The party should have been perfect: six couples from the same baby group, six newborns, a luxurious house. But not everything has gone to plan, and while some are here to celebrate, others have sorrows to drown. When someone falls from the balcony of the house, the secrets and conflicts within the group begin to spill out

The premise was intriguing and for almost half the book I was excited and thrilled.

The plot is narrated through multiple POVs of the different couples involved as well as of DS Alison. As I read the book for me the main mystery was identifying who had fallen from the balcony. Once that was revealed half way through the book, I did not find much suspense remaining in the remaining part of the book.

There were quite a few secrets revealed about the various couples but I did not find them very exciting. Also the two main twists in the plot were quite obvious to guess.

Overall, an okay plot but with the writing being fast paced, it becomes an easy read.

Thank You to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! I was surprised to see others did not!
Not the most likable characters, but I enjoyed the twists and turns. Even though I kind of figured things out before they were revealed, I still liked the reveal! There were alot of POVs, so that took some time to sort all out, but once I did, I felt invested in all their stories.
I went through this quickly, as it was hard to put down. A good mystery that was solid.
Thankful for the ARC!

"The Push" is an interesting story about a group of people who have nothing in common except that they are all about to be new parents, and none of them can quite tell the truth about what happened that day on the balcony. Told from the POV of many different characters, the story flows quickly, but is easily predictable. And none of the characters are very likeable. That being said, I still enjoyed the story as it was a quick, easy read and would recommend it to others.

Okay firstly let's give Claire an applause for that crazy plot. Like I would never have dreamnt it up like what a WOW. It's a book set in summer at a barberque (hello summer). It is about six couples at a barberque and one falls from the balcony and dies. Get ready to be mind blown like I was *sigh* ,the couples are all expecting. You are probably thinking where did they even meet, well they met at a class. Who did it? Was it an accident? You need to find out by reading this book. It was a little confusing with all the alternative chapters but it was a pretty good read. Huge thanks to the publisher for my copy

The Push centres around six couples in a prenatal group, each one of them with different social status, relationship and views. One of them decides to throw a post-birth party for everyone and someone ends up falling off the balcony. The police claim that it is an accident but Alison who is assigned to this case, doesn’t think so.

There are a lot of POV’s, from different couples and Alison, from past and present so it took some time to memorise each character.
The victim’s identity is revealed half way through the book, which was interesting and kept me hooked. And that was the only mystery for me. There were two other plot twists but managed to guess these quite early on.
I feel this book is more about portraying different types of motherhood and actually shows the real side of pregnancy through different ages, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, relationship statuses, even fertility differences (DS Alison is struggling with infertility)

Overall, a classic whodunnit story and even though it is predictable its still a thought provoking and enjoyable quick read.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for sending me an advance copy in exchange for an honest review

This was such an amazing book. Loved finding out about all of the different families and problems they have. Each family had their own story, but were joined by a common baby group. I realised the 'plot' halfway through, but enjoyed reading why each person had said what they did and why about the 'accident'. A great read!

I expected more from Claire McGowan. This book was a hot mess. So many characters going back and forth in time and too many side stories. I rate this book a 2.1

Wowzers ! This book was awesome. Once I started I didn't want to stop reading as I just wanted to find out what was going on. Such an exciting and page turning read this was.

For some reason, I could not get into this booK. The writing was fine but the plot seemed stale and “done before.” This book may appeal more to a certain and specific audience.

The Push is a clever thriller that weaves several stories together and ties them all up beautifully at the end. Six couples meet at an anti natal class in the local community centre. Gina leads them through what to expect at the birth and how they will have to adapt to being new parents. The couples all meet for a party shortly after the babies are born, and one of them ends up dead.
The novel mainly tells the story through the eyes of Alison, the detective investigating the death and Jax, a member of the anti natal group. Everyone within the group has secrets they are keeping and the book delves into their pasts as well as their current situation.
I enjoyed this book but did feel it could do with a good edit. The pace was too slow in parts and I could feel my interest waining. I am glad I persevered with it as the ending did not disappoint.

This was an interesting book. I really enjoyed all the different characters and their back story’s. It was clever in keeping me guessing the ending all the way along. I enjoyed the ending, I thought it was written well. Would recommend and also would like to read more from this author.

This is told by multiple povs over different time frames. It tells the story of several couples as they attend a baby group before the birth of the babies and after, during the reunion one of them falls from a balcony to their death, is it an accident or murder? This story tells of the events of the day of and leading up to the fall.

Now where do I begin with this story, firstly I hated every single character they were all unlikeable and obnoxious, well apart from one couple who were the most normal of everyone. I felt like this story had way to much going on, it was to ambitious and trying to tell to many stories at once which was just way to much and took away from the over all plot. Ageism is a huge mention in this, I feel if I had a £1 for every time it was mentioned that she was an older woman to be pregnant I would be rich which to be honest was pretty offensive a lot of women are giving birth in late 30s,40s and even 50s in todays society so I felt this was really unnecessary even if it was to bring up something that happens later in the plot. Racism, their were a few points in this book were characters were using microgressions for example 'the foreigners next door' which was used by one of the characters to describe Asian people living next door. Then the over all plot line further in the storyline I felt like it was the perfect time to dive more into racism but it was merely mentioned and brushed under the rug. Stereotypes came into this book when it came to many of the characters and their was also Borderline homophobia when it came to the same sex female couple. For example one of the women was femmine and one was butch and the character said something along the lines of '' she's pretty for one of them'' and then when describing the more butch woman she said something along the lines of not understanding why women like this try to look like men. This annoyed me to no end and I could see how many people would read this and roll their eyes

The pros of this book was that the writing was fast paced and it flowed well so it was easy to read however unfortunately this was not the book for me but I would always give an author another chance and read another book by the author in the future.

thanks for the opportunity to read this latest book, i really enjoyed it not what i thought it would be like, bur didn't disapoint, twisty and suspense all what you want in a book

The Push by Claire McGowan. Thanks to @amazonpublishing and @netgalley for the e-arc ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Six couples, all very different, all in the same stage of pregnancy get to know each other during a expecting parents course. After the babies are born they get together one more time, but someone ends up dead. As the detective investigates into the couples, secrets and scandals are revealed.

The story and premise were interesting. I loved getting to know the couples and sitting in the baby classes with them. However, the mystery and reveals were all predictable. I knew how it would end earlier on and had figured a few things out earlier than I should have to make it a truly enjoyable story. There was so much unnecessary racism in the story. I understand there is a difference between a racist plot and a racist character, but did so many people have to hold problematic beliefs? None of the characters were likable or easy to root for. Overall, I still found it an easy read that kept the pages turning.

The Push comes out 11/12.

I really enjoyed this book. The story begins at a party that has left one of the attendees dead. They have fallen from a balcony, only you don't find out who until the end. The story is told from the different party goers POVs which is always interesting since you understand the story in a different way. It focuses around a prenatal group, all with secrets, and possible motives to the crime. The detective Allison is determined to prove it was murder, and not just an accident. An enjoyable story.

I was really excited to read this book by Claire McGowan! I had recently read The Other Wife and liked it very much. This book has a lot of the same elements I liked from The Other Wife: hidden identities, suspense over who was even killed or nearby at the time through tricky narrative devices, and a host of suspicious characters. Unfortunately though, this book did not hang together as well as The Other Wife for me and I did not enjoy it as much.

This book surrounds a killing at a “Mommy and Me” type group gathering. There are six couples involved, which to start off with is a pretty large number of suspects. Throw in a lot of these people as narrators and it gets somewhat hard to keep everyone and their motivations straight right off the bat.

The other problem was that I just didn’t like a lot of these characters. In particular, I really did not like the main couple, Jax and her younger husband Aaron. I particularly did not like Aaron, who seemed to me to do little throughout the book to contribute to either the plot or to his marriage. It made me find it hard to get invested in side plots like his search for his birth mother, etc. (Also, can I just say how tired I am of the “search for my birth mother” trope in domestic suspense novels in general?)

I also found most of the others in the group to be equally unlikeable/unengaging, and struggled pretty hard to find someone I liked enough to root for. There were a lot of subplots I found rather creepy, such as Jax being called a “pedophile” for being with a younger man (an actual man well into adulthood at the age of 24, I might add). Stuff like this made it hard for me to go where the plot wanted me to go and just ended up making me uncomfortable with the book. The end was drought with an almost ridiculous amount of twists (one out of nowhere) that left me ultimately not too satisfied with the plot.

I’m disappointed I didn’t like this book more because I know I like the way this author writes, and really enjoyed her last book. I’m hopeful McGowan’s next book will have different subject matter and a character I can like and root for again.

Thanks to Thomas and Mercer, NetGalley and the author for the advance copy.

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

WOW! Just amazing!

The plot: Someone dies and you have different couples that were around for the death. Who did it? I LOVED how it jumped from different characters' perspectives as you try to figure out first who died and then who killed that person.

This was by far the best read I've had in a long time. Thank you again to the publishers for allowing access to read this excellent novel!

An average read with predictable twists. I enjoyed the book but didn't love it. Very slow to start but picked up. Guessed most ot the twists. Worth a read. Thank you netgallery for this advanced copy.
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Six couples, with only one thing in common. They are all expecting a baby in their lives soon.

Two weeks after the due arrival dates, these same six couples attend a bbq to celebrate their new family additions.

But the party ends with murder.

This book was easy to read and easy to follow, having been written from various perspectives. However, I found this book to be lacking in depth, with many of the twists and turns being just a little too predictable.

Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this! As if these mothers-to-be don’t have enough to worry about they sign up for a pre-natal group thinking they’re going to learn some great techniques to help with coping, not just through the labour but after the baby is born too, only to be met with quite the derisive tutor! But, these Mums and Dads stuck it out - they had paid to be there to learn after all. Along come the babies and the barbecue to mark the triumphant occasion. What happens from here on out is anyone’s guess because the guests are all keeping the events of this day pretty close to their chests, making the job of investigating a possible murder all that more complicated. Then again, what investigation is ever straight forward?! Superb read!