5 years ago Cleo and Rachel worked on the make up counter at a well known London Department Store. But bored with their everyday routine they decided to "become other people" and join an online site to meet new people. But months in Rachel was on the site every night chatting to Luke, despite Cleo's concerns.
5 years on and Rachel's sister Beth rings to say Rachel is missing. Reluctantly Cleo returns to their old house to try and find her.
With flashbacks to 5 years previously and now we discover why the girls lost touch, why Cleo escaped to her job on cruise ships and what happened to Rachel after she left. And slowly this brings us to the dramatic finale.
A tense thriller with some nail biting moments

Told over 2 POV and over 5 years, Rachel and Cleo are best friends! Or are they? I didn’t like either girl, they just continue to make awful choices which made me cross! There was a twist at the end which I enjoyed and the book did exactly what it set out to do! Not a bad read!

Given the premise of this novel, the ending was pretty easy to guess. Still, that didn't prevent North from writing a highly entertaining read which made me stick with it until the very last page. The final little twist was something I didn't see, so that left me with a satisfied feeling when I was done.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Cleo is about to re join the ship she works on when she is informed that her friend Rachel is missing. In the past, in a way to make their monotonous lives a bit more exciting, the two friends had played games on a website called Camchat, pretending to be other people leading more exciting, glamorous lives. It was supposed to be harmless fun at the time, not meant to hurt anyone until things got out of control and now someone is seeking revenge.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Cleo and Rachel, in two timeframes, present and five years earlier, and is full of suspense. Cleo feels she previously let down her friend and is persuaded to help find her, but in her determination places herself in danger. Short gripping chapters add pace and drama to this fast moving, complex plot, and I became completely absorbed as it unfolded.
Although I thought I had guessed the person who is playing games, I changed mind several times as the plot twists and turns. This is an atmospheric, graphic psychological thriller which will keep you turning the pages until reaching its intense, gripping conclusion.
Highly recommended.

An enjoyable read, for those that prefer light ‘murder mystery’ style fiction.

Whilst the ending was a bit predictable, I really enjoyed the pace and setting of this book. I was immediately drawn in by the style of writing and the short chapters that pulled you into reading ‘just one more!’

Told across two timelines, 5 years ago and now and from Cleo and Rachel’s point of view. You can help but get swept along in these girls lives and how they ended up making such bad choices. Their lifestyle and friendship is relatable and you can’t help rooting for them to just do better/try harder.

I can’t say I warmed to either of the girls. I think the author intended me to like Cleo but I couldn’t help feeling that they were both very ‘cut-throat’ in their attitudes to love, work and friendship. It’s the kind of friendship that requires one person to be more invested than the other as without that I think they’d have become enemies.

I thought that the first half of the book gained quite a good pace but was let down by the second where it kind of plateaued towards the final twist and epilogue. There’s quite a lot of red flags dotted throughout the book that unfortunately (for me) meant I was able to work a lot of the story out before I reached the end. Plus because I worked out so much I couldn’t help feeling frustrated by Cleo not paying attention to what’s infront of her of spending enough time truly considering the clues or her options.

All in all it’s a great read but for me it lacked the ‘wow factor’ at the end. I’d certainly read another by this author as I like her writing style.

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for allowing me to read this before published.

This was a great psychological thriller and definitely a page turner. Although starting out a bit slow, half way through the book it really started to ramp up. Classic case of 'who dunnit' and light read for a weekend or on holiday as I read it by the pool!

I'm giving this a 4 star due to the fact that around 50-60% of the book I guessed who it was, and around 70% I predicted the plot twist, but it was a interesting one!

I have liked Lauren North's previous books bit found this a bit difficult to get into and was a bit slow for me and I didn't finish it unfortunately. I would read other books of this author in the future but this one was not for me

A fantastic psychological thriller, really loved this book, it was such a brilliant read and so well written with an amazing story unfolding. This had me hooked from the start, such a thrilling addictive read. I just loved all the suspense, twists and turns would really highly recommend this book for everybody to read, such a good story to get into straight away.

A very good read. I had an inkling where it was going and was partly right. Would definitely recommend this book.

I could not put this book down, everything about it was not how it seemed. The two main characters were easy to identify with (any woman who has had a close friendship would be able to connect with Cleo and Rachel.) Living in London and working at unexciting jobs they find a cheap way to make their life more exciting. Their "game" is fun and they get to meet new people on line but then it stops being fun and becomes dangerous. As happens in real life they move on with their lives and go their separate ways but when one of them seems to be in danger will the other one come back to help her. A twisting psychological tale that makes it hard to stop reading!

Rachel and Cleo have been friends for years but have lost touch due to something in their past. Rachel works on a cruise ship. She is on shore leave when she gets a message to say that Cleo is missing. Rachel panics and wonders whether to get back on the ship or look for her friend. She talks to Cleo’s sister who informs her that Cleo has started playing the game again. Rachel is shocked with this. They were really close and they were both hoping to become makeup artists. Rachel’s life was going forward whereas it seems that Cleo’s had become stagnant which was one of the reasons they lost touch. Going back a few years when the girls were living together they join a group online called Camchat for a bit of fun. They take up a new life pretending to be different people never knowing who will sign on. They took the game too far and Rachel wonders whether this has come back to haunt Cloe especially if she has been playing the game on her own. Rachel starts to try and find her friend and story itself becomes quite dark and I felt it was a little to long and could be condensed. On saying this it is a good read and full of twists and turns. The end was a surprise so Lauren North kept me guessing – I did not expect the ending at all which is always a bonus

I really enjoyed Lauren North's previous novel, Safe At Home, but I'm afraid I struggled with this one, got bored and didn't finish it. A pity.

I really enjoyed this dark story full of twists and turns. The pace did slow a little for the last quarter of the book, and the ending was predictable, but still a really enjoyable read.

This is my second Lauren North book and it was an excellent story which really held my attention.

All The Wicked Games tells the story of Cleo and Rachel, two young girls, living life together, broke but happy. In order to amuse themselves whilst staying home and saving money they come across CamChat, an on-line chat site where, generally, lonely (or perverted) people chat on camera. In order to spice things up Cleo and Rachel re-invent themselves as different characters each time they chat and lead some individuals on little realising how dangerous the game can become.

When years later Rachel goes missing, Cleo knows she must return to her old life in order to try and save her friend.

The story is told over joint timelines from Cleo's and Rachel's initial friendship and life to the present day where Rachel is missing. This is one of those books which will keeping you read just one more chapter until you are 80% done and need to know how it ends.

The only slight downside for me was that the ending was slightly predictable. I am a mystery writers dream reader as I never see twists coming however I spotted this one fairly early on which slightly dampened the ending for me. I prefer to be caught out than to be right!

Having said that, the book was well written, well-paced and a really enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Penguin, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off at a very fast pace but mid way it slowed down and I guessed where it was heading. An ok read but not as good as I was hoping

Oh Chloe - you really should have got on the cruise ship!
I loved this book, it was truly twisted! So many absolutely horrific characters with misdirection everywhere, I can confidently say I would be very surprised if anyone could figure out what was going on until near the very end.
A very satisfying read which certainly kept me turning the pages.

When Rachel goes missing, Cleo receives a text do tell her which has her wracked with guilt. A lost friendship, dark games and darker consequences.
This was a chilling read with timeline jumps and differing povs which I enjoyed. Felt like a bit of a step away from Lauren’s previous books which I enjoyed as the darkness had me glued after I was in a slump.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review

Full review on my blog, August 29th:

I requested this one on a total whim while I was on a marathon thriller kick. I’m really glad that I did. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this half as much as I did, and I read the majority of it in one sitting. For all my sins, when I was a teenager I spent far too long on online chatting sites, so the ‘game’ that Rachel and Cleo played was both realistic and horrifying to me. The atmosphere of this book was unbelievably tense, making me increasingly anxious as Cleo tried to find her ex-best friend, the intense feeling of being watched coming through the text in a visceral way. That atmospheric feeling only got stronger as I got further in the book, and it builds to a crescendo in a fantastic way.

ALL THE WICKED GAMES has a past and present timeline, the present being Cleo searching for Rachel and the past being the events that led up to their friendship fracturing event. I liked the way that these were balanced. I didn’t feel like either storyline was being forgotten, and the way that we were fed information meant that I could start piecing together what was going on using both storylines as clues. Even with those clues, I was never quite sure what was going to happen next, and I loved how wrong-footed I felt during the last half of this book. I raced through to the ending so fast because I needed answers before I could sleep.

This is the only time I’ve ever regretted reading one of my ARCs so far in advance – because now I desperately need to talk about the ending of this book but I don’t know a single person who’s read it yet as of writing this review in May. The ending hit me like a punch, and no matter how much I thought I had unravelled of the mystery at the heart of this thriller, it still had more to shock me with. This is a pretty quick read, with all my favourite parts of the psychological thriller genre wound together in an impressive and unsettling way.

A page turner from the very first moment I read this book, I was unable to put it down. The storyline was engaging and kept me engaged. The characters were fantastic and very well written. So many twists and turns throughout the book. Every part of the book was engaging and I really enjoyed reading it. All together an amazing read

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my arc in exchange of an honest review.

The first half of this was very good, I liked the tension and the dual timeline and every character was intriguing in their own way. However, the tension kind of fell after the halfway mark and the pacing was kind of off during the rest. The ending wasn't my favourite either, it was sort of unrealistic and it didn't really feel satisfying. Overall a fun enough read though and definitely a quick one.