You know you are in the hands of a master storyteller when you read a book in a non-favorite genre, just because you have liked other books from the author, and you absolutely love EVERY SINGLE PAGE!

Amy Whey lives a happy, but quiet, life when trouble walks into her living room. A charismatic new neighbor who hijacks the book club getting everyone drunk and playing a version of Never Have I Ever. From the moment Roux walks through the door, Amy knows her secrets are under attack and her happy life threatened. Twist after surprising twist will keep those pages turning until the final resolution. Highly recommended!

Joshilyn Jackson writes such rich scenes, characters, and ultimately storylines. This one will keep readers flipping pages well into the night.

Amy, a diving instructor, lives in Florida with her husband, step-daughter and baby, Oliver. She has a lovely house, a wonderful family and a best friend, Charlotte close by. She and Charlotte run a book club together and one night, their sedate chat is interrupted by the arrival of Roux, a woman who has recently moved into the street. Rouz is a sexy, glamorous alpha woman who subtly takes over the evening, leading the group into a game of Never Have I Ever revealing secrets and scandals. For Amy, this is the worst thing that can happen – she has an awful secret in her past and Roux is about to uncover it.

This is a great psychological thriller with two strong females at its centre. There is a cat and and mouse game between Roux and Amy, with the former toying with Amy. She threatens to reveal all to Amy’s husband unless Amy pays her off. really enjoyed the interplay between the two women and how they circled one another both trying to win a battle of wits. They are more than a match for one another, choosing to hit each other where it hurts and be more conniving than the other to get on top.

Flashbacks to Amy’s past bring us up to speed with the darkness she is hiding and unlike other books where the reveal is protracted, we find out relatively quickly. The point isn’t to work out what happened but to see how Amy will get out of this situation against an adversary like Roux who will seemingly stop at nothing to get her way.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some thrills and spills along the way – it is a psychological thriller after all. I read this at the same time as a friend of mine and we sent more than one text to each other exclaiming at some of the developments. It is intricately plotted and has a unique writing style which I admit took me a while to get my head into – I very nearly abandoned it a couple of chapters in but I am pleased I persevered.

Never Have I Ever is dark and dangerous and I really enjoyed reading about two complex women who are pushed to their limits. The strong characterisation combined with the plot make this a page turner of a book – I just had to know what happened next.

I enjoyed reading this book. I am reviewing an advanced copy and this has been on my list for a while. Some parts were a little slow but the ending made it completely worth it! Also enjoyed reading about scuba diving and how that played into the plot.

I was only given access to the first chapter of this book and I was definitely intrigued. The mystery is set up well, although the descriptions in the first chapter were sometimes excessive, I’m reserving judgment on that since until I read the full book as those descriptions may prove important to the book as a whole. The narrator was definitely an interesting voice and hard to read, which makes for an excellent set up for a thriller.

Thank you netgalley! I got just the first chapter preview but a as lucky enough to grab the ebook from my library right away.


Story: During the monthly mommy book club meeting, the new airBnB resident, Roux, stops by. She ends up taking over the whole club by playing a twisted version of “never have I ever”. Roux is after one person at that club, Amy Whey. And Amy has dark secrets that she’s spent years hiding.


Thoughts: I literally loved this read. The author has a wonderful way of ending each chapter with one simple sentence that makes you want to keep going. It had such good twists and was an addictive read. I even enjoyed how she learned to deep-water dive so she could write about it authentically.

An intriguing extract, but with so many good books on the market I'm not sure it was interesting enough to tempt me to buy the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this extract in exchange for an honest review.

I am fairly new to NetGalley and didn't realize that an extract meant I was only getting a sneak peek. I am very much looking forward to reading this book and so prefer to hold out and purchase the full copy. Thanks NetGalley!

I read this in one straight sitting. I had to keep going to know what happened in the end and I wasn’t prepared to wait to find out.

Amy Whey is loving her life. She’s the epitome of a middle class mum. She lives in suburbia with her steadfast if unexciting husband Davis, their new son, Oliver and Davis’ daughter and her step-daughter, Maddy. Amy teaches diving at the local school but is on maternity leave.

Her best friend Charlotte lives nearby and together they have a group of friends who get together at Amy’s house for a regular Book Club.

When we meet Amy it is Book Club night and she is looking forward to an evening with the girls. Then her world changes. A newcomer to the area, a single mother, renting a house locally arrives and asks to join the club. And just like that, it as if the Garden of Eden has been infiltrated by the poisonous snake.

Roux is slinky, dangerous and attractive. She has a certain something that makes men want her and women envy her. And she has an agenda. That agenda is Amy. Because Amy has secrets and Roux is going to make her pay to keep them quiet.

Told entirely from Amy’s perspective, Never Have I Ever is a fast paced thriller that takes two strong characters, both women, and pits them against each other in a battle of wills where only one can be the victor.

Jackson’s writing is spot on. Pacy, biting, and wholly character driven, she writes characters that get inside your head and whose actions you can’t predict but you can certainly understand.

This is sharp, focussed and intelligent prose that takes you in directions you didn’t know existed and thrills you all along the way.

In a fight for everything she holds dear, Amy must prove herself to be a stronger adversary than Roux, and it could cost her everything to do that. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she needs to pin that snake down and get rid of its poison.

Jackson’s plot is terrific; original and compelling it had me engrossed and I had no idea how it was going to end, though I guessed it would be explosive and goodness me, wasn’t it just!

Verdict: A terrific, exciting, thrill of a read that you won’t be able to put down.

his book was an average read. I had been expecting more but it was still an ok book.
Writing style and pace were of average quality
An ok book

Fantastic. A little slow at first but then it really grabs your attention. Secrets, lies, blackmail, perversion, alcohol, drugs, love (wholesome and not so much), surprises!! Couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

It was supposed to be book club meeting for suburban moms. But this evening, a new woman appears. Instead of commenting about the book, though, Roux seems to have other plans. And this is how an innocent game of Never Have I Ever will turn into a great threat for Amy. Because Amy has done something very wrong in the past. And it's about to be exposed.

Never have I ever is a psychological thriller about secrets, the past, and what it can all lead to in the future. Joshilyn Jackson reminds us that whatever we do, the past will be there, and no secret can stay safe forever. Although the setting starts safe enough, things get dangerous very soon. Fast-paced, Never Have I Ever is quite an amusing read, which makes it ideal for a summer read.

I received a complimentary copy of a teaser Never Have I Ever (extract) from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Wow! From what I have read, I will definitely reading the rest of this book. I felt helpless as the new neighbor completely hi-jacked the Braindead Mommies Book Club night. I can't wait to see what unfolds! (I may have rated it higher if I had been able to review the whole novel. I also cannot recommend it to my students until I see what events may occur.)
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this EXTRACT of Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson.

Roux is new to bookclub. Not fitting the suburban mom model that most of the other attendees fit, she immediately attracts attention and is able to get the ladies drinking enough to confess some of their darker secrets. But Amy is on to her. She will not be participating in the game because she never wants a soul to know the worst thing she has done. Unfortunately, Roux already knows her secret, and will do everything she can to use it to her advantage.

Even though I was only offered an excerpt of this book, I continued listening to it through Overdrive. But now I'm halfway through and I'm done. I was initially very intrigued, but I just can't stand the never ending cat and mouse dialogue. I mean honestly ladies, just make out and get it over with. Otherwise let's move on. Nah, not for me.

I couldn't get file to open on my Kindle or my Kindle app on my phone so unfortunately I could not read and review the extract..

Intriguing, suspenseful, fast-paced, witty, and very mysterious! Can’t wait to read the entire thing! Only giving it 4 stars because I haven’t read it in its entirety

This extract was a tantalising peek at what I fully expect to be an enthralling thriller.
A ho-hum suburban mummies book group turns interesting when mysterious and glamorous new neighbour Roux appears on the doorstep. The sense of malice grows as she leads the ladies into an adult variant of the titular children's game. While the other ladies giggle and bicker as they get progressively more inebriated, Roux's psychological laser is definitely trained on the host and central character, Amy. Clearly, Amy has something from her past that she doesn't want to emerge, and Roux knows exactly what it is...
Having read the page-turning extract in super-quick time, I'm now desperate to see how the story unfolds. Even in the space of this extract, the emerging complexity of the characters and the foreshadowing of drama have me hooked.
Thank you to Netgalley, Joshilyn Jackson and the publishers, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) and
Raven Books, for the opportunity to read this extract.

Very good story, I was very involved but disappointed to find out that the 2nd half of the story was missing.
This seemed to be a good book, only wish I had the entire novel to read.

Thank you to the publisher Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the partial copy to review.

An extract of this book was all I received through NetGalley, but what an opening! Never have I ever . . . read such afully-executed air of menace in such a cozy domestic setting. Wow!

When the neighborhood book club gets together at Amy's house, Char leads the discussion of the selected book, everyone has some snacks and maybe a little wine. The meeting usually lasts about a hour and everyone goes back to their normal life until the next meeting. Things drastically change when a newcomer to the neighborhood, Roux, decides to join the ladies. Roux is beautiful, insightful and immediately takes control of the meeting. As Roux introduces herself to the group, she walks around the room filling wine glasses and engaging each individual in animated conversations. Char's discussion is quickly forgotten as most of the group has to head home. A few women are left as Roux suggests that they play a game, Never Have I Ever, an adult version. Aided by the over indulgence of alcohol, lips were loosened and secrets were shared. When Roux challenges Amy to reveal the worst thing she has ever done, Amy knows that Roux has information that can impact her orderly and almost perfect life. I was hooked from the beginning of the book, but unfortunately the copy I received did not include the remainder of the story. I can't wait to finish this exciting, psychological thriller. Thank-you to Netgalley, Bloomsbury (Raven Books) and Joshilyn Jackson for the extract ARC in exchange for a honest review.