I was so excited to read this book and it certainly didn’t disappoint. I loved it! I’ve read all of this author’s other books but this is definitely my favourite so far.
I was drawn in really quickly and loved the fast paced writing style that came with plenty of twists. It’s more than worthy of 5 stars!

This book was great! So many twists and turns and I never predicted the ending. The end gives me the vibe that a sequel is coming and I can’t believe how evil one minor character is (I won’t give it away!) - so cleverly written and seamlessly linked plot. Loved my first book from A J McDine !

Great plot, but I didn't care for the ending. I didn't warm to the main character and she struck me as stupid. If you like psychological thrillers, you may like this one.

Everyone Has Secrets AJ McDine

Everyone Has Secrets by AJ McDine is a fast paced unputdownable psychological thriller. This is my first time reading a book by this author and it will definitely not be my last. The first paragraph of the book had me hooked and sucked me in to the very end.

“One phone call. That’s all it took for my life to implode. Like a storm ripping through a quiet street, the call upended everything, leaving chaos in its wake.”

Eve lives with her husband Noah, and their 16 year old son Joe, in a beautifully renovated Vicarage in a quaint British village called South Langley. Life is close to perfect for Eve. She has a beautiful family, a great job, the home of her dreams and a best friend who lives across the street with her 16 year old daughter Annie. What’s even better is that Annie and Joe are best friends too.

Joe’s 16th birthday is approaching and he begs his parents to allow him to have an adult free celebration at their family home. With pressure from both her husband and son, Eve reluctantly agrees. Eve feels a small sense of peace knowing that the very responsible Annie will be at the party, and she and her husband Noah will be just across the street at Lisa ‘s house. Just a phone call and a hop, skip and a jump away. Eve trusts Joe and assures herself that nothing could go wrong. But then she gets a phone call that will change it all.

Seriously, I cannot stress enough how excellent this book is. It was clearly well thought out and cleverly written. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers and a page turning read then you should definitely add this book to your tbr. I cannot wait to get my hands on AJ McDines backlist. I will surely devour each and every one of her books.

Thank you Bookouture and Netgalley for my e-arc of Everyone Has Secrets by AJ McDine. It was an easy 5 star ⭐️ read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve liked previous books by AJ but this one fell short for me and it was a struggle to finish. I did keep going because I was hoping it would improve but somehow the storyline held initial promise and yet fell flat. I feel disappointed because I know the author could have written this in a more compelling, interesting way but there was no sense of thrill or mystery or even justification for all the things done wrong that characters kept getting away; with including Eve most of all. This felt rushed and missing the depth and connection to what has made me enjoy previous works by the author. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for letting me read an arc in exchange for my review; I wish I had enjoyed it more.

This is my first book by A J MCDINE.
Everyone Has Secrets did not disappoint.
Its a twisty domestic thriller.
I will definitely read another book by this author.

This is my third book of A J McDine. I loved The Baby and The Photo, so was really excited to read this one! Thanks Netgalley for approving my request and providing the ARC!
This is quite a slow burn and not quite like a usual thriller! It's about how far a mother can go to save her child. This is not to say this book was boring or not quite gripping! On the contrary, I could not put it down! I loved the author's style of writing and the development of characters and the twist at the end 😯

I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book from the author.

A.J. McDine is an auto author for me and I will always read her books!

This novel is about family and friendship and is blood thicker than water? I read this book in 24 hours, it's a fast paced page turner and I wanted to know if Annie would survive and what really happened at the teenagers party that night, while the parents were across the green enjoying some wine together.

I feel like this is one of a parent's nightmares - you allow your sensible 16 year old to have some friends round, you're seconds away if something happens, yet the evening still ends in police and ambulances. Then there is the former wife and stepson who both seem pretty unpleasant and intent on making life more difficult. Also a great insight into blended families, favouritism, how to treat the children equally despite circumstances now being different.

My favourite quote:

"...Guilt has hovered in the wings of our marriage like an understudy desperate for his big break."

WOW! This book had me addicted from the very beginning. What starts out as a 16 year old boy celebrating his birthday quickly escalates into a game of whodunit. You’ll think you’ve figured everything out just to realize you’ve got it all wrong. At the end of the day, we all have secrets. Who can you trust?

How well do you really know the people you love the most? Cancel all plans while reading - I inhaled this amazing book over one weekend and resented everything that kept me away from it! The writing was top notch and the characters were very real.

Everyone has secrets was a great book with a TON of secrets. I was so intrigued by each chapter and all the secrets that were being told in this book. The plot was interesting to read and it kept catching my attention. It was an easy read and it kept me guessing all throughout the book. Just when I thought I had it figured out there was something else that was more and more shocking as I read through each chapter. Amazing read. This is a book you’ll definitely want to but on your TBR list.

The book lives up to its title! Everyone in this story has secrets and some of them will do anything to keep them from coming to light. There is a large cast of characters, but not so many you get confused. The story centers around best friends Eve and Lisa, and their teenage kids. When Eve’s son wants to celebrate his birthday with an unsupervised party, Eve is apprehensive, but her husband reminds her nothing can go wrong, until it does. Eve is called with news of an emergency at her home involving Annie, Lisa’s daughter. With Annie’s life in the balance, Eve is determined to find out what happened.

There is a lot going on in the story, with everything tying together in the end and everyone’s secrets coming out all along the way. It’s also a story that tests the women’s friendship. While I always try to put myself in the situation with story lines like this, I can’t say that I would have had the same feelings the characters ended with, but it was a quick suspense that’s good for an afternoon read.

👍🏻 PROS 👍🏻
- reads just like a British crime limited series, so that’s exactly how it played out in my mind
- No waiting around for the drama, it happens right away
- Personal growth of the main character
- Decent twists

👎🏻 CONS 👎🏻
- the husband is such a jerk to the wife and she never even retorts. I hate reading things like that
- SO many characters, and many are just there to be red herrings so even if you manage to remember who they are, they disappear
- Loose ends! Many questions remain, many stories not given an end, many problems not resolved.
- Wildly unrealistic interactions
- Drama for the sake of drama, but in a telling way and not a showing way.

First, thank you to NetGalley, author AJ McDine and Bookotoure publishing for the ARC and opportunity to review this book.

I’m normally a big fan, but I have to be honest and say this book fell well below my expectations of this author. I feel is just dragged on and on with filler nothing really gripping or suspenseful. I almost DNF a few times sadly.

The plot was good, it was realistic in the sense that this absolutely could happen to teenagers. The police were made to look incompetent and there really was no focus on an investigation other than a a godmother was a god complex! 🤷‍♀️

I did not like the main female character. I felt she was annoying and childish. I had many an eye roll moment and that should not be in a psych thriller book.

I feel this plot had so much potential and the author could have taken it so much further and it could have been a 5 star. Add more character development, probe further into a real investigation, Billy’s character could have been developed so much more!

In my opinion, this book fell short of this authors normal ratings from me. I will still read more by this author because we all have ‘bad days’ and ‘one offs’

3⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is the 3rd book by A J McDine that I’ve read this year, and I already have another one waiting on my TBR list because, let’s be honest... they’re really good! 🤩 One of the strongest points for me is her female lead characters—not only are they relatable and likeable, but they’re also quite level-headed and don’t rush into dumb decisions.

Like in her previous books, the writing style is engaging, the dialogue sounds natural, the characters feel genuine, and nothing is too far-fetched. I always wanted to keep reading to find out which secrets everyone is hiding.

I won’t spoil anything, but this one deals with some strong themes, including drug use and a very honest take on the highs and lows of parenthood. There’s a spot-on description of children’s night terrors that even gave me goosebumps—who knows, knows! 😓

5 stars for this fast-paced, page-turner domestic thriller and for a fantastic writer who has quickly become one of my favourites!

Holy Cheezits, Bookouture canNOT put out a bad book! Everyone Has Secrets is one of the latest must read thrillers on the market. Don't sleep on this one, folks! Highly recommend for book groups and will purchase for libraries.

WOW Everyone Has Secrets a psychological thriller by A J MCDine was an edge of the seat read which I could not put down.

Eve Noah and their son Joe live in one of the most envied homes in the village of Langley and Eve is making ready for Joe's sixteenth birthday celebrations. Noah suggests that Joe is old enough to have a few of his friends round to celebrate and Eve and Noah would stay across the street at the home of Eve's best friend Lisa who is a widow and has a daughter called Annie who is also Eve's Goddaughter whom Eve adores and treats like her own daughter.

Eve has doubts that Joe and his friends should be allowed to be unsupervised but Noah insists that everything will be fine.

Eve receives an urgent phone call from Joe to come over to the house where she finds Annie on her kitchen floor struggling to breathe and is rushed to hospital where she will be fighting for her life.

The party is over and Eve is on a mission to find out what really happened to Annie but who can she trust, who is lying and who is hiding what really happened to Annie who is now in a coma in hospital.

There are a lot of red herrings in the midst of this thriller and the truth will out.

I am curious to see if there is to be a sequel to Everyone Has Secrets as the ending hinted that someone had revenge on their mind.

Well this book doesn’t disappoint. It tells the sad tale of two friends who have raised their children together but when one of their children ends up in a coma after taking a drug at the others birthday party it looks like the friends will be torn apart forever. Who was responsible for giving Annie the drugs and could Eve’s son be more involved than she can bare to think. As she tries to rescue her friendship and find out the truth about what happened that night she is also dealing with a husband who is keeping secrets from her and fears her marriage may also be in trouble. Don’t miss this great read with characters that stick with you long after the book ends and makes you ask your own questions about what you would do if the unthinkable happened.

Everyone Has Secrets is a drama-filled, suspenseful novel that dives into some of the hardships and obstacles of family, friends, and community. While the book is described as a psychological thriller, I do not agree. The book mainly focuses on the trauma of loss in a family and the danger of drugs in a community and among teens. I found the book to be quite uncomfortable at times (which, I'm sure, was the goal). I almost stopped reading at multiple points because I just didn't really care who was at fault. The whole story was just overly depressing. I also did not find the end satisfying at all; no one was held accountable for their actions. I was more angry at the end than happy to have read the book. Everyone Has Secrets was definitely not a book for me.

I always love this authors book and wow this was no exception. I absolutely loved everything about it the suspense the twist and turns amazing thriller with a bit of everything murder, drugs lies and a whole lot more. Eve lives with her husband and teenage son she lives across from her best friend and goddaughter so both family are really close so when her son throws a party Eve thinks it will be fine until she is called to say you need to come home now. With her goddaughter life now hanging in the balance Eve needs to dig in to what happened at the party but by doing so she may be putting herself and everyone else in danger. Some people will do anything to keep their secrets hidden.

This was one of my favourite thrillers from this author. I loved the writing style the character development and fast pace. I will definitely be recommending this fantastic thriller to everyone. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this excellent book.