Giving Kate's addiction and recovery backstory the justice it deserves means some may find the book a bit difficult to get into, or slow going, but fear not! Between the intrigue and mystery of what happened in the drunken 'gaps' she can't remember and the lingering reason for the falling out of the two friends, you will have been so unwittingly drawn into the story, that when the step change in pace hits, you'll fly through the pages.

A gripping read that takes you on a journey. The secret at the heart of the plot is quite shocking and not what I expected.

Book deals with a difficult topic but a relevant one today, namely alcoholism. It was a solid read and entertaining until the end.

Thank you Quercus books and Netgalley sorry for taking so long to read this. I now need to read more by Emily Freud.

This is a great read about two friends and their past.
The characters are really we presented and personable and the storyline has good twists and turns.
Highly recommend you read this.

Sadly I couldn’t get into this book. It had sounded interesting but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s no reflection on the book or author

‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ is the debut book by Emily Freud.

Kate Sullivan has a beautiful home, a job she loves and a handsome fiancé: all she’d ever dreamed of since getting sober and painstakingly piecing her life back together. But a chance encounter with her old best friend Becky threatens Kate’s newfound and fragile happiness. Kate remembers nothing of their last drunken night out, the night Becky broke off their friendship without warning or explanation. With Becky back in her life, Kate is desperate to make amends for the past. For the closure she craves, Kate needs to know what she did that ruined everything. But what if the truth is worse than Kate could have imagined?

If you’re looking for an exhilarating thriller, then look no further as this book is everything a good thriller should be. Tense, intriguing and packed with dislikable characters that keeps the reader on their toes.

The story is seen solely through the narrative of Kate, a recovering alcoholic who’s celebrating 6 years sober, looking forward to marrying her fiancée Ben and enjoying her rewarding job as an English teacher. Her life is great until her former best friend Becky comes back into her life and with that brings back uncertainty, insecurity and memories of a life that she’d like to leave behind.

Right from the first page, this book gripped my attention. Kate is a fascinating protagonist who’s flawed from her previous life and battles not to return to her old ways. Her sponsor Clare is always there to help her as well as is Ben who’s been her rock and helped her recover her confidence in herself. When Becky returns, Kate finds herself questioning her old life and Becky’s sudden return as they had parted on bad terms. But she takes Becky in as a housemate, she notices a shift in the dynamics of relationship including Ben’s.

From the first page, there’s an underlying sense of tension to the story that made me read the book faster. I’m surprised I didn’t give myself paper-cuts with the speed that I raced through the pages! The characters are fascinating mix of personalities, all damaged and flawed in their own ways, battling addictions and insecurity. Kate is a kind character who as a teacher finds herself connecting with Lily, a young girl who’s on a similar path as Kate was and Kate is determined for her life to be better and not to waste it like she did.

A cleverly crafted story that made for suspenseful and dark reading, ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ is a twisted and sordid story about secrets and lies with a fascinating protagonist that leaves you hooked at every turn.

You can buy ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

Kate is an alcoholic, who is in recovery. She has got on with her life, put her past behind her and is looking forward to marrying her gorgeous fiancé. A chance meeting with her former best friend Becky throws everything in a spin. Karen and Becky have unfinished business from their last night out, and Karen needs to bring closure to the breakup as part of her recovery program.

But what is it about Becky? Is she trying to seduce her fiancé? And what is she hiding?

This is a novel about lots of things. It is from the point of view of the alcoholic and her narrative is not always reliable. Also, what it does is make the ending of the novel a complete surprise, and very difficult to read and absorb.

I enjoyed this novel but some if it I found unreliable. There are several other side stories to the main theme. Karen’s job as a teacher and her interaction with her students. Becky’s relationship to her family. And Karen’s relationship with alcohol..

I was given an advance copy in return for an honest review and honestly this novel is quite long but stick with it as the ending will completely surprise you.

Kate has been sober for 6 years and in that time has managed to find the perfect man and the perfect job and has great support from her sponsor. All seems to be going well until her childhood friend Becky turns up out of the blue. After asking her to stay with them for a while, Kate and her fiance start to experience problems and Becky seems to still be holding a grudge about the past. But when all the secrets come out, will Kate remain sober or will it all become too much? This one had so many twists and turns and really kept me guessing until the end. What I thought was the truth, was not and what I thought would happen, didn't. A gripping read.

Oh my god!! I cant wait to read more books by Emily. Her writing is incredible.

This book had me hooked from the first page. I devoured it in 2 sittings, I just couldn't put it down.

Kate has rebuilt her life following years of alcohol abuse and when her old best friend returns Kate's life starts to fall apart all over again.

I thought I knew on a number of occasions where this book was going and then it would turn in a different direction. I really didnt see that situaton happening.

I was completely invested in this book and didnt want it to end. A definite top read of 2021 for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Unfortunately this one was not for me.

I found the writing to be stilted and very prosaic - and when it did try harder it felt awkward such as "She inhales a wet ice cube and crunches it between her teeth" and "Her kitten heels clip with disappointment"... And the plot takes so long to progress with only Kate's limited viewpoint of the past to explore. Limited by her excessive drinking and her memory loss. No real tension was achieved and the dialogue between Kate and Becky, her one-time best friend with whom she reunites and has moved in to the house she shares with her fiance within a blisteringly short period of time, was again awkward and stilted.

Perhaps also, as the main character is an English teacher and I am an English teacher, a lot of the setting felt very wrong to me - perhaps the result of a minimum of research and no real understanding of the profession (child protection meeting, taking place on short notice for ten minutes in the morning? Nooooo that would be a 60 minute after school CPD session!) or of our professional standards - following children you teach back home???

Also, for me, the depiction of alcoholism and the AA process did not ring true... possibly because Shuggie Bain is still fresh in my memory and very little will stand up to THAT comparison!

I do wish Emily Freud all the best success with her book, and I do hope she finds and audience, but it was not for me.

#MyBestFriendsSecret #NetGalley
Awesome novel.
Kate Sullivan has a beautiful home, a job she loves and a handsome fiancé: all she'd ever dreamed of since getting sober and painstakingly piecing her life back together. But a chance encounter with her old best friend Becky threatens Kate's newfound and fragile happiness. Kate remembers nothing of their last drunken night out, the night Becky broke off their friendship without warning or explanation. With Becky back in her life, Kate is desperate to make amends for the past. For the closure she craves, Kate needs to know what she did that ruined everything. But what if the truth is worse than Kate could have imagined?
Read it in a sitting.
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for giving me an advanced copy.

When Kate was younger and struggling to deal with the death of her mother, she turned to alcohol and drugs to escape from her problems. After years of putting up with her drunken behaviour, Kate's best friend Becky has had enough and decides to cut all contact, disappearing from her life completely.

Several years later, Kate has turned her life around. She is sober and looking forward to marrying her fiancé Ben when she unexpectedly bumps into Becky in a restaurant. Desperate to make amends for her behaviour in the past, Kate decides that the only way she can move forward is to find out exactly what happened on their last explosive night out. However, as she begins to piece the events of that night together, all other aspects of her life start to unravel. Is Becky telling the truth or is she intent on destroying the stability Kate worked so hard to achieve?

My Best Friends Secret is a different type of thriller to the books I normally read. A domestic thriller which is fundamentally an exploration of every type of toxic and destructive relationship a person can have - whether that is concerning female friendships, relationships with a partner, other family members or harmful relationships with alcohol or other substance addiction.

The elements of suspense were incorporated subtly throughout the story, building to a shocking ending which was both unexpected and emotional - the descriptions of Kate's struggles felt incredibly real and raw which is no doubt a result of the author drawing on her own personal experiences with alcoholism and mental health issues. The way Kate was forced to question her own sanity, sobriety and memories was very cleverly done, leaving me frustrated, wanting to discover the truth about what really happened and questioning every character at various points in the story. My Best Friends Secret is a powerful and beautifully written debut novel.

My thanks to Quercus Books for an invitation to read and review ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ by Emily Freud and also to take part in the blog tour to celebrate its paperback release on 22 July.

I would class this novel more as a domestic drama/noir rather than a thriller, as although there are elements of suspense throughout the narrative, the main focus is upon the relationships between its various characters as well as the protagonist’s struggle with alcoholism.

Kate Sullivan is the kind of lead character well known to readers of the sub-genre of domestic noir/psychological thriller - at the opening of the novel she apparently has everything and yet outside forces soon threaten to destroy this.

So Kate has a beautiful home, a teaching job that she loves and she’s just about to marry Ben, her handsome American fiancé. Yet this new life hasn’t come easily. When Kate was younger she was out of control though in the intervening years she has painstakingly pieced her life back together, notably through working the AA 12-step program.

Then a chance encounter with her former best friend, Becky, threatens Kate's newfound happiness. Years before on a wild drunken night out something happened that led Becky to break off their friendship without explanation. Kate remembers nothing but wants to make amends. She also feels that she needs to know what happened that night. … no further details to avoid spoilers.

I felt that what distinguished ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ was Emily Freud’s powerful and sensitive exploration of the challenges associated with alcoholism, including the constant temptations Kate faces to reach for a drink. I feel very lucky not to have experienced that pull but I have seen the toll that a dependence upon alcohol can take on an individual as well as upon their family and friends.

In addition, there are a number of surprises/twists along the way, and I felt that these emerged very organically from the narrative.

Overall, while ‘My Best Friend’s Secret’ wasn’t always a comfortable novel to read given the subject matter, I found it an impressive debut. It was well written and an engaging read. I can also see it being popular with reading groups as the issues raised around alcohol and addiction lend themselves well to group discussion topics.

Kate is out to dinner with her “perfect” fiance when she runs into her ex-best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in 10 years, since a night blurred by alcohol, after which Becky disappeared from Kate’s life, which quickly spiraled out of control. Now sober, in love and with a job she’s passionate about, Kate thinks it’s time to make things right with Becky once and for all. But the careful control Kate has strived for quickly slips from her grasp and she finds herself questioning everything. As she struggles to hold on to her sanity, Kate must face her darkest secrets once and for all.

This book was a real page turner because it had a great cliffhanger beginning, which really left me wanting to know how things turned out right from the start. As the book goes on, the mystery only gets deeper as the questions mount. This is the kind of book where you think you have a handle on it and then another twist sends things slipping through your fingers.

Kate is also a character worth rooting for: she’s sympathetic and likable, and she wants to do what’s best, but doesn’t quite always get there. That made her very relatable in my mind. She wasn’t some perfect, over the top, perfect manic pixie dream girl. She was just an ordinary girl with problems of her own, trying not to get overwhelmed.

The ending was very good and I felt things wrapped up nicely. The mystery was solved and all the characters seemed to be in the right place.

This was a great debut novel from this author I look forward to reading more from her.

A great read from start to end. A cleverly thought out novel which hits the knuckle - it took me back to my early twenties when I was living a very similar life of self-indulgence through drinking, not really caring about my friends or family's feelings as long as I was doing what I wanted to do. The characters are believable and the story is brought to life through them. I was totally immersed into the twists and secrets that led to a climatic and unexpected ending.
Well done for this brilliant debut novel I am looking forward to reading more from Emily Frued.

Thanks netgalley for giving me an early copy of this book.
I found it overlong, and the middle boring.
I understood the difficulties Kate is having as an alcoholic,
Becky has best friend, and Ben her fiancé both had secrets, and Kate needed to know about what had happened in her past.
The story was interesting and you learnt about therapy as an alcoholic, the story got a bit confusing, and the ending was sad.

A fantastic tale of friendship- I loved this thriller full of twists and turns, trying to get to the bottom of the reason why becky ghosted her best friend. Fantastic read.

This is a really good drama about two friends and their murky past.
The characters are deep and personable and the storyline believable with just the right amount of twist and turns

Really great story leaving you guessing what is going on for so much of the story, truly didn't see the twist playing out in the way it did.

Kate Sullivan has a beautiful home, a job she loves and a handsome fiancé: all she'd ever dreamed of since getting sober and painstakingly piecing her life back together. But a chance encounter with her old best friend Becky threatens Kate's newfound and fragile happiness. Kate remembers nothing of their last drunken night out, the night Becky broke off their friendship without warning or explanation. With Becky back in her life, Kate is desperate to make amends for the past. For the closure she craves, Kate needs to know what she did that ruined everything. But what if the truth is worse than Kate could have imagined?

The descriptions of recovering addicts incredibly well researched and thought out. It was a very good read but I felt as though some questions I had were not answered.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.