Upper East Side?! Drama?! Gossip Girl esque?! SIGN. ME. UP.

This was such a fun, quick read. It was full of secrets and deceit. I thoroughly enjoyed hating all of the unlikable characters and loving the adorable ones. This was intricate and so full of webby lies that it will leave you speechless.

3.5/5

Urbanmyth, an anonymous neighborhood forum holds the darkest secrets of New York’s wealthiest residents. Cheating on spouses, secret bank accounts, and even those considering murder. These are the same parents who would go to great lengths to ensure their children gain admission to the most prestigious universities. So when a hacker breaks into the forum and exposes the real identity behind each poster, the repercussions rain down on Park Avenue and someone will end up dead.

This book is marketed as a thriller but its more contemporary fiction. Although a murder takes place, it wasnt necessarily thrilling. I was surprised at who the killer was in the end though so I did bump my rating up to 3.5.

This book is like gossip girl meets big little lies except none of the characters are particularly likeable. There were also some B storylines that I felt weren't fleshed out enough. I do think Cameron is talented and will be on the look out for more from her,

With Boarding School applications due, and tensions running high, these Upper East Side moms have been turning to a website called UrbanMyth to confess their feelings totally anonymously. As they dedicate their time to ensuring their kids are set up for success, they also find themselves reading each others deepest darkest secrets. And when one of their daughters gets labeled as a drug dealer, compromising her boarding school possibilities, these moms start to unravel and secrets start to pile up. How long can they hold on before they snap? And how long before UrbanMyth reveals the truth?

No One Needs to Know is a book I finished on a single plane ride. It is a quick read, but one that is interesting enough to keep going and want to find out the idea. It tells the story of several wealthy families from the Upper East Side that have 8th graders and pending boarding school applications. Many of this parents are relentless in their mission to ensure their children have the absolute best opportunities, be this through massive donations or downright trickery and/or manipulation. They also have access to a social media platform called UrbanMyth, which is supposed to be completely anonymous, but after the site is hacked, everyone’s “secret” posts are made public. Through all this, one of the dads is reported missing and police are forced to follow clues from these social media posts

It’s all a bit silly and unrealistic (I just kept thinking: who would post such condemning messages after sharing your email? That’s not annonymous!), but it’s a fun story to read. It’s mildly entertaining to imagine the lives of the ultra-rich and consider how much differently they operate. The ending was not exactly what I expected, which added a bit of a plot twist and somehow was both satisfying and unsatisfying (and I don’t dare say more at the risk of spoiling!). Overall, worth a read.

No One Needs to Know is a very clever and fun read, that will make you dislike the characters, but at the end you will enjoy!

I thought it was a little slow burning, but still a very interesting read.

I super recommend this book, you won't regret it, go get your copy as soon as comes out on May 9, 2023!

Thank you so much for NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advanced digital copy for an exchange of a honest review.

A fun, entertaining read!
Multiple interconnected sub-plots kept the story fast-paced & engaging.
Good writing & well-drawn characters.
Original & current.

With thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for this e-ARC!

Maybe inspired by the “celebrity college admissions scandal” (which is mentioned) Lindsay Cameron, the author of “Just One Look” is back with another entertaining story-this time exposing the politics of parenting in an ultra competitive environment…

UrbanMyth was created as an alternative to the “show-your-best-self platforms” as an anonymous discussion board grouped by zip code. And, the residents of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper East Side disclose it all- things they would never share with their friends or their spouses.

Urban Myth Message Board:

Some users need advice:
“Has anyone taken out a loan without their spouses knowing?”

Some just need to confess:
“I am cheating on my spouse. if I got a divorce, could that affect my child’s boarding school application?”

AND some just post to PROVOKE or to get REVENGE

“A GAZELLE DOESN’T NEED TO OUTRUN A LION-IT SIMPLY NEEDS TO OUTRUN ONE OTHER GAZELLE IN THE HERD”

When a “hacktivist” breaks into the forum threatening to reveal the USERS behind the ANONYMOUS posts,
someone will end up DEAD.

THREE MOTHERS -each with a unique voice and each with something to hide-Queen Bee Poppy, Career woman Norah, and outsider Heather.

It took till about the 25% point, before I became invested in the scandalous lives of these (mostly) unlikable women, but once I did I enjoyed each of their alternating perspectives, which were interspersed with Urban Myth posts, and emails sent to the investigating detective.

The book opens with a mystery narrator who is fearful of approaching sirens.

IT ENDS with a revelation I DIDN’T see coming!!

Lindsay Cameron is two for two for me!

AVAILABLE MAY 9, 2023

Thank You to Bantam for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Oh my God! I really loved this book! The whole elitist secrets spilling out, some worth killing to keep! It definitely kept everything interesting! I loved it and couldn't put it down. Even kinda had my skin crawling and at times I had to put it down cause it creeped me out to much!

4.5/5
I didn’t want to put this book down. The twists and turns were crazy. How the three main characters all end up coming together is so good. They all are in each others lives without even knowing.

This book is being described as a thriller; as “Big Little Lies meets Gossip Girl.” However, this book fell flat for me. While reading it, I thought it felt like a less successful adult gossip girl. There is also nothing thrilling about this book. I struggled getting into the book. There is a ton of useless description and useless details. If it’s not really pushing the plot forward, I really wish authors would think twice about including it in the book. My main issue is that the description talks about the hacking of the app that reveals identities but that doesn’t happen until about 63% off the book! I’m not exactly sure why it took so long. The pace of the book picked up after that, but even then it wasn’t thrilling and was still a bit slow. This was just a bit of a letdown for me personally. But as I always say, what may not work for me, may work for others (as seen by other reviews for this book!)

THANK YOU Ballantine Books & Netgalley for an eARC of No One Needs to Know by Lindsay Cameron!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, and it did not disappoint. As soon as I binged Cameron's JUST ONE LOOK last year, I knew she'd be an auto-buy author for me.

Imagine the wealthy neighborhood of Manhattan in NYC, where the parents love to use an anonymous forum., UrbanMyth, to ask their burning questions and post their deepest, darkest secrets. Are some secrets worth killing for? Well, you're about to find out when the forum gets hacked.

This book is compared to Big Little Lies and Gossip Girl, and it's a perfect connection for me! Talk about juicy - Want info on a neighborhood affair, secret bank accounts, who's getting divorced? Look no further than UrbanMyth. This book fully drives home how prominent social media is, and how it can truly impact one's life and society. Not only are these parents posting on the anonymous forum, but they'll go to all lengths to ensure their private school children gain admission to the most sought after schools and universities.

I won't give away too much on the plot, but things get crazy. The story follows three moms who each indulge in the forum in their own ways, each care so much about their children's futures, and each have something to hide. I love love love loveeeee the "seemingly rich people with perfect lives actually having massive problems" trope, and Cameron delivers on it with flawless execution.

You know what they say, more money more problems. In an Upper Eastside Community of NYC, three wealthy families are all hoping to get their 8th graders into a private high school for the next year. All three wives, among the rest of the nearby housewives, take part in scrolling and posting in a location based, anonymous forum called UrbanMyth. Things start to get a little messy among the children and ultimately the parents and the women take to posting all of the gossip on UrbanMyth. One day one of the parents goes missing and following that, UrbanMyth is hacked. Suddenly with a simple search, anyone can see who posted which secrets on the app. Everyone is trying to do damage control now that their secrets are on full display, the police are investigating the missing person, and as everything unravels the three women are forever bound by much more than just the school their kids attend.

This book sounded so good from the description and i was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, for me it was a drag. Not only that but it was a lot to keep track of. Each of the three families had a husband, wife, and child so for each POV you’re really having to keep track of 3 people because everyone is involved in one way or another. Plus there’s friends and relatives and other people peppered into the story as well. It was just too much to follow for not a whole lot of action happening. The ending did save it for me a little bit and put the story from 2 to 3 stars for me but sadly this story just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

This was a wild ride! If you’re interested in rich NYC housewives with not much to do, this is for you. This was a fun thriller with a twist I didn’t see coming. That being said, I did not love the abrupt ending. I needed to know what happened to the rest of them!! Thank you Netgalley and Bantam for the free arc in exchange for an honest review.

So I saw this compared to being all Gossip Girl vibe and I very much agree. You’ve got the upper East side rich world of nightmares and if you aren’t into that theme this will for sure not be for you. You’re not going to like a character because they’re all soulless, selfish, with money falling from their eyeballs and I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s not so much of a thriller psychological suspense more than drama drama drama.

You have three women Norah, Poppy, and Heather who all have kids in a yuppy school who all live same but different lives. Same because it’s all cash money social circle requirements but different on how that money is all acquired. Throughout the book the UES uses a website called urbanmyth where people within the vicinity of where you live anonymously get to post any dirty secret they have. You ask for advice on any possible misdeed you can think of and this comes in and out with the drama that goes on with the kids/moms. The actual leakage doesn’t happen until the almost end of the book and (duh) it all lines up with the big event that’s happening with the drama. Sorry to keep it vague not trying to throw out spoilers but the lines were cut just a bit too clean. And where did this hack even decide to come from?! In the end it’s all wrapped up nicely and I felt like I just enjoyed a guilty pleasure.

Thank you Random House - Ballantine and netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this work as much as I did, but it’s definitely my most recent guilty pleasure! More of a suspenseful mystery than a thriller, this slow burn did an excellent job at building up layers of secrets, connections, drama, and tension as the reader gets more familiar with the setting and the characters. Oh, the drama and secrets! I enjoyed that the author included some UrbanMyth discussion board posts and emails between the chapters; this added much to the story and it was executed well.

The characters were excellently written. The three main protagonists had unique voices and were well developed. I enjoyed how different the women were despite having much in common, and the fact that they were all unlikeable but still fascinating to read about. It was also a plus that this work focused on the adults rather than the teens.

This was a highly entertaining book that didn’t require much thought and was impossible to put down. I highly recommend this work if you like drama, rich people problems, and juicy secrets.

I enjoyed the multiple POV, it was full of drama, twist and lies. It very much gave Gossip Girl vibes!This was a fast and easy read!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the copy of No One Needs To Know. Would you trust that you can post on a social media app and remain anonymous? This neighborhood posted their secrets, never expecting the app would get hacked. (Strangely this is not a spoiler, it’s in the book description, which seems kind of odd that the description would spoil a surprise.) I loved the idea that you could only see posts on the app that were posted within three blocks of you! I’m not sure why it tickled me so much but it did.
The women are not likable at all, and they were pretty stereotypical upper crust women. I found their stories intriguing and even though they were shallow I kept reading to find out what was going to happen. The book went off the rails with a reveal that came out of nowhere, which made me feel cheated.
This is a fast beach read. If you don’t expect a deep story and can put up with a mediocre ending, you would like this book. Despite a strong start, it ended up not being for me. 2.5 rounded up to 3 because it started out great.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

*Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group/Ballantine for my gifted eARC. Publication date 5/9/23*

4 stars

Heather, Norah, and Poppy all live in the Upper East Side of New York. All their children go to the same elite school and are all competing to get into the best high-school, paving their way for the best college. Competion is high and at a school dance one of the students is caught doing something illegal and was posted on UrbanMyth. UrbanMyth is a website where all the parents can post anything they want anonymously. When the site gets hacked and all their secrets are revealed and somebody goes missing nobody knows what to do or what is going to happen.

I liked how the story was told through the 3 woman that kept you wanting more of their story lines. I did figure out the big plot twist about half way through the book but it didn't stop me from wanting to quit reading, I really enjoyed this book but there wasn't a big aha moment for me. Overall I would recommend this one.

I am definitely in the minority with this review and I really had high hopes for this book since it does have A LOT of 4-5 stars but how can I be the one of the very few who just didn’t “get it?” Maybe it’s not for me, I don’t know. There's just too much drama in here for me and it was going back and forth from rich moms points of views about their kids, etc. No thanks. DNF at 25% Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early release but it’s just not a right fit for me.