Bells Walker’s life plan all falls apart in a singe day. On that day not only does her husband not make tenure, meaning he is losing not only his job but also their housing, but she finds out that her IUD failed and she is now pregnant again in her 40s. Her family ends up moving from the city to upstate New York and it is not for Bells. Ultimately she begins writing an anonymous blog sharing all of the gossip on her new town and her neighbors. With new scandals being uncovered her blog is getting more and more popular. The question is, how long can she stay anonymous or will this all blow up?

This book had a slower start but then as the drama picked up I was completely sucked in. This book gave me total gossip girl vibes and I loved that. I do wish the ending was a little more flushed out - I felt it ended very quickly and would have liked to hear more about the impacts on all of the characters and what happened with some of the scandals. Other than that I really enjoyed this book. Bells blog posts had me laughing out loud at times, and even though I don’t have kids I could totally picture the moms she was talking about. If you are looking for a fun read, this is a great one to check out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for gifting me a digital advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on April 6, 2021.

I love the premise of this book - turning to undercover blogging to fill a void. The story was so well-written and I loved the dimensions to the different characters.

"Hells Bells!" - never was there a truer statement! This book was a riot to read from start to finish. I LOVED how Bells was so relatable. Being a 43 year old woman myself - all kids in college (Thank the Good Lord🙏🏻❤️ Above) - and in the process of changing out my birth control this month (sorry if TMI) - I swear I stopped reading and checked the author's name to see if I was related to her somehow because it was as if she was reading my every fear during this "cautious" and "precarious" time of my life. 😳 I sooooo don't want a newborn when my youngest is now 20 years old! But Bells didn't have a choice - her baby was already "baking" when the book started and I loved every word written about Bells and her life - pregnant and otherwise. 🤩 This novel was expertly written and kept me interested with all of her adventures 🤣 and mishaps 😒while she was navigating this crazy journey called life...plus doing it while pregnant, moving, and with teenagers. That woman deserved a medal for all she went through. I laughed, cried, worried, and sighed happily right alongside Bells and Lea Geller with this magnificently written book. Please make sure to add it to your TBR list...it's a doozy you don't want to miss! ☺️👍🏼

Ok, I'm a bit at odds about this book. It started out very promising and interesting, but honestly, as the book went on I liked Bells less and less. I love me a flawed character and but omg she was annoying, immature, and selfish most of the book. by about 65% through the book I really didn't have much interest in what happened to her or the other characters in the story.

I first became familiar with author Lea Geller when I read her 2019 novel, Trophy Life. It was such a fun and entertaining read that had a lot more depth than I initially expected. I loved how her writing covered motherhood, friendship, disappointment, self-discovery, and finding your own path in life and I couldn't wait to read what Geller came out with next.

When I saw that Geller was published another novel in 2021 I couldn't wait to read a copy! The Truth and Other Hidden Things ended up being a total gem of a novel. It isn't often that a book has me laughing aloud, and this one definitely did. Geller is gifted at writing narratives that are relatable with the perfect amount of humor and substance.

On the same day, Bells, the main character finds out that her husband wasn't given his long-awaited tenure, she also finds out she's pregnant. Needless to say, her tween and teenager aren't thrilled.

As her family is forced to move out of the city, Bells is thrown into a group of women she doesn't feel she fits in to, and turns to anonymous blogging, turning her feelings about her new hometown viral. I loved the humor, the writing, and the underlying messages of this unique and fun read.

I cannot wait to share more about this book closer to its publication date. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a gifted advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I LOVED this book! Grouchy teen children, a backdrop of stuffy academia and juicy small town gossip galore. The catty in-fighting added just enough of a hint of Real Housewives without being too surface level. Thanks NetGalley!

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Thanks so much for the arc of this delightful read. Do people still use the word chortle? Because I think that’s what I was doing —chortling—throughout the book. Ok sometimes I was shouting at Bells in a very loving way for decisions she shouldn’t have made but I totally understood why she did. Love it. So fun. It should be a movie next!

The Truth and Other Hidden Things had me hooked from the very first line. The writing is witty, entertaining and fun. I was enthralled by the Walker family’s move out of the city and how each member adjusted to the culture shock. This novel was such a page turner because I wanted to read how Bells, as The Duchess, would portray her fellow residents. The idea of an anonymous blog dishing out the hot gossip of the town was brilliant. The occurrences weren’t outrageous but they were shocking enough and I was eager to see how Bells’s readers would respond to her blog.

However, as great as most of this novel was, I felt the ending was too cookie cutter. I felt that the ending gave Bells too easy of a way out of the chaos she created, and I wanted to see her grapple with it more. I wanted to see more of her kids at the ending as well because they really took a backseat for most of the novel.

The parts about Bells writing and finding content for her blog were entertaining but her interactions with her family left more to be desired.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is a fun read for any woman in her 40s, especially mothers of teens. I had a lot of fun with Bells and her family and I look forward to more books by Lea Geller.

With thanks to Lea Geller, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

Such a fun read! It’s laugh out loud funny and so relatable! So enjoyable and silly, definitely a book to recommend

What a delight this story was! I really enjoyed Lea Geller's first novel, Trophy Wife, and equally enjoyed this one. It was funny (as in, I actually laughed out loud and read the funny parts to anyone who would listen) and refreshing, though I think there's a part of all of us that can relate to Bells' need to be seen. Kudos, Lea!

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is a snap, crackle popping good read. Settle in and put your day on autopilot because you won’t be able to put this one down!

To Bells Walker it seems like one day she’s clearing space in her cramped New York City apartment and the next she’s moving to Pigkill in Dutchess County with her professor husband Harry and their 2 1/4 children. Yes, the same day she found out she was surprisingly and accidentally pregnant, Harry was denied tenure and lost his job. Dutchess College hires him, provides him with a less than stellar house (they have more rooms than furniture, the kitchen is in a separate garage and the plumbing is primitive). After her children Sam and Alice sulk off to their new schools, Bells tries to reinvent herself in the Hudson Valley. Although she has written a column for a free New York paper, the local Gazette has no use for another expatriate from the City. The editor advises her to write a blog. A bad idea, as it turns out, because Bells becomes the County Dutchess, skewering all things that make Pigkill unique. Fairs, Fests, goat milk ice cream, artisanal cheese, alpaca yoga and more help the County Dutchess begin to go viral. But it is her blogs satirizing the women who would be her friends that give Bells the fame she has always wanted as a writer. Emboldened, she pushes too far. The result is damage that she may not be able to repair.

This delightful gem by Lea Geller is flawless, full of laughs while taking a hard look at ambition and self criticism. I’m looking forward to her next book! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Lea Geller for this ARC.

The premise of this book was interesting. However, I really struggled with the characters. Particularly Harry, the husband. The ending was also a bit meh, as nothing really changes (other than the main character a bit).

This book starts with a bang! Bells Walker is mid 40s when she finds out her IUD failed and she’s pregnant and her husband has just lost his job in Manhattan. They’re forced to move to upstate New York for her husband’s new job, with their two teenagers, who aren’t pleased about the move OR the new baby. Bells is bored and feeling under-appreciated post-move so she starts an anonymous gossip blog about life & the people in her new town.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is like Gossip Girl all grown up. Bells’ column starts off innocently enough: poking fun at millennials and their love of kombucha but turns into serious territory, spilling all the secrets of the PTA moms: affairs and college cheating scandals. It’s a recipe for disaster and will assuredly blow up in her face, which it does.

I was attracted to the book for the gossipy vibes, but I really enjoyed Bells deeper storyline. She’s lost her personal identity while being a wife and mother and we watch her eventually find herself (after a spectacular crash and burn).

Genre: Fiction/Comedy
Release Date: Expected April 2021

Bells Walker is a normal 40-something suburban mum. Husband, Two Kids, Place-holder job writing for the local gazette.
Until one very bad day.
Her IUD has failed and she's now dealing with an 'advanced maternal age' pregnancy, her husband Harry doesn't make tenure at the university, and on top of all that she has no idea how she's going to tell her overly judgemental mother and adolescent children.

Now the whole family, baby bump included, move to Dutchess Country for Harrys' new job - to the beautifully named town of Pigkill. With a house that's falling apart, her children miserable and nothing to do - Bells gets back to writing. But not about wonky pavements this time!

Under the brilliantly named moniker of the Country Dutchess, Bells starts dishing all the secrets about the residents of Pigkill, about her real thoughts about marriage and parenting, about anything she wants to say under the security of being totally anonymous. But people are not happy, and the mystery around the County Dutchess blog grows more every day - but how far can she push this before it comes back to haunt her?

This book starting off bordering on absurd in the very best way- the bad luck that Bells was dealt day after day, but all in a hilariously light-hearted way. As a woman who is slowly approaching her thirties, I felt all of Bells worries and couldn't help but relate to every mishap and worry she found herself in ... well, most of them anyway. She gave brilliant insights into trying to balance a career, a house, the husband and the kids, and I laughed a LOT.

The second half of this book, however, felt like I had jumped into a completely different story and it definitely threw me off - it got very serious, very quickly and while I was still invested in finding out what would happent to Bell, it was a little difficult getting fully immersed back into the story and admittedly I was slightly annoyed at the very abrupt shift in her personality towards the end of the book. I still finished and the ending didn't satisfy me completely but I still enjoyed myself.

This is the type of book you'd love to read on holiday - it's funny, it's cute, it's utterly absurd and it's very easy to read in one sitting.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

When Bell's husband loses his college professor job in New York City, the family must move to upstate New York, where he takes a job at a smaller, less prestigious school. Bells, a writer in her early forties, is also pregnant and the mother of two teens. So, lots going on! Her way of coping is to assert her identity by creating a blog in which she writes about her experiences anonymously. She's pretty snarky, and soon makes lots of enemies and frenemies -- but will they discover who she really is? This is a fun story about families, social pressure and social media.

This was a light, easy read for my downtime in between all the murder and mayhem I usually devour.

Bells Walker is forced to move to the suburbs when her husband doesn't make tenure at his job. With 2 ungrateful kids in tow - one who only wants to play in a band and another who is thisclose to being a smartass teenager - but neither who want to move, along with a surprise baby on the way...well, you can imagine how well it goes.

As in, not well at all. Bells feels left out. Looked over. With no career of her own, she begins to blog about life in the suburbs. Particularly the drama and secrets that come with living in a small town. And if you think that this blog fulfills Bells, you're right....until it blows up in her face.

I won't share any spoilers but I will say that she should have taken her friend's advice and knocked it off. Throughout the blog writing and the aftermath, Bells learns a lot about her family, her new town, and most of all, about herself.

Definitely recommend this as a light beach-read type book.

Just what I needed to make me laugh! I really enjoyed this read. Would make a great choice for a beach reading list!

Thank you for the ARC NetGalley. As a 40 something woman who lives in suburbia this book feels spot on. We folllow Bells through her journey from the Big Apple to the Hudson Valley all while trying to nurture her family. She seeks solace by being an anonymous blogger and, of course, everything doesn’t quite go as planned. It was a delightful read and I will seek out more from this author. #TheTruthandOtherHiddenThings #NetGalley

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!