Laura is living with her fiancé, Jack, and she is the primary caretaker of Charlie, Jack’s daughter from his first marriage. Charlie seems to be thriving under Laura’s care, until Jack’s first wife, Bronwyn, returns and, unbelievably, moves in with Laura, Jack, and Charlie!

Bronwyn and Laura have different parenting philosophies, and it seems that Bronwyn is purposely undermining Laura’s place in Jack and Charlie’s lives.

Adding to the stress over Bronwyn’s reappearance, Laura’s husband, Jack, has been out-of-work for over a year, and the couple is financially strained. At work, Laura feels forced to hire an attractive new assistant — an assistant who happens to witness Laura tampering with a lock after the theft of a valuable painting, due to Laura’s carelessness. To make matters worse, even Laura’s friends are starting to like Bronwyn. No one believes Laura when she tries to tell them what is happening!

I literally couldn’t put this one down! I was lucky enough to receive both the audio and digital print of this book. I started reading early one morning, and then changed over to listening as I cleaned my entire house (because I couldn’t put the book down!)

The action moves quickly. Natalie Barelli does a beautiful job layering her characters, so the reader feels the anger and anxiety right along with the main character as the tension builds! I was on the edge of my seat to see how this one ended and Natalie Barelli did not disappoint!

Read this is you love twisty, psychological dramas involving families! And be sure to check out this author’s backlist! She has some fantastic reads!

This was my first time reading a Barelli book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Very well written, with an Intriguing plotline. It was a slow starter allowing us to become familiar with the characters and their roles throughout the book.

One word...Bronwyn...what an absolute bitch she was, the sort of person you just wanted to give a good slap!

As always I was pretty clueless in working out what was going on. There were plenty of twists and turns, with that ending I wasn't expecting.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I enjoyed Unforgivable as there were lots of twists and turns that kept me intrigued. However, after a while the MC started to drive me crazy. I began to find her very annoying. Overall, it was a good read.

3.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Laura lives with her fiancé Jack and his daughter Charlie. His ex-wife comes to stay with them for a while and having Bronwyn back in town is tough on Laura and Charlie. Lots of gas lighting and twists. I couldn't stand Jack and didn't understand why Laura would even want to marry him aside for her love for Charlie. I appreciated the solid tie up at end.

Unforgivable by Natalie Barelli is a psychological / domestic suspense thriller that had me for the most part on the edge of my seat as I was reading it. Right from the prologue this book had me intrigued and the further the book went on I had no idea who to trust. Who were the good guys ? I was suspicious of nearly every character. This was a fast paced read with oh so many twists and turns that I just didn’t wasn’t to put this book down until I’d finished the final chapter. This was my first book by this author but I’ll definitely be reading more.

I really loved Unforgivable. The description alone had me hooked and as soon as I picked it up I could not put it down. It was fast paced with plenty of twists and turns and it kept me guessing throughout. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

Another brilliant psychological thriller from this brilliant author.

The plot was very tight, and the author really knows how to create a perfect atmosphere of menace.
But she drew the characters so beautifully it was easy to connect with them.
Even though with all the twists and turns at times I changed my mind several times/

I could not put this book down, it had me gripped.
The pace was excellent and kept readers, me included, saying, one more page ,then three hours later it was finished.

I highly recommend this book, and the author.
I will definitely read more of her books.
A true 5 star read.

I really enjoyed this one!
Barelli is superb at crafting her novels- unreliable people everywhere you look and a plot and reveal that is so intricately thought out, some of it just passes you by!
The characters here are all fantastic, the reader has no clue who to trust- which is something I love!
The plot was fast paced and I read this in just a couple of days.
The ending didn't surprise me all that much, I had my suspicions who was culpable, but I definitely loved the way it was revealed.

Laura loves being a stepmum to delightful Charlie (Charlotte) but there’s a big black cloud looming on the horizon. That would be Bronwyn, the soon-to-be ex-wife who buzzed off to Italy when she got a better offer and now she’s returning for a visit. What’s more to stay with Laura, Jack and Charlie. What, I hear you cry? Yes indeedy and what’s more she’s making demands for her stay to be a more comfortable one. Everyone loves entitled Bronwyn, well, everyone except Laura. They have history from school days and it’s not pretty unlike Bronwyn. So, how will it play out as this is a cuckoo, nest and all that jazz scenario and who indeed is the cuckoo ? Or should that be IS cuckoo?

Well, I barrel(ed or should that be Barelli(d)??) through this one at a rate of knots as it’s so deliciously and devilishly entertaining. There are so many different shades of unforgivable you real from one revelatory act to the next in the intensely building drama. Frankly, if Laura doesn’t ring Bronwyn‘s neck then I will, then I want to yell at Laura for not standing up for herself and as for Jack, well least said and there’s poor Charlie in the centre of the many shenanigans.

There’s an awful lot of button pressing and sitting back in anticipatory glee at the fireworks, some people sure know how to hold grudges and act on them in an over the top way!

It’s a truly twisted sister tale, reserve your judgements on the characters, cringe your way through some of the conversations as you’re meant to and then watch as it plays out into a bonkers, insanely dramatic end which makes your jaw drop. What a ride.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bookouture for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is my third book by this author and I have to say she never disappoints!!!! This book was a wild ride filled with lots of twists and red herrings it kept me guessing right up until the end! Barellis prose flows well throughout and makes you not want to put this book down until your finished love love loved it!!!! I will highly recommend this book to my readers in the Facebook group I created @DOMESTICTHRILLERREADERSBOOKCLUB

Many thanks to #netgalley and #bookoture for allowing me this advanced readers copy

Laura is engaged to Jack Blackwell. He is the father of 7-year-old Charlotte (Charlie). Laura loves Charlie so much and works hard caring for her and raising her. She is a curator at the Bruno Mallet Gallery with a background as a portrait artist and an art teacher.

Jack is in the process of divorcing Bronwyn, Charlie’s mother. She left them 2 years ago to move to Italy with her wealthy plastic surgeon boyfriend. Now, she may see Charlie briefly on her birthday. Her leaving Charlie left the little girl with many behavioral issues which Laura has worked hard to help her get over.

Now, Bronwyn is coming for Charlie’s birthday and this time she wants to stay with them for several weeks. Laura is dreading this as well she should. Bronwyn expects Laura to wait on her and prepare her vegan meals while Laura is so busy with her job. In addition to it all, Jack has lost his job and just cannot seem to find another one.

Laura and Bronwyn had known one another in junior high school and at one time were good friends but their friendship fizzled. While Laura is apprehensive about Bronwyn’s visit, she is determined to do everything she can so Charlie can have a visit with her mother. What seems like something fairly simple to get through soon becomes a literal nightmare.

This book had me rolling my eyes as I felt Laura was allowing herself to be a doormat and simply needed to stand up to Bronwyn and Jack. But it turns out that it’s so very much more than an annoying houseguest. Wow! It caught me up at the end and I was left flabbergasted. What a ride! Enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

WoW Unfaithful by Natalie Barelli was a brilliant psychological thriller! and its the first book i have read by this author which was a bonus for me. It was packed with brilliant twists and turns that just had me gripped from the beginning till the end and will not be the last book I read from this author.

I highly recommend this book

Big Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC

Are you looking for a fast paced read laced with craziness, paranoia and unreliable characters? Well look no further...Unforgivable by Natalie Barelli is an unputdownable thriller that has you rolling your eyes, gasping, and guessing throughout this quick read.

Laura, an art curator has alot going on. She's in the midst of curating a new show for work all while caring for Charlie, her step daughter and planning a wedding to her fiancé Jack. Everything turns upside down when Bronwyn, Jack's soon to be ex-wife and non existent mother to Charlie is showing up for an unexpected visit. Upon her return into their lives, Laura slowly starts losing her mind. Is she going crazy? Can we believe anything she says? Or is the nemesis closer that Laura actually thinks?

This book was all kinds of crazy...but in a fun, can't wait to see how it all comes together in the end kind of way. The characters are hate able in an interesting way and the story line unfolds in dramatic fashion. If you love a good thriller along the lines of Freida McFadden and Kiersten Modglin, you will definitely be a fan of this. This is my first book by this author and it won't be my last.

Hope you enjoy this bonkers ride this thriller will take you on. 😉

This was my first book by Natalie Barelli.
(Publication date: 7/26/2022)

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love thriller and suspense novels so I was pumped to read Unforgivable. I would call it more of a suspenseful family drama.

Laura is soon to become Jack's wife and Charlie's stepmother. Laura could not be more excited. Things were going great for all three until Bronwyn, Jack's ex-wife and Charlie's mom, is back and moving in.

Bronwen is demanding and manipulative, but somehow only Laura sees it and will do anything to protect Charlie even if that means sacrificing her pending marriage.

I enjoyed reading this. I thought Barelli's writing was easy to follow and captivating. The characters were well rounded and easy to love or hate. The ending was intense even though you had a fair idea of what was coming.

I wish there was a little more thrill and that the suspense happened more and sooner than it did.

Thank you @netgalley and @bookouture for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading The Housekeeper by the same author I knew I needed to apply for this book. I am so grateful that I got to review it because it has the same excellent writing that immerses the reader right into the story and the domestic drama that unfolds. Highly recommend this book!

4.5 rounded up

What a cracking book! Thanks for bringing it to my attention Mark. I’ve read a couple of her books but this was next level!

The story is told from Laura’s POV. Laura and Jack are living in happily pre-wedding bliss. Jack just has to have his divorce finalised. Charlie is his 7 year old daughter and Laura loves her to bits. This book is NOT about an evil step-mother. Jack’s ex Bronwyn left him over an alleged affair and took up with a wealthy Italian man. Happiness all round - or not.

Things go pear shaped when Bronwyn announces she is coming to London to spend some time with her daughter and she will be staying at Jack and Laura’s house (technically still half Bronwyn’s. The trouble starts immediately with Bronwyn undermining and gaslighting Laura, in the politest way possible. And Jack is largely mentally ‘not there’ - he has lost his job and, apparently, his personality as well. At this point I hate Jack!

Poor Laura feels a deepening sense of paranoia and there is a sense of growing dread. We soon learn that there is more than one unreliable narrator, everyone (with the exception of the delightful Charlie) has secrets, and your loyalties start to constantly shift. It’s like quicksand.

This a slow motion train wreck of a story but you cannot look away. Of course it’s bonkers but fabulously so. As we approach the end you get whiplash and I’m going “what?” “What the…?”

Natalie Barelli did an awesome job with this one. She writes bad characters so deliciously well. Ultimately they are all pretty unlikeable for various reasons - except for Charlie. The plot was tight and the pace was crisp until it went into overdrive. In this case it all worked extremely well and I loved this story. Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

Thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author, for the review copy of this book. I really like the author's narration style. There is always an element of surprise at every ending and I always enjoy that very much. I did not particularly like any of the characters in this book, but that does not take away from the fact that this was an enjoyable story.

This was a fun one, and is the 2nd book I have read and enjoyed by this author. The story centers on Laura, who is a stepmom to Charlie. Charlie’s actually mom, Bronwyn, a former friend of Laura’s, returns to town and shakes up the life that Laura is trying to build with her new family.

Firstly, no character in this book is likable. It was sometimes hard to root for Laura when she kept doing so many stupid things. That being said, she had a horrible support system around her that didn’t help matters. Though I did figure out what was really going on early in the book, Laura didn’t, and I enjoyed the red herrings she chased until she finally caught up; it made for a fast-paced read. I found the ending of the book mostly satisfying though I still didn’t like any of the characters.

Overall, fun and quick story that I’d recommend to those who like psychological thrillers. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange doe an honest review.

Unforgivable by Natalie Barelli is another great read by this author. The plot is interesting and unique. The characters were not lovable, nor did I root for any of them except the child. Each one of them embraced their flaws – which is the point of the story. It started a bit slowed, but then picked up the pace and just kept going. I am not sure how twisty the book is, I knew what was happening early on, but still enjoyed where the author took the reader. I highly recommend this thriller.

***** I received an ARC from NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my honest review. *****

This is my first book by Natalie Barelli and despite wanting to delve into her thrillers long before now I've not had the chance to. And I'm wondering what took me so long? I read this addictive pageturning book in a matter of hours and no one was bringing me out of my trance until I was done. This book has everything I love and so many things I hate too...but oh, I still love to hate them...as it makes it soooo good!

There are all kinds of crazy going here but just who is the crazy one? There is so much paranoia, insecurity and passive-aggression going on that it's hard to know just who is pulling the wool over whose eyes. And just when you think you know the direction the story is taking, it back-flips and turns everything around, leaving you thinking...OK, I think I know where this is going now. But trust me, you don't. It's not easy to hoodwink me - other authors have joked with me about trying harder to do just that - but I was outwitted this time. I thought I was being clever and looking where no one else was...but the author double crosses us numerous times just when we were starting to trust her and our own instincts. By the end of the story I so wanted to say that I knew what was going on...but did I really? Hell no! Honestly, I thought Laura was being gaslighted but I think the whole time the author was gaslighting the reader!!

Laura is an art curator for a local gallery and is happy with her fiance Jack and she loves being a stepmother to seven year old Charlie. They are a happy little family unit and everything is going perfectly until that morning...Jack informs her that Bronwyn, Charlie's mum, is arriving to spend Charlie's birthday with her. And she will be staying with them. How long will she be here? A couple of weeks, he assures her. But the silver lining? She's agreed to sign the divorce papers she's been dragging her heels on since she left two years ago.

Laura and Bronwyn share a history pre-Jack and it isn't long before tensions are running high. Charlie, who is excited that her mummy has come to visit, will do anything to please her for fear that her mother won't like her enough to stay this time. And Bronwyn plays on that. Which Laura sees all too clearly...but Jack doesn't. Why? Is he blind? Stupid? Or just playing dumb? That man is quite honestly a p***-weak wet blanket that can't even stand up for his fiance against his ex-wife. I wanted to smack him so many times when he appeared to find the bench far more interesting that the caustic interaction between his fiance and his ex-wife.

And then there is Bronwyn's spur-of-the-moment visit. Why now? And where's her partner Leon? The plastic surgeon she ran off to Italy with two years ago? Laura is sure that Bronwyn has a hidden agenda and she is determined to find out what it is. But then is Laura really a reliable narrator?

Aside from the chaotic stress of her homelife, Laura has taken on a new assistant Summer without really checking her qualifications. More to appease her boss Bruno who is clearly taken with the attractive twenty five year old budding photographer. But then she begins to wonder if Summer's sudden appearance is a coincidence or if there is more her "just being there" one morning to apply for the position? I repeat...is Laura's narrative a reliable one?

Yet in the middle of this chaos is innocent little Charlie, who Bronwyn insists on calling Charlotte and dressing her up as if she were a life sized doll in pinks and frills and everything so un-Charlie. Charlie, who is not exactly a tom-boy, but enjoys adventure and nature and wants to be a vet or run an animal sanctuary. She enjoys exploring nature and playing soccer and rolling in the mud. She's not a pretty little princess into frills and make-up and all the fickle fakeness her mother is. But for the sake of pleasing her mother so she won't leave her, Charlie acquiesces. She dresses in the clothes Bronwyn buys for her, that she isn't comfortable in; she refuses Laura's invitation to play "so she doesn't get her clothes dirty"; she keeps her room clean which is definitely un-Charlie-like...and through it all, Charlie is still unhappy. And it breaks Laura's heart. For the little girl just wants her mummy to love her...but is Bronwyn capable of loving anyone beyond herself?

Oh, I do love a cuckoo-in-the-nest domestic thriller. Threatening everything that our protagonist holds dear with just a flutter of her eyelashes and expensive gifts for her long-lost daughter. Who craftily wrangles their way into the homes and lives of the unsuspecting (until it's too late) and winning others over bar one who sees through their ploys but no one else will believe them?! So while our protagonist appears to be the crazy one, little miss cuckoo deftly swoops in to save the day time and again in such a way that makes the crazy appear even crazier. And the passive aggression...you could cut the air with a knife!!

Honestly, that is just what I expected, and got, with UNFORGIVABLE! Until it went further than that and it leaves you wondering...what the...what just happened? Believe me when I say you think you have it all worked out, but you don't. Not even close. This was a whole new level of psycho and so cleverly done. I don't care if it's been done, in part, before...it's the thrill of the ride that I enjoy and boy, did I get that!! The author engineered everything perfectly that the reader thinks "that's it" only to realise it was nothing but a red herring sent to confuse us and send us in the wrong direction while the real twist kept giving...and giving...and giving...until the final page.

I loved UNFORGIVABLE and will definitely look out for other thrillers by Natalie Barelli, who I've wanted to read for so long but just not gotten around to it. I love the fact that she's an Australian author who lives not too far from where I do...but...I have to say, it really annoys me when authors (particularly Australian) create a setting for their books in America! This is not the first, as I have come across many, and it has me wondering what is so wrong with Australia that one can't base their stories here? Nicole Trope does and hers are amongst my all-time favourites. I'm really puzzled as to why so many don't utilise their own backyards for creating the perfect settings for their books. Really, this book could have sufficed well enough here in Sydney as well as it did in Seattle.

Yep Bronwyn is a character that definitely got under my skin but then she was written in way to do just that - get under the readers' skin. And she certainly did that. If she wasn't messed up crazy, then was it Laura who was? Who was the paranoid one? Because both women displayed perfect examples of paranoia...didn't they? Who's pulling the wool over whose eyes? OMG I wanted to throttle Bronwyn and then smack Jack and Laura's heads together for being so utterly clueless. But then had they all been smarter then there wouldn't have been such a thrill ride of a thriller, would there? There would be no UNFORGIVABLE. And quite honestly, all characters made some very stupid decisions...some more than others, I might add.

UNFORGIVABLE is an edge-of-your-seat thrill-ride a minute that had me turning pages for "just one more chapter". It is addictive and is a train wreck but honestly, I couldn't look away. I couldn't stop reading. I had to know who was playing who and how it all ended. It is fast paced throughout that it felt like a pressure cooker was inside my head as I raced through the pages until the very end.

A non-stop rollercoaster ride I thoroughly recommend UNFORGIVABLE to fans of tense domestic thrillers that love a little gaslighting. And just a little bit of crazy...

I would like to thank #NatalieBarelli, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #Unforgivable in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.