I have enjoyed Liane Moriarty's books before and this one was no exception. It follows the Delaney family over the rough course of a year, exploring their own history as well as how their mother's disappearance came to happen. Information is revealed slowly and you find out that what people think of a perfect family had many not so perfect people behind it. I enjoyed it and enjoyed seeing how events and decisions played out.

Another great story by Moriarty! We meet the competitive Delaney family, all of whom play competitive tennis. In this novel, the Delaney parents, who owned and operated a tennis school, have a visitor who changes their lives and the lives of their children with a connection to their past. Filled with twists and turns, you're in for an eventful ride!

This is the Liane Moriarty I love! This one gave me Big Little Lies vibes, the book that made me fall in love with her writing style.
I alternated listening and reading this one, and both were so enjoyable.

Apples Never Fall follows the Delaney family, after their matriarch mysteriously goes missing. The Delaney’s were a family that appeared to have it all but Joy’s disappearance slowly chips away at the families perceived perfection.
As always, LM makes it easy to binge read with her short chapters. As I said in my recent review of Nine Perfect Strangers, she is skilled at introducing a multitude of characters but filling each and every one out that they are all necessary and you’re never confused about who is who. She also blows my mind about how the most minimal fact is brought up in the end and she ties up every single loose end.
This one surprised me, it took me a minute because I am not an avid audiobook listener, but I loved the narrator! Once I got the physical copy, I was about 72% finished and I read the rest of the book in one sitting. My husband was laughing at my “what!” And my 😧 faces while I finished this book.
I am a sucker for dysfunctional family stories because it always makes me feel better about my own family 😂

This book, if written by anyone else, would probably have been boring and a DNF for me. But I would literally read Liane Moriarty write about her kitchen remodel. She had this fascinating was with words that sucks me in. Apples Never Fall is no exception. The story is thrilling yet slow burning as we uncover who the mysterious young woman is that has taken up residence in the Delaney parents house.

As always, Caroline Lee is absolutely delightful as narrator.

This was a pretty average read for me. The plot was fairly simple and I thought it lacked the complexity that justifies a novel of this size. On a more positive note, I loved the family dynamics and really enjoyed that aspect of the book. Basically I thought it was just too long for what it offered. It was a solid 3 star book for me.

Love Liane Moriarty and this one did not disappoint!! Loved the ending and I have to say that I did not expect it. She always has great character development. You really become invested in the people.

Joy and Stan Delaney have four kids, a strong marriage, and the best doubles tennis game in town. They sold their business, where they coached kids to new tennis heights, and now they are enjoying their retirement. Or, that’s what everyone though, until Joy went missing.

It was unlike Joy to go missing, but she had texted the kids that she was going off-grid. The text was unusual, and later her phone was found under her and Stan’s bed. So technically, anyone could have sent the text. And Stan did have scratches on his face. And they did have that young woman staying with them for a while. What was that about?

The Delaneys’ four kids all have their own ideas about what happened. Amy tries to keep the peace, even though Savannah was staying in her room, the bedroom she used from time to time, when her latest job isn’t working out. But she found a place to live, a shared house with a bunch of younger adults, and she found a food tasting job that she really likes, so she hasn’t needed to move home for a while. And she’s seeing a new therapist. Maybe this one will really help her with her anxiety. She doesn’t want to think that her father could hurt her mother, but there were some things that he couldn’t explain.

Logan is a business communications professor, and he’s still trying to figure out why his fiancée left. He thought he’d been supportive. He didn’t just get up and walk away, the way his father would sometimes. He had tried to be supportive. He had a steady job. He wasn’t passive, like people said. In fact, he was the one who had went to Savannah’s ex-boyfriend’s place to find out more about her. And what he found out didn’t make her look very good.

Troy travels from Sydney to New York a lot. As a successful trader, he has the resources. And he’s always been enterprising. He was the only one who had accepted the tennis scholarship in America. All his siblings chose to stay in Sydney, while he got a first class education and used his tennis skill to land him a lucrative job after school. He was the only one to call out that cheater Harry back when they were teenagers. Sure, Harry was the one who went on to play at Wimbledon, to win top tournaments, but Troy never regretted jumping over the net and hitting Harry right in the face. He deserved that. But it was his mother who has soothed things over with Harry’s father and kept Troy from getting in too much trouble for that.

Brooke, the youngest, has always fought the hardest to keep up and compete with her sister and brothers. Now she has her own physical therapy clinic, and she works hard to keep it afloat. She’s the one who finds a criminal lawyer for their father, just in case he needs it. The others may call her a Daddy’s girl, but she’s just being smart. The police are asking pointed questions. There are some things that don’t make her father look good. She just wants him to have an advocate, if it comes to that.

Meanwhile, the police are trying to put together a case. Mothers of four don’t just go missing for weeks without contacting their children. Joy was a small woman. She was in her late 60s. Stan had scratches on his face. He had his car cleaned right after she disappeared. Her phone was found in their bedroom. What were they supposed to think?

Apples May Fall, the newest novel form Liane Moriarty, is a study of a complicated family. Told through the eyes of each of the Delaneys, as well as the police and friends and acquaintances, the story of this family comes together slowly, one puzzle piece at a time. It’s not until the very end that you see the whole picture, each piece snapping into place, overlapping and intertwining, until it all comes together. The construction of this story is intricate and delicate, like the perfectly balanced apple crumble, sweet but pungent with cinnamon, filled with soft baked apples but crunchy on top.

I really enjoyed this book, the way the answers come slowly. But it did take some patience to get all the way through. There are times it flows easily and times that you wish things would hurry up; but overall, I’m very glad I made it all the way to the end. I listened to he audio book, and narrator Caroline Lee kept me firmly planted in Australia with her charming accent. I thought the story brought up a lot of interesting questions about family, about our responsibilities in a family and what happens when the family fails us.

Also, there is a lot of tennis talk, which I loved, but I’m sure others would find less interesting. The theme of competition runs throughout, so if you’re not a sports person, you might find that tedious. But there is so much more to the story that I hope you won’t let that scare you off. It’s really about family, all the good parts and the other parts, and I think we can all relate to that.

A copy of the audio book for Apples Never Fall was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Great audiobook to listen to. Funny, thoughtful and involving. Liked the narrator and the Australian accent. Won't be able to look at tennis in quite the same way but I did feel like playing a game after listening.

The audio experience of Apples Never Fall was exceptional. The tone and voice artist did a great job of pulling the listener in and keeping the listener engaged.

Apples Never Fall Far follows the Delaney family on two different timelines. In the past we see them open their house to Savannah, a young woman who has just escaped her abusive boyfriend. And we see them in the present just as Joy, the mother, has gone missing. With these two timelines comes two mysteries, who is Savannah really, and, where is Joy and who may have caused her disappearance?

While I did enjoy this book, I don’t think that it was very shocking or elaborate like some of her other books are. I felt that this was more a story about this nice, yet chaotic family more than anything. Not that that is a bad thing, but I would’ve enjoyed some more “wow” factor to the mystery.

In terms of the family, I thought that they were all great. The Delaney’s are very much a cookie cutter happy family with normal everyday problems so they weren’t too wild or too messed up (which honestly could’ve been fun to read). Stan was by far my favorite character. He is such a sweet guy who is really just trying to do what is best for his family and I think we could all use a Stan in our lives.

Overall I found this book to just be okay. It was enjoyable but as I said there was nothing over the top that made this book stand out. The mystery was pretty predictable and that was disappointing. I also feel like this book easily could have, and should have, ended at least 10 chapters before it did. With all that I did like this book as a nice chill read. Good for a beach day, picnic, or light night reading.

OH MY GOSH! What a tangled web we weave. Just when I thought this book couldn't have any more twists, I WAS WRONG!! This was a really long listen so it took me some time to finish listening, but it was a CAPTIVATING read! I was quickly sucked in to the Delaney family's world. Each family member was living their own life, but yet things still had happened to and or because of them and secrets they may or may not be harboring. I was transfixed by these siblings and parents. I liked how this story weaved between now and what happened in the past. Liane did a great job of holding me captive and opening my eyes to these family members. I couldn't believe some things that were unveiled and others had me gasping. I can't recommend this book enough! Give yourself a listen, or read it, but either way, I don't think you will be disappointed.

3.5 stars!
The Delaneys are a tight knit family full of dysfunction. The parents, Joy and Stan, are widely known in the community as they ran a tennis coaching business for many years and have a very successful marriage in the public eye. When Joy goes missing, the four siblings are divided about what has happened. Some of them suspect Stan, as they had a big blowout right before Joy disappeared. However, Stan and Joy had also recently taken in a stranger named Savannah who appeared on their doorstep one night. Where is Joy?

I listened to this on audiobook thanks to @librofm, @netgalley and @macmillan.audio. It was a whopping 18 hours. I think it goes without saying, it was a bit too long for my taste. Moriarity goes into really specific details about each of the Delaney children and their lives as they go through the process of trying to figure out what happened to Joy. I really enjoyed the specificity at times, other times I found it to drag the story on. Joy and Stan also drove me a bit bonkers. All I could think about was how naive they were with Savannah. You don’t just let a stranger into your house!? And let them stay!? And their kids just let them do this? I just couldn’t fathom it. The world building was superb and I love the fluidity of Moriarity’s writing.

“That’s the secret of a happy marriage: step away from the rage.”

Liane Moriarty’s engaging novel, Apples Never Fall is a tale of marriage, family dynamics, and buried resentments. The story unfolds through 2 timelines: 69 year-old Joyce Delaney is missing. She sent a garbled text to her 4 children saying she was going ‘off grid,’ but that’s very unlike Joyce. Stan, Joyce’s husband for 50 years isn’t the one to report his wife missing, and that seems strange, but then they weren’t on the best of terms. The second timeline goes back to some months earlier when a young, distressed girl comes knocking at the Delaney home, looking for help, late at night. The chapters then go back and forth in time.

Stan and Joyce were tennis champions who owned their own tennis school, complete with cafe. Joyce, a veritable dynamo, raised 4 children while still playing tennis and running the school. Now Stan and Joyce are newly retired, and Joyce is adjusting to domestic life with Stan. Their busy, active life used to be full of obligations, constant diversions and interruptions. But now Stan sits in the recliner, nursing his knees, watching TV and munching crackers while Joy constantly listens, via headphones, to podcasts. She also accompanies a widowed neighbour to a creative writing course on how to write your memoirs. Joyce hasn’t written hers yet (and is only in the class for the neighbour’s sake) but in spite of her lack of intent, Joyce already has a title “Regret […] A Regretful Life by Joy Delaney.”

All the Delaney children were/are excellent tennis players, but none of them became champions. Each one bears the burden of a childhood spent training, winning and losing matches along the way.

When he was a kid, all he’d wanted to do was to beat his older brother in anything and everything. It was the point of his entire existence. Winning his first match against Logan had felt like a cocaine high except just like cocaine, it also made him feel sick. He always remembered with resentment and mystification how nausea had tainted the edge of his win, how he’d gone to have a shower to cool off and thought he was fine, but then he lost his temper with a tennis kid who had wandered through the back door of their house. He hated it so much when kids thought their kitchen was a clubhouse facility. It was almost like he’d felt guilty for beating his brother, as if being two years older gave Logan a lifelong right to win against Troy.

In adulthood, all 4 children have tangled issues with relationships. Amy, the eldest, a “free spirit,” can’t keep a job, or maintain a relationship. She’s spent a lifetime in therapy with no end in sight. Her younger sister, Brooke, who is “too driven,” is separated from her husband. A physical therapist with her own struggling PT clinic, Brooke gave up tennis due to blinding, painful migraines. Troy, freshly divorced, now an extremely successful trader, sabotaged his marriage and now regrets it. Logan’s longtime girlfriend just dumped him. Logan, a professor, has decided he’s going to give up dating and that way he won’t lose again. Each of Delaney children are shaped by competitive tennis.

“So been on the court lately?” Troy gave Logan a speculative look. It had been years since they’d played each other. Logan gave an irritated exhalation as if Troy had asked this same question multiple times before which he was pretty sure he had not.

“No, not for a while now.”

“Why not?” asked Troy genuinely interested. “Not even with mum and dad?“

“No time,” Logan fiddled with his left wrist as if to indicate an invisible watch.

“No time?” repeated Troy, “what a crock of shit. You’ve got time to burn.” Logan shrugged. Then he said suddenly as if he couldn’t help himself. “I don’t get how you play socially.” He said socially like the word smelled.

“I enjoy it,” said Troy truthfully. He had friends he played with on a semi-regular basis both in Sydney and New York. They were all former competitive players like him. He won maybe 70% of the time.

“Keeps me fit. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“You’re saying you don’t care if you win or lose?”


Now that Stan and Joyce are on their own, it’s dull. Life has changed in retirement; “Last year they had sold their business, and it felt like everything ended, juttered to a stop.” But late one night, there’s a knock at the door and a young girl, Savannah, claims she’s escaping an abusive relationship and just happened to arrive, by cab, at their home. Naturally Stan is suspicious, but Joyce cannot turn the girl away, and that decision is partly to spite Stan. Savannah stays, cooking marvelous meals. What was supposed to be a temporary measure turns permanent. ….

The detective investigating Joyce’s disappearance questions each of the children and, the husband of course. Stan’s reactions aren’t right, and the detective senses that Stanley knows more than he’s saying. Then there are the kids …. who find themselves taking sides in this situation. The investigation brings the siblings together with each one slipping into old familiar roles as they “regressed,” into old rivalry.

This well paced novel examines the Delaney family dynamics and the powerful resentments that lurk under the surface of a long-term marriage. The Delaney children have complicated feelings–jealousy, resentment, and anger–towards their parents when it comes to Harry Hadad, their father’s star pupil. The children all have a love/hate relationship with tennis–admiring the game but resenting the other players who took their dad’s attention–and that isn’t helped by the fact that Stan took the side of his most promising protégé who cheated in a match against Troy. Family politics are complicated at the best of times but add competitive tennis and the tennis students, sometimes gifted children, who suck up the parents’ time. Outsiders probably envied the Delaney children, and while they were certainly lucky in many ways, they all paid a price when it came to tennis. There’s the underlying knowledge that the Delaney children never met their father’s expectations, and then there are Stan’s mysterious disappearances. …

The characters are all well done, and these 4 may be siblings but they all have different approaches to life: Troy throws money at problems, lives an incredibly lavish lifestyle, and can’t understand why his siblings don’t envy him. Logan has a problem committing to the woman he loves, and sets his sights comfortably low. Amy can’t settle down and Brooke is tightly wound, seemingly perfect but always stressed out. The siblings’ competitive relationships with each other play a role in the tale too as the search for Joyce continues.

Sometimes Logan saw something in a woman that Troy didn’t see straight away. When they were in their late teens, they both dated girls called Tracy, and Troy developed a secret, shameful crush on Logan’s Tracy. She was the superior Tracy. The worst part was Troy had met Logan’s Tracy first, so he could have made a move, but he didn’t see her appeal until Logan saw it.

This was an excellent read, with an overly long-drawn out ending the only negative. I listened to the audio book version which was read by Caroline Lee. Caroline Lee is Australian and it was easy for me to imagine that I was listening to Joyce.

Big Little Lies was made into a series, as was Nine Perfect Strangers. Apples Never Fall would be perfect for a TV series.

review copy

No. This one just didn’t work for me. I have enjoyed every Liane Moriarty book I’ve read, including Nine Perfect Strangers. But this one on audio just sounded like one big long rant to me. The audio became tedious to listen to. I never really got into the book so it was hard for me to listen to it for 18 hours. I started it on July 28 and finished it September 16. In the meantime I probably listened to 20 other audio books. I just kept putting this one to the side.

Apples Never Fall was one of my most anticipated books, and I’ve seen some awesome reviews, it just never grabbed my attention and I found myself struggling to finish. I thought the end picked up, but by then I was just ready for it to end. And I liked how present times was woven into the story, but again too little too late.

On a positive note, I did buy apples for this photo and I had one right after. It was delicious.

Thank you @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my copy!

I've really loved some of Liane Moriarty's books, but this was not one of my favorites. Although there was much to like about it--the wit, the family saga, the vivid descriptions and the somewhat interesting backstories--I found it was way too long and just seemed draggy and disjointed in places. I did rather like the ending, though; I found it satisfying and it raised my overall opinion in the final analysis, although I do agree with other reviewers who found the COVID addition to be unnecessarily thrown in. I also had mixed feelings about the narrator. I found her voice harsh at times, but she did in some places do a good job of using different voices for different characters. She was at her best portraying older characters. I would still recommend this book because I think Liane Moriarty will always have many fans and others might enjoy it more than I did, and I'm grateful to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to an advance audio copy of this book.

Excellent on audio.
Loved the characters and the way ALL the stray pieces of the story came together. Great to have full formed characters in late middle age. Tennis element was a nice touch.

I am a big fan of Liane Moriarty so this was definitely one of my more anticipated reads this year. I finished this a few days ago and I have a lot of mixed feelings on it. First, it was another amazing character study from Moriarty. I think after reading a few of her books I’m no longer expecting a thriller, but more of a slow burn mystery underneath a family drama. However, this book was a little too long for a slow burn. And it was a very slow burn. I listened to the audio on this one so I think that helped a lot (plus I love listening to different accents). For me, I liked it and kept reading to find out what happened to Joy, but something was missing that kept me from connecting with the characters like I usually do with her books. However I think that others will really love this one, especially if you like a slow burn and a deep dive into family drama (and if you love tennis, lots of tennis talk!).

The Delaney family are not quite Australian tennis royalty but in their suburban Sydney community, Joy and Stan along with their four children Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke always seem to be the talk of the town. But, after a mysterious woman enters their lives, then Joy goes missing and Stan becomes the prime suspect everyone takes sides and nothing and no one are what they appear to be.

I really loved this book. Moriarty has the reader captivated by the mystery of Joy's disappearance as well as interested in the day to day lives of the Delaney family.The Apple Never Falls is truly a messy family saga, and if you like those then this book is for you. Although, most of the book feels suspenseful to me, the ending gives the reader such a psychological fright, with its conclusion, that you ultimately see how this book can be categorized as a thriller. I cannot recommend it enough, to readers whom like character driven and slow burning, thrillers.

I did a combined audio/ebook read for this book and let me tell you, Caroline Lee brought this book to life, the cadence and the inflection in her voice was unique to each character in my opinion. She hit all the right notes. Just excellent!!!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC audio of this book! I love the accent of the narrator and how she gives great feeling in all the right places. This book has a little bit of everything for me including humor, thriller, tiny bit of horror, and a little bit of romance. I will be able to recommend this book to almost any of my patrons as it can fit in most any genre.
Also, if you are an empty nester parent , it will hit all of your raw emotions!

While I thoroughly enjoyed this story, I found it to be a little longer than necessary; the end felt especially drawn out to me. This seemed similar to Moriarty's earlier books, which was a fabulous surprise. I will definitely be recommending this book to others.