I loveee a good thriller, and Gideon delivered! So many twists and turns- I was on the edge of my seat. I particularly enjoyed the shifting perspectives so that you could understand each characters' point of view. A lot of the book is devoted to Ruth and Gemma's bad behavior (making them fairly unlikable), yet there are moments where I found myself emphasizing with them. Admittedly I was a bit more invested in the daughters, who had the added stresses of high school drama. Overall, a solid thriller that I will be recommending to my friends to read.

4.5/5

Don’t you love being surprised by a book? I don’t just mean by twists and turns but more you go into it not knowing what to expect and then what you get kinda blows your mind? I freaking love and that’s exactly what happened here. I didn’t see many reviews of this, nothing on bookstagram so maybe that’s why I ended up enjoying it so much, there was no preconceived ideas!

I love a good dramatic story about frenemies and this one was great, Ruth and Gemma are both pretty questionable as far as morals and values go but there’s something so delicious for me about reading about people behaving badly. This was fast paced and had lots of devious little twists and turns and was just overall a really wicked read. If you like books with unlikable characters and juicy and gripping plot lines check this one out.

Ruth, a wealthy divorcé​e, hosts the Hillside Academy kindergarten meet-and-greet, where her daughter Marley will be one of the students. The only other single mom there is Gemma, who's daughter Bee is the exact opposite of Marley. Bee is extroverted and easy-going, where Marley is timid and prone to tears in stressful situations. Together, the two girls become fast friends, and Ruth & Gemma become close friends as well. Ruth enjoys doing things for Gemma, but they seem to come at an emotional price tag that becomes steeper and harder to pay, the longer they are friends. So, Gemma distances herself from Ruth. Then when a scandal rocks Gemma's world and Ruth uses that to wedge her way back in, Gemma feels obligated to reciprocate. This time though, if she tries to distance herself from Ruth, the consequences will be even higher.
First let me say I am a huge fan of this author, so I was very excited to read this newest book. This is her best book yet. I could not put it down. This had plenty of drama (teen drama, there was a very catty anonymous mom texting site, etc), plus it dealt with some very heavy issues like body image, child abuse, bullying, suicide and depression to name a few. There were a lot of twists and turns and a surprise or two at the end, all of which made this an excellent psychological thriller. I highly recommend it!

Wow!!! I am still reeling from this ending. I never saw it coming even though it makes perfect sense when you think about the perfect ending for this book. Seriously mind messed up characters. Gemma and Ruth are a disturbing set of friends. A story filled with suspense, twists and turns and a best friend you will wish you had never met. Completely recommend this story to anyone who enjoys psychologic stories!

“are you asking me to read between the lines?”

i devoured the dramaaaa! smiling face with horns emoji. although i guessed the final twist, that didn’t matter, it was the juiciness that kept me from putting this book down. the text/email threads kept me thinking, “okay, just one more chapter,” due to the visual appeal. five stars!

jam packed with manipulation, deception, and mind games, this is a story of two families that depend on each other. but are they too close for comfort?
*content warning: depression, abuse, eating disorder, suicide

those who like domestic fiction (little fires everywhere) or psychological thrillers (the weight of blood) should put this at the top of their tbr list!

In the beginning, this story was giving me "Big Little Lies" vibes with the whole rich, suburban housewives that gossip and are overly involved in school activities. We have the two main characters and their daughters, Ruth, a divorcee, who is the wealthy stay at home mom; and Gemma, a widow, who is in every way the complete opposite. Scandal pulls them apart but then they reunite years later and it literally all goes downhill.

The psychological twists in this story made it a really good read. I appreciated how well the character development was for both the mothers and daughters. I never saw the end coming! The only thing I wished we got was a formal diagnosis for Ruth. Given her family history, I would have like to see how it ended for her. Ruth's manipulation of Gemma was on another level, but the ending proved that she wasn't as good as she thought.

**Thanks for netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC**

Not all friends are people who have your back. Not all friends want you to feel happy and safe. Some are like Ruth.

Ruth, a divorcee, meets recently widowed Gemma at an open house for the kindergarten class. As usual, Ruth has overdone things (Valet parking? Lobster? Speciality cocktails?) and she sees friendship with low key Gemma and her daughter Bee as a way to achieve popularity for her and her awkward daughter Marley. All become friends but there are breaks in the relationships until a serious problem in Gemma’s life brings Ruth even closer. In the eight months that follow, we see just how toxic friendships can become and how much damage can be done in the guise of love and caring.

Did I Say You Could Go? Is dark, twisted and very disturbing. The plot is deliberately slow, pulling the reader in and making the final chapters even more shocking and unsettling. This is a 5 star read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Melanie Gideon for this ARC.

I don't think I connected with this book because I'm not a mom and I've never had to deal with weird, suburban-y drama. I think that it holds a lot of promise for those who can find a good hook into the material.

Between the sabotage, the cat fishing, the suspense and the crazy drama-this book truly had it all and then some and I was totally here for the wild ride Gideon took us on.

This book gives the meaning "page turner" a new meaning and I could not recommend this more.

Thank you #netgalley for this advanced copy.

First of all, this book was well paced with numerous twists and turns that kept me turning pages. I enjoyed the plot and thought the character motivations were well-developed.

My only issue with this novel was that none of the characters are really like-able. That seems to be a trend in a lot of thrillers I’ve read lately, and I don’t like it. There’s a way to make your characters flawed but like-able.

I was truly underwhelmed with this book. I couldn't keep the characters straight, never knew which teenager belonged to which mom, and I kind of hated every single one of them. It was a struggle to force myself to finish.

I'm sorry to say that I really did not like this. The concept was interesting, and had some important messages about mental health and toxic relationships and trolls...but it just felt like it was without purpose for so much of the book. It meandered for so long that I probably would have given up on it if it hadn't been for the fact that I received a free copy for review. Oh well, can't love them all!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Did I Say You Could Go is a disturbing, juicy, and twisty psychological suspense that has my favorite thriller setting - elite schools. I love a thriller set in highly competitive high schools full of high strung helicopter parents and slightly scary teens. Did I Say You Could Go features one of the most terrifying characters I have encountered in a while. It centers around moms Ruth and Gemma. Ruth is a wealthy divorcee ostracized from the popular mom groups after a scandal. Her best friend and fellow single mom, Gemma, uses the scandal to take a step back from their concerning friendship. When Gemma finds herself embroiled in her own scandal a few years later, her and Ruth reunite. However, Gemma begins to feel trapped in a toxic relationship as Ruth becomes more and more obsessed.

So this book was dark. Extremely dark. Did I Say You Could Go takes mom drama to the next level and it is hard to look away. It was a bit of a slow burn at the beginning, but the juicy characters make it hard to put the book down. When it hits it’s stride, this book becomes completely insane with all the twists and turns. Gideon absolutely nails the ending and I will be thinking about these characters for a long time.

Fans of domestic suspense need to put this thriller on their TBR!

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty good thriller, I enjoy the multiple POVs. The characters were easy to love or hate, depending on which one. The storyline was interesting and held my attention throughout.

Ruth and Gemma met years ago when their daughters Marley and Bee were in kindergarten. As single moms, they formed an instant bond, but it fell away as Ruth came under scandal. Now that Gemma is under the weight of a scandal herself, the two friends come back together, but things are hardly happy.

Told from the four points of view of Ruth, Gemma, Marley, and Bee, this read is both chilling and fun. I didn’t see the final twist coming even though it’s obvious everything is quite wrong in these four women’s lives from the start.

This is such a page turner I couldn't put it down. I loved the multiple pov's and how unlikable Ruth was. It is always fun to have a villain in the mix. There are lots of unpredictable twists and turns along the way and these four friends have a toxic relationship with each other. The big reveal at the end was so phenomenally unexpected! This is a great domestic thriller and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read this arc for my honest opinion.

#DidISayYouCouldGo #NetGalley
A good read.
Ruth, a wealthy divorcé​e, offers to host the Hillside Academy kindergarten meet-and-greet, she hopes this will be a fresh start for her and her introverted daughter, Marley. Finally, they’ll be accepted into a tribe. Marley will make friends and Ruth will be welcomed by the mothers. Instead, the parents are turned off by Ruth’s ostentatious wealth and before kindergarten even begins, Ruth and Marley are outcasts.
The last guest to arrive at the meet-and-greet is Gemma, a widow and a single mother to her daughter, Bee. Ruth sets her sights on the mother-daughter duo, and soon the two families are inseparable. Ruth takes Gemma and Bee on Aspen vacations, offers VIP passes to Cirque du Soleil, and pays for dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants. For Gemma, who lives paycheck to paycheck, Ruth’s largesse is seductive, but as the years go by, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s accruing an increasingly unpayable debt. When Ruth’s affair with a married Hillside dad is exposed, and she’s publicly shunned, Gemma uses it to sever ties with Ruth.
Six years later, when Gemma finds herself embroiled in a scandal of her own—Ruth comes to her defense. Their renewed friendship rehabilitates their reputations, but once again, Gemma starts to feel trapped as Ruth grows more and more obsessed with their relationship.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Schuster for giving me an advanced copy.

Did I Say You Could Go was like mean girls on steroids. Because not only were there rivalries between the teenagers Marley and Bee and their school friends, but also a lot of behind-the-scenes manipulation and deceit between their moms, Ruth and Gemma.

This book is about opposite and co-dependent relationships, and the shift in power when one party has more than the other, be it in wealth or social currency. And what happens when neither of those things is enough to keep you afloat when you're caught in a scandal. It is also about relationships and how best of friendships can go sideways. Oh, and did I mention jealousies? Yeah, there's a lot of that in here too!

It took a while, but the book takes you from light and frivolous slights to some really dark corners by the end of the book. And it was worth the wait!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for gifting me a digital ARC of this thriller by Melanie Gideon - 4.5 stars!

Two single moms - Ruth and Gemma - and their two daughters - Marley and Bee, respectively - meet at a kindergarten meet-and-greet. On the surface, the two moms are polar opposites. Ruth is divorced and very wealthy and Marley is socially awkward; Gemma is a widow with limited means but Bee is very pretty and popular. But it works - the two women and two girls become the best of friends until they aren't. Fast forward to when the girls are freshmen in high school and Ruth offers to help Gemma out of a scandal with her company. They gradually get back to being tight friends, although the teenagers are too far apart socially to really connect again. Ruth is Gemma's savior but she starts feeling that the. price tag of being indebted to Ruth is too much.

This is mean girls in two generations! Told in alternating POV with all four women, we see how the obsessions play out, jealousy reigns supreme, and friendships are tested. Definitely showcases the difficulties that can spring up with mom and daughter relationships as well - even with the best of intentions at heart. This is also a cautionary tale of social media and how spreading gossip and rumors has such devastating consequences. This one kept me glued to the pages and the ending was perfect!

This one has twists up to and including the very last page! Ruth and her daughter Marley have been jealous of Gemma and her daughter Bee since they met when the girls were in kindergarten. Both single moms, the women were incredibly close (perhaps uncomfortably so for Gemma) until a minor scandal between Ruth and a married man allowed Gemma to back away a bit but now Gemma's business coaching students has been threatened and Ruth is back. It will quickly be clear to you that Ruth is obsessed with Gemma and that she's got other issues as well, most of which affect her daughter (poor Marley!) She's not a likable character at all. Gemma on the other hand is more sympathetic than Bee until.....This uses social media effectively and topical to tell the tale of some very twisted people. How hateful can women be to other women? Well, very hateful. I found myself turning the pages waiting to see what would happen next. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. This is hard to discuss without spoilers but know that nothing is what it seems. Or almost nothing. It's a wild ride.