Fantastic thrilled fast paced I enjoyed it so much this book kept me guessing from start too finish this is worth a read

A fast paced thriller that asks how well this group of people- who have known each other since university- have covered their eyes for all that time. A 20 year reunion of sorts and an assault forces Ali to revisit the secrets and lies she's pushed down. Her husband, her pals- who does she trust? It's a page turner.

**3.5 stars**

What You Did is my first Claire McGowan book. I liked it a lot and I’d definitely read another book by her. It kept me listening and reading when I should have been doing other things. I guessed part of the ending but not all, which is always a huge plus to me. Allie was really rather dumb for an Oxford graduate, how could you miss what’s in front of your face for 25 years?!? . The old adage “With friends like these, who needs enemies” perfectly applies to this book. The story was interesting but the people were terrible except for Benji the little boy, made me glad I’m not friends with people from school anymore!

**thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review, sorry it took me long**

This was a real edge of your seat thriller, with so many twists and turns, you wont know which way is up! Fantastic and gripping read!

I took an exceptionally long time to finish this book, simply because I didn’t enjoy it one bit!

I found it incredibly boring, weirdly paced and frustrating.

Sorry, wasn’t for me. 2/5.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me the ARC! Loved it! I was so torn on who to trust and it changed throughout the book. Great ending! I rate it a 4.2

Ali is hosting a reunion party for a group of old Oxford College friends. They haven’t all been together in twenty-five years. Ali is both nervous and excited . She has planned everything to be the perfect reunion. Ali has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her life is turned upside down when her best friend Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted—by Ali’s husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying. Suddenly Ali is faced with re-examining her life and her rose-tinted version of university life. There were darker memories of those days that have hidden in her mind and all but disappeared until that fateful night . Someone is willing to kill to keep things hidden.

Yet another fabulous psychological thriller from Claire McGowan. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, often finding myself holding my breath with anticipation as I read on.

This book was a DNF for me. I am not sure if it was just too slow for me or if it was the characters.

I was sure I'd already given feedback on this read, a great story told well with some great charecters a favourite author of mine

Something horrible happens to your old friend. She alleges your husband did it. Whom do you believe, where will your loyalties lie? Nothing is as it seems in this thrilling read, Recommended for anyone who likes a good who-dunnit.

Couldn't put it down! I'd class it as more of a domestic thriller than a psychological one but it was very gripping. Some good twists too.

This story didn't work for me. The plausibility of the protagonist fell flat. I will still give her books in the future a chance.

Absolutely raced through this book! Well thought out plot and characters.
Loved the writing style of Claire McGowan, easy to picture the settings and get a sense of the surroundings.
Have now purchased other titles by the author as this was so enjoyable!

I was so excited about the idea of friends gathering 20 years after college. For some reason friend reunions always seem interesting. Well this one starts off interesting enough. After twenty years a lot has changed, now a couple of them have children, one couple is pregnant with their first child and one single man is still in the group that never married. So two couples, one single bachelor and one single mom with the only thing in common now being their history together. They all get drunk like they are in high school and one starts screaming she was attacked in the middle of the night by the other’s husband. The story unfolds with years of lies being peeled away. All I could think was no one needs enemies when these people are their friends. I would have enjoyed it better had the ending not been so rushed. Perfect for the fan of family drama, friendship drama, teenage issues and a little mystery tossed in.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

What You Did by Claire McGowan is an enjoyable read about a crime that threatens to tear a group of friends apart.

Ali and husband Mike are hosting a twenty-fifth reunion weekend for a small group of their friends from Oxford. But when Ali's best friend, Karen accuses Mike of rape, things fall apart. Not only is the act, and the following accusation, horrific, but secrets from their university years start to come up and everyone begins to question what they truly know about the past and present and each other.

While it felt long at parts, especially in the middle, I enjoyed the read and the ending was fantastic. I liked the combination of the mysteries surrounding the old uni friends and the lives of Ali and Mike's kids . I look forward to reading more from Claire McGowan!

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the arc in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing for the advanced copy of this book.
I liked the story, I liked the characters, I liked the fact it kept you guessing and did enjoy the book, the only downside was I found it slow and struggled at times to keep going, but am glad I persevered.

well, better late than never!

I would say that I really wish I would have been given a trigger warning with this one!
BUt i was sucked in and really into this read.

Thank you for the ARC!

In my opinion this book took a long time to get going. I guessed the ending about half way through. Otherwise an enjoyable read.

What if your best friend accuses your husband of raping her?
This is not going to be pretty. In more areas than one.

I find this a very interesting mystery novel! The premise is very catchy and the novel definitely delivers in the suspense and the psychology angle, even if it shows shallowness, selfishness and one-dimensional characters - but this might be verily said about many people. So I am going to be honest here - while I do find the main character, Ali, to be realistically written one, I also do not like her. Not because of her naivity and and the strong unwillingness to see the reality (because this can happen to the best of us), but because of her selfishness and shallow kindness (which simply stops when something collides with her interests). But - this is the reality of people, and I am really not here because I want to like the characters, but because I want to enjoy the mystery. And the mystery IS interesting here. What has really happened in the garden during the night? And is there a connection to the crime some twenty years ago?
Who we truly are, how well we know ourselves - and how well we know the others?
Do we even truly care about them?

The answers to these questions are a key to the mystery here - and in life. And for this trueness to life I go for the 4-star review.

Fabulous! Gripping story about a group of old university friends who reunite for a weekend house party a couple of decades years later. There’s sex, lies, jealousy, competition, envy and a good dose of unfulfilled sexual attraction simmering away in the background. Plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing.