This is a book to make you suspicious of anyone wanting to set up a book club!! And the more books they've read, the more vindictive and creative they can be with their acts of revenge so be afraid!!!

This was a really entertaining and creepy read! With a new arrival to town, the locals are all being a bit nosey and wanting to find out what they can about this newbie, and she doesn't disappoint with creating a stir in the community from the get go!

Alice is the new arrival and she seems super eager to get in with the locals straight away, and that starts with her next door neighbour Lucy. Alice seems to have that sixth sense of being in the right place at the right time to help out, and to get to know the rest of Alice and her circle of friends she suggests a book club. This just gives Alice the means to find out all their secrets and you're left wondering for what purpose and she seems hellbent on revenge!

Everybody seemingly has something to hide and Alice isn't afraid to use this knowledge to her advantage. While the plot does seem a little OTT at times, it still makes for a really entertaining read as you try and figure out the reasons behind her twisted plan!

The Book Club C.J Cooper
This book just wasn't for me. Too many characters and I just felt lost while reading it.

As soon as I saw the title, as a book lover, I knew I wanted to read it regardless of the genre or premise. Luckily, I really enjoyed it.
📚
The book follows Lucy, who has moved The Cotswolds after a failed relationship with a married man. Soon after, Alice moves in next door and sets up a book club for Lucy and her new friends. Each book that the club reads is linked to a real life secret that each of the members is hiding.
📚
I enjoyed this book as the characters were believable, as were their secrets, the relationships between them. I enjoy thrillers more when the story is realistic as it gives more of a creepy atmosphere and so this one ticked all the boxes for me.
📚
Their wasn't a huge twist but the link between Alice and Lucy had me guessing the entire book. It was written in a very 'easy read' kind of way, which meant that I finished it in 3 sittings.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Brilliant debut novel!
📚
@TheCrimeVault @CJCooper_author @BethWright26 #thebookclub #cjcooper #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bibliophile #bookblog #bookreview #debutnovel #netgalley @netgalley

I was completely hooked from the first page! Thrumming with tension and disturbingly creepy, a fantastic thriller that will have you checking your door locks.

This was definitely a slow burner.
I struggled to get into this book, but I stuck with it. I'm pleased I did as by the time I was about 30-40 per cent in I was hooked. I was desperate to know what was up with Alice. What was her problem? Was she really strange? Or was it all in Lucy's head?

The ending was very far-fetched - something that made me remove a star from my rating. It just wasn't plausible whatsoever.
I also found the ending to be really rushed. Considering how long it took to actually get into the plot, it all wrapped up rather quickly and conveniently. So I was disappointed by the ending.

The characters in this book were great, and I felt really invested in them - I just found the plot to be lacking in places.

Novel set in a bookclub - tick
A small town with small minded people, an outsider and a strange postman.... tick
Secrets floating around on the air...tick

I did find some of the secrets strange = someone sleeping with a married man is awful but the way the woman reacts is a bit OTT? The writing jumps around a bit which is confusing and jarring .

I expected it to be more of a thriller than it was. Good but disappointing.

Full of compelling characters, wonderfully descriptive prose and the ever-growing tension that permeates every page, this is a lushly impressive debut.
Willowcombe has been transformed from a picturesque Cotswold tourist village into a claustrophobic hotbed of secrets and lies, manipulated by the book's dark anti-heroine.
This is a complex and deeply disturbing novel of revenge written with haunting elegance.

The book club is a story which follows 4 friends in a sleepy English town who befriend the newcomer to town. They all have their secrets and they all have to pay.
The main character is Lucy, she's not the kind of character I immediately warmed to though the more you learn about her, the more you understand her. The rest of the characters had enough impact to make it worthwhile them being there while not overshadowing the main "secret" Alice is there to expose. Alice is the newcomer. To be honest she was a bit too sickly sweet in her cunning for me to like her as the antagonist.
I don't think this book is particularly different to others in its genre to be honest, it was all quite predictable and samey. I did like why the books for each book club meeting were chosen though.
The ending feels like there is masses skipped out in order to potentially have a second book follow it. I think this was the wrong thing to do, the characters deserved a more full completion to their stories.
Well written just not something I very much enjoyed unfortunately.

I kindly received this book from Netgalley ahead of publication.

How disappointed was I. I thought from reading other peoples reviews this was going to be a thrilling and exciting book but for me it was totally boring.

It’s taken me weeks to get through it and in the end I actually gave up. I couldn’t find the motivation to pick it up and read it. The plot was just too confusing for me - probably as I wasn’t reading enough in one sitting and then waiting too long until the next.

Let me start by saying this is so much more than I expected. From the blurb I was expecting a mystery thriller, but to get a police procedural with FBI involvement, some strange cult, more than one mystery and awesome characters to boot was more than a pleasant surprise.

Harper is everything I love in a female protagonist, she’s independent, smart, tough, feisty and with a difficult background she’s not afraid to break the rules. Enlisting the help of retired cop TJ and ex (also current cop) Reggie the three embark on solving the mystery behind the little girls abandonment.

What a ragtag motley crew Harper, TJ and Reggie made and I absolutely loved them. So much so I’ve begged the author for more of them as this would make a great start to a series and I was worried it was a standalone. I’m not ready to let go of the characters yet and that to me says it all.

The plot is another great selling point. I really thought I knew where it was going then boom. I had been played by the author all along with red herrings and misdirection. It’s not often a book is plot and character driven, if it is the pace suffers because of it. Not the case here as I needed to know what was going on I sped through it at lightning speed. (Then regretted it as it was finished). So if you fancy trying to work it out for yourself and spending a few hours with some great characters I highly recommend this.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

A new neighbour, Alice, moves into a small village. She's keen to make new friends and arranges coffee mornings and a book group. Alice has a strange fascination with her neighbour, Lucy. Each book that the book club reads was aimed at one of the groups individual secret that Alice seemed to know about.

The blurb for this book was intriguing. Tom, Rebecca, Maggie, and Lucy are all neighbours and friends. When they invited Alice into their group, they didn't expect to feel uncomfortable around her. Alice is not a likeable character, infact she's a bit creepy. There is some clever twists but the oace is quite slow. Lucy is the main character in the story. She had not long moved to the village herself before Alice moved there. This is quite an enjoyable read.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #Little,BrownBookGroupUK and the author #CJCooper for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really great thriller, tense, gripping and exciting - pretty much everything you’d want from a psychological thriller. A fantastic debut novel.

A Seemingly Tranquil Village.....
A seemingly tranquil, small and quaint village, a book club and plenty of secrets. A compelling premise. When Alice moves to the neighbourhood and starts a book club does she have an ulterior motive? Entertaining psychological suspense mainly character based with plenty of twists.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Lucy moves to the Cotswolds to escape her previous life. When she gets there she befriends Maggie, Tom, and Rebecca quickly. It all seems like they are living a quiet and charmed life, but each one hides a secret, naturally.
A new lady moves next door to Lucy called Alice. And of course Alice already knows Lucy, knows her secret and is there for revenge. Alice quickly begins a Book Club where she chooses books relating to the others and their secrets. Life changes for them all.

The book is set in the past and present tenses, which worked remarkably well, it built atmosphere and suspense. The characters were all well thought out, and were relatable in some ways, but my favourite was Alice. She was 100% bad girl, which made the plot line work even better.

A really good read from an author I’ve not read before. Would highly recommend to others.

This is a great psychological suspense thriller and the tension builds throughout the book.
Lucy moves away from London after being made redundant and is getting to know a new group of friends.
She then meets a new neighbour and instantly dislikes her. She can’t pin point why, but she takes an immediate dislike to Alice.
Alice slides her way into Lucy’s friendship group and soon suggests a weekly book club for the group.
We learn that Lucy had an affair with her boss in London and soon other people’s secrets are being hinted at.
Alice is trying to make Lucy’s life as difficult as possible - but why?
We find this out at the end of the book and I was a bit surprised by the extremes Alice goes go to get revenge, when I found out what happened.
This is a gripping psychological thriller that had me hooked.
Thanks to Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

Alice moves into the cottage next door to Lucy and sets about befriending everyone in Lucy’s group of friends. Lucy soon feels there is something strange about Alice and it’s not long before Tom feels the same.
Alice suggests forming a book club but it soon becomes apparent that each book suggestion seems relevant to certain members of the club. It appears everyone has a secret and someone knows everything.
The life of each book club member is about to be turned upside down with the ultimate revenge reserved for one particular person.
I felt the book was a bit slow to begin with but the pace soon picked up and continued until the last page.
I would certainly read more from this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

Creepy read! Would like to have understood a little more about Alice/Emily’s background but overall I really enjoyed this book

I was really looking forward to this book thanks to the intriguing blurb and the subject that this novel was focused on. A book club. I didnt really feel I connected to any of the characters which I think would have made a difference to my enjoyment of this book if I had done.

I feel this book lacks a little bit of oomph that I have come to expect from a thriller. There wasn't much going on throughout the chapters to keep me interested. I did enjoy the idea of revenge from Alice.

This is a dark psychological thriller which had me on edge at various moments.

The book centres on village newcomer Alice and her deep fascination with neighbour Lucy and Lucy's small circle of friends.

I found this a very interesting page turner. It didn't really let up with the many twists and turns. The story was easy to follow, not overly complex as some thrillers can be.

I would recommend this book and rate it 4 star.

Great plot and interesting characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this with its twists and turns. Highly recommended