Stan and Joy Delaney are in their late 60s, parents of four more-or-less-launched adults and the recently retired owners of a tennis school in suburban Sydney, Australia.

Then there’s a knock on their door late one night.

Standing there is a young woman named Savannah, bleeding from a cut above her eye. She tells them her boyfriend hit her, and she knocked on their door at random. And they let her in.

That’s the setup for the latest strong novel of deceit from Moriarty, author of such bestsellers as “Big Little Lies,” “Nine Perfect Strangers” and “The Husband’s Secret.”

Soon, Joy is missing, Stan is suspected of killing her, Savannah can’t be found either, and the Delaney kids are grappling with all of it, as well as their own problems. It seems as though it might be fairly straightforward. But as always with Moriarty, there are layers beyond layers here; all you can do is guess what’s coming and go along for the enjoyable ride.

Lee provides only slight variations in voice for the story’s various characters, but adds a crisp warmth that makes for an easy and absorbing listen.

This one took me a while to get into, but I'm glad I kept with it! Liane Moriarty's new book centers around the Delaney family (4 adult kids) whose parents were once tennis pros, but are now are retired. Early on we find out that Joy (the mom) goes missing and that Stan (the dad) is under suspicion of the murder. I really liked that the story alternated from different perspectives and timelines to show the full picture. My only issue with this book was that the ending was a little flat. There was so much build-up and development, but the end just didn't make sense with all the build-up.

This is still a great book!

This was an epic dysfunctional family saga about the disappearance of the Delany matriarch Joy and the way that her grown children take it upon themselves to figure out what happened.

Told in a dual timeline narrative. We get to know Savannah, the woman who showed up in the middle of the night, claiming to have been physically abused by her boyfriend and whom Joy takes under her wing, allowing to stay in her house. Fast forward one year and Joy is missing and the police are trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. Was Joy's husband to blame or was the mysterious Savannah to blame?

I really struggled to stay interested in this family drama. I usually love these types of stories but I just couldn't connect to any of the characters and really forced myself to keep listening until the end hoping the story would get better.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy. This one ended up being a miss for me but may work more for fans of books like The most fun we ever had or Malibu Rising.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for this ALC.
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The 17 hours that I spent listening to this book are 17 hours I will never, ever see again. Do I regret this audiobook? Yes. Yes I definitely do. Moriarty man, first Nine Perfect Strangers and now this?
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I waited every minute of every hour, for SOMETHING, ANYTHING to happen. And it never did. It never did. Sure, there was the signature Moriarty humor that I enjoyed and had a good chuckle. There were a few revelations that resonated with me. The characters were somewhat compelling. But ultimately, this felt like seventeen hours of nada lotta.
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The end confused me. First, why an hour and a half more after the main "plot" was revealed? Was that necessary? And the COVID content felt entirely random and tacked on to the end with little to no purpose. I know there is supposedly a twist and the very, very end - but at that point I had no interest and could barely coax myself into listening closely enough to understand.
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This is one I cannot rec to anyone tbh. :(

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Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC of this book.
The Delaney’s are tennis obsessed and had run a local court .Retirement isn’t sitting well with the couple and they are trying to keep busy. Stan, tall and handsome is a tennis coach legend. His wife Joy is the mother to their 4 children, a business woman and desperately wants grand children.
When Joy disappears her adult children are shocked and don’t know what to think. Their father is acting strange and the police are asking lots of questions. It seems everyone is hiding something but before it’s all over there won’t be any secrets left.
I love how complicated the relationships are between the adult children and how Liane points out each ones flaws. This book comes out September 14, 2021.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review*
Joy Delaney has gone missing. This book alternates between the past and the present and delves into her marriage, her family, and the mysterious stranger who has recently come into their lives in an attempt to solve the mystery of what happened to Joy.
This book was so interesting! There were so many layers to unravel, secrets to discover, and twists and turns to shock you. The audiobook version did feel long (18 hours!) but I am a fast reader and likely wouldn’t have felt that way if I’d read the physical book. The characters were definitely complex, the plot was good, and I enjoyed it.

Absolutely a wonderful read from start to finish. Funny, sad, and wise. This novel has so much to say about parenting and marriage.

I really like Liane Moriarty's books, they are just so easy to slide right into, and this one was no exception.

I listened to the audiobook version, and I quite liked the narrator! She changed her voice a TINY bit when speaking from different characters' perspectives, which I like, but did not over-act them, which I loathe. When she read some of the men, she sounded a bit like this guy, haha: https://youtu.be/iPf529urxw8

I loved all of the characters in this one, they were well-rounded and flawed - my favourite! All in all this was a nice cozy little mystery that kept me wanting to listen/read.

I haven’t read a Liane Moriarty before and I was determined to try this one. But it was hard to engage with - it’s too long, and there are too many chapters. I would pay money for the book to have just been “uninvolved person eavesdropping” because those were my favorite scenes

This story follows Joy, her husband Stan and their four children Troy, Logan, Amy and Brooke and bounces from past to present. This was good! The audiobook was 18 hours which seemed totally daunting, and although it did kerp my attention, I feel it was a little too long. Do you like family drama? Then read this one! This story was interesting and very complex. I love a book that switches POVs and timelines seamlesly and this one did not disappoint. I love the way Moriarty writes her characters with their intense development and rich back stories. The mystery surrounding the book was a very slow buildup and half the time I forgot we were trying to figure out what happened to Joy.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review! This book is due for publication September 14, 2021.

I absolutely love Liane Moriarty and this book is exactly why. The fact that we have waited so long to hear from her in book form was eating away at me and this made the wait worth it.

Great book! Liane Moriarty has done it again with this family saga. Can't get the characters out of my head a week after I finished it. Can definitely see this becoming another streaming series!

Apples Never Fall is a story of love, dedication, and family. The storyline bounces from past to present without throwing the reader completely off course; which, I have found distracting from other writers/books. It is multi-generational in dealing with each of the characters past and present relationships with their partners, parents, and siblings. Overall I found this to be an excellent work of contemporary fiction with elements of a few mysteries attached. Highly recommend this be added to your TBR list for 2021!

I have a hard time reading some of Liane's titles and this one did not grab my attention and I found it challenging to want to finish it at times, but I did push through.

When I read, I want to escape reality and this one did not allow that which is the main reason I was disappointed.

Thank you for the RA copy.

The Australian writer, Liane Moriarty, captured the family dynamics how we love and hurt the people closest to us. With complex relationships, flawed personalities, secrets, sibling rivalries and mainly regrets, we are harvested into this household through decades of their mistakes and failures. What could-have-been, what should-have-been and what is, reveals to us each decision they made had an outcome on their life. Brilliantly written with the best uncanny, snarky humor residing in every chapter, I could not stop until the last minute played, as I listened to Caroline Lee read the best rendition of these characters, I hung onto every word and character's life as if they were my neighbors and I was across the white picket fence eavesdropping.

These characters are truly embodied into people we have probably grown up with. I can't wait to see this as a Netflix series and who would be typecast. The family finds themselves in a dilemma when the mother has "gone off grid" per her text to her adult children. Suspiciously, her phone is found underneath the bed, her bicycle is missing and her glasses found on the table. The opening chapter are the siblings discussing her mysterious disappearance at a local restaurant and whether the father is to blame. The waitress eavesdropping is just one of the many characters sprinkled throughout given insight to their opinion.

"Apples never fall too far from the tree." Apples for an apple crumble pie...4 apples in the bicycle missing...4 children for every apple...🤔

With 4 children all different personalities but unable to maintain a relationship, Amy, Logan, Troy and Brooke share their idea, thoughts and views of growing up in their home and how their dad is capable of such a crime. Dad has scratches on his face and differs on the mention to call the police and report her missing. With the catalyst of clues, it is sure to be their father...don't they always look at the husband first as a suspect?

Missing is the mother, Joy Delaney, 69 years old, who delivers a whimsical, "overly" helpful, June Cleaver image and "stay at home" parent who can be heard as the woman in the Geico commercial calling her son with a conversation about the squirrels in the attic while he fights off bad guys...gets me every time..clueless to what is outside her home, but don't let her fool you. She has secrets of her own.

The father, Stan Delaney, a retired outstanding tennis coach developed a tennis empire with his wife and clearly has an obsession for talent... driving his children outside their realm of normalcy. His deadpan character displays gnomic and sarcastic canter that he constantly brings to center front with bitterness, his one time tennis pro student Harry Haddad. The children loathed hearing his name when they were compared to his strength in tennis to their own weaknesses. He reminded them quite often none of them had talent, causing a fury of resentment and instability in their lives.

Then there is a stand alone character, Savannah, a stranger to them showing up on their doorstep beaten and bruised by an abusive boyfriend. The house was picked randomingly or was it? She becomes a mainstay earning her right to live with them cooking and cleaning while spending their money. The children soon become envious of her ease into their parents life and begin an investigation of their own before their mother disappeared. Savannah has disappeared too...The story not only develops what happened a year ago with transfers of present time, but gives you a lifetime of their experiences.

The ending wasn't perfect, but how do I say it was perfectly woven in? I saw the side of COVID most of us were thinking, but told through the eyes of a clueless Joy. I laughed throughout this story, but on edge for the truth and baring my own soul in the process...We are a delightfully weird species put into perspective by this awesome author.

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this incredible ARC in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

I liked the audiobook of Liane Moriarty's new book better than I liked the print book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read/hear both.

This novel about the Delaney family is a great character study and a pretty good mystery, but the glaring issue for me was the concern, or lack thereof, over the whereabouts of the matriarch, Joy. If my mother sent a strange text and then disappeared, I think I'd do more to find her. I don't care if you do think maybe Dad did something to her. Oh, and if a stranger showed up and my senior parents just invited them to live with them? Yeah, I'd wonder about that, too.

And there's the gist of the book.

The fun part was getting into the family dynamics. Stan and Joy have been married for 50 years and have just sold the tennis school they ran for most of that time. Their adult children have achieved their own successes (mostly) and none of them are involved in the sport. But the rivalry, tho! The kids have their rivalries between one another as well as them and their father's star player who is making a comeback. Even the parents are competitive with one another, at least when it comes to tennis.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was outstanding. This is a long book (18 hours) and I looked forward to listening to the next chapter. Caroline Lee's voice is great and she didn't go overboard with the different character's voices.

My thanks to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first got the audio of this, I wondering why in the world it was 18 hours long and just knew I’d be thinking it needed a good editor. I didn’t and it didn’t. It’s a solid dysfunction family of 6 story, and we’re given the details of each person and then some. I’ll put it straight in my queue when they make a tv series of it, and I’m sure they will. Well written, as always with Moriarty, and you never want to stop listening. You'll be thinking of this tennis family long after it's over.

Thanks net galley for making this book available. The author really gets the family dynamics. I liked that the book was about a family who is into tennis.

"Apples Never Fall" is a game changer. I loved each of the characters. Their backstories. Their storylines. The sibling dynamic. The glorious competitive nature of the Delaney's. The Tennis.

Caroline Lee has quickly become one of my favorite narrators, I will listen to anything she wants to read to me. She brings so much life into Liane's writing (which is beautiful and intricate on its own). What I love most about Liane's books are all the moving pieces and she ties them together WONDERFULLY in the end. It is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle that always goes swimmingly.

Bookending with the the coffee shop was amazing and I appreciate it (not to mention the random POVs from side characters is one of my favorite parts of Liane's writing style).

Everyone needs this book. The audiobook. Everything.