Rounded up from 2.5

Never Have I Ever is a psychological thriller that follows Samantha, now a well-known author, who moves back to Ilfracombe with her family where she lived until she was a teenager. Things start to go wrong when a note is pushed through her door, alluding to the never have I ever game she used to play with her friends as a teen and threatens to expose a secret she's been keeping all that time. Tension grows, and she feels more and more unsafe. She is determined to find that person responsible and will stop at nothing to protect her family.

Another book where I was drawn in by the beginning and it just seemed to peter off somewhere in the middle.

I will say, though, it had a good fast-pace with plenty of tension at the beginning of the story. The characters, while not entirely likeable, were flawed and realistic.
I also liked the setting of Ilfracombe in Devon, which was so well described I could almost picture myself there.

The problem came from the repetitiveness of it. She got so obsessive and hyper fixated on certain things that it got frustrating to read.

The ending was shocking, but it didn't make up for the saggy bit in the middle.

I will still recommend this if you love a thriller with 90s references, old grudges and not so likeable characters.

I could not get into this book at all, i found it repetitive and mundane, the story moved so slowly i struggle to keep with it.

British version of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' 20 years later.
This book was easy to put down and hard to pick back up. It started so slow! And never got much faster. It took forever to get to the point of anything.
The fact that Samantha is so set on her high school frenemy Aimee - the crazy, white trash Regina George leader of their mean girl group - is behind the notes makes it so obvious that it won't be her. Her obsession becomes too much.
Because the author is British, there are many words, phrases, and spellings that are unfamiliar, which usually doesn't bother me but the more annoyed with the book I got the more annoyed I became with the language. (Call me a lame American. Whatever.)
Never Have I Ever disliked a female protagonist enough that I didn't care what the hell happened to her.


(I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley)

Despite a really fun sounding premise, I played this game as a teen too, I just couldn’t love this book. I enjoy books who keep pulling me in and make me lose track of time. Unfortunately, I had to force myself to finish this. Premise was good but main character wasn’t very likable and for me, story dragged a bit. Others may like the build up but I prefer something with more punch throughout. It was my first time reading something by this author and I would try again because you just never know!

Great book! Couldn’t wait to read it, and it didn’t disappoint! Grabbed my attention within the first two chapters, and then I didn’t want to put it down. Excellent character development - I think that every reader will find a character to whom they relate. I enjoy books where there is character development, and then also a surprise, and this book provided both! Looking forward to reading more from this author!

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. An interesting novel by a new author in my personal reading-sphere! I am sure others would enjoy it too. Good character portrayls, descriptive setting and gripping plot.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

Highly enjoyable but also disturbing and alarming at the same time. It was an easy book to read and follow the story. Samantha is the main character and she is set up to be an unlikeable character and it is perfect for Never Have I Ever. Samantha thinks her past is in the past until she received a note that states, "Never have I ever been punished for what I have done." Her gloomy past that has been buried but not forgotten is now resurfaced. I do think the book has an unhurried feel at times but I think that it works in the building of character and watching the story unfold from the previous 20 years. The mischievous and spine-chilling ending and plot twist that occur are fun to read and highly enjoyable! Quick read!

I did receive this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Never Have I Ever
The gripping psychological thriller about a game gone wrong
by Lucy V. Hay

Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder Paperbacks
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 12 Dec 2019




I am reviewing a copy of Never Have I Ever through Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley:



In Never Have I Ever four teenagers discover a new game, a game that they add their our own rules, they go from sharing secrets to sharing firsts. But things soon go spiraling out control.




Soon a woman gets a note stuck through her door, the note terrifies her. The note reads: /Never have I ever been punished for what I have done./





She thought the game was over, but now it seems like it’s her turn to play. No matter how far it goes you must follow the rules, and the game is never over, not really.





If you are looking for a great suspenseful read, one that draws you in, and doesn’t let you go, I highly recommend Never Have I Ever.


Five out of five stars!




Happy Reading!

Never have I ever... read a book by Lucy v Hay. This may be my first experience with this author but it won't be my last.

The story flashed back and forth between present and the narrator's childhood. It centres around a game of
Never Have I Ever, which the narrator and her friends used to play during their teen years, however, they had added their own twist to the game, which escalated until it got out of hand.

I found the story to be enjoyable, and it keep me interested throughout. However, I didn't find the characters particularly likeable, which is a shame, as I find that i am more empathetic to likeable characters.

The ending contained an unseen plot twist, and the last few chapters had me on edge, hoping for the best outcome.

Definitely worth a read, and I would look for more books by this author.

I forced myself to finish this one and it took forever. I just couldn’t get into it. The Dyers were a bit much and got confusing, I lost interest in what happened that summer and Samantha’s marriage bothered me. I was actually surprised with a part of the ending and how bad it was, did Samantha not learn anything?

"Sam is doing well in her career, she has a husband and a baby and life is going well. That is until she gets the note through her door that stops her heart in her chest. Never Have I Ever Been Punished For What I Have Done."

This book was all over the place. This was a book I got about 40% through and had to give up. My mind continually wandered and I had to reread. If a book can't hold my attention, I feel okay calling it quits.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

Told entirely from Sam's point of view this a psychological suspense novel that focuses on the darkness that hides within a person ready to strike given the right set of circumstances. Sam should be happy with life, but she isn't. Her husband has let her down with his business failures. Sam's worn out from fertility treatments, both financially and physically, even though it gave her Caleb, her much-cherished son. Now she's the victim of a stalker too. A successful crime writer, she dismisses the letters at first, until they drag her back to her teenage and the darkness she left behind.

Sam is an unreliable protagonist. She is hard to empathise never seeing the best in anyone. As the stalker threats increase, so do the flashbacks to her last summer in Ilfracombe, and what happened. Is she losing her mind? Is someone manipulating her? It's hard to tell despite the clues along the way.

This story gives a new interpretation of the teenage dare and danger theme. There are surprising plot twists with a dark and twisty ending that is chillingly believable.

I received a copy of this book from Hodder and Stoughton via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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This was a haunting tale. Never have I ever is a game plaued by many but no one expected it to take such a dark turn. A book filled with twists and turns. A tale of psychological terror. This book was fantastic.

The premise for this book was stellar but I really felt at the end this book was extremely repetitive. As a reader I quickly became impatient and bored with the protagonist and her storyline.
Three stars.

This novel is about a writer named Samantha, who has recently returned to her hometown with her husband, Mo and her toddler son, Caleb. As the blurb states, one day while sifting through the mail she finds a letter stating, “Never have I ever been punished for what I have done.” Thus begins Sam’s mission/obsession with finding out who sent the letter and why.

When Sam was a teenager, her three best friends were Maddy, Ruby, and Aimee. One day they are normal teenagers and then one day they start playing Never Have I Ever, constantly upping the ante and the risk level of the dares and challenges. Aimee immediately stands out as the alpha of the group and some of her behaviors were eerily similar to some of the bitchy girls I was friends with growing up. None of the others were saints by any means, but Aimee appeared to be the evilest throughout most of the novel and Sam’s flashbacks/memories. Regardless, Aimee and her mother Lyndy moved away when Aimee was a teenager and she hasn’t connected with any of the girls again.

Issues presented at the start of the novel include Sam’s disconnect with her husband, continued struggles to relate to her free-spirited mother, discontent with the idea of unpacking their new house, and her upcoming deadline for the next book in her detective series – which she hasn’t made much progress on. Several failed attempts at starting a new business, coupled with Aimee’s infertility issues have saddled the couple with debt they are trying to get out from under and although Mo has finally established a successful company, it results in him traveling most of the time. Sometimes they seem to like each other during the novel but a lot of the time they are just snipping at and nagging each other.

Then the notes start showing up and Sam is convinced that it is Aimee screwing with her after all of these years. Sam starts trying to track down Ruby and Maddy to find out Aimee’s whereabouts. She stalks Aimee’s family’s store trying to find her. She runs into her old boyfriend from school, Michael, who is now a cop, and tries to enlist his help in finding Aimee.

All of that part was boring. Unfortunately, her search for Aimee makes up about 75% of the novel.

Coupled with her boring search for Aimee is endless examples of Sam conveniently forgetting about events from her adolescence and/or spinning them in a completely different light which is evident in the chilly reception she gets from Michael, Ruby, and Maddy. Obviously, Sam remembers herself quite differently than everyone else and continues this disillusioned sense of self by not sharing any of this with Mo and keeping all of her investigative work to herself. Some things he does find out about because police get involved, but otherwise she diligently works to preserve the image she thinks he has of her. And this also gets exhausting.

So, what are my overall thoughts? I did not love this book, nor did I dislike it. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, you may very well enjoy this one. Especially if you like novels where sins from the past can come back to haunt us. However, if you prefer something fast-paced with a lot of twists and turns, this one probably isn’t for you. There are really only two surprises and they both occur in the last 10% of the novel. Nevertheless, I will read Lucy Hay again if given the opportunity because I enjoyed her overall style and tone.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Lucy V. Hay's début is an engrossing and entertaining, gripping drama-style thriller of deceit, lies, fecklessness, and hidden truths.

Based on the game of Never Have I Ever, the book's focuses on a macabre set of circumstances that occurred amongst a group of friends years ago when they were all young and thoughtless. Samantha (Sam), a successful author, is also one of the girls who played the twisted game on that fateful day over two decades ago. She decides to return to her childhood town of Ilfracombe, Devon, along with her husband and baby boy. Sam's life is going well until she gets a note through her door that chills her to the bone: "Never Have I Ever Been Punished For What I Have Done."

Told through the eyes of Sam over almost twenty years, Lucy V. Hay delivers this unrestrained and exuberant story of drama in this toxic concoction of long-held secrets, peer pressure, vindictiveness and deception. Never Have I Ever is a compelling and cracking story that I revelled in all the way through and that had me reading well into the night. Everything was competently wrapped up in the fabulous and satisfying finale. I would love to read more from Lucy V. Hay and I am delighted to recommend this début novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Hodder and Stoughton via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC of this book.
Where do I begin, I found the book terribly slow and the story a little unbelievable. For me the writing didn't flow and I kept putting the book down and then picking up again, I really couldn't get into it.
The couldn't relate to the characters and felt I had to finish the book so I could give an honest review. Sadly I am not one of these persons who can just put a book down if I don't like it.
I did get to the end of the book eventually, and felt that although the ending was okay it was in a way predictable but not as I had thought.
Unfortunately this isn't a book I would recommend to anyone and felt the book would have been better if half of it hadn't been there.

Twenty years ago, four friends started playing a game of Never Have I Ever that began as mean and cruel but may have ended In a fatality. After returning to her home town, San begins receiving letters that seem to tease that someone knows about their game and Sam is certain the person responsible was her childhood tormentor. Letters continue to arrive while Sam digs into her past and tries to reconnect with her old friends.

This is the first book by Lucy Hay that I have read and I enjoyed the book and found some elements of the story to be creative but the resolution was not surprising.

This was good book but it wasn’t fast paced enough for me though. The plot was great along with the characters. Towards the ending it picks up and I didn’t predict what happened. A good psychological thriller for people who like this genre. I’ll be keeping my eye out for more books by this author in the future. Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review of it.