. It also had some great pop-culture references, and with Lauren being a similar age to me I recognised lots of references from films and TV programmes that I loved growing up, which was an added enjoyable element.

This was a fun, easy read with a definite touch of darkness lurking underneath the drama. I raced through it in no time and would definitely read future novels by Vikki Patis

Lauren left home as soon as she could after Hannah died, She never visited. It's been ten years since Hannah's death and Lauren returns home for Hannah's memorial service. Upon returning, she begins to receive text messages. After learning all of Hannah's friends have been getting them, they try to figure out who wants their secrets known.

The book flipped between the past and present. It honestly reminded me of Pretty Little Liars, with the mysterious messages being sent anonymously threatening to tell secrets. The storyline was good but I felt like there were a lot of characters and I found myself flipping back in the story to double check who was who.

The book has great bones and it is a good story. It just got a little muddled in the middle. It is worth a read. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Pattis in the future.

I was really looking forward to this book after being intrigued by the premise. Unfortunately, I don't feel that it lived up to expectations overall, I was a bit disappointed.

Lauren was happy with her partner in Cornwall. She had tried to forget her hometown & the unhappy memories it brought. However when she receives an invitation to a memorial service for her step sister who died ten years ago she decides, if only for the sake of her father, she has to go.

Hannah & Laurel had been very close as Lauren grew up.In many way she filled the gap left after her mother died even though Hannah was only a few years older. Almost as soon as she arrives home she receives some strange texts hinting at things she has tried to keep hidden. As she makes contact with those she used to be friends with & with Hannah's old friends she finds that everyone seems to have a guilty secret. Does Hannah's diary explain things? Lauren faces her old fears to find the truth.

This was an atmospheric read that kept me guessing. I loved Lauren's relationship with her father & I found her an interesting character. The book kept me guessing. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

If there’s one thing this Ginger Book Geek likes, it’s discovering new authors and Vikki Patis is certainly a new author to me. I read the synopsis for ‘The Diary’ and it sounded like just my kind of read. I couldn’t wait to start reading. Oh my word, ‘The Diary’ is one fantastic book and I had real trouble believing that it was Vikki’s debut novel, as it is so well written and polished. I absolutely loved reading ‘The Diary’ but more about that in a bit.
I have to be honest and say that I didn’t take to any of these characters but then I didn’t exactly hate any of them at the same time. There was something not quite right about a couple of the characters but I wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was and I can safely say that I wouldn’t trust said characters as far as I could throw them. I was intrigued as to why Lauren was so reluctant to go back to her home town. I thought that there had to be more to it and there was. Lauren seems particularly haunted by what she experienced in her home town but it isn’t immediately obvious what is haunting her. Bit by bit, the truth begins to emerge and it was more shocking than I had imagined. Lauren doesn’t seem to have many if any friends and she has kept those she knew from her home town at arms length and then some for a matter of years. It’s as if Lauren has imposed self isolation in a way although she does have a partner, who she is very happy with but even then Lauren hasn’t told her partner the full story. So Lauren is definitely keeping secrets, she is lying and she wants to hide from her past.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, I had a very hard time believing that this was Vikki’s debut novel, as her writing is so polished and she writes in a very confident manner. ‘The Diary’ is very well written. The author’s writing style is such that she engages you from the first word on the first page and much like a fisherman reeling in a catch, the author reels you in and before you know it you are hooked (no pun intended). I found that ‘The Diary’ kept my attention all the way through, which is unusual for me. I usually have the attention span of a gnat and my mind wanders half way through but not with this book it didn’t. I think that could partly be because there was that much going on in the story that I didn’t want to miss a thing and so I couldn’t break off from reading. I didn’t realise just how quickly I was reading this book until I happened to look up from my Kindle to see that I had read 43% of the book. I was loving everything about the book from the writing to the storylines to the characters and so on and so forth. I desperately tried to ration how much I read at once because I didn’t want to finish the book too quickly. That intention soon went out of the window because I found it nigh on impossible to put the book down. If I did have to put the book down for any reason, then I looked forward to picking the book back up again. Another thing I liked about this book was the fact that it felt as though I was catching up with some major gossip. Let’s be honest and say who doesn’t like finding out gossip and realising that some characters are not as good as they think that they are?
Reading this book was much like being on a very scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with more twists and turns than you would find on a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ board. There were also some shocks and surprises along the way that crept up on me unexpectedly and left me speechless (that doesn’t often happen) or left me feeling as though I had been punched in the gut.
To conclude, I absolutely, totally and utterly adored reading ‘The Diary’. I love a good psychological thriller that messes with your head a fair bit and challenges your beliefs or preconceived ideas. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers.. I can’t wait to read what Vikki comes up with next and here’s hoping that we don’t have too long to wait. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a whoppingly well deserved 5* out of 5*.

This was a good read. It reminded me of the show Pretty Little Liars. I liked that the main character was in a same sex relationship even though it's not a huge part of the story.
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This was not my cup of tea which I why it has taken me so long to write a review.
I loved the cover and the storyline really appealed to me. It just had too many charecters for me to keep up comfortably.
Lauren goes back to her home town on the 10 year anniversary of Hannah’s death. She finds Hannah’s diary - Full of secrets - including why Lauren left. But someone else knows too.....
Some difficult subjects are covered sensitively and it was really well written - I always like a story that moves between time frames. For me too many similarities to other books out there though. Worth a read.

I always want to love every book I read because I can only imagine how much work is needed and how an author wants to please the readers. Nobody likes their 'baby' not to being liked, but unfortunately I have to admit this one was not my cup of tea.

I loved the cover and I was really looking forward to reading it, but there were so many characters that it became confusing. Somehow I could not seem to remember who was who.

I liked the way the story had alternating chapters in the 'now' and 'then' and I did not mind it being slow paced. I do feel that when the tension started to build up, it was not exactely the kind of plot I was waiting and hoping for.

I had the feeling that I did not know a lot more at the end of the book than what I knew at the beginning.

The pattern reminded me of 'Pretty little liars' and there was a feeling of suspense the whole way through. Here it felt like sometimes I did not remember what it was all about. I thought the title would explain everything, but I was kept hanging.

In my opinion it was a story full op potential, but it was not up my alley. I would suggest you read the book by yourself and make up your own mind.

I, for sure, am looking forward to reading the next book written by this author. This one gets 3 stars.

Thank you, Vikki Patis, Bookouture and Netgalley.

Loved it, had me at the edge of my seat. Super enjoyable read! Will look out for this author again! Thank you for letting me review

Really struggled with this book
I am sad to say that it failed to grasp my attention so it sits partly read in my library