An interesting concept for this book. It explores lots of tricky feelings between friends in a modern world where everyone tries to keep in touch after leaving school. It explores why sometimes it might be better for friends to have a break from clinging to each other so they can get to know and understand themselves and new relationships they have made. I enjoyed reading this book but it did get confusing sometimes as it wasn't always clear when the confessional conversation restarted and I found I had to reread bits to check.

Brilliant book - I would recommend this to anyone who wants a page turner!

This book left me a little unsatisfied. Whilst i am still reflecting on the outcomes, I found it a little confusing. I was intrigued by the premise of the book, but it didn't draw me in enough.

I thought the confession approach was clever but too long. There weren't enough differences in the characterisations for me. Without any signposting, sometime I found it difficult to work out who was speaking - perhaps this was due to the formatting on my advance kindle copy.

An interesting read. 3*.

I was fortunate to be sent this ARC by Netgalley, in return for an honest review.
The book tells the story of four Sydney thirty somethings, Joni, Deb, Trish and Eden. They have been special friends since school and have kept in close contact for twenty plus years, even going on a few days break together every year, although they’re all married now and three have children. On one such holiday they decide to each write an anonymous letter detailing a secret about themselves that they have kept from the others. Then they will read them out one at a time over their stay, not knowing who’s letter is who’s. But Joni finds a fifth letter which the writer, changing her mind, thinks that she has burned in the fire. It has some devastating secrets, but who’s is it.

To me these four characters come over as self obsessed, fitness junkies. They are absorbed in examining their own feelings and relationships with each other and with their husbands. Plotting all the twists and turns in the relationship must have been a real headache for the author, Nicola Moriarty. If it were me I would have had the walls plastered with charts of names and situations with a lot of arrows leading everywhere, not to mention much coloured felt pen. I have to admire her for writing such a labyrinthal, twisted up plot which there was a certain fascination in reading, But at the end I’m afraid my feeling was, “Who really cares”. And as to the weird contrivance of Joni confessing the whole story to a Catholic priest in a confessional box, words fail me. She said that she hadn’t been to confession for years. So what was she doing there and what sort of priest would spend hours listening to all that stuff. Neither was it always clear when Joni was talking to the priest and when it was a part of the on going story. It seems from the dedication that the author is the sister of Liane Moriarty, author of “The Husbands Secret” and other highly enjoyable and well written books. I hate putting down an author’s debut work, but she’s not in the same league as her sister. Hopefully things will improve. I think that this novel will probably appeal to avid watchers of TV soaps. Since I’ve never had any wish to watch these I’m probably not the right person to appreciate this book.

I was drawn to this book as I love Liane Moriarty and this was every bit as good! If you like stories about re-unions, friends and secrets this is the book for you.
Joni is the narrator, telling this story to a priest in confession. Joni is one of four friends who met on their first day of high school. They have been there for each other through thick and thin. Now thirty-something women with marriages and families of their own, they still come together for a few days away every year.
This year after a bottle of wine they become relaxed and start reminiscing. Then they come up with the idea of each writing a letter sharing a secret, without revealing their identity. That in itself is a can of worms, but then Joni finds an anonymous fifth letter, never intended to be read, which fuels this whole story.
Wow, what a great book! I was quickly hooked with a plotline worthy of Liane herself. The author is good at making the reader second guess all four characters and their motives. Rather than an open supportive atmosphere it becomes a tangled web of too many secrets. There is an air of duplicity and secrecy with dangerous undercurrents. You are always aware there is a lot going on under the surface with tantalizing bits of the fifth letter dropped in every now and then.
I rattled through this gripping and addictive story full of secrets and things not always as they seem. If you love Liane Moriarty you will love this. It was pure enjoyment reading it.

Kept me intrigued from the very first page. I didn't guess the identity of the writer of the fifth letter. Enjoyed the difference with the priest being included in the storyline.

This was such a good book, I really enjoyed all the twists and turns and just couldn't put it down waiting to find out what was going to happen next!

The story is about four friends - Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden - who met right at the beginning of secondary school and have been friends ever since. Their lives have changed as they've got older with husbands/children, but they still try and meet up for a break away together every year. Joni is the driving force of keeping them all getting together, and the only one without children.

The story starts off with Joni visiting a priest to confess and as she tells him the story it flips between 'real-life' and the conversation with the priest, although the priest part is only fairly small. I did find this a little confusing at first until I figured out what was happening as it wasn't entirely clear until you read on a little bit, but I got used to it.

During the girls break away, and after a fair amount of alcohol, they decide to have a sort of game where they all type a letter admitting a secret that the rest of the group don't know about and then read them out over the course of their holiday. They do it on a computer separately so they can't figure out each others handwriting. Of course it sounds great in theory but once the secrets start coming out it gets very interesting. There is also the 'fifth letter' which is a letter that one of the group has written, but then decided that the secret is too much to admit, so scraps it and writes another one. Then Joni finds the fifth letter....

The letters set them all thinking and various issues come to light during their holiday and their days/nights out to events like the Dirty Thirty Challenge (mud run) and rock climbing. The drink definitely loosens tongues and it seems that once the floodgates are opened no amount of 'secrets' start coming out. The first 60% of the book (reading on a Kindle) is about the relationship between the four women and set over the five days of their break away together, with the remaining story set when they all get home and the fall-out over the secrets revealed.

I won't ruin things and say who the fifth letter was from... but this was a really riveting read that kept me wanting to read it whenever I had a spare minute, just to see how things turned out in the end and to try and figure out who wrote the fifth letter. I must admit I switched between who it was a couple of times and still didn't finally figure it out until right near the end. It got very dramatic near the end, with a few shocks, and I was whizzing through the pages in anticipation. Definitely not one to read late at night as you'll be up half the night trying to get it finished! The comment about the priest at the end was very amusing and made me finish the book with a smile on my face. This is definitely one of those books that I will remember and recommend to others.

I've also since found out that Nicola Moriarty is the younger sister of authors Liane and Jaclyn Moriarty, so writing talent obviously runs in the family. Very talented lot!

When a group of four girlfriends go away for the weekend on their annual trip and decided to share secrets surely its meant to bring them closer together?
Maybe not, whena fifth letter is found, one confessing alot of dark thoughts - a letter that makes everyone doubt their already strained friendship from the previous confession it really is a battle - was their friendship real to start with?

As each friend hears their secrets read out, and hears the others thoughts on it, it really isnt the great idea it was supposed to be. This is a novel of anger, desire, deciept and friendship. Its full of twists and turns and leaves you guessing who wrote what.

Nicola spends alot of time builidng each character allowing the reader to be able to form their own opinions. It took me a while to rememeber who was who, but that is often the case for me when thier is a group of more than 3 people that are key to the novel. So i slowed it down and spent time learning about them too.

I really did enjoy this book, it was a strong read and really did keep my attention, and i didnt want to put it down, because i mean - i had to know who wrote the fifth letter, who had those thoughts, what would it mean for the women?

blog review live - 12/1/17

This book is about a group of four friends who have been friends since school. They get together for a break every year. Feeling that they are not as close as they used to e one of the group suggests that they all write a letter anonymously revealing a secret and they will each take a turn to read a letter out. One of the girls writes a second letter and vows to destroy the first more damaging letter. We are left trying to work out who wrote the fifth letter.

I enjoyed this story very much. It had just the right balance of humour and drama. It also had enough mystery to keep me from wanting to put the book down. I thought the story would have been better had it been a larger group involved in the story. My one criticism is that there was a scenario towards the end of the book that irritated me a lot which I thought was a real stretch

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

I was intrigued by this book which details the friendship between four girls that began in school – a friendship that was instigated by Joni claiming that they were ‘special’ as all their names began with C and they all had the same birth sign. She even lied to one of the other girls and then kept the secret of her manipulation. The girls agreed to be ‘friends forever’ and this worked for many years. However, with the passage of time, three of the friends are married with children. Joni remains childless.

Joni resurrects the idea of the women’s short holiday together, not easily managed with busy life-styles and family commitments. She also suggests that each of the friends writes a letter revealing something about their lives, something that they may have kept a secret.

As you are aware, secrets are the life-blood of books. They reveal much about the characters involved; they may be used to manipulate or control others and often they are the catalyst for change, whether it is good or bad.

Secrets – never a good thing – but in this case, it is a good story- but I can’t tell you the secrets because it will spoil the book. You will have to try it and see.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley on my Kindle in return for an honest review

When I read the premise of this book, I was extremely intrigued and am grateful to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read it early in return for an honest review.

One of the first things I found on reading the book was that I didn't particularly like any of the characters. Whether this was the intention of the author or not, I don't know (though am guessing not, due to each lady's characteristics being so different, one would have thought they could find something in common with at least one of them), but it made me feel as though I didn't particularly care who the fifth letter was from, nor who it was about.

We have Joni, the irritating 'glue' that holds everyone together, gobby Deb who needs taking down a peg or two, Eden, who is so passive aggressive you want to shake her and bland Trina. None of these women are people I would ever like to hang out with or call a friend of my own, and I rather felt like they deserved all they got during the course of the novel .

What I will say, is that I read this title very quickly, and it is enjoyable by and large. There is a definite page-turner quality to the story, owing to its 'whodunnit' nature, and that in itself is worth the read. However, when the outcome is revealed, I am not altogether sure I bought it. It seemed terribly far fetched and it bothered me.

I am loathe to give a middling review, but I can't summon up too much enthusiasm about this one.

When starting this book it is hard not to compare nicola's style of work to her sisters. However it did not take long to overcome this as I was drawn into the story and the secrets of the characters and was thoroughly engrossed. I must admit I originally requested this book via netgalley as I have read all Liane Moriartys works and was intrigued how Nicola compared but having now read the book I will look for Nicolas other titles in the future.
I enjoyed this book very much and loved the suspense created by the anonymous letters, trying to work out who wrote what. For me this story was almost a life lesson in that you can never truly know the thoughts and actions of any individual, no matter how close. The revealing of each characters secrets and thier lives was entertaing enough but the edition of the fith letter added more suspense and a slight darkness to the book.
The only criticism I have is that there wasn't enough humour. At the beginning of the book there is plenty of light humour but this seemed to pater out towards the second half of the book. It was a bit unclear whether this was a light chick lit read or was meant to be a more psychological thriller but without the thrill.
However saying that I would highly recommend this book to my friends and look forward to reading more of Nicola's future releases.

This book is a quick read and it's almost as though the author has tried to cram as much as possible into it. I found much of the story confusing as it seemed to flip from one storyteller to another and I had to keep turning back to see who was telling the story. I didn't feel as though I got to know the characters in any depth and think that they could have been developed as individuals. Having said that I had to keep reading as the secrets unfolded. Lots of twists and turns until the last page. I would read this author again. Thanks NetGalley.

The book was well written and drew me in from the beginning. The story twisted and turned but as a reader I wasn't sure how it would end and who had written the fifth letter.
I liked the author's style of writing and will definitely read more of her books as and when they are published.

Really enjoyed this book and how you could relate to each character, shows a lot about friendship and how fickle we can be yet so forgiving also. Great plot and story and had you constantly guessing who wrote that letter, great ending very apt. All in all great read!!!

The narrative flips between one of the four lead characters, and I found myself frequently losing track of who was talking, and who was who in general.
This is the story of four women clinging to an old friendship and sharing older secrets. The confessions of one to the priest feel like a way for the story to be explained more.
Yes someone ends up in hospital, babies are born but nothing really happens. This for me took me far too long to read about nothing.

Can close friends from school days keep their friendship going after marriage and children?? Very entertaining book that keeps you on edge waiting for a breaking point. The tension builds so slowly amongst the four friends, you are not really sure what to believe. This tension is expertly written, never too much, but enough to propel the reader forward. Very enjoyable read.

A good beach read, but not as suspenseful as I would have liked. - A good build up, to an expected big finale, that just never appears!

This is an easy to read, contemporary novel about four young women, Joni, Deb, Eden and Trina, who were close friends in school and stayed friends as adults, although due to marriage, work, children etc do not see each other so regularly as they used to.

While away on their annual girls reunion they each write an anonymous letter divulging one secret about themselves that the others don’t apparently know. However, an additional fifth letter materialises which reveals a long held resentment and is the catalyst for bad feelings, confessions, arguments and more.

This is a story about secrets, misunderstandings and the lies we tell ourselves as well as those closest to us. All in all, an enjoyable, entertaining novel with twists and turns throughout.

I found this book a little boring and confusing! It was well written and at times amusing. An easy read but was glad when I had finished it!