This is very fast paced! There are no other words to describe this book except WOW! I definitely loved the ending - wasn't expecting that!

Thanks netgalley and Joanne Ryan for this great mystery book with loads of twists and turns guessed some but not all of them.
Carrie a trust fund baby lived with her best friend Carrie they had been friends for.many years and Carrie looked after her in many ways.
On a bright sunny day Mia saw her ex boyfriend in the street, but that was impossible as Mia had shot him and Carrie had got rid of the body as she had contacts on the dark web. What is happening and why is marco.not dead.
It is down to.MIA to work out what has happened is she going mad.

Never guessed the ending good story e joyed it.

This was a solid read. There were some slow points, but the twists at the end were unexpected and so good! There was good buildup throughout and the ending was full of twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, I found out I was wrong.

My attention was grabbed from the first few lines and I couldn't wait to get to the end to find out what happened. I flew through this quick and compelling thriller. This was my first book by this author but it definitely won't be my last.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

This novel is a psychological thriller giving me mixed feelings until I was closer to the end. It has a lot of action yet at times I felt it drug on or over explained in parts. But the ending I did and didn't see coming. There is deception, betrayal, twists, murder, secrets, and more. The story is written in one point of view. It was a quick read and entertaining with an ending that gives the story justice. I give a 3.5 stars and will try another by this author.
Thank you to the publisher for an ARC copy of this title through NetGalley in exchange of my honest review.

Unfortunately I didn't connect with this book and found it to be trying a bit too hard at times. The premise if the story was good but I didn't like the characters.

Mia feels she is seeing things and becoming slightly unhinged when she keeps catching a glimpse of her ex-boyfriend, yet it can’t be him as she killed him…. right? He best friend Carrie is the only one who knows what happened that night and helped cover it up, like a true friend she was there for Mia, but yet I didn’t really take to Carrie.

The story was a bit slow at time and repetitive, but it added to thrill of getting to the bottom of what was happening to Mia. This book was twisty for sure but that ending…. I may have predicted elements throughout but I was not expecting that turn of events at the end!

Rich and privileged Mia Enderby allows best friend Carrie to live rent-free in her own apartment. Eight months ago, Mia killed her abusive boyfriend Marco in self-defence after a horrible altercation. Luckily for her, Carrie called some people from the Dark Web and made the body, and the problem, disappear. Mia has no idea how the body was disposed of. And all she needed to do was fork out 25,000 pounds.

Now Mia is exploring a relationship with Sebastian, her boss at the art gallery where she works to keep herself busy. When she begins to spot Marco almost everywhere she goes, and begins to experience strange delusions and hallucinations, she begins to question her sanity.

The book, written in the first person past tense PoV of Mia Enderby, is a quick read. But the writing wasn’t very exciting. The book needed better and more professional proofreading.

One quote that stood out for me”

Opposites may initially attract but they don’t work.

A lot of the action comes to us through Mia’s thoughts. Very little appears to be live action. This affects the pace and leads to a flagging of our interest. The internal monologue is definitely overdone.

All the usual tropes are here: a protagonist who drinks too much and loses time, large blocks of it, and thinks she is losing her mind.

None of the characters were even remotely likeable, except for Sebastian, but Mia doesn’t really care for him, and that affects us in turn. Mia herself is very entitled, taking pride in her wealth and beauty. She keeps stressing that she has so much money, she doesn’t need to work.

The friendship between Mia and Carrie is a strange one. One wonders what to make of it. Between them, the characters appear to be like warnings to us, actors in a morality play, warning us about the consequences of wrong behaviour.

With a title like Keep Your Friends Close, you think you know what to expect. And, of course, the main premise is predictable. But the twist that follows goes a long way towards causing you to pause and think.

The gaslighting of this book… I found myself not being able to trust a single thing that happened.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the tension and the ending was something I was not expecting at all which is so fantastic because I felt that a lot of the book felt predictable. I actually had to put it down for a bit to stare at a wall because THAT ENDING?

Overall, this was a fun read and I would to check out more works by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book is crazy, it had me hooked from the very first page and I don't think I will forget this in a hurry. Carrie and Mia are best friends who share a deadly secret, the twists and turns took my breath away and was constantly doubting the narrative and I found myself flying through this book at breakneck speed. I love a dark, edgy thriller with complex characters and mind bending narratives. I will definitely read more from this author as I love the writing style and character development so much.

Keep Your Friends Close was my first introduction to Ryan's books and I have to say what a brilliant book I chose to start on...

It has some clever characters..I definitely wouldn't be wanting any of them as my friends though.

The pace was locked in at fast from beginning to end, there were so many twists and so much drama, and the ending blew me away, I had no idea it was coming!

It's enjoyable, entertaining and the plot addictive.

If there's one thing that I like doing, it's discovering new authors. Joanne Ryan is certainly a new author for me. I read the synopsis for 'Keep Your Friends Close' and it certainly sounded like the sort of psychological thriller that I particularly enjoy at the moment. I couldn't wait to dive in and so without further ado, I grabbed a cup of tea, grabbed my Kindle and settled down for what proved to be an interesting afternoon of reading. Overall I did enjoy reading 'Keep Your Friends Close' but more about that in a bit.

I have to be honest and say that I didn't particularly take to either of the main characters who are called Mia and Carrie, who are best friends. They went through a shared experience and both have kept the secrets of what happened during the experience. Their bond has got stronger over time. It could just be that I have read too many psychological thrillers and I believe nobody and suspect everybody. There was just something about the pair of them that set off little alarm bells for me. Not taking to the characters isn't necessarily a bad thing because it means that I have a more open mind and don't favour one over the other.

It didn't take me long at all to get into 'Keep Your Friends Close'. In fact by the time I got to the end of the first few pages, I knew that I would become addicted to the story and that it would prove increasingly difficult to put the book down for any length of time. I was spot on too. I developed my own theories as to how the story was going to pan out and so I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I had wandered off in the opposite direction. My Kindle wasn't exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me. I couldn't bear to miss a single second of the story. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. I was so wrapped up in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the book. All too quickly I reached the end of 'Keep Your Friends Close'. I found 'Keep Your Friends Close' to be a tense, gripping and somewhat dramatic read, which certainly kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

'Keep Your Friends Close' is extremely well written. The author certainly knows how to grab the reader's attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a read and then some. For me, this was more of a slow burn type of story. The story started slow but as the level of tension increased, the pace gathered momentum leading to a tense and dramatic conclusion. The characters are realistically and vividly described and really do feel as real as you and I. I love the way in which the author makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action. Reading 'Keep Your Friends Close' felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.

In short, I really enjoyed reading 'Keep Your Friends Close' and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Joanne's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

BLOG TOUR REVIEW



Review for 'Keep Your Friends Close' by Joanne Ryan.



Read and reviewed for Netgalley, Joanne Ryan, Boldwood, Book And Tonic, The Bold Book Club and Rachel's Random resources.



Publication date 25th January 2024.



This is the first book I have read by this author but I am definitely looking forward to reading more of her work!


This novel consists of a prologue and 28 chapters. The chapters are short in length so easy to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!



This book is very well written and had me hook, line and sinker from beginning to end. The descriptions were so in depth and vivid that the hair on my arms was standing on the ends and my heart was pounding throughout. The synopsis, title and cover were perfect for the storyline.



This book is a dark, intriguing and mysterious psychological thriller that grips your attention from the dark prologue all the way to the last page!! It is one of those books that will keep you guessing and wondering who, if anyone, you can trust. The storyline is told in first person perspective with the main protagonist being Mia. Immediately she tells us that she has killed her ex-boyfriend Marco. Luckily for her she is best friends with Carrie who will help her any time and that included getting rid of the body. Mia starts questioning her sanity when she starts seeing her ex boyfriend alive as how can she see him alive when she knew she killed him?? What is going on and who can Mia trust? This book leaves you questioning everyone along with, and including Mia. It is filled with friendship, drama, suspense, deceit, tension, twists and more. The further you get into the book and the more you find out the darker it all gets until the mind blowing ending. I did not see that one coming so a huge well done Joanne. It is getting harder and harder to surprise me after reading hundreds of crime and thriller books but you definitely managed it!! Joanne's evocative descriptions ensures you see everything come to life as you turn the pages from the surroundings to the characters and it will have your heart jumping along with them. I must admit that I was not a fan of the characters, especially Mia, as I just found them to be unlikeable and snobby in several cases. This made it hard to connect or emphasise with them which is the reason that I have had to give this book a 4/5 rather than 5/5. Regardless of disliking the characters I still enjoyed the book which I devoured in one sitting so would definitely recommend it and I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by this author.


Overall a mysterious and dark psychological thriller!!!



234 pages.



This book is just 99p to purchase on kindle, free with kindle unlimited and £9.99 in paperback (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!


Rated 4/5 (I enjoyed it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.


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Keep Your Friends Close, by Joanne Ryan, is a new psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end of the story. The basic premise is Mia, our narrator, killed her boyfriend in a semi-violent altercation. At least, she thought she killed him because suddenly he started appearing in random places. Is he dead and haunting her, or, is he still alive and out for revenge? Either way, things do not bode well for Mia.

As the narrative unfolds, we learn that Mia lives with her childhood friend, Carrie, in a flat in one of the better neighborhoods in London. While Mia inherited a substantial fortune, Carrie comes from a working-class background and constantly resents Mia’s wealth. We discover when Mia shoots her boyfriend, Marco, it is Carrie whom she calls for help. It seems that Carrie handled getting rid of the body and covering up Mia’s crime. [This is not a spoiler, we find this out at the beginning of the novel and it is the premise.]

Fast forward to Mia’s life which seems a bit, well, meaningless. She has a job as an assistant in an art gallery but doesn’t enjoy it. She starts sleeping with the owner, her boss, and she doesn’t care if she gets fired or needs to quit because she has enough money to fix any situation. Conversely, Carrie is constantly gone, working all hours in her accounting job, scrimping and saving, and if we are going to be honest, freeloading off Mia. She doesn’t pay rent.

Mia starts to have blackouts, panic attacks, and other disturbing mental episodes in her life. She doesn’t understand what is happening and once she finds out, let’s say, she rises to the occasion. She doesn’t know who her friends are and most definitely does not know who her enemies are. She doesn’t seem to have a great grip on reality as we move through her life.

The book, most interesting, is a condemnation of the evils of money—earned or unearned. It doesn’t matter if it is about greed by people who have less money, or an ungrateful attitude by the recipients of inherited wealth. Either situation can bring ruin to anyone, and in this book, there are a lot of lessons never learned. Just a note, some psychological thrillers end by wrapping the events up nicely and restoring order to the world. This isn’t one of them. Reader be warned.

Thank you Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow this really was a messed up tale about friendship and relationships. Your best friend is the one who will do anything for you and sometimes even do the unthinkable to save you and Mia has that but is everything as it seems and can she trust that she is being told the truth. I loved the twist at the end as well a very dark story but a great read.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This one was hard to get through and I almost gave up a few times. It really just kept dragging on and didn't pick up until about 80 through. I was able to figure everything out early in the book which is unusual for me. It did have a few twists at the end. Overall, it was just okay for me. It got old with the main character always talking about how rich she was and how beautiful too.

This was a fast paced book which I liked. It started with a really good opening and ending am with a plot twist.

This is a fast-paced and easy read with a lot of drama to keep the reader engaged. It centers on Mia, and the whole book is told from her POV. Mia killed her last boyfriend in self-defense but now keeps thinking she sees him everywhere. She can’t decide whether she is losing her mind or whether he has come back from the grave to get revenge.

While the story is fast paced, I almost immediately figured out who the villain was and had most of the twists also figured out before I was halfway through the book. That being said, the stuff that happens to Mia is really creepy and it was fun to read, and the ending threw me for a total loop with multiple twists. Most of the characters in the book were unlikable and I couldn’t figure out if the reader was supposed to be rooting for Mia or not.

Overall, fast and fun read but it did feel a little predictable to me. I don’t mind a book full of unlikable characters but I know some people do. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't read this book fast enough it starts with a bang and ends with a bang the ending was unexpected loved it

I love the psychological thrillers. It's always a race for me to figure out the clues, but Joanne Ryan did an excellent job of masking the clues so well, I did not see them. These two friends disposed of evidence, they thought no one could ever find out....were they right? The title, KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, suggests that maybe her best friend was not as close as she thought, but is that a clue? You'll have to read the book.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and I was pleasantly surprised at all the twists and turns. Mia experiences serious gaslighting when it comes to seeing her ex boyfriend Marco. This was a very quick read for me because I didn’t want to stop reading. I felt I was watching the story unfold. A very good psychological thriller.