Rebecca Drake

Talk about a suspenseful read with complex characters, a twisted storyline, and my absolute favorite quality in a suspenseful thriller, unreliable narrators. Four close friends leave behind their suburban wife titles when someone from their circle dies and letters start showing up in their mail boxes. With a storyline similar to Big Little Lies, Just Between Us is a domestic thriller that hooked me from the very first page.

"A part of me needed to believe her."

You always know, the minute you show more pick up a book about a set of friends or a cute, suburban area, that there will be plenty of secrets and lies within its pages. At first, nothing seems that outrageous, any person would want their friend out of a harmful relationship, but it gets increasingly more complicated when the four women join together to hide something. The book is written in the perspectives of Alison, Julie, Sarah, and Heather. In many ways they are similar women; they are mothers, they are wives, and they share a passionate love of coffee and girl time. While I didn't connect with the women ever, I was immediately drawn in to their individual stories and their varying perspectives on the situation they found themselves in. It was very suspenseful, with several plotlines that I could definitely see happening in real life and twists that upped the intrigue. Though parts of the novel didn't seem plausible, I easily passed over those moments due to my curiosity and the desire to know whodunit. I never could have guessed the end, not until every hand was revealed, so that was certainly the best part of Just Between Us.

"There are secrets in every marriage. This is my secret."

Just Between Us is made for those readers who are fascinated by the mysteries that can haunt the everyday person. The wives, the unsuspecting husbands, the secrets between friends are all the things that made this book so interesting. The character interactions in this book and the backwards character development, discovered by the unraveling secrets, will keep any reader turning the pages.


ARC provided via Netgalley. show less

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

Alison, Sarah, Julie, and Heather, four mothers and friends living in the suburbs, seem to have perfect lives. But underneath each of their veneers are secrets and lies, hidden until one becomes too big to handle and envelops them all. Each must decide how far they are willing to go to protect their friends and the lives they have created.

This is show more a very suspenseful book. There's a slow, chilling build up that keeps you flipping pages, knowing something big and terrible is coming. Drake does a very nice job with foreshadowing, dropping little bits of information throughout the text that makes you think you know what's going on, before she turns it all on its head.

I had a hard time really liking or connecting with the main characters. I just got really frustrated with some of the choices they were making, and with what I was guessing about their true characters and motivations.

This is definitely a gripping story with a lot of suspense, twists, and turns. I may not have loved the characters for the people they were, but I was caught up in their story and had to find out what was going to happen to them. show less

“What if?”

A question that is human nature to ask, to think, normally followed by worrying, scary scenarios! And this is where this story begins, with Alison playing the “what-if” game. What if they hadn’t moved to Sewickley? What if she had never met Julie at preschool drop-off? If that hadn’t happened then the four women would likely to have never met and that one question that started it all would never have been asked “How did you get such a nasty bruise?”

Told from the show more four women’s points of view Alison is positive that Heather is being abused by her husband and raises her suspicions to the other women of their little group who remain unsure until things begin to escalate leaving no doubts. As Heather’s bruises and “accidents” become more serious they all become frightened for Heathers life, unless she left him the only other ending would be her husband ending her life.

As each woman lives in fear of receiving that phone call or that knock on the door informing them of Heather’s death, when it does come it is nothing like any of them had been expecting and changes all their lives in ways none had seen coming.

Heather isn’t the only member of their group that has been keeping secrets, they are all harbouring secrets that they would like to remain just that, a secret, but as things begin to spiral out of control secrets are dragged out into the light bringing suspicion and doubt with them.

How far you will go for those you love?

Brimming with suspense that increases with the plot twists it is a story of friendship, trust and loyalty asking the questions “How well do you really know those you love?” and “How far you would be prepared to go to protect those people?” This book will keep you turning pages to find out the answers to the main question, “What happens next?”

A really great read for fans of Liane Moriarty and B.A. Paris.

Grab your copy now from Amazon UK or Amazon.com Glass of wine optional 😂🍷

Many thanks to the author Rebecca Drake, publishers St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest, independent review. show less

I guess you should probably get to know your friends better...

This was a wholly entertaining read, if you can suspend your disbelief just a tad and get into it. I'm not quite sure that a group of friends would get themselves in THIS much hot water for one other friend, but maybe I'm just missing friends like this.
BUT the friendships in this book - let's be HONEST - are built on lies and a lot of superficiality, and that's the point. In a tiny town where appearances matter, four friends start show more to have concern that one of them is being physically abused. Their natural tendency to gossip and gather around the friend with all the drama going on, ends up leading this little foursome into a very tense and complicated tangle of lies and deceit on behalf of their battered friend, and in the end, they're left wondering if it was worth it. And to a very unexpected ending.
Domestic and physical abuse isn't a subject to be trifled with, and in this novel in particular, the plot actually may make some readers who are extremely sensitive to how the topic is used in writing, a little unnerved and upset, so I just want to point that out. Other subjects that may be difficult to come across in this novel are sexual abuse and miscarriage, but these are not addressed in detail and are not the focus of the book.
The author Rebecca Drake cleverly uses the different characters' voices and perspectives for the chapters, alternating the viewpoints of the narrative for the reader. And then just when you think these girls are going to be able to roll out one more 'great idea', something else goes disastrously badly. One quote in the book is quite perfect, and they should have kept it in mind, 'But life so rarely goes according to plan.' You've got that right.
Overall, solid, nerve-wracking thriller!

*I was able to read an early digital copy of this, thanks to NetGalley. Thank you! show less