A brilliant book. A real thriller that had me guessing all the way through. Fast paced and a realistic story I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one evening.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I couldn’t put this book down. The twists and turns kept me guessing throughout the entire book and I wavered back and forth a lot on who was responsible for the crimes. I found Ali to be a bit infuriating and Mike completely unlikeable but I still enjoyed the plot. Parts of it seemed extremely far-fetched but I don’t know a lot about the legal process in that part of the world.

It was a perfect reunion six of them together .
After twenty years Host Ali has the wonderful family with her husband Mike .
But Karen staggers in from the garden traumatised she claims to be assaulted about Mike ,
I had an ARC from Thomas Mercer

Wow what a rollercoaster read!! Starting with a reunion of 6 Uni friends after 25 years hosted by Ali and Mike, all is going well until Karen stumbles in bruised saying Mike has raped her, he is arrested and we are left to wonder right until the end what really happened that night.
Going between past and present we build a picture up of their lives, the lies, the betrayals.
I really didn't see that ending coming!!

Thank you to Net galley for kindly sending me a free kindly copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

If half stars existed then I would give this one a 3.5.

I was excited and intrigued to read this one because I recently found out that this author also writes chic lit under the name of Eva Woods and I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed one of her books.

All in all this was a good read. It was well written, it flowed well and it kept my interest throughout. I was surprised by what happened towards the end however I did think that the ending was a bit random and rushed and that it was all a bit of a jumble and was thrown together. Overall I would definitely recommend this one.

This is a great thriller about what happens when 6 friends get together after 20 years
After a while, the friendships show cracks
This is a thriller that will keep you guessing
You will be mesmerized by this book

I enjoyed this one. It was saddening because I found myself nodding with a lot of it - unfortunately this is what life can be like for a woman, still in this day and age. It might need a trigger warning or something because I expect this book would be difficult for certain individuals to read. It felt somewhat a bit slow paced in parts, I found myself to be a bit like ‘get on with it’ but the reveals towards the end were shocking!!!

An excellent thriller, but since I didn't really care too much about the characters, I wasn't as involved in the story as I like to be.

It was meant to be a relaxed weekend and reunion of old friends, but then it turns into an absolute nightmare. It’s been 25 years that Ali and her husband Mike first met their friends Karen, Jodi, Bill and Callum at university, a reason to celebrate in their new home. Yet, after a lot of alcohol, a loud cry from Karen suddenly ends the joyful get together: Karen claims to have been assaulted by Mike, her bleeding and overall status seem confirm her accusation. After Mike’s arrest, Ali’s world slowly crumbles and falls, the more she learns about her husband, the more she has to ask herself if she really knew whom she has been married to for all those years. Not only did he have an affair all those years, but also are there money transfers to an unknown account and more pieces of information that are far beyond just being inconvenient: they are purely frightening. But this is just the beginning.

Claire McGowan’s thriller is absolutely breath taking. It is mainly narrated from Ali’s point of you and you constantly ask yourself: what would I do if I were in her shoes? Whom would I believe, my husband or my former best friend? Would I stick to my ideals or try to save the life I had worked for for years? How far would I be willing to go for the person I love? The story moves at a very high pace, just whenever you think the characters have found a way of coping with the catastrophe, the next follows immediately only to make the whole situation even worse. There is no moment to relax and sit down to think through the mess they are in, they are forced to react to ever more complications from one minute to the other.

The plot is very cleverly constructed, revealing its full potential only slowly. What makes it especially delicate is the fact that it plays on those core emotions in life: trust and believe in the people who are closest to you. It hurts a lot more to feel betrayed by the ones you love than coping with just with stressful situations. Additionally, I found it quite clever to put Ali in the position where she is presented as an advocate for women who have been assaulted and speak out against their perpetrators and then finding her in the position where she is inclined to take the other side and rather believe her husband than the woman – and friend! – who without any doubt is a victim.

I utterly rushed through the novel since I could hardly put it down. The short chapters even accelerated the plot and made you read on just one more chapter and another one and so on until the end. A brilliant story that I enjoyed throughout.

This really kept me guessing and desperate to find out the secrets contained within the story - I really enjoyed the book, excellent read and great start to my holiday!

What a brilliant book. Centering on family, friends, secrets and how lies have a way of catching you up.

I loved this thriller especially the ending.

It was a little confusing trying to keep all the characters straight and many were very unlikeable but this was a decent book for a day on the beach.

What you did by Claire McGowan
Reunions are supposed to be exciting, reunions are supposed to be memorable but this reunion proves to be a nightmare for the protagonist. Ali decides a reunion with her friends from university after twenty years. Ali, a home maker and a volunteer at a local shelter for victims for rape and domestic abuse and Mike, a corporate lawyer are married with two children and a lovely suburban home. Jodi and Callum are lawyers and Jodi is heavily pregnant with the child she's longed for. Karen is raising a son by herself and lives in near poverty. Bill has returned home from Sweden after ending a relationship.
Amidst all the partying and drinking, Ali's best friend Karen stumbles inside from the garden accusing Mike of sexually assaulting her. Mike denies the accusation but Karen does not relent. Ali does not know who to believe – Is her husband capable of committing such a heinous crime? Is her best friend capable of telling such an improbable lie?
Ali is pulled in both directions, wanting to believe both her husband and her best friend. She is at crossroads with herself especially when she is the one dealing with such cases daily at her workplace.
Secrets start to unravel and the reader is forced to think what kind of a friendship did the six share as everybody is hiding something or the other from everybody else. The rape accusation also reveals a murder of a common friend Martha while they were still in college. The plot becomes more and more complex as the story progresses.
The story is of course fictional but sometime as readers we tend to search for some sort of connect with reality even in a novel. We are unable to associate or empathize with the characters as they are all too self obsessed. The quality of writing is superior but the plot fails to impress, with more complexities woven in the plot than what is necessary
My score 3 * / 5

This was good. The reason for 4 stars is that I did not really like any of the characters and each one seemed to serve the standard, predictable role for this type of storyline. Having said that, it still held my interest and the ending was a nice surprise. It begins with a group of reunited college friends, an assault and then flashbacks and flash forwards until the truth is revealed. Most chapters give at least a hint of of a clue as to what actually happened and that makes you want to keep reading. Overall, a good read, Just difficult to connect with anyone.

I had to DNF this book. I just could not get into it. I didn’t connect with any characters and the story just wasn’t there for me.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for this opportunity!!!

This is a fabulous thriller and one of the best books I’ve read in a while. There are plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing right up to the last page. The characters develop well throughout the book and the relationship between them all is intriguing.
I’d definitely recommend this book and it’s worthy of a big fat 5 stars.

Excellent psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! Well-developed characters and plot. I loved the angle of husband vs best friend and the struggle for Ali to trust one of them over the other. Highly recommend!

I’ve received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion:
This book is a psychological thriller with some quite dark & violent context. Very gripping and the said context flows extremely well. I found myself anticipating getting home to pick up where I have left off.
There were parts where I had to literally hold back the tears, it was a challenge at times.

All in all great book.

I really had to think before writing this review because, although this was a really good story, I actively disliked most of the characters. Most of the book is told from the point of view of Ali and at the beginning I had a lot of sympathy for her. As the book progressed my opinion changed until towards the end I loathed her. She was so ashamed of her working class background and claimed to be embarrassed by her parents when they came to visit her at Oxford. She was the worst sort of snob elitist, self obsessed and entitled. Having said that it is thanks to the quality of the writing that I was able to have such strong feelings about her..
The author was able to set the scene so well that I really could see the back garden in the aftermath of the party. I thought the flashbacks were really evocative too. I have never been to Oxford but could envisage it as if I had been there at the time the characters were students. Finally, I had absolutely no inkling of how the book would end and was really surprised at how things turned out. All in all this was a really well written, enjoyable book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

What an awful book. I really didn’t like this at all
The writing style was poor and the characters were horrible