I LOVED THIS BOOK.

Thanks so much for the arc of this delightful read. Do people still use the word chortle? Because I think that’s what I was doing —chortling—throughout the book. Ok sometimes I was shouting at Bells in a very loving way for decisions she shouldn’t have made but I totally understood why she did. Love it. So fun. It should be a movie next!

The Truth and Other Hidden Things had me hooked from the very first line. The writing is witty, entertaining and fun. I was enthralled by the Walker family’s move out of the city and how each member adjusted to the culture shock. This novel was such a page turner because I wanted to read how Bells, as The Duchess, would portray her fellow residents. The idea of an anonymous blog dishing out the hot gossip of the town was brilliant. The occurrences weren’t outrageous but they were shocking enough and I was eager to see how Bells’s readers would respond to her blog.

However, as great as most of this novel was, I felt the ending was too cookie cutter. I felt that the ending gave Bells too easy of a way out of the chaos she created, and I wanted to see her grapple with it more. I wanted to see more of her kids at the ending as well because they really took a backseat for most of the novel.

The parts about Bells writing and finding content for her blog were entertaining but her interactions with her family left more to be desired.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is a fun read for any woman in her 40s, especially mothers of teens. I had a lot of fun with Bells and her family and I look forward to more books by Lea Geller.

With thanks to Lea Geller, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for the digital ARC.

Such a fun read! It’s laugh out loud funny and so relatable! So enjoyable and silly, definitely a book to recommend

What a delight this story was! I really enjoyed Lea Geller's first novel, Trophy Wife, and equally enjoyed this one. It was funny (as in, I actually laughed out loud and read the funny parts to anyone who would listen) and refreshing, though I think there's a part of all of us that can relate to Bells' need to be seen. Kudos, Lea!

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is a snap, crackle popping good read. Settle in and put your day on autopilot because you won’t be able to put this one down!

To Bells Walker it seems like one day she’s clearing space in her cramped New York City apartment and the next she’s moving to Pigkill in Dutchess County with her professor husband Harry and their 2 1/4 children. Yes, the same day she found out she was surprisingly and accidentally pregnant, Harry was denied tenure and lost his job. Dutchess College hires him, provides him with a less than stellar house (they have more rooms than furniture, the kitchen is in a separate garage and the plumbing is primitive). After her children Sam and Alice sulk off to their new schools, Bells tries to reinvent herself in the Hudson Valley. Although she has written a column for a free New York paper, the local Gazette has no use for another expatriate from the City. The editor advises her to write a blog. A bad idea, as it turns out, because Bells becomes the County Dutchess, skewering all things that make Pigkill unique. Fairs, Fests, goat milk ice cream, artisanal cheese, alpaca yoga and more help the County Dutchess begin to go viral. But it is her blogs satirizing the women who would be her friends that give Bells the fame she has always wanted as a writer. Emboldened, she pushes too far. The result is damage that she may not be able to repair.

This delightful gem by Lea Geller is flawless, full of laughs while taking a hard look at ambition and self criticism. I’m looking forward to her next book! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Lea Geller for this ARC.

The premise of this book was interesting. However, I really struggled with the characters. Particularly Harry, the husband. The ending was also a bit meh, as nothing really changes (other than the main character a bit).

This book starts with a bang! Bells Walker is mid 40s when she finds out her IUD failed and she’s pregnant and her husband has just lost his job in Manhattan. They’re forced to move to upstate New York for her husband’s new job, with their two teenagers, who aren’t pleased about the move OR the new baby. Bells is bored and feeling under-appreciated post-move so she starts an anonymous gossip blog about life & the people in her new town.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things is like Gossip Girl all grown up. Bells’ column starts off innocently enough: poking fun at millennials and their love of kombucha but turns into serious territory, spilling all the secrets of the PTA moms: affairs and college cheating scandals. It’s a recipe for disaster and will assuredly blow up in her face, which it does.

I was attracted to the book for the gossipy vibes, but I really enjoyed Bells deeper storyline. She’s lost her personal identity while being a wife and mother and we watch her eventually find herself (after a spectacular crash and burn).

Genre: Fiction/Comedy
Release Date: Expected April 2021

Bells Walker is a normal 40-something suburban mum. Husband, Two Kids, Place-holder job writing for the local gazette.
Until one very bad day.
Her IUD has failed and she's now dealing with an 'advanced maternal age' pregnancy, her husband Harry doesn't make tenure at the university, and on top of all that she has no idea how she's going to tell her overly judgemental mother and adolescent children.

Now the whole family, baby bump included, move to Dutchess Country for Harrys' new job - to the beautifully named town of Pigkill. With a house that's falling apart, her children miserable and nothing to do - Bells gets back to writing. But not about wonky pavements this time!

Under the brilliantly named moniker of the Country Dutchess, Bells starts dishing all the secrets about the residents of Pigkill, about her real thoughts about marriage and parenting, about anything she wants to say under the security of being totally anonymous. But people are not happy, and the mystery around the County Dutchess blog grows more every day - but how far can she push this before it comes back to haunt her?

This book starting off bordering on absurd in the very best way- the bad luck that Bells was dealt day after day, but all in a hilariously light-hearted way. As a woman who is slowly approaching her thirties, I felt all of Bells worries and couldn't help but relate to every mishap and worry she found herself in ... well, most of them anyway. She gave brilliant insights into trying to balance a career, a house, the husband and the kids, and I laughed a LOT.

The second half of this book, however, felt like I had jumped into a completely different story and it definitely threw me off - it got very serious, very quickly and while I was still invested in finding out what would happent to Bell, it was a little difficult getting fully immersed back into the story and admittedly I was slightly annoyed at the very abrupt shift in her personality towards the end of the book. I still finished and the ending didn't satisfy me completely but I still enjoyed myself.

This is the type of book you'd love to read on holiday - it's funny, it's cute, it's utterly absurd and it's very easy to read in one sitting.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

When Bell's husband loses his college professor job in New York City, the family must move to upstate New York, where he takes a job at a smaller, less prestigious school. Bells, a writer in her early forties, is also pregnant and the mother of two teens. So, lots going on! Her way of coping is to assert her identity by creating a blog in which she writes about her experiences anonymously. She's pretty snarky, and soon makes lots of enemies and frenemies -- but will they discover who she really is? This is a fun story about families, social pressure and social media.

This was a light, easy read for my downtime in between all the murder and mayhem I usually devour.

Bells Walker is forced to move to the suburbs when her husband doesn't make tenure at his job. With 2 ungrateful kids in tow - one who only wants to play in a band and another who is thisclose to being a smartass teenager - but neither who want to move, along with a surprise baby on the way...well, you can imagine how well it goes.

As in, not well at all. Bells feels left out. Looked over. With no career of her own, she begins to blog about life in the suburbs. Particularly the drama and secrets that come with living in a small town. And if you think that this blog fulfills Bells, you're right....until it blows up in her face.

I won't share any spoilers but I will say that she should have taken her friend's advice and knocked it off. Throughout the blog writing and the aftermath, Bells learns a lot about her family, her new town, and most of all, about herself.

Definitely recommend this as a light beach-read type book.

Just what I needed to make me laugh! I really enjoyed this read. Would make a great choice for a beach reading list!

Thank you for the ARC NetGalley. As a 40 something woman who lives in suburbia this book feels spot on. We folllow Bells through her journey from the Big Apple to the Hudson Valley all while trying to nurture her family. She seeks solace by being an anonymous blogger and, of course, everything doesn’t quite go as planned. It was a delightful read and I will seek out more from this author. #TheTruthandOtherHiddenThings #NetGalley

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

4 stars for this fun and witty read!

Bells Walker finds out on the same day that her IUD has failed and that her husband hasn't been given tenure where he teaches. This leads to them moving out of New York City with their two teenage children to Dutchess County, where her husband has secured a new job as a professor. Being pregnant in her 40s and with no real career of her own Bells is feeling isolated and forgotten about. As she begins meeting other moms in their new town Bells decides to start writing an anonymous blog about her new life and the people she encounters. Before she knows it Bells is in over her head and exposing juicy secrets on the blog. She gains more and more readers the gossip becomes more salacious until things spiral out of control and Bells is exposed.

I enjoyed The Truth and Other Hidden Things. Bells was a relatable character and while the book mainly centered on her and her family it was never dull. I loved all the secrets that Bells dug up about the other women in her town. But the overall message of community and family were what I loved most. When things got tough everyone was there for Bells and she realized the error of her ways in the end. I liked the characters in this book and the drama that came from the blog posts. Everyone around them is trying to guess who is behind the blog and it kept the plot interesting. This is a heartwarming story and I recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

I will be honest. I finished this book last night, and I still haven't decided if I liked it or not. So here comes a review, perhaps incoherent, but very very honest.

First of all, I just really loved the premise of this. Overworked middle-aged mum with too much on her plate? Sign me the fuck up! The synopsis of this reminded me of Rebecca Smith's Faking it (aka one of my favourite summer reads), so I was excited to get into it. It did, however, turn out to be a bit more intense than I expected, and reminded me more of Charlize Theron's Young Adult (a really good movie btw!). Bells was not as likable as I thought she would be. Sure, I could sympathize with her, but also... what the absolute fuck woman? There were so many instances where I just wanted to scream.

Now, hear me out. I may not have liked Bells as a character. She was a bit too insecure, too foolish, and sometimes even too selfish for my taste. She just kept making so many wrong choices. But... I really admire Geller for writing a character like Bells. She is not perfect, she is barely even likable sometimes - but that's what's extraordinary about her. She is a woman, a mother, who's allowed to be imperfect and to fuck up and to be tired and to be angry and to make so many mistakes. I don't necessarily care for Bells, but Geller I will definitely keep an eye out for.

In addition to Bells, I can't say I really liked any of the other characters. Sure, Harry could be charming sometimes and I could resonate with his obsession for fancy, useless, "artisanal" things. But, overall I think he was a bit of a useless, spoiled, man-child. For me, the most compelling characters of the novel were Vivian (Bell's mother-in-law), Bells' mum, and Joey (the waitress from the diner and Bells' only real friend in Pigkill). I wish we had seen more of them, as I found all three of them really interesting and it was their dynamic and relationship with Bells that brought out the best in our protagonist and made her more interesting. Everyone else was just meh.

This is by no means a bad book. It is funny, scandalous at times, even if sometimes unnecessarily caustic of the younger generation. A quick and light-hearted read.

The Truth and Other Hidden Things was a quick, fun, yet heart wrenching story of 40 something year old women, who has lost herself. She is a wife, mother of teenagers and now finds herself pregnant in a new town with no close friends. She starts to implode but in the end finds herself again. Get ready to laugh and cry, love and hate the characters at the same time.

This was a quick read that started off light and airy but quickly veered into more serious territory - perhaps a bit too serious.

An NYC mom is forced into upstate living when a series of events - including her husband not getting tenured at Columbia and suddenly finding herself over 40 and pregnant with her third child.

Bells loses herself in her husband's career and her children's issues with adjusting to their new neighborhood. She does not feel she has anything for herself - until she channels her love of writing into an anonymous blog detailing the lives of the rich upstate families. What started as an homage to Gossip Girl quickly turned dangerous as Bells uncovered - and published - details of numerous affairs within the community.

The sh*t hits the fan when Bells is found out, but not before publishing one more huge and extremely consequential secret. It was here that I removed one star - the ending was rushed and the fallout of the final secret was never fully flushed out. Bells betrays one of her only real friends in the neighborhood, and this is glossed over.

In the end, we wonder if anyone has really learned their lesson, other than Bells, but her wry observations are worth the ride.

#TheTruthandOtherHiddenThings #NetGalley
Thanks NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Lea Gellar for an ARC to review. Expected pub date 6 April 2021.
Imagine being 4o something with two teenagers and a husband who is facing a career crisis, when you discover you are unexpectedly pregnant.
Meet our County Dutchess who moves from Manhattan to Dutchess PigKill where her husband brings her home ingredients she can't pronounce and hipsters are invading the place. Bells starts venting down her judgments and insecurities in an " innocent" blog under an anonymous personna.
A fun, hooking enjoyable real life book that I truly enjoyed.

#firstline - The day Harry didn’t get tenure was also the day I discovered that an IUD is not foolproof.

OMG, this book. I loved it, hard. It was funny, heartwarming, heartbreaking, honest and tackles so many themes mom’s can relate to and women struggle with as they age. It was one of those books you cannot help but devour because you wanted to see what was going to happen next. Believe me when I say you will be buzzing through the pages to see how it all shakes out. Secrets are revealed and when things take on a life of their own you are taken on quite a wild ride, filled with gossip, likes, shares and comments (oh the comments!). The characters and story will peak your interest and keep you entranced from cover to cover! Speaking of covers, can you handle how amazing this book cover is!?!?!? Love!!! #WhoIsTheCountyDutchess