Cover Image: You Are Not Alone

You Are Not Alone

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Member Reviews

Absolutely brilliant! Couldn't put it down! Shay'thought her luck was in meeting the Moore sisters and each move they made kept you thinking ..what's going to happen next .... I really didn't expect the ending either!!!!! Well done! One of the best books I've read!

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Shay Miller is standing on the subway platform at 33rd Street. She is next to a woman, whom she later comes to know as Amanda. Amanda jumps in front of the train just as it pulls in. She dies and Shay is of course devastated. She can’t get her out of her mind, so after a little digging she discovers who she is and where her memorial service will be held. She attends and it is there that she encounters Amanda’s social group and sisters, Cassandra and Jane Moore, who seem to be the leading lights of her friendship group.

The sisters feel like one entity, righting wrong where they can – the proverbial batwomen of Gotham, perhaps. But of course they are not fictional characters (well, they are, if you know what I mean) who are flesh and blood wielders of power. They are groomed, generous and true Manhattanites (oh, if you only knew their backstory!). They appear as an amorphous and Svengali-like entity, turning up together, keeping the group of friends corralled and focussed. Shay finds them compelling and is utterly drawn to them.

As there are 175,000 people per square mile in Manhattan with 472 subway stations, what is the chance that the sisters just happen appear when Shay is on the verge of a breakdown, following Amanda’s death, just at the entrance to a subway station. She has struggled to venture into the subway since Amanda died. The chances of them turning up just at that specific moment are….? From that point on, Shay is in thrall. It also seems that she is building an obsession about Amanda which people are beginning to notice. She has after all turned up at Amanda’s workplace to elicit information about the whereabouts of her mother, she has left a Zinnia on the doorstep of her erstwhile apartment and gradually, with changes in her hair and attire she is starting to look uncannily like the deceased. Do the sisters need Shay more, or does she need them more?

The writing partnership works very well. The prose is crisp and well laid out. The story flat lined a little about 2/3rds of the way through (just too many characters vying for attention) but then it took off again and hurtled to its conclusion. I enjoyed the pace and the well plotted storyline and there was a good sense of the city.

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This is the second book I've read by this duo, and there's just something not quite working for me. Having read An Anonymous Girl not that long ago, I found this very similar in style - a vulnerable character being emotionally manipulated by mysterious women.

Shay is kind of tragic to begin with - lonely and kind of just meandering aimlessly through life. But after witnessing a suicide at a subway station, she finds herself drawn to the woman, which leads to her getting involved with some of her friends. As the story develops, the nature of this relationship becomes more and more questionable and strange things start to happen to Shay.

One issue I had with this is that while there is certainly an element of suspense, there weren't any thrills! Which is a little disappointing from a thriller. It's in the name! The supposed twist at the end can barely even be called that because even if we hadn't already guessed what it was, it wasn't a very exciting one anyway. To be brutally honest, I couldn't have cared less.

I liked Sean a lot - loyal friends are my favourite type of character. I empathised with Shay's desire to establish friendships but her naivety became frustrating as the story progressed and the things she was letting slide became increasingly unbelievable. Her strength of character didn't make an appearance until the last 10% of the book so it was hard to like her for the most part purely because of her reluctance to open her freakin eyes!!

I realise that all of that makes it sound like this was a dreadful book but it was actually quite fun to read most of the time, it just felt far too familiar and got far too frustrating to recieve a higher rating.

Massive thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the free review copy!

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I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a woman who witnesses a suicide on the subway in New York city and ends up almost living the deceased woman's life.
Shay Miller, data analyst and lonely collector of random statistics, picks up something the woman dropped before she jumped in front of the train. From then on Shay's life will become a lot more exciting, but not in a good way.
She meets Cassandra and Jane Moore and suddenly Shay finds herself with a social life, friends and people who are looking out for her. Or are they?
Shay becomes dependent upon the small group of women who work with or for the two sisters, moving apartments, getting a new job and even getting a makeover that transforms her from introvert to a more confident single woman. Yet there are one or two events that take place which cause an edge of uncertainty. Eventually trusting her doubts Shay's suspicion and paranoia leads her to delve further into her friends' lives to uncover some very disturbing connections.
The plot is fast paced and chilling. The menace emanates not from any grisly dark deeds but from a pervading sense of unease that slowly creeps upon you until it stifles the reader. You'll be looking over your shoulder, under your bed and checking your bag and mirrors!
So easy to read and well written, I can recommend this book to all those who enjoy a psychological thriller and are looking for their next fix!

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This is the thrid book I've read by this author duo and I must say I'm yet to be completely thrilled. I either don't enjoy their books or they simply middle of the road this one fell in between for me.

Shay witnesses the sucide of a young woman and the events continue to play on her mind, when she attends the young ladies memorial services she meets her friends and quickly becomes intrigued by how warm and kind they seem. Shay really could use a bunch of friends like these women or so she believes.

Throughout the novel I felt a lot of unnecessary boring stuff happened just to be page fillers and as for the women I felt like they were all written much to perfect In appearance to the point it was annoying to read about. The over all plot in this story was easy to guess and truth be told some aspects of it didn't make sense and without spoiling anything for those who want to read it I will not be going into further detail on what I mean.

If this author duo comes out with another book I may give them one more chance, we shall see.

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Really enjoyed this book. Was intriguing enough at the start for me to want to keep reading and I liked the way as the story progressed that it all started to come together. Liked the way it was written from different character points of view too. Overall, a great read.

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Another great book by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.. I really enjoyed You Are Not Alone and found that every time I had a couple of minutes free, I was picking it up to try and get a few more pages read. Twisty and full of suspense.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

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Shay is an unhappy woman with little money or prospects when she sees a woman , Amanda , jump in front of a train.
Shay goes to the memorial service almost desperate to find out what made this stranger commit suicide.
She meets the glamorous, successful Moore sisters who befriend her and somehow pull her into their inner circle.
Shay is smart but at times can be a bit gullible and the reader wants to shout out warnings to her not to trust what she is being told.
The story is told from multiple POV which is skill fully handled - not always easy to do.
I enjoyed the book and really cared about what happened to Shay.
A 4 star thriller.

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When Shay Miller witnesses a young girl falling in front of a subway train, she is traumatised and her life is forever changed. Shay is somewhat of a loner who lives in an apartment with her best friend and although she has feelings for him, he appears not to notice and brings his new girlfriend to live with him. Her life is unfulfilling and her job has no career prospects, so meeting new glamourous friends brings new excitement to her life or does it ……….
A good physiological thriller but I felt that it had a fairly predictable ending.

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This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good physiological thriller. I was hooked from the first page and did not see the end coming. I was gripped from the beginning and found this so hard to put down. I enjoyed the main character Shay and found the flow of this book really easy. I fab read which I highly recommend.

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Another excellent page turner from these authors which had me hooked from the opening pages. Of course some aspects stretched my credulity but at a time when I just needed to switch off it had just the right amount of intrigue and suspense. Very enjoyable.

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Really great story with lots of twists in it, you do get to a point where you just don't know who to trust...

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I'm still undecided about this one. I started off loving this , had me hooked and intrigued however by the second half I just felt it was getting a bit too unrealistic . The book is narrated by a few main characters which is good in theory but if you were to leave reading for a few days I expect you might get confused as to what was going on and need to read back and recap. You don't find out how the characters are linked until very late on and the ending was quite good but for me it juts didn't live up to the hype. I loved the NYC setting though and if you want a quick read then go for it.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC

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A fast paced, escapist psychological thriller. Although the narrative was a little far fetched at times, I liked the central character of Shay and her terrible predicament and will read these authors novels in the future.

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I read An Anonymous Girl and I was very excited when I saw a new novel coming. I had to read it! You Are Not Alone is a great thriller that has lots of twists, great story line and complex characters. I really enjoyed this read and look forward to more from Hendricks and Pekkanen.

Thank you NetGalley.

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A suicide observed by a fellow commuter leaving her traumatised and suffering from post traumatic stress. A group of friends desperate to hide events surrounding the suicide. A slow and intricate unfolding of a story about a dangerous alliance of women committed to seeking revenge and the unintentional involvement of a lonely and isolated individual who becomes embroiled in a heavily charged and terrifying situation. Fast paced, cleverly developed with well drawn characters results in an intriguing mystery .

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Shay Miller is book smart and has a thing for statistics, with some very fascinating excerpts throughout the book, but she is also lonely and vulnerable. Something happens to Shay one morning that will change her life, and maybe not for the better when she meets and befriends the Moore sisters.

This is my first book by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen and I loved it. To be honest, I wasn't sure at first and it took me a while to get into; but when the story started coming together, it packed a punch! This book has the right amount of guess work and intrigue. The characters are complex but brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed finding out how their stories intertwined.

It is a gripping and clever story and I would recommend it to everyone! Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy.

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I have heard a lot about the previous books by this writing duo but had never read any of them, so was excited to have the opportunity to read this. And for me it didn't disappoint. Shay is on the subway platform when she sees a woman jump onto the tracks. Compelled to find out more about the woman to deal with what she saw, Shay attends a memorial service where she is befriended by two glamorous sisters, Cassandra and Jane, friends of the dead woman, and finds herself drawn into their apparently glamorous world.

Yes it is at times far-fetched, and other than Shay and the Moore sisters, the other characters are a little under-developed, to the extent that sometimes I got a little confused over who was who in the Moore's "posse". But overall the twists and turns kept coming and I raced through the book, keen to see how it all played out. The addition of Shay's data book, in which she records some fascinating facts, is clever and provides a bit of extra interest.

I will certainly be going back and reading this talented team's previous books. Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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I really enjoyed this book! A great story line that kept me hooked and excellent main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

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3.5 stars
Whilst this was really well written, the format in which it is set out didn't work for me.
I found that knowing, mostly, what Cassandra and Jane were doing from the outset, meant that there were no surprises or even times to speculate what they were doing and why.
And when everything is revealed in the final few pages it's not particularly thrilling or surprising, as we know pretty much from the start of the story that they are up to something untoward.
I really liked and sympathised with Shay as a character and I found that her Data Book entries added a lot to getting to know more about her and how her mind worked.
But it was sometimes difficult to keep track of all the women in their Moore sisters' orbit, which made me have to rethink who was who and what their job was etc. to get back on track.
I would be interested in reading more from these authors but sadly this was just slightly above average for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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