An enticing story where you think you can easily predict the plot but you never anticipate all the endings tied up at the end of the book and infact the final page leaves you with more questions as to what to truly believe.

Following the story of 2 friends from college who travel to interesting places such as Cambodia and Chile.....however they have far from a normal holiday. Unfortunate events result in 2 men dead and the bodies needing to be hidden.

What happens next is a constant page turner of wanting to now what happens next.......how the friendship develops and the power struggles and questions raised within the friendship.

Recommended for those who enjoy a page turner, suspense novel.

This is was an ARC from netgalley in return for my honest review.

An interesting look at the dynamics of female friendships. Emily and Kristen’s lives are diverging, but they still go on their annual trip away together, this time to Chile. Whilst there, their friendship is tested as a fellow traveller is killed, supposedly in self defence. Thought-provoking and a scary reminder that we can never really know other people as well as we know ourselves.

First of all, I found this book to be very entertaining and I really enjoyed it!
Right from the start I didn't trust the character of Kristen and this kept me reading as I wanted to see if my suspicions were right and as the plot had me hooked, I wanted to see how it would all play out.
One thing that let this book don't slightly was the pacing.
I felt it was OK but it could have been a little faster for my taste. However as this book is only 300 pages long, it was the perfect length and it didn't need to be any longer.
Also, that cover is just gorgeous.
If you are looking for an intense thriller about toxic female friendship this is one I would definitely recommend for you!
I will 100% be reading what this author writes next.

This started off as an interesting book with a good premise and I thought it had a lot of potential. However, I ended up not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. The storyline was quite predictable and it wasn’t written in a way that could lead me down twists and turns away from what I knew would be the ending. A lot of missed potential but an ok, average book that readers will probably like well enough as a quick, easy read.

This story had me absolutely gripped from the moment I picked it up! The twists and turns between Emily & Kristen kept me guessing constantly. After their trip has a fatal turn the consequences are far reaching and extremely complex. It definitely makes you question who is in the right several times, and your allegiances will switch! I can't wait to see the adaptation!

I was incredibly bored at the beginning, slightly interested in the middle, and mostly bored again at the end. I did finish it, and the cliffhangers and the end of chapters made me want to keep reading, however the story line was not for me.

Note: I do know people who loved this though, and the two female leads are a big selling point, but it wasn't something I personally enjoyed.

Emily and her best friend Kristen are on a trip to Chile; so far so good - but on the last night , Emily finds blood everywhere in their hotel room, what has happened? Kristen says the backpacker she'd been flirting with attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him. They move on and go back home, where Emily and Kristen drift apart from one another. A surprise meet up means Emily has to face what happened that night.

Im afraid this wasnt really the book for me, a bit too graphic and a bit too far fetched for my taste; I didnt warm to anyone or really care what happened.
Thanks for the chance to read it but its not one I will come back to.

A thriller, a taut female friendship, possible murder, dealing with trauma, claustrophobic writing and settings - this tense novel had it all.

Unfortunately it was nothing groundbreaking and I had trouble with the pacing here and there (and some of the writing), but overall an easily read, page-turning book that didn't disappoint. It just didn't do anything exciting for me either.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Michael Joseph UK, and the author for the e-ARC. Available now!

A very enjoyable and well paced thriller that had me hooked from the start!

I loved the story line , characters and the writing, I felt it ticked my boxes of what I always enjoy with a thriller. The pace was strong from the first page till the last and had plenty of ‘oh god’ moments ha.

Very enjoyable and will for sure read more from this author.

I found this enjoyable and it kept me turning the pages. Interesting plot with twists throughout. Toxic friendship, holiday setting and a murder or two! Great thriller to add to your summer reading list!

I loved the premise of this novel, and it was deftly executed, with well written characters and a twisty plot. My biggest pet peeve in novels like this is when you just can't relate to the character and why they are making certain choices, but the author really made you empathise with Emily, so even when you disagreed with something she did.

Exhausted. Started We Were Never Here yesterday and could not put it down until finished … hello midnight stay-awake-coffee. Two girls backpacking through Chile. One’s a bit unsettled and cautious after an experience they had on a trip the year before … the other is loving life and doesn’t have a care in the world. Until she has to kill someone. Always a downer! Twist after twist after I-didn’t-see-that-coming twist. I RACED through this … all power and control and obsession and a killer ending. Author Andrea Bartz got the idea when travelling with a friend (but is quick to point out that there was no murder involved on their trips) … the book’s about to be made into a Netflix film. I love great psychological thrillers … this one delivered. In spades!

An excellent psychological thriller with two intriguing women and one toxic friendship- a novel that brings to life the question 'Who would YOU call to bury the body. We all have that hypothetical person in our lives but what if they were also just a *tiny* bit crazy?

This is a classic page turner full of misdirection and twisty possibilities- characters that are full of depth and a plot that tightens its hold with every passing chapter.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Recommended.

I really enjoyed this atmospheric thriller. With touches of The Talent Mister Ripley and Violet, the way this toxic friendship unravelled had me gripped.

Thank you to Kallie at Michael Joseph for my invitation to the tour and for my copy of the book in return for a fair and honest review.

From the outset of this gripping book you know that there is something not quite right.

Emily is still recovering from the trauma that happened in Cambodia on their last trip when it happens again. This time not to her but to Kristen with unfortunately the same consequences. Kirsten had previously said that she wanted to go travelling with Emily for six months but Emily has just started a relationship with Aaron and just wants to head home after this trip.

Because of what Kristen did for Emily on their last holiday she feels she must do the same. It’s fast paced and gruesome at times but clever, I enjoyed reading about the two women and their relationship after they return home. Their friendship is not all that it appears and it becomes clear that there are many secrets that the pair have.

After they return home Emily just wants to get on with her life and put the bad things behind her but Kristen has other ideas. She seems to have forgotten what happened to them but Emily can not.

This is a really exciting and compelling story and it has lots of surprises in store for the reader.

4 stars ****

Struggled through this one and ultimately chose to DNF - the central plot is intriguing, but the strange structure of the novel (too many flashbacks, flashbacks-within-flashbacks) and predictable twists kept me from wanting to continue.

Emily and Kristen have been the best of friends since their college days. And though they live in different parts of the world now, they still manage to maintain their relationship and connect with each other at least once a year on their annual backpacking trip. This year they have selected the beautiful mountains in Chile for their trip and as usual they have the best time together. That is, until their last night when Emily ends up helping Kristen dispose the dead body of a backpacker. Kristen claims that she had been attacked and killed in self defence. And that would be believable, instead it gives Emily a sense of déjà vu - and not in a good way. As Emily returns home and tries to go back to her normal life, the trauma doesn't make it easy. Things only get more difficult when Kristen pops back into her life and Emily is forced to consider things that she would have never thought possible about her best friend.

The book has a bit of a slow start, but picks up soon enough, and falls a bit back again. The story is told from Emily's PoV and gives the reader insights into not only the trauma she feels but also how she tries to deal with it and how it affects her. For a psychological thriller, the book does a good job giving the readers unique insights into the protagonist and her relationship with her best friend. Though I enjoyed the thorough insights, I wished for a tighter narration that would also help with the pace of the story. That is the main reason I am not rating this book a full 5 stars.

The different settings and situations, one almost as over the top as the other, keep the readers entertained. I almost felt like I was watching a horror/thriller and kind of urging the protagonist with comments like 'oh come on, don't tell me you can't see what's going to happen next' or 'girl, that's bound to be a trap. Don't fall for it.' It was fun and entertaining. Those who are hardcore mystery fans like me will be able to figure out the plot pretty early, but the high stakes and some cliched but fun situations keep the pages turning. And the dark humour in the book is almost like an added bonus.

This book would certainly make for an entertaining movie.

Headlines:
Sucked in
Spat out
Head spinning

That's pretty much me on the whole reading experience of this book and on finishing. What did I read? What were those characters?

This story of two besties having holidays off the beaten track togther across the years focused in particular on one holiday to Cambodia and one to Chile. Not far into the book, I just knew there was something fishy about one of these besties but I had no idea how this was going to escalate.

This read felt like a combination of Single White Female (look it up if you're unfamiliar) and Shallow Grave. On the one hand I was rooting for the more innocent of the pair and on the other hand, I was conflicted at her implicitness in the events that played out.

It all got a lot sinister as it culminated.

Did I enjoy it? I guess in some ways, yes but it was angsty, uncomfortable reading. That said, I could not look away or put the book down. It was a wild trip and an all consuming read.

Thank you to Michael Joseph for the early review copy.

Rather too over the top for me both in situations and action. I really couldn’t take to either of the two main characters and struggled to get to actually finish it.

Andrea Bartz is back with an all-new psychological thriller. Living out the rest of your twenties abroad sounds like the best way to live, but if you had an overbearing, manipulative, and gaslighting best friend would it be worth the bother? Backpacking in Cambodia and Chile should give them memories galore but what if the type of memory you are left with consumes you with guilt and tears apart your psyche? This is the situation that Emily finds herself in. Destructive and compulsive is the yarn spun in We Were Never There. One death looks like an accident but what if two adds up to more than a coincidence.

The blurb didn’t give too much away, and I was happy to dive in, headfirst. My wrists and feet shackled, the experience invigorated my senses, the shocks leaving me panting for more and angry at the treatment of Emily.

We Were Never Herewas set up perfectly. A traumatic event, that served as an explosive catalyst for the entire story. It was right on point. Andrea Bartz tapped into her reader’s mind and extracted individual fears – backpacking on foreign frontiers, the worry of meeting strangers that may do us harm, navigating language and cultural barriers, and that ever-lingering fear for a lone female – sexual assault. The pain and suffering were evident, and the author handled it with ease and consummate skill. She knew exactly how the formula for a thriller should work but she kicked it to the curb and delivered something new, something utterly horrifying. She delivered a POV that struck fear into the heart of any female, and she did it very early on.

We Were Never Here follows Emily and her best friend from college, Kristen. Whilst backpacking in Chile, Kristen falls for the charms of fellow Backpacker, Paolo. After a frantic call from Kristen to Emily, it seems that Kristen was attacked, and a struggle ensued. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination. They do what is necessary but when Emily arrives home, she starts to question things, Kristen’s behavior, the reasons why, and then she finds out more things about her best friend, things that don’t add up, things that could put a whole new light on her friend. She decides to do some digging.

Things get decidedly hairy. Emily is walking on thin ice. Kristen becomes unhinged, but she wonders if she has always been this way. Manipulation, blackmail, gaslighting, and control are what her life has become. Andrea played with my mind, a lot and tricked me – she led me down a lot of dark paths. I expected a high-octane thriller which delivered but I also got a deep exploration of friendship and trust.

We Were Never Here was so slippery I struggled to catch my breath. The author roots the story in complex friendships before throwing the curveball straight at your head.