Their children are friends first. They hit it off immediately, as kids do. And so the parents are forced to get to know each other. Three wildly different couples. Three marriages, floundering. There are barbecues, dinner parties, a holiday in Greece. An affair begins, resentments flare, and despite it all the three women become closer. Unnoticed their children run wild. The couples are so busy watching each other that they forget to watch their children. Until tragedy strikes. Because while they have been looking the other way, evil has crept into their safe little world and every parent's biggest nightmare is about to come true.

Well this book is all kinds of horrendous, because of the subject matter not the writing I hasten to add! Shemilt handles some extremely difficult and very sensitive subjects throughout the read, I will not specify as you deserve to discover the book for yourself but be warned!

The events in the read unravel slowly, the pace of the whole read is quite sluggish but in an addictive, enticing way. I was never bored and slowly released I had been hooked in by the read and found myself unable to put it down. This could have been five stars but I found the plot obvious and the twists unsurprising. Having said this, I loved the plot choices Shemilt made and do not think anything should be changed. For me, the obvious plot is not a negative, rather the appropriate choice and fitting to the rest of the book.

One thing I would say, I never got the feeling the adults were friends, or the kids really. All the relationships are very dysfunctional and it did not make sense that this group of people who do not get on that well with each other would keep meeting up. Individually, I think we get to know them quite well, they have their own unique traits and there were some characters I liked more than others, however I think the reader needed to get a better understanding of the friendship which as far as I can tell is non-existent.

'Little Friends' is an intense, dark read that handles some very sensitive subjects. The plot is good but the characters need to be explored better.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for an advance copy.

This is a twisty psychological thriller with a large cast of main characters, but I was impressed with the author's skill at making each character rounded and believable, so it was not difficult to remember who was who.

The story centres around three families living in the same area. Their children become friends and so the parents get to know one another, creating a large and initially happy group. There are barbecues, parties and even a holiday, and gradually we come to realise that secrets are being kept. Passions flare and, as one of the characters later notes, the adults are too busy watching each other to watch what their children are doing.

When tragedy strikes, it becomes clear that several desperately important warning signs have been missed, and the group is shattered and split.

I love Jane's writing, so I found this so easy to read. Whilst I enjoyed it overall, some parts seemed far-fetched. However, it had a wonderful ending, great writing and the character descriptions were fantastic, given the number of characters there were!

Take 4 couples and their children throw them altogether and stand back to watch them all implode.Little Friends is a decent thriller with plenty of twists and turns in the story to keep you reading,but I thought particularly the first half of the book did drag a little,but it did pick up towards the end and in the end it was a good finish to the book.A decent 3 star read for me,and I would recommend this book if you enjoy this genre.

Little Friends is the latest offering from Jane Shemilt. This book is a fantastic psychological thriller that quickly builds momentum and keeps you enthralled to the very end. It’s compelling, tense and has some great twists.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin UK Michael Joseph and the author for the chance to review.

Loved this! What a page turner!

As a thriller it certainly lived up to that. Its quite a dark story but kept me fully engaged and wanting more. Very strong characters that flowed through the story and kept me intrigued all the way.

Would highly recommend to all and if you love thrillers then this is an absolute must.

Thank you Penguin Uk and NetGalley.

An enthralling story about a group of parents that become friends when Eve starts tutoring some of their children who may be dyslexic. They soon start to socialise and the children become friends enjoying playing out together in the garden, they all go away together to Eve’s villa in Greece.

When a tragedy occurs it affects all of the 3 families and we soon realise that what goes on behind their closed doors, does not match with the image they portray on the outside.

The main characters are Eve, Melissa and Grace and we see from their points of view their struggle with everyday life. While their children have been playing happily evil has crept in. You warn you’re children about strangers but what if the dangers are closer to home!!

I was so gripped by this book. I did struggle at first to keep up with who was who and had a list of their children’s names beside me!! But I was so caught up with this book that it did not spoil my enjoyment.

At times dark but written in a beautiful and sensitive way.

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

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher and most importantly the author. What a fantastic storyline had me hooked from the beginning. A high 5 stars from me.

Eve's daughter, Poppy is dyslexic. She takes a qualification in dyslexia to help her and sets up a little class for dyslexic children in her home. Soon the children become friends and their parents follow in their wake even though they are from quite different backgrounds.

I absolutely loved this book. Yes, there are a lot of characters to get used to, six adults and six children but they were well defined and so it soon became easy to sort out who was who. We get told the story through the perspectives of the three women, Eva, Melissa and Grace. Each of them has their own problems. Eve is an earth mother type determined to let her three children have a childhood free of the adult restraints that ruined her own childhood. But she's fed up with her husband Eric who is a man of little words and yearns for someone who will talk to her. Melissa is nervy and thin to the point of anorexia for reasons which become apparent. Grace is a woman of colour married to a Booker prize winning author, Martin who hasn't had any success in a decade. She has to support him and their two children by working long hours in a hotel where she is often subjected to racist abuse. She too wants to be a writer and scribbles away in the little spare time she has while Martin has all the time in the world and produces nothing. Meanwhile she is terrified of local youths who hang around where she lives becoming more and more threatening.

As the children become more friendly so too do the adults. There is a holiday in Greece where an affair starts. The children run wild while the adults drink, obsessed with their own issues. This continues when they return to London until a tragedy starts the process of unravelling all their secrets.

The tension throughout this book is immense. There is a sense of menace from the beginning which grows with each revelation. There are allusions to Lord of the Flies - what are the games that the children are always playing?

The plot is tight, there are twists and turns aplenty. I suspected what was going on from early on but this in no way spoiled my enjoyment. On one level this is a thriller but on another there is so much going on, a commentary on how we live our lives today. A great read. Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

* spoiler alert ** HUGE SPOILERS

This one sucked me right in.
From very early on I was convinced Izzy was being abused,and that's where her games stemmed from and the reason she killed Ash and kidnapped Sorrell.
Nice to be proved wrong.
It's always a worry when new friends become this involved in each other's lives,especially when non of them seem to have other friends!
Taking Eves dream Dulwich house and turning into a nightmare was quickly done.
Addictively so.

When Eve starts tutoring children with dyslexia the kids soon become friends. When eve and her husband start to socialise with the parents the six adults become firm friends as the children build their own friendships under the leader, Izzy. Behind closed doors things are quite different for each couple and soon a tragedy strikes and from there life takes a turn for the worst for all families.

Oh my god I couldn’t put this down. It was such a captivating read. I really enjoyed this and will be recommending to my book club.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was eager to read this novel by Jane Shemilt having thoroughly enjoyed her previous novels. Once I had got to know how all the characters slotted together (this took a while as it included three couples and their children, and learning who was who did feel a bit of a task in the early page), I was completely hooked.

Shemilt is a brilliant storyteller, she writes of human emotions and relationships with seeming ease and in a way that makes you think you know them personally. She also managed to create the children's characters very well, and I could completely believe the events that unfolded.

It is unusual for me to read a book full of suspense or a psychological thriller, and at times I found the content of the book hard to read. However, I was completely invested in the story and couldn't take my eyes away from the words. This was a deeply unsettling read, but one that I enjoyed despite the sense of unease I felt throughout.

This is what I would describe as an ‘iceberg’ novel as so much is hidden beneath an apparently smooth surface. Eve Kershaw's daughter Poppy is dyslexic and so she takes a qualification so she can help her and other children. She offers classes at her large home and gains some students including Izzy and Blake and this leads to an unlikely friendship between three disparate couples. Each of the couples is hiding something, part of their lives is an illusion, some of which are dangerous and they all have secrets. They tell lies and some of those lies are so BIG that they are suffering and desperately trying to keep up appearances. This darkly compelling and well written novel contains several themes but it is principally about power which wears many disguises this making the characters blithely unaware and blind to the signs in front of them and the unholy damage that it can wreak.

The book is written from the perspective of the three mothers - Eve, Melissa and Grace. I like the female characters and most of the children are likeable. The story unfolds very well and the pacing is good. Just as you think you’ve got it all sorted in your head another shocker emerges. It contains some tricky themes such as domestic abuse and although some of the themes are dark it is never salacious or overdone although it chills you to the bone. After all the shocks it is good that the three women are able to keep and develop their friendship as do some of the children and their togetherness after all they have been through is heartwarming.

Overall, another really good novel from Jane Shemilt. It’s dark, twisty and so right up my alley! It’s impossible to put down as you desperately want to know what happens next in this powerful and unsettling story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the ARC.

Absolutely fantastic loved it from the start and i love how true the concept it there too busy being friends to notice there kids are unhappy and what’s going on around them I love how then 3 women were so diffrent yet they got on so well I love all the twists and turns that. You never see comeing although I was confused by the ending I felt like it was from a diffrent book and I had missed something xx

The synopsis of this book grabbed my attention straight away as I love a psychological suspense novel, unfortunately though for me personally, it didn’t live up to expectations. I found the storyline to be quite difficult to follow as there are so many characters with their own different stories running in conjunction to one another, that I often felt confused as to what was going on. I did find the finale to be rather gripping but overall I was quite disappointed.

Eve and Eric, Paul and Melissa, and Grace and Martin; three couples whose children's burgeoning friendship leads to them becoming friends as well. The women in particular grow increasingly close, sharing meals, childcare, and even a holiday in Greece. But each couple has secrets, and when an affair begins, those secrets are at risk of being exposed. As tensions increase among the group, the adults are too busy looking at themselves to be watching the children. And it seems the children have secrets of their own...

Some books hook you in right from the beginning, and others are more of a slow burn. For me, this one took a good few chapters to really get in to, largely because there were so many characters to get to grips with, it took me a while to remember who everyone was, and because of that, it took ages for me to connect with any of the characters. However. That is the only criticism I have of this novel, which turned out to be a brilliantly written, insidiously tense, and genuinely chilling story. The author ratchets up the tension so gradually that it almost creeps up on the reader - it's like that old analogy of a frog being put into a pan of cold water with the heat gradually increased to boiling point, so that the frog doesn't realise it's being cooked. GUYS: I WAS THAT FROG.

The characters are so beautifully realised, I felt like they were real people I actually knew by the end, and the author really captures the intensity of childhood friendships. In the best of ways, this is a real onion of a story - there's a single story at its heart, but there are so many more layers to peel away first.

I loved this book - it thrilled me, it chilled me, and it made me feel very unsettled. I will be recommending this one for sure, and thinking about it for a long time to come.  

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Jane's previous work and on the whole, this was a good read. However I felt there were too many characters and at times I was confused. It was a good read overall.

The premise of this book is very good. A well written and solid storyline. However there are an abundance of characters and I often found myself confused to which couple belonged together and which child to their parents.
A nail biting read which threw red herrings in to put the reader of the scent of who is to blame. Recommended.

Truly absorbing, Little Friends is a uniquely gripping story of three families being thrown together, and staying together once tragedy strikes. Each of the adult women are strong, striking characters, though flawed in their own way. Grace stood out to me in particular, her constant, quiet strength through the trauma and difficulties she endured. Though there is much more to this book, it is ultimately the story of three women and their children, and the ways they struggled to continue against the odds. Little Friends is dark and electrifying.

Three couples are brought together through their children: Beautiful Melissa and Paul, at-one-with-nature Eve and Eric, and mixed-race Grace and Martin, one a writer under wraps, the other a writer going down the plug.

Over the course of the summer they are hardly out of each other’s company. While they are absorbed in their own attractions, dissatisfactions and secrets, they fail to notice their children running wild. Until it’s too late.

Shemilt writes intelligently and with great pacing. She skilfully juggles the plot, adding more clubs, and more, before setting the whole alight for a gripping finale. The reader is misdirected, their sympathies veering between characters, but the breadcrumbs are there to be found.

At times, I was befuddled by which child belonged to which parent, or who was married to whom.

Contains substantial passages of text in italics.

Riveting plot.

My thanks to Net Galley and publisher, Penguin UK - Michael Joseph, for the ARC.