Her Guilty Secret: An absolutely gripping page-turner about friendship and secrets

· Bookouture
4.8
5 reviews
Ebook
350
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

“Just brilliant. I loved this book... Addictive, fast paced, packed with twists, this one had me absolutely transfixed. I did not want it to end.” NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


“Let’s play truth or dare, for old times’ sake…”


I reluctantly agree, silently praying none of my three oldest friends gets the chance to ask me a truth. There is so much I’ve been keeping from them. Just for this weekend, for our long-awaited college reunion, I want to put all that aside and have some fun.


But it wasn’t my secrets I should have been worried about. It was theirs.


When Ada draws truth, she can’t meet my eye. “Ivy…” she begins and then stops. Before saying something that I immediately wish she could take back.


But of course she can’t, not now.


The worst thing is no one else seems as shocked. I realise they have let me think I was to blame all these years. Perhaps I never knew my closest friends to begin with. Maybe we were never actually friends all…


A gripping, emotional drama about the complexities of friendship and what truly lies beneath the image of a perfect life. Fans of Liane Moriarty, Kerry Fisher and Sally Hepworth will be hooked from the very first page.


What readers are saying about Emily Cavanagh:


FANTASTIC… PERFECT weekend read… LOVED… I am sooooo sad it's over.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


WOW!… Loved… Will be telling everyone about it!” NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


“Absolutely loved this book… 5 stars from me!!” Bookstagramshaz, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


I absolutely loved this book… I could not tear myself away… If I could give it more than 5 stars I would.” Once Upon A Time Book Blog, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Gripping page turner with a twist. This instantly pulled me in… I just had to finish and find out what happened.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Hooked me on the first page… This book grabbed me… I read it in two sittings.” The World Is Ours to Read, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


A page-turner… Nothing was as it seemed, and everyone had something to hide… I was hooked from the first page.” Lu Reviews Books


“Secrets and families, love, loss and betrayal… Loved, loved, loved this book.” Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ratings and reviews

4.8
5 reviews
Kathleen Hughes
February 12, 2021
Four friends have planned a getaway weekend on Cape Cod. Ivy, Elise, Libby and Ada have been friends since they met in college twenty years ago. They have kept touch by phone calls and occasional visits but all are looking forward to reconnecting on this long weekend. That doesn’t happen right away. The four women show as much of themselves as they want to be seen. Elise, married to a corporate lawyer and mother to three children, is the wealthiest and the super organizer of the group. It is at her luxurious Cape Cod vacation home where the reunion takes place. Ada, now on maternity leave, has a supportive, loving husband and is an attentive mother to a nine month old son, born when she was forty. Libby is a widow, trying to balance a return to a social life with the needs of her young daughters. Ivy is a free spirit. She’s married to an artist, has two teenage children, and is an aspiring jewelry designer. On the surface, all these things are true. It is what’s hidden under the surface that drives the plot of Her Guilty Secret. At the conclusion, there are no more secrets. The women have learned that communication and truth have only made their relationships with each other and with their own families stronger. Problems may not be neatly solved but the future looks brighter to them all. This is an enjoyable, emotional read about a long friendship. 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Emily Cavanagh for this ARC.
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Marnie Harrison
February 17, 2021
I absolutely loved Emily Cavanagh’s previous novel Everybody Lies, (which still plays around in my head) so I couldn’t wait for her next release. When the opportunity presented itself, I couldn’t jump any higher at the chance to read an advanced copy. Was the magic still there that I loved in Everybody Lies?… Yes it was! Her Guilty Secret is a well plotted tale that delves deep into the friendship between Elise, Ivy, Libby and Ada, as they navigate their own lives whist trying to hang on to the friendship they shared during their university days. A weekend away to reconnect is just what they need to escape their everyday lives but, it could well end up tearing them all apart. Each chapter is told via the perspective of each of the women and gives great insight into who they were and who they have become. Each dealing with the hands that have been dealt as topics of motherhood, deceit, lies, grief, death, divorce, postpartum depression, are covered in detail. To quote from the book “Life had ground them down too, yet here they all were, still intact, still some version of themselves, even if not entirely who they’d once been”. As the title teases, I was eagerly awaiting to find out “the secret” and from whom it was going to come from but, when it was finally revealed, I was surprised to realise that it wasn’t the secret that was the pillar that held this story up, it was the story of friendship that did. Her Guilty Secret has been beautifully written and the pages just turn themselves. It made me think of my own friendships from high school. One in particular that lasted for a number of years since that time but, eventually faded away as our lives took different paths. Some things you are better off letting go but, still having the fond memories remain. Emily Cavanagh has done an outstanding job with this book. Addictive and thought provoking, it will certainly have you caught up and invested in the story and its characters. It was an absolute pleasure to read and review Her Guilty Secret, which I highly recommend.
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Pam Cavanagh
February 20, 2021
Emily Cavanagh has done it again! This page turner tells the story of four women, college roommates twenty years prior, as they gather for a weekend together. Ms. Cavanagh weaves together their stories as they try to recapture the intimacy they once shared, while dealing with issues they now encounter as adult women, from postpartum depression to parenting adolescents to marital discord and economic instability. The author develops each of her characters so artfully and sensitively that we feel for them viscerally and root for their happiness. Lurking in the background is a long kept secret that has changed the lives of each of them.
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