Not my usual style of book, but I did enjoy this psychological thriller set at a Book Club in a small village. As predicted, all the characters had secrets which came out throughout the story, and made them suspicious. The pacing was a bit strange, and was either too slow or too fast paced. Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

Read this book so long ago and unfortunately didn’t post my review in time! Review to come, apologies for the delay

The Book Club by C. J. Cooper is a psychological thriller that follows six friends who meet regularly to discuss books. However, their seemingly innocent hobby hides a dark secret that threatens to unravel their lives. The book is fast-paced, suspenseful and full of twists and turns.

A fantastic little novel full of mysteries and intrigue. Great to see all of the secrets revealed. Thanks for the opportunity to read

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Review: The Book Club

Are you in a bookclub? This one involves murder!!!

This thriller was full of tea, manipulation, tense moments with a hint of gaslighting and also set in a very familiar setting to us all - a book club.

I really loved this concept and really enjoyed the VERY different dynamics between all the characters. The only reason this book is sitting at a 3 star rating for me was because the pacing was slightly off. I love thrillers to be fast paced page turners, but this one flicked between slow and fast which slightly ruined the experience for me.

Please check out other reviews! Im sure there are many who loved this one!

Luckily I'm quite an anti social person, so joining a book club isn't something I'd relish to do. But after this book, I will even do it less than before!

The book was very well written and flowed well. The plot was great. Everything I thought it would be from the description .

Really enjoyed this book. I raced through it, desperate to find out the big secret. Such a gripping read. Looking forward to reading more from the author!

A good thriller. Lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing. Would recommend for any fans of domestic noir.

I found this book to be really basically written and not very interesting. The characters all seemed to be pretty bland and there was nothing that made me want to keep reading. Not my kind of Domestic thriller sorry.

The book starts quite slow & until about 50% I found it a bit of a struggle as it didn't seem to be going anywhere. Once you get to this part though it definitely picks up & everything begins to fall into place!

Alice is SO creepy!! She really gave me the creeps from her first introduction & it was scary how much she managed to manipulate the others in the group! Although I'd guessed early on part of why she moved next to Lucy, there were a couple of twists towards the end which were a surprise! She was definitely hell bent on revenge 😳!

Although the book mainly focuses on Alice & Lucy, I liked that the other people in the book club, Maggie, Rebecca & Tom, had their own secrets which Alice seemed to play on! Her cleverly selected books for their monthly reads was a really interesting concept!

One issue for me was that it got confusing at times - there's multiple POV's & time jumps about all in the same chapter with no clear separation. This is just my opinion but I much prefer a new chapter for another POV & for changes in time. I just think it flows so much better 🤷🏼‍♀️

Overall a good read & definitely something I'd recommend as a good book to start with if thriller isn't your usual genre!

This was an interesting psychological thriller and really makes the reader think about who Alice is and what is her motive. Even though I don’t think the premise behind the story is an original one, I like the way the story is written. The ending is clever, with a sort-of cliff-hanger, but all in all a good read.

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Books but I am afraid this was not quite what I expected.
The idea appealed to me, a murder in a book club, great I thought, lots of twists and turns. But this was so slow and to be honest a bit boring.
Really not for me and I cannot recommend.

Dear Little Brown.

Firstly, thanks very much for the opportunity to read and review this title.

Unfortunately, I just wanted to let you know that I won't be reading and reviewing this title due to the large number of titles that I currently have on my shelf, and my inability to read them all. For this reason, I've decided to tidy up of my Netgalley shelf and I won't be able to read and review this title for you as I had hoped to do.

I hope to be able to read and review further titles for you in the future, and I wish both you and the author every success with this release.

Thanks and Regards
Kim

The idea of this book really appealed to me! A murder within a book club - right up my street, BUT it was not the exciting book I expected. It was so slow moving, and it seemed petty, or something, I can't put my finger on why I didn't love it, it did not do it for me at all.

So, I enjoyed this book. It was intriguing and very easy to read. Plus, I love anything with a bookish theme! I have two main bugbears with this book though. 1. None of the characters were actually likeable and 2. It’s billed as having ‘a killer twist’ and, on reflection, I am not sure it really did. All in all, a perfectly enjoyable read, but not one I’ll be raving about from the roof tops. That Alice though, what a psycho!!

Overall I really enjoyed this book, it was fairly light and easy to read but there are a lot of characters to keep track of which was confusing at times, It starts off being a little odd which is intriguing and draws you in well but about two thirds through it became a little flat and the ending is unbelievable when a million things could have gone. wrong everything just falls perfectly into place.

The story is told from a number of different perspectives, adding more interest to the book. Each character has their own secrets, just like in real life, but one of them knows more than she should in the end and tries to destroy the whole book club.

I loved the idea of a murder within a book club, the idea of deliberately picking books to represent each character own lives and make them uncomfortable and cause arguments between the group was great.

A nice, fairly quick read that is enjoyable and engaging.

Lucy has just moved to a small village in the Cotswolds to make a new start. Shortly afterwards another newcomer arrives who soon makes her presence felt. Lucy’s new friends are all harbouring their own secrets, so sparks soon fly. Despite how interesting the blurb sounded, the reality was different. There was no mystery so reading it was like going through the motions to see how it would pan out. I don’t really like books which are so predictable early on and then waiting for the characters to catch up. If only they actually spoke to each other then it would all have been done and dusted much earlier! It was well written and it was, if not engrossing then interesting enough to finish.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
Some good ideas behind this story but the reality wasnt great as it fell quite flat. The writing was confusing at times and went in circles frsutratingly.
An OK read.