The download date was unfortunately missed, I would be happy to re-review if it became available again. I have awarded stars for the book cover and description as they both appeal to me. I would be more than happy to re-read and review if a download becomes available. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

"Wow - just wow" - these were the words that escaped my mouth the moment I finished this book - "What did I just read".

This is a good book, the writing made it easy to read and I could feel the love, despair, anger and other wide range of emotions just lifting off the page into my imagination. It's a real, well-paced journey, our narrator Kat, tells her story as we go along, with added flashbacks to the past for clarity and depth. It didn't grip me straight away - I first picked this book up in February and then waited a whole month before picking it up again - but once I had picked it up the second time it took me under two days to read it.

The end was a little far-fetched for my liking but I think it served the character well. I would not hesitate to pick up another book by this author.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my copy of this book.

This was quite good, with short snappy chapters and a good plot. I wasn’t too keen on the characters but the premise was interesting and I did quite enjoy this

*Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*

The storyline was good.
The characters were ... not so good.
Ginny needs serious mental help.
The romance plotline and the way the characters interconnected was unbelievably far fetched and honestly, just a bit cruel.
The bees did a great job.

The Coffin Club is a decent thriller with quite an intriguing story. It's compelling and well structured, with some good plot twists.

I prefer to let a book 'settle' for a while before reviewing to see how it stands the test of time. It's a while since I read The Coffin Club and I have to say it didn't make a lasting impression. Except for the strong title and excellent cover!

In fact I was sorry that the so-called Coffin Club did not play a bigger role in the story.

This was a good book but not really my usual type of book.

I liked how the story was told and found the point of view interesting.

I found there to be lots of twists and turns however it just wasnt for me.

Really enjoyed this debut. The short chapters and fast pace were key to winding up the suspense, and with a good few twists and a slow reveal happening in the background, this was difficult to put down!

Immersive, Compelling…
Kat is busy. Rebuilding a life takes time. A move to the countryside could be just what she needs. When she joins a group dubbed The Coffin Club, Kat meets the enigmatic Nico. Kat should remember that sometimes not everything is as it seems. Immersive and compelling suspense with a well written narrative and a well crafted cast where, perhaps, everything is unreliable.

This is a good read. Kat is a recently widowed woman who escapes to a cottage in the country and who is frantically trying to find a reason to carry on. She then becomes involved with a woman (Ginny) who looks after abandoned animals and who helps Kat find a reason to continue. Then Kat finds a man and all seems perfect.... but, is it?

What follows is a good drama / thriller that keeps you guessing and I'm grateful to OneWorld publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview.

This was great - totally different to most other crime thrillers I've read recently. The two main characters are both bereaved and meet at what they call, the coffin club, a dating meet up for widowers who are looking to reconnect. After a whirlwind romance, and, well, Brexit happening, they quickly marry and it feels like everything Kat has ever wanted, she now has - a beautiful family, including the most important thing to her, a child. But her husband Nico seems to be acting strangely sometimes and keeping secrets from her. She seeks advice from her friend Ginny, who first suggests the dating, who is reassuring, but still Kat is suspicious and does some snooping of her own. I really enjoyed this, and I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between the characters grow with the story - things are never quite as they seem...

This is a wonderfully unsettling story with a thrumming tension lurking just below the surface.

Kat is the grieving window through who's eyes we watch events unfurl. A grieving window, her desire to end things leads to a series of events that start to not only heal her grief, but bring friends, a lover and even a child into her life. However, nothing is as it seems, and though clues to what is happening are hidden between the pages, it is only in the final shocking scenes that my brain caught up with the levels of deception and trickery that had been right under my nose.

This is an amazing debut and I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

What a fab first outing from Jacqueline Sutherland.

Any book that has an impending aura of doom over what’s going to happen in the narrative is an absolute page turner for me. With the background to main character Kat’s life slowly revealed over the course of the book and the sense of dread of what’s bubbling away in the background, this is a well-written and very enjoyable debut.

If you think you’re going to get a cozy read about a widow rebuilding her life and finding her second chance at love, maybe think again. Because life’s not like that. There are characters here that you will warm to then change your feelings about as, perhaps, all is not as it seems.

No spoilers here but you will laugh at The Coffin Club, you might cry at The Coffin Club and you will definitely gasp at some points during The Coffin Club. And I’m still buzzing from the final few chapters.

Can’t wait to see what Jacqueline delivers next.

Kat tragically lost her husband in a car accident, which left her with facial scarring, & she moves to another part of the country to an isolated house to start anew. Things aren't going too well especially when she decides to end it all, but hits a young deer whilst driving in the bad weather. Panicking, Kat takes the deer to a local wildlife rescue & makes friends with the owner, Ginny, who is spending every hour working to try & raise money to keep the rescue open. Helping out at the rescue sees things slowly improve, & Kat joins a local group for widows/widowers called New Horizons, (known as the Coffin Club by its members), & meets Nico, who lost his wife in a boating accident. Kat & Nico are drawn to each other, but Kat especially loves being 'mum' to his young daughter, Magdalena (whom Kat calls Midge). When circumstances threaten to take them both away, Kat proposes marriage to enable them to stay. At first things are idyllic, but Kat gradually realises that Nico is keeping something from her, & when things threaten to fall apart, she wonders why she married a man she barely knows.

The narrative is all from Kat & starts off with her visiting the grave of her first husband, Sam, & recounting what has happened since he died. The reader learns that Kat really wanted children but a series of unfortunate events denied her wish to become a mother. I wasn't keen on Kat at first, & to be honest, I nearly gave up reading about a third of the way through, but I'm glad I didn't as the author really pulled it round in the ending of the book. I couldn't find any other books from the author on Goodreads or Amazon UK, so if this is their first book, then heck, it's impressive. The only thing I didn't like were a couple of instances of animal death/abuse - this was what almost made me DNF the book. I guessed some of the final twist but not all of it, & there are subtle clues along the way & I could kick myself for not picking up on all of them.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Oneworld Publishing/Point Blank, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

A fantastic debut from Jacqueline Sutherland with a book as intriguing as the title and the name.

Kat is struggling with life, she wants more than anything to become a mother so much so that it physically hurts having been through the mill Kat has now lost her husband Sam in a tragic accident and is now more alone than ever.

Kat is on her way to end her own life when a deer jumps out in front of her. Devastated that the animal is injured Kat takes it to the local sanctuary where she meets Ginny. Little did Kat know that her meeting with Ginny would turn her life around.

Kat and Ginny become the most unlikely of friends they both her and support on another and give each other a purpose and a reason to keep going. With a nudge from Ginny Kat signs herself up to an online dating site where she meets Nico. Kat can’t believe her luck Nico is everything she wants and more he has a daughter Magdalene who she’d love to become a mother to. Unbeknown to her Kat is everything Nico wants a wealthy woman with her own home and if he marries her he can get his visa to stay in the UK.

Kats gut tells her somethings are too good to be true which usually means that they are however with both Kat and Nico having secrets and hiding things Kats gut feeling could be closer and more accurate than she realises.

I really enjoyed this book I think it was a great and very unique thriller. At times I did find it a little slow in places but it did soon pick up again and as for the ending all I’m going to say is watch out I did not see that one coming. I’m really hoping to see more from Jaqueline Sutherland and cannot wait to see what more she has in store for future reads.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for this review.

I’m not really a fan of romance stories, but something about The Coffin Club really drew me in particularly with its dark promise of a suitor that isn’t quite all he seems. The first few chapters are quite a hard read, especially as I’m due to get married myself next year, as it focuses on Kat and how she loses her husband in a tragic accident. A lot of the book is written in the style of her telling the story to her deceased husband which worked well and made for a hard-hitting narrative style.

We join Kat on her quest for a new family and most importantly for her - a child, as she meets the mysterious Nico and tries to start a new life. If you are under the illusion that this is a romance book this is soon shattered as we get a lot of foreshadowing and hints that something bad is about to happen. Although this can sometimes work well to build pace in a book, it felt a little too heavy handed here and made me frustrated rather than intrigued. The book itself is very slowly paced and the events that are foreshadowed only really happen right at the end. I had pretty much guessed what was happening although I didn’t quite understand the motivations until they were revealed.

I loved Kat’s character arc and the twist at the end, and I do really love books that are bold enough to pull off this kind of a reveal and follow it through. That said, I didn’t really feel like I empathised with her all that much and I also didn’t really like anyone else in the book which made it hard to relate to and probably contributed to the book feeling like it dragged at times.

Overall, The Coffin Club has a great final twist but is very slowly paced in its build up with unrelatable characters. Thank you to NetGalley & Oneworld Publications – Point Blank for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book that was not really what I expected but after a slowish start it was an amazing read.It was full of dark yet humorous parts. I found the writing style where Kat spends a lot of time talking to her dead husband to explain what was going on in her life, was brilliant as it brought her emotions to the foreground.
There were many red herrings which kept me on my toes throughout.

Kat has had a traumatic life, mother died when she was young, unable to have children of her own, mentally fragile, and recently widowed after her husband died in a car crash, which left her facially scarred. On the plus side, her dead husband, Sam, was incredibly wealthy, not just in cash terms but with various properties around the country and the world, and she inherited it all. But all she wants is to be a mother, the one thing she can’t be naturally. Her best – only – friend, Ginny, runs a failing, debt ridden, animal sanctuary, where she becomes an unpaid assistant (mucker-out). At Ginny’s suggestion Kat joins a local group for the recently bereaved, known to its members as ‘The Coffin Club’. Here she meets and falls for Nico, a Spanish ex-pat (the story is set in the run up to Brexit) who, crucially, has a five year-old daughter. His background is a bit sketchy, hesitant, but Kat is happy to accept that his wife’s death had been tragic and that he has no surviving family and left Spain because he couldn’t cope with the memories. Thrown together they bond, marry and settle down in the idyllic cottage which Kat owns. But there are stresses building, centered around the differences between her life and that of those around her: Money, Work, History, Love. Is anyone, including Kat, entirely as they seem?
This is a psychological mystery story; it is not a thriller. It is told in the first person, by Kat, talking in her head to Sam; an effective device, although it does impose a linearity to the events (there are a few flashbacks but they are all still Kat talking to Sam about their experiences). The prose, though quite lyrical, takes a while to establish itself in the mind of the reader, and the plot takes even longer to get into anything other than that of a romantic love arising from tragedy. Suspicious elements infiltrate slowly and, with a few twists along the way, start to form a picture in the reader’s mind. It is not a challenge to work out what is happening and how it will end. So fairly enjoyable, but I’m not certain it will satisfy either side of its potential readership. A 3.5 rounded-up 4.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Kat is rebuilding her life after losing her husband in a tragic accident, moving to the countryside is her chance to start again. Encouraged by her new and only friend Ginny, Kat joins New Horizons, dubbed the Coffin Club by it's members. And that's how she meets Nico, Instantly drawn to each other, Nico seems like Kat's perfect match. He's kind, caring, handsome and, most importantly, a father to five year old Magdalena. This could be Kat's shot at the one thing she's always wanted: to be a mother.

This dark, suspenseful, twist filled read will keep you turning the pages. Kat's husband had recently passed away. She finds it hard to connect with people so she joins a local widows group, New Horizons, who lovingly call themselves the Coffin Club. There, she meets Nico, who seems the tonic she needs to help her move on. But when things seem too good to be true, it's normally a warning sign. I was intrigued by the books title and it did not disappoint. I liked that Kat spoke to her dead husband as if he was still alive. The story is told from Kat's perspective. I didn't really like any of the characters. It did take me a few chapters to get into the story, but once I was in, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #OneworldPublications and the author #JacquelineSutherland for my ARC of #TheCoffinClub in exchange for an honest review.

I admit this book took me a while to get into, meaning I wasn’t hooked within the first 50 pages, but once I got into it I loved discovering all the dark twists and secrets. Sometimes I enjoy not being instantly hooked by a book, just leaving myself interested enough to want to continue but not enough to not want to put the book down. I feel like its easier to read when you’re really busy with life, and oh boy has my life got suddenly busy!

I loved the way Kat was written. You begin by feeling sorry for her but your opinion slowly changes as secrets are revealed. I enjoy that she is not necessarily a “good person” as it makes her a lot more relatable. Plus it makes you question, is she really as innocent as she seems?

Happily, I wasn’t able to guess the full ending of this book. I could tell there was something off with the characters but couldn’t put my finger on it. However, I do feel the ending was a bit rushed in the grand scheme of things. For example, the plot waffles on a bit throughout the book, seeming to get caught up on things that don’t add to the overall story or overly explains the simple things. Whereas, I feel this time and attention could have went into making the ending / the big twists more extravagant.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was the perfect read for taking slowly and picking up when I had the chance. All the characters gave off the right vibes and the plot was interesting. However, I do believe the book could have been shorter and still delivered the same impact.

TW: Death, kidnapping, animal abuse, infertility, depression and suicide.

The Coffin Club opens with Kat who has fled to the countryside to start a new life, hoping to run away from the devastation of her infertility and then her husband’s death. At her lowest point she meets a new friend Ginny and starts dating again. Before she knows it, she is in a whirlwind romance with Nico and better yet he has a daughter who treats her like the Mummy she has always yearned to be. Now she has everything she could wish for, what could go wrong?

If I had to sum up this debut novel in one word, it would have to be obsession. The three main characters of the book are each obsessed with one aspect missing in their life that they feel completely entitled to and willing to obtain at any cost.

I liked the unreliable narration and the dark humour with in the book, hinted at in the title of the book and cover design, both of which are so fitting. I found myself getting frustrated with Kat for being so naive and oblivious to what was going on under her nose, only to have to eat my words when my theories were proved wrong with clever red herrings weaved into the plot. It’s a fast, easy and entertaining read, with all the spine tingling chills and unhinged motives you could want from a thriller. It’s a solid addition to the domestic thriller shelf, sure to win the author an audience for her next book.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.