This was a slow burner which ratcheted up to breakneck speed by the end!

The tale begins with the story of how the four girls came to be best friends, taking the reader back to high school and introducing Joni as the main protagonist of the tale.

Fast-forward several years and the four friends find themselves sharing a run-down beach house on an annual trip away where, after a few glasses of wine, Joni suggests they should each write a letter, revealing something about themselves they haven't already shared with the group.

This ultimately becomes a true test of friendship as a web of suspicion and intrigue plagues the remainder of the mini-break and threatens to destroy the bonds that have been so strong over the years.

When a mysterious fifth letter is discovered in the dying embers of the fire, written by one of the group who then had second thoughts and tried to destroy the evidence, the plot thickens.

Someone in the group harbours potentially dangerous thoughts towards one of the others and Joni resolves to determine exactly who, with almost disastrous consequences for them all.

Once I’d finished this book I made a point of looking up the author. I’d never read anything else by her but the writing style felt a bit familiar. Discovering that she is the younger sister of Liane Moriarty made an awful lot of sense. The writing style isn’t that dissimilar and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Liane’s style.

Four women in their thirties are on a five day holiday near the coast. They have all been friends since the first day of High School when they discovered that they all had surnames beginning with a “C” and they were all Scorpios. As careers and families have taken over their lives it has got harder to organise their annual break together. Joni is worried that they are all starting to drift apart and that Deb, Eden and Trina aren’t as invested in keeping things going as she is.

After an evening of smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol the women dare each other to write an anonymous letter to the group spilling their deepest and darkest secrets. As a different letter is revealed every day they soon discover that they really didn’t know each other quite as well as they thought. The secrets that are uncovered threaten more than their friendship.

I found it very hard to connect in any meaningful way with the characters who were all a bit shallow and gossipy and the kind of women that I tend to avoid at all costs. The Fifth Letter is an easy read by the pool on holiday but don’t expect too much from it.

Supplied by Net Galley and Penguin in exchange for an honest review.

This an interesting read set in Australia, about four childhood friends who are struggling to keep their friendships going as adults.

They get together for a sort of make-or-break holiday and decide while drunk one night, that it might be really good fun (so they are clearly out of their minds at this point) to write each other anonymous letters about the real problems in their lives. Because this was genuinely going to help them, thought no one ever!

Joni, the main character of the book, is the one struggling most obviously at first. All her friends have children and she's watched as their lives, once so closely entwined with her own, have found their own paths. She's desperate to pull them close back in, hence the stupid idea about the letters.

The first four letters reveal problems from the trivial (one of them has started smoking), to the laughable but weird, and the serious (massively struggling with parenting). But here's where the anonymity idea starts to fall apart. They have conversations about how to help the writer each time one of the letters is revealed, even though they can't ask them anything direct about the problem. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Then the plot kicks in... someone has written a fifth letter - well, their first letter really. But they decided it was too 'awful' for anyone else to see and they tried and failed to get rid of it. Once it's discovered, will the girls be able to find out who the writer is, and why they hide such a terrible secret?

It's an intriguing premise, but for me it fell a little flat in the execution - it's a weird confession, certainly, but not one that left me with a real sense of dread or suspense.

The book is still a good read. It's actually quite light in tone in places, so the fact it isn't always super suspenseful fits with the overall tone of the book. It's almost a 'realistic' suspense, because it's more grounded.

I do feel the women could've helped each other more by having genuine conversations out loud, instead of anonymous stories on paper, but hey ho, friendships do often struggle as people change, and this story is just one reflection of that.

I wish the book had started with one of the letters because I found myself skipping the initial chapters just to get to them! Overall, I unfortunately found it tedious and by the time I read the fifth letter I did not care who wrote it. It all got convoluted and confusing in the middle and the end. Also, huge issue with formatting.. However, a few good laughs thrown in. Sorry, will not be in a hurry to read more from the author.

I may have made the wrong choice is asking to review The Fifth Letter. Although I do enjoy reading about women of all ages this almost fell into chicklit genre and yet it was better than that with an excellent premise that did draw me in.

Four Australian women in their 30s, who have been friends since their school days, go away together at the behest of Joni, who organises the trip. They decide to each write an anonymous letter detailing a secret that none of the others know but a fifth letter is added. The writer regrets her decision and tries to destroy the letter but part of it survives. Who has written it and what is the secret that it holds?

Sadly the tension wasn't there for me. I am anesthetised by psychological thrillers I suppose and by the end of the book I didn't really care who wrote the fifth letter or why. I also found the characters rather cliched which diluted the narrative. I'm sure that many other readers will enjoy The Fifth Letter; it just wasn't to my taste. Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read and review the book.

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden have been friends since school. Every year they go on a trip away, to maintain their friendship. In an attempt to reconnect, they decide to each write an anonymous letter revealing a secret about their lives, to be shared with the group. But as the secrets come out, the four women seem to become further apart, and then Joni discovers a fifth letter. A fifth letter revealing a deep and vicious grudge against another member of the group – but who wrote it?

Now, this book isn’t fantastically written. It’s not bad and there’s a good story in there, but the writing style could use some improvement, and the story itself lacks excitement and – for a large amount of the book – drama. What it doesn’t lack, however, is suspense. I couldn’t work out who’d written the fifth letter until the very end (which is a good thing for this type of book, in case that wasn’t clear).

The story is written from the viewpoint of Joni, as she tells a priest about the trip and the letters. This was a really fun way of telling the story (the priest was actually my favourite character), but it did sometimes get lost in parts where time jumps were unclear and took some working out. My main problem was with the characters. As I said, the story is told from the point of view of Joni, who is very self-obsessed and I didn’t like her. Nor did I like Deb or Eden particularly. The only one I really thought was okay was Trina. This made the book a little bit harder to enjoy, but overall it probably didn’t make too much of a difference.

The ending was pretty anticlimactic. The content of the fifth letter wasn’t really all that shocking, and the revelation of who wrote it was undermined by other events. And I hated the little twist at the end with Trina (if you read this book, you’ll understand what I mean).

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I Thought:

I’m unsure about this book, it’s not a bad book, and it’s not even like I contemplated not finishing it, it just wasn’t all that I wanted it to be. This book isn’t one I’ve seen talked about all over twitter but I was browsing NetGalley and the cover looked interesting, then the description sold it for me, but in reality it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden are the Four C’s friends since the first day of high school after their teacher pointed out all of them were Scorpios with surnames that began with C. Over the years marriage, jobs and children have left them feeling like they were drifting apart and on their annual girls trip away Joni suggests writing a letter each to share a secret in the hope they’ll reconnect.

As the anonymous letters are shared, assumptions are made about the writers and things are said, emotions running high things are further complicated by the discovery of a fifth letter, one never meant to be read and thought destroyed by its owner. As cracks form in the friendships within the group everything comes to a head at dinner after the trip.

Would I recommend it?

Maybe, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to suggest it to another, but I wouldn’t tell anyone not to read it either. The book is well written, although I had some issues with the story jumping about, it not being clear whose viewpoint the story was being told from, but this could just be the formatting in the ARC e-Book I had. My main issue with the book is that I was expecting something a little darker from the premise and what I got wasn’t. So not a bad book, just not what I was hoping for.

Friends since the first day of high school, Joni, Eden, Trina and Deb have been together through a lot. Brought together on a short holiday Joni suggests that they each write an anonymous letter in which they reveal their secrets and then read them within the group. One friend writes a letter and then decides to re-write it and tone down the contents. At the end of the break that letter is discovered and the friendship starts to fall apart.

It sounds like a good premise for a novel and would have been if only handled better. I found the story irritating and the protagonists deeply unlikable individuals - it was hard to believe that they were supposed to be friends. At its heart this is feels like a very formulaic novel designed to appeal to a certain readership (not me) and will probably be very successful.

Wow, what a fab read, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the fact that I had no idea where it was headed. 4.5 star read.

A chic lit book with a twist. 4 friends from school spend a few days away together and each write a letter about something the others don't know about them. One of them also writes another letter then tries to destroy it. The letters start to unravel their friendship. Once I got into the story I couldn't put it down and read it in a couple of days.

Well, what a roller-coaster this book was, and what an ending. Did not want to stop reading this until I had finished the whole story. Didn't pick up that it was an Australian setting at first, not that it mattered to the story where the action took place. Definitely a story that makes you look at friendship and relationships in a different light.

A Pleasant Easy Read
If you're looking for a book which is easy to read, contains some surprises and can be put down and picked up again without losing the thread of the plot then this will suit you. It has no convoluted plot and contains only a limited number of characters. The plot is not farfetched and thus plausible. The author sticks to a simple plot and it serves her well.
The narrative is provided by means of the main character confiding in a member of the clergy for advice.
Aimed I suspect at a female audience this is a novel which contains that which is unusual in today's literary world: a happy ending.

This was an intriguing concept - 4 friends away for a weekend write anonymous letters telling their deepest secrets. Emotions run high as the friends try to guess who wrote each letter and one friend needs to find out who wrote the most shocking of all... the 5th letter.

This was a super quick read and I did enjoy it - Moriarty explores some hard hitting topics well alongside the overall theme of how well do you really know people.

However I marked the book down to 3 stars because:

- the characters were so unlikeable!
- some of the characters decisions were so unrealistic... just wanted to reach into the book and shake a couple of them!
- in parts the book drags with unnecessary waffle... I had to force myself not to skip paragraphs.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

If my review was helpful please mark it as helpful or leave a comment if you have any questions!

You know when a book cover catches your eye online, and you can tell straight away that it's going to be a good read, that your excitement overflows when it doesn't disappoint? Ever get that?

Couldn't wait to get started on Nicola Moriarty's new book, I'm not gonna lie! Letters, secrets, what's not to be intrigued about! Four friends who have been best friends since they were knee-high to a grasshopper, you would assume that they know each other inside and out, yes? In an ideal world, yes, but seeing as reality got in the way, friendships and relationships grew apart. How can four women re-kindle their close friendships, reconnecting with the personalities they once knew?

Getting four women to write anonymous letters was such a bold move! It was also a move which wasn't going to be free from trouble either. Look, here's the thing, I'm female and I really do like to talk (if I'm in the mood). However, I don't really like baring my soul when people know that I am, I want something to hide behind to save...judgement. That said, being free from judgement and having that anonymity means women WILL bare their souls, and go to town on it. Why? Because they can!

All four ladies are extremely different in terms of personalities and beliefs. There is Joni, the one that seems to enjoy being the 'fixer' of the group, but it also means she is often stuck in the past. Then we have Trina, she reminded me of Claudia from The Babysitters Club books as she was the quirky one, yet oozed warmth. That make sense? Think I'm showing my age with the BSC books though! Next up we had Eden, the lady with a life which everyone admires. Lastly there's Deb, the firecracker of the group. Ever seen Miss Congeniality 2? Deb reminded me of the character Sam Fuller, played by Regina King, as she is bulshy and very blunt, yet her heart seems to be in the right place.
Oh and btw, this is my take on the character! You may think differently!

At first I liked Joni as she just wanted to do right by them all, except she didn't seem to enjoy using her brain and ended up not thinking of the consequences before she did anything. The letters for example. Could you write anonymous, honest letters with three of your friends? I couldn't! I'd be absolutely bricking it! Due to that, I absolutely LOVED the letter part of the storyline, as us readers were kept in the dark right until the last minute. Trying to work out who wrote what, proved incredibly difficult. After all, as readers we only know a little bit about each of the characters, so unless our detective skills are rather brilliant, working out the authors of the letters is a tricky one. I did get rather impatient though as I wanted to know who wrote them haha.

I really did enjoy 'The Fifth Letter' as it ticked a lot of my boxes, proving itself to be my kinda book. Yes, I ended up disliking a character or two I am afraid to admit. No, I'm not going to tell you who as you will need to decide for yourself who you like and dislike! I kept changing my mind, especially when I disliked them all at one point, nearly putting them on the naughty step! I loved each and every element of surprise that Nicola added to the storyline. For me, Nicola Moriarty modernised the whole Sex and the City vibe by creating characters who were much more relatable, and far easier to understand. I thought that the novel, bar a few moments where the storyline slowed down too much, was a fab read.

The Fifth Letter is the modern-day take on Sex and the City meets Neighbours; a fun, sassy, emotional storyline which highlights exactly how damaging secrets can be. A must read that's for sure!

Thank you Penguin/MJ/Netgalley!

“Preorder this novel of old friendships, secrets and betrayals now”
Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden. Best friends since the first day of school. Best friends, they liked to say, forever. But now they are in their thirties and real life – husbands, children, work – has got in the way. So, resurrecting their annual trip away, Joni has an idea, something to help them reconnect. Each woman will write an anonymous letter, sharing with their friends the things that are really going on in their lives. But as the confessions come tumbling out, Joni starts to feel the certainty of their decades-long friendships slip from her fingers. Anger. Accusations. Desires. Deceit. And then she finds another letter. One that was never supposed to be read. A fifth letter. Containing a secret so big that its writer had tried to destroy it. And now Joni is starting to wonder, did she ever really know her friends at all?
The book opens:
The first thing you need to know is that I would never, ever actually follow through on these feelings.
My thoughts:
When I read the above description of the book I thought that it was going to be a pretty interesting read.
It tells the story of four women who first meet at high school and become good friends. They stay friends for over 20 years and one of the things that they do is go on an annual holiday together. One holiday is described in the book. On this holiday they decide to write a letter each and share a secret with one another. However one of the women ends up writing two letters as she believes that the first secret that she wrote down, she doesn’t want to disclose to her friends.
A bit of the back story is included to explain how the girls end up being friends – they are all Scorpios and their surnames all begin with a ‘C’.
One of the characters, Joni also ends up explaining what happens to a priest in confession.
All of the women are married, but only three of them have children.
Plus the book is also set in Australia! This was a surprise intially as I hadn’t realised that the author was Australian when I first requested the book.
But I found myself hooked to the story. I took every opportunity I could to read even a few pages.
Moriarty does an excellent job in creating these ladies, perhaps some of them might resemble your own friends.
It does get a touch darker towards the end, but it does keep you guessing about who actually wrote that fifth letter.
I did like the content as after all, I’m pretty sure that all of us aren’t complete open books. We all keep some things to ourselves and perhaps even lie about something that is rather traumatic as a way to deal with it.
Review copy provided via Net Galley.

Four women who have been friends since school and are all now grown up, married and getting on with their lives but manage to have a precious five days together each year by themselves. This year they get a little drunk and decide to write honest letters about their feelings. The letters are to be read during the following days one at a time ... only there aren't four letters, there are five. S0 who wrote the fifth one?
This novel has these five letters at the heart of it and the story takes us both backwards and forwards in time. I'm not into giving away spoilers, but this is one of those reads where you glance at the bottom of the screen and wonder how you got to 85% so quickly! Very engrossing, well written and with great characterisation, this is a book which will stay with you after you finish it. I loved this read and would heartily recommend it to others.

I received an arc via Net Galley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This was a fun easy read, that came at just the right time for me, having read a few heavier books lately.
I enjoyed spending a weekend with the main characters discovering their secrets, feeling like I was a fly on the wall of this girls weekend. I was convinced I knew the author of the fifth letter, so was surprised when I'd got it completely wrong. The characters felt real and I could imagine this scenario being played out all over the world.
This would be a great beach read and also fun for book clubs as there are some good discussion themes throughout.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for my digital copy.

Wow! This is a book that twists and turns when you least expect it! Four Women meet up every year for a five day holiday. They are now all married and several have a family. They have known each other since school and think they everything about each other. But do they? One feels slightly left out as she is childless and thinks the others see her as a lesser person. Do the others have similar issues? Once they get together they enjoy themselves and decide to each write a letter, divulging a secret. Something that the others don’t know about them and to read them out anonymously. One woman has a change of heart and changes her letter. I won’t give anything away other than to say friends are not always what they seem. I devoured this book in almost one sitting. You “feel” the characters and what they are going through and trying to portray to the others. Brilliantly written, this is mostly light-hearted but with a theme of we all have secrets. Be careful what you ask of your friends as you might not like the answer….
I voluntarily chose to read this ARC and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty is a story about relationships, friendships, secrets and betrayal. The story revolves around four women, Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden. These four met when they were kids but established a friendship that lasted long into their adulthood. At first, I was so envious of the four. I have lost touch with my gals who I met in Uni(undergrad) and I found myself missing them as I read about these four. My friends and I used to play a game of ‘confessions’ which was fun and this book had me reminiscing about those days.

However, once the dark secrets started emerging, I became way less envious of the four. As a matter of fact, I was glad that I didn’t have such friends. Nevertheless, I quickly got totally lost in their world, shamelessly enjoying the secrets and wondering how it would impact on them and their friendship.

This book is quite a captivating read. The secrets and lies made it hard to put it down. I wanted to know everything. I especially wanted to know the writer of the fifth letter. My suspicion about the writer’s identity kept changing with each new chapter. I really thought it was Deb but then again something happened to make me suspect Trina. However, Eden did something during the retreat that made me think it was her. I also had my suspicions about Joni.

Another pleasant surprise was about the narrative style. The story is told through two timelines explaining present and past events. The past events are narrated through a confession(yes, the priest kind). One of the four women is talking to a priest about events that occurred before and after the fifth letter was written. The priest even had his own suspicions about who the writer was. I am not Catholic but I really like the whole idea of confessions. It is kind of mysterious in a way. Talking to someone who you can’t really see and confessing all sorts of things.

If you like women’s fiction, I think that this book will appeal to you. If you are like me and you enjoy reading about other people’s scandalous secrets and confessions then you will definitely enjoy this book. However, it is only fair that I mention that this book is not just about secrets (and confessions, I really should go for one), it tackles other themes that most women will relate to. I also like that it depicted the reality about how friendships change over time especially with new responsibilities of getting married and having kids. It also portrays the pressures of keeping up with friends. Being the last one in your group of friends to get married, have kids and or get that dream job? These characters were quite relatable and this helped me enjoy the book even more.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an honest review.

Four friends, five letters and one big secret.
The tag line grabbed me straight away. And I confess when I started I didn't click this was Nicola not Liane Moriarty. My bad but I'm kind of glad because inadvertently I've come across a new author that I'm excited about.
The story is set around four friends, who have been a clique since school. Now in their thirties they take time to go on their annual break...the one that hasn't been so annual since three of them started families. Letting loose they get drunk and stoned and have the "bright" idea of writing an anonymous letter each revealing their deepest secrets. I'm no genius but let's just say there's no amount of drugs and wine in the world that would get me doing that. But hey they're all friends right? Nothing could possibly go wrong! Well obviously it can otherwise this would be a pretty short book. One of the friends writes a letter that she reconsiders but she doesn't cover her tracks enough and that revealed secret is enough to endanger their friendships forever.
I really enjoyed this book. It was slightly disturbing too as there were certain thoughts and guilty secrets I really identified with to the point I thought the author had been bugging my brain! The author really seems to have honed the knack of writing women and their foibles extremely well. I also liked how we get dropped straight into the dynamic of the group - without too much explanation we can understand who each one of them and why they are still friends. An entertaining and involving read, I just wonder what's in the water where the Moriarty women grew up...and if I could have some!