When you tell a lie . Where does it stop.
Friends since they were pregnant Sarah & Liza are at The Vale Club having a coffee and a catch up. Sarah goes for another coffee and Liza asks her to check on Jack who is in the outdoor play area. Sarah is distracted from checking on Jack . When she gets back to the table they hear screams coming from the play area . It’s Jack he has fallen and Sarah is frightened to tell Liza that she lied and didn’t check up on him.
That’s where the fallout starts from accusations , gossip and rumours and trolls from behind their screens.
Thanks NetGalley

Liza, Sarah and Ella met when they were pregnant. Ella stepped away from the group after she had her baby but Liza and Sarah remained close friends. Five years later Liza and Sarah are with their children at the local sports club enjoying some relaxation when Ella crosses their paths once more. Mystery surrounds why she stepped away from them all those years ago and Sarah is intrigued - specially when she catches sight of the cryptic message on Ella's phone. Distracted from checking on Liza's little boy, Sarah is horrified when Liza's son falls from a high pole and ends up critically ill in hospital - if only she had been paying attention instead of chatting with Ella. As Liza and Sarah's friendship starts to unravel, more secrets come to the surface and it is plain that almost everyone has something to hide.

This is not a bad novel by any stretch of the imagination but I have some issues with it. There are so many secrets that it is tricky trying to keep track of who knows whose secret. The secrets are only obliquely hinted at which, for me, I found really frustrating. It is difficult to draw conclusions and identify with characters when you don't know what it is they are hiding or dealing with. Liza's story is told in the first person while Sarah's is told in the second person and Ella's isn't really told at all until the end. I liked the use of WhatsApp messages in some parts of the text as they were representative of how rumours start and get spread.

Some people will love this book and others will feel indifferently towards it. Me, I fall into the latter category.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came across THE FALLOUT through reading a friend's review on Goodreads and thought it sounded interesting. I was wrong.

This domestic drama (I wouldn't go so far as to call it a thriller) revolves around the friendship between Sarah and Liza and their group of affluent yummy mummies. All are members of a posh club in West London called The Vale Club, which is where the story begins...

Sarah and Liza had been at The Vale Club enjoying a coffee and a catch-up. When Sarah offered to go to the cafe for another, Liza asked her to check on Jack who was in the outdoor play area. However, on her way back she was distracted by a woman from their past - another parent - and therefore failed to check on Jack properly. By the time Sarah arrived back at their table with Ella now in tow the women heard screams coming from the play area. It was Jack. He had fallen from the pole Sarah had seen him climbing, and now Sarah is scared to tell her best friend the truth. So when Ella tells Liza that Sarah had checked on him, Sarah just went along with the lie.

Tell the truth, lose a friend. Tell a lie, keep her close.

What ensues is Sarah's growing guilt over the lie. She had seen Jack climbing the pole, had waved to him. But had he seen her? She should have called him down. But then seeing Ella had distracted her, and the juicy gossip that would surely follow in her path.

Whilst Liza is at the hospital with Jack, Sarah goes around to her friend's house, tidies up, does a shop and organises a meal for them. But then Ella swoops in and takes over with her high-paid nanny (maternity nurse), leaving Sarah's efforts redundant. Added to that, when Liza and Ella seem be getting on even better than they do, Sarah begins to feel jealous. What is Ella doing? What is she up to?

But that's not the only area in which Ella appears to be taking over. Liza had been heading up the Christmas Fair for the local primary school but in the wake of Jack's accident Sarah thought it was the least she could do for her friend. But then she hears that Ella has taken over that role as well, securing the entire amount of funds needed from out of think air. Ella seems to be everybody's new best friend - except Sarah's - so when she types out a furious WhatsApp message to send to her friend Camilla to let off steam and make her laugh, Sarah mistakenly sends it to Ella instead. And before long, the entire school is privy to the message and Sarah is ostracised.

Honestly, these yummy mummies and their little brats were anything but my cup of tea. Jealous bitchfights, snide remarks, whispers on WhatsApp...it felt like a million dollar playground. I really just wanted to get to the end to find out the many "secrets" that weren't all that exciting after all...so I kind of felt robbed by the end.

I didn't like Sarah much. I could understand her predicament but why wouldn't she just admit it from the start? Things would have been far better had she done and certainly not gone as far as they did. I didn't like Ella. She came across as aloof, and looking down her nose at people as if her s*** don't stink. I did like Liza, but even she was screwed up. I couldn't stand the other yummy mummies. They had no respect for their so-called friends, gossiping about them at the drop of a hat.

THE FALLOUT is filled with plenty of guilt, secrets, lies, angst and a load of drama. The premise sounded intriguing but the actual playout was not. I found it long and drawn out and half of it could have been editted down. I did shed a few tears at the end when the full impact of the bigger picture is clear. It was sad it had come to that and ended the way it did...but really, how else could it have gone?

Filled with characters who were annoying, childish and way too materialistic, THE FALLOUT really wasn't my thing.

I would like to thank #RebeccaThornton, #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for an ARC of #TheFallout in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at <a href="https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/</a>.

There seems to be an influx of books about rich mummies and their precious children and the lies they live. Some better than others.

This book was on the less good end of the scale. I didn't like any of the mums and the women were all awful.

Two best friends each grappling with personal dilemmas. Two wives struggling in marriages that contain secrets and lies that they feel must never be exposed to each other or the world at large. Two mothers, losing the struggle against negative feelings of inadequacy caused by the changes and responsibilities that childbirth, babies, and young dependent children make upon them. Damage to Marital harmony, self confidence and daily relationships outside the home structured by necessity at the school gates have left the two protagonists, trembling on the edge of disaster . A catastrophic accident to a child is the catalyst to blow their carefully constructed lives beyond redemption. Well written with huge awareness of how inwardly becomes the daily struggle of mothers for whom success and confidence is realised only in comparison to the most well organised and attractive mothers congregating at the school gates. The use of social media integrated into the story line quickly demonstrates how quickly a destructive feeding frenzy of casual and maliciously damaging comments can destroy lives. The conclusion aptly introduces the various organisations who are trained to deal with crumbling physical, mental and personal relationships. However, throughout the book I the reader on the outside recognised the many occasions where couples, friends and acquaintances in the book as in real life, could have turned the tide of events by listening, sharing , honesty and openness with each other. Easy to say, not so easy to do when you are struggling in the dark like our fragile protagonists desperate to be loved, liked, and admired in a critical world.

This book was so different from anything I've ever read before and I was totally gripped.

A story of friendship, obsession and betrayal which shows not everything is as it seems

I really don't know what to say about this book. I enjoyed it well enough, but I don't think it was a right book for me. When I read all these WhatsApp messages between mothers I thought "this is so f*cked up". So toxic.
The plot was interesting enough, I liked the pacing of the story. But the characters? Urgh. It was really hard to like them. They all went through a lot, they all had their own problems, and it made them very real, but I really couldn't "connect" with them.
It's not a bad book and I think that someone who can relate to the characters will enjoy it more than me.

Liza and Sarah are friends who met at a NTC class five years before. Liza supported Sarah through the stillbirth of her daughter a year previously. Both women are less than happy. Liza is separated from her husband but he insists on staying in the family home and Sarah has not been able to get pregnant again. They meet for coffee at the soft play area and while Sarah is up buying coffee, Liza asks her to check on her son Jack. Sarah spots him halfway up a pole but before she can call to him to get down she is distracted by Ella. A few minutes later he falls. Instead of admitting her liability, Sarah tells a lie.

I enjoyed the inclusion of the WhatsApp chats. I've thought for ages that there's a good book around WhatsApp chats just waiting to be written. It's something we all can relate to especially in the realm of parenting. My daughter tells me about her local primary school group and it's hilarious what goes on. Unfortunately this was all I liked or enjoyed. I found the central premise of Sarah;s guilt too weak to hold up an entire novel. It just wasn't believable that she'd go to pieces in that way. Similarly Liza's terrible act that is referred to throughout just isn't that terrible. The ensuing brouhaha over the fall is also over the top. In addition none of the characters were particularly likeable and I found myself exasperated with them all.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This is a hard one to review! The book kept me reading and wanting to the know more, so much so that I read it quite quickly and found the chapters fast to get through. However, the story kind of went on about and I found the whole ‘yummy mummy’ scenario dragged a little.

I found the characters quite hard to like and almost over the top in their behaviour! Perhaps this was the authors intention but did find it a bit grating at times. For me, the characters would have worked better if there had been more humour as opposed to being categorised as a thriller.

That being said, I liked the inclusion of social media and the What’s App element. As a mum myself, this is very relatable as you become part of groups for this, that and the other! There were a few twists and turns along the way but not enough to feel like a true thriller for me.

I can’t make my mind up on this one.. This book kept me hooked and I was really keen on finding out how everything would turn out in the end, but the characters are not very likeable and it drove me mad with all the secrets and strange behaviours! Do people really behave like that and lie to each other? Some of it seemed a bit far fetched.
Overall it kept me reading, hence the 4 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for letting me review this book.

Really loved this book! The story flows really well, the characters are interesting and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended this for a good read. Thank you netgalley for the copy of this title in return for an honest review.

This is tricky to review. It's well written but the central premise isn't believable or strong enough, and the spiral of events is too far-fetched to work as a thriller. It would have worked really well as a funny sitcom-style book - that would have made the resulting fuss more engaging and acceptable. I found myself going 'huh? Why would you DO that?' too many times.

I started this book mid way through reading a book I’d received for Christmas. I had intentions of just reading a chapter to sample it before going back to my other book - it was so good I read it in one sitting!
I loved the modern day WhatsApp element to the book as it’s just so realistic! Having attended an NCT antenatal group whilst expecting my first child this book really resonated with me. My son had reflux as a baby so all those emotions of sleepless nights and ‘what am I doing wrong’ thoughts come flooding back. I think it’s such an achievement to write a book that produces those sorts of memories for people. I loved everything about this book & have already recommended it to friends, family & book groups as a must read! Thank you for the chance to read and provide an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book but a couple of thing put me off.

Firstly I thought that the way the 2 main characters reacted to the situations around them was way over top and made them seem a little unrealistic.

Also I don't like the new fad of using social media posts within books. It seems a bit like the authors are trying a bit too hard to be relevant This also annoys me in other places though, for example in new articles, just regurgitating what people have said on twitter isn't journalism but just copying and pasting, so maybe that just a bugbear of mine.

The Fallout was an entertaining page-turner, full of drama. It's like if Desperate Housewives had been created after the invention of WhatsApp, and mashed up with Mean Girls and Bad Moms - definitely the same kind of elements of drama, mysteries, secrets, and lies that snowball out of control,. Not as much comedy as in those stories, but definitely a little bit of satire.

To sum up, Sarah tells a lie, there's an accident, her best friend Liza's child is hurt, and The Fallout is about the repercussions of the lie and the accident.

There was a lot I liked about this book. The pacing was excellent, it was super readable, and I did not want to put it down because I wanted to find out what would happen next. I also really liked that The Fallout explored some really important issues about parenthood - how stressful it is/can be for all parents, and how the big and little traumas of parenthood can really impact all parents (both mothers and fathers). Essentially it covered some topics that really do need to be discussed more - postpartum depression, miscarriage/stillbirth and how both parents need space to mourn the loss of an unborn child, PTSD, and generally how parenting is super scary so we should all just be kind to each other.

One of my favourite quotes for the book that sums up what I really appreciated about it:

"Everyone has something to say about everything. It's exhausting, frankly. I think it's fear. Fear as a parent, you're doing something wrong, so you end up judging everyone else for their behaviour. So that -- you know -- you can justify to yourself that your way is the right way. Fear that if you make a mistake -- say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, be yourself even -- your kid might get ostracised. Everyone's just always on edge, all the time."
...
"I hope people stop sniping, gossiping. Everyone's in this together -- parents or non parents."

I've seen this book described as a thriller, while it does have some of the elements of a thriller -- pace, mystery, untruths, etc -- I don't know that I would actually consider this a thriller. This didn't bother me at all, I did enjoy reading The Fallout, and it was mostly what I expected based on the synopsis, and the parts I didn't expect I appreciated (see above). I could see that it might put people off if they're expecting a thriller, whereas this is more of a domestic drama.

I think what was hard for me about this book was the likeability of the characters. I got the sense that if I knew the two main characters in real life, Liza and Sarah, I would actually find them likeable people. It's just was difficult from an emotional standpoint to read Sarah's perspective sometimes because she was in such an emotional spiral and everything kind of snowballs out of control, and I kind of just wanted to jump through the pages of the book and tell her to stop and take her to get some help.

I did think The Fallout had a mostly satisfying conclusion. I say mostly because a secondary character who forms a big part of the story was still a bit of a question mark at the end, but that's kind of just the character. As for Liza and Sarah's story, I thought it was a fairly realistic, satisfying, and compassionate way to end their story.

I think if you like domestic drama such as Liane Moriarty's books, you'll probably like this.

Sarah and Liz have been friends since they were pregnant with their first children. Five years on will a lie end their friendship?

I think this book covered the issue well about how on the outside people might look like they have a perfect life but that the reality is far from that. Also how much pressure new mum's these days put on themselves and their children. I liked how part of it is in whatsapp group threads but I didn't really see the relevance of the reporters stories.

Although the characters were written well I didn't feel a connection with any of them.

On the whole it's a quick enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC

Unfortunately the fallout did not float my boat. The characters weren’t remotely like able, the plot was tedious and reading it felt like a chore to me.

Sarah and Liza met during antenatal classes five years ago and are now very close friends.

They go to the new prestigious club The Vale where yummy mummies meet for coffee or to exercise whilst their children play.

Liza asks Sarah to check up on her son who is playing outside in the playground, whilst she goes to get a coffee. On the way back to Liza, Sarah is distracted when she sees Ella who she hasn’t seen since their antenatal clinic and tells Liza she checked up on Jack when she didn’t. Unfortunately this little white lie has consequences when Jack has an accident which leaves him seriously injured.

These close friends have always been there for each other, but that small lie has a chain of events that will affect all their lives and their friendship.

The story is told from Liza, Sarah and Lisa’s point of view, with conversations on WhatsApp between the parents gossiping about what happened that day and laying the blame.

This is a brutal world where people are judged by their looks and lifestyles and everyone has to be perfect and not make mistakes!!

I did enjoy this book. It just goes to show you never really know someone and that anyone can look perfect and seem to have an envious life, but you are only seeing what someone wants to portray.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

I enjoyed this novel though at times my head was swimming trying to hold all the ‘clues’ that each character was giving us.
I do admit though that the main premise of the book; that Sarah didn’t check on Liza’s son was completely alien to me. Jack was 5 years old, not 2. He should have been safe in a playground without being checked on in the situation described where it was in a contained setting within a health club. Imagining this scenario in my area with the mothers I’m friends with, it just wouldn’t have been a big deal and everyone would have focussed responsibility on the health club.
I liked the authors use of WhatsApp conversations but felt the notes taken by the journalist felt hokey and unbelievable. Especially his editor’s insistence that he not publish the story and going to the level of offering him a new position but then no further relevance to the story. Many of those notes were utterly irrelevant and actually distracting.
Over all the characters were likeable or at least interesting but there did seem to be a bit too much hysteria and drama in their lives. The PTA messages were something I could totally identify with though!

All in all, a good read though a certain amount of suspending disbelief needed.

The fallout of modern parenthood that suffers a near catastrophic accident involving a five year old child.
Yes I was watching , well maybe not. Shall I tell the truth or shall I lie and become entangled in a web of confusion and undercurrents of gossip and mobile texting. Are solid friendships for life ?
A twisting and turning plot which had me at odds with characters I feel I know in life. or maybe I don’t.
A good read on a very cold wet Sunday.