My father said my mother killed herself. My sister says he’s lying.
The day of our mother’s funeral, my little sister Lucy and I clung to our father’s side. He promised he’d get us through it, and we believed him. But then I discovered that the coffin we wept over was empty.
Dad says he was trying to protect us – that he thought it would be easier to grieve if we didn’t know our mother’s body was never found.
His new wife says she just wants to help us move on from the past.
Then Lucy has a flash of memory that leaves her shaking. Our father. A woman she doesn’t recognise. A knife…
She insists she knows something about the day our mother died, but it’s buried too deep to see clearly.
What happened to our mother? I need to find the truth. But I have no idea who I can trust. And what if the answer puts my life in danger?

This is a thrilling read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own hone\st voluntary review.

This is a fine book but very middle-of-the-road for me. I liked Carys and found everyone else in the book (other than Binny) annoying and racist. Ugh, especially Sara. I don't mind dislikeable characters and my disdain for the racist characters has no bearing on my rating. It was predictable and slow at times but the writing is good. Thanks for the advance review copy.

I really enjoyed The Daughters. It was a darker story than I expected and a little bit of a slow burner to begin with but once it got going there were plenty of twists and turns that kept me gripped all the way to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

With a headline like “My husband’s says his first wife’s dead, and his daughters say he killed her” you know you are in for wild ride.
Bill’s new wife Carys is trying to be a great stepmom to his daughters. Lucy was six when her mother died. After trying for years she finds a therapist for Lucy. The therapist, Ajay suggest some unusual practices to help Lucy, but Carys is at her wits end.
During a session of hypnosis, Lucy starts to remember things! She has always been told her mother committed suicide, but is that the truth? Is the therapist really trying to help Lucy or giving her false memories? I admit I wondered. You will have to read to find out!
The secrets, twist and face paced novel will keep you turning the pages, to find out what really happened!

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller! It had me guessing what was going to happen the whole way through. There were many twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat. This one was unputdownable for sure! I was tearing through the pages desperate for the truth! I didn't feel any real connection to the characters, but thought they were all very well developed. I really wanted to know what Carys' backstory was and what she was hiding. I thought her and Sara were the most interesting. What a thrilling read!

Hoo boy, is there a lot to unpack in The Daughters, a chilling psych thriller from Julia Crouch.
I’m not even sure where to start.
I guess I should have had an inkling about the mental states of both Sara and Lucy from the very first chapter. But the author does a great job of not giving away too much. Just enough to make the reader question backstory.
And there is a lot of backstory.
As always, you can get the gist of it from the blurb but suffice to say that Sara and Lucy’s mom allegedly committed suicide years prior. And that gets called into question for more than a few reasons.
Actually, as I am writing this, I realize that none of the characters are particularly trustworthy in their perspectives. Sara is bitter. Lucy is damaged. And Carys is too good to be true.
In fact, Carys got on my nerves from the beginning. I’m not sure if that is the author’s intent, but she truly was too much of a do-gooder to believe that she didn’t have ulterior motives about…well, anything.
I’m not telling you if my instinct was right, but let’s just say that it is a good psych thriller partially because of how her true character is revealed.
Additionally, however, she was difficult to root for because it just felt like she was more caricature than character. Like she was too good for anything. Again, I think that is by design. But I was totally with Sara not liking her.
I really felt for Sara and Lucy, especially the latter. She is obviously so damaged for some reason (that is revealed in the book) that it is easy to see how past traumas can affect present mental health. So, there is another “psych” angle to the psych thriller.
Given recent events in the real world, this is something that truly struck home with me.
But this isn’t about that.
I liked how the author made me question pretty much everyone’s perspectives and I liked being off-balance as to who was trustworthy. The reveals come about at just the right time in the book. It is nicely paced.
I actually stayed up late reading this one. And that rarely happens.
I enjoyed The New Mother by Julia Crouch, and The Daughters is another good psych thriller that should go on your list.

Bill and Carys are married; for Bill, this is his second marriage. His first wife, Alice committed suicide and their daughter Lucy starts to see a hypnotherapist named Ajay, found for her by Carys, as she was just six when her mother died and is still troubled. Lucy's sessions bring out all manner of hidden secrets and thoughts from her childhood. She believes she saw someone killed... but is it true, and if so, does she know who the killer is?
An extremely enjoyable read, the tale is dark and takes a look at issues such as mental illness, grief, and blended families. Tense and unpredictable with a good ending.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bookouture via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Secrets and Lies, oh my!

Do you ever really know the one you marry?

In my case, I sure as heck hope so! I have watched and read enough murder mysteries that I threaten my husband all the time "You lie to me, I can murder you and make it look like the Easter bunny did it"

Unfortunately, not everyone has my top notch skills and poor Carys, is faced with many struggles throughout this entire novel. Julia Crouch, did an incredible job narrating this story to what I would say is "literary perfect" . The characters were both likable and unlikable and it gave this plot so much dimension.

At times I would get a bit confused with the side stories going on but It kept me entertained to say the least. This book was not in the least bit "boring" and I thoroughly enjoyed reading from chapter one until I concluded.

I would highly recommend The Daughters to all my thriller book lovers!

I had a hard time with this book. It didn’t resonate with me and I didn’t connect with any of the characters. I liked the premise and concept of the book but it just didn’t do anything for me.

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

The Daughters by Julia Crouch is a psychological thriller with an interesting premise and a twist that I did not see coming. The story revolves around Carys, the new stepmother trying to "mother" and take care of her stepdaughters in the wake of their biological mother's death. Carys believes she's in a perfect marriage with Bill, but Lucy, one of her new stepdaughters, says that Bill is a murderer. Could it be true?

Here is a chilling excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Sara’s stepmother stands by the tree, her lean brown fingers wound around poor Lucy’s blue-white hands, her close-cropped hair resting against Lucy’s orange frizz. Carys is a good six inches shorter, but the way Lucy – Sara’s eighteen-year-old baby sister – leans against her makes it clear who is doing the supporting.
Carys has made herself indispensable to the family since she moved in less than a year after Alice’s suicide.
Supposed suicide, Sara corrects herself.
And that’s the uncertainty now burning a hole in her mind."

Overall, The Daughters is an addictive psychological thriller that will appeal to fans of An Anonymous Girl or The Silent Patient. I should warn you that self-harm does appear in the book, so if that is a trigger for you, you might want to read something else. For everyone else though, this book is a slow-burn thriller that really picks up near the middle, to the point where I could not tear my eyes away. One highlight of this book is the twist, which I absolutely did not see coming. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

**TRIGGER WARNING** This story contains: racism, violence towards children, sexual assault, suicide and self harm.

Secrets and lies abound in this tale that begins off very slow and keeps up the glacial pace for as long as I could bear it. That's if I could find them amidst all the other fluff.

I wanted to like THE DAUGHTERS. I loved Julia Crouch's previous thriller "The New Mother" and was looking forward to this one, but...I just couldn't. Yes, there are plenty of secrets. Yes, there are plenty of lies. But there is also plenty of fluff about eco-buildings and hummus and rice cake snacks for a five year old that just had me thinking that this book must be the love child of Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk.

I'm sorry, but I am not interested in vegan life or eco-buildings when I want to delve into the secrets surrounding the girls' mother, Bill's first wife Alice. Nothing I read in the first 20% or so reflected anything from the premise so I kind of felt robbed. And I certainly don't have the patience to wade through glacial fluff before getting to the thrilling part of the story. Life is far too short to read books that do not hold my interest. And this one didn't.

Many reviews promised the book does get better if I just stick with the boring bits and move past them, then it does pick up and the story moves a lot quicker. I'm sorry...but why? If there is nothing interesting to grab me in the beginning, what's to say I will enjoy the promise of what is to come? Of course it didn't help that I didn't like anyone. Lucy, Sara and definitely couldn't stand Carys. Didn't see enough of Bill or Binnie to form an opinion, but I felt for the poor girl being fed hummus and rice cakes. Just ewwww.

And then there was Lucy taking us on a journey to the cliff top, talking about fairies and celtic legends that live under hawthorn bushes. Seriously? Come on. This is supposed to be a thriller but I was bored to tears and honestly by that point, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters and Alice had been dead twelve years and nothing was happening to make me want to find out what actually happened.

After an exciting and twisted previous thriller with "The New Mother" , I had high hopes for THE DAUGHTERS. Sadly, it did not live up to expectation. And certainly not gripping in the slightest.

I would like to thank #JuliaCrouch, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheDaughters in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

I found this book an interesting read, after a slow start that I really had to force myself to keep reading it had literally everything packed into it. As someone with a history I’d highlight what was a huge challenge for me to read about which was self harm and there may be a few more in this book that other readers may find challenging. Once I got into the book i did enjoy it, there was plenty going on and it contained many twists and turns which kept it more than interesting although I did find it a little difficult to warm to any of the characters.

Cary’s married Bill after his first wife Alice tragically died with everyone believing her death was a suicide. Cary’s has tried to be the perfect wife, mother and step mother and even though she has tried her best there have been many bumps along the way.

Things go from bad to worse for Cary’s when she tries to get her step daughter Lucy some professional help after her bout of self harm. Whilst sitting in the waiting room Cary’s is stunned when her step daughter Lucy runs out clamming that she witnessed her father kill someone and bury the body.

No one wants to believe what Lucy is saying until a body is discovered during some construction work. Lucy then tells the police, her therapist Ajay and her step mother that if more searches were to take place then more bodies would be found including her mothers.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for this review. Although I was split on this one hopefully other readers will enjoy!

Complex family/psychological drama with so many twists and turns you'll be wondering who the real culprit is! This is a blended family, with lots of secrets and more than one who needs to hide their secrets. Good read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

“My husband says his first wife’s dead. His daughters say he killed her…”

This book is about a family who lost their mother (Alice), a stepmother (Carys) who replaces her and a question over what exactly happened to Alice. It follows the relationship between Alice’s two daughters Lucy and Sara and their relationship with Carys.

I loved everything about this book. It was gripping right from the start and had so many twists and turns which I love in a book. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another twist came along. I loved how it was fast paced which kept me wanting to read more and more each time I picked it up. This book is definitely 5 stars and I have already recommended it. I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Daughters’ written by Julia Crouch in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Carys has been married to Bill for twelve years and is step-mum to his two daughters Sara and Lucy from his previous marriage to Alice. Lucy is troubled and Carys arranges for her to see a hypnotherapist in the hope he’ll be able to help her. She comes out of a session saying she’s seen her father kill someone and there are more bodies buried nearby, but is it Lucy’s imagination or did she actually see it?

‘The Daughters’ is a dark thriller of a troubled family and a daughter who thinks her mother was murdered. The plot was interesting although in my opinion it started slowly and didn’t really improve. The characters were so unlikeable that I had no desire to learn more about them and had to force myself to continue reading, and the subjects covered were very difficult to read about and I gave up half-way. I’m afraid this book wasn’t one that I found enjoyable and it didn’t grip me enough to hold my interest, but I’m sure some readers will disagree with me and enjoy it.

I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Who killed Alice? Alice was a mother and doctor who made a terrible mistake during her medical training. Alice lived with that mistake her whole career. Many years later, Alice’s death was declared a suicide. But was it? When her daughter, Lucy, is found on the verge of bleeding out after a cutting incident, her step-mother, Carys, tries to get her help from a hypnotherapist that she encountered one afternoon. While under hypnosis, Lucy has memories that start to arise. Someone killed her mother. Many people have reason: Ajay (the hypnotherapist), Carys and Bill. Or, is Alice still alive? The turns and twists will have you page turning. I ended up enjoying this book with all of its twists and turns. I felt the beginning was a little bit slow, so DO NOT GIVE UP! The end will take you on an incredible ride that. It is 100% worth the read.

A decent thriller with good writing though fairly slow in places some of which I skimmed. The ending was a bit predictable but okay.

The concept was a good one, but I thought it fell short on execution.

The characters were unlikeable (literally all of them), the plot was dragged out in places, and I didn't feel compelled to keep turning the pages, which pretty much means it failed to be a thriller.

The ending was predictable but at least everything wrapped up nicely (not that the ending was happy, but there was resolution).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this a solid read. I enjoyed the setting and the idea was clever. Would read more by this author.

This story goes through the a family’s dark past and strained relationships. A step daughter and step mother so close in age they can’t get a long, a birth mothers suicide and the mental health struggles of a daughter. Is it all connected to something from the past?