I found this book a bit confusing to be honest. It jumped from person to person, which lots of books do, but here it just seemed really disjointed. In the end the plot wasn't really all that complicated but I found the way none of the characters talked to each other really frustrating. I didn't hate the book but it's not one to get excited about.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

A tangle of lies, old secrets, misunderstandings all tied in to this skilfully narrated tale.
An excellent range of characters and a steady pace. Each time I thought I knew where this was going, it took a turn I wasn’t expecting.
Really enjoyed this book.

I chose to read a free eARC of The Fall but that has in no way influenced my review.

Louise Jensen is one of my favourite authors and has been for many years now. Pretty much since Louise's debut, The Sister, was published in 2016. I always look forward to a new psychological thriller from the author as I can guarantee 100% that it will be dramatic, thrilling and full to the brim with twists and turns. Jensen has never let me down and I don't think, with the quality of her writing, that she ever could. So it should come as no surprise that I was was very much looking forward to reading The Fall. And what a thrilling, unexpected ride it took me on!

Identical twins, Kate and Beth, are having the time of their lives at their surprise 40th birthday party. They're surrounded by the people they love the most, living life to the full and not thinking about the hangovers they'll suffer the following day. But a hangover is the least of Kate's problems when her fifteen year old daughter, Caily, is found unconscious underneath a bridge. The accident makes no sense to Kate. Caily should have been at school, getting ready to go on stage in the school's production of La La Land. But the police see things differently. They don't believe it's an accident. They think Caily was pushed. As they start to dig deeper into what happened in the lead up to the accident, it becomes clear that not all family members were where they claimed to be. Not everyone is telling the truth because in this close-knit family, there are devastating secrets. Secrets someone will do anything to protect...

The Fall is an expertly written family-based psychological thriller with shedloads of intrigue and perfectly pitched suspense. Life is pretty sweet for the Granger family, or so it seems before their lives are turned upside by Caily's fall. They're a tight-knit bunch with twin sisters, Kate and Beth, who both fell pregnant around the same time with daughters, Caily and Tegan. Now the girls are fifteen and have a close relationship similar to their twin mothers. But all is not as picture perfect as it first seems within this family. Cracks are beginning to show, catastrophic decisions have been made and livelihoods, and lives, have been put at risk.

Jensen has created an intriguing family dynamic for her characters. They're a multi-layered bunch with their own ideas and idiosyncrasies. I particularly warmed to Kate. I really felt for her as her relationship with her nearest and dearest began to fall apart. It was interesting to see bonds formed over many years change so drastically, so quickly.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Fall is a twisty, turny family-based thriller which I found full of intrigue and suspense. You really cannot go wrong with a book by Louise Jensen who continues to be one of my favourite, 'must read' writers. Jensen is a skilled storyteller who really understands how family dynamics, and people in general, work and is able to relay that to her reader in a compelling, relatable way. The entire book was hard to put down but the conclusion of The Fall was utterly hypnotic, edge-of-your-seat storytelling that I'm still reliving several days later. Shocking in the best way possible! All in all, I loved The Fall and I cannot wait to see what the author has in store for us next. Highly recommended.

Review will be published in damppebbles.com on Tuesday 2nd May 2023.

3.5 stars

This family-based thriller keeps you guessing with a number of separate strands of storyline all pulled together and tied off nicely by the end.

My issue was around the development of character and believability of some of the plot lines. There were also a few bits of polishing that would have helped elevate it a little, such as Mary’s character being described as in her early 60’s but later thinking back on 53 years of marriage. I know she’s meant to be a bit confused but her age did keep jumping around a bit.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This feels a very big book. A young girl has a fall and ends in a coma. Who could have caused this and why? This is a book with multiple layers and so many twists, it‘s very much like peeling the layers off an onion. Told from multiple points of views, which I feel helps the storyline. This had me hooked from the beginning and loved the story telling of it. So many surprises along the way, and oh so many secrets! Definitely recommended!

This was my first Louise Jensen book but definitely won‘t be my last. The book was set in the U.K. but through it I felt it could have easily been set in the US. Had to keep telling myself it wasn‘t.

An excellent ending to the book, but not without some tears along the way.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. #NetGalley

Two sisters both blessed with a daughter who are the best of friends both end up in trouble but in very different ways. What is the truth of the events following the birthday party. Just how tangled can a web be weaved.

This was such a twist filled ride. One minute you have a theory then bam another twist throws you off. I love how little I could figure out in this. It took me by surprise so many times. Its not a simple story but its not difficult to follow either. Its told through various characters POV which always gives a fuller plot. The ending was reallyy well done and I love how it all came together in the end. The characters are interesting and you're never sure who is being honest but I like that it isnt dragged out with the secrets,. They're revealed gradually through the story. A brilliant thriller.

I have mixed feelings about this book - I really enjoyed the storyline and the twists and turns kept me guessing to the end, however the writing style was hard to follow at times.

I really enjoyed The Fall. It was a complete rollercoaster of a story with so many twists, turns and red herrings that my head was in a spin and I did not want to put it down. A complete page turner and I would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for my ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARc. This was a good read. I like the use of the twin sisters in this story. This was very interesting to read and easy to want to pick up again when you come back to it. The story read like I was there which was good.

Twin sisters Kate and Beth have had an ideal childhood being brought up on their parent's, Patrick and Mary's farm. As they get older Kate and her husband Matt along with daughter Caily move in to run the farm. Beth and her husband Sean live in a rented house nearby with their daughter Tegan. Tegan and Caily have always been best friends and do everything together. They audition for a school play and Caily gets the star role (leading to Cyber-Bullying on social media) and practices go ahead ready for the big night.
A surprise 40th Birthday party is arranged in the large farm barn for Kate and Beth, everybody is having a good time and a big surprise for the sisters is a girl (Nicola) who the sisters have not seen since their schooldays when after an accident near the farm she disappeared with her mother . The day after the party was the final dress rehearsal for the play after school , however Caily heads home for some reason and is found in a coma under a bridge. Suspicions fall on members of the family and not everyone appears to be telling the truth about where they were at the time of the incident. Caily ends up in hospital and Kate is reluctant to leave her but she has suspicions about Matt and Beth. an unoccupied bar,n on the farm goes up in flames and it turns out the local rich gangster Victor has got some of the family under his control.Many unexpected twists and surprises as this story unfolds.

Kate has always been close to her twin sister, Beth. They’ve had each other’s back from early on, and their close relationship is shared by their respective daughters. Unfortunately, shortly after their fortieth party events take place that leave the family reeling.
Though she’s in line for the opportunity of a major scholarship, Cailly is uncomfortable with her upcoming role in the school show. Someone is trolling her and it’s sapping her confidence. However, when Cailly is found after falling from a local bridge it seems that there might be more to this.
Pretty quickly we learn that secrets are being kept. Some are quite easy to guess, and others are alluded to though we don’t recognise their significance until later. What’s quickly apparent is that the events surrounding the fall are going to impact on all those concerned, perhaps in ways that they can’t imagine.
There’s a lot going on here. Some of the events are more plausible than others and by the end I was struggling to take it all that seriously. However, it’s entertaining and definitely gets you trying to work out exactly whose secret is relevant and how they all combine.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this.

I am a huge fan of the author and this book certainly did not disappoint! There were occasions I realised I was holding my breath. Was gripped start to end! A must read

The fall is the catalyst to a tight-knit family unravelling. This was an expertly written, twisting thriller and I could not put it down. Another great piece of writing from Jensen.

This non-linear narrative details events leading up to Caily’s fall and the devastating aftermath. Told from a range of perspectives, readers get to intimately know the characters and their motives, and I found myself drawn to all the key players as it is evident that so many secrets lie under the surface of this family.

From the outside, it would seem that Kate Granger and her family are incredibly close. She and her twin sister have brought up their girls as close as themselves, to the point that Caily and Teagan could be mistaken for sisters. Living on the family farm, Mary and Patrick still have a significant role in everyone’s lives, even though they are retired from working on the family due to health issues. However, Jensen demonstrates from early on in the story that Teagan and Beth are a little outside from them all: living separately, short of money and Teagan’s father absent. It is not all the happy families that everyone perceives.

Caily’s accident causes this image of perfection to fall apart. Whilst she lies in a hospital bed, secrets swirl around her. Even her parents are not immune to this and I loved how cleverly Jensen gradually reveals the truth, demonstrating until the last pages that “everything is inextricably linked”. Through the use of flashbacks, we learn about the events leading up to Caily’s accident, plus all the other influences going on around her at the time. Yet, even in the present day, characters are not always honest with another and this lead to secrets just snowballing into one another.

This is reflected in the way Jensen structures her narrative. The chapters are incredibly short, creating a rather pacy read. At the same time, it reflects the disorientation and chaos that is building as each truth starts to cause cracks for the family. Furthermore, this is reflected by how the chapters end and begin very similarly, ultimately portraying the lack of control that the characters have over the situation, culminating in their eventual downfall.

A thrilling read from Jensen, I found the dynamics between the twin sisters and then cousins to be interesting to observe. They are almost of the same closeness yet there were some differences established across the generations. In addition, I especially liked the farm setting as Jensen reinforces the struggles faced by this working lifestyle: money is precarious and there is no room for error. The stresses of this are personified in Kate’s husband and I admired how he tries to protect his family from the reality of the situation.

I really enjoyed this story that was fast-paced and unpredictable. I relished in the layers of secrets being uncovered as this intricate web becomes more tightly woven, the more that is revealed.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Fall is a psychological thriller that I couldn’t put down. I feel like I’ve not read anything by Louise Jensen for ages as I love her style of writing. (I obviously have read all her books but it seems ages in between them!)
Kate and Beth are twins, they both have 15 year old daughters that get on like a house on fire, they love drama and are about to perform on stage at school in the latest show but on that day when they should have turned up for a run through before that nights performance Kate’s daughter is found unconscious having fallen off a bridge near their house. Was she pushed or did she jump and where was Beth’s daughter when this happened? So many unanswered questions puts the family on ground they’ve not been on before. Doubts about everyone start and cracks in the family appear.
This was a really good book, I liked how it had the same pace throughout, the characters were well formed and by the end I felt like I knew them really well. A good storyline that has a fair few twists and turns to keep you thinking.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This book started well for me with believable characters and an intriguing plot but I lost interest the more it progressed. It just didn't flow well and became more disjointed as more and more secrets were hinted at. There were too many random threads as if the author had thrown everything into the mix rather than filter them. There was debt, dementia, accidents, cyber bullying, threats, twin empathy, under age sex, fire, farming issues, first love, family life, pregnancy, drugs, jealousy and more. Every time one of the hinted secrets was revealed it added more to the mix. How much drama can happen to one family?
I liked the style of ending one chapter with the beginning of the following chapter at first but it became overused.
Could have been a good read but to me it lost its way.

(Note: I really struggled with the formatting of this ARC. The watermark was distracting, the dialogue was often fragmented, and there were missing ends of sentences throughout. It was quite stressful to persevere and I would have given up if I wasn't such a fan of the author. Sadly, it did affect my enjoyment but I have rated up as I know I would have loved this more had the ARC not been so messy. I will keep this out of my posted reviews in fairness to the author).

Jensen's previous book, All For You, was one of my favourite reads of last year, so I have been eager to read more by her. And her latest release, The Fall is another fast-paced and exhilarating read with an abundance of shocking twists, taking you on an absolute rollercoaster of heart-pounding thrills.

Each chapter ends with a little link to the following chapter, anticipating what's to come and adding more tension into the mix. I thought this was a great narrative technique, making you question the various points of view you are reading from, never knowing who is behind Caily's fall.

There's never a dull moment, and while I doubted where the story was going at one point, it soon whipped back around to catch me off guard and immediately grip my interest once again.

Although I did find the characters all rather unlikeable at the start, I really like how they began to come together at the end and the final few third is very compelling, so I soon found myself fully on their side.

Louise Jensen certainly knows how to take you on an immersive and adrenaline-pumping journey with her thrillers, and you definitely need to pick this one up if you like to be kept on your toes!

When Kate's teenage daughter Caily ends up in a coma after falling from a bridge, the police find that it was not an accident. Even worse, it appears that someone in their family is keeping devastating secrets and that not everyone wants Caily to wake up.

This book is so full of jaw-dropping twists that it will have you hooked to the very last page.

My favourite aspect of The Fall is the characters because they all have something unique to offer. The relationships between them are fascinating and really well-written.

I also really enjoyed that the story is told from many different character perspectives. With every chapter you learn a little more and gradually uncover all of the hidden secrets. As soon as I finished one chapter I was racing on to the next, devouring it in a single day.

A completely unpredictable psychological thriller that I couldn't put down.

Thank you NetGalley and HQ for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

3.5 🌟
This is the hardest review I’ve ever had to write because I absolutely love Louise and her books, she is a fantastic writer with the most incredible imagination, I just sadly didn’t take to this book as much as I have with her others.

Kate and her twin sister celebrate turning 40, but the next day tragedy strikes and Kates's teenage daughter Caily is found underneath a bridge. Did she fall or was she pushed?

Caily lies in a coma whilst we follow her mum and other family members through the story as the police try to work out what happened!

I feel the story was really slow-paced until about 70/80% and that is when all the action happened. I did enjoy this more fast-paced part of the book near the end but I think sadly by then I didn’t care much for the characters and I didn’t really like the outcome. I also struggled with the last line of a chapter being repeated in some way in the first line of the next chapter. I wasn’t keen on this.

I think I also struggled a bit as I’ve read a book before with the same storyline about a girl falling from a bridge and being in a coma during the story. Had I read this one before the other one it may have held my attention more.

Please understand that this is my personal opinion and I’m sure I’m in the minority with my views. I really did dread the day I wouldn’t love a book by one of my favourite authors. I did still enjoy the twists and turns and I honestly didn’t see the ending coming. It is very cleverly thought out and just shows how creative Louise is.

Please don’t hate me 🙈 I’m still looking forward to reading more of Louise’s books in the future and I’m sure I’ll love them and that this was just a blip for me.

Kate & Beth are identical twins and their daughters Caily & Tegan are best friends.
The story begins with a surprise 40th birthday party for the twins on the family farm. After thus, the story really takes off with many twists and turns along the way (as I have come to expect from this author).
In my opinion this is the best I have read by this author
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this advance read.

What a book, You think you know your family, but there might be many hidden secrets.

The Fall is a psychologist thriller with great characters and a great setting. Twin sisters, Beth and Kate have each got a daughter, they are in the school play when Kates daughter Caisie has a fall and ends up in a coma. Who pushed her and why?

It’s edge of your seat reading with a twist at the end, that I didn’t see coming.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.