When June Bennett was 12 years old, her father disappeared. After, June, her older sister May and their mother left their cottage on Avril Island and never returned. Decades later, when their mother dies, May learns that they still own the cottage. She wants nothing to do with it but she dies in a car accident before she can really do anything about it.

June is struggling to deal with May's death. When she learns that the cottage is still in their family after also assuming it had been sold years ago, she decides to pick up and head to Avril Island to clear her head and hopefully find some time to heal from the loss of her sister.

Being back in that cottage is bittersweet. While it brings to her memories of all the fun she and May had, it also brings up many of the bad memories of their time there with their self absorbed mother. When she begins to see a figure lurking in the shadows and other unexplainable things start to occur, it encourages her to finally figure out the truth about her father's disappearance.

There are definitely people that do no want her on that island. And it becomes very clear, very quickly that her mother wasn't liked at all by other residents, which was all unknown to June since she was just a child when they lived there. June reconnects with a boy from her childhood during her time on the island, but even he may not be all that he appears to be, leaving June to wonder if she is the only one she can trust on that island.

This was told in the narrative of June and her dead sister, May, which led to some incredibly interesting storytelling. This was a well-paced mystery that will totally leave you guessing until the end.

Another story about sisters. This one was a bit predictable but still enjoyable. My favorite character was May, who starts the book telling you she is about to die. After she dies, she still tells a good portion of the story. Most of it revolves around her sister June. June finds out that Avril Island, the place she remembers from her childhood that she thought her mother had sold long ago, has now become hers. Her mother and sister are dead. Her father disappeared long ago. She stays on the island trying to solve the mystery of what happened so long ag and why she never knew that her mother had kept the island.

My favorite parts of this came from May. I wish she had been the POV more often because she was the most likable character in the book. April and June were flawed in a very selfish and unlikable way. In spite of all that, the ending was satisfying.

As children, sisters June and May vacationed on the idyllic island of Avril. A island owned by their family. At the age of 12, June’s father mysteriously disappeared on the island and June, May and her mother, April, leave quickly never to return. April tells the girls that she sold the island, but years later when she dies, they find out she has lied about the island. After the devastating loss of her sister May, June heads to the island to find out answers. What really happened to her father that night? Why do her mother lie about the island? With May’s spirit also on the island, truths are revealed and the sisters find out what really happened that night. A riveting tale from start to finish, I was totally hooked!

What You Never Knew is a mix between a domestic suspense and a thriller. There isn’t anything graphic or gory in this book so no warnings needed. If you're looking for a classic thriller without any WTF moments then you should add this one to your TBR! It’s also Hamilton’s debut novel 🎉 so send her some love!

The book is told in two alternating sister POVs, May and June. There’s one catch, May’s dead 😵 While grappling with both her mother’s and sister’s deaths, June learns she has just inherited the family’s vacation island. Her mother told her that she sold it after their father abandoned them. June returns and discovers that her father’s leaving might not have been at his own hands... By returning to the island, June thought she would be reliving childhood memories, but she’s now unearthing family secrets and paying for past sins.

I love a good family drama that mixes in shady secrets and classic thriller tropes. This book has a little bit of everything I look for in a thriller:

🌲Atmospheric location - I love a cabin in the woods, but Hamilton doesn’t go stereotypical here, June has a cell phone and a boat and they both work!

📖 Page turner - Hamilton beautifully balances the mystery with strong character development that makes you turn the page. You are invested in June and her family’s story, just as much as the case.

🔪 Villain motivation - The “villain's” motivation is straightforward and logical. This has been my complaint with a lot of thrillers lately. Writer’s please don’t put in twists for the sake of it! This book is a great example of keeping it simple but effective.

My critiques:
At no point do June and May look for their father after he abandons them. They just take their mother’s word for it?
I don’t think May’s ghost POV adds anything to the story. If a ghost POV was a must then I would have added in April’s too since she is the more interesting character.

What You Never Knew by Jessica Hamilton is a fascinating, atmospheric mystery about uncovering family secrets that have laid dormant for decades. The story is told in the perspective of sisters June and May, whose enigmatic, mercurial mother has recently passed away. They learn that their family still owns the small island on Lake Champlain, where they vacationed as kids, but left abruptly as young teenagers. In the first chapter, older sister May is killed, but her spirit remains to narrate some of the sections. Still grieving the loss of her sister, June travels to the island to try to find answers about their family’s past and father who disappeared during that final summer on the island. I loved the isolated setting and how the story slowly unfolds revealing more and more about her family’s actions and how we’re not sure who to trust as she reconnects with more people from the area. Hamilton does an excellent job including tidbits of information that foreshadow what may have happened. I listened to the audiobook which is well-narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen and Laura Jennings. This is a well-crafted mystery perfect for a summer vacation!

Thank you Crooked Lane Books / Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing this audiobook and e-book ARC.

This is a very interesting story told from the perspectives of two sisters, one of which is dead. June struggles with the death of her mom and her sister and moves back to Avril Island in hopes to find some answers. This book checks off some of my favorite troupes: small town mystery, dysfunctional family, and creepy atmosphere.

The story was a little too slow paced for me and the ending was predictable. I wish the sisters were more developed since they are the main characters. I wanted to connect with them more since the story was a great premise but I didn’t.

This is a great debut novel and will look out for the next book Jessica Hamilton writes.

Thank you Netgally and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced read for my honest options.

June is trying to cope with the unexpected death of her beloved sister and the unexpected news that the island their family owned (that she thought had been sold years before) has been willed to her. She returns to the island and the mystery surrounding the reason her family left it that last summer - the disappearance of her father. June soon finds out there is more to the story than she knows and in the process finds an old friend and new mysteries.

The overall plot is interesting and engaging but the dialogue forced and unrealistic. Some of June’s actions and motives are clearly driven by grief while others reflect deep-seated lack of good sense. (Who doesn’t call the police when they find a body?!) I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book but the ending honestly annoyed me more than anything else. I would have liked to get more from May, the dead sister who acts as a second narrator, but I liked that aspect of the book and thought it was a unique way to approach narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for letting me read What You Never Knew early, in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Crooked Lane books, Jessica Hamilton and Netgalley.
I liked this story. I liked it so much that I finished in a fairly quick time. Except for the character's crazy family "my family had their own crazy!" I connected with this story. I really disliked the ending. That's my only quibble.

Alternating chapters between May and June Bennett spark an interesting hook into this ghost mystery thriller. Extremely close, June loses her older sister May in a tragic auto accident only to set in motion the exploration of family secrets well hidden more than thirty years.

The daughters of well to do parents, they spent their summers on Avril Island, but their summers on the island ended when June was twelve with the sudden disappearance of her father. Their narcissistic mother divulges that he’d left the family and she subsequently sold the island. Nope.

June leaves her two daughters with her ex for the summer and travels back to the resort and their island to retrieve some of those good childhood memories, discover what really happened, and hopefully loosen her grieving process.

The POV of May is compelling, not sure why she has been drawn back or for what purpose.
June is rather one dimensional. Ezra, the son of the family who did some caretaking of the island, is not fully developed either but characterized as being June’s only close childhood friend. Ezra never married.

The conclusion kinda veers off the rails but confirms what I suspicioned early on and wondered what took so long. The big reveal is not a real surprise. There is, however, a gotcha that you don’t see coming—one more little twist—that adds some fun.

It is entertaining and for the most part keeps the reader engaged with an ambitious and worthwhile effort in a debut novel. 3.5 stars

Old secrets and an old friend await June on Avril island. What June thought she knew about that last summer on the island when she was twelve--is not nearly what she thought.
I wanted to know all the secrets, but from very early in the book June's character seemed less than realistic. In the end, I wasn't even satisfied knowing the secrets.

Read in March

NetGalley/Crooked Lane Books

Mystery. April 13, 2021. Print length: 304 pages.

This is an excellent debut. It held my attention throughout. I loved the fact that it was alternately narrated by two sisters, one living and one deceased. This added a unique element and allowed the author to play around some with how the story was told. I found it to be highly successful. I enjoyed reading about the remote VT island setting, which held an abundance of secrets and was integral to the plot. The plot had a lot of intriguing and surprising twists and turns and the ending was satisfying and entertaining.

“What You Never Knew” by Jessica Hamilton is a story about family and the secrets we keep to protect the ones we love. The Bennett family suffered tragedy on their idyllic summer island years ago and now after the death of her mother and sister, June is back to heal. Little does she know there’s so much more to the past than what her young self was told. As mysterious things begin happening around her cottage, June can’t reconcile the present with the past and it will lead her to dig deeper and deeper, until she may regret what she finds.

This book definitely had spooky summer vibes. Not as spooky as I thought it would be, but it definitely had its moments. June being alone on an island where bad things happen set the tone immediately. Throw in two missing men and the voice of her dead sister and there you are. As various things go wrong around the cabin, the pages fly. What happened before? And who is terrorizing June for it all now?

May is June’s dead sister and while I didn’t know that I loved the perspective, May is able to fill in a lot of the blanks that June has. All the mysteries and moments that June doesn’t know, May experienced either with her camera or she was there. May holds the truth, so her being dead is frustrating. It feels as though the reader will always know more than June. BUT the perspective is helpful and adds some diversity to the story.

I love the mirroring in the story. June appears to look like her mother, behave like her mother, think like her mother. It’s almost trippy. June feeling stuck in her mother’s shadow and pretending to be her mother at times creates a strange dynamic. Are we our parents? Or can we break the mold? There are moments when it feels as though the scale will truly tip and history will fully repeat itself.

In the end, I gave this book 4 stars. I enjoyed it, but feel like there were a few moments we could have sat in longer to create a greater thrill factor.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book hits the shelves April 13th!

What You Never Knew is an eerie and atmospheric domestic thriller with strong characters and a mysterious puzzle to fit together.

When I read that the book was “Told in alternating points of view between the living and the dead”, I was so intrigued. But of course, I was also fully aware that this narrative technique could result in a bit of a mess at the same time.

But there was no need to fret, as Jessica Hamilton does a brilliant job of making the narration of a dead character feel worthwhile and convincing. The narrative doesn’t give the book a supernatural feel, but instead heightens the relationship between June and May and their desperation to dig up the lies that have been buried in their childhood experiences.

There are some thriller elements to the story as there’s a mystery to solve and someone threatening June on the island, but I connected much more to the compelling and engaging family drama at the centre of it all which revolves around themes of grief, mistrust, and betrayal.

It’s a beautifully written debut that really draws you in. Although a little predictable, I wouldn’t consider that a flaw with this book as it’s the personal approach to the story that you appreciate most about it. I definitely want to see what Jessica Hamilton writes next!

I received a free digital copy from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I am a sucker for an atmospheric novel and this one hit the spot. June's childhood summer cottage is on it's own private island, in the middle of a lake. Having been closed up for 30 years, she heads back to see what is left of it, and also to find some answers to her unconventional upbringing. What ensues is a story about a woman starting over, finding herself, and also dredging up dark secrets from the past.

I really enjoyed this one, and it was a quick read. The author did a good job of building up the characters of this unusual family, especially considering all but one of them are dead. The chapters alternate between June and her sister May as a spirit. However, I don't feel like that gave it a supernatural feel, it was more like the reader could feel just how close the two sisters were, and I felt that those parts were very well done. The mystery elements adding a nice air of suspense that of course I loved, and the twist at the end was fun, but not all that surprising.

However, I don't feel like this one was correctly marketed. It's out there as a dark and ominous thriller. This was not a thriller. Yes, there is a mystery surrounding June's past and there are some shady characters, but I felt like the focus of this book was more on June's recovery and how she is dealing with the grief of loosing her beloved sister. I did like the book, but if you are looking for a fast paced thriller, this is not the one. But if you are in the mood for something engaging but a little lighter, you might really like What You Never Knew.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the debut novel by Jessica Hamilton. 4.5 stars for a book that really drew me in.

May and June were sisters who were extremely close. They spent their childhood summers at Avril Island, a private island purchased by her dad for her mom, April. However, when the girls were young, their father left their mother and she started a new life for them in Seattle. April told her daughters that she sold Avril Island. However, after May is killed in a horrible car accident, June learns that the island was never sold and is now hers. Devastated by her grief, May returns to Avril Island. However, once there, she discovers that the community is not happy to see her return. In the vein of The Lovely Bones, this story is told through both May and June's voices as we learn all the secrets the family and the island hold.

I thought this was a wonderfully-written debut - it kept me intrigued until I turned the last page. Besides being a good mystery, this book explores the good and bad of family relationships and how secrets can destroy us. Both points of view allowed you to get to know both sisters as well as their story. I can't wait to read more from this author!

What You Never Knew was an interesting story about two sisters, one of whom is dead. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it or not but I did. It had plenty of twists throughout and the ending surprised me which for me is what should happen in a good thriller/mystery book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC.

This book was awesome! As a debut author, I am so excited to see what Hamilton will come up with next!

With a spooky, atmospheric vibe, from start to finish, this one had me completely entranced! The story is told through the alternating POVs of two sisters...one alive and one dead. WHAT?? I know right. It's so good!

The location of the story is on an island that is inherited by June after her mother and sister die. She heads there alone to handle her grief and ultimately unravel a mystery she didn't even know about. I loved the POV changes and the insight it offered as the story unfolds. Between the two sisters we really learn so much about their relationship with each other and their mother, and as memories surface, we learn about their missing father. It's full of mystery and twists that will keep you reading WAY into the night!

I highly recommend this for readers that enjoy an emotional domestic thriller with a paranormal twist!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

3.5 STARS - What You Never Knew is a story about long-held secrets, family drama and tragedy. Its beautiful setting (a 100-year-old abandoned island cottage) gave the story a vivid atmospheric feel and had a strong nostalgic vibe for this reader.

Hamilton's description of the sights and smells of an old cottage gave a wonderful dramatic feel to her story and took me right back to my own family's island cottage on Lake Nippissing when I was growing up - except ours hadn't been abandoned for 30 years and didn't have a mysterious past. Phew!

This book has good bones - setting, darker themes and red herrings - but I think it could be stronger in a few areas. The story lags a bit and despite the strong theme of grief, I felt the reader is kept at arm's length emotionally. I wanted more connection with the sisters - particularly more from May's wonderful ghostly perspective - but most of the story focuses on June who was a little too off-putting for me. We're told of the sisters' bond (and another romantic connection), but from the reader's POV, they go from tweens to adults without the reader being given enough background to understand their connection as adults.

This was an impressive debut and while I figured out the culprit, I liked that Hamilton used a unique way to tell her story and I think she has some formidable writing chops. I look forward to reading more from Jessica Hamilton in the future.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Crooked Lane Books for my advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

NOTE: This review was posted on April 3, 2021 on my blog and social media.

3.5 stars

I really liked the idea of this book and thought it had a lot of potential.

June Bennett had been led to believe that the island once owned by her family had been sold after her father abandoned them. It wasn’t until the death of her sister, May, that she learned Avril Island now belonged to her. When she returned to the island, she discovered so much more about what truly happened all those years ago.

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good book. The suspense factor was great, and I’m glad I was surprised by how the story ended; luckily I didn’t see it coming. But...and I hate to say this...I couldn’t stand June! It’s not often that I don’t like a main character, but I just couldn’t connect with her, and her dialogue and personality bothered me enough that I felt like I couldn’t enjoy the story as much as I wanted to.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3909406688

Told alternately by June and the ghost of her sister May, this is a gothic story of family secrets and lies. June and May both thought that Avril Island had been sold when their father disappeared back when they were teens. May's shocked, therefore, to discover that she's inherited from her mother but before she can investigate further, she's killed, leaving the island to June. June finds there's a lot she didn't know about both her parents, especially with regard to why her mother took the girls away. Creepy things happen to her once she's in the house (loved the atmospherics of the abandoned building) but she renews a relationship with Ezra that turns to a bit of romance- or does it. No spoilers from me but this one does get a little nuts near the end. Not a bad thing because it's very entertaining. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A nice debut for fans of suspense.