A book about a family who all have their own secrets and anxieties. Ruby the teenage daughter hates her parents with a passion, she is bullied at school and not allowed to see the only person who cares about her. She tries to tell her parents what is going on but they don't listen, too wrapped up in their own problems and secrets. What happens when everything comes to a head. Who causes the carnage that happens in the early hours of Christmas day?

Her Last Secret very much deals with the way people portray themselves, how they often wear a mask and hide their innermost feelings and turmoil. And also, the effect a web of lies, deceit and secrets can have on a family.

This psychological thriller is taut with suspense and intrigue. It’s quite dark, often disturbing and at times also incredibly sad. There’s an excellent and compelling plot which I thought was brilliantly constructed as we discover what happened in the week leading up to Christmas. This also leads to a rather long list of potential suspects and conclusions that kept me guessing until the end.

If Barbara Copperthwaite hadn’t already been on my list of go-to authors, she most definitely would be now! I thoroughly enjoyed this and I can’t wait for whatever she comes up with next.

apologies for not getting around to downloading and reviewing this book before it was archived.

My favorite type of mystery - lots of twists and turns, right up to the very end!!!

The seemingly perfect family isn't so perfect when you look inside. This book took a deep look inside this family's secrets and ended with a twist. What a great read.

Every Family has secrets. Especially the family that looks perfect from the outside.

The Thomases are the perfect family to anyone looking at their family. Ben Thomas is successful at his business, his wife Dominique is beautiful and smart. They have a beautiful home and two daughters, Ruby and "Mouse". What everyone doesn't know is that Dominique is unhappy and paranoid. Ben is unfaithful and deceitful. Ruby is misunderstood by everyone and being harassed. Mouse is quietly taking everything in and trying to keep the family at peace.

The big question is what happened on Christmas? Shots rang out, the police were called and the family was found lifeless and around the house. What caused this to happen? What secrets will have to be revealed to find the answers?

This was a good book. It started a little slow for me. There were plenty of twists and turns.

This is one of those books that you can picture the horrors right from the beginning but you need to find the how’s and why’s.

The Thomas family; Ben (Dad), Dom (mom), Ruby (eldest daughter) and Amber also known as Mouse; have far too many secrets and it is destroying the family. The story takes you back a week before the Christmas Day horrors occur and is told from each family members point of view. I liked that aspect of the story. It rolled out smoothly and was easy to jump around with each character without losing the storyline.

Everything starts boiling over and ends in tragedy on Christmas morning. I am not going to tell you what happened but the way it played out was a bit too much for me. All the loose ends were tied up but just too quickly for me so it made the end a bit much to swallow.

Otherwise, this was a good psychological thriller and kept me guessing. Which I quite enjoyed. I will definitely read something else from the author. Thank you NetGalley for my ARC for a fair and honest review.

Her last secret by barbara copperthwaite.
Christmas day and chef inspector paul agundele is on a call. A family's home. Gun shots fired. What will he find? Is the family still alive? Will we find out how it got this far? Who fired the gun?
Omg. What a read. Twists all the way through. Couldn't put it down. First I had 1 suspect then it got turnt around. Certainly didn't expect that. This is a must read and I would highly recommend this book. 5*.

HER LAST SECRET is a psychological thriller by author Barbara Copperthwaite. Barbara is the best-selling author of psychological thrillers INVISIBLE, FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, THE DARKEST LIES, and HER LAST SECRET. This is the 1st book I’ve read by Barbara Copperthwaite, but it won’t be my last. I have THE DARKEST LIES to read on my Kindle.
“A Lifetime can flash in a moment. A moment can last a lifetime.”
They were the perfect family. Successful businessman Ben Thomas and his wife Dominique live an enviable life, along with their beautiful children; teenager Ruby and quirky younger daughter, Mouse.
Ben had it all: the incredible career, the trophy wife, 2 daughters, an impressive home…but he also had a mistress! Double trouble!
So many secrets and lies…

But on Christmas Day the police are called to their London home, only to discover a horrific scene; the entire family lying lifeless, victims of an unknown assailant.

The opening chapters are devoted to the crime scene on Christmas day, and then the story goes back a week prior to Christmas day and the POV alternates between several of the main characters and builds up to the inevitable Christmas Day tragedy. All of these characters had a grudge/problem or desperation that could allow them to be the assailant.

But when Ruby’s diary is discovered, revealing her rage at the world around her, police are forced to look closer to home for the key to this tragedy.

This was a quick read that had me totally engrossed to find out, not only “WHO” but “WHY”?

Many thanks to Bookouture via Netgalley for my copy.

Thanks to netgalley for another brilliant read by a great author. In this book we meet a family that has a lot of conflict, but they don't talk to each other about it. Ruby is the character that has the biggest problems, and at the end of the day the one with the biggest secret, and this secret almost kills the whole family. Well done, and worth the effort.

You'll remember I had a good auld gush at The Darkest Lies by this author before (see review here), very much in shock at her amazing imagery, brilliant story-telling, chilling action and (stay with me) readable chick lit type everyday scenarios (I know, it just doesn't fit in there, and yet it's true!)

Well, not much has changed since! If you remember I was a blubbering mess at the end of the last book, with shock and spine tingles adjoining, and, after clocking a few of the reviews on this particular book, decided I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read. It turned out that this book did not make me cry like the last and so I could have read straight off, but I do know a number of other bloggers had said they did cry in it, and I can see why, I was just too taken with the action, so just letting you know!

So this book has two timelines, the run up to Christmas and Christmas day itself. We know that on Christmas day something has happened and are reeled in with the actions of the police, led by Chief Inspector Paul Ogundele (an excellent character, and one I wouldn't mind being revisited!) as they storm a too quiet suburban family home.

We are shot backward and forward between the lead up, which tells the story of the Thomas family, a family that has a lot of issues (I have never ever come across a family where there were so many thoughts of death!), the perfect mother who has secrets, the teen daughter, Ruby, whose angst is more than that, she is dealing with some pretty tough issues, and the father, Ben, who is 'The Man,' a businessman who has gotten to where he is with layers of lies.

I loved the everyday storytelling, and actually at times wished that it was chick lit, and that something horrible wasn't happening. This book is of course a whodunnit, but actually, the concern throughout is more for the build up as each of the characters get pushed and pushed, and it's more of a who's going to crack first! It's a tough read in places, and horrible, especially when you see that the youngest, Amber, is counting down to the big day, the day when Santa arrives. You are following the timelines so closely, with each visit to Christmas day catching you unawares, that when I got to Christmas day I almost held my breath, such was the expectation. And everything I could have imagined was delivered in one heck of an explosive event. The characters were excellent, and I can't tell you who my special mention is for, but lets just say my opinion of said person changed, although they were still a bit messed up when it came down to it! I loved this book, and it will, without doubt, be in my best ofs of 2017, my only issues is the same I had with the last-I'd love to have seen some of the aftermath (it was that good!) I fell like this isn't enough of a gush but it's all I can give you so I'll finish up with a 'go get' and hope that you do! Thanks so much to Bookouture and Netgalley for this book in return for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

They appear to be the perfect family living in their beautiful house. People don’t know that wife Dominique is a paranoid wreck, that husband Ben is trapped in a web of deceit. They don’t know daughter Ruby lives in fear of the next abusive text. But someone knows all their secrets.
This is a very ingenious and well written rollercoaster of a novel. The novel starts with the police arriving at the Thomas house on Christmas Day after reports of gunfire. The scene that greets them is shocking.
The build up to what happened is told in a series of flashbacks building up to the eventual grisly outcome. Interestingly, although we know what happens in the end, the reader gets caught up in the lives of the characters and is swept along in their issues, wondering how they will be resolved.
A real page turner – it dropped a star for me because I found the characters very unlikeable and felt the ending was a little farfetched. Still kept me up reading it though!

There is a lot happening in this book. The story goes back and forward in time until what happened early Christmas morning is revealed. There are plenty of suspects and plenty of reasons for what happens. There is a lot of suspense and I went through a lot of speculation trying to work out what the ending would be. I read this book in one sitting as I wanted to know how it ended.

Highly recommend this suspenseful literary thriller. Ms. Copperthwaite has succeeded yet again in writing an engaging, emotional story with superb character development. The mystery is a whodunit of sorts as we are taken on a twisty journey of what exactly happened on Christmas day. I will certainly be reading more books from this author. Many thanks for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review. See my full review on Goodreads.

Firstly I have to be totally honest and say at 25% into this book I was tempted to abandon it . I was finding it really slow moving and just felt it was going nowhere. However I decided to stick with it and am so very glad I did . Although this to me was a slow moving story in parts it did pick up pace half way through and the final few chapters were excellent

This book is centred round the Thomas family and the run up to their Christmas. It starts with Christmas Day and the police are at the Thomas house where shots have been reported and they find a blood covered scene. It then runs from a couple of weeks before and is a tale of betrayal, bullying, love and deceit as told by the various characters. You already know the Christmas Day scene so in the run up to that day you are aware that something goes very wrong in the family and all the way through the book the tension is escalating but so cleverly done that it could be a number of things that tip them over the edge, the ending though was such a surprise that I wasn't expecting quite what happened. A great read and so much more that 'just another psychological thriller. Barbara Copperthwaite really knows how to ramp up the suspense.
Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of the book.

Wow I could not put this book down! You find out at the start of the book that gunshots have been heard by neighbours, and the entire Thomas family have been found lifeless on Christmas morning, with the story then going back to find out what led to this point.
Mother Dominique, father Ben and teenage daughter Ruby each have their own burdens and secrets to carry. Poor Ruby, I felt so sorry for her, her mother and father were both too preoccupied with their own lives to pay enough attention to hers. If only they had actually spoken to each other, things might not have turned out the way they did! I thought there was going to be more revealed about the character of Mouse - the youngest daughter Amber - and the reason that she hid away in small spaces.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I would certainly recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.

Absolutely amazing story! Couldn't stop thinking about it for ages. 5 stars is not enough for it

Wow... This was one roller coaster ride that I really loved!!! Completely gripping, full of emotion, and keeps you guessing until the end!

This is a story that parents of teenage children do not need to read! it is all too realistic and all too happening in today's world.

We have flashbacks throughout the story. The present day police officers coming to a scene and finding a family murdered. Then we have the real story building up very slowly. A normal upper middle class family. Father seems steady, not really so. Gambling his money away hoping to make a very quick buck and landing the entire family in bankruptcy. Unknown to them of course.

The wife a home maker who knows that something is not quite right, Cannot put her finger on whats wrong. A teenage daughter full of angst and anger and a mother not knowing how to reach her, having her hands full with her husband and youngest child.

The youngest child, not knowing where she fits in cowed and a bit frightened of the real world. Loves her family but finding it difficult that her eldest sister now hates her.

And Ruby the teenager daughter not knowing what to make of herself. The bullying which is relentless, the peer pressure, the pressure to conform to be part of the top group and failing and then trying to find a niche for herself with a boyfriend who she dearly loves but is again not acceptable to all. How does this pressure cooker situation finally evolve?

The author takes us slowly through the final explosion and it is a big one. Disastrous, sad, inevitable.
A psychological thriller I would say, told quite slowly so builds to a climax better
Goodreads and Amazon reviews up on 10/11/2017. Review on my blog 7/12/2017. Also linked to my FB page