This was a great read, it's interesting from the very beginning!It's a story full of sicrets and lies, you will be on edge!

It was a little creepy too.It was so well wrapped everything and the characters were well crafted.

I loved this author writing and even though I haven't read all her books after this I can say she can easily writes everything!Her stories are always so gripping.

This was a great read, it's interesting from the very beginning!It's a story full of sicrets and lies, you will be on edge!

It was a little creepy too.It was so well wrapped everything and the characters were well crafted.

I loved this author writing and even though I haven't read all her books after this I can say she can easily writes everything!Her stories are always so gripping.

This is a good thriller, darker than the usual books by this author.
I enjoyed it and found it gripping.
The descriptions are fascinating, the plot is tightly knitted and the characters are interesting.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was a lot more a thriller than I expected and as that isn't my favourite genre I didn't enjoy this as much as I usually enjoy Singh's writing. This is darker and heavier than I can easily deal with, with a couple of plot points that rarely work for me. Her character work is as excellent as ever though and some parts did break my heart.

This book felt very different from what I have read before by the author.While I’ve read many reviews that were hyping up this story, I just couldn’t get into it.
I was intrigued by the mother’s background and disappearance but overall it just felt too flat for me.

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy.

Overall I enjoyed the premise and general plot of the book, however it slightly missed the mark for me.
I liked the privileged cul-de-sac setting but there were far to many characters for me. I didnt know who, if anyone was relevant so much so I had no clue who the killer was when it was revealed.
I thought the unreliable narrator aspect was incredibly easy to see through and became frustrated that we were left waiting so long for its obvious reveal.
I will give the authors work another try but overall the story just wasn't forme.

I kept seeing this book on Instagram and the plot really grabbed my attention. I loved reading this book as it was a slow burning thriller/mystery but you really got involved with the characters. The book is told from Aarav’s point of view and I felt I would go back and forth on if I trusted him or not. Between the unreliable narrator and the mix of interesting suspicious characters in the book, it definitely keeps you guessing. The main theme of the story is Aarav investigating his mother’s murder after her body is found 10 years after she went missing. As a reader you go along for the journey, trying to piece together what may have happened to Nina and who was responsible. I recommend this book to people who enjoy domestic and psychological thrillers. I really enjoyed the ending and did not guess the direction it went in.
Thank you to @orionbooks, @authornalinisingh and @Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing book. This book is available now if you want to go get yourself a copy.

In stories or even blogs dear reader you put trust in what I tell you. You trust my fair and honest review of a book. I don’t however tell you everything in the book. Often, I may skip key plot points as I don’t want you to be spoiled or work out the final reveal I loved so much. In fiction the concept of the unreliable narrator has a useful history – a potential betrayal of trust that makes you start to question what you’ve been reading. In Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh w get a thriller of a family and its neighbours all hoarding secrets and a sense that the truth is yet to be uncovered.

Aarav is man in the twenties with pretty much all he could want – son of a wealthy businessman, just written his first bestseller that turned into a movie and charm that leaves many broken hearts after him. But ten years ago, when he was sixteen his mother Nina had yet another row with his father, walked out the door in the middle of a storm with $250,000 and was never seen again. A moment that haunts and breaks Aarav who finds alcohol a joy to get lost in. Recovering from a recent car crash he is forced to stay in the family home when the police turn up – his mother’s car from that night has been found in the nearby forest and a body has been found. Aarav finds himself trying despite a brain fog from his injuries and medication trying to piece what actually happened that night and who in his family or wider neighbourhood had a motive. It turns out nearly everyone does.

I had a mixed reaction this thriller. The start is captivating. Singh gives the story a lot of atmosphere and the success of that is Aarav’s voice. A very unusual character who I suspect I would not like if I met publicly as they seem full of spikes but as we get the inner voice, we find someone who is very much a lost child missing their parent and carrying the cars of that in all their future relationships. Intriguingly he carries a lot of guilt and this turns into self-loathing. Happy to lie, calls themselves a sociopath and knows they can make people do what they want. We geta sense all is not right here and Aarav starts getting lost time and strange notes he cannot recall. Has his mother’s re-appearance triggered something else?

We have an unusual setting in New Zealand, so this is a chance to explore a different world and approach here. Rich business owners mix with same sex couple and the deeply conservative religious on the face of it all very neighbourly, but Aarav knows a lot of their secrets via his mother and starts using his writer brain to find out even more and his ruthless side to make people him what they know. There are a vast number of suspects and secrets to uncover which makes it a good puzzle for the reader. I however found it a little overloaded – pacing seemed to slow down rather than speed up and the constant hints that Aarav may be an unreliable narrator strongly help give me a sense of something else going on.

Overall a mixed bag of a thriller. I loved the setting, the main character and the initial mystery but didn’t find the ongoing mystery that engaging. I’ll be looking for more by Singh as the writing talent is clear but not quite what I was looking for in this mystery.

trigger warning
<spoiler> statuory rape, being drugged, mention of suicide, domestic abuse, gaslighting, trauma, grief, mental illness </spoiler>

Ten years after his mother's disappearance, Aarav gets a visit from the police who tell him her car has been found. With a set of remains inside.

We have an intriguing setting, a cul de sack somewhere in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bushland in New Zealand. The people who live there are absurdely rich and it's kind of a village where everybody knows each other, or at least believes to do so. Most of them have been there ten years ago, on the fateful night that now is being reconstructed.

Aarav thinks of himself of a sociopath, ignoring the fact that it would take a lack of self awareness to be classified as such, only mentioning that this seems to be no longer a valid diagnosis that is used professionally. He seem to be strangely proud of his self cassification and uses it as an excuse when he could be doing better.
He's an asshole, recognises himself as such, but has no motivation or even thinks about changing things, despite being miserable.

At the beginning of this book, he's back with his father, his step-mother and a half-sister, the latter one of the few people he really loves. (Which, again, would speak against being a socio- or psychopath, but hush.)
First, we only hear about his leg injury, a broken foot that's mending, and wonder why his docs insisted upon him not living by his own, but as soon as you start questioning that you realise he's an unreliable narrator.

The book feels disjointed. In part it might be due to the fact that he is pumped full of chemicals while not eating, hydrating or sleeping enough, but at the end I can't tell if it's done on purpose or shoddy writing.
I wonder if authors who use this as a literary device realise that they exclude a huge portion of possible readers.

Aarav drifts away from what's happening, even from dialoges, to memories. He's heavily dissociating, and as a person who has problems with this, I had trouble to follow.

All in all, I didn't care for anyone in here, and the resolution of the plot was stumbled upon and delivered as an afterthought. I am not a fan.
From this, I am not sure if I'd ever pick up a book by this author.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

This is my first book by this author but would definitely read another. The basic premise of a son investigating the murder of his mother when her body appears ten years after her supposed disappearance.
I liked the characters and how the story unfolded particularly as the main character is unsure of how his own mental competency. Kept me guessing until the last page.
Thanks to Orion publishing group and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Orion and Nalini Singh for this e-copy in return for my honest review. This story centres around the discovery of Nina's body ten tears after her disappearance and the events of that night. I loved this book, dark compelling and twisty. I love a story with an unreliable narrator and Aarav is definitely that. It's a dark read where everyone is a suspect and it's hard figuring out who is telling the truth and what their motives are. I'd definitely recommend it and I've bought Nalini's The Madness of Sunshine this afternoon.

Told through the confusion of her son's memories, Nina Rai's disappearance melds into the story of two halves of Nina, the loving mother and devoted friend, and the vindictive wife and worse enemy. When her car, and her remains, are found after a 10 year absence, her son is determined to find her killer.
Using the memories of her family and her neighbors, Nalini Singh has painted a picture of Nina that is recognizable from any one of the popular soap operas....the woman we love to hate. As she builds the back story and the neighborhood in which Nina lived, loved and hated, Ms Singh gives us that visual story that is so well told, you hear the rain and smell the coffee shop, feel her son, Arava's frustration as his memories cloud his senses and his pain prevents him from moving forward. I saw no clues and certainly never would have picked the killer before the end....the reveal was a shock.

Nalini Singh is my favourite PNR author, her Psy-Changling series set the bar that I use to measure any other PNR against. She also writes contemporaries which are a hit or miss for me but still, I mostly enjoy them. This is only her second thriller. I loved the first one despite the issues I had with the resolution and who the murder turned out to be.

This book is thrilling and scary and amazing but once again I have some issues with the ending.

Aarav is one of the most unreliable narrator I have ever read and going on the journey to discover the killer with him was a wild ride by all means. I admit I didn't guess the killer till the very end and very much like Aarav and suspected everyone at some point.

Like Nalini Singh's previous thriller, this one is very atmospheric with a strong sense of place which I really liked. The murder mystery in a cul-de-saq neighbourhood of the rich was very engrossing and kept me on the edge till the last page.

I found the story scarier that some horror I have read, not so much because of the murder and some of violence that happens but because of witnessing Aarav's mind breaking, and seeing him not trusting himself, not knowing and not remembering, it was brutal and so powerfully presented.

I was on board with everything going on, though some aspects of the mother-son relationship made me uncomfortable, till the very end. It was easy to hate his father, it was more difficult to pinpoint my feelings for Aarav and Nina - there is sympathy and desire to help and protect. But also they lied and cheated and manipulated the others. They were not good people but complex ones - hurt and hurting but also caring and loyal.

I felt uncomfortable with the violence we see with regard to some queer side characters. It was not only them that get hurt in the story, straight characters also suffer abuse and violence, but I feel at least some of the violence towards the queer characters could have been spared (it was not queerphobia or gender-based violence, I need to clarify).

Now, the ending, on the one hand I had suspicions that didn't turn out to be true and I am happy and relieved about it. At the same time I felt the resolution of the murder mystery took the focus away from Nina. She was very much in the center of the story and her life and disappearance basically shaped Aarav the way he was. Going in the direction it went, the ending did a disservice to Nina in my opinion.

All in all, I had minor complaints with the story and feel this is a solid thriller with a compelling mystery plot, engaging written with a more or less satisfying resolution.

CWs: domestic violence, abuse, car crash, hospital stay, cheating, suicide, drugs, alcohol addiction (in the past), mental health issues, migraines, memory loss

This is the latest contemporary book set in the Author's own back yard - giving the reader a taste of lush forests and their surrounds .

Aarav , now an Author , is back in his childhood home , in a wealthy gated cul-de-sac , recovering from an accident which has left him with both leg and head injuries ...... a home he never thought to return to .
He has always had a difficult relationship with his controlling father especially after his mother left one stormy night when he was young ...... his father is now remarried to a more compliant wife , providing a sister for Aarav .
Aarav's memories of his mother's disappearance are hazy - did he hear a scream that night , was she in the car
whose tail lights he saw leaving through the storm ?
Those questions have now come to the fore - his mother's car and body have been found in the forests undergrowth ....... she never left him it seems .
Who in the cul-de-sac knew what about his mother's leaving ....... who killed her ? With his hazy memories and bouts of amnesia both he and the Police come to think he might be the missing link .

This is a difficult book to get into initially , with a main character full of foibles and others with secrets of their own .
I did enjoy her first book in this setting - A Madness of Sunshine , but this book left me with questions about too many flashbacks - were they really necessary ?

I think that I will concentrate more on the Author's other series - The Guild Hunters and Pysi Changelings , which I really enjoy

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Ten years ago, Aarav Rai’s mother, a socialite, disappeared with the money she took from her husband’s safe. Ishaan was convinced that she was a thief who just took off. But her son isn’t convinced, especially because he remembers a scream from that night. A decade later Aarav is an author, back in his childhood home after an accident, when his mother’s body is found.

I was curious to read this since I’ve loved the Guild Hunter series, but this was my first of her mystery book and the first book I’ve read that’s set in New Zeeland.

Set in Auckland, New Zeeland in a privileged neighbourhood in a cul-de-sac. Aarav isn’t happy to be back living with his controlling father, his new wife and daughter, and there are old family issues. I actually liked Aarav’s relationship with his half-sister Pari and the way he was looking after her. That was a good thing in this dysfunctional family.

Aarav wasn’t always, and I mean often, likeable but he was an interesting character. The victim wasn’t very likeable either, but you could see the love between mother and son, although a very complex one.

There are quite a few characters since we meet a lot of neighbours and many of those were interesting in their own right.

I loved the book, and I couldn’t figure out who did it. A bit different from what I usually read but very enjoyable.

Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh, I requested this book based on the teaser - a psychological thriller which is right down my street.

Aarav is the main character in the story, a bestselling crime author in his twenties, who returns to his childhood home after a car accident to live with his father in a wealthy gated community Auckland, New Zealand. He sustained injuries to his leg and his head injury is causing memory lapses. Aarav’s mother left his family home and his father when he was 16 and has not been heard from since and Aarav tries to piece together clues following the discovery of her car and body just after he returned home ten years later.

This book has it all, mystery, lies, betrayal, deceit and I really enjoyed the rollercoaster ride, this author knows how to draw the reader in from the off.

It's been a long time since I've felt so ambivalent about a book and it's all down to my connection with the MC, or rather the lack thereof.

For me there is a detachment between the MC and the story that just pushed me further away from any investment. Points in the story that should have been major WOAH! moments were just ... meh.

The plot is solid and has a satisfying ending. I worked most of it long before the end resolution. It's not overly complex or complicated so perfect for commuting (if we ever get to commute again).

The pacing is a little slow for me and I was really fed up with the number of references to sugar. If anyone had that diet for more than a few days, they would be obese, have shocking teeth and terrible skin yet none of these seemed to apply. A lot of the plot was really heavy handed which is why I managed to work most of it out. I wanted something a little bit more refined and subtle.

I have issues with so much of how the MC was written, I think the author tried too hard to make him an unreliable narrator but there just wasn't enough emotion in him to make him believable.

Most of the other characters are as caricature as the MC, occasionally one pops up that is a little more three dimensional (Ariki for one) but not often.

Overall though it's a decent, no brain cells required whodunnit.

As much as I loved this book for the authors writing which I'm always here for and the characters and pacing I have come to adore from them, I don't really like unreliable narrators so much to the point where I couldn't rate this as high as I really wanted to. I volunteered to read and review an early copy of this. All opinions are my own.

I've been a fan of Nalini Singh for YEARS, ever since I first discovered the Psy-Changelings series when I was, like, sixteen or seventeen. So she's an author I've been reading on and off for a decade now, and since finding out that she was having a go at the thriller genre I've been SO EXCITED to check out her newest work.

Unfortunately, now I kind of just want to go back to the Psy-Changelings series and pretend this never happened because I really didn't enjoy Quiet in Her Bones.

I'm SORRY.

I'm not sure what Singh's first thriller, A Madness of Sunshine, is like and I might be tempted to check it out if someone can tell me it's good. But Quiet in Her Bones turned out to be really quite dull.

The slow start is what really put me off of this book. It took forever to get going, even though the main character's dead mother was found right at the start of the book. There was a lot of meandering, I felt, that revolved around flashbacks and a lot of backstory.

I did really enjoy the characters for the most part, and I love that Singh was able to incorporate Hindu culture. Aarav is an unreliable narrator, which I normally love, but I feel like due to the pacing issues this aspect was sort of lost on me. He was still enjoyable to read about though, and I did like reading about his relationship with his parents.

Needless to say, I'm disappointed with this one!

Quiet in her bones is told from the pov of Aarav Rai who's mothers body has just been found 10 years after she disappeared. After a car accident Aarav is staying at his fathers house while he recovers.

Having the story unfold with Aarav as the narrator is a stroke of genius. He has had a head injury which has led to memory issues but it would appear that there were serious issues with him memory prior to the accident and his problematic memory just seems to be getting worse.

Throughout the book I had absolutely no idea who to trust, at the beginning it seems obvious who the killer is, except it's the beginning of the book so you know it couldn't be them. Everyone seems to be hiding something and had a motive to kill, including Aarav himself, and with the black holes in his memory, even he doesn't know whether or not he's the killer!

One problem that I did have was that we were introduced to all the members of the cul-de-sac in quick succession and I really struggled to remember who was who as there was quite a long list of characters. I had to keep going back to check up on who they were.

There were a couple of good twists where the story went where I hadn't expected, I got to where Aarav's brain was leading him slightly ahead of him a couple of times, but then I don't have a brain injury holding me back.

The end came as a bit of a surprise, not due to who it was (although it wasn't who I expected) but due to it's abruptness. One second we're in Aarav's hospital bed with him and the next second it was all over. I had to go back a couple of pages to make sure I'd not missed anything.

All in all a really good thriller that kept you guessing the whole way through - 4.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this arc in exchange for my honest review