After loving The Herd, I was looking forward to Private Lives, and Emily Edwards has delivered another riveting, thought-provoking read that doesn’t shy away from the big questions. Much like her debut, this novel dives headfirst into the murky waters of ethics, judgment, and the fragility of the human condition, and it’s compelling from start to finish.
💭 My Thoughts
This is not a light read, but it’s an absorbing one. Edwards has such a talent for capturing the emotional fallout of personal choices. In Private Lives, she pushes that even further, forcing us to sit with uncomfortable questions about privacy, morality, and how far people will go to protect themselves or their truths.
The characters feel complex and flawed in very believable ways, and the situations they find themselves in, while extreme, never feel far-fetched. There’s something very real in how Edwards writes about jealousy, resentment, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
It’s the kind of book that lingers after you’ve turned the last page, making you question not only what you would do in their position, but what lies we all accept as part of polite society.
🌀 What I Loved
• A compelling moral puzzle that unfolds with tension and grace
• Sharp character work—full of nuance, emotion, and grey areas
• Themes of ethics, privacy, and judgment that feel timely and resonant
• A writing style that invites reflection without ever preaching

Final Thoughts
Private Lives is another intelligent and emotionally nuanced novel from Emily Edwards. Bold, challenging, and deeply human, it’s a book that doesn’t offer easy answers—but that’s precisely what makes it so powerful. If you enjoyed The Herd, you’ll find even more to unpack here.

Private Lives tells the story of Rosie and Seb Kent, a happily married couple. Seb has finally achieved his dream job of becoming headmaster of the local school and things are perfect...until Abi arrives. Abi comes to their town for a fresh start and to give her children a new life, but she recognises Seb straightaway and things get complicated. Before long, their hidden past becomes a public scandal and Seb's dream job and perfect family are at risk.

I absolutely loved Emily Edwards' previous book, The Herd, and I was so excited to read this one; but sadly it didn't live up to expectations. It was well written and the characters were excellent, but the story fell a little flat; I just didn't feel that there was enough in the story to keep me excited.

I wanted to know how it all played out, but it almost just didn't feel like a story worth writing a book about.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

I hadn't read the first book by this author, The Herd, but had 'heard' good things so wanted to try this next offering!
This was a really strong, gripping read. The start of the book throws in LOTS of characters straight away, and it took me some time to work out the relationships between them, and who was married to who. As always, a cast list would have really helped separate everyone in my head.
Once I had everyone clear, I thoroughly enjoyed reading everything unfold. It's full of drama and Edwards does a great job of asking readers where they stand in the argument of who is right. It would seem this could become the author's trademark angle in her novels!
I found this book interesting and gripping, and would definitely recommend it.

The story of Rosie and Seb, an apparently glamorous power couple in a bougie little seaside town navigate their relationship through marital celibacy. Their closest friends, Anna and Eddy have weathered infidelity in the past so when newcomer Abi appears, and seems to be about to become a good new friend to Rosie, until Seb arrives home, meets Abi and the atmosphere changes, we begin an exploration of moral dilemmas, ethics, human frailties and jealousies.

Their closest friends characters are mostly deeply likeable but flawed, some in ways more obvious (to me) to spot, some less so. Behaviours and opinions are honestly portrayed, with no shying away from actions that can feel very distasteful.

I enjoyed this more than ‘The Herd’ (which was great) because I could more closely relate to the situations described.

A story of relationships, friendships, morals, ethics and human nature - really enjoyable, if uncomfortable at times, I highly recommend it.

Don’t you love it when you read and book and it really sticks with you?! I’m awful for remembering specifics around books once I have read them but Private Lives by Emily Edwards keeps popping into my head, long after I have read it. I think that speaks volumes about how brilliant this book is!

This books covers a rather controversial topic, but does so excellently. Emily really gets the reader thinking and questioning everything. The characters are written well and you find yourself jumping from person to person in who you are rooting for. There is so much emotion in this book and this is brought out by really delving into the private lives of the characters; feeling their feelings and seeing things through their eyes.

It’s been a while since a book has really got under my skin like this one and I immediately want to read The Herd as Emily’s writing is just fantastic!

Excellent novel. I loved The Herd so I was so excited to see this release. I read this over a couple of days, completely immersed in these engaging and flawed characters. Fantastic writing style that had me hooked.

Emily Edwards’s Private Lives is a contemporary novel that reads like it could have been pulled straight from the headlines—or whispered through the corridors of any close-knit community. Set in the idyllic seaside town of Waverly, the story centres on Rosie and Seb Kent, a seemingly perfect couple whose life begins to unravel with the arrival of Abi, a young single mother seeking a fresh start. But Abi’s past is tangled with Seb’s, and their shared history threatens to upend everything.

What makes Private Lives feel so real is its refusal to sensationalise. The drama unfolds not through grand gestures but through quiet revelations, awkward conversations, and the creeping dread of being found out. It’s a story that could easily happen in any town, to any family, and that’s what makes it so powerful.

Private Lives is a thought-provoking, emotionally intelligent novel that explores the cost of secrets and the fragility of reputation. It’s a compelling read for anyone who’s ever wondered how well they really know the people around them—and what might happen if the truth came out.

WOW!!!!! Hooked from the first page and read this book in one sitting… Full of tension and suspense. A real page turner, a domestic noir but OMG so much more!!

I have found this book very difficult to get into and realise that the topic is not really of interest to me
DNF.

This book absolutely blew me away! After a slow start, not in a bad way, I think I just took it slow because I could feel all the characters emotions and it was a lot, this book exploded and I couldn’t stop reading!

Emily Edwards is an amazing writer and explores some relevant topics in a clever way making this an amazing book for book club discussions. Alls I wanted to do while reading this book was talk to people about it. My poor husband hasn’t read it and probably won’t need to now 😅

Seb and Rosie are having problems in their relationship and not really talking about it. Eddy and Anna are working through their’s and it’s known between the couples what happened. As Seb starts to open up to his oldest friend Eddy on the tennis courts, his private life starts becoming public knowledge as it is shared around the small Waverley community.

The characters are absolutely brilliant in this book and it made me go back and forth over who was right and who I felt sorry for. The story feels very real, probably not something we all come across, but the feeling of judging other people especially with our use of social media and WhatsApp groups is something I think a lot of people will relate to. The book had me horrified and absolutely gripped towards the end when the impact of all this talk came to a head. And I think the backstory of why this all came out in the way it did was very clever.

Gripping and emotional, this one will leave you with food for thought, and I’m off to buy The Herd also by this author!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed The Herd by this author, and Private Lives poses a moral dilemma in a similar way. Emily Edwards is a really intelligent writer and I love how she explores all the different angles of the situation about which she is writing.

Private Lives focuses on the residents of Waverley, and I was drawn into the village life immediately. It felt horribly uncomfortable and claustrophobic, but I still found it compelling and I wanted to know all the gossip! The characters themselves are incredibly well constructed and nuanced and it was fascinating to see the different sides of each character. I felt sympathy for all the characters at different points, but also disagreed with them and I kept changing my mind!

The plotting in Private Lives is brilliant and Emily Edwards places small clues throughout the story. It was never obvious where the story would go and I was definitely shocked by some elements of it. The author is constantly asking the reader questions and this is what kept me hooked until the very end.

Emily Edwards is brilliant at taking a topic that you think you know your opinion on, setting it in an everyday setting, and then twisting and turning it until you’ve examined it from every angle before the story reaches a resolution.
This book’s story sounds quite simple but becomes anything but. A man who is unsatisfied in his relationship looks elsewhere and his actions get discovered, but when family friends get involved and share their opinions with the whole community his life is taken over by everyone else’s views.
Thanks to Netgalley for the preview copy.

This is a really great read! It explores the implications of one man's private life no longer being private. When his wife confides in her best friend, telling her what her husband has done, her friend chooses to go public with that information. Brutal!

I really enjoyed Emily's writing style, her character development was fantastic and the plot was very well thought out with several moral dilemmas dealt with sensitively and in a way that made me think. There certainly are two sides to every story. The impact of Seb's actions, although they should, theoretically, have been private, were far reaching, impacting many people in many ways. Food for thought there, for sure!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Emily Edwards and Random House, Transworld for an ARC of this book.

A prophetic message to many that a secret shared isn’t always kept secret and how a group of self righteous small minded people can wreck lives by their prurience. This book is very well written with a relatively small cast of very three dimensional characters who display humanity in all its shades and colours. I was engaged with the story from the start and actually felt wrung out by the end having been on the emotional rollercoaster with the key characters. I just loved this and can’t wait to read more from Emily Edwards.

A difficult subject handled with tact and diplomacy allowing an impossible situation to be exposed and dissected with extreme sensitivity. A loving marriage struggling to survive when the wife refuses any approach that might result in sex and rejects any suggestions to change the situation. A desperate husband who resorts to a prostitute mistakenly believing that would be less unforgivable than an affair. Their two best friends discover his secret resulting in one of the close friends taking the self righteous attitude that the community must be told and the husbands secret now must render him unfit to carry on with his post as headmaster of the local school. Mayhem ricochet’s through the community. Sides are taken, gossip mongers baying for blood whilst enjoying the chase, until a catastrophic disaster occurs and the seven day wonder episode is replaced by a community facing their shortcomings exacerbated by a near death explosion.. Three families each with their own secrets struggling to survive and protect their children in the aftermath repercussions of the disastrous revelations. A rollercoaster conclusion that attempts answers surrounded by numerous questions that only the reader can move to individual resolution.

Private Lives follows Rosie and Seb who are married but are in a bit of a rough patch. They have 3 gorgeous children and Seb has finally achieved his lifelong goal of becoming head teacher of the local high school. But soon, a newbie arrives to this sleepy town and with her she brings secrets and a scandalous history with Seb which of course, in a small town like theirs, won’t stay secret for very long.

Emily Edwards has done another great job with her latest novel, Private Lives. Taking a controversial topic and inserting it into the lives of her characters makes her books such great topics of conversation as there is never a clear cut answer. In Private Lives, we are left thinking about how much someone’s private life should impact their ability to do their job.

If you’re a fan of people who live in small towns and have nothing better to do than make other people’s lives their business, you’re going to love this one. I can’t wait to see what topic Emily Edwards is going to get us talking about next.

It’s another hit for Emily Edward’s whose last book, The Herd, I devoured. She has really come up with another very interesting moral dilemmas that make readers question their views. Should someone’s private life and mistakes affect their ability to do their job? Maybe when that job is one where young people can be influenced? Read it and make your mind up.

My thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review Private Lives.

This book is absolutely brilliant. What a storyline with a really important message to us all beneath it. seb and Rosie are married and like a lot of married couples there are difficulties. This book tells the story of other people getting hold of the story and jumping to conclusions , making g assumptions and through social media etc hounding the family. This is a time when you find out who your friends are and who has your back. This is an absolute must read.

This is a fabulous book, once I had read a few pages, I was soon addicted. What started as a nice-sounding area, Waverly soon changed, well, not the place, but the people!

Abi has recently moved from London to Waverly with her friend Diego, and they are starting in a new restaurant business. They know each other and what their lives are like. One of the reasons for moving is to start again, new faces, a new place and no expectations.

Anna and Eddy have had a bump in the road, but they seem to have got over it now, and things are moving on nicely.

All are friends with Rosie, she is a mother and also the wife of Seb, the new head teacher of the school. He has responsibilities for those in his charge as well as his family. Home life isn't great, but they seem to bumble along nicely!

It is a chance encounter that throws everything out of balance. To be honest, the event was going to happen at some point given the geography and also the friendship base those involved share. If things could have been left, it would have been better. You know that thing about what goes on behind closed doors is their own business and not yours? Well, this story has that as its base, and then the author builds on it, and boy does she build.

Using expectations and perspectives of others, the author trolls those involved in a situation that has nothing to do with them. But like the trolls on the internet, some troll in person, but they have a backhanded way of doing it. Seemingly being supportive, but at the same time relishing in the misery and circumstances of others.

An opinion is something we are all entitled to, but when that opinion is pushed into someone else's face or their lives and it impacts those around them, then it is no longer an opinion. The various emotions and also how people react or respond are very interesting in this story, and I do think this story gives a good snapshot of society. There will be people who stand by and watch the others, either those who think they are justified or those who try to provide a calming effect. Whether it is something you may have seen or experienced in real life, on social media or on TV, there is a chance that you will find this story to be relatable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is a contemporary fiction story that has family and friendship at its heart. Trust, loyalty, respect, and the truth are tested, and the author has done a fabulous job of showing the impact one event could have in the future. Brilliant story and a good array of characters, and I would definitely recommend this book.

This was an interesting read about a family, Seb, and Rose are happy until Abi the single mother arrives. Then the lies and twists begin. It feels like you are watching them while reading which I think the author wanted. Another great book by this author. A 4 star read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.