I received an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

*The Understudy* is an engaging psychological thriller that draws readers into the tangled lives of its flawed characters. The suspense and twists kept me hooked, but unfortunately, the ending felt like a letdown, leaving me with a sense of disappointment. While I appreciated the dark, tense atmosphere, I found the constant presence of unpleasant characters to be a bit exhausting. It would have been refreshing to have at least one more likable character to break up the tension and add some balance. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it didn’t completely captivate me as I’d hoped.

Really enjoyed this novel and it felt really coherent even with the multiple writers. Enjoyed the mystery and intrigue as you tried to uncover all the secrets.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read.

The Understudy is about a four friends and wannabe actresses Jess, Ruby, Annabelle and Sadie. The girls attend the Orla Flynn Academy for Performing Arts.

I just couldn't enjoy this, I think it was just the characters all being so incredibly unlikeable that made it really hard for me to care, it almost at times felt like playground drama from everyone involved - childish and petty.

I requested this on NetGalley for review due to the authors. I mean, Sophie Hannah, Clare Mackintosh, Holly Brown & BA Paris! This should have been thriller gold!

I see what they were trying to do: each author writing a different lead character and all four adding their thriller skills to make a thriller unpredictable.

And yet, this was just… disappointing. I see what the authors were doing, but it didn’t translate over.

was a good story told well by some brilliant authors, came to a satisfactory conclusion in the end, mothers are just fabulous

It was good but not what I expected. I’m still unsure how I feel about this book it just didn’t have oomph!

Brilliant. This was a well written book that I greatly enjoyed and already plan to recommend. Believable characters and an inticing setting. Some parts were perhaps a little lengthy, but maybe because I was impatient to reach the novels conclusion! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was ok, but not as good as I expected. I prefer it when they write as stand alone authors. I love them as individual writers.

A very different sort of book written by four exceptional authors. There are 4 main women in the story and each author writes as one of them, and because of the different styles it makes each character stand apart from the other. I was gripped from the off trying to work out who the bully was.

I requested this book as I have previously enjoyed other books by the authors, however, found it difficult to get into this one. It may be enjoyed by other readers however it didnt gel well with me.

I really enjoyed this book! A great story line that kept me hooked and excellent main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed this book but not nearly as much as I thought I would given the calibre of the authors involved.
BA Paris has to be my favourite author of recent years, but this one fell short.
I did still really enjoy it though, and with a daughter studying Drama I did recognise some of the stereotypical drama mum themes!

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I expected to enjoy this book so much based on the credentials of the authors. However, I found it to be a disappointing read. The main issue I have with it is that the plot is flimsy. I also felt the characters were unlikeable and I honestly didn’t care what was going to happen in the end.

I enjoyed the technique of the narrative being told from the perspective of the different characters but this didn’t make up for the poor storyline.

Four teenage girls entering their final year of the performing arts school, four protective mothers looking out for the their girls and four top selling authors writing the book make The Understudy a great read.
The prose flows seamlessly from one chapter to another, it would be impossible to tell which of the four authors were writing were it not written at the top of each chapter. The characters are very realistic, four different, but all typical, teenager girls; and their very different mothers. None of the mothers are particularly likeable, all are flawed, but all want they think is best for their daughters and will do what it takes to achieve that. The girls frequently seem more mature than their mothers. The characters are all very realistic.
It was a book that once I had started, I had to keep reading to find out how did the new girl Imogen fit in? Had Ruby reverted to her old ways of bullying her friends? Will the truth be revealed before someone gets seriously hurt?
An excellent collaboration between four superb authors; I hope they write another!
Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

How does this happen! A group of four successful and popular authors collaborate only to produce a piece of utterly awful writing.

Four women. who on the surface are friends, each have a daughter at the well-respected and highly competitive
Orla Flynn Academy for the Performing Arts. All four girls are, on the surface, close friends. Unfortunately one of them - Ruby - was particularly horrible to Jess, and now, whenever anything nasty happens the finger of suspicion is pointed in her direction. Enter new girl Imogen Curwood. On the instructions of the headmaster our four musketeers are forced to welcome her into their pack. What could possibly go wrong.....

Talk about Pushy Mothers - this lot will do anything for their precious daughters, who on the whole, are better behaved than their mothers. Each and every one of the adults in this awful book are so horrible, it makes for really unpleasant reading. Are these girls really supposed to be 17-years old? Really? My 13 year old niece is more mature than this lot. One person behaving badly, okay, but all four? It's just all so silly, badly written, appalling characters and dreadful half-American dialogue,,,,,,no, no. no.

What surprises me is that this thing has been published at all. And to think four of them had a hand in this! Amazing. I've got to the 32% mark and cannot continue.

My thanks to Netgalley for possibly the worst book I've tried to read this year

This was a very underwhelming story. The plot was fairly weak and the denouement a confession - surely the most overused plot device. I quite liked reading the different points of view of the characters. I didn't keep up with who wrote which part so don't know if the different authors stuck with the same character or swapped around. I'm not really sure what the point of this multiple author format was.

I was reluctant to read this to be honest as I am not too keen on one of the authors (no names)
However when reading I really couldn’t tell the authors apart they gel so well

Clever idea with lots of twists and turns