This was a clever thriller. I like the idea of blackmailing the blackmailer and books with cunning strategies always keep my interest. There are quite a few twists and turns in the story and they work really well.

I’ve just finished reading this book
Imagine you’ve been keeping a deadly secret since you were a teenager and one day an enigmatic stranger turns up at your best friend’s book club. Starting a game of Never Have I Ever with the intention of blackmail. You pay her and she’ll disappear and keep your secret. How far would you go to save yourself?
This book started slow and got better and better the more I read. I devoured the last few chapters keen to get to the end.
Whilst the ending was no huge surprise as I had guessed what was coming it didn’t detract from my enjoyment.
This is the 1st book I’ve read from this author and I will be seeking out more.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley, Edelweiss and publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc in exchange for an honest review.

What a refreshing thriller this was! I requested this ARC mainly because I have a real thing for thrillers based around games and/or two people psychologically battling each other. This book mentions having both of those things in the blurb but the game aspect is very downplayed in reality. It's almost a shame because it's clearly used as a gimmick to draw people in (and it works) but there is enough going on in this story that the tenuous link to 'Never Have I Ever' is a bit of a baffling one. Calling the book and the game 'The Worst Thing I Ever Did' would be more accurate and is still intriguing enough in my opinion.

Thankfully as mentioned, this book has enough going on that I didn't even mind about the misnamed game. The plot is a new woman moves to a neighbourhood and tries to blackmail our protagonist over an event which happened years ago. You find out extremely quickly what said event was and indeed, the first half of the book is a very unusual reading experience. I was frankly a bit bored during it since there is almost no effort made to build tension. Anytime there is any sort of mystery, you are handed the answer almost immediately without any fanfare. There is also an annoying thing where our blackmailer (Roux) constantly compliments our protagonist (Amy) on how clever and unlike other housewives she is. I get what the author was going for but it wasn't done particularly well.

Having said all that, at almost exactly 50% of the way through there is a spanner thrown into the plot and I got my first big surprise of the book. I did not see this first twist coming and instantly my interest was reignited. Honestly I feel like this was the real start of the book and it's a shame it came so late because I was utterly hooked after that. It was genuinely brilliant to be surprised by this book not once but twice, and both surprises had the added bonus of not being completely ridiculous.

I mentioned right at the start that this thriller was refreshing and that is mostly down to the originality. Amy is a scuba diver and this is woven very well into the story to both add to her character and create some nice plot moments. She was utterly believable as a character to me and was much more dimensional than most thriller protagonists. I also fell in love with the relationship she had with her stepdaughter, which was far stronger than that to her husband in my opinion. The other characters were flatter but still reasonably fleshed-out and compelling to read about.

Overall, this was a really solid thriller after the halfway point. If I was just rating the second half, it would be a 4 star easily but I did knock some off for the somewhat dull opening. However, I was very impressed by the characterisation and it was brilliant to read a thriller that felt more unique.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did! It really isn't my kind of fiction (so I believed) but after a while I found it very difficult to put down. A very good read which kept me guessing until the last few pages. Excellent!

I loved this thriller! It was a bit slow at the beginning, but it became a really surprising story with a lot of twists and turns. It's exactly what I wish from a thriller. Perfect summer read, highly entertaining, no violence & very clever.
Totally recommended. I'll definitely look for Jackson's books from now on.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I started reading this book, I thought to myself “here we go again, I can see where this is going” but the writing was so engaging and fluid I just kept on reading and was really surprised by how the story went. It was really original and unexpected which made it really rewarding. Nevertheless the ending felt lukewarm and anticlimactic. This book is still a good beach/commute read worth a try.

This was a gripping read... from the outset the sense of danger pervaded and the tension hung on until the end. My favourite kind of thriller, not violent but just clever and unexpected. Great read - thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to read the book. First by the author. Good storyline once it gets going

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. This is the first book I have read by this author and was really surprised. A smart read and would recommend.

Never Have I Ever is the first Joshilyn Jackson book I've read, and although I found it quite slow at the beginning it turned into an enjoyable read with plenty of twists. Didn't see the final twist coming at all! Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I Have to confess that I do have older books screaming out to be read, but this caught my eye and I couldn’t wait to start it!!

Amy and her husband have a happy life bringing up his teenage daughter Madison and their son Oliver. Amy helps her friend and neighbour Charlotte run the book club where local women get together more for the chat, gossip and alcohol rather than the books.

At the book club a new neighbour Roux joins in, totally taking over and getting the ladies to play “Never Have I” revealing secrets that in Amy’s case will open a whole new can of worms!! A secret that she is soon being blackmailed over.

This was a great psychological thriller, loved the cat and mouse interaction between Roux and Amy. I was totally gripped by this runaway train story with its twists that had me biting my nails.

Will be looking out for Joshilyn Jackson’s next book with bated breath.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

This is one of those books that once you start reading you just can't stop. Well that's my experience! I just had to keep reading to find out what happens and there are so many twists and turns to keep you guessing. However the ending was something I would never have been able to guess. Loved it.

This is going to be a tough one to review without giving the plot away but I shall try my best! Never Have I Ever focuses on Amy who is happy and content until Roux turns up in her neighbourhood. A complete stranger, Roux reveals that she knows Amy's awful secret from her past and she reveal it unless she gets exactly what she wants. Amy's whole world is turned upside down, she has made a lovely life for herself in her small town community but nobody knows about her past, not even her husband. So begins a cat and mouse game as Amy tries to stay ahead of Roux who is holding everything Amy holds dear in her manipulative and calculating hands.
Never Have I Ever is a great read, the plot flows perfectly and keeps you guessing. I enjoyed the many twists along the way but the final one totally threw me. I hadn't had the slightest suspicion, it was brilliant.

I think I am going to be in the minority here as I really struggled with this book and I have no idea why. I think my problem was I just couldn’t connect to the characters even though they were well written I just didn’t like any of them so much. The pace of the book I found a bit slow and I did find some of the plot a bit far fetched but there were plenty of twists that kept me guessing but I still found it a book that just didn’t keep my interest but as I say I think perhaps that’s just me and we can’t all like the same books.
So all in in I give it 3 stars and my thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing/ Raven Books for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first book I have read from Joshilyn Jackson.
Running a Book Club can have it's moments, but never have I had someone turn up and start serving the drinks to people they don't know. Maybe that is yet to happen. I have had previous members who would turn up without having read the book, or read a few paragraphs, yes not even a few chapters. Quite difficult to remain polite, but they are no longer members so problem solved. So I did feel that the members of the book group didn't really get on or respect each other's views. A new member brings a new dimension, and didn't she just.
There was plenty of suspense in the book, but too many coincidences and coincidences don't happen.
Things that are supposed to be secret and sealed seem to be anything but. OK, it is fiction, but how many times, in the UK, do you here of people leaving laptops on public transport and these hold large amounts of confidential files and that the passwords, if they have them, are weak or pasted on a post it note.
Roux is no different from those who would sleep with noted politicians in the hope of getting access to state secrets, pillow talk.
The end of the book was just a little bit far fetched but overall it was a good read.

An excellent read which keeps you intrigued to the end. Her brilliant descriptions of diving made me feel I should overcome my fears of getting out of my depth in water!

Complex, Tense and twisty. A great thriller.
Amy seems to have a near perfect life with her baby son, step-daughter and loving husband. She has a job she loves and her best friend Charlotte.
Amy has worked hard to build a life for herself while hiding a secret she thinks is long buried. Then Roux arrives and what starts with a silly drunken game threatens to ruin Amy’s life.
Roux knows Amy’s secret and she wants money to keep it but Amy isn’t willing to sit back and let Roux dictate to her. She will play Roux at her own game and fight to keep her life and family together no matter what it takes.
The only problem is that Roux plays dirty and in playing the game Amy herself could destroy everything she holds dear.
There were many twists that I didn't see coming and the ending was brilliant.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the front cover was brilliant and the blurb was intriguing. I read this book in just two sittings and was hooked from the start. I would definitely read future novels from this author.

A great suspense novel. The focus is on Amy and the dilemma she is facing with mysterious new neighbour, Roux, but skipping back to snippets of Amy's past puts her into context as an adult which I liked. Amy has a dark secret and has done some terrible things, but one of the main messages the novel sent was that everyone has a past, and we are who we are today because of a million little things that have happened to us. Or one big thing, in Amy's case.

I also felt that the novel served as a reminder that it's not our pasts that define us, but rather how we move on and learn from our mistakes. Amy has been wracked with guilt all of her adult life over 'that night all those years ago, and letting Tig take the blame, and Roux capitalises on that guilt and uses it to blackmail her. But rather than distancing herself from Roux and focusing on how they are different, she realises how similar they actually are, and it is this acknowledgement that allows Amy to triumph. Amy realises that while Roux is bitter, spiteful, and full of hate, Amy herself feels remorse and has worked to make amends.

I felt the ending was a little rushed; there didn't seem to be much of an explanation as to what happened to Luca, and no ramifications for Amy's actions, honourable as they were. There's also an awful lot of white privilege thrown around in this book - Amy would've 100% been incarcerated were it not for her parents and their money - but beneath the surface was a story about genuine personal growth and being able to let go of the person you used to be. Allowing yourself to grow and change without clinging on to the past, and understanding that every day is a new opportunity to start again.

Would recommend if you like suspense fiction and thrillers with evil female antagonists. A lot of Killing Eve vibes in this one!

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. I really enjoyed this, although felt it was probably too long, especially as it took me awhile to get into. Amy was an interesting protagonist and the story was unpredictable, making the revelations and twists and turns gripping. I'd recommend this and would be interested to read more by this author.