Told from Robyn's point of view as a child and a young woman this mystery of family secrets, relationships, friendships and violence plays out in the historic heatwave of 1976 and reprises twelve years later when Robyn and her brother Kit return to the town where that life-changing Summer took place.

The characters and setting are realistic and vivid if you lived through the 70s and 80s the ethos and events will be recognisable. The childhood characters make this story memorable. Significant events are glossed over, and smaller ones assume prominence through Robyn's eyes, adding to the mystery and suspense of this family drama.

Parts of the story is slow and confusing, but this is intentional, to reflect the child who is living through and observing adult behaviour that she doesn't fully understand. The mystery once revealed is tragic if not entirely unexpected, and there is a good resolution of most of the questions this story raises.

Perfect for those who appreciate literary fiction and enjoy authentic characters and settings.

I received a copy of this book from Agora books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

'A Little Bird Told Me' is a heartfelt and wonderful debut from a strong new voice in the fiction genre, Marianne Holmes. With a truly beautiful cover, an evocative narrative and dark, twisty and unpredictable story. This book is deceptively dark, and significantly moreso than the synopsis indicates. I was immersed in the story and characters from the word go, but I did find that I had many unanswered questions by the time I reached and read the conclusion, which also left me feeling deflated. I didn't really feel it was a strong way to finish the novel.

I know that more than a few people felt that the perspective had the potential to confuse the reader. It is told from the POV of Robyn, both as a young woman and as an adult. It moves between past and present each alternate chapter, so I didn't find it confusing or that the story was convoluted in any way. It was a little disjointed, and I can understand some of the issues other readers had with the book. However, I found that these minor problems didn't take away from my overall appreciation of the novel. There were also a whole cast of characters, a routine mistake debut authors tend to make, and I hope in future books Holmes holds back a little more.

Holmes does approach important topical issues sensitively throughout the story, but I felt the narrative flow couldn've been better leading to a more engaged reader. There is definitely an opening for a sequel as the tale certainly does not appear finished to me. Should there be a follow-up, I would definitely seek it out in the hope that it will answer my questions. By the end not only did I have many questions, but I felt that the whole book comes across as rushed and purposefully vague. I feel many of the twisty surprises fell a little short of the mark, although there were a few I didn't predict. At its heart, this is a story fundamentally surrounding family secrets and the utterly devastating consequences of such secrets.

Many thanks to Agora Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Very scrappy in parts, jumps about too much. I had trouble keeping interested and nearly discarded it before finishing it.

I was intrigued by this book and the beginning kept me turning the pages. I did towards the middle find well not exactly plot holes but I had questions.
I struggled with the time hop especially when the narrative was little bird as I didn’t know if it was the past or present but I think his is more to do with her being very young minded like she was stuck at her age in the past and can’t move on.
However it kept my interest and I wanted to finish the book to find out what happened and why, at the end I did find the reason behind the incident weak and I finished the book with a lot of questions and confusion. To be fair this could be because towards the end I read faster to find out and maybe I missed key words etc but I did find the end disappointing. It’s written well but feels rushed at certain points and sadly that lets the book down. Shame as the basic plot line is interesting and I felt many emotions but sadly after putting the book down confusion is the lasting feeling BuT like I say it could just be me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book for a honest review.

What a beautiful debut novel. I love reading new authors and this one was so beautifully written, I enjoyed every word and was thoroughly immersed in the characters and settings. This book effortlessly switched between time zones and spun a picture in my mind easily of each. I loved this and have been recommending to everyone.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told from the point of view of Robyn as an adult, however, the storyline actually starts in the past when she was a young girl growing up with her brother, Kit, her mother and step-father. We get alternating chapters between past and present as the story builds. Back in the summer of 1977 during a record breaking heat wave, Robyn remembers her mother taking in a neighbor and her young son as her husband was physically violent and she had just been assaulted. The husband is held by the police and the town becomes divided over Robyn’s mother’s involvement in what was considered “a personal matter”. With the heat wave on, it also does not take a lot to escalate tensions. It also appears that Robyn’s mother and step-father are keeping secrets and with Robyn being young, there is a lot that she doesn’t understand due to her age. Years later we learn that Robyn’s mother disappeared that summer and now Robyn and Kit have come home to finally get some answers as to what happened all those summers ago.

I really enjoyed this book – I found it intriguing and it held my attention all the way through. Highly recommend this gem of a book and I look forward to seeing other books in the future from this author.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Set during 1976's heatwave, nine-year-old Robyn and her older brother Kit spend their carefree days with their friends at the local lido and park. One day, the arrival of a mysterious man, in a cowboy hat, intrigues Robyn, but disturbs Kit and their mother, Jemima. As the story progresses, with chapters alternating between 1976 and 1988, when Robyn and Kit return to the village as adults which they fled as children, we find out the truth as Robyn turns investigator to find search for the truth.

Unfortunately, with the alternating chapters being told by a child, I did find the story a little slow and disjointed, and found I didn't have a clue what was going on for half of the story; I felt like maybe I had missed something important and wondered if I should start reading again. The story only sped up for me three-quarters of the way through when everything started happening at once, both in 1976 and 1988. There were also a few too many characters, who I struggled to keep up with.

Despite this, there was a twist at the end which surprised me and had me on the edge of my seat.

I found this book very difficult to get into and stick with. I don't think it's the quality of the writing but, rather, the characters. I felt drawn to no one. As a matter of fact, some annoyed me. It also reminded me of reading A Wrinkle in Time - good writing perhaps, but I just couldn't take the characters so halfway through abandoned the book - as I ended up doing with this one, unfortunately.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Struggled with this book, couldn’t seem to get into the story, or connect with the characters, attempted to persevere and get through it but in the end had to give up.

I had to finish this book to find out what happened but found it hard going as it seemed to be disjointed and didn't seem to flow well. I wanted a bit more information earlier on to know what the mystery was that Robyn was trying to solve and unfortunately the "scary" bits didn't scare me.

A new author and a debut novel.
I found this book to be a slow burner but I had to keep reading to find out what happened.
I am still confused, why did Robyn and Kit the two main characters return to the town and the house where so many bad things happened?
What does the man in the cowboy hat really want?
A dysfunctional family and it is set in the 70's and 80's. We get snippets of what actually happened all the way through the book until the very emotional ending.
I still have many questions What will happen when Ray returns, we know Robyn was hurt but who did IT?
Personally I think that there needs to a sequel as the story is not finished.
I would like to thank the author Marianne Holmes, Agora Books and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

This is a beautifully written book. I tried to plough my through it and failed. Unfortunately I did not find it interesting enough and I did not feel that I could engage with any of the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It kept me riveted from page 1 to the end. The story goes back and forth from past to present. The characters personalities from children to adults are very well developed. I look forward to reading other books by this author.

A Little Bird Told Me is the debut novel by Marianne Holmes.

It is the summer of 1976, Robyn spends her days swimming and tagging after her brother. It’s the perfect summer until her mum stirs up trouble by bringing home yet another crying woman.

Her actions cause tensions in the town begin to simmer. Everyone is gossiping about her mum, a strange man is following her around, and worst of all, no one will tell Robyn the truth. But secrets will out...

Twelve years later, Robyn returns home, to a house that has stood empty for years and a town that hasn’t moved on, forced to confront the mystery that haunted her that summer.

And atone for the part she played in it.

After finishing A Little Bird Told Me I have complicated feelings about it. It was clearly well-written, and I wanted to love it, but I only liked it. It was readable, I would recommend it, but I probably won’t remember it.

A Little Bird Told Me has a captivating opening paragraph that immediately makes the reader wonder what happened.

“They say I’ll never find her.

Kit says it doesn’t matter because we still have each other but not a day goes by when I don’t long for the truth.”

Robyn feels like she has a certain amount to make up for and like she was at fault for some of what occurred. She knows that there is one person who knows where her mum is, and she knows that by coming back she risks him finding her, but she feels like she has no choice.

“Besides if you were one half evil, wouldn’t you want to know about the other half?”

Her brother Kit feels like it is unnecessary to be in the town, but she feels that they were complicit in what happens, and she has a lot of questions to ask.

There were parts of this book that were really good but my main problem with this book was that I guessed all the major twists before they happened and although it didn’t ruin the book it didn’t make for an exciting read.

Although this was well written I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters and, unfortunately, i ultimately found it a disappointing read.

A story told through 2 timelines. I wasn't certain about this to begin with but gradually became engrossed by the mystery surrounding the 'Cowboy'. I did not guess the twist at the end of the story.

This story is about a brother and sister trying to figure out what happened between their mother and father. The sister, Robyn, provides the narration. Her brother is Christopher and I expected at any point in time for their to be a Winnie the Pooh or AA Milne connection. Nope. The story is told in 2 timelines, 12 years apart. This was the biggest struggle for me because I didn't feel like Robyn had grown any between the two so other than having a different date, nothing else felt different. Additionally, it felt as though the author was so afraid to give too much away too early that most of the plot felt very vague. It is hard to get engaged when you feel purposefully left out. I was glad to read the ending; though once we got there it felt like everything was rushed.

A cross-decade narrative tells the story of Robyn (the titular ‘Little Bird’) and her brother Kit, who as well as navigating adolescence are doing their best to comprehend a rather tumultuous home life.

Like a retro Broadchurch, Marianne Holmes’ debut is an examination of an insular community- nervy, defensive and populated by flawed characters who may not be what they seem. It may not always fully realise the suspense it builds, but ‘A Little Bird Told Me’ is an accomplished novel that deserves praise.

Enjoyed this book from start to the end, a real page turner, hard to put down. Well written with excellent plot.

This is a really compelling thriller about what happened to the main character's mother back in the summer of 1976, and how Robyn played a part in it. It's told through a mixture of present day and flashbacks, and it really captures the feeling of a small town in Britain, and what happens when you don't tell children the truth. The final twist took a bit of re-reading for me to straighten it all out, because it's not explicitly stated, but I didn't love the book any less for it. A great read.