Another amazing book by these authors absolutely loved it. Well thought out, clever & a few twists along the way I would highly recommend any of the books by these authors they are all brilliant reads & all completely different.

Wow this book will take your breath away, from the start involving a horrific suicide until the very last word
It has more twists and turns than almost any book I have read, it is so clever even I thought I worked out what was going on but oh no miles away from the truth
There are people playing people and complicating everything and the main character Shay is being dragged into a spiders web of lies,deceit and murder
But why murder shay can't see a reason until the end
It will grip you this book

Did. Not enjoy this book, got totally confused and did not finish it,
Not for me.
I read half of the book and said I did not know why I was reading it, I never give up on a book so this was
Really unusual for me.

There's a lot of mystery and intrigue in here, which is great.

It starts with a suicide.

When Shay witnesses a woman jump in front of a subway, it starts a chain of events no one could have predicted. Why did Amanda jump? And why are her friends, the Moore sisters, so interested in Shay?

It's a thriller with a real difference. So much going on behind the scenes which is unravelled very, very slowly. I had to read this in one sitting because I was too caught up in what was going to happen.

Put your life on hold for this one!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

What a great read !! Loved the plot and the twists - amazing

A must read

I’ve loved the past two books by these co-authors and loved them. This one started off a bit slow and I did get a little confused by all the characters and back and forth. However it was a great read and I’m happy to have it in my collection.

Hmmmm, okay, I’m fairly unimpressed.

From the outset, I didn’t buy into Shay’s feelings about the tragic incident she had witnessed. The fact that she became so obsessed with the victim, and that she was so haunted by the tragedy, just seemed over the top to me. I mean, let’s say you witness something disturbing happen to a total stranger, do you become so obsessed that you take it upon yourself to find out where the person lived, then go and leave a flower at their door, then attend their funeral and end up in a psychologist’s office because you’re battling to cope with their death? I don’t know. I don’t think so. The sad truth is that we live in a world where bad and upsetting things happen to people all the time. Are we effected by this? Sometimes, but not to the extent of over the top obsession.

I also think I felt a little let down by this read because it’s the first book that I’ve read by this author duo, and the two books they’ve written previously have received sterling reviews. Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps it’s just a story that was a little too slow for me. At about 50% I found myself asking, what has actually happened in this book? And unfortunately, the answer was, not much. The book only gathers momentum in the last 25% which means that there’s a lot of reading to do where there’s much to get excited about. Because of this, I found that my attention would drift, and suddenly I’d jolt back into my listening and realise that I’d missed the majority of the chapter. I couldn’t tell you what it was about. That’s never a good sign.

I found the protagonist, Shay, to be a very weak, naive and gullible character. I didn’t warm to her much and overall she seemed to be a little bit pathetic. I’m sure this was intentional and it was, I suppose, necessary for the story to work, but it didn’t endear me to her.

My last criticism is that I found it difficult at times to keep up with all the different characters. This might have been a bigger problem because I listened to this one as an audio book and so I couldn’t page back to refresh my memory, but I did find it a negative in this read.

Now on to the positive. I liked the different stories linked to the different time periods, and I was specifically interested in the histories of the women that befriended Shay. It was fun to read what had happened to them in the past, and what had turned them into the people that they are today. Also, each of Shay's chapters started with a statistic, which I really enjoyed. That was something that I don’t think I’ve seen done before in fiction books and I loved the novelty of it.

I wish I could award more than 2 stars to this book, but in fairness to my feelings, I just can't because it just wasn’t for me and I didn’t enjoy it as a whole. I will try and read some of the other books published by this author as I think that this one may just have been a hiccup.

You Are Not Alone by by Greer Hendricks; Sarah Pekkanen I found hard to get into. I heard so much about this book I had to read it to find out what all the fuss was about.

You Are Not Alone, which is set in New York.

WoW................Shay Miller's day could not get any worse! or could it?

But, It only took 22 seconds to dramatically alter Shay Miller’s life. Shay witnesses a brutal suicide at the underground train station. She tried to save, by shouting or reaching out sooner etc but sadly she was unsuccessful. Shay feels like she is a failure in many things but this has to be the worse day of her whole life!!!! Shay needs something to take her mind of things and becomes obsessed with the dead woman who she say kill herself. People have warned her to leave it alone, but Shay wonders why she killed herself and wants to find out more about the woman! Shay attends a memorial service for the woman and meets some of her close friends. She becomes friendly with Cassandra and Jane Moore, strangely she feels an instant connection to them. Cassandra and Jane are very successful, very beautiful and are sisters. Soon they invite Shay to their inner circle.
.
Will Shay find out Why she killed herself?

However, as Shay becomes closer to Cassandra and Jane things does not seem to be real about them!!!!

I recommend this book However, can be bit far fetched at times.......

Big thank you to Pan Macmillian for sending me an advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

Geez! What a rollercoaster! Who needs enemies with friends like these! Everyone wants what they don’t have, the grass always seems greener on the other side... yeah that’s until these nut jobs befriend you!! Another brilliantly written psychological thriller.

Shay is waiting for the subway when she notices a woman on the platform. Just as she realises what is about to happen Shay reaches out to stop her but is too late and the woman jumps in front of the oncoming train.

Shay suddenly finds herself unable to think of anything else and she can’t bring herself to travel on the subway. Shay becomes obsessed with the woman and soon finds herself entwined in the dead woman’s life. She attends the memorial and finds herself becoming friends with the woman’s best friends. But is there more to the blossoming friendship ? And does Shay realise what she is getting into ?

This a great mystery thriller with plenty of twists. Some of the chapters are written in the past so we get to see what events led up to the present day and we also get to see how people ended up the way they did. A great psychological thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

This wasn't a bad book, not at all but i didn't enjoy it as much as the last one. Maybe i was comparing them or my expectations were too high but this just missed the mark for me. There wasn't much emotion in the story and i didn't connect with Shay so when the twists came along i didn't really care.

I didn't want to put this book down. You Are Not Alone is the intense, fast-paced, twisty and twisted thriller I hope for every time I pick up a book in this genre. I loved every minute I spent reading it. The chapters jumping back and forth in P.O.V and time, worked especially well because the characters were all so unique and interesting.

My reasons for not giving the book 5 stars are:

1) By 50% of the book, the protagonist Shay didn't seem to really have a goal, and therefore the stakes weren't very high. The suspense and tension were built from us as the readers being able to see what was going on with the antagonists, outside of Shay's P.O.V. I still enjoyed Shay's chapters because she was such a relatable character but I would have preferred for her to have had a more pressing goal for more of the book than just to get her life back on track, as this could have raised the tension and suspense even further.

2) I don't think Shay went through a Dark Night of the Soul period in the book. The ending seemed a little easy after Shay started being proactive and putting the puzzle pieces together, staying one step ahead of her adversaries and never really seeming like she was completely out of options. After Shay told the reader she was going to verify Santiago's identity with Williams before she went to the subway station, it was very obvious that all the bystanders in the subway were police before it was revealed. This a bit of a letdown and potential tension was lost because of it.

3) The entire plot relies on a HUGE coincidence: the fact Shay strongly resembled Amanda in all physicalities and was therefore available to be set up by the Moore sisters, relatively easily. I know the book is about statistics and the likelihood of Shay being in the right place at the right time being incredibly low, but this meta-type of acknowledgement didn't really let this part of the plot off the hook, for me. If Shay had been successfully set up by the Moore sisters without this deus ex machina, I'd have given the book 5 stars.

Overall, I'm sad the story had to end and cannot wait to pick up another book by these brilliant authors.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5*

Review without spoilers also posted to Amazon.co.uk under username Puchowska - awaiting verification.

This was a super twisty and intriguing thriller that follows a whole cast of vindictive but badass women. Shay is our protagonist and we follow her after she sees a woman die by suicide and the unexpected consequences of this. She ends up getting involved with a pair of sisters who seem to be absolutely lovely on the surface... but do they have an ulterior motive?

There's absolutely no way to briefly describe the twist and turns that follow but here are the reasons I loved this book:
- very interesting and complex female friendships
- genuinely interesting twists - at one point I thought I knew where it was going but I was wrong
- it's really fun to read from Shay's perspective and I loved the insights into her "data book"

The main reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that although there was a range of characters, a lot of their voices sounded the same and it got confusing at times.

Quite a good read overall. I found it a bit far fetched and a bit too slow going.. The OCD cure was totally unrealistic. The characters were well drawn but unlikable. As it's an American book I did find myself mentally correcting spellings and phrases but I appreciate that's my problem. I wonder too, if it might be an idea for the authors to write independently. as I did find that the book didn't really gel together in places, almost like it was being pulled in two directions. The story did jump about quite a lot which I found confusing. . An interesting premise for a book that could have been a bit better thought out.
If you found this book in the hotel library on holiday it would make a good pool side read.
I thank NetGalley for the ARC

On Kindle the chapters need to be better laid out and have page numbers

When Shay Miller gets entangled in the lives of the Moore Sisters her life changes quickly and not necessarily for the better, but it’s hard not to be mesmerised by the sisters.

I loved this book. The action hits fast and you end up following Shay on this journey, willing her to see what’s happening and find a way out. I’ve read that some people were disappointed by the ending but I thought it tied everything together nicely. I really enjoyed the different character’s perspectives throughout the book and felt like I got to know each character as well as I needed to. Definitely a must read if you want some suspense in your life!

When Shay witnesses a woman jump in front of a subway train it changes her humdrum life. She becomes obsessed with who the lady is and finds herself with a glamorous new circle of friends who seem like they want to help her change her life around. Is this too good to be true? Shay’s loneliness makes her an easy target for these manipulative friends. But what are they getting from this new friendship?

I liked the way the book jumps back so that we get bit sizes snippets of how the main characters meet and this keeps the suspense ticking along. I couldn’t bear to be separated from this book and even tried to read it while cooking dinner!!

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

Thanks to Macmillan, Greer Hendriks and Sarah Pekkanen for the ARC. It s very interesting that this novel was written by two people. I can't imagine doing it but it certainly succeeded here. You Are Not Alone kept me guessing until the end, just how I like it. Shay is very likeable. I think most of us have had those feelings of aloneness or loneliness, the thoughts that everyone is having a good time apart from us. And its these very thoughts that make her vulnerable to the machinations of Cassandra and Jane, that they seem to be everything Shay isn't, and have everything she would like.to have owned. It also makes her miss the red flags,, or at least choose to ignore them. The story built to a satisfying end and I look forward to reading the authors' other novels.

You Are Not Alone tells the story of a young woman lost in a big city. Shay is in love with her (taken) roommate, growing distant from her college best friend, and struggling to find a permanent job. So, she's already in a pretty rough place; but, things go from bad to worse when Shay witnesses a suicide on the subway line. What Shay sees that day shifts the trajectory of Shay's life in ways she could never have imagined, and we - the reader - get to see exactly what unfolds in the weeks following from both sides of the story.

This is a book of two halves for me. I had a lot of problems with the first 50% of You Are Not Alone. The foremost issue for me was how Hendricks and Pekkanen dealt with trauma and fear. As a person who lives with debilitating OCD, the way the authors described Shay's sudden-onset phobia of using the subway - and how it impacted her life - really resonated with me, and I appreciated that a lot. Shay mentioned how her life was becoming smaller and smaller; she could no longer go to the gym she liked to visit, for instance, because doing so meant using the subway. And for some reason that Shay knew was irrational, she just couldn't use the subway. I felt that shit in my soul. If you've ever had to live with any kind of phobia like the one Shay develops as a result of her trauma, you'll know that feeling. The feeling of the world shrinking around you. The feeling of all those things you used to find so easy slipping away. Hendricks and Pekkanen did a great job capturing exactly how it feels to live with a debilitating mental illness like this, and I appreciated that a lot. However, their representation soon went downhill.

Later in the book, after Shay has met Cassandra and Jane Moore (who I'll come on to later), Valerie - using the alias "Anne" - drags Shay on a romp around the subway station. And then, voila! Shay is cured. She can now use the subway again as if she never witnessed a woman throw herself in front of a moving train moments after making direct eye contact with her. That is not how this shit works. To deal with my OCD, I've had to put myself through hours of harrowing "mini exposures" to try to lower the panic I experience in response to certain stimulants. It takes weeks, months, years, to get to the point where you can face your biggest fear; in Shay's case, taking the subway. She certainly wouldn't be cured after being forced into a terrifying situation by a complete stranger one single time. But I get it; a thriller like this can only be so long. Hendricks and Pekkanen didn't have months'-worth of narrative to spend on Shay's mental rehabilitation. That said, I do think they could have handled her recovery somewhat more ceremoniously than they actually did.

My second issue with this book was more minor, and it bothered me far more in the first half than the second half - possibly because I found the actual story so much more gripping from the halfway-point onwards that I stopped noticing it, but I digress. My problem was with the writing; I felt that it was pretty cringeworthy at times. For instance, Shay said of the Moore sisters: "Even their names have the sound of mantras." Pardon? What does this mean? What is this line even trying to convey? The use of simile here felt really jarring to me, like Hendricks and Pekkanen knew what they were trying to say but thought they ought to say it in some roundabout, literary-fiction-y type way. Yes, we might say that's what authors are supposed to do; we all know the first rule of writing is show, don't tell. But, this line didn't show me, nor did it tell me, anything at all. It felt a bit try-hard to me, and I couldn't help cringing.

This certainly wasn't the only instance of cringeworthy writing in You Are Not Alone. Take this line: "I wasn't the kind of girl who dreamed about pink ruffles or tulle - I preferred soccer and math puzzles." God. Everyone stop the press! We have a perfectly normal girl here with her own hobbies and interests. Who knew girls are distinct individuals? I thought they were all tulle-loving, pink-donning little fairies! Seriously, both the authors of this book are women, and neither of them realised this line smacks of not-like-other-girls syndrome? Cringe. And how about this attempt at humour: "This station is shaking more than my vibrator!" What grown woman says this to someone she has just met? How does a building shake like a vibrator? And more to the point, why did Shay find this line so hysterical? This part of the book read like it was written by A.I.s trying to simulate how real women act.

But, as I said, after about the 50% mark I stopped making note of lines I didn't like. I actually stopped finding lines I didn't like, because I was so gripped by the narrative that I didn't linger long enough to notice them! Indeed, all the things I really loved about You Are Not Alone struck me hardest in the second half.

First of all, let's talk about characterisation. There are few things I find more repugnant in a person than being bent on revenge. So, Hendricks and Pekkanen were already onto a winner with their vigilante villains, the Moore sisters. I hated them. And that's a great thing! Antagonists are rarely supposed to be likeable, and the authors certainly did a great job at making sure theirs weren't. I took against Cassandra and Jane from the second we first met them, and by the time the penny dropped regarding their true intentions with Shay, I despised them. That being said, the Moore sisters weren't cartoonish villains. They were complex, multi-layered women, and I never got tired of reading about them.

Conversely, I very much liked our protagonist, Shay. I found it really easy to root for her because she was something of an "everywoman." Countless women the world over long for what Shay longs for: companionship, sisterhood, a support network. Loneliness has buried its way into the hearts of almost every woman I know at some point in her life, myself included. It is for that reason Shay's experience really struck a cord with me; I saw myself in her. At one point in the book, Shay says she's yearning for "[a] place to belong. A home that has nothing to do with a physical structure and everything to do with a feeling of love and acceptance." I actually gasped when I read this, because it hits so close to home. This is what I long for too, when I'm lying awake at 3am; a place - a person - that feels like home. I felt that Shay and I have a lot in common - sans the "soccer and math puzzles" - so seeing a person like her represented on-page was really something special.

Last but not least, I want to mention the plot of You Are Not Alone. I'm trying to keep spoilers to a minimum in this review, so I won't mention any specifics from late on in the book, but wow! I have to say, the first half of this book was a bit repetitive for me. This isn't much of a spoiler, because this pattern is established very early on (but if you want absolute zero spoilers - stop reading now!), but this is basically how part one and a lot of part two go: Shay experiences something that makes her think Jane and Cassandra are her friends, we realise that Cassandra and Jane are actually manipulating Shay, rinse, repeat. However, once we get to late-part-two/early-part-three, when Shay starts to twig that some shenanigans are going on, the plot shifts up a gear. It took me two weeks to read the first 50% of this book, and a single evening to read the last 50%. That's how much of a change in velocity there was for me plot-wise. By the end of You Are Not Alone, the narrative is moving at 100 mp/h and I was so caught up in the action that I felt like I was watching a Bourne film or something. The big reveal was *chef's kiss* divine, and I found the ending mostly satisfying (bar one thing, but I won't go into details - spoilers!). I've heard that crazy plots is a strength of Hendricks and Pekkanen and I wasn't disappointed.

So, as you can probably tell, when I started reading this book there were things Iiked, but also quite a lot of stuff I didn't. I was predicting You Are Not Alone to be a 3 - maybe 3.5 - star read in the early stages. But then, it turned a corner in the second half, and by the end I was happy to give this book a very strong 4 stars! If you're a fan of twisty-turn-y thrillers, well-developed female characters, and can get over some sometimes subpar writing, I certainly recommend picking up You Are Not Alone.

This book! It's been a few years since I've read a thriller because I almost always feel a little let down or bored. I was not bored for one minute with this one.

You Are Not Alone is a psychological thriller about a range of badass, vindictive, vigilante-justice-serving women. I adored that aspect. The cast were brilliant, and while I didn't typically like any of the characters really, I found myself sympathizing/empathizing with a lot of them. The main character Shay is a lonely woman who longs for strong friendships as her one true friendship dwindles. The other main twosome; the Moore sisters, are glitzy, glamorous, popular women - women the likes of Shay could only dream of befriending/becoming.

I found the Moore sisters personalities vile and eye-rolling. I didn't like them from the beginning. I did, despite this, like their whole friendship group if only for the particular 'skills' each of them had, and their connections.

It was clever and definitely page-turning. The only thing it lacked for me, was that I saw it coming. I didn't feel like there were any -gasp- moments for me, no exciting twists that I longed for. The ending I felt I could see coming (doesn't make it bad), but just left me feeling wanting a little more.

I have another Hendricks & Pekkanen book on my bookshelf that I will read, and will keep an eye out for future releases.

It is definitely an entertaining read and I enjoyed every second of my reading experience.

3.75 stars.

* * * *

From the authors of The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl, You Are Not Alone is another twisting, turning psychological thriller that keeps you guessing from beginning to end.

When miserable and lonely Shay inadvertently witnesses the suicide of a young woman on the New York subway, she can't stop thinking of the girl and what caused her to take her life. Unresponsive to therapy, Shay tries to find out more about the girl and attends her memorial service. There she meets beautiful, glamorous and kind sisters Cassandra and Jane who give her their contact details in case she ever needs to talk.

Within a matter of weeks, Shay is in a much better place, feeling happier and more optimistic than she has in a long time and she owes it all to the sisters. But what Shay doesn't realise is that the sisters need her much more than she needed them.

I was intrigued by the reason behind Amanda's suicide and read eagerly awaiting the big reveal. The plot is refreshing and something that I didn't expect. The sisters' wider group of friends and their story is interesting too although for me I felt like we needed more of them to understand exactly what the group were and how they worked. The big group of characters allowed some of the women to fall into the background and not live up to the potential I thought they had when they were introduced. Still, the book is really enjoyable and whilst reading it, I felt that this would make a really good film - something along the lines of Gone Girl, again making us question the narrator whilst escalating to its dramatic finale.

You Are Not Alone is yet again another brilliant book by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen and I'd highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of these ladies and their previous books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.