Easy, quick & enjoyable read. Many life lessons we all can learn from about ourselves and others from how we raise our children, what we expect from ourselves and others and even how to treat one another.

I found this such a fun read and the concept of the book is very original. its definitely something I have never read before! when reading the book I was in two minds of whether I was loving or hating it and I think I am still undecided. Some of the characters I found really annoying and found it difficult to connect to any of them. However, the way the book is written is great and if you want to get through a book quickly I definitely think this will do the trick as everything moves very quickly. I rated this book 3 stars.

Elsbeth (Bells) Walker, nearly 43-year-old mother of 16-year-old Sam and 13-year-old Alice, learns of a third pregnancy after a failed IUD on the very day that her husband, Harry, an English Professor at Manhattan University, loses both tenure and his job. Suddenly there are doubts about the future.
It doesn’t help that the Walkers are all over-achievers. Hanna Cohn, Bells’ mother, looks down on her for enabling her family. Neither Bells’ husband nor kids pick up after themselves, expecting her to feed and care for them. And both Bells’ mother and mother-in-law, Vivian, make her feel inadequate. The kids have their own issues, with Alice facing ADD and Sam keener on music than academics.
When Harry gets a job at Dutchess University at Pigkill, a small college upstate, it’s an opportunity to start afresh. But the challenges continue. The kids don’t take too well to the news of the move or the baby, and the local PTA moms, headed by glamourous Cynthia Plank, look down on her, she decides to vent her frustration anonymously through a column in a city newspaper that she is sure no one in Pigkill will read.
While she vents on the wrongs she sees around her, her own life seems to be rapidly crumbling around her. How long will it be before her secret is out? And what will the fallout be?



Written in the first person of Elsbeth, the main narrative is interspersed with the column. The style promised to be funny and witty but I found it bitter and caustic from the start. Elsbeth was funny neither in the first-person narrative nor in the columns. The only exception was the chapter on yoga which was funny in parts.
I liked the premise with which the book set out. I thought it had potential, but it wasn’t fully explored. Bells came across as sanctimonious, and better than the others. She made no attempt to befriend anyone. Best friend Suki pointed out to her that she never reached out to make friends. She makes only one friend in Pigkill, but she abuses the trust in that friendship just to elicit some fodder for her column.
I did feel for Bells, especially when the other moms belittled her for not having high achievers for kids. But the gossipy tone of her column was a huge put-off for me. I found her obnoxious not only because she seemed to relish sharing salacious gossip, but also because other people’s sins were really not her business.
Her very first column is unnecessarily snarky and prompted by the feeblest provocation on the part of Cynthia and her coterie. The stuff she overhears the three PTA moms saying about her is hardly vicious enough to warrant the diatribe she unleashes upon them.
She also errs in misusing information told to her in confidence. She writes outrageous content that she doesn’t have a shred of evidence to support, driven on by the carrot of online validation.
Instead of describing this book as funny, I wish the blurb had brought up other issues such as post-partum stress, the fact that she receives no appreciation from her own mother, is never considered good enough, and is taken for granted by her selfish overgrown manchild of a husband and her selfish, demanding kids.
It was this background that made the story important and worth listening to. At heart, Bells is a flawed mother who makes many mistakes, but the challenges she faces are things that need to be brought into the open.

Change is never easy—and it’s even harder when you’re hit by several big changes all at once. That’s the case for the main character in Lea Geller’s The Truth and Other Hidden Things. And as she struggles to adjust, she ends up keeping a big secret from her family...

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery

The Truth and Other Hidden Things by @leagellerauthor @amazonpublishing was just marvelous. It was a fast read, what I lIke to call a “one and done” because I flew through it in one sitting. Geller makes you immediately fall in love with the characters, and if anyone needed routing for it is our main girl Bells Walker.

Bells proves the old sayings that “when it rains it pours” & “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” only come as a set, packaged neatly together. When Bells finds out that her IUD has failed leaving her pregnant and that her husband Harry did not get tenure at his Manhattan university and they (including their 2 adolescent children) now have to move, things look pretty grim. But a quick turnaround lands Harry a job at Dutchess College in the town of Pigkill, where the Walkers now have an on campus house and a farm-to-table heaven to look forward to.

Unfortunately the glorious Dutchess County life isn’t what Bells was expecting, with its competitive parents and wannabe hipsters. Bells is totally bored and just doesn’t fit in. So…. being a writer, she starts a blog, calling herself the County Dutchess, deciding to anonymously write about all things Pigkill, including those hyper competitive moms and the hipsters, finally allowing herself to anonymously say all the things she’s always wanted about being a wife and mother. Low and behold the blog begins to grow, followers flock, and The Duchess goes viral. But some of those posts she’s made have hit way too close to home for her new neighbors and they are on the hunt to flush her out. Has all her writing been worth all the pain she is causing others, including her husband and children?

This book was a phenomenal laugh out loud page turner that tells a story about family, friends and feeling inadequate. Geller’s writing is effortless and easy, pulling the reader inside this relatable world, totally allowing us to watch from the sideline as Bells attempts to gain the acceptance into this little upstate community any way she can. It is hilariously funny, boldly smart, and just completely gratifying. Highly recommend this read, an easy 5 star rating.

I love this book!

When the main character, Bell, realizes that her IUD failed and she is pregnant at 43!!! Then her husband is being forced to leave Manhattan for his job only to land in Pigkill, NY among the kombucha loving hipsters .

Bell decides to start a blog writing about her town neighbors and gossip while in Pigkill. Competitive parenting and helicopter moms soon has Bell in over her head.

This was a fun story. well written and entertaining.

This book is so much fun! Bells snarky sense of humor, her husband Harry's love of all things organic in Pigkill, and her kids with their own quirky personalities totally made this book a hilarious read with one adventure after another. Bells is someone I'd have as a friend and enjoy every minute.

Lea Geller manages to tackle themes that all women can relate to, such as aging, body acceptance, friendship, identity, and motherhood, while keeping her readers laughing on every page. Her insight into what happens when city people seek refuge in the country through the blog posts is both humorous and timely in this post pandemic world we are all living in. Geller manages to infuse humour into a story about a protagonist who is growing and changing while adapting to a new environment. This is a must add to your TBR list!

This was a delightful read. It is the story of a Manhattanite transported to a small town upstate and trying to deal with the social challenges of change. She had a teen age son and is now pregnant and feels she is too old to be having with another child.

This book was entertaining from the beginning till the end. Bells Walker, mum to a teenager and 'tween' learns that she is pregnant on the same day that her husband Harry, doesn't get tenure at the Manhattan university he works at. They then move upstate for Harry's new job to a town called Pigkill.
Bells feels out of place; a total outsider in this new world of pushy mothers, hipsters, hemp and vegan menus. After she overhears some snide remarks about her from other mothers, she decides to find comfort by starting her own blog in a NYC based newspaper about life in a small town under a pseudonym. Through her eyes and ears as an anonymous blogger, she discovers that there are things in the town that are more than meets the eye.
I loved Geller's wit and the way she brought satire into the mix through the local blogger Hudson Mom of Six.

This was such a fun read! I found Bells to be relatable and comedic despite her desperate situation. This book was well written, and felt real. I cringed and laughed along with Bells' antics.

I enjoyed this fun read. Loved the characters, loved the writing, and loved the humour.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Y’all, if you’re looking for a fun, well written book that will just sweep you up & keep you turning the pages, then get a copy of Lea Geller’s The Truth and Other Hidden Things. Geller has written the perfect summer romp of a book & I had a great time reading it last week. Funny, with good character development, this is a fun book that is completely engaging. The strong writing made me feel like I knew & understood the characters. The book unfolds with situations that keep changing the pressure on the characters & that kept me engaged because I wanted to see how it all turned out. I loved that the book is focused on the story of a woman as she navigates some major life changes. Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my unbiased review.

The rush for tenure , gives birth to a frustration that manifests in the form of a small but insightful blog. Bells Walker has untended her life once more in her husbands quest for life secured by tenure. Moving to a farm to table bucolic new post in a small college, she observes and reviews the quirks and lifestyle around her. Oh did I mention she also finds herself pregnant due to an IUD failure. Finding her footing in this new and yet familiar campus. Bells turns to a blog which catches fire and puts pressure on it remaining anonymous. It’s charm lies in the fact that her insights provides readers comic moments that eventually lead to exposure she never imagined..

Bells is a housewife with two teenagers and occasionally writes for a local newspaper. Her husband is a teacher/lecturer at Manhattan University. Bells finds out her IUD hasn't worked and she's pregnant with her 3rd child. At the same time she finds out her husband didn't get Tenure and they have to relocate to Hudson Valley in the town of Pigkill.

As I am from Britain, I had to research the cultural differences like Tenure and where Hudson Valley is. Turns out Hudson Valley is the country side close to New York City. So Bells and her family have to relocate from a busy city life to the tight-knit community of Pigkill.

As Bells is pregnant and her children are settling into their new school, her husband is settling into his. She is left home alone in a house she can't call home yet. She tries to get a job at the local newspaper but is turned away. This inspires her to set her eyes on blogging. She starts under the ghost name "The Dutchess" and blogs about the local mums of the community as she feels like an outsider. As her blog becomes viral she falls down a rabbit hole and gets so deep it's hard for her to resurface.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hilarious. Yes Bells as the Dutchess is a bit naughty splashing secrets of the community onto a online blog. However the content is juicy and I enjoyed reading it. Bells struggles as a mother left at home, pregnant and she creates entertainment as the Dutchess. Her personal struggles as a mother are relatable and it captures the daily stresses of parenting perfectly.

Anyone who enjoyed watching TV series like Gossip Girl or Bridgerton are going to love this book. It made me laugh outloud several times and Lea Gellar is a talented writer.

This was a fun story! I loved Bells as a mom - and while I didn’t necessarily agree with many of her choices throughout, I found so much of her love for her kids and her eagerness to do the right thing by them to be relatable. And commendable - especially when it often went again the pressure of the community. I could also absolutely appreciate her desire to take some control over the uncontrollable when her life got flipped upside down :)

If you love semi-relatable moms, hot messes, mean girl mom drama, detached kitchens or kombucha, this book is definitely for you 💕

Very entertaining read about motherhood and trying to find your own identity without forgetting what's most important to you.

Unfortunately my Amazon account got hacked numerous times and I closed my account. When closing the account, I lost all of my electronic kindle ARCs from netgalley under than email.

This book was such a fun read. It had relatable characters and an interesting plot. It is such a heart warming book that makes for some light reading. The writing is descriptive. The book is engaging with a lot of depth. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, funny and heart warming contemporary.

I've read a couple of books with a plot similar to this last year, and this one didn't disappoint : it was fast, fun, and very enjoyable. I had a great time, and would definitely recommend it as a funny holiday read!