Well, it all happens with the parents of the Under 14’s football squad at Tenderton Tigers in Kent with an abundance of testosterone on display as various parents jostle to manage the team instead of Neil Forth. Pushy ambitious parents who give no quarter, there are rows, drunken debacles and worse. Patti Taylor’s son Ethan plays for the team and she tells her story warts and all and as she’s lived in the village for some years she gives us quite a lot of the low down on its residents. Then there’s Alex, recently widowed and returned from the USA, mightily strapped for cash and living in Primrose Cottage thanks to her generous brother in law. Her son Harry also starts playing for the team ... Alex tells her story.

The book starts well with Patti’s narrative offering some dark humour, the writing is lively and engaging with insight into shenanigans in Tenderton. Things take a toxic turn when a vlogger begins to reveal some very unsavoury information which provokes a lot of tension within the village, trust is lost and the atmosphere descends into frequent malice. The Kent village setting is a good one with the events set against a good backdrop of seventeenth century witchcraft and the surrounding area adds to this especially the woods. Alex’s story emerges a bit at a time with puzzling revelations and her storyline is a good one. So far so good and it is good until about the half way point and then it starts to get messy. The pacing becomes uneven which is ok, it doesn’t have to be rip roaringly fast the whole time but what starts to happen is too much is thrown into the plot. How likely is it that so many parents would harbour such dark secrets???? There’s so much going on my head starts to spin and I’m sorry to say it fizzles out at the end ... with so much early promise I’m not expecting a whimper! There are a lot of characters to get your head around and some feel a bit stereotypical. Patti’s seemingly constant use of ‘babs’ at the end of every sentence and a lot of ‘mates’ from the blokes gets on my nerves!!!

Overall, I’m disappointed as I’ve read the author before and liked her books and this started so very well. I loved it until half way and then it gets overloaded.
P.S. There are quite a few scenes where the team play a game, this may not suit all but as I’m a footie fan I do enjoy these sections!!

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bookouture for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Thanks for the advanced copy, I really enjoyed this book, I could not put it down. I found myself having to concentrate on the characters but enjoyed how it developed especially from the middle of the book onwards.

Recommended read and very descriptive.

The premise is a parent making a new start in a new town with her children following the death of her husband. I liked the insightful way the author described the insecurities of joining a new community and trying to fit in and the cliques and social groups involved. I found the, vast, cast of characters a little daunting at times and had to concentrate a little to keep up.
The narrative was dark and took an interesting edge when secrets started to be revealed about people’s pasts but a lot of the drama also revolves around the local football team which didn’t hold my interest so well. The story was also a little bit of a slow burn until near the end but overall it was worth a read.

The Parents was a very enjoyable read. From the onset, I felt invested not only in the mystery but also in the characters' lives. I particularly liked Patti and was rooting for her throughout the book. Having the chapters alternate between Patti, a local resident, and Alex, a stranger to the town, was a great way to keep the plot moving and allow for the reader to get to know the characters better. Also, while there was a main mystery, which was introduced in the prologue, there were additional twists and unknowns, which made it an exciting read. I would definitely recommend The Parents to anyone looking for a good mystery with scandalous but likable characters.

This book was a domestic thriller that uncovered the secrets and betrayals of the parents of a young men’s football club. Everyone had their own agenda in this close knit community football club. But soon everyone secrets are uncovered by an anonymous vlogger. What happens after these secrets are revealed will have you turning the pages in guilty anticipation. I thoroughly enjoyed the juicy secrets and twists in this book.

This was a very slow paced book which picked up as it got more than halfway through. It was very descriptive with lots of background to the characters and the scenario of events surrounding the football club. It had some twists and turns as to who was behind the blog and also with regards to the ending.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great storyline with excellent characters. I would highly recommend this book as it was a great read.

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Parents by Claire Seeber is a domestic thriller that is akin to Pretty Little Liars for adults. The drama surrounds an under-14's football (soccer) league in the UK and their parents. Alex has just moved from California after the unexpected death of her husband Fraser in a hiking accident. She brought her son Harry, who joined the football club, and her daughter Iris, who is a rebellious teenager. One day, a blog begins posting dirt on the parents of the club's football players. Gossip, secret pictures, and videos are all posted for everyone to see. It turns out that everyone is hiding secrets, and someone is out to expose them all.

Here is a chilling excerpt from the Prologue, which is flash-forward to the climax of the book:

"Ingrained indelibly on the footage, the object in the water floated into the flare of moonlight, meaning the pale thing attached to the main bulk eventually became clear.
It was a hand, extended as if it was a mid-stroke: a hand that would not move again of its own accord.
And the object? It was a body.
Which wasn't a huge surprise, Mrs Jessop murmured darkly the following day, waiting for the police to arrive. 'It was only a matter of time'...

Overall, The Parents is a typical slow-burn domestic thriller that will appeal to fans of HBO's Big Little Lies starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. The focus is on the various parents and the blog that is exposing their secrets. Thus, the thrills and secrets are smaller, part of the domestic sphere, and not as action-packed as non-domestic thrillers. I did take off 1 star because there was a large cast of characters. Even the list of characters are the beginning of the book didn't really help. Also, I'm not very interested in football (soccer), and it made up a huge part of the plot. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of domestic thrillers, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in October!

I found this incredibly slow at the start and was about to leave it aside until about the third chapter when it picked up slightly, it built up as l was reading but I was disappointed with the ending, I thought it was a bit predictable but I’m not slating the author as clearly a lot of hard work goes into writing books for the rest of us to enjoy and I’d love to read some more. I’m also giving the book four stars as it’s only fair, just because this book wasn’t for me doesn’t mean other people wouldn’t enjoy it.

Sadly, this book just wasn’t for me. I struggled with the characters and plot overall.
I wanted to love it as I could appreciate the quality of the writing but it fell a little flat for me,
Overall, it’s a 3 star read.

After Alex's husband died in a tragic accident in America she moves to England to start again with her son.
Her son joins the local weekend football team and all the parents seem welcoming
But someone starts to expose everyone's secrets and Alex begins to see just how far they will go to hide their truths.
After a party someone ends up dead so what else are they hiding?
I was looking forward to reading this book as I've loved all Claire Seeber books but I just didn't enjoy it as much as her others.
I look forward to reading more books by Claire in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

This was an amazing book. Had some dark twists to it.
Kept me engrossed for hours I couldn't put it down

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for this amazing advanced ebook!

The Parents holy cow! This was a freaking fabulous book!
I'm a sports mom, football and baseball so this book was extra fun to me!
I'm just glad I'm not like these parents! 😂 Crazy group of people!

This book was so well written. My hands were literally glued to my reader!
The suspense continuous and steady throughout the book.
An engrossing read that held me captive! It was hard to put down! If real life hadn't interfered, I am sure I would have finished this book in one day. A page-turner!!!
This story is tripping and wild!

Five star read all day!

This book is best described, if that’s even possible, as Desperate Housewives meets Twin Peaks.
The lead character, a widowed mother, moves to a new area to make a fresh start. Soon after her son joins the local kids football team, someone starts exposing the secrets of the other parents. This ultimately leads to murder.
“The Parents” is a relentlessly gripping story of jealously and rivalry in Middle England, with a dark twist.

This was an addictive page turner for me that I read in one sitting. Moving to this village was supposed to be a fresh start for me and my thirteen-year-old son Harry. After the tragic death of my husband, it was a chance to leave everything bad behind and make better memories at Primrose Cottage, the postcard-perfect house with honeysuckle around the door.

However, things haven’t exactly been easy since we arrived, and after what we’ve been though, I’m scared of letting anyone new into our lives.

But when one of the local dads asks Harry to join the weekend sports club, I find myself saying yes. The smile on my son’s face gives me hope that I might have made the right decision in uprooting our lives.

All the other parents seem so kind in welcoming me into the fold. At least, they are to begin with… Until someone begins anonymously exposing secrets about everyone in the group.

As betrayals surface and the claws come out, I see how imperfect these people really are; and how far they’ll go to hide the truth. Then when one of the parents ends up dead at the end of a party, I realise that it’s not just lies and scandal they’re covering up.

Too late, I realise that I should have stayed away…
The story grips you from the start and keeps you hanging on till the end.

Oh I just lived this book. I had no idea what I wZ expecting but certainly not this. The American angle was maybe not needed. There was enough without it.
I did get a but frustrated with babs that felt more Essex than Kent.

My husband is a football coach and the parents can be a handful not to these extremes though.

I was given an advance copy by the publishers and netgalley but the review is entirely my own