Firstly a big thank you to the publishers for approving my request to read.

This is a book that has been on my agenda for a while. The cover itself is striking and sets the scene.

Bringing the realities of playground gossip through the wonders of modern technology. Meaning it never leaves you!

Packed with unease,tension and parental turmoil.

A great read that highlights things arent always as they seem.

Perfect for fans of lianne Moriarty

Sarah and Liza have been friends since their antenatal classes when pregnant.
Sarah makes a split second mistake that will have ever-lasting consequences for them both and their families. I liked the premise of this book interesting, but I did find it a little slow going in places.

I was looking forward to this as I thought I would be able to relate being a mum - however, I really struggled to get through this... I forced myself through to the end.

The premise is good, however, the characters are totally ridiculous. The characters all make completly stupid and unrealistic decisions based on unbelievable misunderstandings.... which quite frankly could have been solved by someone just talking to someone else like a normal human being.

The first 90% of the book is so rushed and frantic with what I supposed was meant to be fast paced action but which comes across as shallow 'she said v she said'.

The only saving point of this book is the last 10% which slows down and starts to dig deeper into the foundation of the story. This part is realy good.... I just wish they rest of the book had been like this.... what a shame!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

The Fallout
Rebecca Thornton
This was a very good read about a group of privileged “yummy-mummies” living in an upmarket area of London with a coveted school catchment area and membership only leisure centre and to “fit-in” is paramount. Their preferred method of communication is via WhatsApp groups, but different cliques have multi-groups. At the centre of the story are two best friends, close in every way but then there is an accident and one of them tells the other a lie. The consequences are far reaching, paranoia, bullying and sadness. It was quite moving at times; I could relate to the peer-pressure of the women and their children. Very well written.

A good story about friendships and what happens after an accident....where individual demons come to light.....slightly slow but a good read showing mum politics at school!

In The Fallout, Rebecca Thornton explores the complex dynamics of a group of mothers in West London. Gossip, jealousies, secrets, and lies lead to a series of misunderstandings and discord with serious consequences.

Sarah e Liza have been best friends since they were pregnant with their first child. Their friendship is tested after Liza’s son gets hurt under Sarah’s watch and an old friend comes back into their life. Sarah’s guilt over the accident and the secrets she is keeping from her best friend put a strain on their friendship and, as rumours spread and lies come to light, things spiral out of control.

Rebecca Thorton created a close-community world where everyone is judged by their looks and their choices, where gossip can destroy a friendship, where loyalties easily change. The story is entertaining, gripping, and very well-written and it alternates between Sarah, Liza, and WhatsApp groups where every parent has their own opinion and are quick to judge.

The characters feel authentic and relatable, I found them flawed, sometimes annoying, sometimes likable, the sort of people you can meet on the street or at the park. Through the characters, the author perfectly shows the difficulties of motherhood and she addresses themes of mental health and loss.

Rebecca Thornton is a brilliant author and her stories are engrossing and enjoyable (if you haven’t read her previous novels, please do!). Highly recommended!!!

I get very irritated by books about women in these kind of groups. They need to find something useful to do with their lives. Very introverted and self-centred.

Thankyou to Netgalley and the Publisher for approving me for an E-ARC to review.

Sarah and Liza became friends 5years ago only an antenatal class.

Sarah goes out with her friend to a swanky new sports centre with an outdoor playcentre. As Sarah goes to order a drink, Liza asks if she wouldn’t mind checking on her son Jack on her way back. Sarah gets distracted while looking for Jack by a woman her and Liza knew from their antenatal group 5years ago - Ella-

Sarah goes to tell Liza that she saw jack but didn’t know if he saw her and Ella butts in saying Sarah saw him and he was fine. You soon find out in WhatsApp messages and newspaper clippings that Liza’s son Jack falls from a post in the playcentre.

Throughout the book you find out Perfect Ella isn’t so perfect -Sarah is nervous due to her past and Liza has her own secrets.

I enjoyed the book while reading it but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to a friend.

Blurb:
When Sarah forgets to check on her best friend’s little boy, distraction turns to disaster. And she’s faced with a dilemma.

Tell the truth, lose a friend.
Tell a lie, keep her close.

In a split second, Sarah seals her fate. But accidents have aftershocks, and lies have consequences.
And when it’s someone else’s child, the rumours are quick to multiply.

Everyone’s talking about what happened. And sooner or later, the truth will have to come spilling out…

We all make mistakes, right?
Bt this one could ruin the perfect friendship.
I asked for a preview copy of this book from Netgalley. I'm not really sure why I asked for it. I cannot stand playground politics and this is the main theme of the story. The characters are all members of the PTA and all communicate via the group WhatsApp. These kind of things really bug me - I just can't see the point, however, to bring it into a story plot line I can see would grip a huge number of people. The story focuses on Liza and Sarah, next friends since the birth of their sons Jack and Casper, but a mistake leads to events that eventually cost the friendship. The story is good, the characters strong and likeable, and you feel for what has happened in the past, and what you are led to believe happened in the past.
It is well written, and I did enjoy it, but again like other books recently, it hasn't grabbed me in the way some do. It's taken a while to get through it, there was nothing hideously wrong with it i just think the fact the storyline wasn't for me made me reluctant to read it!
Not bad, not great, an easy read for some i'm sure but not really for me.
I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads

A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and Netgalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for a unbiased review of these works.

Review will be on my blog as part of the #BlogTour soon!

Join me at :- https://booksandemma.wixsite.com/blog

Ok, so this is another one of those books that I enjoyed a lot at the start but started to get annoying as it progressed., and I have no idea how to review it. So, apologies in advance for this review that feels like its al over the place.

So, The Fallout was an interesting read and one that I did get through quite quickly considering it was a 400+ page book. While I thought this was a well written book with a somewhat engaging plot was interesting it did get to a point where I started to lose a little interest because it felt like we were constantly being built up for a big reveal but when it finally came it was quite disappointing because it turned out not to be as big as I had already worked it out before it came.

Although the characters were well written I must admit I didn’t like them. I found them to be really annoying and they really were portrayed as your typical stuck up, rich yummy mummy types, who think are better than everyone. I really couldn’t relate to them and I actually felt sorry for their kids.

Another thing that is not sitting quite well with me is the accuracy of the aftercare treatment/services Jake is receives after leaving hospital. I know for a fact, in really life Jake would still be on a waiting list to receive his aftercare treatment/services, even if he was prioritised because the fact is the NHS services have long waiting times no matter what your needs are.

Overall this was a good book, but one that I thought could have been better, it just have been a lot better. It’s not a book I would personally re-read, but I would recommend it to others as I feel people who are parents would enjoy it much more.

I was really looking to forward to reading his book. I really enjoyed the beginning, but unfortunately it took me a while to finish. The story was a bit dragged out for me.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the addition of the WhatsApp conversations. It made it feel very realistic especially with some members having seperate conversations!
This book definitely shows how one little lie can affect others life’s and quickly escalate.

Well I managed to finish this book but sadly I did struggle with it at times. The premise sounded really good but it just didn’t have what I was looking for in a book.

I was unable to finish this book. A meandering storyline, cliched .and self absorbed characters made it an unsatisfactory read.

I have to admit that I found myself mostly bored by this. It all seemed so petty and unnecessary and a simple amount of actual communication and honesty could have made huge swathes of the events depicted here completely unnecessary. Whilst I felt that [book:Big Little Lies|33516773] made the petty playground fights and gossip entertaining, here it was just catty and rather pathetic. Everyone is just so childish; I expect these kind of back-stabbing group messages from teenagers, but from grown women it just came across as rather sad. There is clearly an attempt here to jump on the Big Little Lies bandwagon, but the reason that novel worked so well is that the author really built up to some shocking twists and turns. Here everything seems flat, the secrets aren't earth shattering and the psychological effect is nullified, turning interest into irritation. I also felt that this was too long; the cornerstone of the novel is a simple accident and there isn't enough material here to pad it out the way Thornton has. This would likely be a stronger novel with at least a hundred less pages.

As a whole, I found just about all of the characters here irritating or tedious and failed to build a connection with any of them - with the possible exception of the five year old who falls, and he gets precious little view time as the focus of the novel is very much on the mother... who are little better than children in honesty, with far less excuse. I found Sarah's actions baffling, not just at the beginning but all the way through the novel. She jumps the gun, leaps to conclusions and is so obsessed over her old friend Ella that she ignores the things that are right under her nose. Her attitude towards her friends and her husband is frankly manipulative and childish. Liza and Gav's relationship is problematic beyond belief; some things are cleared up in the later book, but you can't escape the fact that he is emotionally abusive, frequently manipulative and railroads Liza into believing her parenting is neglectful. His behaviour is actively nasty for much of the novel and Liza is like a wet blanket, constantly giving way to his demands and his temper. I disliked the attempt to 'smooth things over' at the end, as there seemed little accountability although, considering the childish behaviour demonstrated by most of the characters, perhaps this shouldn't surprise me.

A lot of the novel is based around the guilt and shame that comes not only from the accident, but also from the secrets that some of these mothers are hiding. Nobody seems to want to show weakness or ask for help. My problem is that actually very few, if any, of the characters even try to use this guilt in productive ways. For Sarah this might have involved telling the damn truth at any point in the proceedings, rather than trying to smother Liza in care to make up for the 'bad thing' she has done. For Liza it might have involved looking carefully at her own parenting, accepting what needs to change and what she is doing well, but instead she just curls up in a ball and accepts her abusive husband is right. For either of the husbands it might have involved actually communicating with the people they married, but that is too much effort; it is far easier to rant and sulk. As I said. They are all children... or they might as well have been. None of the characters really develop throughout the novel. They are all doing exactly the same stupid, idiotic or manipulative things at the end that they were doing at the beginning.

Another aspect is just how much isn't actually explained by the end - and considering that this is over four hundred pages, that's almost inexcusable. There are references made to things that are made out to be immensely important, but then you never find out what they actually are. Secrets are referenced that apparently sculpt these ridiculous characters actions, and yet when you finally discover them it's glossed over and barely looked at, let alone examined. The newspaper aspect was perhaps the bit that annoyed me most though. All the way through you get hints and snippets of interviews or correspondence, but absolutely nothing is done with it. You don't see any finished report or the responses to it, which would have likely been far more entertaining than the bitchy cattiness that you have to wade through so much of here. The investigation at the health club is the same; there is no end of gossip and speculation, but the actual event is just skimmed over. It's almost as though the author chose to actively disregard all the intelligent aspects of events and instead just hone in on the petty gossip and rumours.

So, all in all, a disappointing read. I found myself skipping ahead whole paragraphs and even pages to get to something interesting. Parts of it are just cringe-worthy, but even where Thornton is trying to depict serious issues she falls down. The characters as a whole are shallow and bitchy, utterly obsessed with themselves at the expense of everyone else around them. The narrative is far too thin on the ground to fill 430 odd pages and so you are subjected to pages and pages of mindless drivel and PTA organisation that goes nowhere. If I hadn't requested this from NetGalley, I likely wouldn't have finished it. I was bored by the 25% mark and skimming sections by the 40% mark.

So thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy of this novel but it isn't one I'd recommend.

I was interested in the premise of this novel but just didn't engage with any of the characters. I felt that it had too many threads and wasn't very believable. Sorry.

Thrillers and domestic dramas tend to be my go-to genre for reading, and so I was delighted to have the chance to read The Fallout.

A story of human error and driven by the lies told after a young child's accident, Thornton's engaging writing style and brilliant characterisation leave the reader wondering: how well do we really know those people around us?

Each of the main characters are so well rounded and realistic - really, the sort of people that we've all encountered at some point or another.

The Fallout is definitely one that I would recommend to readers who love books about motherhood and about female friendships - mixed with a good dose of drama, too.

Found this difficult to get into and then didn’t find it particularly enjoyable. The idea and plot were good but somehow the characters didn’t ring true and I found myself distracted from the story line. Sorry

Great characters and a well written story. The plot was well thought out, touching on sensitive subjects.in an understanding manner. A good read.
My thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.