Another brilliant and gripping read from KL Slater. I loved the character of Alice and was drawn into her life from the very beginning. The tension builds with every chapter, especially between Alice and her sister Louise, and the short chapters really help with this. I didn't expect it to end the way that it did. What makes this story so creepy is that it's not a far fetched plot (as you often get with psychological thrillers) and these type of scenes could theoretically play out in a lot of real lives. Lots of twists and turns and more than one secret being held within the family!

Yet another gripping psychological thriller from the excellent KL Slater. .The Secret had me gripped from page one and it has you hurtling towards the tension filled climax. Another 5 star psychological thriller - .Excellent !!!

This is a great read. It is the story of two sisters, Louise and Alice, and those who are connected to them. The story spans generations and is gripping from the very start.

Wow! What a delightfully creepy, absorbing page turner! Alice and Louise are sisters and they couldn't be more different. Alice is essentially a shut in with regrets and fears while Louise is a seemingly successful, fulfilled mother, wife and career woman. Things get a bit uncomfortable for both of them when Louise asks Alice to watch her son Archie several times both before and after school. Archie is a very anxious ten year old boy who has his own burdensome secrets that wind up part of an utterly crazy set of overlapping horrifying situations. No spoilers here, but this is a read you don't want to miss. I strongly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a review copy. This is my honest opinion which I will post on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookbub.

What a cracker Loved this book. Story is based on secrets and family. Lots of twists and turns to keep you wanting more. I am definitely going to be purchasing more of this authors books.

I have read several of Ms Slater's books and always thoroughly enjoyed them. The Secret was no different. A really cracking read which had me glued to my seat. A real master of the psychological thriller genre. 5* from me. My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

When you pick up a KL Slater book you know it is going to be a gripping story from the start. The Secret is no exception although it should have been called The Secrets - plural - as there are so many. Lots of twists in this story and I enjoyed how the book had alternate chapters from months/years previously to fill in background details. This book is too good to miss. Highly recommended

This is the story of two sisters and the damage that can be done behind closed doors. This story had a few different tendrils to keep track of. One sister had a son to a controlling, manipulating man. The other sister looked after her aging mother in a flat. But nothing is quite as it seems and the secrets that are being kept don't really come out until right at the end.
The ending was satisfying. I enjoy this author and found this story different to her others. I will be continuing to read this author. Well done.

Unfortunately this book was not delivered to my kindle and I have been unable to read and review it. It has now been archived on Netgalley

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion and review.

I enjoyed this book, lots of twists and turns. Great summer read, this was my road trip book and it kept me enthralled for the whole trip. The storyline was good and several times the book surprised me with the turns that the story took. Alice was an interesting character and I really enjoyed the way the book was laid out and the way the author told us her, Archie and Louise’s stories. Will definitely read more books by this author.

Running true to form K.L Slater never let's us down. A brilliant suspense thriller with loads of twists and turns throughout. You just have to keep reading. Highly recommend it.

Louise & Alice are sisters but they couldn't be more different. Louise is a high powered career woman who is juggling a stressful job, a marriage where her husband works away a lot and a young son that she alternately indulges & scolds. Alice is practically a recluse. She has ME and suffers a lot of pain from an accident. She looked after her mother in her last years and in spite of Louise's attempts to get her to move from the three bedroomed apartment (so she can get half the proceeds!) remains firmly where she is.

When Louise suddenly seems to be working even longer hours and dumps Archie with Alice neither of them are thrilled with the arrangement! However Archie seems to respond well to Alice's boundaries and the fact that she is willing to play with him & listen to him. Alice soon starts to care for Archie and is worried at the way he seems to react to events- especially if it means telling Louise anything.

The story jumps around from various timelines which got a bit confusing at times. There are obviously a lot of secrets being kept. I'm always a bit unhappy with secrets as even the nice ones can leave people feeling left out & worried. The secrets being kept in this book certainly weren't nice ones. They also came as a surprise to me.

Once again K. L. Slater kept me up way past my bedtime as I had to find out what happened! Thanks to netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the chance to read this book.

This was the first book by K.L. Slater that I have read and let me tell you that it won’t be my last. I’ve read many wonderful reviews on this and other books by K.L. Slater so I was very excited to begin reading this book. I was not disappointed.

This book follows the story of two sisters Alice and Louise and Louise’s son Archie. Louise is a very busy woman and often has to leave Archie in the care of someone, while she works long hours. Louise asks her sister Alice to watch Archie and to Alice’s dismay she agrees. Alice suffers from anxiety and this is a big step for her. She is not sure how to care for children but agrees to watch her nephew Archie from time to time.

The book is told from the alternating views of both Alice and Louise, in the present and parts flash back to the past. Louise is a working mother who has had to work for everything that she has and Alice is the sister that has had everything handed to her and Louise feels that Alice has it too easy in life. As a result they have their differences at times but for the most part get along.

While in the care of his Aunt Alice, Archie slowly begins to open up and share details of his life and his feelings. Alice is determined to find out more about what happened and what Archie knows, and slowly we being to learn things and uncover a secret that only Archie knows.

This book was amazing and I was unable to put it down once I started it. There are so many lies, secrets and betrayal in this book, and it keeps you on the very edge of your seat right through to the end. You’ll find the pages are turning themselves to uncover they secrets in this family and learn what Archie knows. Lots of surprises and oh my gosh moments to have you guessing to the very last page.

A must read book to add to your tbr list if you haven’t read it already.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Secret by KL Slater.
I have just started reading books by this author and I am always excited to read them.
Slater has the habit of hooking the reader immediately thru great characters (even unlikable ones) and twisting plot narration.
Alice is a bit of a recluse - her sister Louise is not. Alice still struggles with the death of her mother - Louise has moved on. Alice has no family - Louise has a new husband and her child Archie. Alice has no idea that things are about to change in her lonely life and she may not be prepared - as a matter of fact - she is not prepared.
Alice notices a man on a bus that she watches from her window every day. She fantasizes about him and one she is sure that he has noticed her. She meets him but his actions are strange and he leaves abruptly after a phone call. Alice is confused but then she finds his phone and now she knows there are secrets and she is starting to get scared.
Good Book - Slater's books are always good - Recommend.

I'd like to thank Netgalley, Bookouture and KL Slater for the ARC of The Secret!

The Secret started as a slow burning suspense, but when the pace picked up, there was no stopping it! I couldn't put the book down after I reached the middle of it. There was something always lurking the corners, waiting to be unearthed. There were multiple twists and I had to keep stopping myself from reading ahead. Just when I thought one thing was going to happen, something else happened instead.

**Spoilers**
I truly felt for Alice. Alice lives alone in the flat she shared with her mom. Alice was her caretaker and her mom had passed a year and a half prior. She has chronic pain and extreme anxiety, so she doesn't leave her house often. She cares for her nephew, Archie, on occasion while her sister, Louise, is working. Louise's character is condescending and rubs me the wrong way from the beginning. She acts entitled and as if the world owes her. Archie's character is angry at times and there's a sense from the beginning that this little boy has seen some very bad things.

Alice feels lonely and starts to wonder why she even bothers getting out of bed. Then one morning when she sees him; the man on the tram. She doesn't think he can see her, but she makes it a point to look for him every morning. A few weeks of this go by, and one day, much to her surprise, he looks up and smiles and waves. She can't believe it!

One morning on her walk to take Archie to school (the first time she's left her house in a very long time), she decides to board the tram. She is looking for the man she sees from her window. She sees him and follows at a safe distance. The next day, she gets the courage to talk to him while at a coffee shop. He acts like he doesn't know her. His phone is buzzing all the time and he doesn't seem to really notice her at all. She feels upset as he rushes out of the coffee house, but she notices he dropped his phone. She takes it with her to give back to him later...though she never sees him again. At the same time, Archie's behavior has become worrisome and alarms start to go off when Alice notices some things. She tries to talk to Louise who has an excuse for everything. Then there's her upstairs neighbor, Jenny. The fighting that goes on incessantly. Everything seems to be so close to solving for Alice and then it all explodes and the suspense skyrockets.

The Secret is a great psychological thriller and an exciting read. I even held my breath at certain points, almost afraid my breathing would change whatever was written on the next page! I love Alice and Archie's characters. I also loved the descriptions of Nottingham (which was a very artsy depiction of this town). I can't wait to re-read The Secret and see if there was anything I may have missed or any clues that I could pick out now.

The Secret was a great psychological thriller that hooked me from the beginning. Could not put it down and read it in a day.
Have yet to pick up a book by K L Slater and been disappointed and this one certainly did not disappoint. Worth a read.

Wow I absolutely loved this!!!
It was one I had requested and then it was always sidelined for one that sounded more gripping...what a mistake that was!
This is the story of 2 sisters, and told over 3 decades, yet the jumping back and forth over time is so slick there is no confusion. Louise and Alice are so different, it is hard to believe they are sisters! I loved the relationship with Alice and Archie, but the highlight of the story is of course the secret! You don’t really see it coming, it is clear that the reader has been taken in a very specific direction just to be shocked by the revelation, and then further blindsided in the knowledge that there is an even bigger secret no one could ever envisage! Absolutely blinding!

EXCERPT: 'If Mum couldn't look after me any more, would I have to go and live in a children's home?'

'What? Where's that come from? I laugh softly and put my arm around him, pulling him closer to me. 'I don't know where this is going, but the answer is no, of course not. If there's some reason your mum couldn't look after you, you'd come and live with me.'

'Because we're family.'

'Too right.' I grin. 'And after everything we've been through, we want no more secrets ever, right?'

'Right,' Archie says faintly. 'Even terrible ones.'

'Especially terrible ones.' I nudge him playfully.

And then he pulls away from my hug, looks me in the eye, and Archie tells me his secret.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: You turn your back for a minute. And now your son is in terrible danger …

Louise is struggling to cope. As a busy working mum, she often has to leave her eight-year-old son Archie at her sister Alice’s flat.

Alice and Louise used to be close. But there’s a lot they don’t know about each other now - like the bottle of vodka Louise hides in her handbag, Alice’s handsome new friend and the odd behaviour of her next-door neighbour.

Archie is a curious little boy. He likes to play on his own at his auntie’s flat until one day when he sees something he shouldn’t. Now he has a secret of his own. One he can’t tell his mum. One that could put him and his family in terrible danger.

MY THOUGHTS: This book is all over the place, both with narrators and timelines which for me spoiled the suspense rather than adding to it. The Secret is definitely not this author's best book. But it is still a book that kept me turning the pages, waiting for 'that' moment, and when it came it was not what I expected. It made me sit up and take notice. Rocked me back on my heels. Damn, it was good.

However great that moment may be however, there were a lot of things in The Secret that just didn't gel for me. Like how Alice earned Archie's trust almost overnight, for example. It is messy, overcomplicated and felt rushed, and I just didn't feel the suspense that the author was trying to build. There were too many things thrown in, as though the author couldn't quite make up her mind. . . Take for example Alice’s ME. We are told she has it. But one moment she is living her dream life, with her dream job and the next she is debilitated. Nothing in between. And what about the car accident? Other than to kill off a character, what was the point? As I said, it all felt rather rushed and, as a result, lacks both depth and suspense.

Right through, I was thinking that this was a 3-star read, right up until 'that' moment, which earned it another half star. 😍😍😍.5

THE AUTHOR: After years of trying to get published and never getting further than the slush pile, I went back to university at the age of 40 where I studied for an English & Creative Writing degree followed by an MA in Creative Writing.

Although I also worked full-time during the five years I studied at university, the courses gave me the time and space to try different writing and increased my confidence and belief in my writing. Before I graduated from my MA, I had secured representation with my agent, Clare Wallace, at the Darley Anderson Literacy, TV and Film Agency and had my first book deal.

My first adult psychological thriller for Bookouture is called ‘Safe with Me’ and it actually started life as my dissertation on my English & Creative Writing degree.

The creepy voice of Anna came to me strong and insistent . . . she wanted to be written, she wouldn’t go away.

I live in Nottingham with my husband, Mac. Between us we have three grown-up kids; my daughter, Francesca and Mac’s sons Nathan and Jake.

I also write multi-award winning YA fiction under the name Kim Slater.(From author's website)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Secret by K. L. Slater for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

"Three things cannot long stay hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth." BUDDHA

Archie, 8-years-old, lives in Nottinghamshire with his mom, Louise, and adoptive father, Darren. He has a secret too big to hold inside but too scary to tell. But his deteriorating behavior and anxiety slowly become worrisome when he starts spending more time with Alice -- Archie's aunt and Louise's younger sister. Alice lives alone in a flat that belonged to their mother, she has some physical injuries from an accident, and she is prone to fears of her own. She can't explain away the things she finds out, or those signs that are revealed in the dynamics of dysfunctional relationships. What is really going on with Archie and his family and can Alice become brave enough to confront truth once and for all? NO SPOILERS.

This was a psychological drama centered on family and the keeping of secrets. Alice is a mousy character who never learned to stand up for herself but who is now called upon to stand up for others. Louise is a domineering older sister who shows a real proclivity to narcissism and who is quite manipulative. Is Louise really a monster behind a facade of mother, wife and working professional? Her husband, Darren, expresses deep concerns about his wife. Alice is worried about everyone, even the upstairs neighbor whose phone rings at odd hours during the middle of the night. What is it that Archie can't tell anyone?

Enjoyable and fast-paced read with a surprising twist or two along the way. The narrative is told from three points of view and flips back and forth in time giving the reader a historical perspective on the development of the characters. Although I really didn't care for any of the lot, I know we're meant to feel an affinity for their various plights. I wanted to shake Alice a time or two and I have no patience for disinterested mothering or favoritism. Louise? I detested her completely. Anyway, I've no doubt Slater's fans (and I'm one) will eat this up! It should be obvious to anyone that a secret can be a very dangerous thing to hold.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the e-book ARC to read and review.

I usually try not to read reviews on a book that I’m about to read or have already started because I really don’t like to compare what others think about something I’m reading but when I finished The Secret I just had to take a little sneak. I have come to the conclusion that either something is wrong with me or I read a completely different book than everyone else because, I have to be honest here, I really just did not enjoy this book. I found the plot intriguing and the writing was exceptional but it just fell really flat for me and I felt like I was reading the script for one of those cheesy B rated thriller movies. You know… the ones where the call is coming from inside the house (Oooooh)?

I don’t want to go on and on about what I didn’t like about this book. I found it very slow paced, there was a lot of POV switching that normally doesn’t bother me but I didn’t feel it was right here, there were a lot of flashbacks that answered some questions but they were just sort of random sometimes and came out of nowhere and I found I had absolutely no connections to the characters at all. The major annoyance I had though was the reasoning behind Alice’s reclusive life. THAT was something I had much higher hopes for and I felt cheated. I’m not saying that the reason was any less devastating than anything I could imagine but it wasn’t what I was expecting and it was like my balloon just popped. There was no coming back from that.

I didn’t find the whole thing unenjoyable though. There were a lot of parts that really appealed to me. The teases throughout The Secret were very well done and threw me off at every turn. I had no idea what was coming at all and, although not exactly surprised, I didn’t guess the outcome and really didn’t see that twist. I also really liked the relationship and character development between Alice and Archie. I think that was beautifully done and such a powerful way to bring the characters out of their shells. I wish there would have been a lot more of that throughout the book. I always love seeing characters come into their own and it really helps bring a little something extra to the story.

Even though I didn’t enjoy this book I still look forward to more books from K. L. Slater. This was my first book by the author but her books come so highly recommended that I will definitely be giving her another shot. I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a copy of this book.