This book was filled with the terrifying confusion that I can only imagine plagues a person who suffers with psychosis. I love an unreliable narrator, and with the picture painted about Megan's mental health, it is very difficult to believe her take on things.

The story skips between the past and present and I liked the dual timeline - with each hop back into the past, we learn a bit more about the events leading up to Megan's current illness.

I enjoyed this book and will look out for more by this author.

The narrator was very good - she had a warm voice which was one that I enjoyed going back to when listening to this story,

A good psychological thriller that I enjoyed listening to. Megan is convinced she has a baby, but her family insist that she is childless. Who is telling the truth?

Believe Me Not by Natalie Chandler Narrated by Sarah Lam was a was a fast paced addictive thriller and a great page turner from the beginning till the end. The narrator Sarah Lam was excellent in every way and the way she read it, she had me sitting on on the edge of my seat.

When Megan wakes up in hospital she has no recollection of the recent events that led her to be in hospital, She was sure she just had a baby but where was her baby?

Her husband, sister and now the doctor refuses to answer all her questions about what happened and keeps denying the existence of the baby.

Megan has to find the truth on what happened and where is her baby before it's too late.

WoW this audiobook was so good and I highly recommend it

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Audio for letting me review this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller, with the main character of Megan. Megan has mental health problems, and she wakes up in a hospital looking for her baby boy that she knew she had given birth to. Her husband and family tell her that this baby boy doesn't exist. But Megan is determined to prove them wrong.

The book is full of twists and turns, and secrets galore, as we follow Megan around while she tries to get to the bottom of what is going on. Who can she trust? She misses her baby, but where is he? Why is everyone telling her lies?

I loved the audiobook narrator, as she had a nice voice, which suited the story well.

This is a really great thriller, which will keep you engrossed, and wanting to read on to find out what happens next. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the audio copy in exchange for a honest review. Megan awakes from a head injury in a psychiatric unit. She is desperate to see her baby Lula but everyone tells her there was no baby. Megan is supported by her husband Stf, sister Sophia and Dr Mac. She is determined to get well enough to find her son. A tale that had me gripped from the beginning with a surprise twist at the end..

I listened to this book on audio. I liked the narration for the most part, however I did find the American accent annoying. Luckily it was only for one character.

This book kept me guessing and I really didn’t see the twist at the end coming.

I was so excited for this one. It had echoes of the film The Forgotten, which I love!
The premise intrigued me, and I was hooked from the start. I wasn't a massive fan of Megan, which I think is important with a synopsis like this. You want to feel stressed for her, and sympathy for the fact no-one believes her. Which I did, at the beginning.
But then for some reason, the plot just faded away. With the other characters , I ultimately didn't like her sister. I don't see how on something this major, family wouldn't believe each other. I think it would have worked better if her sister had been her ally trying to find answers. But then, this did add to the suspense.
The reveal was strong. I enjoyed the narration, I felt like she suited the role of Megan.

Great tense start. Megan wakes in hospital with a sore, glued head and a scar on her abdomen. She believes she has had a C-section, but her doctor tells her she had a hysterectomy after attempting suicide and stabbing and trying to strangle her partner, Stefan. Megan has a married sister, Sophia, who works for a drama company, and Megan is convinced her baby, Luka, existed. A nurse, Gemma, and a doctor, Dr Barnard Macaulay are treating Megan in a psychiatric unit.

Told in a dual timeline, but mostly in the present by Megan, the story flowed at an agreeable pace. Well written by Natalie Chandler, especially the portrayal of Megan's emotions, I was sufficiently interested to keep reading. There are certainly a lot of secrets to unearth!

The audiobook was narrated by Sarah Lam and listening to it was a terrific decision. I thought it was narrated really well and she brought the perfect amount of verve to the proceedings, adding to the drama and intrigue. 😊🤞🎧

An all-around, fantastic début, very clever and highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Headline Audio, Headline Accent via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book is a real thriller! Its a combination of a mystery and a case study in mental health. You will probably change your mind about the truth and your allegiance with the characters a number of times throughout. Meg is both unbelievable and yet your sympathy reaches out to her. There are many twists and turns so keep going to the end.....

This book started really well and hooked me right in, wondering if Megan really did have a baby, and whether there was some sort of conspiracy between her doctor, husband and sister, and I didn't know who to trust. But the big reveal at the end really didn't work for me and I felt a little underwhelmed.

I did enjoy the narration by Sarah Lam.

Believe Me Not is the perfect title for this story with a dystopian feel to it. Is Megan, the central character, a reliable narrator? Is she unwell or are others colluding for reasons unknown. She believes her baby has been taken from her, but she has mental health issues and the boundaries between truth and imagination are very unclear.

This is a complex story, well told and I felt sympathy for Megan and her situation. It’s difficult to review without spoilers, but suffice to say I was totally engaged throughout and enjoyed the narration.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Audio version of this book 📚 I really struggled with this one 😬, I just couldn’t get into it all , it was so slow and nothing much was happening to keep me gripped. To be fair I don’t think the narrator helped, her American accent sometime turned into an Eastern European one and her voice was so soft she was hard to hear sometimes

this was a very interesting storyline, I enjoyed hearing the different narratives which kept me guessing as to how the plot would turn out. Very well written!

Every mothers worse nightmare to wake up and be told the baby you thought you had never existed! There are lots of secrets to be told and you are kept waiting on tense hooks to find out the truth. A chilling book that will give you shivers.

Description 🔖

Megan wakes up in a hospital bed and the first thought in her mind and her first question is “where is my baby?”. But everyone she loves and the doctor looking after her are telling her that she doesn’t have a baby. Megan then realises she’s not on a maternity ward but in a psychiatric hospital.

Imagine your husband and your family all lying to you. That’s what Megan strongly believes and she is determined to find out the truth. But she is going to struggle to prove everyone wrong when she has difficulty trusting her own mind and her own memories.

General Thoughts 🤔

When I read the blurb for this book I knew it was going to be right up my street and I was not at all disappointed. So many books are described as chilling but this one really did send shivers up and down my spine at points. There were some events in this story that I honestly don’t think I would be able to recover from if I were put in that same situation.

Believe Me Not was painful to read at times but it was unputdownable. Kind of like when you have a bite that you know you shouldn’t scratch but you can’t stop. Yes, you do end up finding out the truth but believe me, it ended up being so much more than I thought it was going to be.

Characters 👫👭👬

Megan is the obvious character to start off with because pretty much the whole story emanates from her. She was so vulnerable but remained focused on her personal mission to find out the truth. I’m not sure I could keep the same determination and I would likely have ended up giving in. Everyone around Megan did such a good job of wrapping her in cotton wool that I did have some moments where I doubted her mind too so I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to walk in her shoes.

I disliked the Dr. A lot. He was probably one of the few things I didn’t like about the book actually. His methods were not ethical and although this was raised in the story a few times, the whole thing didn’t feel believable to me. I’m sure he would have been reported by either a member of staff in the hospital or other patients. I didn’t like his character at all and though I recognise he wasn’t supposed to be liked, I’m not sure I like the way he was written.

Writing Style ✍️

I didn’t realise that this was a debut until I started looking into the author after having finished the book. I thought this was a fantastic debut thriller and I would definitely read more from this author. I felt that the whole book was steadily paced and perfectly suited the subject matter. There were certainly many twists and turns throughout the book and every string in the story was weaved together very cleverly.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I really enjoyed this book and by the end of it, I felt a little bit exhausted as though I had been through it all right there beside the characters. Yes there were a couple of character flaws, but these weren’t big enough to impact how much I enjoyed the story. I can’t wait to see what this author does next and will definitely be keeping my eyes out for more thrilling reads.

Great listen I finished this in a day I got my ear buds in and went for it
Megan the main character wakes up in hospital after apparently a break down
She starts to remember things like giving birth to a son called Luca but her husband says she was never pregnant and her sister and her nurses back up her husband
Her weird doctor, Dr Mac says it’s what her illness wants her to think and she needs to listen to him and he will help her get better.
As the storyline develops you start to imagine all sorts of things that triggered this breakdown but why would her family deny any knowledge of Luca and support what the doctor said to Megan
Why does everyone appear to be lying to her? Or is it Megan herself that is wrong? The deeper she digs, the more lies that become uncovered...
I was still questioning myself close to the end of whether Megan was sane or not, did she have a child or not?
The twist was completely unexpected, which was great!

When Megan wakes up in the hospital she can't wait to see her new born baby. But she soon realizes, that she is not in a maternaty unit at all but in a psychiatric one and everyone keeps telling her, that she didn't have a baby.
What an intriguing premise for a book! Who is wrong and who is to be trusted?
This psychological thriller kept me going although it is not too thriller-y but nethertheless some story to hold on to!
The narration was done by Natalie Chandler who's interpretation I enjoyed a lot
Thank you #NetGalley #Headline Audio, Headline Accent

Impressive narrative and a disturbing in equal measures. A carefully written manuscript which was great to indulge myself in. Enjoy

Believe Me Not tells the story of Megan, who wakes up in a hospital ward wondering where her baby is. Megan is told by everyone that she doesn't have a baby; did she just imagine giving birth or is everyone lying to her?

This book grabbed my attention right from the start, I immediately empathised with Megan and couldn't wait to find out what had happened to her. However, as the book went on, the story dwindled a bit and I felt that most of the focus went into character development rather than the storyline.

I listened to the audiobook version of this and, whilst the narration was good, a few of the characters' voices were incredibly irritating.

Overall, this isn't a bad book but I feel that it had potential to be better.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

CW, sexual assault, fertility, mental health, suicide, gaslighting,

A great dark psychological thriller with many twists and turns leaving you wondering who is telling the truth. I found it quite weird to listen to as there were a few odd coincidences with my own life. It was a bit slow moving in some places, overall a great book, but a lot of harrowing subjects covered.